i feel like the only person working today.

i need to book my Mexico trip who is going to be my roommate? if you want to fly out of philly with me i will share my travel companion pass with you.. as of today the week at the resort cost $480 for arrive Monday - leave Saturday. that price doesn't include airfare.

i stayed up wayyyy too late last night. but... i put together my new shelf with only one piece in backwards... and reformatted my computer and updated it, and installed an anti-virus program.

i have not heard yet from the furniture guy about when he is delivering my stuff... he said today or tomorrow on Sunday...

we are getting more snow.. and it's so lovely to skid and trudge down my not plowed streets in the morning.. hopefully by the time i go home they will be plowed. how dare the city not plow my streets. what do taxes go towards?

i'm going to have my first MA guests this weekend. L&TM are going to be passing through Syracuse on Saturday so they intend to stop in and stay the night Saturday night. this will be the first time that LM has visited me in Syracuse in about 9 or so years. well overdue.

hope everyone has a great new year celebration tonight.

xmas is over, let the fun begin!

after a somewhat rocky xmas, i'm ready to really start really living in my new place! this past weekend i managed to purchase a bedroom set, and secure a spare mattress for my upstairs bedroom. i also found some book cases after looking at a few big furniture chains and other stores. i found the ones i liked the most at target.. shockingly..

i set up my printer and its way more printer than i need. i'll have to think of some reasons to print stuff though, i don't want the cartridges to dry up. the best part about it is that its a network printer, and will even work wirelessly. shiiiiiit.

i've finally uploaded the random pics i've been collecting on my camera.. they can be seen here...

here is a little taste of what is behind the click.



we also shot our annual xmas photo this year...there are some great ones...

some thoughts before i drive out to rochester for the holiday

1. i fired the old plow guy and got a new one. thanks SLI for referring him to me. he costs more, but if his work is any bit a good as he did it last night, then he's worth it. now i just hope that the first plow guy sends me my refund.

2. i was able to buy and wrap everything i needed to last night. phew!!! i'm totally prepared for gift exchanging.

3. i'm sure EBH will have more to say about this, but i just heard that murphy broke into and ate half a cannister of infant formula... i'm praying that the consequences are realized at SBHs house, not mine. :)

4. anyone that is reading this and wants to join us out in syracuse Saturday night is welcome.. the grandparents are going to babysit!

5. my annual "year in review" photo album is coming, but i am afraid it won't be up until January.. i have been more busy than usual this year.. (plus i need to rebuild my computer and get some internet..)

6. merry christmas everybody.. and happy hanukkah to my jewish readers.

interesting visitor...

click for a bigger version
very interesting visitor to my blog this afternoon.... and what is more interesting is the post they clicked on/searched for.

i officially live in the 'cuse!

a number of you have already asked me for my new address.. but if you still need/want it, email me rebecca at brownshu dot com.

since i moved this past saturday mere hours after a huge snow storm rolled through CNY, i was scrambling on friday to secure someone to plow my driveway... i was referred to a guy who does residential plowing.. he said he could plow me out the whole season (including sidewalks and walkways) for $225. another "plus" about this guy is that whenever there is 2" of snow on the ground he will come, not 3" like other plow companies. after a lot of pondering i decided to go ahead with this.. i fantasized about waking up in the morning to a plowed driveway, and coming home from work to a plowed driveway..

saturday morning when we showed up at the house to pick up the trailer, the driveway was plowed, but he had kind of piled it in front of the garage.. wtf... we had to dig out the edges so we could get the trailer out.. no big deal, i'll juts have to tell him not to plow the garage in and put the snow in the yard...

he calls saturday night, i don't have time to listen to his VM till sat night.. sunday i wake up late (1030) and get ready to run errands at about 330.. i put in a call to the snow plower, he answers and wants to know if i will be using my garage.. i will. because of the narrowness of my driveway he decides he'll have to drive in, drop the plow, pull the snow backwards, and then back out of my driveway only to reverse back up it and push the snow out (and into the snowbank across the street?). sounds good to me.. he's on his way to my house then.. so i anticipate a fresh clean driveway on my way back from the grocery store, which is good, cause it was a little hairy getting out... when i get home i see another set of tracks, but still an s-load of snow. after the 3rd try i get up my driveway and see that the snow has been pulled away from my garage about a cars length and that is it.. wtf!

i get inside and about an hour later get a call from the snowplower.. his power steering died in the middle of my driveway.. he is profusely apologetic. he'll be over later with a snowblower. an hour or so later he shows up in a station wagon with a shovel. he shovels out the end of my driveway and then rings my doorbell.. more apologies. he's giving me a $25 credit. and someone will be by with a snow blower...

when i went to bed at 1030 there was no snowblower to be seen.. i didn't realize it was going to snow this morning until i heard a list of school closings and delays at 630 this morning. :( of course i wouldn't be plowed out cause mr snowplow told me that his part was ordered and the mechanic was going to fix it monday.. :(

i had high hopes for the driveway when i went home between jobs but they were dashed when it took 4 tries to get up the driveway this time. i am saying a prayer to allah that someone came by between 530 and 10 to plow. but i feel like i might be parking on the street tonight. :(

that comfort of that garage is so close, yet so far away!!

in other news... big thanks to my former roommates and KW for helping me move on a blistery cold saturday, i couldn't haev done it without them...

i have received so many xmas cards! only cards actually. i haven't told the post office about my new address yet! it's been so nice to see pics of everyone's kids when i open my mail.. shame on you parents though that don't get in the pics with your kids... wtf... you better next year.

babies don't remember their first christmas right?

it just occurred to me the other day that i have no presents for anyone (besides my 1 secret santa person). i guess that is the point of picking names right? nothing for the babies even.. but i argue that the babies will never remember what they got, nor will their little fingers be able to open the wrapping paper anyway..

maybe i can get everyone bags of chips from my work cafeteria, seeing as that is the only place i have time to visit. :) actually i have something in mind for every ones stocking.. i just have to carve out time between 9-9pm to go to the store. you'd think that wouldn't be impossible right.. well it is.

this weekend i am moving the rest of my stuff into my new house. cath and i (mostly i) packed up the majority of my stuff last night. cath was genuinely disappointed that i didn't have "more stuff" hanging out around the house. i think she thought the place was going to be cleared out when i left.. she got the rude awakening that it's her crap that is all over the place not mine. :)

if cath has a snow day tomorrow likes she thinks she does i am going to be bullsh!t! she has had two "delays" already this week. i need the snowday, not her... ugh...

the Hotel Syracuse sale was not that impressive. the hotel shut down in 2004, and the furniture was crazy outdated back then.. it's just dustier now.. there were a bunch of pieces from stickley though. very used.. nothing that i really would want.. if i were forced to buy something it would have been nightside stickley tables.. or a circular table with a post in the middle and 3 feet to it.. but you had to pay cash, and i wasn't going to shell out 50-100 per item..

hopefully once i get all my stuff into the house i can assess what i need as far as bookshelves, etc.. i'm hoping to be able to do all that kind of fun shopping on sunday.

i've recruited KW, but anyone else that wants to help me and my roommates on saturday mid morning is more than welcome to help.. i'll get you some lunch. :)

oops i did it again.

on the way to rochester on saturday this woman cop pulled me over for going 81. but she "cut me a break" and only gave me a ticket for going 80. :( what a sweetheart. mike and i had a good laugh in the car while she was writing the ticket, thinking about asking her to take a pic with mike.

here are the pics i took of SHs new house.

i got quite a bit moved in today.. my kitchen is completely in.. and most of my clothes are in.. i have a lot off boxes but nowhere to put the stuff.. i have a couple of shelves in the basement that i just didn't have room for today, and a ton of books.. big ticket items i still have to move are my bed, the treadmill, 2 shelves, and the marble top wood table. those things i think i am going to need help moving next weekend.

who wants to help move some stuff sunday?

it's sat evening and i have had the night to myself since about 6. granted, i had a 2 hour drive, but it was alone time! woot..

i spent most of my day assisting SBH move yet again. i should have my own room in her house by now.. it was good to see though that she's changed her moving style from "bag it up, throw it out" to "kinda box it, and keep it". her new house is cute.. i took a lot of pictures. unfortunately i took them after we were all moved in, so it looks kinda new orleans, post katrina right now. but i am sure that the busy bees got most of it squared away after i left.

tonight i am trying to burn all the important files off my lappy so that i can reformat it. it's still sucking big time. and burning these files is painfully slow.

last night mike and KW helped me move the stuff i brought back from PA (everyone's favorite futon) to the new place hoping to avoid any (further) damage from the elements.. so for the meantime, i will have some sort of sitting device, while i shop for furnishings. there is a syracuse hotel sale going on next week.. they are selling all their furnishings.. i think i might check it out.. i always admire hotel furniture, mainly the lamps... but maybe i can get some decent things...

after moving last night KW and i went to tokyo seoul.. guess what they have? rice cakes!! omg. they were delicious. i hadn't had kimchi in a long time, and it was also very tasty.

so tomorrow i am going to be moving what i can.. i would welcome anyone that wants to help, seeing as my roommates laughed at me when i asked them this afternoon to help me tomorrow.

cookie party...

last weekend was a gluttonous weekend of cookie making. these are some of the things i learned.

these babies don't know the difference between cookies and ornaments

1. carolyn and al drink 4 gallons of skim milk a WEEK. 4 gallons!!! good god. i don't think i use that much water in my showers in a week.


2. carolyn has some baking supplies from the turn of the century... does parchment paper from the 40's expire?


3. 10 dollars is 10 dollars. this is the most important lesson..

here are the rest of the pics.

thoughts on the eve of my closing.

i am so surprised that there have been pretty much no hiccups in this sale/purchase. i've heard a lot of horror stories, but this has been pretty painless so far.

i wonder why people keep wishing me "good luck". is something going to happen at the closing table that i don't know about? do i have to give a speech? am i going to be expected to know a bunch of stuff that i've failed to study for? i don't understand the well wishes...i'm under the impression that if i show up at the designated time with a certified check that all i need to do is sign a million papers and then they hand me the keys.

it still hasn't fully sunk in that i have achieved my 2008 goal of buying a house by the end of the year. i think when i finally move in it will seem more real

we did the final walk through today and i was relieved to see that they left the bar.. i've been kind of worried that they might have taken it afterall...phew!!

i got a call from the lawyers today with the amount i need to make my certified check for and it's about 1K more than i was anticipating... and my contact at the mortgage company has left, so i'm dealing with 3 people that i get the impression really don't care about my case... hopefully things get worked out in time...

my new drive to work will pass by a "jreck subs". life is good. another interesting thing to note is, i pass by this graveyard that has a house that is essentially in the graveyard, not 2 feet away from the house on 3 sides are headstones.. it's crazy.. i will totally take pictures at some point.

i have crazy amounts of things to buy for this new house. i don't even know where to start.... probably with some furniture..then a tv... then a spare bed... a matching set of silverware would be good. ahhh. the excitement!!!

Amanda Wins $100!!!

congratulations to ACH!!!

i was so glad nick and starr won last night.. i wanted them to win, they worked so well together!

so.. i have my money, SH's and ACH's money. cath is going to give me hers, mikes, E&RHs and JHs.. so that just leaves HEKD & DDs money.. HEKD, want to send me $20? you cna prob send it to my new address if you want.. i should be closing no later than the 11th.

rebecca aja and ty (ninjas)
cathy andrew and dan (frat boys)
mike mark and bill (comic book geeks)
amanda nick and starr (brother & sister)
ryan terence and sarah (newly dating)
emily anthony and stephanie
hope ken and tina (football player & cheated on wife)
dan marisa and brooke (southern idiots)
sarah kelly and christy (divorcees)
jr toni and dallas (mom & son)

pictures!

i am at emilys making cookies.. it's gross how many we made..

the important part of this post though is that i got my pics up from last weekend.

here they are.

here are 88 pictures of thanksgiving. mostly pictures of audrey. as you can see, things got a little violent.	these are the NYC pictures

so sick of travelling...

i'm traveling again this weekend..

actually.. this is just in the "middle" of my traveling..

• it started the weekend of the 22nd when i drove to PA so i could work that week of T-giving.


• then i was in PA/NYC for the weekend after thanksgiving


• then this weekend it's back to PA to make 5 dozen cookies that i don't need to eat.


• next weekend SH needs help moving in rochester. well she better be available the following weekend when i need help moving.


• christmas weekend... back to rochester..

the only weekend i "semi" have off is the 20th, where i will be moving into my new house. ugh.

i'm so not traveling for at least a month straight after christmas.

oh thank god!

in case anyone cares, my computer started this evening after i reseated the memory. i thought maybe i had too much stuff on my harddrive, so i've been slowly deleting stuff off all night, and it appears to be working... at least now i can get in there and back up my photos and music. shiiiiit.

also.. my house purchasing is going along swimmingly.. i am on target to close on the 10th or 11th.. how freaking awesome will it be to have my own house?!?

i've been seriously considering doing a 30 day raw trial once i get into my new place... i think it would be really good for me. i have two books on order from amazon to help me. :)

omg, my 1,000 post!!!

i really wanted to title this post 8 effing hours, because that is how long it took me to get home from NYC yesterday. ridiculous.

before all the exciting details, i am sad to report that my computer was acting strange before i left last saturday, and after the week off, it's still broke. so upsetting.

i put the vhs copy of RDJs "last party" on the amazon store, and it sold this weekend!! someone paid $25 for it! yay!

when i was in PA i had my snow tires put on, and with all the driving (or sitting on the highway) i did yesterday i noticed that my speedometer is off by like 3 miles... and it feels like these tires are much slower, almost like i am driving with my e-brake on...

so after the holiday i went to NYC and met up with the boston ladies...

friday B&MK met us and showed us the ropes in Chinatown, and how to get the "good bags". it was fun, i had never been to a back room before, i am glad we were all together, it could have been scary.

we wandered around for an hour at least, looking for joes shanghai on Pell St. when we finally found it there were like 80 people waiting outside, so we ended up going back to the italian restaurant that promised us free glasses of sangria. i'm kind of glad we did because i had carpaccio. it was raw beef with asiago cheese and capers, and greens.. it was so delicious i am on the quest to have it again.

i am happy to report that i did not choke myself to sleep, nor throw up in the middle of the night friday night.. or saturday for that matter.. i did so well.


saturday we started off the day with a SATC tour. AR kicked pigeons all over our cupcake stop. the reason for the trip, equus, was sooo good.. it was a play that was set in a mental hospital, very minimal stage... it was totaly dark, and also inspiring.. the narrator character was the psychiatrist and he comes to an epiphany where he is jealous of daniel radcliffes character's passion... who doesn't love passion? i sure do!! that is my immediate goal, to figure out what my passions are and get them back! there were 6 "horses" in the play, and they wore the coolest shoes... i can't seem to find them online anywhere.. sorry.

sunday's traffic was horrid... i was driving through the lincoln tunnel at about 1:30, and i didn't get to fayetteville until 9:40.
but one cool and scary thing was when i decided to get off at an exit and let the GPS tell me how to get home avoiding 81N, i was driving through the dark of rt 11, and this scary trestle popped up in my peripheral vision...



i will totally drive by this in the daylight.. i love bridges.

more of my love affair with PA

i really like PA.. i've spoken many times of my absolute infatuation with their stone buildings and houses... the stone facades make them look like castles to me... i hope to get some pictures of my favorite places..

it didn't really hit me till this morning how similar to boston this area is in regards to their sports fanaticism.. this morning on the way to and from work all the djs were talking about was donovan mcnabb... i miss that living in syracuse..

another thing i enjoyed somewhat masochistically was the 40 minutes it took me to drive 13 miles... that kind of driving is great "catch up" phone time.. too bad i had noone to call. the traffic was so slow that i feel like i took 10K miles off my clutch. someone even honked at me this afternoon when i went out for a lunchtime drive. :)

tomorrow

tomorrow i work at the PA office of my company.. i am excited, i love change!

we were so productive today, after RHs game we walked the dogs, saw a hawk of some sort swoop through a tree grabbing a squirrel out of a nest high in a tree and fly it to a nearby house and pin it between its claws and the roof. later we walked back by it and saw it eating the squirrel. it was crazy!!

after walking the dogs we went to the groc store.. i like their store, the GIANT. i am sure i will be back later this week sometime. :) then E made lasagna, garlic bread and we had salad. i've had most of a bottle of wine while i read the new people. there is a scratch and sniff MP page.. i highly recommend it. :)

tues night my roomates come into town... wed the H's come in, and thursday is the big day!

i spoke to my friend AP today about this weekend... she is coming to the show with us on saturday. she is going to be sad cause her and her BF are breaking up and he is leaving for CA on saturday. :( but if i know AP, she will not let that get her down.

observations from PA

gas is crazy cheap here, makes me mad at myself for filling up in binghamton. i saw some for 1.82 yesterday.

i called around to have my snow tires (which i brought) switched with my real tires, and monro muffler will do it for $18 a tire. shiiiiiit. so i went to BJs and the guy told me he could do it on the side for $50 cash. sold! he had diamond earrings so big you would have thought he was a pro-football player.

we took patti with us to the dry run to my work, and BJs.. the tires too a long time so we had to speed across town to RHs football game and p-head puked in the backseat. wtf, patti.

we made it in time to see RH score a touchdown though.

EH is making lasagna tonight, and we are going to make moroccan tagine tomorrow..

tonight is the AMAs with jimmy kimmel. should be good. i hope i can stay awake that long. last night i fell asleep at 830pm. :)

audrey is so cute, she is so vocal.. she makes this sort of high pitched sighing noise pretty much non-stop... and she loves when you snort at her like a piggy..

it's a good day -- well , it was a good day.

only 1 more day till the shit machines are gone! oh how i will not miss the smelly couch blankets, the snoring, the pissing and pooping in the entry way.. ahh. heaven, even if i'll only be able to enjoy it for a short while...

i just read this and am soooo sad, wtf. i love eli stone.

i realized i need to bring with me 3 laptops this week... that's a little ridiculous... 2 for work, and 1 for my itunes. my trunk is basically full of computers. i'm screwed if i get in an accident. Well, I spoke too soon. In the middle of this blog my personal computer *died*. This is a horrible thing to happen.

not to mention 8 days worth of clothes. shiiiiit

i bought snow tires today.. it was a deal i can't refuse... $50 a tire. and they are no flat.. which mike told me means i can run over a nail, drive 80 miles and hour and the tire won't go flat. plus they are coming off a mini cooper.. another reason i couldn't resist.

I'm finishing this blog on my iPod, crossing by fingers that if I let my laptop have the night off it will magically work tomorrow.

pineapples hurt.

i bought a real pineapple the other day and cut a slice off today so the fruit flys wouldn't eat all of it. it was so delicious and sweet, much sweeter than any canned pineapple.. but it cut my lips up something fierce. i am bleeding all around, my tongue feels like i drank soup that was too hot, or a licked a hot iron. its kind of awful. i think next time i eat the pineapple i will cut the fruit off the outside.

so thanks to ACH i went to a different insurance company and now my car insurance will be more like $90/month. thats like $50/month savings.. that's groceries! :)

i have a lot of things to do before i go to PA on saturday for the week and then NYC next weekend.

cath is giving away the bedroom furniture that i am using. so i need to pack up my bedroom then physically move the shit so she can deliver it to SH... all before i go away for a week. lovely.

i'm kind of excited to work out of a new office next week. it'll be fun.

i bought myself a printer from the woot off today.. i'm also very excited about it.

am i overpaying for car insurance?

i pay $145 a month.. i have a new car that i am financing, and i got a speeding in a workzone ticket in July '07..

i just heard that two people i know pay less than $80 a month for car insurance and in one case that is for 2 people and 2 cars..

what do you people pay? i think i am getting ripped off..

amazing race: episodes 7 & 8

here is the recap for the last 2 episodes.. i've been lazy.

2 more hunts down!

wow.. so cathy, amanda, hope or the lone hunt are still in it to win it.

rebecca aja and ty (ninjas)
cathy andrew and dan (frat boys)
mike mark and bill (comic book geeks)
amanda nick and starr (brother & sister)
ryan terence and sarah (newly dating)
emily anthony and stephanie
hope ken and tina (football player & cheated on wife)
dan marisa and brooke (southern idiots)
sarah kelly and christy (divorcees)
jr toni and dallas (mom & son)

weeds

i've been inspired to watch weeds lately.. great show... cath even got sucked in. i'm midway through the 2nd season.. the theme song for this season is sung by a different artist each time.

speaking about weeds, cath had "only 3 " glasses of wine before we went to blockbuster to get the next two discs. cath was more than loopy in the store and didn't realize that the boy behind the counter prob thought she was high. we had a good laugh about it in the pkg lot.

we went to the home inspection this morning.. there were a few things that we want the sellers to fix. hopefully i'l hear tomorrow what they decide..

we had fun looking at the house and imagining where to put my yet to be bought furniture.

since the great purge of belongings before i left MA leaves me with little to nothing... this is what i think i have...

my bed
my fold up computer table
my wheely desk chair
kitchen stuff
a TV, VCR and DVD player
a small bookshelf that will double as a night stand
an oval end table of sorts
a black wood chair
4 wooden tv stands
cath is giving me the crappy dresser that is leftover after she gives sarah the nice set
a sewing machine
1 desk lamp
1 tall lamp
a treadmill
an air mattress
another small book shelf
a coat tree

i'm going to need to hit up craigslist for some modern furniture... and IKEA and the raymor and flanigan scratch and dent.

i'm excited to finally get to use all my pampered chef purchases from almost 2 years ago that i have never opened.

i'm also excited to have a clean organized fridge...woo who!

another item i need to buy tout suite is a snow blower.... my driveway is not too wide, so i am going to need to make sure i keep it snowblowed.


here is the pic of my desk that i promised. i had to cobble together 3 pictures... obviously.

some non house related items...

to say i've been preoccupied lately would be an understatement.. things are crazy busy with work(s), and i've been looking for a new address... but that is not to say i haven't made time to have fun..

i saw Role Models this weekend with KW... it was very very funny. i think i have mentioned before how much i like swearing in movies, well this movie didn't disapoint. there were many times where we were laughing out loud at the screen. seann william scott is a great actor, so is paul rudd. i'm so glad to see him making a comeback. (did he really leave though?)

this morning on my commute to work i ws driving along as i always do, and there was a part of the road that merged from 2 lanes to 1 lane.. people generally weave in one from each lane nicely, there are never any road rage episodes that i've noticed... 'cept for today.. this a-hole in a red chevy sedan who is half a car length behind me to my left decides they want to be ahead of me going into the merge.. i just kept driving towards the single lane maintaining my place in line behind the car ahead of a-hole. so when i was totally in place in front of a-hole she starts honking.. and honking.. and riding on my ass. every time she got so close that i couldn't see her headlights she would honk again. i had about 3 miles till my work and figured she would turn of at some point.. no such luck. she kept tailgaiting me all the way to the office par i work in. i went straight so i could get an iced tea at DD, but she turned into my road honking as i drove off.. there are other businesses on my road, so i am not sure if she works at my company or not.. but i hope to piss her off again some morning.. for the next month, it's now my new goal.

omg.. i just saw that this is 9 posts away from my 1,000th post! woo who!

also.. today is my aunt jules birthday, and i know she's a regular blog reader, happy b-day AJ!

so excited.

woo who! so i submitted an offer on the clover ridge house last night, and this morning they accepted!! i'm so excited. next up is the home inspection, radon inspection and they start the mortgage process.. the sellers want to close more than 2 weeks before we proposed.. so we are going to try to do this in 30 days.. i think that's a little tight, but we'll see. :)

i worked up a little map to illustrate where my new place is in relation to a few places...



(click on the map for a working version)

the volcano icon is my new house!
the red triangles indicate where my two jobs are.. the top one is OBG, the bottom one is the station..
the green man and woman in teh bottom right is where my parents live.
the green man on a horse is Bilo, of course.
the red bed is the block that 2 of my new coworkers live on.

so to say i am so excited would be an understatement.. i'm thinking that i need to have a big birthday party this year and break in the new bar. :)

houseshopping with the roommates.

i looked at about 4 houses on saturday with cath and 2 houses on sunday with mike. i expected it to be easier to house shop with cath, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth. she was a "negative nancy" or a "debbie downer" most of the day.. when she didn't like something she didn't keep it to herself.

on saturday we looked at two new places and 2 places that i had looked at before. nothing really caught my eye..

sunday KM and i had planned to go to two more places. negative nancy wanted me to cancel the day, saying it was a waste of time, but mike and i were glad we didn't listen. i think i found a house i am going to put in an offer on. :) actually both the places today were great.



clover ridge
this is listed as a 2 bedroom, and i guess technically it is, but it's got a LOT of room. my bedroom could be on the 1st floor, there is a 3-4 season brick room with a gas fireplace/stove, a room i could use as a studio, the kitchen has decent space and is open to the living room. there is a converted attic that is a good sized bedroom, the downstairs is very dry ad mostly finished. there is a laundry room with a cedar closet and brand new washer/dryer, and a rec room that could sleep many easily witha full wet bar at one end. it has 5-6 stools.. and another fridge.. there is also a 2nd stove/oven in the basement. you can shut all the doors to the rooms you are not using, and save on heating.. there is also 4 zones of heating, so you can turn the thermostats down in areas you are not using. the garage is one car, but it's really large. and the best part of the whole place is that it's been meticulously maintained by the previous owners. there is a new roof, new windows, and all the appliances stay. i'm really excited about this one...

listing | my pics



mosley
this place is on a hill, it has a VERY small garage, but a big enough to turn around in driveway. it's an old style house, it has old windows though. there is a sun room, an open living/dining room, hardwood floors, three bedrooms, the 3rd being a loft/style. it's really cool... the fridge is okay, the bottom shelf has broken off the inside of the fridge.

listing | my pics

so all in all househunting with mike was much more productive. ;)

we also drove by the house caths grandmother lived in on plymouth drive.

more of the same

tomorrow cath and i are going to look at a few places and then a few more on sunday, but only after i sleep in.

cath and i are trying to catch up on the DVR...

working so much has made me rather boring i think..

but i did have something exciting happen to me today.. i got my award in the mail! woo who. i need to expense that. i'll take a picture soon.

i've been reading a lot lately about eating raw.. and i stumbled upon this website today... it makes me so inspired to make some of these delicious sounding recipes.

here is a link that caught my attention this morning.

amazing race - episode 6

i missed most of this last episode due to a craptastic date, but lucky me caught the very end.

HEKD things weren't looking good for you... but luckily you squeaked out a win.

rebecca aja and ty (ninjas)
cathy andrew and dan (frat boys)
mike mark and bill (comic book geeks)
amanda nick and starr (brother & sister)
ryan terence and sarah (newly dating)
emily anthony and stephanie
hope ken and tina (football player & cheated on wife)
dan marisa and brooke (southern idiots)
sarah kelly and christy (divorcees)
jr toni and dallas (mom & son)

house looking...

so saturday was rather exhausting looking at 9 places, but i got a good idea of what my money is going to get me.. we looked in two areas primarily... east syracuse and eastwood (a division of syracuse) i saw an adorable place in east syracuse that was built in the 1930s and looks like it wasn't touched since then. it had beautiful woodwork, but the kitchen was nearly unusable, and the bathroom was just as bad..

i found i am really drawn to natural woodwork. it killed me in some places where the owners had painted the woodwork.. all of it. badly..

one place we looked at on sunday had 2 dead mice in the kitchen... we skipped looking in the nooks and crannies of that place for fear of what else we would find.

one place i had to go to the bathroom really badly, and only after i went did i realize that they had turned off the water. :( oops... sorry.

i've kind of fallen in love with this one... listing | my pics
it's very open.. had a lot of parking.. a beautiful deck, new windows, newer appliances. a decent basement. a huge attic, looks like its been insulated.. cute bathroom.. central air...

there are a couple of others that i liked as well..
this one | listing, and
this one | listing...

weekend wrap up.

this weekend was quite exhausting.. i spent a great deal of it looking at houses. i looked at 12 in total, 9 or so on saturday, and 3 more today. there is one that i really like, but of course its the one at the top of my price range. i saw some beautiful old woodwork, as well as some frighteningly horrible painting and do-it-yourself jobs... i also am horrified to see that people paint over woodwork. it pains me to see that.

when i wasn't looking at houses i was eating with JBP and SF. we met at SFs this morning for a delicious egg casserole and bagels. little KF is crawling now. she's so cute. i also saw a movie and had dinner with DFG. never again. i am livid.. the plan was to meet at the theater and then get dinner.. i was less late, so i got us tickets. i got a "thanks" as we headed into the theater. no big deal. i figured that i would pay that much less for dinner... well... it was suggested that we just go to the crappy ruby tuesdays in the mall. i vetoed that, saying that i hate RTs. so i offered up one of my winning gift certs at either gentiles, or coppa de copani. we tried the former, but were told they were closing an hour early and had already closed the kitchen. so we went to CdC. they were still serving.. i ordered the eggplant and a glass of wine for a total of about 17. i had a $25 gift cert too.. he ordered a $15 meal. the bill was $35. he says, "how much is tip?" like he's just going to throw in the tip. i said, "well, the difference is about $24." not even mentioning that he owes me $7.50 for the movie ticket.... he puts a $10 in the check book, i looked at him. he was putting away his wallet. i was dumbfounded. then he says, "thanks for taking me out". wtf!! i don't even like this guy. i was going out because i was feeling pity on him. i can't even believe he didn't pick up the rest of the check. when we got out to the parking lot i quickly said goodbye and he said, "if you find yourself with lots of spare time let me know". yeah, sure guy.. when i have a free moment from my 55 hour work week i will surely waste it on your cheap loser ass. fat chance a-hole.

ugh. i wanted to write some pros and cons about the houses and the experience in general that i've had so far, but i am too angry write now to write that up... maybe tomorrow.

random thoughts

i was listening to a podcast today where they talked about living in CA and how they could grow pomegranate trees, avocado trees, lemon, apricot, orange, peach and lime trees... i bet an olive tree would even grow in CA... how amazing would that be... i wonder what i could grow at my potential new house...

i had some time between jobs today so i drove by some houses i'd scoped out online.. hmm... they look great on paper, but maybe it's no coincidence why there are about 7 houses for sale in a couple of blocks. while i appreciate a neighborhood where you could leave your doors unlocked, i think a neighborhood that collectively leaves its doors open is not a good sign. neither is the hoodie, baggie jean wearing high school aged kids milling around its streets.

i'm going to look at 8 or 9 places this weekend.. hopefully i will see something that speaks to me. :)

i've been thinking about my next computer. i bought my current laptop when i was still living with JT and JBP and working with LK at FinancialCampus.. that was a good 6 or so years ago... i don't want to jinx it, but it would be unrealistic to think that it will last forever...

my software was not obtained in the legalist of ways, so i am facing needing to buy all new graphics software for it... and if i am going to have to go that route i think i might switch from PC over to a macbook.. but they cost almost twice what a PC costs... however the "timecapsule" is only a few hundred dollars.. and that thing is pretty sweet. i'm still on the fence.. anyone want to convince me one way or the other?

this weekend JPB is coming to visit... we have some fun times planned! i'm excited.

Amazing Race episode 4 5

Hopefully everyone has seen this episode by now...

this is the last time i play this stupid game! i just pray that cath is the next to go.

meanwhile, cath, mike, em & ryan, and hope & dan still owe me $10 each, and cath owes me sarahs $10.

rebecca aja and ty (ninjas)
cathy andrew and dan (frat boys)
mike mark and bill (comic book geeks)
amanda nick and starr (brother & sister)
ryan terence and sarah (newly dating)
emily anthony and stephanie
hope ken and tina (football player & cheated on wife)
dan marisa and brooke (southern idiots)
sarah kelly and christy (divorcees)
jr toni and dallas (mom & son)

halloween 2008

A&EH giddy with excitement.

LK came to visit this weekend and to celebrate we had some drinks at Meghan Macmurphys friday night. A&EH met us there since they live right down the street. great times were had as evidenced by the picture below. i was glad to have been the DD.. :)


So Seductive, Sassy ladies.

saturday night we had a halloween party to go to. i wasn't expecting the whole F clan to be there, but they are a lot of fun. so were KJs parents.. the decorations were so cute and the games were fun. i liked that everyone was in a costume...


Our halloween costumes.

here are the rest of the weekends pics. they are definitely worth a look.

wow... a lot goes into buying a house.

i am getting my ducks in a row to start this home buying process.. i'm starting to get my regular paychecks.. so i know what my income is now.. the scary part of all of this is how much money i don't have in my 401k to borrow against. :( i at least now where my 401k accounts are. ;) i had to look them up and after looking at old statements and seeing my "new" balances i'm pretty sad. good thing i won't be retiring for a long time..

my next step will be to call one of these banks that works with the sonyma mortgage and get pre-approved.

then i think i will be clear to go house shopping.. i am most excited about that prospect! then furniture shopping. lol..

i made quesadillas tonight and cut them all up and bagged them so i can bring them to work and work for meals. they are the most oniony and garlicy things ever! my coworkers will love me!

since i've been downloading TACS podcasts and listening to my ipod solely for entertainment at work i've been very annoyed by not having control of the order the podcasts play. they always appeared in my list in reverse chronological order.. that is completely annoying because when one segment is done it either stops, or plays one i just listened to (it's important to me to listen to them in the order they were created). so i did a little research and discovered that if i make a playlist itunes will sync according to the order i set in the playlist... great! but i also saw that if i set up a "smart" playlist i can set rules to it, so that all i have to do is download the podcasts and this playlist will automatically populate with the new podcasts and in chronological order. oh glorious day! it was heavenly to have the show just flow naturally into my ears without my intervention every 11-18 minutes.

speaking of downloading i downloaded facebook for my ipod the other day to be like all the other cool kids and liked it so much i looked at the free apps for twitter and found something called twinkle. it combines twitter with a "location-aware" application. so i can see who is signed up with them and twittering within specified distances from me. it's kind of neat. i wish more people used it, or there was one out there that was more widely used.. if you know of one, let me know...

this past weekend i went out to rochester to see teags and her parents. and my parents invited themselves along.. so it was a mini family reunion.. teags has two bottom teeth now, but is pretty guarded about letting you see them. i got to feed her, she bores really easily.. she was so cute though, she didn't even cry at cath this time.



here are the rest of the pics from this weekend

amazing race episode 3

alright.... ACH & S&JH have paid.

rebecca aja and ty (ninjas)
cathy andrew and dan (frat boys)
mike mark and bill (comic book geeks)
amanda nick and starr (brother & sister)
ryan terence and sarah (newly dating)
emily anthony and stephanie
hope ken and tina (football player & cheated on wife)
dan marisa and brooke (southern idiots)
sarah kelly and christy (divorcees)
jr toni and dallas (mom & son)

this post is very late.. MB is out.. hahahaha

this weekend seemed to last forever...

i guess when you have an entire weekend and then two more days off that tends to happen..

saturday was ACHs party which i already wrote about and made a couple of new facebook friends from. ;) sunday morning cath and i promptly left for PA which resulted in a very fruitful visit to IKEA. that store is like crack to me.. i can't not buy something when i go there.. i really should just avoid the place completely but the blue and yellow sucks me in like a vacuum. anyway i obtained a soo cute asian inspired lamp for my desk at work, two plants also for my work desk and a lint remover. then cath and i ate dinner at the macaroni grill. later on we saw E,R & A..

monday morning cath and i woke up and both were puked on by auds.. we got lost taking her to "the snake pit" as cath so lovingly refers to the daycares. auds also was not wearing her eagles jersey like two of her other snake pit cohorts.. that is something she needs to wear on mondays when the eagles win. ****note to santa she needs a jersey for next season.****

after the drop off we drove to NYC to meet my cousin EH. we intended to find a place in chinatown that served some vegetarian dim sum, but were getting pressed for time and couldn't find parking in chinatown, so we texted EH to see where we were going to meet. incidentally we were lost in tribeca and he was literally just around the corner.. he had forgotten we were coming. ;) but he gladly returned his dogs and met us for a pint at his "kitchen" bubbys. i regret not taking any photos of him or our time.. :( he was well and had great stories to tell as always.. it must run in the family.

after our lunch at bubbys we headed up to our hotel in midtown. i shoudl have prepped cath ahead of time about what "valeting" our car would entail... but i honestly don't think that would have made a difference. she is a middle class "bag lady"... she can't go anywhere (even work) without 5 or so bags. and of course ona road trip she loads up.. this is what she had from what i can recall, also, try to imagine these bags contents all unpacked and strewn among the trunk, front and back seats... a purse; a mini purse; a diaper bagged size vera bradley with her "reading material" that i never once saw her read; a canvas lunch bag of sorts with her "snacks"; a backpack stuffed to the brim with clothes; a clear plastic bag that used to contain sheets; now contained 2-3 pairs of shoes; and a clear plastic bag filled with sweaters on hangars (which were also never worn)... oh and a magnum bottle of wine.

anyway... we pulled up to the curb and i jumped out and grabbed my bag, pillow and toiletry bag. cath first had to put on her shoes, then she ran to the back seat to furiously reassemble ALL her belongings into some sort of managable number of bags. the bell hop and i patiently watched her digging in the car like an ostrich with her head in the sand while cars and cabs buzzed by my car parked at an angle to the curb. that was until cath ordered "me" to hold her bottle of wine.. but i was not the closest so the bell hop had the pleasure. it was truely a sight! we had to stop 2 more times to repack her stuff into a more manageable arrangement.

the room and my parking cost the company over $400. i am not so sure it was worth it. i genuinely liked the room and the decorations and it was clean, but it was nothing spectacular, esp when we couldn't check in until 4, and had to be out by 11am.. that equals $58 an hour. you would think for that price they would have stowed our bags for free when we went sightseeing tuesday morning...

the dinner itself was spectacular. it was very similar to a very fancy wedding where there were 20+ best man speeches and a graduation ceremony thrown in for variety. there were famous people there and i was most impressed with luke russerts speech.. he injected some much needed humor to such a solemn subject by opening with "if my dad were here right now he would ask why we were doing this on a monday night with baseball playoffs happening and monday night football. i see everyone checking their blackberrys and phones for score updates.. you should have had tickers up here posting the scores..." anyway... i think i have a crush now. thank god my date knew all the who's who of news people and kept me updated on who we were rubbing shoulders with at the cocktail hour.

after the dinner cath joing SG and i for a nightcap at a local irish bar. we talked native american stuff and had a great time. :)

morning came too soon, and we rose as soon as our bodies would allow and set off to see FAO schwartz.. cath didn't care for the NYC subway system and didn't like to rehearse what we would do if scenarios as we waited underground for the train. she would be a goner, cause i would have rehearsed an escape plan. :)

FAO was a waste of time for me, but stepping outside the store was gift from god in the form of the coolest apple store i've seen to date. we went in a browsed and politely told all the sales people we were just looking..

then we treked up to the imagine mosiac in central park. i was not that impressed.. it looks just like all the photos.. it was a pretty day though,. so not totally a waste.

after that we took a cab back to our hotel and drove home. NYC is a great place to visit, but i'm always so happy to leave. i think that after my trip back to NYC next month i will be all set with the city for a couple of years. :)

here are the photos from the trip...

party=success

a great time was had by me last night at ACH and EHs get together (this is the 3rd EH i know.... odd). there were plenty of channel 9ers there, one even brought her newborn. i was very nice to finally meet the authors of a couple of the blogs i read. there were more re sox fans at the party then you would believe.. it was nice to all be rooting for the same team. ACHs 2 year old nephew kept shutting off the tv while the older boys were playing wii... it was funny..

here are the rest of the pictures...

good god it's gorgeous today...

it's so beautiful outside today.. perfect weather for ACH's party.. i'm excited i think there are going to be a bunch of former coworkers there.

i am kind of wishing the dodgers would get there S together and start winning so that i can possibly see an LA/Boston world series.. although i don't want to see manny booed in fenway... ugh, i'm torn. i watched some of the NLCS game 1 and was reminded that the phillies fans wave those obnoxious towells.. and yell things like "let's go kid cole!".. just seeing those towells waved all through a world series would annoy me.. but EBH said she would get me tickets to see a phillies/sox series.. so maybe i will root for the phillies to continue winning.



tomorrow cath and i are headed to PA again.. i feel like i live there.. :) we'll stay overnight and continue on to NYC monday morning.. i saw the website announcing the speakers and the winners of the Murrow awards.. apparently Brian Williams is giving an award to Tim Russerts family.

here are some of the other presenters.

i've only ever heard of Brian Williams (he hosted SNL last season, and KW and i just heard about him on our tour of NBC studios) and Bob Woodruff (he came to our station when he was in the area last year). but katie curic's show is winning an award, so maybe she will be there... not sure i would recognize her though...

monday afternoon cath and i are meeting up with my cousin, EH for drinks in SoHo or Tribeca. wooot! should be good times.

6:10am

guess who rolled home at 610am this morning? yep, you're right, cath! she spent 14 hours at the casino yesterday.. who in their right mind can spend that much time in a smoke filled casino? or who has that kind of money actually.. apparently cath does.

buying music..

i've reached a point where i need to add to my mp3 music collection and am going to need to break down and purchase some. *tears*. i know there is itunes which charged about $.99 a song.. what else is out there? i have never really bought music before.. what do you use?

amazing race

last week cath's old hippies were voted off. :) hee hee. now she has the "frat boys". so far, AH has paid and supposdly S&JH has paid half.

rebecca aja and ty (ninjas)
cathy andrew and dan (frat boys)
mike mark and bill (comic book geeks)
amanda nick and starr (brother & sister)
ryan terence and sarah (newly dating)
emily anthony and stephanie
hope ken and tina (football player & cheated on wife)
dan marisa and brooke (southern idiots)
sarah kelly and christy (divorcees)
jr toni and dallas (mom & son.. naked pics of dallas exist i hear)

i decided what i am going to be for halloween this year.. it's going to be gooood. cath spilled a plate full of crumbs into my laptop keyboard.. so my typing is even crappier now. :(

funny cat story today.. a week or two ago fatty had a clump of cat shit hanging off her furry ass. it was disgusting. well, apparently now she has another one. i haven't seen it, but cath swears its there. so she grabs her and runs her to the sink to hose her down wth the .. well, of course fatty starts meowing and trying to climb off cath.. she ended up being successful.. now hours later she jumps up on caths freshly laundered clothes and makes herself a little bed, grinding her shitty ass into cath's shirt. :) ahh karma.

Juanita's Mexican Kitchen, Liverpool

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

http://www.cnydigested.com/2008/10/juanitas-mexican-kitchen-liverpool/

please update your bookmarks!

finally.. i have an occasion to rewear a bridesmaid dress.

every year the radio-television-news-directors-association gives away awards for broadcasting excellence on regional and national levels, they are called the murrow awards. the station this year won the national small market website award so the station was invited to a very fancy dinner/award ceremony in NYC to celebrate this. i have been asked to attend and pick up the award. it's black tie.. i'm very excited...

i'm hoping to be able to meet up with EH while i am there. we didn't have time to connect last month when i was there. cath is coming with me for the drives, cause she's been once and loves NYC. i think she just knows a good time when she sees it... we are going to also have time to stop in PA for a quick overnight with E,R&AH.

the day before i go though ACH is having her wedding reception.. i really hope she wears a wedding dress to the party! :) i can't wait to see her new house!

tonight i saw nick and norah.. it wa decent even though it was TERRIBLY hard to pay attention due to the teenagers hooting and hollering at the screen the whole movie. (good god i sound like a grandmother) i thought KW was going to get up and scream at them multiple times. i'm proud of her, but we actually both had the same thought about these punk kids stabbing us.... nothing is more frightening than a gang of teenagers.

we were going to go to a bar to watch the game, but were both pretty exhausted so we cancelled it.

what should i be for halloween?

ahhh, a free night.

finally, a free night. it's heavenly not to have anything to do! i am finally catching up on my DVRd shows. i have like 5 episodes of jimmy kimmel alone to watch.

did i mention that earlier this month i paid off my school loans? i am school loan debt free!!!! it feels great!

there was something i failed to mention about the weekend... it was pointed out in the comments. but i think they need further explanation..

after the baby junk sale with EH we went to breakfast at a local diner. it wasn't a scary "waffle house" type diner that you find in the south, it was a large chrome and neon diner that sat probably 75 people... so it wasn't small... but i am convinced that it takes a special kind of person to be a diner waiter or waitress.. think about it, i bet everyone of you has a good "diner story". i can think of at least 3... anyway... they guy comes over and takes our drink order.. he had an extra thumb... not kidding, it had a finger nail and everything.. it came out of his lowest thumb knuckle.. so gross. then when we were getting up to leave, i noticed that the woman sitting behind me had one eye sewn shut.. EH also witnessed some good child abuse. we couldn't get out of there fast enough. we were surprised to see a jaguar in the parking lot and surmised that the owner had to have been at the bank next door.

tonight the roommates and i went to sakanaya.. apparently monday thru thursday between 5 and 7 everything on the menu (besides drinks) are half price... i just realized i've not written a review of sakanaya fayetteville yet.. that is my next post..

i'm going to bed early tonight. i swear!

Sakana-ya, Fayetteville

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

http://www.cnydigested.com/2008/10/sakana-ya-fayetteville/

please update your bookmarks!

Pennslyvania in September

this weekend was a lot of fun. i just wish that travelling and visiting friends was a lot more relaxing. :) last night and earlier today when i took a nap my back was very spasming. :( must be from all the driving.

pretty much the entire weekend was spent in the rain. i love the rain! but driving through it exclusively most likely contributed to my back spasms...

gettysburg was so cute. it doesn't have as many gorgeous stone homes and buildings as EHs area, but there are quite a few brick buildings.. A&CLs house is totally awesome.

they live right across the street from a battlefield. not really sure which one.. i walked over there and it started raining, naturally.. i had to hide under a tree and wait it out.

we ate dinner at "the pub" where you could get sandwiches on pretzel bread. sooo goood.

we ended up wandering across the square to another bar where we ended up talking to one 22 year old in particular. 22 people.. that means he was born in 1986. good grief we're old. the funniest thing about him was that when pressed about what football team he roots for and given the choice between new england and the giants he choose new england because "he'd like to go overseas". ohmylord. he also told us that he's dated "a mom before" she had 3 kids.. she was 36.

on the walk back to ALs house we had to walk by at least 15 fraternity houses. :( could not have felt older.

before i headed to Gettysburg i stopped for the night and morning in hatfield and saw E&RH and auds. we went to a baby flea market and got a bunch of stuff for next to nothing.. poor audrey is sick though. she must have picked something up at the snakepit.

here are the pictures i took. way better than MKs pictures. :)


thank you to E&RH for letting me stay with them friday night, and thank you A&CL for hosting me saturday night. i have a great weekend!

amazing race contest!

okay, it's come down to the wire.. i just drew the names. there is one leftover, so the lucky person that gets voted out tonight gets a 2nd chance.. they get andrew and dan...

it's $10 a person, so the winner will get $100! so pay attention!


rebecca aja and ty
cathy anita and arthur
mike mark and bill
amanda nick and starr
ryan terence and sarah
emily anthony and stephanie
hope ken and tina
dan marisa and brooke
sarah kelly and christy
jr toni and dallas

leftover.... andrew and dan

quick thoughts before i hit the road

songs to find/purchase for the ipod...
* american boy - estelle featuring kanye west
* lil wayne - i'm me and a milli -- in researching these song titles i'd be curious to listen to some of the other songs on his albums becuase from the titles they all seem to be about being CRAZY rich.... in my readings about the law of attraction i find that it couldn't hurt to listen to mantras about having a lot of money...

i wish i had made sure to synch up my ricky gervais audiobook before i left the house.. that would be great driving listening...

is it worth it to drive home and get it? and prevent my cheapo sister from cleaning me out of lunch items?

PA weekend...

i'm headed to PA today. my goal is to make it to E&Rs by 8:45, and yet not get a ticket.. will be a tricky endeavor... wish me luck.

tomorrow we will be hitting up a baby junk sale. it appears to be a big warehouse full of used baby crap. the best part of this sale is that strollers are forbidden. thank jesus!

after that i will trot over to Gettysburg to see ALs new pad. MK will be there and the other MD ladies are coming out too. it'll be a big sleepover party! woot! poor CL.

i am almost reluctant to go as i have hours and hours worth of TV waiting for me on the DVR.. how sad is that? i wish i could load them up on my ipod and watch them on my drive down...

i'm getting pressure to start a Amazing Race pool.. who wants to play?

there are 11 teams competing.. if 5 people want to play then we could each get 2 teams and the left over team could go to the first person who has a team voted out....

$10 to play..

i'm in, cath is in, mike is in.. need 2 more... or 8 more if we want just one team each...

my roommate the "young, hip, Creed"

i don't know how much of my audience watches the office, but last season there was an episode where Ryan comes in and starts training the office workers on using the systems new website.. well, Creed is convinced Ryan is trying to weed out the older employees.. so he dyes his hair black.. it had to be my favorite episode of the season.

when i got home from work last night sitting on the couch was Creed. cath is forever changing hair dye, and this latest one is the darkest by far. i think it might be as dark as mine. :)

she emailed me this during the day..

"this morning in class this little first grader looks at me kind of startled and says oh Mrs.. Brown, you spray painted your hair!!!!!! I said, why yes, I did!"

i'll take a pic before it fades too much!

i think i'm going to make it.

the painting is going swimmingly. my art blog has the latest pic.

this morning i finished up what was left of my mousse. how come the very last handful and the very first handful are always THE BEST of the whole can? it makes absolutely no sense, but time and time again it's true!

this weekend is going to be a repeat of another weekend i had last july. only this time i am not going to get a ticket for speeding in a work zone. hopefully MK tells us another one of her great "bedtime" stories. :)

before the debauchery though i'll get to visit E&R and auds.. i hear she can hold her head up on her own now!! can't wait to see it! the last pictures i saw her cheeks were really filling out.. they are so cute!

i heard about ricky gervais' free podcasts on the jimmy kimmel show the other night.. i'm always looking for a good podcast so i downloaded them. omg.. i was caught by such surprise at one point today that i couldn't stifle my laugh in time and laughed right out loud at my desk. there are 3 of them on the podcast, ricky, steve merchant and their producer Karl. he comes up with the most bizarre shit, and ricky and steve basically make fun of him and egg him on for an hour. i burned through all the free downloads. then i saw that there are like 5 seasons available for purchase.. i bought the 1st season.. it's 6.5 hours worth. hopefully that lasts me the rest of the week.

slowly but surely.

a while ago i bought a couple of reusable shopping bags at wegmans.. mostly because i liked how they looked. black, with crude white drawings of a fork, plate and a wine glass. i've been keeping them in the car so that i always have them when i go shopping... i've been pretty good about bringing them into the groc store, but not so good about bringing them to other stores, like staples, or eckerds. but slowly i am turning over a green leaf. EBH would be proud.

i'm starting to love this american boy song that i've heard a couple of times. i was surprised to hear it was some girl featuring kanye west. i seem to always like kanye west..maybe i should buy some of his albums...



i saw burn after reading the other night. it was good i thought. definitely lighter than no country for old men.. i didn't have so many questions at the end of this one, and there was a pretty hysterical "reveal" about 2/3rds the way through. :)

i've started the painting... its still very preliminary.. hopefully i will find some inspiration to continue on it while i watch the emmys.. you can check out how far i've gotten on my art blog.

i'm excited for jimmy kimmels emmy special. he's pretty awesome and needs more credit for bringing the funny.

the weekend is almost here!

i got the rough idea sketched on the canvas for what i am going to paint.. the rest should be easy-peasy. i'm getting the feeling it's going to be rather easy. golden retrievers with their long hair just seems like something that is going to lend itself well to acrylics..

i've made plans to go see "burn after reading" tomorrow. i don't care that i've heard bad things about it. john malkovich is in it.. and its the cohen brothers, how bad can it be?

i mean to write about this everyday, but then i forget... the factory windshield wipers on my car suck so badly, that i drive pretty much blinded until about 2 miles from my house when the defroster has successfully been run long enough to warm up and dry out the windshield from the inside. this weekend i need to put that rainX on them, and i probably should just toss them and get the good ones i had on my honda.

today i found out that work holds an annual internal art show and then invites judges from the everson to come and pick a piece or two to go on display at the museum. i'm getting in that everson show damnit! i think it's at the beginning of the year..

must.start.painting

tomorrow if i do nothing all day i must start KMs painting... if i can get the layout down then i should be able to make a lot of progress this weekend. i am looking forward to this weekend something fierce. i will be sleeping in my own bed all weekend, and will sleep till i wake up! oh the thought is heavenly!

i have a friend familiar to most of my readers that is going to have a baby the week of my birthday! (it's become such a popular time!)

see if you can guess who it is...



here is a pic of two of her adorable offspring as a clue.

NYC - September edition

Friday...
after the 3rd question on saturday about whether i was having any luck getting tickets i realized i had not communicated the SNL tickets acquiring process. this is how it works...

in mid august you email your information to an email address to be entered in a lottery. the tour guide on our NBC Studios tour told us they receive hundreds of thousands of emails each season. anyway, if you are one of the lucky ones chosen they send you a pair of tickets to either a rehearsal or a live show on whichever date they choose. you have no say in either.

so.. if you miss the lottery then you can go down to 30 rockefeller center the night before (we came across people that had been waiting in line since noon friday) and get in line to receive a number saturday morning at 7am. they go through the line handing out numbers based on which show you want standby tickets for. there is no guarantee that you will get in, as they are standby tickets and are called upon only if the people that won the lottery decided not to show up. so after you get a number saturday morning you come back to 30 Rock at either 630 or 10 depending on which show you asked for. then they seat the ticket holding audience members, and if there are any holes they start calling on the standby people in order of their numbers.. and repeat the process again for the live show.

i had done some research and saw that in 2005 the most number of standbys that got in all season were 185 people between the 2 shows and it was because the show aired on the night of a HUGE snowstorm. so... our plan was that if there were more than 200 people in line we were going to cut our losses and try to meet up with people in manhattan. well. there were around 200 people in line when we showed up. they had set up tents and tarps and you name it. it was like a single file tailgate. we decided to cut our losses..


so we headed out to the upper east side to meet AW. we went to her new bar du jour Dylan Murphy's. it was a little packed at first, but it ended up being a great little place. the jukebox must have been drawing from my subconscious. it was great, at one point people waiting for the bus outside came dancing into the bar. good good times..

Saturday...
the plan was to head to NYC to do the NBC Studios tour as early as possible cause it takes an hour and we had tickets to see the musical Avenue Q at 2pm. 10 AM was our go time. i woke up at 915. everyone else was sleeping so i showered and got dressed. i figured at the very least i could go by myself and meet up with the sleeping beauties later. KW got up and ready in record time at 930 when i told her of my revised plan. B&MK took their time getting ready and met us later. we got rockstar parking as i usually do right in times square. the tour was cool. except we couldn't take pictures. :( we got a tour of the MSNBC set, and the Nightly News set. Conan O'Brien, and lastly SNL. we were able to sit in the audience of Conan, (soooo small) and see the SNL set behind glass. it was so interesting to me to see about 20 people literally running around the set painting the various scenarios at noon on saturday. we saw people painting the locker room, the quiz show set, what i think was the charles barkley show set and the set they didn't use "the justice league" set. she said in the next couple of years ago they are going to change the basic set to pay homage to coney island, right now it's referencing grand central station. an interesting thing to learn was the seats the audience sits on are the same seats yankee stadium uses, lorne michaels didn't allot monies in his budget for seats, so he called in a favor from george steinbrenner. we also learned that each episode cost 2.5 million to make.

after the tour KW and i walked over to w45th and 8th to see Avenue Q. our seats were in the very last row at the very top, i loved them.. however the dark theater made me sooo sleepy. the musical was funny. it was dirty racist puppets. high comedy. our favorite song was "everyone's a little bit racist".


afterwards we were starving so walked over to an italian restaurant and couldn't get in, so we decided to drive over to the feast of san genaro happening in little italy. what a stupid idea that was. it took us over an hour and a half to drive downtown and when we got there it was an outdoor celebration that looked like it was 2K people past maximum capacity so we decided to take dinner out to the burbs. we went back to flushing and ate at joes shanghai. there was a 20 min wait of course after at least 45 minutes of driving. this is the restaurant B&MK took us to when cath and i were in town a couple of years ago. it was delicious.. their fried rice cakes are not at all what you are picturing and hands down the best menu item ever.


at dinner it came out that neither KW or I had ever been to "pinkberry". apparently its been featured on "the hills", it started on the west coast and is making it's way east. there was one right around the corner that BDKs brother used to manage, so they hooked us up with free yogurt. its a little hard to describe what pinkberry is.. its kind of a frozen yogurt i guess. there are 3 flavors to choose from, original, green tea, and coffee. then you put anything from fresh fruit to cereals to chocolate chips and coconut and moshi on it.. it's really quite delicious.

we waited all night for SNL and were rather disappointed with the sketches. MPs acting was bad, but i feel like the writers were on the top of their game either.. two of the first sketches were total copies of the peyton manning episode. and the ugly kids episode? ugh..

this was the funniest one..

the funniest parts of the show were the countless texts that LK and i traded back and forth during the show. like when LK wrote that HEKD thought that during the digital short that andy samberg singing was MP.. i'm thinking that MP media torch is being extinguished as we speak. it was fun while it lasted.

***UPDATE*** Here are the pics

i know, i'm crazy.

friday KW and i have decided to go to NYC, meet up with BDK and try to get into the season premiere of SNL. :) this is most likely going to involve waiting outdoors overnight in line, but how fun does that sound? pretty damn fun i think. :)

i've never been to a taping of a TV show and think it would be pretty damn awesome to see SNL i've been such a fan for many years now... i just hope the rest of america doesn't have the same idea and waiting in line for many hours isn't fruitless.

i just realized that the pushing back of the harry potter movie that everyone was grumbling about recently is directly due to the play i have tix for on broadway in november. score! when i bought the tickets i read that the opening was going to coincide with daniel radcliffes promotional schedule for that movie and i was going to be PISSED if he wasn't going to be in my show. now i don't have to worry.

squirrelling away mode vs crazy earning mode...

on a segment of TAC last week adam talks about jimmy and how generous he is, not just with his money, but with his time, etc. and he makes some statements i've heard before from steve pavlina and the secret about the laws of attraction and "raising your financial vibration". adam speaks about how when you are so stuck in the mindset of squirrelling away your money, and thanking god that someone dropped a dime on the ground and you found it, that you are too preoccupied to allow for making money. i find that a lot of this makes sense and given the chance, i truly believe it rings true. "the people that do the most, get the most"

here is the adam carolla show clip... (EH, SH and CB i highly recommend you listen to this..) it starts at about the 4 minute mark.

and here is the steve pavlina clip... another must read...

irish festival 08

i love these boots/gators, whatever they are.. the irish festival was pretty fun. i went to the gaelic mass in the morning.. it drizzled periodically, luckily DC brought an unbrella, ella, ella, and was kind enough to share it with me.

here is a snippet of the irish priest from pittsburgh delivering the mass in english for a few minutes and then in gaelic.



here are the photos...

KW and i talked about driving to NYC on friday after work... hmmm.. it's totally spontaneous and right up my alley.. i'm going to have to think seriously about this.. could be crazy fun!

why all of a sudden?

people from all over the world have been searching google images and hitting my blog looking at this picture.. i wonder why. it's crazy.. in the last 24 hours i've been pinged from:

Lazio, Rome, Italy
Connecticut, Simsbury, United States
Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico
Gelderland, Harderwijk, Netherlands
Zadarska, Zadar, Croatia
Texas, New Braunfels, United States
Maine, Portland, United States
New York, Corona, United States
New Jersey, Union, United States
New Jersey, Pennington, United States
England, London, United Kingdom
California, Los Angeles, United States
Oregon, Forest Grove, United States
Ile-de-france, Paris, France
England, London, United Kingdom
Noord-brabant, Tilburg, Netherlands
New York, Brooklyn, United States
District Of Columbia, Washington
New Jersey, Princeton, United States

wow, so tired.

so, i've been at my new job for 2 days now. it's definitely a different environment/culture than the station.. i've been compiling a list of pros and cons..

pros

next week is employee appreciation week, it sould like there are going to be little activities/parties each day next week. :) culminating with a wii bowling tournament

my new desk has two 19 inch monitors. i'll take a pic of my cube once i get it all settled.

we have an office in blue bell, PA, and my boss said i could go down one of these times.. i think it's near EH..

there is an ATM machine right in the lobby. woot! there is also a childcare place and gym, not that i need either of them.

there is a cafe in the building. woot! that is very exciting to me.

they have cold water/hot water tnkless water coolers. (it's the little things that excite me)

there are 4 fridges in the kitchen

they hold company tailgates. how cool!

you can get a cup of soda fountain ice for free from the cafe

there is a mostly mandatory IM program that everyone uses.. woot! too bad its internal only

cons

instead of outlook, they use novel Groupwise. :( it's subpar in my opinion

not being in IT i have to ask permission for every little thing. :(

No IE 7, it conflicts with oracle, so i need to use firefox. not happy.

i can't download an email client, so i need to do my home email through webmail.

i was so tired this morning, mondays, tuesdays and thursdays i am doing double duty and working part time at night. so yesterday i was there from 6-11. i had a lot of work to do... then when i got home i saw that my michael phelps book had arrived that i bought on amazon about 16 years ago (could book rate be mailed any slower?!). it's crazy easy reading (prob cause i was witten by a teenager) so i was able to buzz through half of it last night. the chapters are so short i kept telling myself just one more.. then there would be a whole chapter about his dad, or his sister.. by the time i forced myself to put it down it was after 2 am. and in case you didn't know, my new job starts at 8am. :(

i'm going to bed as soon as i am done watching last nights episode of jimmy kimmel, and i'm only going to read 3 chapters!

what a long weekend...

this weekend has seemed wicked long. friday i went to see Vicki Christina Barcelona, i was expecting it to suck, but it was shockingly great. maybe it was my no/low expectations, or maybe it was that they drank wine in almost every scene, or maybe it was that two of the main characters were painters, or maybe it was just the romantic notion of going off to spain and having a tryst with a spanish man..

whatever the reason, it worked. i will surely be buying this film when it comes out on DVD.

friday night all the guests arrived, the MA people and i were able to grab dinner at the dinosaur. i had two ribs.. i was so proud of myself.

saturday we took our time getting ready, and walked over to a couple of prospective houses in the neighborhood and peeked in the windows. later we headed out to the fair in the early afternoon. whoa what a good time we had. DD and HEKD were impressed by the sheer size of the fair, i knew they would not have ever been to a fair that big before.. the time flew by.. after the fair we headed out to mulligans for a nightcap. cath met us there. in retrospect i was too drunk to go out more, and it resulted in my taking a 1/2 full pitcher home with us. now what the F are we going to do with a pitcher?

sunday we woke up and most people headed up to the beach, while HEKD, DD and i had breakfast at wegmans before they headed out..

i would imagine DD doesn't want to hear how cheap it is to live here anymore.. :)

here are the photos i took...

there is a reality bites back marathon on today. i like that show.. i think i mostly just like michael ian black though.

i happened upon a segment of The Adam Carolla Project this morning.. oh that was such a great show. i am looking forward to ACs star to blow up as a result of American Top Gear so that TLC will get their act together and put that show on DVD. shiiiiiiit.

E,R&A are coming!!!

i have failed to mention that my sister and her family are also coming to round out the house this weekend. they will surely bring good times, a treadmill and 3 dogs with them! it will be grand.

good news, cath has taken the chihuahuas to rochester for the week! oh glorious day! so there will be 8 less feet here at chez brown.

i have a lot to do today! cleaning cleaning cleaning! i think i have missed the shuttle to the fair from the station, so i will need to drive myself.. oh well..

i am in between jobs. hee hee..

today was my *last day* at work.. it wasn't really that sad cause i'll be back tuesday evening. :) i was however treated to lunch and SLI bought me an eclair and he and AMCH had ourselves a little party. it was so unexpected and nice.

tomorrow HEKD and DD come for a visit! i am so excited, i loooove to have visitors. they should arrive in time to go to the dinosaur barbecue.. i think i might go crazy and order the ribs. :)

tomorrow is native american day at the fair. i am going at lunch time to have lunch with AMCH and SLI. it is their last day out at the fair.

afterwards i might go see Vicki Christina Barcelona. it's playing at 3:50... matinee! yeah.

guess what! good news, i have been commissioned for another painting. when i get started i'oll post my progress at my art blog.

dreams can come true!

i can see MP hosting SNL.. cause of course i dream the future... but lil' wayne as the musical guest? that seems like too much! plus lil wayne is all in trouble with the law and $hit!

***update*** it is true!

awwww

nice things are being said about me here at work...

"Rebecca "Don't call me Becky" Brown. As many of you have heard, Rebecca has accepted a full-time job with OBG. (Boo Hoo). But wait! Don't get too upset. Rebecca will be staying with us part-time (usually on Mon/Tues/Thurs nights) to continue her webmaster/web design duties. Of course, this is still going to have a huge impact (because Rebecca is awesome), so we'll have to continue to think smart in our web planning. Please make sure any web requests go to the entire web unit."

tomorrow is my last day. i am happy to be starting a new job cause i LOVE change, but a little sad that i won't be seeing my old coworkers as regularly as i used to. i'll have to make more efforts to see these people outside of work. i can't lie though, i WON'T miss being on call anymore. :)

did anyone see that sox/yankees game last night? i am shocked at how badly A-Rod is getting booed in yankee stadium... i also thought it was funny to hear that francona said that he won't miss playing in yankee stadium cause they'll just be playing 100 yards away.

new TV season is almost here

today Boston.com had a pretty comprehensive list of the TV shows that are coming out in the fall. here are most of the shows i will be watching..

9/1 Monday 8pm Prison Break
9/7 Sunday 9pm VMAs (it's britney bitch!)
9/7 Sunday 10pm Entourage
9/13 Saturday 1130pm SNL
9/16 Tuesday 8pm Biggest Loser
9/18 Thursday 8pm Survivor
9/22 Monday 8pm Dancing with the Stars
9/25 Thursday 9pm The Office
9/28 Sunday 8pm Amazing Race
9/28 Sunday 9pm Desperate Housewives
9/28 Sunday 10pm Brothers & Sisters
10/14 Tuesday 10pm Eli Stone
10/16 Thursday 1030pm Sarah Silverman Show
10/30 Thursday 930pm 30 Rock
Early 09 Lost

good times at the fair!

i've been to the fair twice in the last three days. once was for work, and yesterday was for pleasure.. KW and i met up with her friend KMH and her family. it was interesting to walk around the fair with a 2.5 year old and a 9 month old. we looked at a lot of cows, (lucky for me the wine tent is right near the cow building) and Matt wanted to sit on all the tractors.. it was very cute. we got to see joan jett, who from the crowd on the jumbo tron looks damn good for 49 years old, she sang and danced in a bikini top...

after KMH and her family went home KW and i found my work friends and headed off towards the midway.. we ended up ditching off for the wine tent, and spend most of the rest of the evening in that area. i got a refillable plastic wine glass that has a little battery in the bottom and lights up the stem with a plethora of colors.. it's pretty aweome i must say..


in case you couldn't tell, that is kate and i as sister grapes and sister peas.


my favorite of the night.

when we go back next weekend i think we should take the bus from shoppingtown like KW and i did.. it was 1.25, they drop you off and pick you up right at the gate, its air conditioned, and they run until midnight.. its pretty sweet i must say!

i got some great pics.. i've removed the butter sculpture ones, EH wants to be surprised..

here are the pics i took when i worked out there this year.


yay! the house isn't ghetto fabulous anymore!

what is wrong with me?!

again last night i probably didn't fall asleep until about 3am. partially it was because i had heart burn.. (sushi has never given me trouble before. sad) and partly it was because it was freeeeeezing cold last night. when i got out of bed at 2am to go to the bathroom i had to grab an extra comforter out of the spare room. but mostly it was because my subconscious decided to thoroughly deduce why michael phelps would make an ideal host for SNL. i distinctly remember at 2am having these thoughts running through my head..

SNL loves to have athletes on (manning, brady, lebron, etc).

SNL is coming back on air Sept 13th so as to capitalize on the election.. Michael Phelps is taking time off from swimming again until after the first of the year. plenty of time to host one of 7 new shows.

NBC hosted the Olympics, they also have SNL... keep the dollars in the family yo!

i think i have a problem.. but cross your fingers.

GI Joe Proof

this is joe.. and these are the cats that were waiting for me tonight. i didn't know to get a pic of the fancy feast crystal dish. i will tomorrow.

i forgot to mention earlier that Tom Cruise has a great role in tropic thunder, and he dances his fat ass off. it's worth seeing this movie for that alone.

New Movie Goals & a Funny Beach Post

hmm.. i've accomplished all my movie goals as of late, so time to set more...

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is peaking my interest. mainly because of javiar bardem, partially because of scarlett johannson, patricia clarkson is in this, whom i like, but so is that mumble mouth penelope cruz.. and it's directed by woody allen which is another strike... if i start to go into a drought i will go see this. comes out friday.

Burn After Reading this is the movie that has john malkovich punching brad pitt in the face in the previews. who wouldn't love to do that? i love malkovich, and frances mcdormand is in this too. its directed by the coen brothers, it's gotta be a home run.. this will be a must see, drought or not. comes out sept 12

Choke this is based on a book by the author of fight club. words like "vulgar, profane, obscene, provocative, satirical - psychotic" are being used to describe it.. that's all i need to know. lol. it stars kelly mcdonald who was the high school girl in trainspotting, and in Intermission, and more recently the wife who is or is not dead at the end of No Country for Old Men. i like her a lot. Owen Rowen from October Road is also in this movie.. this is a definite must see. comes out in a limited release Sept 26. hopefully it does well and will trickle down to syracuse. maybe i'll have to catch this at an art cinema.

Nick and Norahs Infinite Playlist this is a michael cera movie where he seems to be playing his awkward and adorable character.. who cares that he is typecast, i love that character. the girlfriend in this movie (norah i would presume) is played by the girl that was charlie bartletts girlfriend in charlie bartlett. thinking its a must see. comes out october 3rd..

totally unrelated: Michael Ian Black posted this perfect synopsis of why he hates the beach on his blog.. i have to agree whole heartedly, i couldn't have said it better myself...uhm, probably because he's a write and i am not.