Day149 - That would just look weird and creepy.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008: Bonfattos: Apple Pepperjack Boneless Wings

These are sooo good. They are replacing Raspberry Inferno as my favorite wing sauce. Sweet and warm, but not too sugary. I think they would rock harder if they had a little bit more heat. My mouth wasn't on fire, even though they are listed in the HOT section.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture because we were in the middle of a meeting and that would just look weird and creepy. I can be either, but not both.

At any rate, because I know you like pictures, here is something similiar.

Day148 - I'll stick with the Greek.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008: My Kitchen: Blueberry Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Do to our extreme overindulgence back home this weekend, I decided I should stick to salads for a few days. I think my pants will appreciate it (pants fit on Friday - not so much on Monday).

Troy picked out this salad dressing by Simply Enjoy:




That, by the way, is an extremely bad name for a salad dressing. Maybe it's ok for a boutique brand, but if you ever want a large audience recognition, your better off going with something easy to remember like Kraft or Wishbone.

Sorry for the schooling - I have no idea where that came from…

The vinaigrette was good, but not something I like. Troy loved it, but he likes fruity salad dressing and I would rather have something soaked in garlic. I skipped this and went with a Greek Vinaigrette by Newmans Own. That is, however, swimming with sodium and I'm unsure how I bypass a stroke when I eat it.


Part 2 of this day:

Wednesday, May 28, 2008: Bonfattos: Apple Pepperjack Boneless Wings

These are sooo good. They are replacing Raspberry Inferno as my favorite wing sauce. Sweet and warm, but not too sugary. I think they would rock harder if they had a little bit more heat. My mouth wasn't on fire, even though they are listed in the HOT section.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture because we were in the middle of a meeting and that would just look weird and creepy. I can be either, but not both.

At any rate, because I know you like pictures, here is something similiar.

Day147 - Doing my part to keep the economy alive

Monday, May 28, 2008: Caffe Europa: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Like I said before, a trip home would be nothing without a little shopping. I'm doing my part to keep the economy alive.

Me, Tre and Troy went to the Hazleton mall, and after some shopping and loitering in the pet shop, we stopped for something to eat. Tre picked Dino's (I'm on strike from that place - they are dicks), Troy and I went to Caffe Europa for some pizza. This would be day 4 of straight pizza eating!

Troy got the old standard - fresh tomato and basil. I went for the Buffalo Chicken.



It was a little dry, like chicken pizza can get, but so good. Warm, not too hot, but nice a creamy. Yummmmmmmm. I'm hungry again.

The only downside is that the crust is harder than most and now my mouth feels like I ate a box of Capn Crunch. I'm hurting a little.

They had these good looking sorbets. How can you resist:




Well, I couldn't, so I went with the coconut. The sorbet tasted like frozen coconut milk - so creamy and rich. I think that I would have liked it more if there was some chocolate chips, but I'm probably ruined from eating too many Almond Joys.




I took the shell home with us and Edie had a great time with it. She will probably destroy it in time, but it should keep her busy for a while.

Day146 - I'm just not a fan of that shit.

Sunday, May 29, 2008: Rise Phoenix Rise: Frackville.

We went to the Friendship Fire Co. Block Party again in search of perogies (they were out!) and found my cousins and aunt instead. It was nice to see them, especially Drew as he now lives half a country away.

Rise Phoenix Rise was on stage tonight. Not my kind of thing. I really don't want to hear a cover band, and I'm sure that they have other shit to sing, and they were just doing their job, but I don't want to hear "I've got friends in low places" anywhere but a bar at closing time. And the bar has to be shitty, really shitty. The same also holds true for any shitty ’80s cover. If your not going to make it your own, then don't make it at all.

I don't want to be a dick, and I'm sure they are cool dudes. I'm just anti-cover.

On the bright side, the pizza I had kicked ass.

Day145 - This year was much more… lucid.

Saturday, May 24, 2008: Block Party: Stuff and things.

Back home, we have "Block Parties." To everyone not from that part of the state, it is more like a bazaar. Most have rides and music, all have food and/or least beer. Every fire company and most churches will have one to some degree. Friendship Fire Co. is the first and during Memorial Day weekend. You may remember my blog from last year. I barely do - just bits and pieces.


This year was much more… lucid.

I did meet a very great friend from high school that I hadn't seen in at least 10 years. He made the night worth while I should say. I'm sure, maybe 15 years ago, that I came to this block party with this old friend, and here we stood with my old man and hisold lady. I love when things come full circle.

Speaking of his wife, she was very nice as well. Check out her website: www.wordofmouthpa.com - especially if you are a rock star. They are trying to help PA musicians get more press. You know, something "PA Musician" is supposed to do but does not.

But I digress.

What I'm calling new is seeing the Pop Tart Monkeys and their new line-up. I saw them once in college, maybe 8 years ago. I was extremely inebriated and at the "Birthday Bash" for a local Williamsport radio station. Their birthday parties were probably some of the best I've ever been too, if only because I can never remember much of what went on.

I wasn't excited about PTM back then because some dude in the band was wearing a large foam lobster hat. Holy shit, did that hat piss me off. I remember not being able to concentrate on whatever song they were covering/butchering at the time because I was so pissed at that hat. I mean I was red hot about that hat. I was also at the bottom of a large gin and tonic.

Then some asshole kicked over my drink - I was sitting on the floor at this point in the night. That is the only think I remember overall, except for Troy pushing me into the City Hall fountain. Three things: that hat, asshole drink kicker, fountain.

Really, that's not too bad a score considering the night.

Here is the band.




And Troy being amused. I know Troy, it was weird. I feel the same way - he's still a dick.




And our little tiny perogies. They were good - but too small and way too expensive. I think I'll make some of my own.




So, good night. I would have liked to stay out later and I'm sorry we had to leave so early, but my Subaru has been known to turn back into a pumpkin after midnight.

Day144 - See, Troy feels better already.

Friday, May 23, 2008: Sheetz: Mint Chocolate milkshake.

I am so in love with the 3-day weekend. I know that you can't tell from this blog, but this week was long and filled with stuff. And since Troy has been working from home, I never really know what day it is. Leaving today for home was so good.

You may wonder what takes the edge of paying a shit load of money for gas: A mint chocolate milkshake.




Yes, it helps. See, Troy feels better already.




Here is a bad angle of my newly highlighted hair. For how much I paid for it, I should give you a better picture. I finished this milkshake in under 7 minutes btw.




The sky was the craziest shade of blue - total Cerulean. Just gorgeous and I am so thankful we had such a great ride.

Day143 - Like eating a hot donut.

Thursday, May 22, 2008: Boalsburg Fair: Fried Green Tomatoes

I must admit, when we were kids we watched Steel Magnolia and Fried Green Tomatoes all the time. This was due mostly to my Nana having HBO and 5 grandkids and the fact that HBO still, 20 years later, runs movies into the ground.

We watched Nadia a lot too.

Oddly, I only started to eat raw tomatoes around age 23. I didn't eat tomato soup until around 10. I guess I'm a late bloomer. So, for me to eat a fried green tomato, well I've obviously come a long way.





I'm sure real fried green tomatoes taste entirely different than these, but I like them all the same. Yana and I split some chicken fingers too. And, if that wasn't enough grease to get you going, we split a Baby Cake, which is a smaller, fluffier version of a Funnel Cake. I was kind of like eating a hot donut.





Yana and I were on another photowalk. She is the BEST photowalk buddy you can ask for. Just the right mixture of giggling and actual photo taking.

Here are a couple I took. Again, one hour before this picture - total crap outside:











What can I say, I'm a sucker for lock jaw and love to hang around rusty metal.

Day142 - I could literally live in a giant bread house.

Wednesday, May 20, 2008: My kitchen: Rosemary & Olive Oil Bread

There is nothing in this life that makes me happier than bread. I could literally live in a giant bread house. Like Old Mother Hubbard minus the rug rats and poverty.

This bread was pretty yummy with the added bonus of making everything else on the sandwich taste yummy.




I'm sure it would be good with ham or chicken, but the turkey was pretty awesome. And it makes the biggest freaking sandwich ever. I only at 1/4 of the sucker.

Day141 - I'm Ms.Extra Light Natural Blonde.

Tuesday, May 19, 2008: Cherry Lane: Hair

So, I had my hair colored today. If you can believe it, it was the first time I had it done professionally. I usually do it myself and no one can usually tell. I'm Ms.Extra Light Natural Blonde.

So, this is a base for highlights later in the week. Fascinating, I know. Girly stuff kind of bums me out.

Day140 - Maybe I'm just mad because I gave up fries and all fried potatoes.

Monday, May 19, 2008: Corner Room: Burger

Wendi was cool enough to bring me back my bag to the Corner Room to meet us for lunch. I was kind of sweating not having my cell phone or camera. I think not having my camera was harder.

It's weird seeing Wendi all dressed up and professional. I think it's because I can't believe that I (or any of my friends) get dressed up and look professional - like I'm eternally caught up in the idea that I'm 20 and a kid. Well, whatever. If it keeps me looking like I'm young, I'll keep believing it.


Anywho, here is my Chipotle BBQ burger. First, I asked for it to be cooked too long. Second, I am notorious for not reading the whole description on a menu and I was surprised when this came with bacon on it. It was ok - really not that hot for having chipotle in the title. Maybe I'm just mad because I gave up fries and all fried potatoes.



I had a vanilla milkshake too. Yes, that is a little bit of a contradiction - denying fries for ice cream and No, I don't want to talk about it.

We saw this guy on the way home. Craziness.




Thanks for meeting us for lunch Wendi. Anytime you want to have lunch, just say it. You make us look respectable.

Day139 - What a classy mess.

Sunday, May 18, 2008: My House: Lunch

We had Yana and Allen over for lunch. Yes, they have been to our house before, but never for lunch, so I'm calling it new. (It's been 139 days - please leave me alone). We had every expectation to work, but that almost never happens when we get talking, so we didn't.

I made my garlic chili cheeseburgers (they came out good, but not hot. I should have added some more hot sauce) and the ever famous spinach artichoke dip. I used a half a head of garlic between the two. Yum.

After lunch, we took a walk down to the park. It was supposed to be Bellefonte's Spring Festival, but most everything was cancelled including the kayak demo and fish launch. We did walk around and joke about shit your not supposed to joke about so it worked out. And I saw baby ducks which never gets old.

Here are some pics:

Shot from the bridge. One hour from either side of this shot it was shitty and raining. This is truly Bizarro May.




I know! Yana totally looks like she is going to reprimand me…




But she took the exact same shot seconds earlier…





But I was busy looking at this classy mess.





More loveliness.




The we switched it up some - just to prove we were both there…







Thanks Yana for the pictures (I nicked them) and thanks to Allen for the improper conversation. Such a good day.

Day138: Jello Mold Jesus

Saturday, May 17, 2008: Mayhem and Marriage: Phillipsburg.

We were lucky enough to get an invite to Troy's cousin's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and the bride and groom are head over heels in love.

The church was a catholic church and had a huge crucifix hanging above the alter:




I'm catholic and I've never seen anything like it for sure. He kind of looks like a jello mold. We have a gigantic cross in my church too, but not quite like that.

I also got to wear my new dress. I need better shoes for sure.





After the reception, Wendi and Jerm came to escort us back to his house. He did this because I am apparently "retarded" and had no idea where I was at. Now, most of the time I have no idea where I'm at and I choose to believe it is because I am "mercurial" and "eccentric." I believe he is retarded because the church is HUGE and a block away from his house and he never saw it before.

But I digress.

After watching a little bit of Curb Your Enthuseasm, and some shitty comic (seriously, this dick has a HBO special and I do not. This world is unjust), we went to Black Mo to meet Nick and Kelly who were staying in a cabin - cabining? - for the weekend. I've never been in or stayed at a Black Mo cabin and I wish that I would have taken a picture. It's cute with four bunk beds with two lining each side surrounding the hearth. All I could imagine was taking a nap in every bed if I were staying. It also had a fridge, microwave and stove but no running water. So weird.

It was a good night (thanks Wendi for the jacket!) although the drive home was a killer and leaving my purse in Jerm's truck wasn't awesome (he sold all my stuff!) but worth it nonetheless.

Day137 - Writing descriptions should be my day job.

Friday, May 16, 2008: 3twenty9 t-shirt shop: Zazzle.com/twenty9


A few weeks ago I was nosing around another web developers website and I came across a link to an online shop he set up through cafe press for t-shirts of his company's logo. I don't think that he was a very big company, nor was his logo that awesome, but it was something that he set up for friends/famliy and clients to buy a shirt with his logo.

I wanted to do the same.

So I had Troy design a logo and I set up an online shop with a few products. Check it out here: www.zazzle.com/3twenty9.com




I think you can tell I was tired because the tags and the descriptions are a little out there. But I laughed and that is what matters.

I will be buying one shortly and you bet your sweet ass I'll post a picture. Eventually, I would like to have a run screen printed locally or abroad, but corralling a bunch of artist types into one choice on anything is a fool errand.

Day136 - Sandblasted to the future.

Thursday, May 15, 2008: The garage: sandblaster

Another day at the garage? Yes. Why not.

Tonight I used the sandblaster. Well, let's call it a media blaster because it is currently shooting glass beads out of it's nozzle. Painfully I might add. Here is a shot of me all covered up with goggles and a face mask and a shield and a babushka.This did not stop glass from coming into my little eye balls.




When the blaster worked - it worked great. But because this is the most rag tag assembly of any sandblasting tents, Troy did not sift the glass beads between blastings and the gun not being the best in the west, it gets clogged alot. Quite a bit actually. And it is a little infuriating.

At any rate, the fenders looked like this:




I think you can see from the top picture that we took a lot of paint of the fenders this way. And it's way easy. I like to imagine that I'm erasing time because I'm a egomaniac like that.

Ryan also most of the blasting on this fender and all of the other fender. I was just batting clean-up (base analogy. Weee!).

Day135 - Carving holes in plywood.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008: The garage: gas line

Knock one more task off my list: I know know how to hook up a gas tank. Fun, yes I know. Because Troy was mounting the gas tank into the floor of the truck, we had some problems maneuvering the the hook up lines. After a little bit of cutting, an little bit of cussing and some elbow grease, the sea dog is not installed and ready for nozzle. Gas nozzle that is, perv.

Shiny!




The plywood floor will be switched out for a wood bed. I'm sure you will be reading about it shortly.

Day134 - The Polish do it in the kitchen.

Tuesday, May 14, 2008: Our Kitchen: Chrusciki

We love sourdough turkey sandwiches. It's not very good for our diet, but I don't think that I can eat deli turkey any other way. Mmmmm, especially with multi-grain cheesy poofs. Love it.

The downside of the wonderful sourdough - besides processed white flour - is having to walk through the bakery dept. to find a loaf. When we went there today to rescue their very last sourdough, we found these suckers - Chrusciki, Polish Cookies, also known as Angel Wings:





They kind of taste like cannoli tubes. I never had them before, and I wasn't in love at first, but over the next couple of days I started to crave them. If you can portion control yourself, there not terribly bad for you either.



Yum. I know. Fried dough with powdered sugar - how can you beat it?

Day133 - Get in there you damn dirty dash.

Monday, May 13, 2008: The garage: dash.

Tonight we installed the full dash. Mostly everything is wired (I crossed it of the list!) and the radio was finally mounted and secured, so we decided to cram it all in there and call it done.

Here is a picture of before:





And here is our finished dash. I want to punch someone I am so happy.





Just in case your wondering how old that speedometer is - here is the stamp when it left the factory.





1946. That means that it was made completely America just one year after WWII ended (in the middle of a baby boom I'm sure). The economy was probably kicking into full steam and industry was alive in America. The man who made it was probably as old as my great-grandfather or younger and may have had his very own Chevy Stylemaster. Now we have it, it's chopped to hell, but we love it just the same.

Day132 - Where are you Jean Luc?

Sunday, May 11, 2008: Sheetz: International Delight

It was cold, rainy and shitty for much of this week. Troy was craving a steamer from Sheetz and I'm not one to turn away a free drink. We went to the Sheetz in Julian and they lack a coffee barrister. Harrumph.

Hahaha. I just read that again. I'm sad for a lack of coffee barrister. Wow. How far I've come!




Instead, I got a regular hot chocolate from their coffee bar. I also grabbed one of these International Delights flavored creamers. My earliest memories of International Delights is seeing commercials for Jon Luke! on tv. I forget what the concept was, but I think those ladies were crazy for some french dude the probably had a one night stand with while on vacation. Dirty girls.

Back on track… I wanted something a little bit more special then regular hot chocolate, so I tried this and it kicked ass. It was better than their barrister service hot chocolate because it was cheap. And cheapness equals yum.

Day131 - Doors can be metaphors too.

Saturday, May 10, 2008:

Today was supposed to be dedicated to Paintball Fury, but when we woke up is was raining and miserable. So we cancelled. And then, it turned into the most beautiful day you have ever seen. One of those days that just makes you happy to be alive.




But it was for the best, and everything does happen for a reason it seems, and we instead had a full day to work on the Gypsy. It was much needed for sure.

Plus for lunch, we went to Scott's Roasting. Pulled pork will never be denied.




When we got back, Troy and Kyle worked on the hood (it took 3 days to set it right and it is still a little weird.) and I took to the door. First you need this:




And a little of this:




And you toss it on the floor and get this:




When you add it to a bare door like this:




You eventually get this:




And then you can hang it on the truck with the help of two strong dudes.




So, that was my day. Instead of getting shot with wee little paintballs, I got a nice black and blue mark from walking into a jack handle. The smartest thing that I've done all year was map everything out on the floor. A bit of inspired thinking there.

It was worth it, this thing is looking pretty bad ass right now.