Date Night At Labyrinth

Tiny B at Labyrinth Press Company. Matt and I came out to hear him wail on some songs for date night.

The Most Awesome-Not Awesome Doughnut Ever

I had an odd food dream the other night. I completely blame Jenny's post on the re-opening of Donuts Delite.

In the dream, I was with a Girl Scout troop that was visiting/touring a local bakery. The bakery was located on Foote Avenue in Jamestown, but it wasn't Ecklof's (for those who are familiar) and instead was located where AJ's Hots is. The place had a kind of walk-up-and-order-at-the-outside-window feel to the place.

It must have been post-tour, because the Troop and I were standing outside where we were handed out doughnuts to try. I got a powdered covered, cream filled doughnut. It was the most delicious doughnut I had ever eaten! Even though it was a dream, I went into a kind of happy, sugar coma. Then there was one bite where I noticed something yellow in the filling. I poked at it a little and realized it was an uncooked egg. I was flummoxed but decided it wouldn't be there unless it was supposed to be, so I shrugged and kept eating. A few more bites in, another raw egg appeared. A woman standing nearby confirmed that this is just how the doughnut was made. The head baker (played by local restaurateur John Lisciandro) came back around with more doughnuts and I made questioning gestures at my doughnut as if to ask what was going on with it and he replied,

"Those are 'Ralph's'! Real popular!"

I stared for a moment at him but kept eating my doughnut. The combination of raw egg and cream filling made for one messy treat and I had to search out a stack of napkins. The Girl Scout Troop had decided to depart and was walking back to wherever, so I followed behind a little, thinking about those raw eggs churning in my stomach. Needless to say, when I woke up I wasn't feeling too hungry.

It did get me thinking about the fact that we're getting closer to paczki time at Ecklof's though, so hooray for that!

10,000 Maniacs Recorded for WRFA

10,000 Maniacs did a private unplugged and electric concert at Jamestown Community College last night. This concert was sponsored by and will air on WRFA at some point. It also was videotaped for promotional use. Either way it's a pretty cool way to spend a Saturday evening. We're guessing that given all the other picture taking and recording by audience members that stuff will eventually show up on YouTube. The fun part of it all is that they had the audience on the stage of the Scharmann Theatre with the band, so it created a very intimate setting.

Matt and I sat at the back of the stage next to percussion. It was a really cool vantage point given that most of the time you can't see what's going on in the back.

The set list which was broken up into an acoustic set followed by an electric set. Covers included a fantastic rendition of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," Bryan Ferry's "More Than This," and The Cure's "Just Like Heaven.":

Jeff Erickson on guitar.














Dennis Drew on keyboards and Mary Ramsey on violin and lead vocals:

Changes at Labyrinth

Labyrinth looks a little different!

Foiled!

I like how my mobile provides a nice black bar over my eyes as if I don't want you knowing it's me underneath all those foils on my head. I decided that I wanted a little bit of a change but I didn't want to go with blond highlights. We'll see how a different color comes out! Hair trim after that.

Old Man Winter Returns!

Yes. Your eyes do not deceive you. That is a large display of Southern Tier Old Man Winter at the Lakewood Wegmans. And yes, a couple of those will be coming home with me.

Sun Conspiracy

Actual online conversation between me and my friend, Sabrina:

Me: well, my calendars prolly won't be delivered today I'd bet seeing as UPS had them at 2:34am this morning in Rutherford, NJ LOL

Sabrina: :(
Sabrina: I wonder if UPS took the sun to NJ, too.

Me: No, I think the sun skipped town and country. I think we need to go to Central America

Sabrina: nah...too humid. And too many bugs

Me: most likely answer is that the sun was captured by a drug cartel

Sabrina: ew, bugs
Sabrina: The Republicans have it and are getting ready to blame Obama.

Me: no, no.. the Republicans arranged for a drug cartel to capture it but are going to make it look like Obama's fault because it's a cartel that the USA may have tried to work with to capture bigger cartels in the 1980s

Sabrina: The sun is being obscured by greenhouse gases.

Me: that's too realistic.. I thought we were going for fantastical here
Me: lol

Sabrina: those aren't clouds, it's rust belt smog.

Me: nah.. not enough manufacturing to make that happen anymore

Sabrina: republicans doing one thing and blaming democrats for it isn't realistic?

Me: well, that's why I amended it

Social Hibernation

Over the past month and a half, there's been a slight change in nightly habits. The winter with the cold and snow has seemed to have the effect of keeping us inside. Well, that's of course when we're not out shoveling. That 28 inches of snow we received between last Friday and Monday had to go elsewhere if we wanted to get out of our driveway and receive regular mail delivery.

It's not like we haven't seen some of our friends, we just have avoided late night drinks out in favor of wrapping ourselves in flannel, slippers, and fleece. Socializing has taken place during the day or early evening over lunch, coffee, or in the house. I think, "Is it age? Am I abandoning the 'scene'?" but then consider that if it was 40 degrees outside and the roads were clear, I probably would feel less hesitant about venturing out.

With another weekend of bitingly cold, snowy weather predicted, I'm hoping to take care of some items like reading the books I borrowed from the Prendergast Library before it reopens on Wednesday. Then we'll break out of the stay-at-home theme a little bit with a dinner/movie on Friday, a post-holiday party at a friend's house, and maybe a little Improv Saturday night. We'll see how it all goes and whether the burst of social activity returns us to familiar ground or if it chases us back to our house to huddle under blankets until March.

Cotton Batting Snow

The snow that fell over the past few days looked like cotton batting on our house and garage. I probably will have to get out the snow rake to knock some of it down to be safe since the drift hanging off the back of our house is just above our back walkway.

Hot Chocolate While It Snows

Hot chocolate with mint and chocolate homemade marshmallows in it. I love the way they are melting together. Cheers to being inside while it keeps snowing and snowing outside.