Week 17: Nature doesn't always like me.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

I hate procrastinating with this thing because my memory is so crappy sometimes. I'm going to do my best to make this rock. Saturday 4/21/07: Dog Park: Nature doesn't always like me. There is only one thing that as much as my family and that is friends. So I was lucky to have both my sister and Gayle visit. It was fantastic. Tre brought up Edie and Gayle had her new puppy Beasley. Beasley is a Cockapoo (Cocker Spaniel / Toy Poodle) and perhaps one of the most chill dogs in all the world. Both dogs when to the dog park and played and played. Here is a picture of the pups. Tre, Gayle, Troy and I were sitting on the grass with some other dog owners and I was blessed to be pissed on by a roving beagle! The little guy was roaming the joint marking everything and decided to hit me up on the way. So, I don't know how to take this. What is the universe trying to tell me. That I am so awesome, the dog had to claim me for himself. OR is it a warning to never foster another beagle. EVER. The owner was mortified. I thought she was going to die right there. But I'm cool with it. I've had baby guinea pigs and those bastards like to pee on everything. Saturday, 4/21/07: My town: Stuff After the dog park we went to Troy's garage to check out the truck and the soda machine. Tre laughed for awhile when she saw it. I can't believe I own one either. Me, Tre and Gayle went for a walk around town. We say the Victorian Bellefonte B&B that burned down a few weeks ago (Troy and I witnessed the horror the day that it burst into flames. His garage is just down the street). It was sad and still smelled like campfire. We were lucky enough to see it in all it's glory a few months ago during Victorian Bellefonte and their Xmas home tour. I think that it just mad it more sad to see it now. Like the Bush House all over again. Anywho, we say the most awesome Hitler Cat. I actually jumped back when I saw him. Thanks Gayle for the photos. To celebrate Hitler cat, this is Operation Kitten Calender. It may be the funniest kitten related video ever. There are five parts and it starts to get good around part 3. We watched it alot over the weekend. This is VERY FUNNY! KISS MY ASS! Sunday, 4/22/07: Too much to eat. Tre and I went to Mr. C's - Home of the fat sandwich. We both got fat sandwiches and I'm a little embarrased to say what I got. Here is a pic. It is called the Faaat Mojow:2 cheeseburgers, 1 mozzarella stick, chicken fingers, bacon, egg, mayo, ketchup. It was on $6.95. That is really cheap for about 3 lunches. Tre got the Faaat Lion: chicken fingers, 2 mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, mayo, kethup. I couldn't finish mine and took it home for Troy. Tre just picked what she wanted and threw the rest away. It was gross but, if you know these sisters, you know that it sounds about right. I'm not going to fight it. It was really fucking good. This is the first animated gif that I did - EVER. It's of me and Tre grooving. Fuck art - let's dance! Thursday: 4/26/07: Nittany Lion Inn: Meals on Wheels Dinner I think that Jodie is addicted to being in this blog! Greg, through Jodie, invited me to join AC at the MOW dinner because I have been known to rock hard. It was great because a) it was a pricey per plate dinner to help MOW - a totally worthy charity delivering meals to home bound and elderly recipients, 2) I got to have dinner with some of my favorite co-worker types (including KATIE!), and 3) I saw Franco Harris (of Immaculate Reception Fame) give a speech. I don't really know much about Mr. Harris except for when I tell dudes that I met him they are pretty interested. My pop-pop will enjoy the story, that's good enough. And the food was pretty good. The waiter took away my roll mid-dinner, which totally threw me for a loop because I've never seen anything like it. And I love bread! I had flash backs of Christmas Parties Past at the Nittany Lion Inn and the drunkness that ensues after drinking a bottle of wine by yourself. Silly Xmas Parties. How I miss you not. Thanks to AC and those who chatted me up: Linda, Jess, Sarah, Jon, Katie, Jodie, Greg, and Anita! I think that's it. Because I'm a couple days late, I don't want to confuse what I did this weekend with the past week. So I'll shut my trap… NOW!

Weeks 14 - 16: Has it been 3 weeks already?

Thursday, April 19, 2007

It's been forever since I talked about myself and it was great. I like keeping a record of what I have done, because my memory is crap, but I hate talking about myself. It is merciless. I hope that you missed me. At the very least I hope that something in here is mildly entertaining. Easter was one week, I was busy the next and this week I had/have a cold. Much of what was new happened here, in this house, for that very reason. 3/30/07: My House: Visual Journal I'm not a big journal person. Mainly because I think I'm a dork and I can't stand to read about how dorky I was in the past. Uggh. I'm so glad I'm not 10-16 any more. I was SO in love. Everything was SO important. The crush was SO big. Going through the hopes and dreams of someone SO young, especially when it is me, is so embarrassing. I may regret this when I'm 50. But I probably won't. Despite all of this, I've decided to start another journal. This one will be visual as well as written. I'll draw in it instead of writing a post. Or paste in artifacts from a trip. A sort of scrapbook/journal hybrid. But it wont be pretty. And I'm positive that future me will be embarrassed. But if I can keep this blog going (even though I hate the word blog as much as I hate the word coupon), I think that I can do the journal. I have so many random and winding thoughts in my head they should be down on paper for future generations to decipher/study. 3/31/07: My house: Internet guy This is the third dude to come to our house to try and fix our cable modem. He ended up replacing some cable outside of the house that was split. Funny how the other two dudes missed that one. Over the weekend everything worked awesome. It was a true joy to have steady service, even though we were out and about most of it. Monday morning brought new disappointment of sporadic service. We had a big thunderstorm last night and I'm betting dollar to donuts that there is something wrong with the drop line from the pole. The war isn't new, but the battle is. UPDATE: We finally go somebody to believe us and change the drop line into the house. Funny enough it was the second dude who said NOTHING was wrong. Yeah, the guy who missed the completely screwed wire running along side our house. If the dude would have listened to us the first time, he probably wouldn't have had to come back and change the wire in a snowstorm. I guess you really do get what you give sometimes. 4/5/07: My House: Door Dam. I have no idea what I can call this guy, but door dam sounds both funny and gross. Living in an old Vic can mean some truly drafty winter days. I saw an infomercial for something like this on TV and wanted to make one. Luckily, I found a web page with instructions. Here are before and after shots. That is about a two inch gap. The other side is a closet that is next to the neighbors front door. It can be really cold in there in the winter and this helps to keep the breeze out when your sitting on the floor. It also helps keep the chinchilla out of there. I have to make 4 more but I think that I can manage. They really do the business too. 4/8/07: My House: Mr. Toofy von Schnauzer Here is our new addition to our family. His name is Mohawk, the Hawk, Mr. Toofy von Schnauzer or Whitey Ford. Or Jerkface fuzzy guy. He has many. He came from my sister and looks a lot like our dear departed Jack. Luke really wants to love him - hard - so they are and will be separated. When we had Jack and Dent they could just chill with each other and share the same cage, but Luke (and our other hairless Charlie) is such an asshole. So for now, Hawk sits on the couch with me and Luke runs around the couch - screaming. It makes for a great evening. Thanks Tre! The camera didn't give him red eye—God did. 4/10/07: Gamble Mill, Bellefonte: Lunch with Craig I love the Gamble Mill. It is absolutely my favorite bar to go to in this tiny four-bar-having town. A rum&Coke is maybe pricey, but what your really paying for is seclusion from nut jobs, a great bartender and a easy, quiet vibe. You can actually hear what your friends are talking about. There is a fire on cold winter nights. I've eaten there before, but always at the bar, so it was nice to go for lunch. And if it feels like I haven't seen Craig in years, it's because I probably haven't. My food was pretty good (Chicken sandwich) and it was really cheap compared to what a little piece of cake is going for during dinner. I missed talking to Craig and I was very happy that lunch went so well. We went right back into our roles as friends, and as he said, it's like 7 years ago all over again. Thanks Craig! 4/15/07: Pittsburg Mills, Pittsburgh: H&M & Red Robin Troy and I shot a wedding this weekend in Pitt, and on our way home on Saturday we stopped at Pittsburgh Mills to do a wee little bit of shopping. I spent about 100 bucks at H&M and what I bought was really cute. Here is a highlight - a skull BFF ring. His jaw unhinges! How freaking rad is that? I also bought this outfit to wear next to the truck. I think I need new shoes! I've never been to a Red Robin but it looked better than the Cajun place that was harassing us with samples in the food court, so we went for the burger and milkshakes. I really wanted what Troy got which was a mushroom/swiss burger, but I always pick that burger combo. Instead I had the Chili Chili Cheeseburger. The chili was good, but it probably would have been better if we didn't eat chilli that on Tuesday and Wednesday. I would still rather go to Baby's and have a chicken wimpy basket. Oh, and before I forget - we did some ghost hunting Saturday night. We didn't catch a ghost (even though we heard great, GREAT ghost stories) but I did catch the groove. While downstairs hunting for ghouls, I danced - a lot. It's not well know that I can groove - but it's true. We probably didn't see anything because the ghost was afraid to get served. One spooky thing: Chris dropped his camera while we were downstairs and we looked everywhere for the battery and eventually gave up. As soon as Chris sat down and looked around, the battery showed up in the opposite direction of where he dropped the camera. I'm 85% sure that we looked there - so there is a 15% chance that we are blind. Really, I think a ghost was screwing with us. Thanks to Jen, Derek, Alicia, Jeff, Chris, Nick's lady, Eric and Brian Boitano for keeping it real! I really wished that we could have gone on a trip to the graveyard. Here is a photo of me when I saw what I thought was a ghost, but was really just a dog. I almost peed a little. YES, my hair is that long. It is crazy. 4/9/07: My House, this very desk: Yucky. My MAC came with this really nice keyboard that has ultra white keys and a clear base. It looks great. But I am a mess and I eat at my desk, which translates to a really gross scene. I never cleaned a keyboard before and I was really scared to break this one, especially because I didn't want to spend 60 bucks on a new one. I got the job done but here is a picture of the keyboard in the middle of cleaning. Yeah, that is some kind of bug. So freaking gross. I have to stop eating sandwiches at my desk. Odds and ends: I had two straight days of draining sinuses. Two days of hell more like it. To scratch my throat, I've been eating these like their going out of style - whole wheat cheese curls. Holy Crap they are good. So much better than Cheetos and next to fat-free Redi-Whip whipped cream, my favorite "fake good thing for you that is actually probably bad." You still get the Cheeto orange stain, but not the oil slick down the throat. Awesome. Troy bought the Wellness Formula to fight our colds. It has about 30 different ingredient to help fight a cold including garlic and vitamin C (1290 mg!) and something called Horehound Arial Parts. Both Jodie (who raves about it / swears on it) and Troy were disappointed to find out that the Arial parts were NOT the antennae from a Horehound bug. I'm sorry to say it is a flower. Troy feels better already (he took it yesterday) and I feel better today. I don't know if it's because I took it this morning or I took Tylenol Sinus last night. Either way, I'm blowing my nose more, but coughing less. Thanks Jodie! Here is a wheat pizza that we made. It was really really good. I love you wegmans. Well, god bless you guys for hanging in with me. I promise I'll keep the good times rolling and maybe at a faster pace.

Week 13 - Yes, I am that pale.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Current mood: optimistic Well, it's official. I got my first sunburn of the year. And with any sunburn, I get free! a new freckle/mole/freak mark. This year I was lucky enough to receive another "Cindy Crawford." How did I get it? Well… 3/25/07: Centre Hall, PA: Auction: Faust Garage This was my first auction with paddles and auctioneers. I've gone to the "auction" back home, which is more like a swap meet/farmer's market. There are 2 auctions, and the one in Schuylkill Haven does actually auction stuff off, but it's usually weird stuff and I've never joined. I usually just hang out by the shoe-fly pie guy or the "Skin-less, headless chicken" stand. This auction was at a now-defuct garage and Troy, Kyle and Ryan are dudes, so they like that kind of thing. Troy bought hubcaps, Kyle bought rasps or files, and Ryan and I bought french fries. Then it came along. I joked with Troy about it but when it actually came along I sprung into action and now this sweet baby is mine: Here's a close up: It is a Vendomatic (right Troy? or is it something like a VendoKiller?) Pepsi from the late 70's. It works perfectly and now is at home in Troy's garage. I love it. When I was a kid, there were a few things that I've always wanted and a soda machine was one of them (a barrister bookcase is another). Now I have one. Thanks to the guys for sticking around to help me take it home, especially Ryan for transport. We were going to leave the auction early, but because of me and this big sucker we stayed until about 4 or 5 when it ended. Yes, I am this pale. I burn in March. I paid for it in spades, guys, with the awesome sunburn/poisoning I got. Luckily, it reached peak Tuesday at the Electric 6 show. As soon as I get a pic from Tre, I'll show you the beauty of the burn. I am still peeling a week later. This is where the new freckle/mole comes in. I usually get a new one after a good burn. I have an awesome one in the middle of my forehead from 3-4 years ago that l call my unicorn horn. Troy and I joked that I will one day have a freckle-stach - a strip of freckles that go over my lip and look like a thin mustacheo. Ah, humor. Thanks for getting me over the fact that I look like rudolph. From top left: Unicorn 3, Unicorn 2, Unicorn 1 (that would be the rad one right in the middle of my forehead), some burnt skin on my burnt nose, the super rad eye freckle (Troy has the same one on the opposite eye. His is a true freckle, not a crazy russian mole/freckle), Crawford moles 1(left) and 2 (right). Righty is new kid on the block. 3/24/07: Music I'm doing this one out of order. We bought 3 new cds (from an actual store. I can't tell you how many Troy has downloaded from eMusic. BTW - twest: I need the arcade fire, please): Rocco DeLuca & the Burden, Amy Winehouse and Modest Mouse. Rocco Deluca - Reminds me tons of Jeff Buckley, which made me really happy. Not as shrieky as Jeff can get which made me happier. Bluesy. Sexy. Folky. I listened to it about 3 times a day last week. Amy Winehouse - Very 70's soul. I wanted to know what all the fuss was about, so I broke down and bought it. She's a hot mess. And it is a total mind-fuck to see a skinny little white girl sing like Aretha Franklin. I still can't wrap my mind around it. I liked it but not as much as Lily Allen. http://www.myspace.com/modestmouse - loved it. I could probably listen to it another dozen times to truly fall in love, but it's good. Probably better than Good Times. 3/26/07: Khybar, Philly: Electric 6 We went to see Electric 6 (again) at the Khybar (again), but this time I had a good time (that's new). The crowd was much better. I met some of Tre's E6 buddies and Nashinal and the drummer destroyer, so that was cool. And I bought this awesome shirt that kinda rips of the Yuengling eagle. Unfortunately, they are not coming back until October. If Tre makes it that long before taking off for Detroit, I will be amazed. 3/28/07: My house: Thunderstorm. First thunderstorm of the year (that I heard anyway). I love spring. Random stuff: First robin of the spring - 3/18/07. We drove out to Fisherman's Paradise. I'm excited to take a bike ride out when we have a free weekend again (I guess April sometime, maybe May. How sad is it that our next free weekend is May). Yana - I suck. Last week sucked as well. Can we meet up this week? And by this week, I mean Tuesday or Wednesday. Wow (not really a week). Maybe next week. Congratulations Dello family! Yay you guys. That's about it. Looking forward to a new week of newness. It's spring and it's beautiful, so hopefully we'll be able to do stuff outside soon.

Week 12 - Peanut Butter is so good.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Current mood: pleased Here we meet again. Another week past. And what a fast week. I don't even remember most of it but I know that it went by fast. Here are a few things that went down: Tuesday, 3/20/07, My Kitchen: Peanut Butter Cupcakes I have been getting the weirdest cravings lately. Out of nowhere I'll just get really hungry for a butterscotch crimpit or mashed potatoes. It's just this passing flash of hunger for something very, very specific. I don't remember ever having anything like it before and it's just been the past month or two that this has been going on. Anyway, I've had this nagging urge for fluffy cupcakes. And it has been nagging. So I decided to break down and make some. We didn't have any cake mix in the house but I do have my favorite cook book. So I made cupcakes from SCRATCH. I've never done that before. I was just going to make plain white cake cupcakes but I saw this little blurb at the bottom of the page that gave directions to make a cake peanut butter. I've been dying for PB pancakes so I thought I would kill two birds, etc. Here is what went down: Me making a mess of trying to fill some cups. A shot before they went into the oven. The best cupcakes in the world. I didn't ice them, we just ate them plain. That caused a little bit of a disagreement between Troy and me. One, I don't really like icing. I've had some really great icing - Troy's mom's and my nana's are two examples of extraordinary icing. I love carbs and would rather just eat the dough. Two, I have no idea how to make icing and I don't know that I had everything/anything to do so. Three, it's a fact that jelly is the way to go (it's peanut butter!) and next time I'm injecting those suckers. So, Troy, I win. Seriously, I've made some great, great food this year so far and this is probably my most favorite goody that I've made yet. When they were freshed baked they were awesome. Heavenly I would go so far to say. So fucking good is another way. I loved, loved, loved them. I'm making some for my sister and pop-pop soon. If you want one, I'll save one for you. Tuesday, 3/20/07, LuLu's, State College: The Hold Steadies with Illinois This was my first time as LuLu's and my first all age show in a club in State College that wasn't at the Crowbar (RIP). LuLu's kind of looks like a mixture of "Solid Gold" (if it took place in the 90s) and a asian whorehouse. Red laquer paint everwhere and paper laterns. It was a weird joint. And I'm not a fan of the bathrooms. The part that sucked the most (where the Crowbar had it right and Lulu's is wrong) is that both under and over 21 mix together on the same floor. Meaning no drinks for the grown ups. Actually, meaning no drink at all - including water. Nothing. Illinois was pretty good. Sometimes they were a little too earnest, but in general they were ok. I think that some of the slow songs went on for too long and were a little too emo. The Hold Steadies were awesome. Just the coolest band I've seen in a while. The vibe was that good I left happy and not wanting to kill, kill, kill the cowboy next to us. It was a good night. Thanks Troy and Jason! Here is a photo. It's crappy and I'm mad at my cell phone. Last week in my very special double post I forgot to mention the new program I bought. I bought it the night that I missed Tussy. It's called Delicious Library and it catalogs all of your music, dvd/videos, books and games. And it does it in the most beautiful way. Since we had some cd's stolen from our car, I worry about what would happen if a large chunk were taken or, god forbid, the house blew up. How would be know what we lost? And we tried writing it all down - that lasted for about a week until our hands cramped. This program catalogs everything so easy and can give you a print of your entire list when your down. AND, it gives you all kinds of info like how much it's currently worth (Babyshambles: $26; Alien Ant Farm: $0.75), track names, random liner notes and a small review. Here are two views, one of the entry mode and one of the library mode: You can enter info either using your iSight and the barcode or manually entering the barcode or item name. When your done it puts everything in a wooden library. I love pretty things. Okay, that is it. Mock my music taste below. Or beg for cupcakes. In either case, keep rockin.

Week 10 & 11 - I'm a little slow

Monday, March 19, 2007

Week 10 & 11 - I'm a little slow Current mood: okay Uggh. It's been one thing after another these past two weeks. Today is really the first day that I've have internet at night for any prolonged period since last Wednesday (It's Monday!). That was pretty stressful in itself. I've also had some joint/muscle problems and the accompanying medication makes me a little tired. I spent a couple days either in a doctor's office, without power or with internet. What a problem week. But I'm feeling better and life is good so let's get on with it. Friday, 3/2/07: Sheetz, Elysburg: Chili dog I never had a chili dog - ever! I was talking about them with Jodie on our trip the week before. On our way home to celebrate Tre's birthday we stopped at Sheetz and feasted on Chili and Saurkraut dogs. Troy and Jodie both vote for the chili, but as a true Polish girl, I go for the kraut. Thanks Jodie! Saturday, 3/3/07, Ikea: Philly Ok. It's not my first time at Ikea but it was Tre's, so that kinda counts for something. Really, it counts as a first because we bought our first kitchen table. The table that we had previously was one that I bought in 1997, from a thrift store in Pottsville, PA. I did the mosaic on the top but never finished it in ten years. It was looking like a hot mess. So we bought this one. It is built like a 50's kitchen table with leaves from both sides pulling out from under the top of the table, so it doubles in size. I was torn between the one that we got and a black finish that would match our chairs that we refinished two years ago. I think that it has a nice contrast. As soon as it's warm in our kitchen we will eat at it. Here is the new carpet that we bought. Our old one was a little beat. Now it's under our Ikea bed chasing away dust bunnies. This rug was only $15! Bless you Ikea. i love you. Thanks for going Tre! I know you had a good time even though you way otherwise. Tuesday, 3/6/07, My kitchen: Whole-wheat pizza We've been trying to eat healthier and this was one of our shots at getting off of the processed flour pizza highway. We bought the dough frozen from Wegmans and let it defrost in the fridge for two days. Holy Crap! It expanded and took up just about the whole bottom shelf. When we baked it it double in size of a regular pizza to about the size of a Sicilian pizza. I'm so bummed out I didn't take a picture. I definitely will next time. And I so recommend wheat pizza. It was so good and such a great break from regular old pizza. It was a vacation from the ordinary. So lame of a saying but, really, it was fucking good. Friday, 3/9/07, Hofbrau, Bellefonte: Breadsticks We went to the Hofbrau and I had their breadsticks. Yummy. Nothing too fantastical but it was something new and something that I wouldn't ordinarily order. And that's what it's all about baby! Troy was totally cool and took me out for dinner to cheer me up. Jess and Maura were going snowboarding again at Tussey and I had to bail because my body is so screwed up. My hip was super hurting and I limped all the way down the street, all the while making fun of Troy for walking to fast and leaving me a block behind. He would giggle slow down. It was a nice substitute but I'm really sorry that I missed another chance to show my "skillz on the hillz." I hope that you guys had a good time! Thursday, 3/14/07, My office: New Internet Provider I think that I mentioned before that I signed up for new internet, Verizon, and that it was kind of a big deal because I was with earthlink for so long. On Thursday, our service went out, only one week after we signed up for it. We are still out of service now and the service guy STILL has not called us to fix it. Thursday afternoon, after my doc appt., I went to the Comcast office and picked up a new modem. The girl at the desk, who was very nice, said that it was super easy to hook up. It kinda was. The problem is that it won't stay on. We had a service guy come out and check the line, they reset the modem numerous times remotely, and we switched out modems but to no avail. I'm assuming the second service guy came out today as scheduled because we have had constant internet since I got home at 3:30. Yay! Where was I? Well… Thursday, 3/15/07, Office Diggs, State College: Troy's office Because I was internet-less and I was working with Troy on a project for one of his clients, I went to the office with him. It was pretty cool to because I usually just work here alone. And I'm really cool with that. But it was a nice break to have someone do the robot with. I went again today and it was a lot of fun. It's also the first time that I worked with Troy on a project of his. Not just helped but really did a lot of the work. It went to the printer today but I think that it's really going to turn out to be a great product. I'm eager to see it. This is who I hang out with everyday in the office. Well, shoot, for being totally bummed out and feeling either gross or in pain I did quite a bit. It's not cool that I didn't take enough pictures. Doy Melissa. I'm just really psyched that here - one fifth of the way in - that i'm still going strong. Well, somewhat strong. I haven't been able to do a lot but I haven't given up and that fraktastic.