2010 Summer Run Down Thus Far...

I'm going to say summer started at the end of April because we've had some seriously nice weather these past few months. So what have we been up to? Ready, steady, GO!

- A Dos De Mayo Party at Shannon Mac's house kicked off the season. There was delicious food made by one of the chefs from Hutch's Restaurant in Buffalo, a DJ, and a slip'n slide on a hill.

- "This Week In Metal" was revived on WRFA-LP (podcasts available). Leonard Barren and Julia Tesla can be heard weekly giving you random cool facts with a metal theme.

- I played in the Spring concert for the Jamestown Community orchestra. We rocked out to Chuck Mangione's "The Children of Sanchez."

- The foundation on the south side of our house was replaced so that we no longer feared the back-end of house falling over because of crumbling blocks.

- Memorial Day weekend my parents visited, installed a motion detector light on the back of our house and went on the Chautauqua Art Trail. We all watched the Memorial Day parade down Lakeview Avenue and later hung out at a friend's house on Chautauqua Lake.

- We attended the Yassou! Greek Festival with friends and some of us attempted to drink the Southern Tier Brewing Opa! kegs dry.

- We celebrated the marriage of NickDean and Lori in Bemus Point. It was a super hot and muggy day that was met with lots of chair rocking on the front porch of the Hotel Lenhart.

- A orange tiger-striped cat we named McKinley came to live at our house. Matt wrote the whole story here.

- We revisited our high school years by attending Forte's Surprise Prom Party - Enchanted Shipwreck Under The Sea.

- More hanging out on Chautauqua Lake for Fourth of July.

- Spent as much time as possible hanging out with Shannon who was in town from Pontiac, Illinois. Plenty of beer was consumed.

- In theory, I began teaching violin lessons at the Infinity Performing Arts Center. Of the two students I have, one had car trouble and the other forgot to show up. We'll see how the second week goes!

- We joined some cousins in Rochester to head off to the wineries for much merriment. Crowning touch on that visit, besides all the excellent food consumed, was clogging a Wegmans' aisle while looking at beer.

And that's just through this past weekend! Stay tuned...

Stay by Allie Larkin

Some time ago I noticed there was this lady named Allie who was commenting on my blog. I initially confused her for my other friend, Ali, until I clicked on the link for her blog.

That's where I learned about Stay. Who wouldn't be suckered in by a romantic comedy that involves a puppeh? And bonus?? It's set mostly in Rochester!



Even though my parents were visiting me at the time, I refused to put down the book until I devoured it all in one day. I laughed as I recited passages to my mom about the trials and tribulations Van goes through as she welcomes her new dog, Joe, into her home. It's an entertaining read that has some real poignant moments.

Please check out Stay when it comes out June 10th!

Time Changes

My main computer went kablooey this weekend while Matt was trying to do a back-up of it, so I've been using our laptop for the past day. I haven't looked at files on it in about two years, so I started going through old pictures.

If I ever wondered if those zumba classes, change of diet, change of jobs, and general change in a lot of areas of my life were having any affect on me...

Here I am with my friend, Lynn, outside Mojo's after a concert in September 2006:














Here I am in Allen Park just before Memorial Day weekend this year:














For those wondering, that's what losing over 20 pounds looks like on a 5'2 lady.

The Say - Latest Editorial

I wrote "The Say" editorial in the latest edition of the Chautauqua Region Word.

The hot topic this time was the new Jamestown Neighborhood Revitalization Plan. It's a topic/story that I hope to see more of in the news over the coming months and years because if the recommendations are able to be enacted it could create some very positive changes in the Jamestown housing market.

Dreaming of the Millennium Falcon.. again

Last night I had another Star Wars themed dream. I blame this one solely on the fabulous fact that I had just bought the tickets for Matt and I to go see Star Wars: In Concert in Hamilton, Ontario in July.

In this one, I was on the Death Star hanging out near the Millennium Falcon waiting for Luke to get his ass back to the ship so we could take off before it was time blow up the place. I ran across a group of emo/rave kids who were totally unconcerned about their impending doom as I encouraged them to take refuge in the Falcon. I sighed as they stood agape, watching various star ships start whizzing above the Death Star is pre-battle formations.

"They don't get that this place is gonna blow up pretty soon," I grumbled. "And where the hell is Luke? Can it really take that long to kill off the Emperor and then drag his dad's dead body back here? I mean, c'mon.. really."

And end dream. No. I didn't make any of that up. Still comes in a distant second to the dream of the chill party on the Millennium Falcon with R2D2 and Han Solo.

Sunday Reading on the Porch

No better way to end the weekend than with a hot cuppa tea and a good book on the couch on the front porch. I am surrounded by windows that are full of leafy green trees. My dogs don't seem to mind the change from sitting inside. I consider myself lucky to have a working light and a blanket as the sun goes down.

Fixing Foundations - Staging

Some staging materials have arrived for fixing our foundation.

This Week In Metal

Starting next week, a weekly bit called "This Week in Metal" will begin airing on WRFA-LP.

The segment is the brain child of Occasional Truth blogger, Len. He asked me to voice part of it, which I was happy to oblige. Here's hoping I don't massacre the pronunciations of too many metal-related names!

Tune to 107.9 FM in Jamestown or listen online.

Garbage Plates & Southern Tier Beer

Homemade garbage plates by candle light with a 2X IPA by Southern Tier Brewing Co.

Winter Garden Comes Down

I got a text just as my Zumba class was ending this morning that the Winter Garden Theatre was being demolished so I walked up North Main Street to have a look. I spent about an hour and a half in the cold (with a stop off to Labyrinth to get some coffee to keep me warm) watching the building being crumbled away. Most of the facade and part of the interior is down for now. Work stopped for the Sabres game.

The Census: Getting Our Slice of the Federal Pie

I had the pleasure of writing the feature article for the latest issue of the Chautauqua Region Word. The downloadable PDF is here.

I've been living in Census Central, it seems, for the past few months. Promotional materials have filled the trunk of one of our cars, thwarting me whenever I made my weekly trip to Wegmans and forgot, once again, that I was competing for space with posters, water bottles, and other knick-knacks. Unexpected meetings have been added to my work agenda so I could listen to and share ideas for how to get the word out about the Census.

The guy leading the cause for our area has been Matt, so I really and truly couldn't get away from it. I watched him and other people on the committee turn an awareness campaign into something that resembled what I had seen him do on the political side of his job. It was heavy on grassroots and so far seems to have had some good results based on the Census Participation Map that shows Jamestown at 73% for Mail Participation rate.

To get the full story, pick up a paper copy of the Word or click over here.

Singleton Cooking

Matt is out of town so I made myself spinach salad and spiral mac n cheese. You bet I plated that! The salad has a homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing because I didn't have any spinach salad dressing on hand. Well, I didn't want to take the risk that jar that said it expired in February might still be good.

Fortunately, Matt will be back tomorrow to cook us dinner so no more box dinner stuff!

Life With A Bubble Boy

Matt and I had been dating a few years before his allergies started showing up and wrecking havoc with his life and somewhat with mine. It's to the point where we joke that we should just get him a bubble and be done with it all.

His sensitivity to corn, and thus corn-derived products, has changed up our grocery shopping habits once again, but I think this one could be beneficial to us both.

I knew that a lot of products had corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup in them, but I guess I didn't realize to what extent. Something as simple as ketchup has both ingredients. Even "healthy" cereals like Bran Flakes have HFCS!

Fortunately, with the natural food movement and desire by some of the population to get away from the easy sugar of HFCS, there are now more products that are sweetened "naturally" either using cane sugar, honey, or fruit-based sweeteners. Naturally, they tend to cost more.

Either way, if it switching to these products helps keep the hives away for Matt and we see benefits in terms of our waistlines, I'll be happy.

Easter Monday Morning Quarterbacking

We did the Easter thing with my family yesterday and on the way up to Buffalo, I mused over why I never quite got why this was such a major holiday. It comes down to a lot of things for me.

First off, when you're raised Catholic, you have four weeks where you're deprived of eating meat on Fridays. I didn't care for fish as a kid, so I ended up eating a lot of macaroni and cheese on Fridays or deep fried shrimp. Fortunately, the mac'n cheese was homemade by the Parkside Diner, so I never got tired of that meal. Then after, all the fasting we finally got to eat meat on Easter Day. Hooray! Except in my family, that means fresh kielbasa and borscht. I've never really enjoyed fresh kielbasa and there was one Easter where I figured if I ate it really fast, I wouldn't be able to taste it. That didn't work out so well and the floor didn't appreciate it either when I upheaved it later. I don't think I have to explain the horror that is borscht. Fortunately, my family has added smoked kielbasa to the Easter offerings as well as ham, so dinner is not dreaded so much.

Going back to religion, I was pretty straight-forward thinking on some issues as a kid. I didn't understand what the big celebration was over the death and rising of Christ. My 9-year old train of thought went sort of like this:

"So, Jesus was a good guy and he got killed for it? And you're telling me he raised from the dead? Okay, I get there being ghosts and angels and stuff but, dude, he's STILL DEAD. Like, it's not like Jesus can hang out and ride bikes with us or climb trees. And we're supposed to super happy about this??? There's still lots of bad people out there, so I dunno if it was worth it."

I know. It's hard to reason with 9-year olds. Plus, I always thought it a bit macabre that not only were we celebrating some revered guy's death, but some of our main icons were of the guy nailed to a couple pieces of wood. Um. Hello? I don't want bloodied, beat-up guy all in my face. Thanks Mr. Jesus for the nightmares as a kid. Add to that the extended church service just because it was a major holy day and my love for Easter was very small.

Getting away from the controversial stuff, Easter falls during a time of year in Western New York that can be either wonderful or snowing. Inevitably, my mom would have picked out a cute, frilly dress for me to wear for Easter. As a kid, I would wear it and shiver because a warm sweater and slacks would have been a better match for the weather. Just try keeping your toes warm in white patent leather shoes when the temperature is 40 degrees!

It wouldn't be fair to not mention to the positive things about Easter. Of course, the candy was always a thrill as a kid. Ham for dinner also was a huge plus once I discovered the delights of Miller's Horseradish spread on each slice. Naturally, time with my family in Buffalo was and still is the biggest plus to the Easter Holiday. So Happy Dyngus Day to everyone!

Good Friday at Spragues

We decided to spend Good Friday by making the trek out to Sprague's Maple Farms in Portville, NY. The weather is a little nuts with it being 85 degrees and it's only April 2nd. We hope to make a return trip out here sometime with some of our friends who haven't experienced this maple syrup heaven.

Viable Happiness In Recession

One of the disadvantages of living in a small community is that it takes a little while for the gains and ills of the rest of the metropolitan world to reach us. I think it's safe to say that all the fall-out from the housing market is finally reaching this area. Add to that all the nonsense from New York State and any other missteps that might have happened locally over the past few years and things feel depressing around town.

I know it's not quite as bad as all that, but some days it feels that way. Maybe I'm deluding myself there even and it really is that bad.

One of the areas where people tend to find satisfaction and fulfillment is work. There are jobs available, I'm told, but whether they're matching up with what people want for careers or offer enough compensation for a person's talent is another matter. From many people in my age group, I've been hearing dissatisfaction with what they are doing for work, assuming they're even employed. The level of frustration seems to have ratcheted up since the beginning of the year. The feeling is, "My job isn't so bad but it's not what I want to do and there are no jobs here I can go to," "I'm not crazy about my boss, but there's nothing else open that would be any better," or "I like this job but the pay doesn't come near the hours I put in or what I'm worth."

As much as many of us would like to say we are able to concentrate on enjoying the hours away from the office, for most of us the discontent of the work day has a way of spilling over into our "free" time. Ideally, we all would be working in careers that we love or be following our calling in life, but that can be a hard goal that's made harder when living in an economy that's struggling to not shed too many jobs each quarter.

So assume for a moment that we take on the task of truly trying to let work be work since changing the job economy is something that is probably beyond most people's control. Control is an important word. We have a certain level of control over what happens in our lives. While not true in every case, we usually can control the activities that fill our free time. We choose what food we eat. We choose the people with whom we want to associate.

We all have toxicity in our lives. It can be something as mild as choosing to eat McDonald's for dinner one night to the extreme of using an illegal substance to numb that which is displeasing. What it comes down to is taking responsibility for our lives and choosing to live. My personal belief is that if one does this, happiness follows. It could be easy, or not, depending on how deeply mired you are in your way of life that has you down. I don't think we ever can stop working at finding happiness, it just becomes easier to attain if we continually practice what we know is true to ourselves.

Listing to the 10th Degree

1. It's finally Spring. I thought for awhile that it might pass us by but the weekend forecast says 75 and sunny.

2. Busy season is clearing its throat and saying, "Hey! Notice me!!" Phone is starting to ring off the hook and people are lining up at the window at work again.

3. We have a new, dual flush toilet in our upstairs bathroom because the old one had an internal leak that we couldn't fix and an external leak that caused water to run down through the walls onto our kitchen counter on the 1st floor.

4. I thought not blogging for a couple weeks was bad until I found out PreppyGirl hadn't blogged for two years. She ended her drought today.

5. Near the end of January, I bought a six-pack of Southern Tier Brewing's Old Man Winter and hid it in our cellar. I finally clued Matt in on this on Saturday. He was mad, at first, that I had hid it from him but then very, very happy as we both cracked into the pack. It was delicious. It's gone now. We're sad. November, or whenever it's available again, seems so very far away.

6. Apparently, ahem, certain kinds of body hair are becoming acceptable in some circles. I laughed and laughed. Hand me a razor, thankyouverymuch.

7. I passed a civil service exam and placed in the top 3. I needed to do this to keep my job. Hooray. In this economy, I can't really complain.

8. Heidi and Ryan surprised a lot of us by eloping this month out in Lake Placid. Congrats to the happy couple!

9. Facebook has increasingly become my go-to spot to post updates and see what my friends are up to. A good percentage of blogger friends are now sucking in the update category but thanks to Facebook I can tell you if work sucked or wasn't so bad, how hungover they are, and what awesome lunch special they ate at Jones 212 Bakery & Cafe. And then my mom got a Facebook account and added me as a friend.

10. I have a couple projects going and only one has a true deadline. Well, I don't know what the deadline is exactly, so I'm going with April 10th until the guys over at The Word tell me differently. How's that for a teaser?

All In A Sunday Trip to the Store

Even when I'm pressed for time and on a schedule, I still like to take time when I go to Wegmans to see what's new. It's the obsession with the place. Today brought a wealth of new things. Here is what I saw and heard:

- The first thing I noticed when I walked in the Lakewood store today was what I heard. Was a band playing? Where was that louder, rock-sounding music coming from? I asked store employee and friend, Jason Jordan, what was up and he said he had been at the flagship Pittsford store recently. They apparently had different music playing around the store, so he decided to replicate the idea to create more of a public market feel. Frank Sinatra was playing in the Deli/pizza area, Bon Jovi/Dire Straits/Meatloaf in the food demonstration area, and Kee Kee Dee/Elton John over in frozen foods. Jason said it all has to be ironed out some since some people are using iPods until they can either hook computers into the wifi or something.

- You can rent out part of the Market Cafe seating area for things like birthday parties. There were Wegmans balloons bouncing merrily above seats and a private coffee station.

- The beverage coolers have been removed from the cashier lines and replaced with bins of stuff you just might want, or not. My friend, Erik, noted that he probably wouldn't be buying Barbasol shaving cream on impulse anytime soon.

- The Lakewood Wegmans doesn't have, and probably won't have, the frog cupcakes that Jenny adores but apparently we'll have an Easter Chick version of them later this month.

- Increased/improved signage in the cosmetics section.

- Wegmans bread packaging has changed in graphic design.

As said, all in a Sunday's trip!

High School Musical - 2010 Edition

I put on a pair of dressier jeans that look just like another pair of dressier jeans I own this morning. At first, I thought it was the older pair because they were slightly loose on me. Then I realized it was the newer pair and that I must be experiencing the joy of "musical weight loss" already even though I had only been to one rehearsal.

I'm playing violin in the pit for Falconer High School's production of "Once Upon A Mattress." I rehearsed with just the pit last night as the cast wasn't quite ready to do a joint rehearsal. That will come in bits and pieces this Sunday for Tech Day. The pit members watched the cast run through parts of songs last night before we escaped to the band room to do our part.

I was glad to recognize a few faces from last year's production of "L'il Abner." One of the cool things about high school plays is that you get a chance to see how students change over their 4 years and hopefully grow into new parts. The kids who are playing in the pit band are great. They have a casual approach to rehearsals but clearly know their stuff. We lost a trumpet player to the part of the Minstrel in the play, so he is missed but the group still seems tight. I just need to make sure I nail my part since I'm all by myself.

Doing a musical this time of year involves a little bit of insanity, but I think I've found there's never a good time to play for a musical when you have a day job. This is a compensated gig, not that the money is important. I'd probably do it for free, but given how precious my free time is, I also have to know when to say no. Fortunately, I don't have to in this case.

Performances are in the Falconer High School auditorium on March 12, 13, and 14th. Not sure about times or ticket prices just yet. Should be a nice time!

Why Relax When There's A To-Do List?

Yesterday I got an email that my Saturday morning Zumba class was canceled this week while our instructor heals (heels?) from a foot injury.

My first thought was, "Awesome! I can sleep in this Saturday!" but then thoughts drifted to, "Well, if I get up at the time I normally would for class I could clean the bathroom, fold that load of towels, get the kitchen cleaned up, and then I could get Matt up so we can hit a few stores for stuff we need. Oh yeah! The walkways will DEFINITELY need to be shoveled again!"

I don't know what will actually happen tomorrow morning and chances are my body will say, "Screw your to-do list, I'm staying in this bed until the dogs jump all over me!"

I guess I feel guilty because when I've come home from work most nights this week, I've done nothing but sit on the couch watching TV or sit in front of my computer catching up on blogs. No energy or ambition. I had some on Sunday and Monday, but it was that fleeting. Hopefully, I'll get some good sleep tonight and feel ready to go tomorrow.

UPDATE: It's kind of backwards but I spontaneously decided to take the afternoon off from work so I can take care of some of the stuff I was going to have to do tomorrow. But the bonus is that it should allow me to sleep in without guilt.

OK Go's New Video and an Open Letter

Thoroughly enjoy the video below but please also take a moment to read this Open Letter from the Band.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

And February was so long that it lasted into March...

As we near the end of February it appears we will be hit with another bout of snowy weather.

Meanwhile, my head has been in Spring for the past few weeks despite the sound of ice on pathways under my boots. Even as snow and wind whipped by my face as I skied down a slope the other weekend, my mind still drifted a month into the future.

That's what my job will do. This is softball, baseball, Easter Egg Hunt, and Summer Playground Program preparation time. There have been times that I've stopped, looked outside and wondered if anything would really melt in time for any of those things to be possible.

This is the time of year everything is going at once and nothing ever really stops until mid-Autumn. It's a pace that will drive me crazy if I let it, so instead I'm trying to remember what a crocus looks like. What's a crocus again?

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Now playing: Dar Williams - February
via FoxyTunes

Empty Pint: Saturday Afternoon Edition

Guess who came back to the Empty Pint on this fine Saturday afternoon? This is certainly another great way to spend the day after dealing with a civil service exam this morning that will determine if I can keep my job.