Sunday, July 27, 2008

Drinking & Practicing

Practicing and drinking V8 fusion with Mount Gay rum, peach schnapps, and a splash of club soda. My playing is rather relaxed. Hmm.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Celebrating Our Fourth Wedding Anniversary

Matt and I both ordered tiramisu for dessert at the Scallion Bistro for our anniversary dinner tonight. We both ended up bringing most of it home because we were so stuffed!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Kill With A Kiss

So I almost made my husband go into anaphylactic shock tonight.

I had gotten some sushi from Wegmans because we were doing our own thing for dinner while Matt buried himself in school work. It was a spicy roll which includes cooked shrimp.

I had just finished eating when Matt emerged from his office and came downstairs to find more beverages. We chatted as I rinsed out the sushi tray and put it in the recycling bin. Then I gave him a big kiss before he was about to head back upstairs. I rummaged around the fridge for something when he cried out, "Oh no!!"

"What?" I asked, looking around the kitchen to see what was causing his anxiety.

"You had sushi!" he said, frowning.

I stared at him, "Yeah. So?" I frowned back and then realized what he meant, "OH MY GOD! Are you okay????"

He immediately went to the sink and started rinsing out his mouth with water from the tap. Then he went upstairs, calling down to ask if we had any Listerine. When I answered in the negative on that one, he came back down looking unhappy.

"My lips are tingly and my tongue is swollen a little," he said.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't even thinking," I pleaded.

"No. Don't worry. I wasn't either. I even watched you clean up the stuff too," he said.

And that, folks, is how I almost unintentionally killed my husband tonight.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

There's always ice cream

Matt wearing the Darkside Of the Garden t-shirt I bought him for our anniversary. Kayaking was a no go for us. Matt is disappointed but we will go another time soon.

Full Moon Kayaking? Doubtful.

Going to attempt to Kayak in some choppy weather.

Friday, July 18, 2008

It's a Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

A funny thing happened when we held our garage sale over the Fourth of July holiday. I saw, and spoke to, more of my neighbors over two days than I sometimes do in months. I watched, with great interest, as one neighbor collaborated with another to pull huge bush stumps out of the ground in front of his house using rope and a truck. Over the course of this project, there were 2 trucks involved, rope, shovels, and about half the neighborhood and my garage sale browsers watching anxiously as the guy driving the truck spun his wheels trying to yank this monstrous bush out. Eventually, they were successful.

Another neighbor down the road came back a couple times to buy lamps, telephones, shoes, and other items for her sister who was moving into a new apartment around the corner.

Later in the day, a neighbor we rarely talked to came over from across the street to let us know he and his family were going out of town for a week and asked us to keep an eye on his house. It turns out his next door neighbor has caused some problems for them in the past.

When I was growing up, I generally knew the last names at least of the neighbors on our block, including those who lived on the cul-de-sac nearby. There was even an annual neighborhood clam bake that was held out at Hamlin Beach State Park every September.

Now I'm lucky if I even recognize the people who drive up and down the road next to our house as neighbors. I may know a first name of a couple, but in most cases I don't know my neighbors. Some of this is due to the fact that the house next door and directly across the street are rental properties. People don't generally hang around in the same location for long in this city. The other issue is that the main tool to getting to know our neighbors is enclosed. It's hard to call out a hello to people walking by when they can't hear you through the glass of your enclosed porch.

I see the value in knowing who your neighbors are. Sometimes I don't mind the anonymity though. It's the introvert in me that doesn't feel comfortable going over and introducing myself to people I've lived next to for three years but still don't know what they look like. At the same time, I think I'm missing out on that feeling of being in a community where you have someone you can turn to in times of need, like being able to borrow a snow blower when yours suddenly dies as Lake Effect snow dumps on your driveway. And sometimes I think, "Well, maybe I'll just make more of an effort to say hello to people when I see them outside." I suppose that would require me to spend some more time outside, wouldn't it?

Thursday, July 17, 2008

"Super Clyde 3" Coming to the Reg Lenna Civic Center

Jamestown resident and friend, Kipp Reynolds, will premier his full-length film, Super Clyde 3, this Sunday at the Reg Lenna Civic Center.

The film has been described as an action, science fiction, comedy about a young spatula wielding super hero who comes out of retirement to save his brother.

Kipp has spent the last year and a half working on the project. He's drawn on a large pool of talented friends to act in and help produce the film.

When I asked if audience will ever have the opportunity to be delighted by Super Clyde 1 and 2, he laughed and admitted there was no Super Clyde 1. The consensus is that he may go back and do a Super Clyde 1 much in the vein of the Star Wars prequels.

If you want to share the experience of seeing this movie hit a big screen, pre-sale tickets are being sold at the Reg and Labyrinth Press Company. They're only $3 pre-sale, $5 at the door the day of the show. The movie begins at 2pm at the Reg Lenna Civic Center in downtown Jamestown. See you there.

Super Clyde 3: The Trailer


Super Clyde 3: Official Website
Post Journal: Super Clyde 3

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Blog Share Guest Post

I'm hosting an anonymous Blogger today as part of Blog Share. Many thanks to -R- for undertaking this project again even while being pregnant. I hope you enjoy and bestow many comments on the guest post below:

I almost don't want to write about this, but not for the reason that you all probably think. I'm not particularly ashamed or embarrassed or afraid. Instead, I feel like it is a story that has been told in so many forms and mutations that it is no longer even remotely original. And also: I sound whiny, because there are countless other women with stories worse than mine - stories that horrify rather than cause one to sit back and go "hmm", which is basically what I do when I think about it.

But, here goes. After all, this is something I have never written on my own blog, and therefore it makes it perfect blogshare material.

I lost my virginity unwillingly.

No, it wasn't rape. Not in the traditional sense. I know I sound bratty in saying this, because of course I don't wish I had been raped, but in some ways I wonder if that would have made it easier to deal with, simply because I could then have classified the experience, categorized my anger, made some level of sense of it all instead of wondering whether my distress over the situation was abnormal, whether I was too sensitive or just plain silly.

Here is my story.

I was in college (shut up. I was a late bloomer), living in an apartment off-campus with one of my best friends. She was tall and thin and gorgeous and all the boys loved her. I was short (well, I felt short compared to her) and plump-ish and had never had a boyfriend but was fun-loving and easy to talk to. Together, we made a great team, sort of: we would drink lots and go out to one of our favorite bars (fake i.d.s safely tucked into our wallets, of course), and I would strike up conversations with boys who inevitably flirted with my friend while I continued chatting with some other guy that I assumed didn't like me.

(We can talk about how unhealthy that sounds and how moronic I was to assume such things at a later date).

After one particularly drink-filled night, I ended up talking to our cute neighbors' friend (who I had a raging crush on) while my roommate chatted it up with one of the cute neighbors. When the bar closed, my roommate and I came home in the wee hours of morning, after which I promptly fell asleep. The remaining details are a bit hazy, but what I know is this: later that night, my roommate was awakened by the sound of a knock at the door. She opened it to find our neighbors' friend on the doorstep, asking for me.

Excitedly, she came into my room and woke me up. "Neighbors' Friend is here and he wants to hang out with YOU!" she said. Thrilled, I invited him into my room.

Presumably due to the mass quantities of boxed wine that I had consumed in the hours before, I don't remember much else. I remember talking and playing music. I remember making out. I remember making out heavily, and I remember saying, "Um...wait a second. What is happening here?" I remember the confusion that ensued as I learned that what I thought was his finger was actually not, and the awkwardness that followed as I realized we were having sex and asked him to stop.

On the one hand, he is not a bad guy, because when I asked him to stop, he did. On the other hand...what kind of guy has sex with someone who is so drunk or passed out that she doesn't even know she is having sex?

I don't know. To this day, I don't know whether to blame him, to blame myself for not telling him, "hey, why don't you come back at daylight and we can actually talk?", to blame myself for drinking so much, to...well, think any number of other things.

My roommate didn't understand why I was such a mess in the months afterwards, and I never felt like I could talk to her about it without her being perplexed. I think she thought I was being a drama queen. Who knows? Maybe I was. We ended up moving out and growing apart when our lease was up, but have become friends again in more recent years. It wasn't all due to our inability to talk about this event, and after so much time has past, I don't even remember why we stopped being friends. Still, we haven't talked about the night our cute neighbors' friend came over and asked for me, ever again.

And so, there it is. When I count up how many people I have slept with, I omit one. I don't think it counts.

Monday, July 14, 2008

BlogShare: July 2008 Edition

I am once again participating in the latest Blog Share this week (Original Info. Here).

Tuesday night (or whenever I get it), I will be uploading a post by a special Guest Blogger. I also will be linking all the participating bloggers in a post so you can check out all the exciting stuff people had to say this round.

The first time I did this, my Guest Blogger had a rather interesting post about dealing with bodily functions while stuck at the border.

Little Road Trip

As you can see from the pictures below, Matt, Hector, and I got out of Chautauqua County for a few hours yesterday and headed straight for the waterfront in Erie, PA.

We took a look at the reconstructed version of the Flagship Niagara, grabbed a bite to eat at Smuggler's Wharf, then walked around Dobbins Landing where I spotted Rum Runners from a viewing platform. We sipped a few drinks there and people watched until the sun started setting. Since I was the designated driver at this point, I insisted on finding our way back to Peach Street so we could get gas and a Krispy Kreme. Yes, I'm still obsessed about the fresh version. I tried to order two, but the drive-thru window girl was playing the part of "Julia's Conscious" because she only gave me one (only charged for one).

I want Emma to know I invoked her name a couple of times, especially when Matt and I mused about doing another mini-holiday in Erie sometime. That most likely won't happen until next summer though with how crazy our schedules are into the Fall. I can't believe it's been five years since that last holiday.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Having a beverage at Rum Runners.

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Hector and Matt on Dobbins Landing.

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Looking at the flagship Niagara in the Erie harbor.

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Summer Sounds

As much as I despise trying to sleep in humid weather, one thing I do love on those less sticky evenings and days is waking up to ambient noise. There's something so relaxing about emerging from slumber and listening to birds outside the window, neighbors trying to get lawn mowers started, leaves making a shh-shh noise in the wind, and feeling a light breeze cooling my forehead from the overhead fan. I'll take that any day over the ca-chunk-buzz of my air conditioning unit cranking on after its internal thermometer has determined that the room has gotten too warm.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

1601

I just realized my 1,600th post on here was to copy/paste a video I liked that was Star Wars related. I guess it just goes to show how far blogging has come along from the days when I used to bitch about it being so hot out that I couldn't dream of drinking coffee. Oh wait. I save those sentiments for Twitter now.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Capitalizing On A Holiday Weekend

As Sunday evening falls, I'm taking a much needed breather from the past week. It was a successful week in many ways. The run down:

Last Weds./Thurs.: I spent those two days prepping for our garage sale and getting the house ready for my parents and two aunts. Matt and I switched "date night" to Thursday and hit up Forte for dinner. We originally had planned to get to bed early due to the garage sale the next day, but we let our friends coerce us back to Forte for some live music and alcohol. We stayed out much longer than we had planned because of all the fun.

Friday: One of the things helped me have fun all Thursday night was some coffee at Forte that was kindly served up by Nick Dean. It did the trick too well. I didn't sleep much between the time we got home and the time I had to get up. Visions of grabbing a hangover sandwich from Timmy Ho's for Matt were dashed when I mistakenly opened one of the garage doors to put something inside around 7:45am and then forgot to close it. That meant I had my first customers at 8:10am. The sale moved at a steady pace from that point forward. Both our families descended on our house in the afternoon and we ended day one of the garage sale with a massive Italian sausage, Asian coleslaw, potato salad, salad, and chocolate cake dinner. Later on, we took my parents and aunts out to Wells Bay to watch the fireworks on Chautauqua Lake and hang out by a bonfire.

Saturday: I started the garage sale at 8:30am by marking down almost everything by half. My intent was get as much sold as possible so I would have less to cart off to any of the donations sites around town. It was a good strategy since we made an acceptable profit even after expenses. My dad and Matt spent a chunk of the day hanging the two chandeliers pictured below. We took my family out to Bemus Point for dinner at the Casino that night and came back to the house for some beers on the porch.

Sunday: Not much to report other than a late breakfast with my family at home, saying our good-byes, and then running to the store to get some miscellaneous items for the week.

Some people have asked if our house seems to big for just the two of us, especially since we don't plan to have kids, but after this weekend I'd have to say it's just fine. I love that we can have our families over and not feel like we're climbing over each other. It also was obvious that my aunts really enjoyed being on a mini-holiday even with helping us out with the sale. I feel really great about how the whole weekend worked out.

Recycled Lights Times Two

This is the other chandelier my mom found on the side of the road. Dad and Matt installed this one in the dog's room AKA our library. Not bad for free!

Recycled Lighting

My mom found this chandelier on the side of the road. My dad and Matt installed it in our powder room this weekend.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Garage Sale-ing The Fourth

For about four to five years, Matt and I have been saying we're going to have a garage sale to get rid of some of the excess stuff we have in our house. That day has come.

Friday, July 4th and Saturday, July 5th from 9am to 4pm we are holding a garage sale at our house.

I just finished organizing all our stuff inside the garage since it's raining out. I've managed to fill up six tables and then resorted to arranging other items in boxes under the tables. And this is before my parents and in-laws bring over their own stuff tomorrow.

Yes. This will be a family affair. On top of holding a garage sale, we will also have my parents and two aunts staying with us Friday to Sunday.

Items we are selling include 2 televisions, children's books (beginning reader to Young Adult), paperback/hardcovers, stereo, women's clothing/shoes/purses/jewelry, Easter and Christmas decorative items, telephones/portable cd players, houseware items (we have 3 cheese graters!), some toys, a hot pink & purple 10-speed bike, and a god knows what else.

If you want to stop down to check it out, send me an email at muzenews(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll email back the address. Otherwise, you're stuck looking for our signs that we'll hopefully put up tonight.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Green Addition


I've been looking for a way to compost at our house in a way that doesn't take up a lot of real estate, but is a contained unit. Fortunately, I found out our local Cornell Cooperative Extension office was selling these units. Home Depot had been selling them at one time, but stopped.



I had to move some flagstones that had been propped up against the back of our garage to get this in place, but I'm pleased so far with the location. Now I just have to remember to save materials to put into it.

Cutting to the Scene with the Pixie

Ten years ago, I decided to do one of the most drastic things I had ever done to my hair. I went from a long style (below collarbone) to a p...