next stop, Hatfield, PA...

tomorrow my roommates and i are going to PA for NYE weekend...

i am excited to see E&Rs house now that they are owners and all we hear about is how much R has been "slaving" E.. i'll be sure to take photos of her handy work. ;)

we are planning to go to the eagles/bills game, and that is exciting, but what has me most excited is the soft pretzels. i am a soft pretzel addict and it wasn't until last time i was there that i realized Philly is known for their pretzels and that in PA pretzels stores are as common place as Dunkin' Donuts are in MA... it seems like every little plaza has one.. i honestly had a hard time sleeping last night thinking of the delicious pretzels that i will soon be noshing! in fact i am trying to plan our driving route to incorporate one of these little mom and pop stores on the way!

i think that getting a pretzel tray would be a delicious accent to our NYE celebrations.. what goes better with beer than pretzels?

in doing research for a delicious looking pretzel photo i happened upon this blog, Gas-tron-o-my. i think she lives in Philly, or at least Pennsylvania. it was so delightful to see someone else that incessantly takes photos of her food. maybe i should start something like this up for the CNY...

the much anticipated year in review.... ;)

I've had a great time assembling these photos into an album for everyone to enjoy! It was a nice way to relive the moments before i close the chapter on 2007.

almost all of you blog readers are in this album.. see for yourself how you impacted my year!

please feel free to leave comments underneath the pictures if you feel compelled!

happy new year!

2007: A Year in Review

holy christmas batman!!

well, the holidays have come and gone.. it's almost time to get back to normalcy..

i got so many nice things this year for christmas! the most exciting though, was my tomtom! i never put two and two together and realized that the logo is indicative of a tomtom, the drum, duh... i think because their radio ads talk about tomtom not jeffjeff, etc that i always associated it with a name and not the musical instrument.



looking at their logo now i don't see how i could have missed that.

i downloaded some "celebrity" voices for it.. i have yoda and darth vader.. yoda is probably the closest.. the darth vader voice is obviously done by a british or irish person, there is hint of an accent in there.. then i got ozzy and sharon osborne.. neither one is really good, but it's funny to hear them swear at you to "take the F**ng motorway". :) apparently for a limited time after the world series curt schillings voice was free, but i missed it.. :(

this morning i went to another acupuncturist for my heel pain.. he was this tiny little asian man. he talked a lot in a very hard to decipher asian accent. i think she told me that acupuncture should work for me, and 80% of the people with the same or similar problems have had success in pain relief, or been cured. he said it should take around 3 sessions, but no more than 6. if it isn't working after 6 sessions then it won't work. he put about 5-7 needles in my foot/ankle and put a heat lamp on it and also hooked up a machine that ran some electrical currents through the needles. i've never had the electric currents before.. it kind of pulsed. at first i didn't really feel any major pain relief, i walked on it a little out to the car and didn't notice too much pain, but i think that is pretty typical of the problem at that time of day.. the real test will be if i have significant pain tomorrow morning.. that is when it's always the worst..

oh, another thing he said was that there is poor circulation to the heel (not sure if that was specific to just me, or to heels in general) so i'm guessing that i'll have to go at least 3 times...

the town i go to to have this done is called Clifton Springs.. it's really cute. there are some gorgeous houses on the drive there in the town of Phelps that are made of cobblestones it looks like. this one house is all cobblestones, and so is the barn and the horse stable.. so cool...

ryans birthday and SLIs party

cath had a free pizza voucher for trappers, so we went there to eat pizza and celebrate ryans birthday. the boys showed us how not to jump rope. however, they were the only ones that even tried, so i am sure it was as hard as they made it look.

after dinner SLI was having a party. AMC and E were there, we quizzed each other with 80's trivial pursuit questions. as much as i love the 80s i am really not knowledgeable at all about what happened those years. those questions were crazy hard.



i took pictures of the evenings events here..

all night i kept getting texts and picture texts of the Mrs Claus's night out.. here are a couple...









if i could play the VM i had this morning from LK i would. it was priceless. her "on the floor" photos in her photo album made so much more sense having heard the VM. oh, so precious! i think next years Mrs Claus's night out in MA should be earlier in the year so i can attend!!

1st Annual Mrs Claus's Night Out - CNY version

last night most of us met at Santangelos for our girl dinner. both my sisters made it. it was another pregnancy meeting, per usual. :)

here are the pictures i took.

this afternoon i was shopping in the Towne Center and SH talked me into getting waxed. i told her i couldn't get waxed and then go out into public (Target) like she wanted to. she didn't care, she said i would be fine..

well.... i was far from fine. people were looking at me in Target like i was a burn victim. and SH and JH didn't seem to be in any sort of hurry. they lazily looked in all the aisles. finally i had to call my savior MB to come and pick me up.

christmas has come early!

my prayers have been answered!

http://www.cbsradio.com/press_center/releases/pressrelease083059-12-21-2007.html

i realize that most of you could care less, but i'm elated that "donnie banaduce" (as cath puts it) is gone and adam is still there!!!


i stole this from the message boards. :)

adam carolla

holy hits batman...

so since my Adam Carolla post from this morning i have been searched and clicked on by people searching google blogsearch at least 19 times for that post. totally insane how fast google blog search picked up my entry. it's pretty damn close to real time since the first hit came at 1130 and my post went up at 11ish...

these people seem to have their collective fingers on the pulse of this situation.

in AC related news, i wrote an email to a bunch of the "front office" at CBS. i know that each and every piece of "feedback" is read and considered here, so i would think that at the very least it will be read by them. hee hee..

laughed out loud..

leave it to JBP..

this has to be my favorite xmas card of the season...



inside she wrote, "hope this adds a little color to your holidays!".

if she only knew that EH gave me a black santa doll last year! i'm going to have to drag that out this year.

say it isn't so...

the adam carolla show is apparently on hiatus this week (scheduled). but AC was "sick" the previous 3 shows.... there is something definitely amiss. he is never sick.. or comes to work when he is sick. i kept hearing DB say that his contract was re-upped for another year and 100K more... ugh.. anyway, i think there might not be any more ACS... :( i hope that danny bonaduce leaves the show cause he ruins it.. i'm crossing my fingers that AC and Teresa will be back without DB on jan 2nd..

there is all sorts of crazy speculation as to what is happening on the internets.. here is a particularly funny post with a bunch of "adam advice". the last one is my favorite i think..

since TACS has not been on for over a week now i've had to otherwise occupy my ears all day.. so i've found a bunch of interesting things:

the dave dameshek show podcasts... he used to be a sports guy on TACS in '06

dr drew does a mid afternoon show that is podcasted

i've been listening to old podcasts of the "sports guy" talking about betting lines with cousin sal...

and old podcasts of the LOST producers dancing around story lines

i even found this totally random podcast that comes out of dublin, called "the eagle lounge" and "rapid news" it's only updated on mondays though. :(

what do you listen to? obviously i'm desperate for anything...

thursday january 31st, 9pm.

LOST is coming back on the air at the end of january.. i've been scavenging any type of LOST info i can gather lately and have found that the show is taking over Greys space in the thursday night line-up starting in the february book... from the ABC podcasts i've learned they've completed filming the first 8 episodes of season 4. their original plan was to run 16 consecutive episodes per year for the next 3 years (48 episodes left) resulting in the end of the show. i'm wondering how the strike is going to impact this plan. my thinking is we will get a split season again.. not the 16 shows in a row. :( damn writers strike! give them their cut already!

last night MB and i saw a preview of The Kite Runner. it's been some time since i read the book, but from what i remember it was very true to the book. such a sad story.. i think i cried for 3/4ths of the movie. :) at least until the homeless man came in with about a half hour of the movie left and sit right next to me.. he was very loud and kept talking when he took off his coat, asked if one of the two seats next to me was occupied... ugh. he made me so mad.. the labored breathing was enough to annoy me, but then the smell started wafting towards me when he took off his coat. it smelled like he had vomited milk or cheese into his pants and then just sat in it for a couple weeks. then the coughing started.. he sounded like he had black lung.. i kept expecting after one of his coughing fits to hear wet mucous-y flem hit the floor in front of us. he also felt it necessary to comment out LOUD about what was happening in the movie.. and reading some of the subtitles out LOUD... ugh...i had a hard time really paying attention to the rest of the movie for the smell, the coughing and the out loud comments. it really soured the ending for me. ugh. but if you go see it, more than likely you will not encounter such a vile person and will probably love the depressing story! merry christmas!

garage envy..

it's no surprise that we are getting tons of snow lately here in the northeast..it snowed on and off all day yesterday. so much so that when i braved the treacherous road conditions to run to the P&C for cookie supplies i had to brush my car off a 2nd time in the parking lot, for it had gotten completely covered in the 10 minutes i was inside.

i had little to no problem busting my way out of the driveway yesterday and figured that i would be okay this morning too...

because the snow just kept coming all weekend "we" (read, mike) didn't bother snowblowing this weekend. this morning i was made sadly aware that i would not be able to just barrel out of the driveway per usual.. we had to have a "family shoveling/snowblowing" party at 8am this morning to remove the knee deep snow that had accumulated.

i am scared to own my own place now, if it hadn't been a team effort i would still be shoveling snow out of that driveway... i'll just have to get a place right next door so MB can snowblow my driveway for me before work each morning. :)

i'm definitely not getting a place either unless it has a garage. i'm so envious of the people whose cars are completely snow free in the parking lot. :( someday, that will be me. maybe i'll look for a place with a heated driveway too. that has to be worth the money.. i'll have to keep my eyes peeled for how to do that on HGTV.

christmas mode - fully engaged

i was able to tick so many things off my list this weekend. i made my cookies swap cookies, did most of my shopping, wrapped all the presents i have, wrote out more christmas cards and watched the finale of survivor. good times!



on saturday, kate and i also went to the SU game. i hadn't been since high school. it was just like i remembered, only this time i was old enough to buy beer. :) eric devendorf tore his ACL though. :( when i mentioned this to EH she siad "good, i don't like him." so not the christmas spirit.

i am kind of shocked that todd won survivor. i thought for sure he would have pissed off more people on the jury. i was very sad to hear that denise is doing so badly since she has returned home. :(

annie the musical comes to syracuse.

Wednesday night the roommates and i went to see Annie as a part of our famous artists broadway series. we smartened up this time and brought our binoculars (more on this later) because our seats are up pretty high... our seats are right on the end of the 3rd row which is nice because we are on the edge... but it also sucks, cause we are right on the edge, and everyone has to walk by us to get in and out. catch 22.

another thing that is unpleasing to me about our seats is they seem very narrow and close together. the three of us pour ourselves into the seats and then hold our breath till halftime.. i think it would be in our best interest to fast from now until the next show (chicago, jan 16th).

okay, after we squeeze into the seats and i pull out my binoculars.. i got the small camera binoculars that MB has, i was stoked because they were binoculars... with a camera inside.. i was beyond excited cause i would have phat photos for all of you to see by the end of the night!! however as i'm wrangling around with them MB informs me there are no batteries in them. wtf... what good are batteryless camera spygoggles? i was furious... so you will all suffer. no photos. ugh.

i probably hadn't seen or thought about Annie since i was a child and i found out i had almost completely forgotten the storyline. for at least 3/4 of the show "annie" had a red straight haired bowl cut. i was very disappointed that she didn't have curly hair.. but alas, at the end she "gets ready for a party" and bam! the curly red wig came out!

the dog that played sandy was great too. so well trained. i wish there was more sandy time though.

if the show was in town longer than 3 days i would recommend it to people, but since it's gone and moved on to another city tht would be pointless. if it comes to your city though, check it out.

there is a big nor'easter rumored to be coming to town this weekend, i was at work late tonight preparing the page.. should have real info by the end of the night.

i made an appointment with a new accupuncturist, this time he is covered by my insurance. its over an hour away though, so i will need to figure something out if my treatment is going to take multiple visits.. his office hours are 9-4 on wednesdays. i have high hopes though.

happy birthday sarah!

today is SHs birthday.. she is 28... she's getting so old.

incredible...

i decided not to go to the gym tonight and give my heel the night off (see previous entry) and boy am i glad i did.. the couple of things i have experienced since 6pm tonight are mind blowing.. and 200% blog worthy..

first one... i walked from my car to the house tonight and took note of the neighbors cat mewing loudly at the neighbors door to be let in. that made me think of the across the street neighbors cat and how we have not seen him since patty left. he was a patty groupie.. when i got inside cath asked me if i had noticed anything... "no, besides the white cat crying at SLs door, no...." she said, "no, way more tragic.." my heart skipped a beat.. wtf... she then proceeded to tell me that the house nearly burnt down. the live, cute little pine tree in the front corner of the house caught on fire this afternoon. and an angel a fireman just happened to be driving by on his way home from work and stopped by and put it out for us. MB said he was about to come into the front of the house from the back room and was looking to the porch and thought "wow, it's foggy out.. wait, are those flames?". it was the fireman with a fire extinguisher putting out the fire was torching the tree. it's a miracle that the porch didn't catch on fire. it must have been faulty christmas lights that sparked the inferno... scary!!


note the snow was shoveled out of the front lawn by the good samaritan firefighter.

in an effort to stay alive this year (and also because we can't find the table top tree) we're going with the following christmas tree. it requires no lights, and no ornaments for the dogs to knock off and break, and no pine needles to vacuum up. the only downside, no "underneath" to put the presents.



the second insane thing is google has rolled out it's street view for most of boston. check out how crazy this is.. click each one for the link... here are all the different apts i lived in in boston in chronological order.


this is where i stayed for about a week while i looked for an apt.. i had one week to find a place cause "crazy" MK was going to lose her s*** if she came back from vacation and i was staying here..


i lived here for at least 3 years with a revolving door of roommates, KG, GH, SB, and at least 3 or more randoms

i lived in the house on the right here for at least 3 years. i lived with JT the whole time, with JBP, TG, J, and SB taking turns in the 3rd bedroom for 6mos at a time. this was a great apt, we had a driveway!


my favorite year + spent in boston was when i lived in this house. things were good then... oh how i miss brighton. note the painting van taking up prime parking real estate on the street. ***amendment*** LK, CR, CS, JK, CR and Matt something were my roommates at this time.. it was a lot..


we lived on the 1st floor here and the bottom two windows were my bedroom windows. i had 3 bedroom windows. made for a very noisy room. i could hear the neighbor to the lefts phone ring in the summer when the windows were open. ***amendment*** this place was just LK and i...ahhhhh, heavenly after having 4 other roommates in brighton... but a lot of the time it was just me as LK was off falling in love during this time.

google maps are the coolest things ever!! google inc is the coolest company ever. i want to work for them!

here are a couple other dewllings of interest that i could find....


jbp's dewlling


kgs dewling (i think)

woo who

i got a gift today. a furry little dog that barks a christmas carol. i can't wait to see how the animals react to it at christmas time, i bet the murph-man can destroy it in under 10 minutes... i hope my SS person has been getting my gifts, i've not yet delivered one to their desk... so i just have to assume they received them. :)

my heel is killing me today.. like, i am considering amputation typed pain.. i've had this affliction for a long time now.. LOOONG time. i can remember waking up and immediately putting on my slip on sneakers in somerville to lessen the pain back when i was living with LK.. i really started paying attention to the pain in february of this year when MK and i were marathon walking around england for nearly a week. i attributed the pain then to all the walking i wasn't used to.. since then i have been living with a constant dull pain in the morning when i stumble down the hallway to my shower. generally by the time i am done with my shower the pain is a background, ignorable ache. at the end of the day right before bed the pain starts to creep back in. and that's been my every day for probably years now. recently KWs mom talked about how she had just had a cortisone shot to her heel. she has the same pain that i do. it's called "Plantar Fasciitis".. she exclaimed how she would rather give birth again than have another cortisone shot... :(

i think i need to visit the acupuncture gods again... this will be a good test.

birthdays abound!!

the next couple of weeks i know 7 people with birthdays.. march is quite the popular time for baby making!!

speaking of baby making this weekend cath and i went to SFs baby shower. it was a good time, like all the other times i've driven out to their massive home. cath and i took a lot of mental notes on how the proceedings were set up and the games we played, etc. cath even walked away with the game sheet leftovers. :)


to protect the identity of the innocent, i've altered this photo.. she didn't want her pic on the blog, and i think this sufficiently obscures it..

worst gifts ever.. adam carolla had a great segment today about the worst gifts ever where he goes on and on about receiving some crappy tools and how he has to hold his face with two hands into a smile and say thank you through gritted teeth. it made me laugh so hard i was crying at work. i've definitely felt like that before. of course danny stepped all over adam the whole segment. i feel like lately adam has been more short than usual with danny and more apt to make blatant fun of him. that gives me hope that danny's contract won't be renewed at the end of this year. that would be a GREAT christmas present from the radio gods.

today was the first day of secret santa here at work. :( i got nothing. i wonder if noone drew my name...

one down.. 2 to go..

i'm quickly learning that in order to get the sox games you have to get the "package tickets".. and the package tix can be costly...



i bought the phillies 5 pack for 4 today.. i figure MB, myself, and E&RH can go to the sox game in june. lets hope EH can keep it together. it's june 16th. i have 4 or 5 other phillies games. i'm hoping caguarna wants to take some off my hand.. :) i think they like the phillies.

seattle and chicago ticket packs are way more games - thus, way more expensive. i'll just have to take my chances and try to get single game tix for those stadiums.. :(

in the meantime, i casually tried to get sox tickets at almost 11am (they went on sale at 10), i was put into the electronic waiting room. i left and went to the shower and at 430 when i got back i was still in the waiting room. i wonder if AEC got any tickets...

catch up

there are many things lately that i have been "saving" in my head for the blog.. i'm going to attempt to purge my mind right now..

1. winter... a love affair!
i must not have ever had a pair of true snow tires. i know i've had all weather, or hybrids, but these snow tires i have make me feel like a tank out there on the roads. such a contrast from last year when i would slip and slide all through the parking lot and once i even went off the road and *almost* got stuck. it was treacherous.. even driving in the rain was horribly scary for me. but not now.. i am king of the road, especially now that winter is here to stay. also adding to my winter delight is my driver side windshield wiper and my rear window defroster. i tasked MB with buying me a new wiper and he came through big time. the wiper is one solid piece of what seems like rubber, it is sort of floppy and curls towards the windshield when i pull the wiper arm away, but when it's pressed up against my windshield it flattens out and drags most everything in its way.. pure love!! i think i am going to buy another set to replace my crappy passenger side wiper. my rear window defroster is a slice of pure heaven!! i went for at least 5 years in my old tan accord with a broken rear defroster. it was highly inconvenient, but i could get away with it since there were usually a handful of snowfalls in MA... last winter was the first time i was in a vehicle where i was able to use the hell out of the rear defrost, and boy did i! this year is no different. this morning i didn't even bother brushing it off and by the time i got down to the corner by the F'ville center my windshield was transparent again! life is good in the CNY.

2. spotty email
for some inexplicable reason i haven't been getting my emails either at all, or in a timely manner. so if you have written me and were expecting a response and haven't heard from me, try resending your message

3. mrs claus's night out CNY style
years ago (at least 4 i think) JBP started organizing an annual night out at christmas time for all our female friends. it was our christmas present to each other. there are some very memorable moments that were born from MCNO... i'm always bummed that i can usually not make them in boston any more.. so this year i decided to take the reindeer by the horns and set up my own MCNO - the CNY version.. it's looking like December 21st would be the best night for everyone. i'm looking way forward to it and will surely take photos for the blog audience.

4. baby shower
this weekend is SFs baby shower. i can't wait! cath and i went shopping yesterday. we'll be taking notes for SBs upcoming showers.

christmas meme...

i've seen this christmas meme going around and it's made me thing a lot about our traditions. so i'm posting it here so i can elaborate and share. :)

1. Christmas tree up yet?
no, cath is having a hard time locating the fake table top tree. plus we'll have zillions of dogs here for christmas, so a full sized tree is really not an option. plus we don't live in a mansion yo!

2. Any Christmas decorations up yet?
oh yeah, cath has conveniently been off of work the past two days so it looks like christmas came threw up all over the place.

3. What are you asking for Christmas?
a tom tom. so i can get some cool tom tom voices like curt schilling or mr T..

4. What do you usually do on Christmas Eve?
when it was just the 5 of us we used to open 1 present each (usually pajamas) and then pile into the van and drive around fancy neighborhoods looking at lights and declaring house without lights as jewish homes. now that the family has more than doubled we will prob just sit around and have some wine talking about being pregnant and childbirth.

5. What do you usually do on Christmas Day?
sleep in as late as possible, get a good spot in the tv room for opening presents and wait for the breakfast casserole to be done. we used to go to a movie on christmas night after the presents were all opened, but now we just sit around talking about being pregnant and childbirth.

6. Do you own any Christmas clothes or jewelry?
no, i'm pretty sure i have nothing... maybe a pair of socks with christmas lights on them.

7. Do you use white or colored Christmas lights?
i like all one color strings. and lately i am obsessed with the LED lights. i should buy some now so "when" i have my own house i will have lights already.

8. Do you cook Christmas cookies?
no. never i don't think. but this year i am being tasked with making 4 dozen peanut butter cookies with the kisses in the middle for the cookie exchange.. i'm a great direction follower, so i am not too worried.

9. Do you buy Christmas presents for your whole family?
no.. :) we draw names and set a limit. its so much better this way. i usually end up asking for an item that costs the limit, so whilst christmas shopping i usually end up buying lots of things for myself. :) i can't help it.

10. How many friends do you buy presents for?
pretty much noone..

11. Do you believe in Santa Clause?
no.

12. Favorite Christmas songs?
Mele Kalikimaka is my favorite, then feliz navidad. i think i just like them cause they are in different languages. i can't help but think of the new kids on the block christmas album i used to have at this time of year though.

13. Would you rather it be a white Christmas, or a warm Christmas?
oh, white is the only way to go!

14. Was last years Christmas a good one?
sure.. the best Christmas's for me though are ones in which i can go see a movie. i love that tradition.

15. Which Christmas color do you like better?
what???

16. Do you get a real Christmas tree, or is it artificial?
cath has given up on real trees a long time ago, and i cannot remember the last time i lived in a house that put one up. probably 9 or 10 years ago was the last time in medford. it was real i believe.

17. When you get older, will you get a real or artificial tree?
i think i will get a real one. adam carolla talked about this on this mornings show.. about how there is nothing like smelling a christmas tree in your house, and how its also a reminder of wealth. i think when possible i will get a real one. not too big though, i am short.

18. Do you hang stockings?
yes. my sisters and i have handmade felt stockings that our aunt CG made when we were born that we have been using for all our lives now. the stocking stuff is a big favorite part of christmas since that is usually my only surprise.

19. When opening presents, does your family all open them at the same time?
no. we've been taking turns. we open them in rounds until we can't all open a round, then SBH opens her gifts for another half hour.

20. Do you get up early on Christmas day?
not if i can help it. getting up early is a foolish tradition.

21. Does your family eat breakfast before or after opening presents?
after, sometimes during if there are a lot of gifts.

22. Do you have a favorite ornament you hang on the tree?
i don't think so. like i said i haven't had a tree in probably 10 years. but i have been collecting hallmark ornaments in 2-3 series for at least 10 years, so when i do get my own tree i'll have a great base of ornaments.

23. What Christmas movie do you like to watch the most?
probably the one i've watched most consistently over the years is "love actually" or "a christmas story". i just love when the dogs come in and eat all the dinner... with all the animals here at holidays i can see that happening here at some point.

24. What do you like better, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
christmas day. i love presents and putting them away/using them.

weekend's over

it's time to get back into the habit of going to work. :(

this past friday i went to the company holiday party. it was fun.. the food wasn't out of this world like i expected, but it was okay. i straightened my hair for the event, then i didn't take any pictures with me in them. :) i didn't take many pictures at all really. i was rather disappointed when i looked at them as there were few, a lot of them were blurry..

in any case, here they are.

as i sit here typing this, cath is dancing around because she is not going to work tomorrow. she has called in so she can "organize" aka, go to the casino.

i'm glad i went to papa gallo when i did, as predicted plans to go this weekend fell through.

Papa Gallo, Fayetteville

This review has been moved to my ALL NEW www.CNYDigested.com blog..

http://www.cnydigested.com/2007/11/papa-gallo-fayetteville/

please update your bookmarks!

uhhhh... october road.

i love that show, especially that eddie latekka. he makes my heart flutter...but it could also be the wine...

did anyone else watch it? is he sam's father?!!? i hope they have all of this seasons episodes filmed and it won't be affected by the strike. i'll have to find out tomorrow.

things that make me smile.

as i drove home from work today i saw that the town has started decorating for the holidays.. i saw a couple of things that made me smile, then i started thinking of other festive happy things and came up with this quick list.

1. i like the white christmas bulbs on outdoor trees that have a blue hue to them. they remind me of those headlights that are crazy blinding blue. an example of these bulbs can be seen on the trees on the corner of the fayetteville town center near the gazebo.


2. i like the way the business park down the street from where i work lazily decorates the trunk and the first couple of bows on the trees. it makes the trees look like little tornados, and tornados make me smile.


3. i heard the original of a song that i have come to love from a remake in the movie "love actually". it reminded me that i love that movie, and i need to add it to my queue, or maybe just buy it.


4. in trying to remember the name of "love actually" i thought of the movie "the holiday". which is another movie i love.

of course with the good comes the bad. :) today at lunch i went into the freezer in the kitchen and found not one empty ice trays but FOUR empty ice trays. what the F!!!! i can kind of understand one tray. but four?!! i wanted to set up a camera so i knew who to punch in the face... at the end of the day someone tipped me off as to who it most likely was. and trust me, the ice cubes are just fuel added to the fire. :(

this friday is my company holiday party. i am looking forward to it this year as i know more people and might actually have someone to talk to this time. it's also on a friday which is good, cause i will have the privacy of my own bathroom to get sick in the next day. ;) lol. j/k, i'm not doing that again! i took some great pictures last year at the bar afterwards.. it's fun to hang out with coworkers outside of work, you get to see all kinds of different sides of people, and i think it makes working with them easier... needless to say, i have high hopes for this years party.

gasoline

i am back from my thanksgiving vacation in the southern tier. it was so nice to have the house to myself yesterday. i got all kinds of stuff done, laundry, dishes, sorting through my paperwork, balancing my checkbook, catching up on my netflix dvds and watching my dvr'd shows.

speaking of shows, i saw the season premiere of October Road. god i love that show, it's kinda corny, but i'm so glad it's back on.

when i went to bed last night it seems the gasoline fumes have soaked into my bedding... i was so tired i didn't care... but now i am wondering if it isn't hazardous to my health. i'm going to ask google...

ruh row, this is what i found...

You inhale benzene every time you fill up at the pump -- that is why most gas or petrol stations now put "hoods" over nozzles, to capture or redirect the vapor. And yes, benzene is very destructive to cells in living organisms, and it is both toxic in the short term and potentially cancer-causing in the long term. Fortunately most people don't get enough of it in their bodies in a lifetime to be very dangerous, but mechanics and forecourt workers which are chronically exposed to it can develop a number of health effects from it.

and this...

Breathing gasoline fumes is dangerous also. Exposure to vapor concentrations can cause respiratory irritation, headache, dizziness, nausea and loss of coordination. Higher concentrations may cause loss of consciousness, cardiac sensitization, coma and death resulting from respiratory failure.

hmmm.. maybe i should wear a hospital mask to bed till all the gas fumes escape from my bed..

black friday - EH style.

if you know me, you know that shopping is not high on my priority list. so about 4 years ago i was talked into going to "the sales" with EH.. going to the sales involves waking up in the 4s and throwing my hair in a pony tail and getting in the car.

last night before all 33 t-giving guests arrived we looked through all the flyers for the next morning. seeing as we are in the sticks there are really not many stores to go to early... so that makes it even more impt to get there early and get a spot. the stores on our list were wal-mart, k-mart and staples.

wal-mart was first on our list cause they opened at 5. EH picked us up at 430 promptly. we drove the half a mile down to the store and i thought we were pulling into a concert at great woods... the parking lot was full and we had to park next door in the parking lot closest to old navy. the line that awaited us was just absurd.



when they opened their doors people literally were sprinting the length of the parking lot towards the masses squeezing into the doors. i'd say a 3rd of the people grabbed carts which totally bottlenecked everyone getting into the place. we had a map of the store somehow and knew where we needed to run to. i was behind mike (making a bee-line for the back of the store) and he almost was smashed by at least 2 carts running full speed through the aisles. we grabbed our items and headed to the checkouts.. we were done with wal-mart at 515.

this was basically the scene at each of the stores we went to.



so the environment really brings out the best in EH.. compound that with alternating exhaustion and the adrenaline of it all and it makes for some pretty hysterical moments. here are some of the highlights...

dunkin donuts was closed when EH went through so we had to go to burger king. we pull up to the menu and EH orders a bkJoe, which is the name for their coffee. the woman on the other end of the speaker lets her know she's ordering an iced coffee. the BK woman was promptly barked at and corrected.

cath has trouble getting in and out of RHs mammoth chevy.. and that just doesn't fly with EH. we arrived at kmart and cath was taking so long i heard EH tell her she's "too slow, lock up" then i heard the keys hit the icy pavement.

at staples she accused the people in front of her in line of not paying attention and the woman promptly swivelled around and asked "excuse me?" cath said they got the evil eye the rest of their time in line.

my purse was on the dashboard of the truck while we ate my hash brown tater tots from BK. EH demands that i remove the purse.. i say, "it's fine". so she slams on the brakes. i went flying into the windshield. as you can imagine this was met by hysterics from EH.

after our exhausting day of shopping we had a little breakfast at perkins. :)



here are pics from the weekend so far.

happy thanksgiving everyone.

today we are traveling to the southern tier.. the weather looks alright here from my perspective, but mike says it looks like rain the whole way! great, i love to travel in pouring rain, it's my preferred way to travel.

i think i am going to bring our wireless router so i can be connected out in the middle of nowhere...

i ran out this morning and bought four bottles of wine and had my oil changed, i am all set!

aaaaahhhh the comforts of my new old bed...

because of EHs "gimmees" the bed in my room has been swapped out with my own bed from the shed. i'm glad to have it back where i know what's happening to it and my box springs. there is a faint odor of gasoline emanating from the mattress, but i woke up this morning, so apparently it wasn't enough to kill me. as i stretched the blue t-shirt sheets over the mattress pad (twice, cause i can never tell which way is right with those darned sheets) i cursed them and swore to buy a new cotton set as soon as my wallet allows. however... i woke up from sweet dreams (of fred armisen, strangely) feeling 180 degrees different towards these sheets. they felt like the softest suede against my bare legs last night. i forgot that i loved them so...i won't be replacing those sheets anytime soon.

while at my last trip to wegmans i happened upon Pete's Tofu2Go. i know most people are immediately turned off by the word tofu, but this tofu is something like i've never tasted. these delectable little triangles of flavored tofu have the consistency of quiche, and i believe the "Thai Tango" flavor i bought had little bits of onions inside it.. so darned delicious. i will be back to wegmans for these no doubt.

exhausted!!

i'm back from my quick jaunt to boston. KW and i made the drive out in 4.5 hours and headed straight for fenway park. naturally the place a die hard yankees fan wants to go, right? she had only been to boston once in the night, so we had a lot of sights to see. lucky for us the sun was shining and the sky was clear. after our tour we drove over to newbury street, boylston street, and then out to JP for a sandwich at "City Feed". i thought of calling CR, but just didn't have enough time on this trip, it was too spur of the moment and we had a lot to do. maybe it was because we were starving, but i think it might just be city feed, but the s'wich i ate was so insanely good...



after our lunch we headed over to fanuiel hall and quickly got fed up with the crowds and went to "the place" for a frosty beverage. the first thing that hit us about the bar was the beer stench emanating from it. it smelled as if the walls and floors had been hosed down with beer. the bathroom had a couch in it that looked like this...



every person in the bar was wearing something michigan, we thought that we were at an alumni event or something, turns out we had just missed the michigan/ohio state game. shucks...

after our drink we headed to cambridge to meet JBP and HEKD for dinner. i felt bad because we were so late with wrong turns and traffic. i was hoping HEKD would be late as she usually is, but she wasn't. :( it looked like she had made some friends at the bar though. the mojitos there were fantastic!!

after dinner HEKD went home and the three of us headed across the street to the lizard lounge. i had no idea how small the place was going to be. i saw a sign in the bathroom saying that the capacity of the place was 105. i would say there were close to 100 people in the place. it made for a very intimate show. :) JBP was able to get rid of her extra ticket too.

the show was everything i had hoped for and more! scrap was nothing like what i had imagined. i was delighted to see that he was very shy and meek, it was endearing. he read most of the questions from the jar. mike doughty seemed kind of angry for most of the show. he barked at the bartenders and chatty cathys to stop talking a bunch of times. one loud woman bragged that she had sold a pair of tickets on craigslist for $250 and mike doughty demanded that she give him the 250. then he changed his mind and asked that she give it to the bar for anyone that wanted a drink to use. she "coughed" up $100, so he put $150 on his credit card to make up the difference. it was an interesting thing. he wouldn't play "real love" despite many many requests for it. :( that was the only negative part in my opinion. i had such a great time at the show i am considering finding out when/where he plays in NYC and making the trip down..



i took a bunch of video of some of the questions they were answering....



DE was at the show, i read her blog daily, but haven't seen her in the flesh since last years company party i think...



after the show the three of us hit up a dive bar called rosies in somerville. they had some of my favorite oldies rocking on the juke box. after rosies we headed to my old favorite neighborhood and had one at the castle bar. it's crazy insane how different that bar is. the bathroom is somewhere i would want to live, and i am not kidding. gone is the crappy dark old look and it's been replaced by chic upscale trim and decorations. it seemed brighter too. the same old bartender was working, and i can't for the life of me remember what his name was. do you remember LK? he was from dublin, "the bleeding dub". he was the only one i recognized. we stayed for just one, it was nice... that place will always be a reminder of good times for me. i was not surprised to see my old landlords painting van still parked outside our old house...

as predicted, KW and i left the BP hotel and were on the road by 810am. cath called then and i think she was surprised to hear that i was actually on the road. tsk tsk.. when do i saw i'm going to do something and not do it?

i'm glad KW was able to accompany me on the trip, it made the drive to and fro seem like nothing. KW is a lot of fun.. i look forward to many more adventures with her.

as soon as i got home this morning it was work work work. we rearranged two bedrooms and pulled my bed out of storage, it was not easy squeezing that queen sized mattress up the stairs but we prevailed. good thing we had an engineer on our side.

if i am not sore tomorrow from the moving, i will surely be sore from all the laughing i did today. i don't know if i am overtired but everything has been hysterical today. i have almost choked like 3 times..

here are my photos from yesterday.

here was the grand finale...

christmas has come early!!

over a month ago i was alerted that m.doughty was going on tour and stopping in boston. i am on his mailing list and religiously read his blog, so i've been all too aware that he's going to boston. the day tickets went on sale i had 2 browser windows open refreshing like a crazy person in order to secure myself some tickets. before i even had a chance to buy the tix, they were sold out. how could a show of a guy that not one person i've mentioned this to has heard of be sold out that fast? well. it turns out there was a computer glitch and a lot of people didn't get tix. they released more later on that i was also shut out from buying. i took it as a sign that i wasn't supposed to go..

then yesterday someone from the venue emailed me directly and said the band was releasing some of the tickets they had reserved and i could purchase 2 if i was still inclined.

i had to do a little juggling (that is a lie...thanks to my all but non-existent social life here in the 'cuse there was no juggling needed), but was able to commit to going there, spur of the moment tomorrow.. securing a guest to go to the show with me proved much harder for a couple of reasons. 1. the aforementioned problem that noone has ever heard of mike doughty, and 2. most people have lives and plan things more than 12 hours in advance, especially weekends. but much to my delight, i have met my spontaneous equivalent in KW. she agreed to drive out with me without knowing who the show is, to a city where she's only been once, trusting that i can find us a place to stay. she's my hero.. i love people that can just go with the flow!

and i wonder if the powers that be that control the weather read my blog... this morning i woke up to wet heavy snow all over the place. good thing i got the snow tires, and even better that my dad unknowingly bought and installed my new windshield wiper. i'm the luckiest girl alive.

to make this day even better i found out Papa Gallo is opening tonight.

click here for my review and the menu.

life is good.

mad planning...

bring on the snow!! i am 99% prepared. yesterday i bought some used snow tires (1 season) off craigslist and had them installed at the tire shop next door. the only thing i need now is a new driver side windshield wiper, and my roommate is already on it! hopefully this year i will not slide off the road in a ditch, or get stuck in my neighbors yard.

in other great news the red sox schedule came out, so naturally i'm planning my vacation for next year. this is what i am thinking right now...

monday april 21st, marathon monday game - fenway park.
monday-tuesday june 16th-17th, sox at phillies..
monday-tuesday july 21st-22nd, sox at seattle..
monday august 11th, sox at chicago white sox

and of course there is the wedding in cancun in february!

i had my dr's appt this morning and clay/liverpool/north syracuse is like a black hole in my mind.. i can never find my way to my dr's office (north medical center). that god MB is retired and ready at a moments notice to be my human gps...

i thought that since i was at least 15 minutes late my blood pressure would be elevated (which would have been the 3rd or 4th time in a row) and that would be terribly bad, however she said my BP looked fine. thank god. i've been paranoid as of late that i'm going to have a heart attack. sometimes i feel like when i am laying in bed my heart is racing, maybe its in my head. i hope so. i'm also drinking one of those god-awful dunkin donuts iced teas today that must be made with caffinated water cause i'm so jittery my attention span is less than 10 seconds. i feel like a junkie with shifty eyes. starbucks really needs to open a store closer to my work... dunkin donuts was on my way (and they have a drive through..double score) and i was short on time. but i guarantee i would not go back to DD if starbucks was closer...

october 31st has come and gone.

it was brought to my attention (but i've been thinking of it for a while) that my prediction that wFischers blog would come and go by halloween was indeed wrong. i can't believe i have to admit this, but i was wrong.. and so was everyone else.. wow, i really didn't think he had it in him, but wFischer has been an avid blogger.. and a pretty hysterical one at that. i really enjoy checking my feeds in the morning and seeing SyracuseNews.org lit up. so i encourage everyone that doesn't already, check out his blog.

it has a name!

cath and i took p-head for a walk after dinner and walked right up to the new restaurant. i got some blurry photos, but we did see the name of the place! its going to be called papa gallos.

the roommates and i went to The Mission today to use my gift certificates. good thing we showed up right when they opened because we didn't have a reservation and seeing as its such a small space they get full fast. the hostess let us have a booth but only for 1.5 hours, then she needed it for a reservation. cath and i asked to share the carafe of sangria straight away, and when she brought it back we asked her if we would be able to use both gift certificates at the meal... no, we couldn't, they don't take gift certs on fridays and saturdays. we thought about leaving. :) we got chips with the table and decided to spring for the guacamole and salsa sampler. the pico de gallo was great, and a little on the spicy side. the guacamole was good, but could have used more salt and garlic. the tomatilla salsa was pretty good. the sweet potato salsa was the spiciest of all.

we ordered our meals, me, cheese enchiladas, cath a quesadilla, and mike steak enchiladas. mike and cath got their meals a good 10 minutes before i got mine. they must have dropped mine or something. ugh.. i was kind of full already from the sangria and the chips we housed while waiting for the meals..

i have to say the meal was nothing spectacular. my favorite mexican dish is the enchilada and i had a choice of chicken, steak or cheese. i wish there was something more creative and vegetarian in there.. spinach, etc.

i will go again however, since i have 2 gift certificates still.. the space was cool, it's in an old church.

check out the pics i took at the mission, my lunch from friday, and the new restaurant..

the darjeeling limited.

so i had a blind date tonight with someone i met on eharmony. i had seen a picture, so does that still count as "blind"? either way it was a date with a total stranger. we saw The Darjeeling Limited. i liked it a lot, it was a weird movie with lots of stars... i think the same guy that made it made the royal tennenbaums, so if you've seen that movie, you get the idea about what kind of "weird" it was.

i must say i was a little nervous. i usually don't "feel" nervous for things like dates and interviews. asking for things though, totally nervous, making phone calls to people i haven't spoken to in a long time, or people outside of the handful of people i talk to regularly, totally nervous.

we met at the mall. i had misread the movie time so lucky for us i am chronically early. he paid for our tickets, check plus. i offered, but he insisted. i secretly like when the guy pays (well, not so secretly since it's here on my blog). don't get me wrong, i am always prepared, but it's nice when they pay.. we didn't have a lot of time to chat as we were kind of late, and he's not got a lot to say, check minus. there were a couple of random sex scenes that i wish i had known were coming. i don't have a problem in general with sex scenes, but on a date with a stranger, i'd prefer not to be surprised by these kinds of things. i'd also not enjoy the movie to be sad to the point that it makes me cry. thankfully this movie contained no sad parts. but check minus for the unexpected sex scenes.

i find that people either fall in the "comfortable silence" category, or the "uncomfortable silence" category. he fell in the latter. check minus. he does have a cool accent, check plus plus. we got dinner at ruby tuesdays after the movie, i was surprised there was a wait at 930. i didn't take a photo of my meal in case you were curious. but i did have their "mini" burgers.. a little raw inside, good thing i like rare meat.

because he didn't have a lot to say and made little attempts to keep the conversation going i felt compelled to ask him millions of questions. i don't really think i touched on any one subject that he was passionate about. check minus.

i feel the check minuses stacking up. he did drive over an hour each way to meet me. that deserves a check plus.

maybe i am too critical. actually, the checks balance themselves out. the jury is still out on whether or not i would go out with him again.

things are looking up!!

before i get to that...

<what's going on in fayetteville>

the mexican restaurant is coming along very nicely. there are all sorts of wall decorations, even outside... aztec looking suns and i think i saw a whole head on the wall in there.. earlier this week i saw bench/booth seats going in. there is even a structure that will end up being the roadside sign in place!! my mouth is watering.

</what's going on in fayetteville>

today was my court appearance for the cell phone ticket. cath met me at the courthouse. we pushed and shoved our way towards the front of the mob that was queuing to sign the register knowing that last time we were in court for this ticket we didn't get to see the judge till after 8pm. to our delight the baliff called a bunch of names of people that were to see the DA and we were called! this fast tracked our appearance.. we waited in the hallway for the DA to call us and when she did, she quickly and politely DISMISSED my ticket because i was a first time offender and i had a copy of my clean driving record. after the great news from the DA i had to wait back in the courtroom for the judge to sentence me and give me my fine. because it was dismissed i didn't have to pay a thing! so great!! the DA was so nice, and the judge was too.

i have been nibbling on this pomegranate all night now and i feel like i am maybe halfway through. i wonder if i can put it away and eat more of it tomorrow.



here is a shot of the table and the trivia lady and bar from last nights trivia.

nudey magazine day election day.

today was election day. most of the recent stress i am having at work will be gone by tomorrow, making room for the bigger more drawn out stress to move in. :)

cath and i took patty over to vote after dinner. she was not old enough to cast her votes. maybe next year. she'll have to reregister in PA though.



i have been so busy lately that i have a list of things i need to do in my personal life that i have been neglecting.. one of which was locate the paper i received back in july stating when my next court appearance was in the event the DA didn't get back to me in time. i never found the paper, but i did call the court and i need to appear again thursday at 5. :( it's for my cell phone ticket...if i don't appear i could have my license suppended. adn then if i drive and get pulled over i could go to jail just like paris.

i think its time i start wearing my coat to work. there was little to no "in between" time i don't feel like. it was nice weather, now its winter.

i've located some winter tires to buy on CL.. woo who!! when the deal is final i'll report further.

i bought a pomogranate at the grocery store the other day. it was too expensive not to eat. but i really don't know how to eat one. is it too messy to bring to work? who eats pomogranates, and how?

nightmare before christmas 3-D

in continuing with my friday night movie series i saw "the nightmare before christmas 3-D" last night. it was still cute they gave us these 3-d glasses to where and they weren't your cheapo red and blue paper glasses, they looked like slightly tinted black rimmed geek glasses. in the beginning of the film there were quite a few 3-d elements, but the whole of the movie had very little 3-d ness. it was a little disappointing. and movies are up to $12 now? when did that happen? jeez. maybe it was just that one to cover the glasses... whoa.



there were some punk kids that were shouting out all the text that was on the screen (like, "please put on your glasses now") i'm glad they left almost as soon as the movie started to sneak into another film i would presume.

i have a lot of errands/organizing/laundry to do today. i can't wait to write myself a list so i can cross things off as i go.

halloween continued

yesterday was a contest at work and trivia.. i took 2nd place at work, and as a whole team, we won 1st at trivia..

here are photos of work/trivia...

here is the video of me at work in my costume. thanks SLI.

i have one more halloween function to attend. i might go as wendy though. marge's hair keeps flaking off..

i took p-head for a walk tonight and it was so bitter cold out. my hands froze off and my lungs turned to ice. :(

today was flu shot day at work. TL, our old neighbor across the street from us in manlius gave me the shot. i was highly surprised to see that she is a nurse.

everytime my calendar reminder popped up telling me that it was flu shot day, i couldn't help think, "it's nudey magazine day!". every single time. i think i need more sleep.

weird?

do you think it's weird to take pictures of your food? this was my lunch. i've never had the kind of sushi that is like this. something laid on top of rice with a cute seaweed belt, cause that type of sushi is usually fish. i even ate the yellow one which i think (and am going to continue to believe) is egg.

anyway.. SLI said that taking pictures of you food before you eat it is weird. i disagree. anyone else have an opinion?

there's always next year rockies fans!

and yankees fans for that matter....*zing*

the roommates and i stayed up and watched the game last night. i have to admit during the last half of the 9th inning my eyelids were pretty heavy, but cath jumped for joy screaming as the sox put the final nail in the coffin of the rockies season. that of course meant we broke out the mini champagne bottle that i had bought for just such occasion. mike suggested we wear our tanning goggles too, so we didn't get champagne in our eyes.

i'm happy they won, and i'm glad that i can finally get some rest.



ps. i think jacoby is a wonderful baby name all you pregnant blog readers.

good times..

this weekend was another great visit to boston. the trip there was 4.5 hours despite the constant rain the entire way. my tires are so horrible that i was honestly afraid i was going to spin off the road with all the hydro-planing i was doing. i felt like a duck tour boat most of the way there.

even though the sky was overcast and my windshield wipers were doing double time the skyline coming in from the pike made my heart swell, i love that view of the city looking at it over the BU bridge. despite the rain there were still a ton of people out walking and running and just milling about the city, it really seemed like the city was alive.

i met fjk and we looked at the two shows at the ICA, they were interesting. then we had lunch by the water on the steps. not so good. the sandwich looked good and in theory should have been good, but it was lacking something. the quinoa that was served with it was worse that the sandwich. the best part of the meal were the cool VOSS water bottles.

the halloween party was next. pretty much everyone dressed up, it was great! my personal favorites were HSs flight attendant and KYs basketball player. JBP had a most original costume if i must say so myself though. you have to check it out. i won 1st place in the meat raffle costume contest and was awarded a couple of steaks. :) that LK is so creative!! she really outdid herself with the decorations. there was a frightening witch on the window in the front hallway. i should have taken a picture.



after the halloween party a few of us went to the tavern on the hill and met up with BG and LP. it was nice to see him, he's the same old same old. so funny. it brought me great joy to walk into the bar and see a veritable sea of red sox shirts. the bar was packed and just about everyone had red sox stuff on. it was great! this morning i noticed too that there were all kinds of patriots shirts everywhere. :) i miss NE.

i'm watching the sox final game of the series and have to say i am loving all the facial hair the guys are sporting.. trim beards and scruff is so attractive to me.

lars and the real girl

friday night i saw LATRG with KW. i liked it and all the actors in it were great. it was another funny/sad movies. i love to cry at movies... i must have learned that from cath.

there were a couple of scenes where ryan gosling was at church.. it kind of made me miss church. i don't know where i would go if i were to start going again. i am not entirely sure catholic is the religion i would choose if i had a choice, but it's also the only strain of religion i know... that got me thinking too about SHs baby and whether or not they would have god parents for it. do other flavors of religion designate god parents like catholics do? is her baby going to be christened/baptised? are those the same things? can you tell that 10 hours of driving affords me lots of time to think? i also got thinking that she should also get a clan so that the baby will have a clan.

how does he know this S?

i can't believe how he pulls this information out of nowhere, but MB has done it once again.. i have been pulling the hair out of my head trying to figure out what the instrumental song FOX has been playing during the ALCS and the world series. it's from jurassic park. it's called "Welcome to Jurassic Park". phew, now i can sleep tonight, if i take a lot of nyquil/benedryl.

great!

sickness couldn't have picked a worse time to hit me. yesterday i woke up and thought either i pulled a muscle in my neck while i slept, (i know it sounds far fetched, but it was much more positive than my other self diagnosis) or i was having a heart attack. this morning/all night long i am still feeling the pain underneath my jaw on the left side of my neck. i've ruled out a heart attack now thinking they come on much faster than this.. so now i am left with a painful swollen gland (maybe). i can't tell really when my glands are swollen cause i don't know what i am looking for (this excuse also works at the dr when she makes me feel guilty for not doing regular self breast exams...).

i do know however, when i yawn and also when i turn my head to the right and swallow i'm in some pain. but if i look straight ahead and swallow, no pain.. :) but i have a dull ache at all times in my neck area. this is not good news for my upcoming trip to boston. like always i have booked myself for every minute of the weekend and intend to meet those obligations, but this will most likely result in my sickness by the end of the weekend. :( hopefully tonights red sox game will be another blow out so i can go to be *early*.

picked up my car...

i picked up my car and some funny things happened... first being, i ripped a 16% off coupon from the phone book and they accepted it. score! that reduced my total to $324.02. not good, but a hell of a lot better than the $420.17 with tax they wanted to charge me.

while the old guy was ringing me up a younger cute guy (and i mean cute in that dirty hand, masculine, blue collar kind of way) came out and just stood by the counter. i looked up at him and smiled. he smiled. then i patiently waited while the old guy tried to figure out the computer. i got the distinct feeling the young guy was staring at me, so i avoided eye contact with him. the old guy mumbled something like, oh, what is the code on the ....... (trails off). i shoot a look at the young guy. yep, he's staring. the old guy tells young guy that i work at the station and the young guy is very impressed with that. he ask what i do, i tell him, he tells me that his mother in law does the same thing but for time warner. i nod. he wants to get into computers, so he asks all about my schooling, etc. i tell him i went to oswego and he says that when he finishes up at OCC he is going to try to go there. this small bit of a conversation tells me he is either very dumb, or very young. probably very young. by this time the old guy has run my credit card and tells me i need half a dozen extra items... i thank him, fold up my receipt and grab my keys to leave and the young guy asks me if "that is my man in the car out there". it was MB. i say, no. that is my dad. he says, oh, okay, see ya later. then again talk to you soon!

wtf?!? i get hit on by the most random people at the most random times and apparently by married men. he was cute though, and i guess its flattering to some degree... but *sigh*

wow. i hope this game is not a true representation of the "great rockies" that all my relatives keep flapping their jaws about. 13-1 in the 5th is not good people... that is a really bad score. and just think about how far that ball is going to soar off pedroias bat when they get to the mile high city.. :)

i hate cars.

$384.76 is what it's going to cost me today. he "thought" i would just need my e-brake cable tightened, but when he got the back wheels off he noticed that i need new rotors because mine are currently all pitted, and my brake pads are down to nothing.

i am so furious and i hate cars.

i just heard that i was getting a bonus in my next paycheck that will all need to go towards this unfortunate turn of events. before winter comes (go global warming!) i need to buy at least 2 new tires. that will cost prob close to $100 a tire. ugh. did i mention how much i hate cars! i bet ferrari owners don't worry about this..

j-lo has to be pregnant...

against my will i am watching dancing with the stars tonight and j-lo just performed. she is so pregnant, there is no denying it.. she's with chid, or if the rumors are correct, with children. how is she going to tour?

i'll post a pic from the show tomorrow when people put them on the internets.

here is a pic i found out there.

e-brake

over the past week or so i've noticed that my ebrake has been working less and less. meaning i've had to jump back in my car more than once after i've turned it off because it's rolling into the swamp on the edge of the parking lot here at work. well now its to the point that it isn't working anymore. on my older and wiser parents advice i have been leaving it in gear when i turn it off, but i still notice the car moves.... so i've made an appointment to have it looked at tomorrow. i am not really confident that i can go around without a parking brake in boston and find perfectly horizontal parking spaces...

i hope it is not an expensive fix, or something bigger than what i think. i believe i had all the brakes fixed the summer E and RH got married, so they better not call me up and tell me that the problem is that i need new brakes.

i'm formulating an itinerary now for my trip, so any red sox fans that might be reading and want something from the stores surrounding the stadium, let me know. i think i might get an ellsbury shirt. woo who!

missions accomplished!!

with no real plans this weekend i was able to devote much of it to buying and assembling my halloween costume. i can't say what it is, but i went to more than 10 stores this weekend for different parts of it. i am however, completely finished with it. i even had to sew myself a dress. :) i hope that i will win the work competition...

cath made some really good french onion soup this weekend that was so filling i had it for breakfast/lunch and am just now eating my dinner of popcorn while the red sox take batting practice against westbrook here in the 1st. the crowd is insanely loud tonight, it makes me wish i was there, it looks like everyone is on their feet and i haven't seen an indian fan yet.

kevin millar read the lineup tonight, god i miss him. he remains one of my favorite red sox to date. his shirt is also my favorite red sox shirt.

i don't know what it is about the post season, but it makes me very emotional...

moes southwest grill, North Syracuse

This review has been moved to my ALL NEW www.CNYDigested.com blog..

http://www.cnydigested.com/2007/10/moes-southwest-grill-north-syracuse/

please update your bookmarks!

9 reasons why i liked gone baby gone.

1. at the end of the movie i felt depressed. now that is my kind of movie.
2. it was a 2+ hour long exercise in "doing the right thing".
3. there was no wrapped up in a bow happy ending.
4. i have a soft spot in my heart for all things boston.
5. casey affleck is the more talented brother, and he was in almost ever scene.
6. the accents while a little much at times were not horrible.
7. there was a lot of swearing, which i also like a lot.
8. the lead girl wasn't this super gorgeous flawless actress, she was noone i knew, and kind of ugly even. she seemed like a real person.
9. there was no gratuitous sex scene thrown in just to fill seats.

MB and the Pom owners golf club.

MB has a golf date today with two of his friends that coincidentally all own Pomeranians. I just found out last week that he knows (and golfs with) two guys who have poms. i find that hysterical.. especially on the heels of the couple of commercials on tv that feature man owned poms. we laugh and joke that it's MB in the taco bell commercial where the guy is giving his younger brother 3 tips to live by, don't date a girl with a dragon tattoo that owns a lapdog... and his tattooed girlfriend brings him the dog and tells him to walk it. :) the bud light commercial featuring the ever barking poms is also a great one.

HEKD, maybe if you lived closer DD could join mikes Pom owning golf league and round out the foresome.

guess what!!! it's that time of year again, good movie season! there are 6 movies opening today that i want to see. i think i might cross one of these off my list tonight. which one do you vote i go see?

Things We Lost in the Fire (benecio del toro)
Rendition (reese and jake)
Gone Baby Gone (casey affleck - boston movie)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (clive owen)
Into the Wild (i read the book, it was good)
Lars and the Real Girl (ryan gosling.. but sadly it's not coming out in syracuse this weekend)

phew!

that is all.

survivor and questionable sexuality

was i the only one disturbed by james comment about how if denise was a younger or he was older she would have to "watch out"? james is easily one of the most attractive players the game has seen and he has his eye on the lesbian? do you think that was an editing thing? the world is a funny place if that was true. in talking about denise with cath i'm getting the feeling that i'm the only one that thinks she is a lesbian? i'm glad that james was kept, and i hope that blonde bimbo jamie is next to go.

stress and halloween.

i just got a great costume idea!! i am so excited! it's way better than my 2 other costume ideas. i want it to be a surprise, so you'll have to wait till halloween. this weekend i will be crafting this awesome costume!

in other news, we lost our crown last night at trivia. we didn't even place. one team got the max amt of points each of the 1st 4 rounds. what what what? they must have been cheating. :) LD, her boyfriend and her friends met us and played on their own team. i think they are coming again next week, should be fun.

when i think about tonight i think of pure stress. stress that i have 3 hours worth of tv to watch in 2 hours, and add to that the 4 hour plus game that will be playing while all my other tv shows are on. add the stress that the sox need to win tonight to stay alive in the alcs. :( it's causing me mind numbing heartburn!

new section..

i had to do some home improvement shopping today and while i was out in N. Syracuse i noticed that there were a few restaurants in a close vicinity that i don't believe i have been to. that made me think that i really should keep a running list of restaurants that i intend to eat at. and i saw on someone elses blog that once a month he goes out to eat with a friend to a new restaurant and writes a review on his blog. i think i want to start doing that too. anyone want to be my restaurant critiquing partner? i think another great reason for this list would be because i can't tell you how many times i'm faced with a "where do you want to go" situation and i always end up at the same old places...

so, here is the starter list that will continue to grow, please feel free to submit ideas to me for places to go.

Buffalo Wild Wings
Moe's Southwest Grill (have i been there SF?)
Coppertop Tavern (made me immediately think/get nostalgic for Tin Alley)
The Mission (ironically a discount deal tomorrow)

a little depressing...

yesterday on my way home from work, i'm lazily waiting for the light to turn when a car pulls up to the perpendicular light. i can't help but stare, it's a cherry red exotic looking car with a bright yellow and black logo on the side... upon further inspection i identify it as a ferrari.. it's not that i've never seen one before, but its rare that they cruise through the village. i scan the driver's seat expecting a crusty old man. much to my shock, it's an old classmate of mine. :( i have no idea what the worth is of the car (or really what model) nor do i know how he obtained it. but it makes me feel like i need to make more money.

from what i remember, this is what it looked like.


in researching which potential ferrari i saw, i noticed that some ferraris have 12 cylinder engines. wtf. who needs that kind of horsepower? a car like that would eat gas a rate 3 times that of my honda.. what a colossal waste of gas/money. i think even 6 cylinders is excessive. i take pride in the fact that my car has an engine comparable to that of a lawn mower.