so much to do!

when it rains it pours at work.. but then sometimes there is not a cloud in the sky! in case you are wondering, it's a monsoon right now.. i am busy enough for 4 people, because sweeps starts tomorrow...every year february is a "sweeps" month. i've not yet gotten used to "not" scheduling my vacations during this time. it's highly frowned upon.. i like to go away for my birthday, or otherwise party it up.. hmm, not going to fly next year, i've already been warned. :(

the roommates and i are going to CLs superbowl party. cath is resisting like crazy, but CL tells her, it's not about the football, it's about matching the decor to the colors of the teams. :) i have a feeling i will be the only one in a Pats shirt. we are making football shaped cocoa rice crispies. i bought a square at work too.. i hope that it pays me.. it's 8 pats, 6 giants. the superbowl is all about the gambling.

saturday KW and i are going to a Brew Fest here at the fairgrounds. everytime i think about a brew festival i can't forget the time i went with LK and SB and her rock-a-billy friend and SB and her friend almost got in a fight with the patrons of deluxe.. it was snowing, we were all drunk.. it was a hell of a time!!



if this picture doesn't just capture the moment, i don't know what does. it was taken at the beginning of my friendship with LK. in 2004 about 13 days before her 27th birthday..

that year SB and i joined LK and her family for karaoke at a bar in abington..





we drank scorpion bowls and SB got friendly with LKs cousin later on. ;)


later that weekend when we all went downtown and LK left her license in a packie in quincy.. she was at least an hour later than us. SB and i sat with two relative strangers, AR and RB waiting... looking back, we looked like hookers. who thought it was okay for us to go into public like this? i am surprised LKs friends even talked to us. :)



oh, that was only the first of many great memories of LKs birthday! i'm sad i couldn't be a part of this years celebrations!

but happy birthday LK!

because there are so many great times had at all of LKs birthday celebrations over the years, here is a little compilation album of LK b-day photos..

territorial cath

when i came home from work today i spied cath being wicked territorial over her couch.. she was asserting her dominance over fatty...

Pastabilities, Syracuse, NY

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

http://www.cnydigested.com/2008/01/pastabilities-syracuse/

please update your bookmarks!

i saw the baby!!

on one hand i can't believe how teeny tiny the baby is... she is about as small as those toys we had as kids called glo-worms. but on the other hand it's a little scary that less than 3 days ago that baby was in SFs vag... wow.. babies!!

everyone would be so proud, i held the baby.. she was so light i could hold her with one arm.. :)


she was very good and didn't make any sort of peep while we were there. i didn't even see her open her eyes.

PF said he was trying to put in a link to their photo album in the comments, but you know how computer illiterate he is. ;)

C&LB were there too, with Maddy. i hadn't seen her since august i don't think.. she was delightful, especially when she took CBs blackberry and would hold it to her ear.


she's getting so big!

three more nights...

i have 2 restaurant reviews coming.. pastabilities and empire brewing.

i'm going to stop by and see the new baby tonight. :) so exciting!


3 more nights until the new season of LOST kicks off. and there are 2 shows between now and then to help tide us over. they are replaying the season finale wed night, and there is a 1 hour recap the hour before the season premiere starts. :)


i am thinking i might watch eli stone too. i kind of love johnny lee miller, mostly from hackers and trainspotting.

it's a girl!

i know how concerned my readers are, so i hope the Fischers aren't upset about this post.

SF gave birth this morning to a 6lb 14oz baby girl!! PF says mother and baby are doing fine. they named her katherine (katie) blake.



***update***

it's also AFs 32nd b-day!! woooot!! she predicted right!

to tan or not to tan....

i think i'm leaning towards tanning...

i know i said i wouldn't do it again, but i'm getting flashbacks of the itchy red rash that breaks out on my skin when i step into the sun for the first time of the season... i'm thinking that i will try to avoid that and do a few minutes a day till i go and toughen up my skin a little bit...

tonight is celebrity rehab!! woot! it's easily becoming one of my favorite shows.

last night was such a surprise when we got to trivia and the Ws were there!! it was great!! we did pretty well 4th or 5th out of 20 teams.. yay, for not sucking!

a lunch experiment

i went to the grocery store last night so that i could stock up on fruits and veggies.. i was inspired to buy dr preager's potato/broccoli and potato/spinach pancakes. if you've never had them, do yourself a favor and pick some up next time you are cruising around the frozen foods section of your local grocery store. anyway.. i brought one for lunch today and after putting it through the toaster 2 times it was still not firm enough to remove from the toaster, but i was impatient and said, "screw it. i'm eating it anyway". well. the pancake had other ideas.. i ended up having to turn the toaster upside down and shake my pancake out...


it was less than appetizing looking with random toaster bread crumbs all over it..

but sandwiched in a roll, you wouldn't even know that it was in 7 mashed up pieces...


after that disappointing sandwich i was totally rewarded with this delicious concoction of home made pico de gallo mixed with half an avocado.. it was dreamy!


have i mentioned how much i am enjoying hummus this time around?

tonight is trivia.. i think its going to be just us and KtW.. wish us luck, its been some time since we all went.

eating black beans

i never realized until recently how satiated black beans make me, and for such a long time. usually about 30-40 minutes after i eat my main lunch (usually a frozen meal or soup) i am scavenging through my lunch bag for a snack. the past couple of days i've been eating the left over beans from this weekends party and it's been so great.. i highly suggest everyone eat black beans for lunch. you won't be hungry.

my goal for next week is to get to the gym 3 times to do weight lifting.. that is my favorite part of going to the gym.. it's better than putting off doing cardio.. and it won't be as hard on my heel i don't think.

S* asked me this morning what i as going to wear to the wedding, and i haven't even thought about it at all... what do you wear to a beach wedding?

camera binoculars are good in theory...

but when you can't retrieve the photos from them they are pretty useless.. so sorry to disappoint you, but no Chicago photos, sorry.

i've recently come to realize that my vacation to cancun is a little over 2 weeks away.. this is sooo exciting.. i've never been to mexico.. i wonder if i will be able to recharge my laptop battery if i bring it.. and if my hair straightener will be able to be plugged in.. and if my cellphone will work... has anyone that has been to mexico before know if those things work?

SHs shower went off with only a minor hitch. the neighbor and her daughter were invited and at 15 minutes after the party started we see the daughter sanding or painting what looked like trim in her driveway in sweats and painting clothes.. we assumed that they decided not to come and all had a laugh about it.. well. as soon as we were done opening presents and were about to serve cheesecake they walked in apologizing up and down. apparently they though it was sunday. :) funny..

when i get back from mexico it will almost be my birthday!! this year is flying by!!

here are the photos from the shower.

cloverfield.

i saw cloverfield this weekend. stop reading if you intend on seeing the movie, and don't want to hear my opinions and possible spoilers..

lucky for me the movie was short. it is filmed Blair Witch style, the whole movie is from the perspective of a hand held camera. it made me unbelievably motion sick. i think i had to close my eyes for a good third of the movie so that i wouldn't throw up in a packed theater.

because the genre for this film is of the monster movie variety, i am willing to suspend reality and accept that there is such a thing as a monster.. i am not however willing to blindly accept things that i figure would not happen... these are some of the things i am not willing to accept..

1. the camcorder this was purportedly shot on had a battery that didn't completely die after filming for about an hour and a half, with a light sometimes, nightvision, and even one or two instances of playback. i want to know what kind of camera that was, cause i'm getting one.
   
2. they are in NYC. what seems like an earthquake happens.. they are at a party and turn on the TV.. there is already a news anchor sitting at a desk with an update of what is happening.. uhm.. that is highly unlikely i think.. from the time they feel the earthquake to the time they turn on the news it seems to be under 2 minutes, and someone already knows what is happening? doubtful..
   
3. everyone eventually runs outside. much like in "war of the worlds" i find it hard to believe that when you see something like the statue of liberty's head laying in the street you wouldn't be afraid and get the eff out of there..... the characters all stand around waiting for worse fates to descend upon them.
   
4. a group of party goers decide to go back up to midtown where they are going to stage a rescue.. they are almost eaten by the monster, so they decide to go underground... with all the people in manhattan (almost 2 million according to wikipedia) they are the only people down in the subways.... i thought there were people that actually lived in the tunnels of the subways.. is that just an old wives tale?
   
5. the girl that everyone is trying to rescue is impaled in her apt on a piece of rebar.. for a minute we think that she is dead. it has been more than a half an hour that she has been bleeding out... then her eyes open up. the group decides to lift her off the rebar.. within minutes she is running around and has full use of her arm as if she had been napping while the monster ravished the city... highly unbelievable..

another thing that bothered me slightly about this movie was one of the actresses. "beth" was played by a girl from October Road. i hate her on Oct Road.. :(

i think that this was just not my kind of movie. it was produced by JJ Abrams who does LOST, it was not psychologically scary, but it was startling at many points.. it probably would have been more scary to me if i had my eyes open the whole time...

can listening to podcasts make you drunk?

i love bill simmons, the sports guy.. and i love adam carolla. so when he is on adams show it's like christmas for me.. i know it's going to be a good day when i hear that simmons will be on..

so i have had to start and stop listening to a bunch of the AC show today because of meetings and such.. but i keep re-listening to the bill simmons and the AC show segment where they are breaking down/making fun of american idol.. there is a part of it where theresa plays a clip of one of the contestants singing something about "being a brother, and best friend.." adam goes off on a rant about how that guy must live in a an apartment and how his neighbors must hate him.. omg, i was doing everything i could not to spit out my water, and laugh uncontrollably here at my computer. i bet MK and NB think that i am crazy. i am eating an apple at the same time and i must be leaking out snorts and breathy laughs. oooooh headphones... i love them!

in case you want to see for yourself that i am crazy, you can listen for yourself with these two clips.
American Idol with Bill Simmons part 1

American Idol with Bill Simmons part 2

omg. all the bill simmons clips are priceless. i am still laughing at all these clips. i seriously feel euphoric right now... maybe my apple was spiked with something...

speaking of euphoric feelings.. tonight is the 2nd episode of dr drew: celebrity rehab.. i will be watching that with bated breath. that has to be one of the better shows on tv right now... i urge all of you to watch tonight at 10 tonight.. it's worth being tired tomorrow...

mad money....

last night a bunch of us went to see mad money. i didn't have high hopes for this film as i don't really care anything about anyone in the movie. the movie was not horrible.. i was surprised. i even laughed at some points. i had forgotten that ted danson was in the movie, it was kind of startling to see that he has gone completely white on top. SF did not go in to labor during the movie, in case you are wondering.. one of the funnier moments was immediately as the movie was ending i overhear PF saying something along the lines of "stealing money is not funny". :)

tonight is chicago. i was reminded this morning to be sure to put batteries in the binocular camera so i can take photos.. so i intend to have some photos for you all tomorrow.

i rejoined WW as a supplemental attempt to win the work weight loss challenge.. last i heard 28 people were involved, so with the GM matching, that is about $560 dollars. that is a lot of cash. the leader at the meeting i attended is not the best leader i've ever had, i feel like she is a little bit out of touch with reality.. she is a retired state trooper i think she said, she must be in her mid 60s and this weeks "episode" was about moving more. she warned everyone about walking in secluded areas.. then she went on to say that if you were walking a dog though, you'd be fine because the "people that want to hurt you are afraid of dogs". really?! every rapist/mugger is afraid of dogs? i find it hard to believe that lucy or franklin would deter a would be mugger... i need to get myself a chihuahua.. that ridiculous statement kind of soiled her credibility in my opinion.. but i was thinking about how crappy she was and how it doesn't even matter i don't think.. i finally feel a sense of motivation lately, a feeling i haven't had since the late 90s.. it might be the money, but i hear i have some pretty steep competition here at work.. i think it's just "time". :)

jinxing it....

i am a little bit afraid that by saying this i am going to jinx it.. but it's too good not to talk about.. and i live on the edge...

i feel like my heel condition is getting better.. i stopped going to the acupuncturist after 2 visits. it didn't seem to be helping and was costing too much money. in fact, i dare say i was having worse pain in my heel..

but.. i have since been wearing my sneakers from the minute i get up till the minute i go to bed, and taking IBs here and there and my heel is feeling better than it has all year! its definitely not cured.. but it's getting so much better!! there is a god!

i'm crazy busy lately.... now that i am thinking about it, it's a little stressful!

tonight i am going to a free preview of "mad money". i hope it doesn't suck, i don't care for mrs tom cruise or queen latifah, but i'm a huge sucker for free movies. plus everyone else seems to want to see it... SF is going too, and i'm looking forward to seeing her, seeing as she is due to give birth at any minute now.. what if she goes during the movie!!! wooo who! that would be so exciting!! i've never been somewhere where someone goes into labor in my presence.. :)

tomorrow my roommates and i continue culturing ourselves with a touring version of Chicago.. i saw it almost a year ago in london, and was taken aback a little bit at how sexual it was on stage (not the movie).. i'll let you know how it stacks up...

thursday night i am going to an art opening at a place in syracuse where i might be showing some of my work in april... these art shows seem to fall in my lap, i love it.

friday the circus sisters and their broods come to town for SHs baby shower. should be fun i think...

britney watch.

in case you were unaware... today britney was supposed to show up to a hearing to find out if her supervised custody was going to be reinstated..

well, she showed up hours late and didn't really go into court it didn't look like... but the news outlets on the west coast had cameras on her like leaving like she was OJ.. we had an in house stream of the helicopter that was trailing her.. i watched her leave the courthouse, drive to a church, get back in the car, and then drive to a mall where apparently she went to lunch.

it was exciting to be able to watch, on one of our in house tvs, the trainwreck in progress, and i was impressed with the HD video quality and steadiness of the camera...but it was also sad that 1. she is *mobbed* at all times. it was unreal to watch the cars follow her all that way, and then park perpendicular to the two lane street in front of the church, abandon their cars and run after her and surround the church... and 2. its sad that it's so many peoples occupations to follow britney around at all times.

i almost feel for her like chris crocker.. leave britney alone!

kitty hat...

i don't think i've really mentioned the kitty hat since it's been such nice weather lately, but LK brought me a gift last weekend and i looooove it.. she asked xtina to knit me a hat similar to her halloween outfit hat.. it's got fuzzy white yarn and the traditional red bow, and of course kitty ears. it's so awesome i can't wait for the snow to come tomorrow! :)

if you notice in the picture, i have straight hair.. inspired by SHs straightening of my hair over NYE, i bought a straightener at target today and put it to the test. i had washed my hair this morning, put mousse in it, let it dry (and curl) and then hit it with the straightener. holy moly i was shocked and amazed at how straight it became after a few passes with the flat iron. it couldn't have taken me any more than 20 minutes to go from totally curly to straight. i'm very happy with the straightener and look forward to exploring many straight hair styles.

days like today....

it's days and big games like today that make me miss the excitement of boston. i can just imagine wandering through the aisles of the grocery store looking for football party appetizer ingredients. then off to the packie to get some amstel light. i'm sure you can't escape the football/brady talk and sea of patriots shirts, hats and jerseys everywhere you turn. i imagine the jittery excitement is thick in the air.

i was never a huge football follower, there are too many penalties that i just can't be bothered to learn them all. but i love gatherings. and boston has no shortage of sports related reasons to gather with friends, share some drinks, some food and the excitement.

i think it's because there aren't any professional teams in town that people don't seem to be as passionate sports followers as most of the fans in NE. or maybe it's because the NE area teams are all on hot streaks right now.. either way, i feel like my sports cheering capacity is not being tapped. :( i haven't even heard of anyone having a superbowl party yet...


in looking for this photo... i can't believe that i had to go all the way back to oct of 2003... i had gone to denver for the broncos/patriots game that year. the patriots won of course, and the denver fans couldn't have been nicer.

i sit here watching the game with cath and i long to be in boston. :(

trivia was a bust

we went to trivia last night after our dinner at The Mission. it was just me and the roommates cause the KWs and their roommates couldn't go. the bartenders were glad to see us and made comments like, you haven't been here in a while...

we had a 75/165 going into the final round. then the final round was identifying photos of 10 of the presidential candidates. it was pretty humiliating that i have absorbed little to nothing about the upcoming elections despite working at a news outlet.

at work there is a fitness challenge starting tomorrow. everyone participating throws in $10 and after 11 weeks, whoever has lost the most % of body weight wins all. and our GM is matching the pot.. i think i am going to participate. there could be more than $300 up for grabs...

The Mission, Syracuse

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

http://www.cnydigested.com/2008/01/the-mission-syracuse/

please update your bookmarks!

depressing....

it's as bad as i thought... i just talked to KMs mortgage friend and i don't qualify for any sort of mortgage... if i were able to get rid of my student loans (which will naturally expire in october or november) i would free up about $250 i would be able to qualify for a 50K mortgage.. for 50K i would probably be better off buying a winnebago and camping at green lakes for life.

they said one of my options would be to get a cosigner. (if its a blood relative they wouldn't have to live in the house) then i could maybe qualify for a 90-100K house. which again, i'd probably be better off getting a nicer winnebago.

she did say i had excellent credit though..

i need to make some serious money people... any ideas? i'm thinking 2nd job.

what's happening, hotstuff?

<what's going on in fayetteville>

it's been a while since i made a update about my little slice of life. mainly because of the holidays, but also because not much is going on. but the main reason for this update is the fortino florist seems to have patched up their roof. yay!!! they didn't replace the roof - like a normal person would, they just patched the hole. i am noticing that the back of the roof now is looking a little fuzzy. maybe they will tarp it, then let a whole bunch of rain/snow pour in.

another thing i've noticed is the sign for "the hornets nest" fell off the building and they have failed to replace it. it makes me wonder if the bar is closing down.

</what's going on in fayetteville>

tonight my roommates and i (and KW and hopefully someone of her roommates) are going to make a return to trivia!! wooot! it's been since november or early december i think since we went last. i am excited. i hope we are not rusty.

woo who! another cap!

i had my semi-annual 15 minute dentist appointment and i need a cap. :( i have this tooth that is almost all filling. and somewhere along the line either my tooth is eroding more, or my filling is crumbling out. in any case it catches my tongue and the hygienist caught it and brought it to the good doctors attention. he showed it to me in the little mirror and it does not look good. he's requesting a cap from my insurance and we should know in 3 weeks if they will pay for it. yay! another cap. maybe i should just get dentures now.

here at work there is a guy who went on vacation for about a week. while he was gone his coworkers felt it necessary to wrap all his cube (and all its contents) in wrapping paper. it was pretty hysterical. i heard they had 4 cameras on him for his reaction. i hope that makes its way to youtube, i'll let you know if i can get a copy of it.



here are the rest of the pictures.

game night

this weekend was fun. a couple of my boston friends came to visit me. they didn't leave late and stop for a 5 course meal this time, so they arrived in the early evening. i had just enough time after work to fine tune caths spotless cleaning job. since noone had eaten yet, we went to the Dinosaur. delicious as always.



we went and saw Juno with KW saturday afternoon... it was cute.. there were some parts that agitated me a little mainly the "teen speak". but on the whole i liked it. afterwards LK and HEKD shopped like they've never been to a mall before. :)



game night was fun. we played KWs game Cranium Pop 5. it was a different take on the traditional game. after my team lost our first game, we decided to play 90s trivial pursuit and take revenge. when the game went on till after midnight we decided to do a sudden death elimination next team to get a yellow question right wins. we won. :) thanks everyone for coming. it was a blast!

my photos from the evening are here.

a little while ago i mentioned that i started listening to a podcast out of ireland... well they had talked about how they don't have any fans or listeners, so i wrote to them and let them know that i listen. :) they read my email on their latest podcast and talked about/to me for a while. :) it was cool.

if you want to listen, it's here..

Dinosaur Bar B Que, Syracuse

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

http://www.cnydigested.com/2008/01/dinosaur-bar-b-que-syracuse/

please update your bookmarks!

CopperTop Tavern, North Syracuse

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

http://www.cnydigested.com/2008/01/coppertop-tavern-north-syracuse/

please update your bookmarks!

so much to write....

wow. i haven't written in 5 days and i have so much to write.... this will have to be a highlight post..

the roommates and i went to PA for the NYE holiday. there were 12 of us total at E&Rs house. it was a lot of people, but they have a lot of space, so it didn't seem too crowded.

we went to the eagles/bills game sunday and it wasn't as horrific for bills fans as i imagined it could be. there were definitely some people booing R&Jr in their Bills jerseys, and they did get some eggs thrown at them and some beer cans. but that was the exception as far as i saw, and it was as we were parading around the parking lot looking for the bills gathering.. all the bills fans we came in contact with were super nice. the little rally they had all staged in parking lot D was kind of crazy. it's very amazing to me the preparation and effort people put into tail gating.. i took a bunch of pictures in the photo album below.

speaking of photos, as i was going through them i noticed a striking resemblance of EH to Cath.. they have the same "mean face"



the boys all bought their tickets ahead of time, but EH and I waited till the 1st quarter to buy our seats. we ended up talking the scalper down to $30 a piece for a pair of $90 tickets. :) i was really hoping we could get them 2 for $30, but we got a little nervous that we weren't going to get them at all, so we paid $30. the seats were great too. 10 yard line, about 30-40 rows from the field and underneath an overhang, so when it started to rain it didn't get us!

we played cranium turbo this weekend, it's a much more thought out version of cranium.. the original version that i have is a little bit ambigous about what to do on "craniums" and all plays.. but this new version has 2 sets of cards.. it's great, and new activities, one of which is "mind meld" - your team must write down 3 items that remind you of a topic and then you get the question right if 2 of you have matched at least 1 item.. it was very funny to watch S&JH and mike and cath (one team) get the topic 80's bands, and have 12 different answers. cath's answers of The Beatles and ABBA were my favorites. :)

maybe it's just today, but it is remarkably colder here in NY than it was in PA. i spent a good 10 minutes chipping ice off the windshield of my car this morning. :( in PA it was sunny and warm enough that i didn't have to take a shower before bed each night.

as i assembled and titled the photo album last night i watched a few more episodes of Extras.. has anyone else ever watched that show? it's a BBC production on HBO. the premise is Ricky Gervaise's character is an actor that does work as an extra, or background artist as they prefer to be called. each episode finds him on a set of a different movie. there are famous actors in each episode. the first one has kate winslet, there has been ian mcclennan, orlando bloom, daniel radcliffe, samuel jackson, ben stiller and others. ricky gervaise is really really really funny. i have tried to watch the british version of the office, but i just don't like it as much as the american version. but he really is a comic genious. this series has earned him respect in my mind. the series ended last month with its 13th episode, but i am sure he is working on something else, and i hope HBO picks it up again.

i've been patiently waiting since before thanksgiving for the movie Juno to come out around here. it is STILL not out yet! wtf!!! i look every week for that show and it's never playing anywhere around here. god!!! it better come out this weekend.. and then i hope that my visitors will want to go see it. :)

here are the random december photos i have collected..