Thursday, October 30, 2008

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)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

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.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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

Sunday, October 19, 2008

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

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

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...

Sunday, October 12, 2008

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...

Saturday, October 11, 2008

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.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

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.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

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?

Sunday, October 05, 2008

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!

Friday, October 03, 2008

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?

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

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!