I started this website back in the late 1990s as a way for friends to keep up with our activities. Since then, it has expanded in many ways beyond a simple few pages of content.

The web has grown into a real global community. It's a great place to gather and keep up with what's happening in each others lives. I've met a lot of great folks from all around the world because of this site, and look forward to meeting many more. This isn't a web log (or "blog"). It's just a way to record interesting things going on in our lives. I enjoy writing, and so this is more of a relaxing escape for me from my busy work life than it is to provide witty entertainment for casual visitors.

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• Peter M. Rose, Personal


• Peter M. Rose, C&S Self Defense Association


• Rose School of Karate


• Thoughts on Technology


• Thoughts on Backgammon


• Colin F. Rose


• Marissa E. Rose

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      For this year's events from January to now, see this year's archive page

11/01/08: The Great 2008 Halloween Backgammon Tournament And Witches Stew Brew
The The Great 2008 Halloween Backgammon Tournament And Witches Stew Brew on Saturday Nov. 1st was my 45th backgammon get together dinner party since moving here to the Garrison in June of 2004. And this one was just great; too much fun! I started cooking the Witches Stew Brew (actually, a marvelous thyme based Italian Beef Stew) at 4:00pm with the movie Van Helsing running as background.

We broke for dinner around 7:15pm, and then at 8:00pm I put the movie of the night on: 30 Days of Night>. Now that's a scary movie...

Only Scott, Steve, Rick and I bore up under the pressure, and finished the movie. That ended about 9:45 and everyone except Steve left and we watched 'Underworld 2' but he was nodding out toward the end and he left so I had to finish it all up on my own...

11/07/08: Weekend Adventures and Movie Night At The Garrison
I started the weekend off with a wonderful dinner out on Friday night at Dover's Blue Latitudes. First time there, and had a great meal. I'll be going back there for sure. I had the Chicken Piccata and found it one of the best I've had, though with all of the capers I suspect the salt content was way up there. Next time I'm in, I'll have to ask about that.

Actually, I've been amazed at the salt content that our foods have that I've tried to be alert to prepared foods that have additional salt added. Oh sure, capers are packaged in salt brine so there's not much you can do there. But if the sauces that are made for the dish also have a high salt content then that's just not healthy.

For example, without much thought the other day I pulled a can of Progresso soup off the shelf. After I finished, I looked at the can. 960mg of Sodium! And that's them assuming you're going to get 2 servings - that's 1900mg for the can! Holy crap, Angus! Are you guys kidding me? The whole can wouldn't feed a gerbil... That is the last can of Progresso soup that I will ever have. Oh, I knew some of them were a little high in Sodium. But 960mg? Screw you guys...

Okay, off the salt bandwagon... Got up Saturday morning around 9:00am and did some more editing on my book, Cane Use For Health and Protection as I will be using that for some of the Intermediate level classes that I will be teaching.

That went pretty smooth, and I was able to finish up by mid afternoon. No pictures as yet, but at least the text part is pretty well nailed down. Anyway, after that, I was able to catch some reading time before folks started showing up for another Movie Night At The Garrison.

Saturday night was the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and then the 2nd in the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Both mindlessly entertaining with great special effects.

Even though it wasn't planned, everyone jumped on the backgammon boards for awhile until the pizza came, and then there was silence for about 15 minutes. Marissa shut all the lights off, and we enjoyed the show on the big screen.

I had Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines on regular DVD, but Steve had loaned me his Blu-ray of Resident Evil: Apocalypse. And that was just spectacular. But my Sony Playstation-3 did a great job of up-converting the Terminator DVD as well; sometimes it's so good, it's hard to tell it's regular DVD until you put a Blu-ray in and see the difference.

Sunday, I just kicked back and relaxed for the day. The sun finally broke out late morning after being hidden by several days of rain. Most of the leaves have now fallen to the ground, the rain weighing them down making them easy prey for the winds that have been racing around us. Fall has just about fell.

Since the day remained nice, I decided that it would be a good time for my annual 'UNH Walkabout'. I got a late start and then just had fun driving around campus and the town seeing all of the trees that had changed just in the last week. So, I didn't have time to get out and walk the campus as I usually do. But I did roll through town and grab this shot, which seems to have become the picture I take every year. It's a little poor because the sun was setting behind the building and I had to snap quick because of the traffic. But, there it is anyway... Leaves all but gone, and scattered across the lawn.

And then... there was "Peter's Sunday Party For One". Sorry, I just can't help myself; can't follow the recipe, gotta mess with it. You know, as I mentioned I had such a great Chicken Piccata at the Blue Latitudes Friday that I wanted to give it a shot of my own. I have to say... well, I locked this one down, baby!

Besides messing somewhat with the basic recipe by seasoning the breaded chicken with Rosemary, I fixed a white wine and thyme based mushroom, cherry tomato, and spinnach side that was out of this world.

Yup, had quite a great time of it I did as can be seen from the shot of the meal ready to dive into. James Taylor sang in the background as I cooked and sipped my Chardonnay. A great end to a very peaceful, relaxing, and productive weekend.

11/15/08: Movie Night At The Garrison
It had to be done. We just had to make a spaghetti dinner and watch The Fifth Element. Yeah, yeah - I know: it's pretty trite and stupid. But... it had Milla Jovovich... Nuf' said

11/16/08: Dinner Party At The Garrison
I had my neighbor Ann and her mother Dot over for dinner tonight. I had told Ann that when the all of the remodeling work was done on her unit, I'd have them over. I fixed an Italian thyme beef stew with small red potatoes and onion. For sides, I did rosemary and sage steamed Brussels sprouts, and had a boxed rice. And lots of Merlot, besides what went into the sauce for the stew.

11/22/08: The Great 2008 Thanksgiving Backgammon Tournament And Chicken Drumstick Substitute
It was a great night for a Thanksgiving backgammon dinner party - the temperature was probably around -3 degrees F because of the howling wind that had blown all day. So it was pretty cozy at The Garrison with the oven on and all the rowdy backgammon games going on while I cooked.

Because next week is Thanksgiving itself, I didn't want to overpower everyone with turkey - there'd be enough of that coming - and who wants weeks and weeks of turkey, anyway.

So, I decided on a great recipe that I found for baked chicken drumsticks on a bed of kale and small red potatoes mixed with olive oil and white wine. Of course, I couldn't leave the recipe alone, and had to put my own touches to it. But it came out just great.

Before starting the movie of the night, Night At The Museum, we had apple pie that Tim had brought along with some great ice cream that Linda had contributed.

11/27/08: Thanksgiving With Colin And Marissa
Colin and Marissa came over about 10:00am for Thanksgiving Day. I had informed them that there would be a mandatory period of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on tv. But that was all just background for a wonderful time for just the three of us to chat as a family.

I had decided to fix Rock Cornish Game Hens for Thanksgiving dinner. I knew they would be overpowered with turkey other places over the next few days, and they both love hens the way I cook them.

Marissa had brought over a copy of WALL-E knowing how much I love that movie - purposefully, I'm sure - to distract me. So, we watched about an hour of that until I had to get up and start fixing dinner. After WALL-E finished, the hens still had awhile to cook and so the kids picked Top Gun to put on.

With other stops on their agenda, Colin and Marissa headed out around 4:00pm. I had assured them that they would be cut loose by no later than 3:00pm, but that, of course, was prior to someone bringing WALL-E over to throw the chef's timing off... I had been stying pretty much ahead of the cleanup, so just some dishes to do. By 5:15pm I was parked on the sofa and relaxing as I had been on my feet pretty much the whole day.

11/28/08: Day Off, Long Weekend, and First Snow!
I took Friday off from work as it had been awhile since I had a long weekend. Thanksgiving must have worn me out because I slept in until after 9:00am. I just had a nice quite day relaxing and catching up on some paperwork, and stuff around the house.

Saturday I took my car over to Colin and he did an oil change and some scheduled maintenance stuff he had wanted to get done. From there, I was off to look for a new TV console and some other things for the condo. I found a great console at Cabot House in Portsmouth, but it will take several weeks for delivery. Also got a very nice round old world wood end table to replace the more Colonial one I have now.

Out to dinner and around Saturday night, but up early Sunday for some writing I had been wanting to do. Spent a relaxing afternoon in the living room reading The Great Gatsby. It had been overcast all day, and cold. About 3:00pm I looked out of the window, and it was snowing lightly! The first snow of the year!

12/02/08: Moon and Planet Alignment Spectical
As I was leaving work Tuesday 12/02, I looked up in the sky and clearly saw the crescent of the Moon with Jupiter and the even brighter Venus just below and to the right. How often does that happen! [Actually, the next time Venus, Jupiter, and the moon will be as close and visible as they were on December 1, 2008 will be November 18, 2052.]

12/07/08: Movie Night Out Road Trip
A group of us got together Saturday night for a 'Movie Night Out Road Trip'. We met in Kittery, ME at Loco Coco's Tacos. Lots of Dos Equis and great authentic Mexican food made a terrific start to the night. And from there, it was off to the new James Bond movie, Quantum Of Solace at the theaters at the mall in Newington, NH. Ah yes... infantile in our pursuits and easily entertained; it's all true. But it was a good time even though this Bond movie fell short of the last one, Casino Royale with Daniel Craig's first appearance as James Bond.

Woke up Sunday morning to a light dusting of snow; first one this season to actually stick. Spent a relaxing afternoon in the living room reading The Great Gatsby, and finished of the night with Peter's Sunday Party For One which featured a white wine, parsley and thyme marinated mushroom and shallot risotto.

12/16/08: Storm Parties
Winter in New England struck with a frenzy Thursday the 11th with what would turn out to be a devastating ice storm. 320,000 people in New Hampshire alone lost power with 89,000 in the greater Portsmouth region. Even as I write this 12/20 getting caught up with entries, there are many who still have not had power restored. My power went out Friday morning around 2:00am and didn't come back on until Monday mid afternoon.

Fortunately for us all, the temperatures remained above freezing. Otherwise, things could have been much worse with so many without power. After work Friday, I went to the mall to grab a bite to eat at the Food Court as the whole of downtown Dover and much of Portsmouth was blacked out. Talk about a mob scene... elbow to elbow everywhere. After eating, I just went home and to bed.

We all thought power would be restored by Saturday afternoon, but that wasn't the case. I got a fire going in the fireplace and just read most of the day. Out to dinner and a movie Saturday night, and Sunday Colin and Marissa and Marissa's boyfriend Gary took me out to get a Christmas tree. After they decorated the tree, I took them out to dinner at Applebee's in Newington. Marissa and Gary weren't interested in a movie, so Colin and I went by ourselves. And finally, I found out Monday afternoon around 3:00pm that the power was back on at my place. Finally! It was getting a little cold at night sleeping in a 42F degree room.

So, things go smooth through the week until Friday 12/19 we get clobbered with a fast moving snow storm that burred us in about 8 inches of snow by late Friday night. But that didn't stop 6 of us from getting together and having dinner down at the Olive Garden in Newington, and then coming back to my condo for the movie of the night.

The snow kept up all day Saturday and into the night making the trip up to the Williams family Christmas party in North Berwick, ME interesting. Well, if you're interested you can get a few more details and some pictures of all of this by following this link to the Storm Parties page!

12/21/08: In The Snowbank
Saturday night 12/20 the snow fell all night and all day Sunday. And Sunday it really, really piled up. Dover got around 15 inches. The wind just whipped it everywhere. I tried to drive out around 3:00pm to go to Hannaford's to do food shopping, but I couldn't even get out of the Garrison complex the snow was so deep. But it was a really lovely day in the library writing and watching the storm through the windows.

I was concerned about getting into work Monday morning if the plow guy didn't get the complex cleaned out, but when I got up it had been cleared out. Well, more like pushed into mountains of snow everywhere. But I could drive out. Parking on the shipyard was thrilling, of course. But at least they were staying ahead of the snow; plows were everywhere as were piles of snow. And the wind just howled between the buildings.

So, Monday night I go out from my office on the shipyard toward the bowling alley parking lot where I park my car, and one of the guys comes flying by me with his hair on fire. I wasn't going to go up the pathway to the lot because of the snow and ice and my hip; I was just going to walk down the road and come back up the hill - slowly.

But Alan charges toward the path by the ball park between two huge towers of snow. So I decide, what the heck - let's give it a go. I get up the steep part carefully and am doing okay till I get about half way to the lot when my cane drives through the snow about halfway throwing me totally off balance. Stupid - I swing my bad leg out to compensate and bury it almost up to my hip in the snow. Now I'm thinking, am I gonna be able to pull my leg out of this snow pile or what, or will they find me here in the Spring...

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it...

12/25/08: Christmas
Colin and Marissa came over early Thursday Christmas morning. I had a pot of hot cinnamon spiced apple cider going.

We each got mugs of that, went into the living room, and just had a wonderful visit for an hour or so before opening gifts.

Though short in time, it was the highlight of the year for me to share the day with them.

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