i achieved my goal, mostly.

i did the test run of riding my bike to work this morning. well, mostly. i went as far as the canal would take me which i estimate to be 2/3rds of the way. i am incredibly sore in my private area... why is a bike seat so uncomfortable? good god.

one thing i noticed though was that every single person that i came across was elated to be out and exercising. that baffles me. i don't understand people so happy about exercise. they must all be practicing "the secret".

speaking of "the secret", MK came to syracuse to visit her non boyfriend and she and i went out to eat while she waited for him to get out of work. it was fun, she ate a chili pepper that she shouldn't have, had no idea what a shallot was and made me order dessert. the food was really good, a bit pricey, but good. she told me that there is a movie about the book, and that i would like it. thinking only positively would be hard for me. someone else try it first. :)

i downloaded the pis from my camera and realized i had taken this one for LK back when she changed her icon.. i bought this in france for my desk. its head constantly moves side to side and its solar, so no batteries. i love it!

friday night crying.

sometimes i just need to cry. thankfully, TWC offers me A&E on demand. there is a show on there called Intervention. as you can imagine its a show about addiction and how it destroys these peoples lives, and then they are served an intervention. its insanely depressing and sad. it also makes me want to drink wine, and its great for crying. i watched 4 episodes. :) one was an alcoholic, one was a heroin addict, one was bulimic, another was addicted to pain pills, and the last one was an oxycontin addict. the last one was the only one that didn't complete treatment successfully. he's probably dead now. i am going to need to throw away these contacts tonight, they are burning my eyes out.

i think tomorrow i am going to do a test run of riding my bike to work. its about 5 miles i think, and i believe its all flat.. i should be able to make it. :)

alright, time for bed, i'm cried out.

another baby!!

someone else i know recently squeezed out a baby... they named him morgan. how cute is that?

morgan sheldon

i was just thinking about how after this wedding season i might be done for a while.. i think i have very few single friends left. the next people i can even think of getting married would be LK or KT, but if they aren't engaged at this point, they prob won't be married next season. :) woo who! i might be able to use my measily 10 vacation days on myself next year!!!

speaking of spending vacation on myself, i looked longingly at the red sox away schedule this afternoon. there are some late august/september road games that i might be able to swing if someone else wants to go. baltimore and NYY are looking decent. TB or CWS might be a possibility too... chicago looks like it might be the most fun (plus i know people there), tix look to be sold out, but i have faith that i can find tickets if necessary. :)

mark my words, next year i am going to see a sox/mariners game. i know people in seattle too! :)

ahhhhhh, it's almost friday.

holy deliciousness!

earlier this week someone mentioned to me going to the local all you can eat sushi place sometime for lunch. so of course all i've been able to think about since then was sushi.. this afternoon at lunch i was dropping my dress off for alterations right next door to this sushi place so i stopped in... right away i spied a "peanut avocado roll" on their menu.

i don't know how this rolled up goodness has escaped my stomach for all this time. the roommates and i have eaten at this chinese/japanese place half a dozen times since i've been home... believe me, from now on there will be no sushi that will compare.. i've found the holy grail of inside out maki!

no ace-man today!

how disappointing when in the middle of one of the news segments today i lost the adam carolla show. i still rocked the headphones though and listened to my 80's privately instead. they better have fixed their stream for tomorrows show!

this weekend cath had two $1 coupons for garnier fructis products. so of course Target didn't have any curl construct mousse. i bought one bottle of the volume inject mousse, and one tube of their "hard curl" gel. i am not a fan of gel typically, but it said curl in the title, so i am giving it a try. it might just be the time of day, and the damp is not completely out of my hair yet, but my hair is making ringlets... i have to think its the gel. maybe i will keep using it... i'll let you (my curly haired audience) know how it turns out.

i know 2 people having b-days this week!! this has been a very birthday intensive month.. i wonder what about june makes people want to get it on...

cards...

Last night was poker night. we played so many different variations of poker that i had never even heard of. it was nice to see CD-S and LD-S. i haven't seen L in probably over 15 years. crazy!!



i did a bunch of work sunday. yeah! big payday this week. not to mention i was called about 3 times as a part of my "on call weekend". :( but that is more money too!

i had a lot of fun at the mary kay party i went to friday night.. i bought some face cleanser and a lip liner. MHs sister is sooo funny. so is her mother. I can't get over how much she doesn't care to be a grandmother. cath would kill to have 4 grandchildren. :) MHs kids are so cute too.. i should have taken pictures.

amazing race was alright tonight. i am glad mirna and schmirna are winning. they are funny. still crazy as hell, but entertaining.. i was hoping that the guidos would lose so cath could share in my misery, but no such luck...

cathy david and mary & joe and bill
emily oswald and danny & charla and mirna
hope uchenna and joyce
mike rob and amber & dustin and kandice
reba kevin and drew & john vito and jill
ryan teri and ian & eric and danielle

who needs a GPS system...

... when they have such geographically intelligent parents as i do? Not me!!! i picked up EHs bridesmaid dress today from the boutique that i have been to a couple of times. i didn't print off directions like i usually do, and thought to myself, eh.. i can wing it.. good thing i called cath to confirm i was headed the right way. i'd be in oswego by now looking for the great northern mall exit off of 481... phew... she was able to guide me to the correct highway and the correct turns i needed to make to get there. so i learned something today that i will hopefully retain... the christmas tree store is off of 81...

i really need to spend sometime looking at a map if i am going to make syracuse my home..

the sore throat i had earlier this week has dissipated, and seems to have been replaced with a constant runny nose. bastard allergies!! i refuse to admit i have a cold, so i'm sticking to allergies.

tonight i am going to a mary kay party at a friends house. i'm really going for the wine, cause as you know i don't wear makeup... but i do love vino!!

tomorrow cath is having some old friends over for a card night. i'm kind of looking forward to that. i always remember as a kid the ladies playing cards and it seemed like they were having so much fun as my sisters and i listened from the other room and planned what we would pack in our suitcases for when we were going to run away.. speaking of running away, its a wonder i didn't really run away as a kid. i remember thinking a lot about it... actually, i had a lot of plans of action as a kid. such as, what i would do when an intruder broke into the house and would come up to my doorless bedroom looking to abduct me (when i wasn't sleeping in the crack between my bed and the wall, i had a butter knife, because it would hurt more when i fought back, tucked under my pillow)... and for a long time i remember sleeping with a pillowcase full of my most valuable possessions right next to my bed so that i could grab it at a moments notice when the house burned down. i remember i planned to run and run and run when i was inevitably going to be stopped by a stranger in a car with no license plates (had to be no license plates i told myself) looking to abduct me from my 10 minute walk home from the busstop.

geez, i'm surprised i am not afraid of my shadow as an adult. maybe cause i thought past the fear and took charge and formulated a plan in my head...

i don't know where this post is going. i'm sick, cut me some slack.

holy tv night batman!

tonight is a jam packed tv night if i've ever seen one!

survivor is on special tonight cause of march madness... then the idol results show, then LOST. wooo who! i love TV.

i think i am getting sick. my throat started hurting monday, and its gotten progressively worse. :( i'm hoping OJ will cure it. OJ and jello sugar free chocolate mint pudding.

i've been cranking out the work a lot lately. it's nice cause more work=more money=paying off credit cards=owning my own place someday! then i can put to test my home renovation knowledge...

i also recently read through my best bachelorette party guide book.. i need to talk to EH, but i think we could do some of the fun things they recommend. i'm having a feeling SBs last night will be high comedy!! get ready SB...

amazing race recap.

last night HEK and Double D lucked out and narrowly escaped the axe... i thought for sure they were gone-ers. i really don't like Uchenna and Joyce that much. i think they won the million the first time around by sheer luck, and the fact that they still haven't had a baby bothers me. they said something in the beginning about their marriage suffering and they were hoping this experience would bring them closer, etc. ugh. i hate that. my prediction for next week is that uchenna and joyce are kicked out. there is no way in hell they'll come in first.

cathy david and mary & joe and bill
emily oswald and danny & charla and mirna
hope uchenna and joyce
mike rob and amber & dustin and kandice
reba kevin and drew & john vito and jill
ryan teri and ian & eric and danielle

nothing going on....

i had so much of nothing to do on st pattys day that i didn't even get dressed. i spent the entire day watching "flip this house". i want to do that someday....

while i subconsiously absorbed home renovation tips i finished up one of my freelance jobs, made an icon, and changed this site! woot! tomorrow i have other freelance stuff to do, and some purses to add to DCs site. looks like another busy day! :) i might even shower tomorrow.

make and take pictures

here are a couple of photos from the make and take.





here are the rest...

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=dultmwy.b9jzl4z2&x=1&y=-sczsce

i am cry..

accolades were handed out too prematurely. :( Weather vs BYFE round one.... Winner, Weather!

unfortunately the weather was indeed too severe to travel between MA and NY. LK and HEK need to be applauded for their efforts though.. they put in 110% effort. In the end they aborted their mission 4 hours, and 71 miles later. :(

i have not heard if they made it back in one piece yet. they were headed east on Rt 20 when i spoke with them last...

i made up this little image to vent some of my frustration..



you can click on the image to see it larger..

well, i guess the weekend wasn't a total wash. HEK won't have to leave Bear at the kennel till tuesday and LK can see G...

so sad though, we've been planning this for 2 months.

the girls are coming, the girls are coming (well.. most of them)

despite the nor'easter that is plaguing the north east right now, LK and HEK are still making the trek.. i am so proud of them.. who's going to let a little snow rain on their parade... not these ladies!!

this is what their drive is going to look like...



good thing LK has the BYFE (Big Yellow Ford Escape)...

i was up stupid late last night chatting online (i'm talking cath casino late...). not something i usually do... i had to drink red bull this morning, :( i was jittering all over.

last night cath and i went to "Make and Take Gourmet" down at Fayetteville Center. it was so much fun.. its recipe making for idiots. they have all the food pre prepped and portioned out for you, all you need to do is combine the ingredients and zip them up in a ziplock bag and throw it in your freezer. someone from caths work hosted a party and we all had wine and snacks while we assembled our recipes. cath was like a bull in a china shop... she "accidently" shut one of the prep stations, and it crashed down on this womans mixing bowl spilling it all over the counter. then she let her wine glass full of ice crash to the ground.. jeeez. give the lady 3oz of wine and she gets all loopy.

i took pictures that i will upload later on.. it was such a cute place/idea.

Happy Birthday Bilo...

compliments on my photos...

today i got some compliments on my photos. i also heard that they are "crap crap crappy"... but i am choosing to ignore the crappy comment.

for those of you interested, i use a Nikon Coolpix S5. its a digital hand cam. its tiny, and that is what i love about it. I've been experimenting a lot lately with taking pics without a flash, that is how it seems like there is so much light in the places i've been taking photos. the only problem is that if you are taking a photo in low light with out the flash (most indoor situations) the shutter needs to stay open for longer than it would if there was a flash, so even slight movement makes the picture blurry. that is how some of my shots look photoshopped in that the foreground is still, and the background looks blurry, someone in the background probably moved, while the foreground didn't.

the camera is seriously so small that i can carry it in my purse at all times, which i do. :) and that is how i can bore you all with all kinds of photos all the time.

amazing race recap.

well. this week was a slap to the face. the most favored team to win was given the boot... and that begins MBs decline!! haha.. actually, i am really kind of sad to see rob and amber go. i loved seeing them cheat and lie their way to the top. :( the other teams are not nearly as fun to watch. except mirna and schmirna. they are still insane, the tall one, (not sure which is which) is a lunatic. she screams and seems stressed out the whole entire show. its high comedy..

cathy david and mary & joe and bill
emily oswald and danny & charla and mirna
hope uchenna and joyce
mike rob and amber & dustin and kandice
reba kevin and drew & john vito and jill
ryan teri and ian & eric and danielle

in other news.. i figured out that i am allergic to sugar free gum.. a while back while at the movies with the Fs, i came to find out that PF can't chew sugarfree gum, i thought nothing of it and kept smacking away on my orbitz orange mint gum. i don't know why i ran out, but i went a while without chewing gum and started again in paris, and within minutes i had a pesky canker sore on my tongue.. so i spit out my gum, sure enough it eventually it went away. last week i had a piece and sure as day, canker sore. so now its juicy fruit all the way for me.. if anyone else knows of any non sugar free gums let me know (its actually harder than you'd think to find a sugar-full gum) good thing last time i was at bjs i bought a whole box of orbitz orange mint... anyone want some?

i picked up the $200+ dress that i'll be wearing to SBs wedding. it fits. i prob need to take in the bust somewhat but other than that its one of the more comfortable dresses i will have worn as a bridesmaid. i love the black satin... its a little long... but that's fine i think. :) its supposed to be "cocktail" length, but on me, its almost full length. damned short legs!! if i think of it i will take a picture of me in it..

weekend recap..

i had a great productive weekend. i spent most of today cooking and grocery shopping.. cath and i made some moroccan meatball soup and cabbage rolls. deliciousness!! i also bought all kinds of groceries and meal things for next week. wooot!

friday night i saw three hundos with the Fs. WF says he wants to meet up for brunch sunday, but i'll believe it when i see it. :) he's in PA all week. i liked 300, it was uber violent, but again, it was one of those movies that just oozes testosterone. i think i'm fiending for testoterone lately. the movie started at 1035. we got there fashionably early at 9pm. :) which i am actually glad about, there is nothing worse then getting to the theater late and getting a crappy seat, and missing previews. needless to say we were the first people in line for the 1035. there was a woman there with 2 toddlers.. the older child couldn't have been more than 4 and then there was probably a 2 year old. one or both of the kids started crying during the movie. it must have lasted 15 minutes. i was livid!! what the F were they doing there in the first place???

saturday cath and i went to the gym at 1030. it was insanely packed. so we left and walked around the old fayetteville mall. :) then i got ready and met my old high school friends OC and MV for lunch, drinks and a tour of MVs new house. it was gorgeous, they've redone the inside completely. i should have taken pictures. hearing MVs husband talk about all the work that he has done was insanely inspiring. he had a visible passion for the work he had done. it really made me think seriously about doing some construction, or looking for a guy that is in construction. at lunch the three of us talked about our lives and i realized how different mine is. something the two of them have in common that i don't is that they cook meals each night for their significant others. one even cooks a 4-5 course meal each night. wtf??? i don't really think i will ever do that. where is the equality? i'm wondering if my idea of an ideal man exists.. he would have about a 3 day beard growth at all times, he would be a computer nerd. he'd also have to be able to remodel our house, and not crappily either, it'll need to be good. i can be very anal... :)

saturday night my roommates and i went to oswego to scope out an annual juried art show that i am going to enter next year. we scoped it out. i think i might be able to make it in.. all that art inspired me to take some photos.. so at the show, at greenes afterwards, and at the sub shop i tool photos. at one point cath told me if i didn't stop taking her picture she was going to sue me.

JI, check out the raw photos, i think you'll see someone you remember from school...

here are some of the pics i took.. see the rest in the uncut version on ofoto..


i love art shows...


the bartender moves quick!


mike loves greenes.


maybe i can put this in the art show next year.


sub shop... i miss this place!


cath ordered a "beef on the wick", it didn't hold a candle to my salami sub. afterall it is called the sub shop...

here are the photos in their raw form...

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=dultmwy.9hjiezi6&x=1&y=hdt31l

finally! i have plans here in syracuse!

i am starting to feel like a real live citizen of CNY. tonight i am going to the movies, tomorrow i am going to have lunch cocktails with some ladies, tomorrow night i might drive up to my old college to see an art show... i'm so happy!

the weather here today is gorgeous! its still below freezing, but i feel like going outside without a coat in short sleeves!! the snow is melting pretty readily.. maybe by next weekend it will have melted. i think its supposed to be 40s by the middle of next week. how sweet would that kind of weather be for st pattys day?

i've been asking around here at work for ideas on what to do with my visitors next saturday. i've gotten a bunch of feedback. my guess is we'll be running into some of them.. everyone keeps saying go to the parade, go to the parade... hmm. we'll see.

i picked up a dress for my may wedding today... we'll see if it fits. this was the one i had to pay the $40 rush fee on. its the beginning of march. the wedding isn't till the end of may. i am highly upset that i had to pay a rush. the one i ordered for the july wedding should be in by the first week in may. that would have been plenty of time for this dress too. ugh. i hate bridal stores.

fun is coming...

in 8 short days i'm going to have some visitors from MA. how lucky am i? i really thought noone would ever come visit me out in the 'cuse. boy was i wrong... i've had many visitors..

i've officially been sucked into american idol. i have resisted watching that show for so many seasons now. damn!! i don't like how they draw it out over three nights though. i hope it goes back to just 2 or even 1 night a week.

the next door neighbor just put her house on the market. i remember back in the day when it was on sale for $119K. now its gone up to 205K. shiiiiit. its is a pretty nice place though with beautiful landscaping... if only i had won that lottery...

oh, and in case you haven't figured it out by now, i didn't win the mega millions.

mega millions daydreaming.

they say i have a 1 in 176 million chance of winning tonights drawing. actually, i have 24 tickets, so maybe its slightly higher than that. :) we figured out that the lump sum will be something like 131 million. shiiit. how nice would that be? i could up my "range" for house hunting if i won. i could also buy another car, and pay off the one i currently have. i could travel more too, first class even!! and stay in places that have modern bathrooms, not paint flakey mildew ridden fleabag motels. i could invest for my retirement. i could throw a kick ass pirate party (i am playing around with the idea even if i don't win the lottery). i could get a summer place on saranac lake. i could go back to school for art. i could get myself a damned bluetooth headset. i could buy some babies for my sister. and most importantly, i could put some in my savings account to raise it up from the $5 i deposited to start the account.

amazing race...

how sad was it when david and mary got kicked off? i was praying it would be the blondes, in the past when teams have forgotten/missed parts of the clues, etc, they had to serve a penalty or were DQd i thought. :( that mirna and schmirna are crazy people... i hopethey don't get kickedd off anytime soon, they are funny. and as predicted, rob and amber are running away with the show. :)

cathy david and mary & joe and bill
emily oswald and danny & charla and mirna
hope uchenna and joyce
mike rob and amber & dustin and kandice
reba kevin and drew & john vito and jill
ryan teri and ian & eric and danielle

wedding weekend, again!

this weekend was another wedding weekend. story of my life. :) it was highly productive though, the wedding invitations were mostly done, as i said before cath and mike cut, cornered and assembled them while i was on holiday. this weekend we finished up the few we had left, put them in envelopes, stamped and addressed them. then i organized them by zip codes for the PO. :) they were put in the mail saturday, so if you know you're invited. check you mailbox next week.

we also filled out all the shower invites and bachelorette party invites, those will go in the mail last week. phew!!! the invites are all done, now the fun of planning the events can start.

also this weekend i filed my taxes. woot. however where did the days of getting a big return go? god, i am not even getting back 700. and i owe money to NYS. wtf! but as i fill this out as far as the gov't can tell i spend every penny i get, and i do actually, on my credit cards. :(

next week i need to get back into the swing of working my part time job again. i took last week as a breather, but i need to keep making the money.

i bought a cool book today filled with bachelorette party ideas. :) get ready sarah!!!