Winterfell, Vermont

So it turns out Winterfell is not in Westeros, but really in Stowe, Vermont. I was driving up the mountain road on my way to work for a night of catering to Stowe's "finest" and noticed a small sign on the side of the road in the Edgewise building. Instantly I was overcome with excitement at seeing our small ski town embracing its inner nerd, something it rarely ever does. I asked around if anyone knew about the sign or what sort of business was in the building besides the ski shop. No one had an answer and only one other person knew what Winterfell was or about Game of Thrones. I stopped by the building on my way home and then again today to investigate, but being off-season the ski shop was closed and there were no other clues about the sign's meaning or origin. I'm going to have see what develops over the course of the summer.

Besides finding out more about the Winterfell sign, today was also a day for Israeli salad. I've been missing brunch with the Hebro and Kyle when he used to come and so I decided to make some Israeli salad for dinner tonight. Usually the dish is served at breakfast, but since I slept in today and didn't think of it until this afternoon when I was at the Agway buying seeds for the summer vegetable garden. It's a simple dish that only takes about fifteen minutes to prepare once you have all the ingredients. To make the salad all you need is a couple of large tomatoes, a couple of peeled cucumbers, a large red bell pepper, and a mall bunch of scallions. Dice all of the ingredients and place them in a large bowl. Add lemon juice, olive oil, and spices to taste and then mix everything together. Some people like to serve the dish right away, but I found that it tastes best when it sits a little while before being served. The flavors get a chance to seep together and infuse the vegetables.

I sampled some of the salad before putting it in the fridge and I think it tastes pretty good, almost as good as the Hebrew Friend's. 

Winter is Coming

With Easter break one painting class away I have an abundance of free time I haven't seen since before the school year began. Something about spring makes the professors less concerned about piling on the work before a break the way fall semester professors do. In my newfound free time I've taken to watching season one of Game of Thrones. I spent all summer listening to Neil talk about how great the HBO series is and then kept hearing all about the series again from my more nerdy inclined friends at school. I listened to them all go on and on about how great the show is and that the books are worth reading as well. I took their words in and then pushed them aside in my mind for later. It wasn't until I was watching a Simpsons episode and their opening sequence was modeled after the Game of Thrones opening and I was so intrigued by the mechanical map and captivating theme music that I moved watching Game of Thrones higher up on my to-do list.

I saw my first episode at my Hebrew friend's house. It was either after  coming home from the bar or eating a filling breakfast, but either way my head was clouded and I wasn't really interested in watching a television show when I could have been taking a nice coma. As soon as the opening credits began to roll I was hooked. There is something extra appealing to a fantasy series that has elements of Lord of the Rings mixed with Arthurian legends as well as Sean Bean. We watched the season one finale and even though I had no idea who any of the characters were or what the role in the series was I was determined to follow the plot and when season two premiered this past Sunday I wanted to watch it as well. However, about two seconds into the episode I decided that it would be better to start from the very beginning and looked up the first episode and started from there. Right now I am a little more than half way through the first season and am completely compelled to do nothing other than sit at home and watch the rest of the episodes. If I didn't have other pressing obligations I probably would.