wedding weekend

well, it's over. BreeD is a married woman. i had a really great time this weekend. i didn't realize how nice it was going to be to see jeremy again. i honestly don't remember the last time i saw him, it had to be in either college or as long ago as high school. it was really nice to spend so much time with him. he's one of those people i know that i can go years without seeing and fall right into place with.

another great part of the weekend was hanging out with alitza and kate so much. alitza is hysterical, i never really knew her at all in college, but i sincerely see myself going down to NYC to visit. at one point in the night, i was laughing so hard i was crying.

going to NYC was fun, the wedding was as sick as breeD had described. the cocktail hour was so extensive that i was too full to eat my dinner. then there was a salad course, and a sorbet course, and then the meal, then the lights went dim and the music came on, it was like a professional basketball game, and 8 rolling carts full of every dessert imaginable came out.. i had the creme brulee. sooo good.

i am really looking forward to resting this week and sticking around town this coming weekend. i have some relaxing to do.. and some movies to watch. :)

here are the pics i took...

we are the champions.

we are the smartest team ever!! this week we had a total of 9 people. we were on 2 teams. we shared answers and it payed off. we came in tied for 1st. with 2 other teams, so in total we won $40. god damn we are smart.

cath even made up a dance... (very similar to her "pee on the toilet seat dance")

pre-wedding stress...

i made a hair appt with foreign speaking theresa this afternoon. i hope she can do hair better than she can speak english.. the good thing is her shop is less than a mile form the hotel i am staying at for BDs wedding.. now i just need to find a hairstyle.. i think that my hair is really too long for hairstyling.. all the styles i see online are for much shorter hair.. :(

i bought a dress at target yesterday to wear to the rehearsal dinner. :) it's kinda cute.. i also bought this "reusable" sticker bra thing for cleavage.. i'm not sure how well it will work. it looks like clear tape with a bra clasp in it... i should try it out with the dress that i got back from the tailor and still haven't tried on..

i found out i need to be back in jersey by 430pm on saturday to make it to the rehearsal. so i've got to make myself out a do-able plan for NYC site-seeing in that short amt of time..

i'm kind of looking forward to being on call for two weekends in a row following this wedding.. i'll get some time to relax!

don't threaten me with a good time.

okay, i've uploaded the pictures for all to see from this weekend.

some highlights...

EH refusing my help which allowed for my almost non stop viewing of VH1s rock of love, and scott baio show

going to SHs new house that is WAAAAYYY bigger than her old one, even bigger than EHs house

walking hundreds of miles to and from the italian festival and the bars

having pudge tell me that "if i need to hook up with someone, he's my guy"

watching cath smell chads jacket all night

making everyone pose with their best BJ faces for my camera

wondering what the F is going on when all of a sudden everyone is crying

one more wedding....

this weekend is the last one of the season for me.. i can't wait! it's going to be so fun to see everyone this weekend. i need to touch base with mr marble to see how his iron man went and see if he wants to tour around NYC with me on saturday.

just when i see the weddings coming to a close (i really don't know that many single people anymore) now come the baby showers. i know at least 3 people that are with child at this very moment.. :)

i have a bunch of pictures to upload from this weekend. good times... so good i needed more gatorade this morning..

UP is coming to visit today. but i wonder if he will make it.. there has been bad weather brewing in NJ all day so far. and it's headed up here...

so mad!!

***UPDATE*** i returned that cup of iced coffee and watched him pour an iced tea, but it still has coffee taste in it. and, it must be coffee because i have not drunk even half of the cup and i am physically jittery. i feel like bevis and butthead. i strongly discourage anyone from getting a dinkin donuts iced tea, they suck.

i stopped by dunkin donuts this morning to get an iced tea that i keep seeing advertised all over the place. how good does a raspberry iced tea with vanilla flavoring sound? i ordered a large, which btw, it WAAAAAY to big. and i have been so busy this morning that i'm just getting to take a sip of it right now 1.5 hours into my workday.. well.... it's iced coffee.. i am so mad that i think i am going to take it back at lunch. i HATE coffee. ugh.

happiness

tonight i am having dinner with the fischers, then SF and i are going to watch Happiness. PF can't handle it apparently. it's been so long since i first saw this movie, but i believe it was very disturbing in that Todd Solondz kind of way.. it's one of those movies that you watch in horror, wincing but with raised eyebrows... but i really believe that everyone should watch it at least once. SF's such a trooper, PF, not so much. :)

***addedum*** PF watched the movie too. i think it's one of his new favorites.

this weekend i am going out to the lovely portville to help E and RH clean the clutter out of their house so that it sells when they put it on the market.. i have a feeling that it's going to be a battle the whole way through like it was when i helped cath and mike clean out their basement.

this weekend is also the "italian fest".. last year it was fun but so hot!! if i recall correctly a certain "studley" was working the beer truck and hooking us up with free beers most of the night.. good times!!

court date

so i had a date last night.. with the judge in dewitt. cath and i went at 6pm, and weren't seen till 830... but the good news is i have the DAs address to send in my plead to have the ticket reduced/thrown out.. so that is the route i am going to go.. yes, the cell phone ticket is not a point garnering violation, but i don't want it on my record...

we'll see what happens...

in exciting news, today is ice cream day at work. the vending machine people wheel in a soft serve ice cream machine and gives us all kinds of toppings. i am about to hit that!

the good the bad and the exciting...

first the bad...
i contacted a lawyer today about my tickets and while he can probably do something about the cell phone ticket, i'll still need to pay the fee, the court fee and his fee. because that offense doesn't result in any points on my driving record, i think cath and i are going to go to court tomorrow and do our best to act sorry and remorseful and hope to get it reduced..

the bad news is about the speeding ticket. the lawyer says that the courts pretty much never reduce a ticket when its in a work zone, so he won't ever attempt to work with me on that one. so i signed up for a defensive driving course, and i'm hoping with cath's expert letter writing skills i will be able to mail in a not guilty plea, and get out of it... fingers crossed.

on to the good...
i confirmed today that i will not be on call this weekend so i can go to portville and help the hunts get ready to sell their house. and i also confirmed that i won't be on call the weekend of the big camping trip. wooooot!!!

the exciting...
i had my drs appt with the gastroenterologist today and the bloodwork i had done last month was indeed mixed. it looks like i had 3-4 tests done, and two of the newer more accurate said negative, the older test said positive for celiac.. so to be absolutely sure they want to do a biopsy. so once again i'll need an endoscopy. but at least i'll get a day off of work out of it..

i should have flown.

this trip will end up having cost me more to drive than it would have been to fly. even last minute probably. a cop got me going 74 in a 55 (work zone) in whitney point. :( i will need a lawyer for sure on this one.

i did have fun when i got there though. the last time i was visiting AL was pregnant, now CJ is a year old. here are the pictures from this weekend.

we went to an interesting bar in bethesda that had a bunch of different rooms, one of which was outside complete with sand and an outdoor bar..

i was very careful about not eating any wheat at dinner time and in turn had no problems sleeping even though i had some beers. i was so proud!

there is talk of a girls weekend in NJ this fall perhaps.. i think that would be sooo fun!

good times, lots of laughs.

dinner night was a success. all the fischers were in attendance 'cept molly.

there was not as much left over food as i thought there would be. thank god..

we played cranium, which used to be a staple game of mine.. i am seeing a resurgence.. we had many laughs.. the best laughs came when MV put a kybosh on swearing. we were supposed to pay her a dollar for the f word and .50 for the s word. i'll pay whatever you want to charge me, i can't curb my speech. :)

wfisher brought some calla lilies. so exotic and beautiful.



oh, PS. AF, wfischer says he doesn't remember saying that you eat like a horse.

getting closer...

so i assembled the cake, it looks really good.



and i have enough frosting leftover to craft an entire cake out of just frosting. i'm freezing it for later xmas cookie use. :) i can freeze frosting right?



the other thing i made tonight was the guacamole. i used a recipe called Salsa Con Otra Cosas. in case you don't know spanish, it means guacamole with other stuff. the recipe called for ridiculous amts of stuff. so i kind of bagged the recipe and went with my own stuff. i tested it, its really chunky and delicious! i can't wait for dinner tomorrow.



i am hoping this dinner is a far cry from my ultra low fat test dinner i did like 5 years ago. :)

vh1 has my number...

i swear that vh1 has been looking into my soul and pulling show ideas out of my subconcious.. i can't stop watching vh1, it's like crack to me. i can't think of a show that's been on lately that i am not completely willing to watch rerun after rerun after marathon and on and on..

for example.. charm school just ended, there is a new show coming up called scott baio, 45 and still single. who didn't love charles in charge growing up? it looks like jason hervey is going to be in the show too. who doesn't know who kevin arnolds annoying older brother was? it also looks like scott is revisiting some of his ex girlfriends... ugh, that's money!! i can't wait for that to start this sunday.

there is another show i saw as well called i hate my 30s. i don't personally hate my thirties (yet), but i am glad that there is a show about someone my age-ish. that will be something i will check out.

and right now in the interim on vh1 is the 2007 world series of pop culture. [i just typed that whole last line without looking at the keyboard. i know how to type... look mom, i can type!]

i must admit, there is one upcoming show that i am prob not going to watch. Rock of Love. i was never really into hair bands...

i feel like laura ingalls lately...

it's 11pm, and i am finally getting a second to sit down and take a breath. i've been working like a farmhand. :) watering all the damn plants Cath has is hard work.

i'm happy to report though that the cake i am making is turning out so well. i went to the xmas tree shop after work today to get a trifle bowl for it, but i don't know what i was thinking... the trifle bowl is too narrow for the cake pans. and even if it wasn't, how would i get in there to either frost, or cut and serve the cake. it's a chocolate peanut butter cake that will have crushed peanut butter cups on top, do you think it needs ice cream too?

i prepped most of the veggies for my salad and guacamole though. when i assemble everything, it's going to be just like on tv. how exciting!!

tomorrow night is trivia. i am wondering if it might be just me and KW. my roommates are out of town, and the other KW is in saratoga. i'll have to ask around for some subs. :)

oh, it seems i've turned into weather.com for the campers. they call every day for updates... an interesting story that i forgot to share...

they called on monday night to say that a mother bear and 5 cubs were in their site and destroyed their cooler while they were at the beach. and then it went to a couple of cabins over and climbed up the cabin, tore the screen off the window, went in and trashed the cabin for about an hour while the campers were out.. mike got some pictures, and RH took some video. when the rangers showed up the bears were leaving.. apparently they skipped over EH and RHs site because the poms were in the cabin barking away! looks like the poms are good bear repellant.. as a side note.. the young kids (under 21) that were staying in that cabin seemed to be having a bad luck streak, because the rangers came by their site later that night and gave them tickets for drinking under age.. double whammy, bears break into your cabin and eat all your food, and you are busted for underage drinking! that's a bad day if i've ever heard of one.

tonight when EH called for the daily weather checkshe said that the rangers had killed the mother bear. apparently this was the 3 or 4th time she had broken into a cabin. i bet the Hunt boys were jealous!

pre-baking and things that bug me

with the household caretakers out of the county, i've had a lot of chores to do that i don't normally do. it's almost exhausting! yesterday after work i had a purse party to attend, cereal to buy, (i'll bet my roommates thought i had forgotten about the box of cereal i had in the lazy susan and they took it on their camping trip, grrrr), cake frosting elements to assemble, trash to gather and put out to the curb, cat litter to change.. all kinds of things!

most importantly i got some of my pre-baking done for the dinner party i am hosting on thursday. i determined the menu this weekend and bought all the ingredients i needed, yesterday i whipped up the cake frosting. i hope it is okay to do it so far in advance. it doesn't have any eggs or anything, so i bet its fine. tonight i will hopefully bake the cake (2 layers) and assemble/frost it tomorrow. too bad i don't have a trifle bowl.. i also need to think about assembling the enchiladas for quick cooking when i get home from work on thursday. i have a feeling i am going to need to wake up really early on thursday to get last minute things ready cause wed night is trivia. :)

i'm kind of hoping to play cranium after dinner. i haven't played that since TG was dating JH and living in watertown back in boston, and it really is a lot of fun..

okay, this has been bugging me for about a month now.. IE is my browser of choice and i really resisted upgrading to the new version of IE that was just released, but for some reason or another i really had to.. the web apps that i use all day long have windows that pop up (not ads) that i need to pop up.. i've been noticing that if i have more than a couple of tabs open in one browser session, and they've been open for a long period of time (in my case they are open a full 9 hours each day) the pop up windows stop popping up.. if i want to get it working again i need to open a new browser session and start from scratch in that window.. it's highly annoying.. i should look for a patch.. i've also noticed that with some windows upgrade, my ftp settings in dreamweaver must have been a security risk, because now no matter if i choose "remember my login info" or not i need to retype my username and password for all the sites i use, also highly annoying and something i have not been able to find a patch for... sometimes i hate microsoft!

music...

very rarely do i talk about music. [even less than i get the urge to call someone, if you can believe it]. i think because i've been painting so much i've become so inspired to seek out new music..

i caught some of the princess diana concert on vh1 last week and by chance i heard lily allen. i kind of love her right now. she has two songs released that i have been listening to ad nauseum. smile, and LDN. she is a british artist, and the way she sings, you can really hear her accent. i love that. there are so many bands that when they sing, you can't tell that they are not american. i've been finding that i paint best when i listen to songs over and over. the portrait i did of zouher was done entirely to a few violent femmes songs. and the painting i did of KB, my old roommate, i did entirely to american pie. god i love that song. i don't know how i've never downloaded that song.

another british artist i've been listening to a couple of songs from is amy winehouse. her songs are kind of catchy, even though i don't necessarily agree with what she is spewing.. from what i read about in the tabloids, and what i gather from listening to her songs, it reminds me of this trainwreck of a person i know. :(

the last song to round out my short playlist is "surrender" from cheap trick. i had never paid attention to that song till the 4th when i played guitar hero, even though its old and dated, its a nice tune.

i have a drive to MD coming up this weekend and i think i will make myself a new mixed cd for the trip. my making cds and my few and far between trips to MD always seem to coincide..

since we are talking about music... for years now my source for mp3s has been allofmp3.com. very rarely do they not have exactly what i am looking for... anyway, they have apparently been shut down. luckily i was able to deduce through some googling that my credit balance was transferred over to alltunes.com. and i was able to grab a few songs from there last night. i'm bringing home my list of songs that catch my ear throughout the day when i listen to mikeFM over the internets so i can get those too before alltunes gets shut down. :( the gov't sucks.

if you haven't been by my art blog, i've been posting my painting progress over there.

i need a nap!

today AF and her lovely children came up to visit and we went to manlius to feed the ducks. those canada geese are really not shy.. i could have touched them if i wanted to get bit. the ground was covered in animal poop and ethan was just sitting down on the rocks right in it! kids really don't care about cleanliness. and i guess when you have kids, you really can't care too much either, or you'll drive yourself crazy. my favorite part of the day was going to snow top afterwards and having some ice cream. oh, the hilarity in watching the kids shovel the ice cream into their faces so indiscriminantly was the best! they needed to be hosed down afterwards. i never noticed this before but sno-top has a little hand washing sanitizer pump thingy on the side of the building and napkins. very handy...



after the exciting ice cream trip we went downtown to the craft fair. it was very neat. lots more people and booths than i imagined.. we then met DF and Brent at the Dinosaur for dinner. so good...

i'm just now finished watering the plants and i've successfully soaked myself. ugh..

here are the comprehensive pictures of the day. i highly recommend looking at the ice cream faces!

i am cry.

so i took the plunge and traded in my MA license for a NY license. :( so sad. i loved my MA license. i was kind of hoping i could make it till february and have it expire and then maybe i could keep it. NY hates to let you keep your old licenses. it cost $45. i'm anticipating the ticket to cost me another $125. so all in all, talking on my phone in the car will have cost me $170. let this be a lesson to all of you!

guitar hero

yesterday was jam packed with fun. i woke up for a movie at the ungodly hour of 930am. we saw transformers... i was highly entertained. i kinda like that shia leboeuf too. then i returned home to change for the 4th of july party. it was a lot of fun. C and LBs house is very spacious and their daughter is too cute. the highlight of the day though was the Fischers latest toy.... Guitar Hero II. i have to be the least musically inclined person on the planet, but this game is INSANE amounts of fun... it's a very similar premise to dance dance revolution, you press buttons on the guitar controller according to the notes you see streaming down the screen while you hit another button that "strums" the guitar. the songs in the game too are all great songs. this is the first game that i've played since nintendo that has made me think, hmmm. maybe i should buy a gaming system. if any of you have the opportunity to play this game, jump at it...

wooo woooo pull ovah!!

ugh. tonight has just not been my night. i spoke to wfischer about the party tomorrow and he seemed to be extremely picky about what type of ingredients are going to go in the mojitos that i have volunteered to buy the fixings for. so i thought, hmm. i better take this rasberry rum i bought at lunch time back to the liquor store and get the "light rum" wfischer keeps going on about... so i'm off to the store.. i remember that i haven't called back my friend OC and she hasn't responded to my email... so i ring her up. well, i'm waiting at a stop sign for the car coming the other way and it turns out to be a cop.. i immediately hang up the phone, but its too late, the cop does a u-turn and pulls me over.

he takes my out of state license, my registration and insurance card and goes back to his truck. [i took a couple pictures while i waited. :)] he came back and told me he wasn't giving me a ticket for my out of state license, but he did give me a ticket for talking on the phone. he also asked me about the rum i had in the back seat, and why i don't use a hands free device. i told him, i have a bluetooth, but everyone complains that they can't hear me when i use it. i showed it to him and he was like, "that's a good one, what is that like a hundred dollars? who says it doesn't sound good?" then he went on for another 5 minutes or so saying that he had a few bluetooths that he didn't like, and he took them back each time and i should do the same. then he was like, do you know where you need to go to pay this? and he pointed over to the dewitt police station. it got a little weird i was starting to feel like, is he going to ask me for my number? he didn't though.

so, that crisis was over. i start to curse wfischer.. then i arrive at the liquor store, i go in, wait in line, present my receipt and my quandry, and the woman looks at me like i am speaking another language. after about a minute of just looking blankly at the receipt she asks the young guy next to her if anyone was in the store that could "do a return". then its his turn to look at me like i have 3 heads. he says, its NYS law that you can't return or exchange liquor. i've had it at that point, i grab the bottle and receipt from the staring lady and leave. i've had enough of new york state law for the day!

so. the lessons i learned this evening... 1. never use your cell phone, only email. 2. when you move to another state.. you have 30 days to get a new license, when you move next door, you have 10 days to get a new license. 3. rasberry rum is going to cost me about $100 more than light rum and wfischer is going to drink it and like it.

so much news..

today i got the call from the drs office with my celiac disease bloodwork results. some of it "came back high" and some of it "came back normal", so because it's not a conclusive result, i am being referred to a gastro enterologist. on the fleury's anniversary i will be consulted there.. woo who.. cath asked me if i was surprised, and frankly, no, i'm not. i have a very physical reaction to consuming things made with flour. so i am not surprised in the least that my blood proves it. now if there are different levels of severity, i would also not be surprised. so i think that the natural next step would be seeing what my insurance would cover as far as a nutritionist goes. particularly one that specializes in gluten/wheat allergies. i'll keep you posted as to my further findings.

i've laid the ground work for starting my next painting!! woo who! i hope to crank out a painting or a few while my roommates are away.

i've got a 4th of july party to attend tomorrow, and i am so excited. i was really thinking i might be spending my 4th watching cable TV again like i did last year.

this weekend i have plans to see AF and her two lovely chitlins. we are going to feed the ducks in manlius and get some ice cream on saturday.. should be a great time if the weather is good. i always remember that feeding the ducks was a lot of fun as a kid.

they're up..

the paintings are up at my art blog if you care to view them.

bree's last night out.

this weekend was BDs shower and bachelorette party. in true RB fashion, i overdid it the night before and it was very much up in the air if i could make it to the shower. :( some things never change i guess..... but i made it. the food was gourmet prepared for weeks by ASs mom. she had a bunch of colorful chinese takeout boxes to package up leftovers and cookies. what a stellar idea! the next "party" i have or go to that will have leftovers, i am bringing some.

our original plan was to have the shower, then immediately head to armory and start the festivities. since most of us had a rough (or long) night, we decided to break for naps. when we reconvened we were all ready to go.

some of the highlights of the night were:
1. making each other name tags. i lucked out with "the pornographer" for my constant camera action and directing skills. some of the more memorable ones and not necessarily used ones were, "roast beef lips", "back door, please", "the rug matches the drapes", and "titty titty bang bang". oh, we laughed and laughed.
2. AS told us all about her oral skills and the video she watched by jenna jameson.
3. AS bought a bunch of beads that we decided to give to guys. the "balls for beads" campaign was born. i didn't really partake in that one, but i think BD and LD saw some.
4. there was a bunch of other bachelorette parties out last night. one of which the bride was dancing on the bar at daisy dukes. how proud her husband to be must have been.
5. predictably BDs evening was cut short by the spins. :) and the familiar toilet sleeping happened. i remember that from freshman year of college. :)

here are the comprehensive photos.

i finished the 2 paintings i had started this weekend. i will post the pics on my art blog tomorrow. i also bought a mattress pad that was the correct size for my bed, and a new bed skirt.