a list...

since i have no plans at all for this 4 day weekend i decided to make a list and stick to it.

1. stay in syracuse. unnecessary travelling 3 weekends in a row is too much for me in my old age. :) spontaneity apparently diminishes as the calendar pages fly by.
2. mow the god forsaken lawn. its been raining non stop since my roommates left for their vacation, i am going to have to empty that bag at least 60 times i am imagining.. that is if i can get the mower started..
3. do some mail art... this is who i owe, and the order i owe them in... LK, DE, AL and bykfam, so he doesn't kill angela. fun times!
4. work on finishing that patty painting... while i could probablly call it done now, i think i still had a couple more things to add to it when i put it away.
5. catch up on my netflix dvds. i have the village, and the first entourage disk. i am also going to try to watch as much entourage on demand as time will allow...
6. get working with FC. i am almost 100% set up to start doing some work...

game night.

well, last night was another successful game night for the books. the fischers (b*ll, spotted and shan) and the beers' (beersy and lori) came over and we had dinner and played battle of the sexes. having played battle of the sexes at xmas time with my brothers in law i warned everyone that the game is a little bit biased, and that usually the women have an easier time. before i could even get that statement all the way out b*ll puffed out his chest and spoke for the mens team, "i think we are up to the challenge..."

we played 2 games. the first one the ladies threw the smackdown on the guys at had all 4 pieces to the other side while the men only managed 2.5. this game was also quite lengthy because each question required the men to deliberate and sometimes all out argue for a good 5 minutes per question..

here are some of the things i learned about my coworkers game playing strategies last night...
1. he would lay a baby down on train tracks for the madonna song "crazy for you", but not for "into the groove".
2. he thinks very strongly that zucchini, not beans, come in the following types, string, snake and runner.
3. if he decides mid argument that he is wrong, he will "respectfully" withdraw his answer.
4. if someone else answers before he does, he politely "defers" to that person.

since the mens were becoming so agitated that the ladies were kicking their asses at this game we switched the questions around and took a shot answering the womens questions and let the men answer the mens questions. the men narrowly won that round, proving that women are much smarter. :)

i still can't remember what a stiletto is besides a shoe...

an update to the wildlife...

apparently i spoke too soon... or maybe the canada geese read my blog and found out the coyote is not real.


how funny is that!

i have had another productive day.. i went grocery shopping for all my ingredients, prepared as much as i could for the game night dinner i am having thursday night and finished up my laundry, picked up a little and watched the sox/mets game... i am so glad that pedro got a standing O. i would have stood up, i loved petey.. he got rocked though, that i am not sad about. :) also, i don't know if i have just never paid attention, but josh beckett is kind of a hottie.

in other fantastic news, i got paid today from eD. woo who. i won't bounce the check i just wrote to P&C. hahaha. i should be paid tomorrow anyway. each night i try to finish 'the incredibles' that i started in the airport, and each night i get only 15 minutes further in the movie. its good, but i think there is something magic in my pillow that when my head lays on it i pass right out.

did anyone see that brittney is doing a nude cover of harper's bazaar a'la demi moore? ewww. i hate brittney spears, and she is sooo airbrushed...

i added the blab ladies blog we started to my links, check it out for the latest and greatest.

"wildlife" at work

i put "wildlife" in quotes because the animals there are neither wild, nor have life.. since i have been back from MN i noticed that these frightening wolf looking coyotes are guarding both entrances into the parking lot.

i guess they are in place to scare away the canada geese that are multiplying like mad right now, but they really only succeed in making me furious and scared each time i see them. one of these days i am going to take them down.

here is proof...





the not "live" part of the post is found in the garage where the news team vans are kept. i still have to giggle to myself each time i walk through this area because it makes me think of that scene in anchorman where all the news teams show up in their news vans and have a street fight...

anyway.. today i was on my way to the other building for a meeting and i look down in the garage and see some sort of spot on the pavement. a few steps further i see another spot, and i think, are those feet? by the time i got to the third spot i had a feeling it was another dead flattened like a pancake bird. yep. it was. so i captured this breaking news on my oh so handy camera that i have with me at all times. knowing that they are birds, you can make out the beaks, and legs and stuff. wtf is wrong with the people that work in there? clearly these birds have been run over a million times to be so flattened. heartless!!! even i wouldn't be that heartless.







in other news. i bought and changed the litterbox for fatty, she promptly used it. :( the area that we are so affectionately calling "my office" is leaking.. almost raining indoors. :( and i can't find any more paper towels.

i heard that cath and mike have spent all day at the casino today since it is raining at camp too. if the rain keeps up, this is going to turn into an expensive camping trip.

bad weather and the litterbox

apparently my dream of it raining the entire two weeks my roommates are gone so i don't have to mow the lawn is half true so far...



maybe i should have just wished for slow growing grass.

one of my monday chores (there are a ton on monday) was to clean out the litterbox. i don't know if its the heat and humidity that is cooking the cat litter, or the cat is just pissing all over the living room, but our front entryway/living room reeks of cat piss. the best part is when i was talking to cath last night i asked her where the cat litter box liner bags are and she was like, "uhm, i think they're in the basement... but you're not throwing out all the litter are you? we don't have anymore... you just scoop the pee and poop out and throw that away."

well. hello... there is the problem!!! if you pissed and shit in your bed over and over again and your owner just brushed the shit out when it dried rather then give you new sheets once in a while wouldn't you piss all over the house in protest too?

good god. i am going to the store and personally smelling all the litter and getting her some good smelling stuff, and lots of it. cause for at least two weeks i'm throwing out the litter when i change the box and giving her new each time.

i could not sleep last night. :(

i must have woken up 9 times to look at the clock. you'd think that since i got so little sleep this weekend that i would have slept like a log, but the emergency 2+ hour nap i took when i got home yesterday must have thrown me off. doh!!

i think fatty is pretty lonesome, she has not left my side since i got back. her fur is so matted too. :( i think when mike and cath get back she's getting a "summer cut". they're going to have to to get all the mats out, i'm not envious of that vet tech's job...

it is raining here. must have followed us from MA. grrrrr...

i get paid on thursday, i can't remember needing a pay check this bad in a long time. :(

jenny b is now jenny p! - updated. pics added.

this past weekend was jen and mike's wedding on cape cod. it really was an awesome time. i was reunited with many former coworkers and area friends, and it was so nice! Aside from it raining the entire time we were in MA, the wedding seemed to go off without a hitch. i took a bunch of pictures, but left the dock at work, so i'll have to add them tomorrow.

here are the pics i took at the wedding... enjoy!

my whole body seems sore, i am not sure if its from drinking too much on friday and spending half the night in the bathroom, or sleeping so rigidly on 1/2 of a full sized bed with RS saturday night. but i am pretty sure that my face and cheeks are sore from laughing for 6 hours to and from mass.

pete and shan have this thing where they leave relatively early in the morning, and don't eat until noon, earliest. if you are unfamiliar with the NYS thruway/Mass Pike, 3 hours into the trip is halfway, and halfway is the no mans land between NY and MA. in MA the rest stops all have mcdonalds. shan hates grey burgers and won't eat them. seeing as 12 put us inbetween states, we stopped at the first rest stop in MA. it was a mcdonalds and papa ginos, and fresh city. shan had half a pizza and everyone was happy. but... on the return trip we were holding out hoping for a burger king. unfortunately the BK rest stop is about 1.5 hours from the border. :( we had to settle for roy rogers. pete was besides himself upset, for good reason. i took pictures of our meals too. :)


pete so happy to be at roy rogers


shannon enjoying her tasty meal at roy rogers.


my lovely meal. all this for the low low price of $11.60!

after reading my coworkers blog about little ceasars pizza i felt i had waited long enough to settle my craving. i drove out to manlius and got an olive pizza and crazy bread. crazy bread is key, you can't go to LC and not get the CB..


black olives and crazy bread. it doesn't get much better than that!

since i was in manlius i couldn't help but drive by my childhood home. i do not remember the neighborhood being so small, and the people living in our house put in an above ground pool. :(. and it also seemed like a lot of trees had been cut down in the neighborhood. :( the library has also turned into this massive building. i gotta get down there... shiiiiiit...

my roommmates are gone. i see a lot of things that can be straightened up. can't wait to get started on that.

off to the cape.

well, now that i am back from MN, i am turning around to go out to MA for a wedding. i got all the things done i needed to do...except relax... :) i can't wait to see my friends from MA, i have been emailing back and forth with most of them lately and i didn't realize how much i miss them!

while i was gone my car got fixed too, so it'll be safe to take back out to massachusetts in 2 weeks. thank god.

i just realized that i left my camera docking station in my work computer bag. so, sorry but no pics from the road this weekend. i am not even sure i will have time to post this weekend anyway, but i am still bringing my computer. :)

i forgot to report that my friend alecia had her baby on tuesday! he was born at 1:35 am on June 20, 2006, they are calling him Craig William Lair (aka CJ). He is a healthy 7lb. 6 ounces and was 21 inches long.



mike and cath are going on a two week long camping vacation in the allegany area. i will have to hold down the fort. the thing i am most worried about is mowing the lawn. :( i kind of hope it rains for 2 straight weeks. anyone interested in trading laundry services and dinner for mowing the lawn? :)

i think fatty knows something is going down. her eyes are watering more then usual. :) maybe while they are gone i will teach her about the great outdoors. then i can knock "cleaning the litterbox" off the list...

alright, the fischers are almost here, gotta run!

so many things i learned today...

first of all, i saw the mississippi river today. i had no idea it was out here! in fact it separates minneapolis from st paul!! wow. that was the first thing i learned.

again my temporary coworkers discouraged me from braving the traffic and heading to st paul and the science museum directly after work. and again i didn't listen, and again it took roughly a half an hour. :)

st paul is pretty beautiful near the science museum. the museum itself is on the river (the mighty mississippi) and the roads all around it are very clean and made of brick. even the line dividing the lanes is made of a different colored brick, very cute!

the exhibit i went to see is called body worlds. its a traveling show comprised of human infrastructures. all the bodies in the show are real, and the person had donated their body specifically for this cause. the scientists have gone in and dissected all these bodies and put them back together highlighting different things, muscles, skeletons, nerves, all kinds of stuff. there were about 20 full bodies posed in different poses, a dancer, ice skaters, gymnast on the rings, a pregnant woman with a fetus inside, all throughout there were different display cases of organs as well. cross sections, anything you could imagine.. to be honest, it was kind of gross. but i had heard about it a while back when it first started traveling and drawing all sorts of controversy, and i really wanted to see it. as a part of my ticket i also got to see this omnitheater ticket to a human body movie. that was pretty disgusting. especially the birth at the end. :( good god.

here is what i learned...

the minnesota science museum doesn't hold a candle to the boston science museum. its smaller, not nearly as interactive, and just sub par. :) but.. it didn't have many children (big bonus) and i found street parking RIGHT in front.

their omnitheater is also not nearly as nice as bostons. :(

i learned that while identical twins can share an amniotic sac or not, fraternal twins cannot...

i learned that at 8 weeks into a pregnancy the fetus is still only half the size of a quarter..

i learned that your liver is about the size of a football.

i learned that out here when some says, "park on our ramp", they really mean, park in our indoor multi-level garage...

when dining alone, bring your laptop. not only do you not have to stare around at other people happily enjoying each others company and be sad, but you look like you are uber-important. :) (or very dorky, but i am going with all important)

i am at a brew pub in st paul not far from the museum. its called great works brewing. i am having the sampler and a portabello sandwich. the mavs/heat game is on on the far tv, but i can't see the score. my guess is the mavs are going to win because they are the home team, and dwayne wades hot streak is going to cool off tonight. :)


the brown trout brown (an english brown ale with a sweet malty taste and a hint of nuttiness, lightly hopped) is hands down the best of their beers. (i realize this is a crappy picture, and the beers are more than half drunk, but my camera was having technical difficulties and i needed to reformat my card.. so i lost the "before" image i took) the great waters house ale was also not bad.

last night the hotel bar woman accepted both of my coupons for my complimentary wine. wooo who..

on monday my dad dropped my car off at the mechanics for me. i was hoping it would be fixed by the time i returned tomorrow night. he was supposed to look at it today and call me with his estimation.. all day i waited and no call. so i called and left him a message. nothing.. why does this always happen to me? i should start taking my car to a dealer, they don't dick around like this.. the inflated prices is probably worth the aggravation in dealing with private mechanics. those bastards.

this bar has internet, which is fantastic!!! that make what i am doing here even that much more important..

it just occured to me that the science museum probably had penny machines too. sorry double D.

by my estimation i am 20 or so miles from my hotel. lets hope when i roll out of here that its apparent to me which way to go. :)

this post is NC-17. do not try to read it if you are not an adult.

i am having another interaction with the personals on CL... i don't know why i go through with these things because i never seem to act on any of my responses. i guess at the very least its flattering if not highly entertaining.

so i posted on the minneapolis CL (not the casual encounters area i might add) that i was going to be in town and i was looking for someone to have dinner/drinks with sunday, monday and tuesday nights. i gave a little bit of info about myself and a couple of pictures. i've received upwards from 50 responses and they are still coming. (no pun intended). i'd say it was split 75/25 between people genuinely wanting to get a drink/dinner. and people looking for something else. on the genuine side of the coin i've had quite a few responses from people who were also in town on business. i've had 3-7 responses from men who were 48 and older, ewww... but by far the most disturbing responses have been the other 25% that think i was soliciting one night stands. i had 2 people right off the bat send me photos of their penises. the first penis pic i received was just that. no message, just a man with a death grip on an erect penis, no face, nothing. so i wrote back and asked him why he would send me a picture like that. his reply was this."Because I'm horny as hell and most girls on craigslist ask for one." so i stopped writing him, obviously he misunderstood my ad. then today i got another message from him asking me if i had "found what i was looking for"... whoa..

then there is this guy....

"hi
my name is mike...i'm 35 white male...6-0/165/brown hair/blue eyes/....i think we could have some fun times...if you if you like my pics give me a i.m. on yahoo messenger i'll be online most of the day off and on....my id on yahoo is looking4fun69mn or my email at yahoo is flirtman4fun@yahoo.com...if all goes well hopefully we can exchange phone numbers and meet!...hope to hear from you soon
mike
p.s. i am a married guy with kids but they are out of town til wed? hmmm coincidence?"

he also included a few pictures.. and one is another erect penis shot.. i love the PS on that one... very much what i look for in a date, married with children.

here is another good one...

"too busy at night, but would love to maybe meet for lunch or go for a walk If you like maybe I can come into work early and give you a wonderful "wake up"
6 1 180 37 dark hair with some gray...good looking"

ooooh, having a "wake up" at someones office is worth getting up for, don't you agree?

here is a great one...

"hey sexy you give good head???"

then he follows up with this one...

"I also like to party and have agood time in the name of fun. I am 6'0'' br hiar bl eyes i have pics so hit me back and we can take things from there"

well. if its all in the name of fun... the other funny part to this is that his email handle is lacrosseguy.. i wonder if he goes to college at duke...

speaking of fun... i hope this guy is available tomorrow night...

"hello
m 48 here love to meet you
and maby have some fun

busy busy day...

its about 10pm and i am back from my post work activities. immediately following work i headed down to the mall of america, against my coworkers advice. they thought i should wait till traffic calmed down at 7pm to go. by my estimation (and mapquests) it should have taken me 17 minutes. a guy in the office predicted it would take 45-1 hour with traffic. i decided to brave the traffic. i arrived in 24 minutes. :) word to the wise. people always overestimate traffic.

i really am not a shopper (although the car rental guy seemed to think i shopped too much when 3 of my credit cards were declined) so i figured i would go and look for the hello kitty store EH recommended, and see if they had any of my favorite hard to find stores. of course they did, and then some. i also gazed at the indoor amusement park. insane and unnecessary, that mall is stupid big...


roller coaster


log ride


spider ride


stupid big

i never did find the hello kitty store of which em spoke, but i did find this one for HEK. i also got a whole set of pennies for dan-o. i hope he doesn't already have the mall of america set.





after a little bit of shopping i left and went across the street to the IKEA. i know i've written about how much i love IKEA before, but i really feel like i want to move to the IKEA store and just live there. talk about cool, mr fischer.. IKEA is the epitome of cool. i only had an hour so i buzzed through the store. but i ended up having the perfect amt of time to check out everything.. i was glad to see that the ice cream cones are still only 1 dollar. god i love those sweed, they are geniuses..

by the way, the mall of america and IKEA are 2 of the very best places i can recommend you go if your credit cards are maxed out and your checking account is in the red. :) definitely no temptations there for me...

i am in the lobby/bar of my hotel right now. when i checked in i was given 3 continental breakfast vouchers, and 3 drink vouchers. i missed my opportunity to use my drink voucher last night, but i am taking full advantage tonight. i am enjoying two large glasses of chardonnay, very dry and tasty! i say there are about 15 people here in the makeshift bar. this makeshift bar is the same place that the continental breakfast is. only its not entirely continental breakfast. some of it is eggs and bacon. but they lay it out right next to the cereal and fruit making you think its continental, then they charge you when you have the voucher.. so sneaky...there are a bunch of people from the UK here for some reason. maybe holiday.. but they are all in separate rooms, so i think maybe they are on business. i was behind 4 of them checking in yesterday, they seemed to be from england, then this morning i overheard some scots speaking...

alright, its about 11, time to start thinking about bed. oh, speaking of bed. the king sized bed here is like no other. i found myself comfortably sleeping the wrong way on the bed (width-wise). so damn nice... when my roommates are gone i might have to sleep in their bed. :) oh, also.. the cleaning lady is on to me. i only got a refill of the shampoo, conditioner and lotion. :(

MOA closes early on sunday...

good thing i looked in my book before i drove over there. :) this hotel room really looks like the pictures i used to put in the avis/budget mails. i'm kind of impressed. dont you e-D'ers agree?



they also provide some pretty sweet neutrogena products..


so all the cool looking museums close at 5pm. :( but.... the best exhibit ever is at the science museum... i'm gonna have to go KT... remember this? i'll take pictures for you... ooooh, did you ever remember to take that picture of the one eyed monster for nivaldo?

reporting from minnesota

its noon and i'm at the hancock airport. my flight leaves for atlanta in 45 minutes. there is wifi here at the airport. sweet! there are 2 actually, a starbucks wifi and a "free public" one. how cool. my bag had to be searched after it went through the xray machine because of my corkscrew. the searcher said it was okay to bring if it didn't have a knife on it. so he had to unpack my entire suitcase to find it (cause i "hid" it inside the main part of the suitcase) and sure enough it had a knife part to it.. i should have brought my favorite oxo corkscrew. :( that one does not have a blade. shiiiiiit. he wanted me to go back to the checkin desk and check the whole bag and then i could keep it, but i can't afford to have my luggage lost somewhere, that's happened to me too many times.

as far as i can tell there are going to be 3 kids on the flight. one of which is a crying bastard! he's been crying from the minute i stepped into the airport till now. hes not even a baby.. grrrrrr... if he is sitting anywhere near me i will be pissed.

in the lobby of the airport there is a cross section cut of an airplane. you can see where the seats are in relation to the luggage underneath, and the metal beams that support the body of the plane. its quite frightening actually. it reminds me of lost, and i would think that reminding people of plane crashes at an airport is not very good marketing...

i spoke too soon, there is no real internet connection. :(


its now 245 atlanta time (not sure if there is a time change or not) i am in atlanta... my flight is supposed to leave at 324, but the sign says 420. good thing there is a sam adams brew put right next to my gate. again my wireless card is picking up a couple wifi signals, but so far no luck really connecting to them.

i am going to order lunch and maybe a glass of wine. i am almost done with the five people you meet in heaven. probably because it is only 200 pages long. who recommended this book to me? i know someone did....

thankfully none of the children were sitting near me, and if they were, they were not crying... :)

i ordered a stuffed pretzel and a glass of chardonnay. and i am sure i look so classy drinking it in my t-shirt and gym pants. :)



i've seen a lot of soccer fans at these airports. at least i assume that normal people don't go around in survivor looking brazil flagged tube tops.

its 4pm now, i heard someone say something about the flight being delayed till 445 now, i hope its my flight, i am finishing my 2nd glass of wine, and the lady took my credit card.

i finished the 5 people you meet in heaven. eh.... i cried a few times, but it wasn't the best book i've ever read.

i'm gonna go check the flight time now... :)

815pm, minneapolis time...okay, i am here in my hotel room now. and i'm gonna quick change and go to dinner/mall of america i think.

i'll write later...

tomorrow i go to minneapolis..

my flight is at noon, and i'm taking delta, so i have to fly through atlanta. on the way there, its just an hour layover, on the way home however, its 3.5 hours. lovely..
it should give me a good amount of time to watch my dvd's and write blog entries though. but.. i won't get home till midnight. :(

i have 3 dvds that i rented in april that i have yet to watch. with the packing and moving and my new lifestyle i have not yet made time for my movies. i gotta get on that. i think i have the incredibles, the village and ladder 49. can you tell i was on a joaquin phoenix kick that day?

today for fathers day we went to carabbas for dinner. then we were really bad and went to cold stone. yummmmmm...

i stopped by AAA today and got myself a book on minnesota and a map of minneapolis. i am hoping that its not hard to get from the airport to my hotel. im gonna feel like i am on the amazing race. wooo who!!

i waxed my eyebrows in preparation for jens wedding at around 1pm today, i think they are still red, and definitely swollen still at 9:15. god sensitive skin sucks! i had to do it a week before the event so that my skin will go back to normal. :)

my dad is going to take my car over to the mechanic in manlius while i am away to fix the awful noises its making so that i can take it to NH for LM's wedding in july. say a prayer for me its done by wednesday.

when i get back from minneapolis i pretty much turn around and go to the cape.. i am carpooling with the fischers. the day i leave for MA my roommates leave for their camping trip for 2 weeks at the allegany state park. i'll have to do my own grocery shopping and laundry. :)

stay tuned for updates from MN.

fatty mcgee

so, my roommates have a pet. its a VERY expensive (don't even ask how much) papered tortise shelled persian cat. they call her marcie (they followed suit with the family naming convention and stuck with the peanuts theme. the other brown family pets are lucy, peppermint patty, franklin and linus). sometimes they call her maricie marie. i call her more approriately fatty mcgee. she weighs about 11 pounds. now, i bet you are thinking that is not that much, but my youngest sister had 2 chihuahuas that used to live here at chez brown, together they weighed less then 11 lbs. actually its the chihuahuas that stemmed the current problem.

lucy and frankie being as delicate and afraid of the winter like they are used to go to the bathroom indoors on "potty pads" really, flattened out diapers... well. fatty noticed this and decided that she was going to forego walking all the way into the basement and pee on the potty pads too. the potty pads were RIGHT in the front doorway, and i hated that. i thought the problem would be solved when SB took the dogs to olean, NY. boy were we wrong. about a week ago we started noticing that it smelled like cat piss in the entryway. cath was on her knees cleaning almost daily. and every so often it kept smelling like cat piss. well, cath caught her yesterday peeing on the rug, and in two days she had peed on that rug 3 times.

so cath had this great idea to put down moth balls, but conceeded to moving the litterbox up to the front entryway. ugh. i don't know if i am going to get a cat. if i do, its going outdoors... and if it dies, i'll get another one. jesus..

i have a theory about pets too, wanna hear it? here it goes. 1.) i would never get an animal from a pet shelter. those animals are "throwaway animals. someone had it, and threw it away. i know when i throw something away its for a darn good reason. so. i would never get an animal that is garbage. :)

2.) on the other hand, i don't believe in paying 1 grand for an animal. a pet is a pet. i would also like to think i would not own a dog. dogs are a hell of a lot of work. you can't just leave a bowl of food out for them and go away for a week. you have to walk them, let them in, let them out. cats can do all that on their own. sometimes they can even stay out on their own. i also don't believe in paying assinine vet bill for animals. if they are "sick" or get cancer, or some shit like that, put them to sleep, jesus christ. money doesn't grow on trees. why waste your hard earned dough on filing down your rabbits teeth? that is just DUMB..

i believe in getting a kitten for free from a family whose cat got knocked up by accident and they can't raise 9 new kittens. i don't think animals should be declawed either. they should go outdoors with their flea collars, and file their claws naturally on trees and stuff.

can you tell i've had 4-5 glasses of wine?

the dixie chicks kicked off the first concert of their new tour in england tonight at the theater where they made the comment about being embarassed about being from the same state as Bush that got them in all the hot water with the red states... anyway, the entire concert is being webcasted by msn. cath, mike and i were huddled around the computer watching it.. then cath went to bed, and i am writing this. em, mike, cath and i are going to their show in albany at the end of july. i am actually getting really excited about it. their new album is soooo good. i listen to as many songs as my commute allows each day.

the red sox lost. :( they were swept by the twins. maybe its good that i wasn't there.

cath and i talked out on the porch (i only wish it was spindley-not solid) most of the night about fetility and drank wine. i think cath is obsessed. :) but i think thats how mothers get when their children get married.

more pics..

today for lunch i tried one of lean cuisine's paninis with chicken. now, if you don't know me, i am not a big fan of chicken. but this sandwich was out of this world for a frozen lunch. i highly recommend everyone try one of these panini's.

i am completly in awe of the vending machines here at work. there is one that has all sorts of frozen stuff, hot dogs, bagels and cream cheese, pies, sandwiches, you name it. and then there are all kinds of drinks. i think i've even seen redbull in there before.











i forgot to mention this yesterday, my coworker saw on my blog that i enjoyed wolverine and got me a poster pack from circuit city of the characters from xmen3..

it was very thoughtful, and they look very expensive... i am going to hang the wolverine and winged boy up on my work wall. :)

great news...

well, tonight was my first real weigh in at WW. i lost 6.5 lbs and cath lost 5. wooo who. we are such good losers. tonight there was a woman there (we'll call her davids wife) that really likes to hear her own voice. she talks so insanely slow that i had to check for a tranq dart twice. she went on and on and on about how her husband makes fun of her for losing weight and eating low fat foods, etc, etc. i lost it about 1/3 of the way into her 3rd little speech. i was laughing so uncontrolablly to myself that i almost cried..

i brought conditioner this time to use after swim class, it made the world of difference.

i took some pics of my work space today. below is my desk..

another hella productive day...

even though i got up at 11am, i had an insanely productive day. i watched a bunch of episodes of entourage, and i spearheaded cleaning out the shed. we were able to put everything back in its own place, with room to spare. lets see how long it stays that way. we also wrapped my mattress in plastic and put it in the shed. cath has also made tons of progress on my bedding, and i was able to squeeze most of it under my bed.

i think all that is left is a walk to return some phone calls and i'll be ready to make my lunch for tomorrow and call it a day!

the next couple of projects that i can for see are cleaning out the front hall closet, and the closet under the stairs. replacing the flushing handle on the toilet. getting rid of the video tapes that are collecting dust on the shelves in my parents tv room. and getting rid of the cookbooks and photo-albums in the dining room, and putting that stuff in the tv room. and then, moving the games up from the basement into the under the stairs closet for easy access.

the greek festival

so, my roommates and i went to the greek festival, it was my first one in years. there were still very many people there even though it was pretty cold.

we were waiting in line for food when the dancers were dancing, so we pretty much ate and left. but i saw a couple of people that looked familiar.

i have been pretty productive today. i fixed the mini blinds in all the bedrooms upstairs, took the full length mirror out of the twin bed room, and installed it in my room. i am going to be hanging up some more artwork and my corkboard next. maybe i'll take some pics when i'm done. i also put away about 3 boxes of stuff.

here are the pics i took at the greek festival.

xmen...

i saw xmen. while i loved wolverine to death, and really liked how jeanne grey switched between personalities, i kind of felt like it was a little dumb. the mutants were fighting each other.. wha wha what? and what for, really? so some leech kid doesn't die. how many mutants died because of that? also. during the fight scenes on alcatraz, you could see everyones breath. wasn't it summer? isn't that why the freeze kid froze the pond so the walk through walls girl could ice skate? and how come after rogue got the shot she didn't lose that skunk stripe in her hair?

i saw a lot more holes in this movie then i did in any of the other ones...

oh, also... mail art for anyone who can tell me what role the winged boy is best known for... no cheating...

but... if they made more movies, i'd still pay to see wolverine. :)

hmm... maybe i won't need to return this wireless router.

i took some advice from my new coworker and checked the configuration of the wireless router even though there was no way it could have changed from wednesday to thursday.... i thought maybe it was only broadcasting a g signal which my laptop can't seem to read... anyway... it was set to broadcast b and g signals... so i changed the channel and that seems to have worked. i don't know why, but apparently something came into the airspace that is running on channel 1 as well.

i think i am going to see a movie tonight. since HEK told us word for word "the breakup" i think i'll see x-men.

minneapolis....

so.. what is to know about minneapolis? i am going there june 19-21 for work. i'm going to make my arrangements tonight. please let me know if i know anyone there, or if anyone knows of anything spectacular to do... :) lee, which bars should i hit?

my new work is going well. its pretty fun so far. not too much to do, but i have a feeling that will ramp up. there is a pretty cantankerous woman who has already threatened me with a pink slip and shut off the bathroom lights on me though, and someone stole my fresh cut strawberries from the fridge yesterday. :( there is also no toaster. but it seems like i am the only one that uses the ice. :) woooo who!! my dream! and my commut is heavenly. i don't go on any highways, so i can even put my windows down when its not raining. heaven on a june day!!

i am having problems with my wireless router right now, and i've tried everything. its really angering me...

i'm supposed to be out with jen and mike tonight, but i guess mike hurt his back and jen lost her voice. that's okay, cause i am doing really well with my WW this week and a bunch of beers might throw me off.

another thing about work that i think is hard to get used to is the lack of emails. i think in my first 15 minutes of e-D i had 75 emails. now i only have about 7. and a few of them i sent to myself. :)

i took my drug test today. the place was kind of sketchy. it was full of construction workers and other random sketchy people.. the woman made me lock my purse in a locker before i peed in the cup. and the guy before me peed on the rim of the bowl. how hard is it for a guy to pee into a cup, jesus. you'd think they'd be able to make it.

if this router doesn't work after i restart it again i am taking it back. shiiiiiiit.

whoa. so much to report. :)

well... today was a busy busy day.. but let me backup and recap the weekend..

friday SS and i drove down to dirty jersey to attend BD's engagement party. we stayed at a less then stellar hotel. there was leftover takeout left in the fridge from the previous guests. there were cobwebs all on the ceiling, and SS found hairs in her bed. i am pretty sure the sheets were not changed. we switched rooms and the next room was also very cob-webby and had a huge crack (like someone had punched the wall) in the bathroom. we were also told that we would be able to charge the 2 nights to 2 separate cards at check-out but were totally denied by the bratty kid that checked us out. grrrr. and the deluxe continental breakfast was hardly deluxe.

besides the crappy hotel i had a great time. it was nice to catch up with SS. she is moving to seattle with her fiance at the end of june. he just got a job with micrsoft. i really got to meet BD's fiance and he was very nice. i approve, except hes a rabid yankees fan. :(

here are some pics from the weekend.

also.. we drove by a bunch of famous sopranos landmarks. of course my camera was in my car so i dont' have any proof, but we saw the sopranos house/driveway. the sushi place, noris, and the bada bing (really called satin dolls).

today was my first day at my new job. i think its going to be a lot of fun. i was issued a cell phone and will be getting a laptop later this week. i work so close to one of my colleagues we could probably hold hands all day. hahaha. we traded blog addresses today and promised each other we wouldn't write about each other. ;) i think that is going to be a hard promise to keep. if you are curious, his blog is here. i hope it proves to be entertaining. i am adding it to my feedreader.

the commute to work was about 8 minutes door to parking lot. the commute home was more like 11. not too shabby.

immediately after work today cath and i went to swim aerobics at the Y. i wore shoes this time. shiiiiiiiiit. after swim class was WW. i didn't even look at how much i weigh. i don't want to know. i do know that i had to go to kohls after WW to get some snazzy new work clothes. i feel like its the first day of school. :) then cath and i went to the p&c and got some good things to eat so we can be successful at WW. we just walked in tonight at 9pm.

the p&c has the most perfect shopping carts for a single person.


i am having some technical difficulties with adecco and my part time job. i went in last week to fill out stacks of paper, this friday when i was away they called and apparently i need to go back because there is more paperwork that i need to fill out and i also need to take a drug test. :( think good thoughts everyone.. and i still have to set myself up with all the vpn's etc to connect and work my PT job. so much to do, so little time!

tomorrow is swim class at 730. i think i like that instructor better. i felt like it was better.

hmm. not so good al...

well, i have bad news and more bad news... i am still waiting for my vpn login... so, i went to the dmv and found out i needed a certified copy of my title from capital one. estimated wait time, 3-4 weeks. and i need a letter of permission from the lein holder to register my car in NY. also from capital one, estimated wait time a week or two. and then i need some sort of barcode on my insurance from liberty mutual which i think i have, but it can't be more then 45 days old. i got it a few weeks ago i think, and by the time capital one sends me my stuff, it will surely be more then 45 days old. grrrr... car registration sucks! the good news is that magoo(mike) can do this when i get all the correct papers..

the 2nd bad news is the sink faucet changing isn't as easy as it seemed.. we took the sink out of the counter and realized that we were going to need a new faucet. apparently 10 years of a drippy faucet will erode the hardware on the sink, and even ruin the floor of the cabinet underneath. so we go to home depot (2nd time in 3 days). almost $200 later we have a cute new faucet and a soap dispenser. so as we are installing the faucet into the 70+ lb sink, the garbage disposal breaks off the under part of the sink. doesn't look permanent.. things get a little stressful, and we decide to take a break. while i am showering mike gets the thing working, we check it out, nothing is leaking, its all good... phew!!! about an hour later while mike and i are at the store one of the flexible faucet feed breaks and hot water is shooting out all over cathy in the kitchen.. its also draining into the basement. emergency trip to ace hardware is in order. it seems like now everything is in place and working.. the only thing left to do is seal the sink back onto the counter.

here are some pics..

very productive!

last night mike and i hooked up cable into my bedroom. so nice.. my bedroom is almost there. i just need to locate my alarm clocks.. and put all the little nick nacky stuff back into the room.

it finally cooled off here. its only 75. yesterday it was 97. i think its going to rain too.

i am going to register my car today. i need to locate some stuff like my title, (or something saying capital one owns my car) some sort of odometer something... ugh. i waas hoping to just bring my MA registration over, and have them issue me a new one.

i am very sad to give up my red sox plates, so i was going to get a NY red sox plates (mike swears hes seen one)but the dmv site says that i can only get NY MLB teams. shiiiiiiiit. so i am going to get a novelty plate. :) i'll post a picture of it when it comes in.

as soon as i get off this conference call for my PT job mike and i are taking the sink out of the kitchen!! i am sooo excited!!!