Away For the Holiday

Matt and I are headed off to catch some art and hockey this weekend. It begins with the Modigliani exhibit at Albright-Knox in Buffalo, progresses to the early-Christmas gift of a Sabres Hockey game with my Dad, and ends with the Degas exhibit at the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery. I'm sure much merriment will be intertwined with these three events. I'm hoping, since the weather will be nice, to stroll along Elmwood Avenue and peeking in some of the gift shops. I'm also hoping that we might be able to take in a film while in Rochester.. maybe Frida, Punch Drunk Love, or even White Oleander. Of course I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a few friends, but the holidays always seem to take them away to someplace or another. The lure of a mini-holiday in the country (AKA Finger Lakes or Adirondacks for Rochester people, Toronto for Buffalo people) is just too strong I guess. Me? I'll take a mini-holiday away from the country thankyouverymuch. Bring on the martinis and black pants!

Guy Fawkes v. Osama Bin Laden

This Londoner wrote a cool comparison piece on Guy Fawkes and September 11th. If you don't know anything about Guy Fawkes' Day, follow the link he provides at the bottom of the post. Fairly interesting.

Muuuuwwaaaaahhhhaaaahhhaaa!!!

Because sometimes you just have to laugh at your leaders...

"Wait, I'm not a dictator!" you cry! Well lets look at the check list: Unelected? Check! Use wars and xenophobia to boost popularity? Check! Total control of the media so they never say a bad word against you? Check! Kill scores of innocent people to get what you want? Check! Do anything to get your hands on oil? Check! Inhumane treatment of prisoners? Check! Face it, you're a dictator, and no amount of gloss will hide that fact… or the fact you're a borderline retard who looks like a monkey! What tin-pot dictator are you? Take the "What Dictator am I?" test at PoisonedMinds.com

Tipsy-ing Over Election Results

Alcohol really works at deadening the pain along with clouding judgement. Matt fixed me a stiff Gin & Tonic as I monitored election results on votechautauqua.com, CNN, and various tv stations. The end result was me crying, "Well hell.. McCall is only behind by 600,000 votes with 85% of the precints reporting. We still have a chance!" I think Matt changed the channel at that point to "The Man Show" on Comedy Central where I joined the cheering of "ziggy zaggy ziggy zaggy Oi! Oi! Oi!" and downing my drink. Hey, at least the night ended on a positive note. I think Matt laughed at me a little, but since he was the one that fixed the drink for me I take no responsibility for my actions *wink*

Ugh.. What a Let Down

Well.. I can't say too many races went the way we hoped last night. There's only small comfort in our candidate, Alan Hevesi, getting elected as New York State's new Comptroller. From what I understand, he can be a real weasel. That's life. The other small comfort is that Carl McCall beat Tom Golisano, so that means the Democrats retain their representation in Boards of Elections across the state.

On the national side: my only comfort is that Louise Slaughter, my former House representative in Rochester, won a new term in her new "earmuff" district. Thank god for something! For the latest on that (as of this hour). Check out CNN.

Election Day

Tuesday, November 5th is Election Day. I urge you to get out and vote! Every vote counts and in most races across the U.S. appear to be close. Even here in New York State, we still can't predict for certain who will win the Governor's seat. If Democrats got out and voted Democrat, then Carl McCall would win by a landslide. Crazy stuff when you consider what the polls keep trying to tell us these past couple of months.

Find out which But I'm A Cheerleader girl you are.

Blog On Hold

MumblemumbleElectionsmumblemumblePoliticalCrapmumblemumble
RunningPhoneBanksmumblemumbleParentsComingIntoTownmumumble
mumblemumbleHouseADisastermumblemumblemumble.

You get the picture.

Our County Government as an Example

My boss and others here in County Government are part of a book, Working Across Boundaries: Making Collaboration Work In Government and Nonprofit Organizations by Russell M. Linden. It basically details some of our work implementing the Comprehensive Performance Partnership in County Government. A bit of government lingo, but trust me on this. Once you get a grip on what's going on it's all good. For more details on the Performance Partnership, visit the National Labor Management Association website and click on the link for the Comprehensive Performance Partnership (on the left side of page).

What Office Space character are you?
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Community Orchestra Drivel

I enjoy playing the violin with an orchestra. I hate the arrogance that sometimes accompanies the people that make up the orchestra. We had our last rehearsal last night for the community orchestra's concert on Sunday. The conductor picked out some decent tunes, all arrangements, but good stuff. I could have done without the self-appointed first chair, violinist giving us all a lesson on ricochet bowing. As if we were all morons. It was pretty obvious that we all knew what ricochet bowing was and followed along in her lesson just to amuse ourselves. I probably wouldn't have minded the "refresher" if it wasn't "taught" with such arrogance and in a patronizing manner. On the upside, it looks like my family will give a good showing on Sunday. Nice to have family that cares to drive out of their way to come hear you play.

On another orchestra note. They only do two concerts a year. Then there's the Living Christmas Tree musical/concert thing. I was curious about playing, but apparently somebody has to die off before you can be considered. That's even more a factor if you're a violinist like me. I commented ruefully, "Gee, guess I should have been a violist" to the fellow passing out music for the Xmas Tree concert. Didn't help that the aforementioned first chair violinist gushed that the Living Christmas Tree was the living end when it came to local concerts. I had to keep myself from visibly rolling my eyes. Right now, I'm waiting to hear back about a possible gig in a pit orchestra for an upcoming comedy. More time out of my life, but I think it might be fun. I always enjoyed pit orchestra in high school and college.

They Think We Joke About Snow on Halloween

The following is the weather forecast for our area over the next week. A predominant theme is snow. I'm just not ready to shovel, people.

INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...JAMESTOWN...OLEAN...WELLSVILLE
901 AM EST TUE OCT 29 2002

.THIS AFTERNOON...THICKENING CLOUDS WITH RAIN OR SNOW LIKELY BY
SUNSET. CHILLY WITH HIGHS NEAR 40.

.TONIGHT...SNOW OR RAIN LIKELY EARLY...THEN SNOW LIKELY FROM LATE
EVENING ON. ACCUMULATION 1 TO 2 INCHES. LOWS IN THE LOWER 30S.

.WEDNESDAY...SNOW OR RAIN LIKELY...MAINLY IN THE MORNING. ANOTHER
INCH OF WET SNOW MAY ACCUMULATE. CONTINUED COLD WITH HIGHS IN THE
MID 30S.

.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S.

.THURSDAY...CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SNOW OR RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON.
HIGHS IN THE LOWER 40S.

.THURSDAY NIGHT...SNOW LIKELY. LOWS IN THE LOWER 30S.

.FRIDAY...SNOW OR RAIN LIKELY. WINDY WITH HIGHS NEAR 40.

.SATURDAY...SNOW SHOWERS LIKELY. COLD AND WINDY. LOWS IN THE UPPER
20S AND HIGHS IN THE UPPER 30S.

.SUNDAY...CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW OR RAIN. COLD AND WINDY.
LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S AND HIGHS IN THE UPPER 30S.

.MONDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SNOW OR RAIN. CONTINUED COLD.
LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S AND HIGHS IN THE UPPER 30S.

Doonesbury & Blogging

Check out this week's Doonesbury. All blog related.. and that's a good thing.

Huge WTF Factor in Latest Dreams

I had some bizarro dreams last night. It basically involved me and some guy running away from an evil, old lady. We hid in a vineyard near a house and watched to see if the lady had drove by looking for us. The owner of the house came out and "caught" us. The guy I had "escaped" with cut his arm on some sharp edge around the door to the house and the owner cleaned up the wound. We went inside, and I noticed that the owner of the house actually looked quite a bit like a former significant other. He even had framed posters of bands that my former was into. Go figure. All sorts of too much information stuff followed and then I woke up. According to various dream interpretation sites, I'm in a good spot in my life but I'm ready to move on and drop some of the baggage I've been carrying around. Made sense and I was glad to know that the sites weren't telling me I had a subconscious longing for sex with strangers. Maybe I've been listening to too much Depeche Mode.

My little girl...Drive anywhere...Do what you want...I don't care

I've been listening to one my latest music acquistions, some compilation of stuff by Depeche Mode, as I'm driving around. I have a fairly good memory and was being whisked away to the early 1990's as "Enjoy the Silence" and "Personal Jesus" reverberated throughout my car. I tag on some sort of an association with most music I listen to in terms of where I was when that song came out, how it related to my life, or a mood it created. DM was always more about mood than lyrics or time and place. I think a lot of their songs represented what I thought sex was all about in terms of David Gahan's voice. His voice has a smooth, dark, deep quality to it that just pushes buttons. His voice represents the sort of guy you'd love to date or run off with but you know your parents would totally be against you having any contact with him. I'm not referring to any of Gahan's personal troubles here.. I'm just talking about his voice.

Still Celebrating..

With the uncertainty that the U.S. Postal service delivers mail, I'm still receiving birthday cards and really nice packages. Round that off with a visit to Buffalo this weekend to see my parents, and you get a week long celebration of my birthday. Nice, eh? The rest of the actual day was very pleasant. I had lunch with Matt at one of our favourite lunch spots, The Bagel Company. When I got into work, my co-worker totally surprised me by offering me two tickets to the Sabres game that night. It was an excellent game between the Sabres and Philadelphia Flyers! It was even better since Buffalo won, natch'. So thanks again to everyone *grins*

An Easy 26th

I know my boss had no idea he was giving me a nice break on my birthday when he gave me a research project to do at the library near my house. This meant I got to sleep in this morning, am wearing jeans instead of "work clothes," and I'll get to meet up with Matt for lunch later on. The library just opened, so I'll head over there in a moment. Another nice thing about not having to drive right into Mayville was that I got to make myself a proper cup of English Breakfast tea and eat blueberry waffles. Mmm! So even though I have to start phone banks tonight and probably won't have too much fun today, it still will be better than a regular day of work. And of course I thank the friends who have sent me best wishes :-)

Chick Book Shopaholic Incident

Gah! In a quick lunch hour moment, I spent nearly $40 on various chick books and a sorta chick-book mystery series I love. My one comfort is that I didn't pay full price for anything and the prices I did pay could not be matched if I was physically in a bookstore. Blame the trip to Orlando on this latest spree. While waiting in the Orlando airport for our flight, I bought Confessions of a Shopaholic. I quickly read this book while waiting at the airport and then on our subsequent flight to Chicago. While waiting for our connecting flight to Buffalo, I bought Good In Bed, which I flew through on Friday and Saturday. I occassionally go through these huge spurts of reading, whether it's mysteries, various novels by specific authors, or chick books. The latter is usually an easy read, funny, and something I can related to in bits. Sure it's the lazy way out when it comes to literature. I really should be concentrating on making more headway in Infinite Jest, but I got logjammed somewhere after page 50 and haven't been able to bring myself to pick it up. Guess I just need casual reads after long days at work.

Catching Friends In Town

Matt and I had the opportunity to catch our friend Ryan subbing bass for a band, South Central, in the Jamestown area on Friday night. It was really cool since I had never seen Ryan play before and there was the extra bonus of not having to travel far to see him. The band was good. A mix of Marshall Tucker, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, and some originals. Matt drank too much for his stomach, but the bar scene was comfortable. That's rare for me. Normally I feel a little out of place in bars, but the bartender was jovial and the crowd was more our age and laid back. Unfortunately, Ryan had to hop on back to Rochester that night after the gig to go to work, but I was still glad to see him. There's a chance he will be attending SUNY Fredonia for music ed, so that means we'd have another person to hang out with on the weekends (or during the week when you just can't wait for the weekends to have a drink on the town). Coolness. *nods*

Some Congrats!!

I must extend Congratulations to Heidi and Kevin on their recent marriage this past Friday :-) Best of happiness to you both!

Trip to Orlando: A Nutshell

I've been neglecting this blog in terms of a promised overview of our trip to Orlando Columbus Day weekend. Call it too much to talk about! But to start with the Thursday before we left:

Matt got us tickets for the season opener for the Sabres. I've never really been to a major league sports event unless you count the Gravity Games this past August. Tickets weren't selling well, so Matt was able to score seats right behind the player's bench where the camera guys stand. That means we were on tv at least once. Kind of cool, but I was more interested in the game. Lots of fighting. I kept asking Matt, "Do they always fight this much?" He laughed at me a little I think. Great game. Sabres beat the Rangers (I think it was the Rangers at least.. it's been over a week). Good times.

Our hotel rocked! Literally. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, which was right on, what I call, the Universal Studios grounds. We could walk to all the attractions, or if we timed it right, take a shuttle boat. I've never stayed in a hotel room this nice before. The bedding wasn't that thin comforter over a flannel blanket that you get in many overnight accomodations. Nope. It was nice, heavy blankets. The pillows were feather pillows, which was great for me, but Matt had to use two of the "extra" decorative pillows since he was allergic to the feathers.

The weekend was mostly spent at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, riding all the rides that my stomach could handle. I found out that I can tolerate only so many twisty-turny rides in a row. We did go on just about everything. I highly reccomend the Spiderman ride, The Cat in the Hat, Terminator 3D, and Dueling Dragons. Good stuff! We had good meals, but honestly, nothing really stood out. Not even our trip to our "favourite" restaurant, The Melting Pot. I think that was due to eating too late a lunch and then not walking around as much as we did in Washington DC. The end result was that we were unable to finish the food we ate. Plus, the music du jour at this particular Melting Pot was John Denver. Ok, no offense, but I would have preferred some muted jazz thankyouverymuch. Still.. good times.

Matt and I concur that our favourite moments were laying by the pool on the "beach" (a sandy, beach-like area built on the hotel grounds) and having a drink, and dancing at Motown in CityWalk. Nothing like getting "your groove on" with a bunch of other people that don't know how to dance! But like I said.. Good times!

Hopefully, my pictures will be ready to pick up today or tomorrow. I'll put them on ImageStation when I have a moment. Unfortunately, one picture that I won't have a digital copy of is the picture of Matt and I with Sponge Bob Square Pants. We always joke that we never have pictures of the two of us and when we saw Sponge Bob, we couldn't resist being a little silly. One of the many merchandising things they pull at Universal is having people take digital pictures of you with characters or of anywhere in the park. At the end of the day, you can go pick up your picture in a nice little souvenier folder. The funny part is what was a tee-hee moment, actually turned into a good picture of Matt and me. We look like we're having a good time. We were! And I used funds from a survey I got paid for while at Universal Studios to buy the picture.

Oh yeah. I got paid to take a survey on a new kind of yogurt. Anyone who knows me, knows I consume mass quantities of yogurt a year. It's a quick, healthy lunch and I've been eating it since I was a baby. Yes, I get tired of it, but I figure I have to get some of my calcium intake from someplace! So imagine me getting approached to test-taste a "new" kind of yogurt. I don't know what kind of a statement it is on me that when they showed me the flavours I could choose from to taste-test that I knew what kind and style of yogurt I was going to be tasting. Sad!! It was Yoplait Whips (I believe since there are two brands that are trying out "whipped" yogurt) and I tried the Orange Creme flavour. Good stuff. Free snack along with $5 for my time. Matt didn't get to do the survey since he doesn't eat yogurt regularly. Poor guy :-)

Matt and I topped off our visit by a drink in Velvet, the lounge in the hotel. Not a usual thing for us, but the lounge was just too cool looking to pass up. If we hadn't had dessert already I would have had their smores. I settled for a Midori/Vodka Martini. Mmm. Matt had a beer. Of course. So I'm hoping that the last picture on my roll of film will be of me, holding a very green drink, smiling and savouring the last moments of our trip.

Incidentally, we couldn't have afforded this trip if I hadn't won the contest. After seeing rates for the parks/hotel/flights, we figured that we could have afforded it if we were making it a honeymoon trip (since it was that expensive) or "the" trip for the year. Naturally, I decided that since we "saved" money by not having to pay any for this trip that we should immediately book another trip. Want to take a guess? It's New Orleans the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. day. Jet Blue-ing it there. Wish us luck!

Freakin' Weather!

I shouldn't swear since this nothing unusual, but I got snowed on today. Not only that, but a car pulled into the parking lot outside my office with measurable snow accumulated on the rear window. Blast! And they're predicting snow for next Tuesday as well. Durn it if it doesn't snow on my birthday again. *sighs* Oh well. It is Western New York afterall.

Are you an alpha, beta, or gamma girl?

Rain

I don't mind the rain and cold in October. It's November that puts me off.

*Yawn* A Thursday Morning Boredom Thing

Courtesy of Heather

1. Your name spelled backwards. Ailuj
2. Where were your parents born? Mom – Niagara Falls Dad – Buffalo, NY
3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? An update from Macafee Virus Scanner
4. What's your favorite restaurant? California Rollin’ and The Melting Pot
5. Last time you swam in a pool? Saturday, Oct. 12, 2002 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando, FL
6. Have you ever been in a school play? Yes, an American History Musical in 5th Grade and a Broadway Review Musical in 6th Grade
7. How many kids do you want? Zero to 1. Most of the time I really don’t want kids
8. Type of music you dislike most? Country and Christian, but Christian the most
9. Are you registered to vote? Of course! Democrat
10. Do you have cable? Yes
11. Have you ever ridden on a moped? Nope
12. Ever prank call anybody? I did the call-and-hang-up thing and I once prank paged a friend
13. Ever get a parking ticket? Twice. Got out of both of them
14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? No
15. Furthest place you ever traveled. England in 1995
16. Do you have a garden? Yes, but it is mostly composed of plants left by the previous tenant of the house
17. What's your favorite comic strip? For Better or For Worse
18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem? Yes
19. Bath or Shower, morning or night? Shower in the morning
20. Best movie you've seen in the past month? Month? I don’t know if I’ve been to the movies in a month, but in the past few months I would have to put down “Kissing Jessica Stein” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”
21. Favorite pizza topping? Pepperoni
22. Chips or popcorn? Popcorn
23. What color lipstick do you usually wear? None usually, but when I’m going out Clinique Surprise
24. Have you ever smoked peanut shells? No.. that’s just bizarre
25. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant? No.
26. Orange Juice or apple? Orange with calcium
27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you dine? My boyfriend to Taco Hut since it was right across from where he works
28. Favorite type chocolate bar? Twix
29. When was the last time you voted at the polls? Primary Day, Sept. 10, 2002
30. Last time you ate a homegrown tomato? Sometime in the past month
31. Have you ever won a trophy? Twice. The first was for doing well in piano juries and the second was for a Bocce Ball Tournament
32. Are you a good cook? I could be but I avoid cooking.
33. Do you know how to pump your own gas? *rolls eyes* Yes
34. Ever order an article from an infomercial? No, but I’ve read details about infomercial stuff online.
35. Sprite or 7-up? Sprite.
36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work? We were required to wear royal blue short sleeve shirts at my first job (Amusement Park)
37. Last thing you bought at a pharmacy? Lip balm and female stuff
38. Ever throw up in public? In a way.. I was really sick at work one day and threw up in the ladies’ room and then threw up again into my lunch bag after pulling over to the side of the road in my car
39. Would you prefer being a millionaire or find true love? I have my true love (awww) so a couple million dollars would be nice
40. Do you believe in love at first sight? Not really. The last two guys I’ve dated I initially thought were gay and wasn’t interested. Goes to show you how wrong you can be!
41. Ever call a 1-900 number? Nope.
42. Can ex's be friends? Sure! A lot of my friends are ex’s.
43. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital? My grandfather after he had a stroke
44. Did you have a lot of hair when you were a baby? No.. mostly fuzz
45. What message is on your answering machine? It’s me giving the standard “We’re not available, leave a message” message
46. What's your all time favorite Saturday Night Live Character? Wayne and Garth of Wayne’s World
47. What was the name of your first pet? Fishy-too.. it was a fish.
48. What is in your purse? Various credit/store cards, money, checkbook, brush, lip balm, headache medicine, sunglasses, stain remover
49. Favorite thing to do before bedtime? Check my email one last time and watch the news.
50. What is one thing you are grateful for today? The beautiful colors of the leaves on the trees.

"Somewhere around 25 bizarre becomes immature." - Janet "Singles"

Here's to being mired in my mid-20's in less than a week.

Storms In Orlando

I'll give a more complete update on our trip to Orlando, but first some of the excitement that happened while we were there. On Sunday, late afternoon, a wild storm swept through the area while we were at Islands of Adventure. For some newspaper details, go here or here. Needless to say, the rain flooded the streets of the park, sprung leaks in the roof of the gift shop where we were taking shelter, and produced dime-sized hail for several minutes. The storm itself lasted quite a bit. The relief is that Matt and I had seen everything we wanted to see both at Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios.

The Budget No One Wants to Talk About

New York State's budget is a mess. The worst thing about it is that no one is talking about it. At least one newspaper picked up on this little fact and ran this story yesterday. If you're itching to write any emails/letters or even ask your state representatives in person what's going on and what they're going to do about, now would be a good time.

Sleepy Cinnabar Gets A Wake-Up

I grew up in a pretty quiet town. My nieghborhood didn't get a lot of traffic. Neighbors knew each other. All the kids played together. Your typical suburb. That's why I find it disquieting that something like this has happened on my former-street. I asked my dad to make sure my mom locked the doors while she was home during the day. Now that she's retired, she's obviously home more often by herself. It's a little scary.

We're #1 For Golf!

Jamestown is getting some respect in the November issue of Golf Digest. They have listed Jamestown as the #1 metro area for golf. Not bad for a city that boasts a population of 31,000.

I should note that the three out of the top places ranked are in Upstate New York. And Rochester, NY ranks in at #37. Who says you need the big cities for good golf?

Go Rory!

HOUDA NAMED AMERKS TEAM CAPTAIN

Taylor and Fitzpatrick named assistants

ROCHESTER NAMES CAPTAINS AT MEDIA LUNCH:

Rochester Americans Head Coach Randy Cunneyworth announced Tuesday that veteran defenseman Doug Houda has been named the team captain for the 2002-03 season. He also released at Nathaniel's Pub that Chris Taylor and Rory Fitzpatrick will serve as the Amerks assistant captains. Houda enters his fifth season with the Amerks and brings over 1,000 games of professional experience to the ice each night. Taylor has been an assistant captain for the past two seasons and led Rochester with 66 points (21+45) last season. Fitzpatrick becomes the first Rochester native to wear the "A" on his Amerk sweater. The Irondequoit native enters his second season with the Amerks

I grew up two houses away from Rory. I used to hang out with him and the other kids in the neighborhood to play hide and go seek, kill the carrier, go swimming, ride bikes, and all sorts of stuff that kids do. It's cool to see him doing alright for himself.

Somebody Shoot Me

CNN thinks it can be "hip" by adding teen jargon to its newscasts. I think I'm gonna hurl.

From Autumn to Sweltering Summer

Matt and I will be taking off for a four-day trip to Orlando this weekend. That means no blogs until we get back. I'm excited about the trip, but not looking forward to 85+ degree days with over 50% humidity. Throw in some scattered thunderstorms and it could be downright miserable. I'm hoping for the best. We are staying in a pretty cool spot, The Hard Rock Hotel, so we'll be close to all the stuff at Universal Studios. The only bad bits will be flying in and out seeing as how our flights are rediculously early in the morning (we fly out at 6:33 am on Friday). Oh well. I did win the trip, so it's not like I can complain too much.

Achtung, Baby! It's October

It didn't totally feel like Autumn until Monday and Tuesday when I thought to pop in U2's Achtung, Baby while driving around to work and various other places. Something about that album and this time of year. It fits. It would fit even more if it was accompanied by brisk winds, rain and thunder. I'm slightly envious of a friend's recent "date" with a rainstorm where he stood outside and got soaking wet as the thunder crashed around him. Even though I'm not a big fan of being cold and wet, there were moments where it just seemed appropriate to be assaulted by wind and rain. My friends and I used to hang out at the Irondequoit Bay Pier a lot when it was stormy outside. It was like we were either trying to channel the natural power of the storm or help contribute to it through our mess of hormones and unexpended energy.

Stray Cats and Vampires

During the height of the swing dancing craze in Rochester, Matt B. and I went to a dance event at one of the churches in the city. The dance was held in the traditional basement-with-live-band style. It had a very nostalgic feel to it. That night, the place was packed since the dance included a short lesson on some swing dance steps. Matt and I followed along with the "rock-step" pattern. Unfortunately, this pattern only works for songs in 3/4. The song they played right after we learned this nifty little step was in 4/4. It kinda left us falling a little over our feet, wondering what to do with the extra beat.

Meanwhile, a group of guys came in all dressed in black. Black pants, black shirts. Nothing outrageous. I noted that some of them looked familiar. It turned out that they all roleplayed Vampire: The Masquerade at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), which Matt was also a part of at one time. Matt and I giggled a little over the fact that even outside the game, the roleplayers insisted on wearing the pins of their "clans." I ended up dancing with a few of them since they recognized me and felt comfortable enough to try their hand at dancing. It was a good time all in all. The whole swing movement in the late 1990's was a pretty good time in general.

Stutson Street/Patrick O'Rourke Bridge Pictures

Finally.. some pictures you go can go look at. My favourite is the sunset picture I took as the drawbridge went up on my visit home in August.

Sheptastic.Com To Go Off the Air

Go visit Sheptastic.Com before it totally goes down. Shep did not renew the domain name and the site could be down in hours or days depending on how fast things work. Sheptastic.Com was one of my biggest refferal sites and he always had some quirky insight into the day's news and various other things. We'll miss you Shep!

Dinner at the Horseshoe Inn

We went with a friend to this restaurant in Catt Co (aka Cattaraugus County) last night that features endless racks of guns and various animal heads on the walls and ceilings. It got better when the waitresses brought out a birthday cake for a party, sang happy birthday, and then placed a helmet with antlers on top of the birthday woman's head. What can I say? This is country living!

We Go Bald for Basketball

Matt and I attended a fundraiser Friday night in honor of a local guy who died of cancer. The fundraiser was for a youth basketball team program at the YMCA and the gimmick was to have people pledge money to other people to get their heads shaved. So now Matt is bald and a bit funny looking. His boss, the mayor, also got his head shaved which got him a lot of "props" such as, "Wow.. the mayor is getting his head shaved? That's quality man!" from the drunk guys in the crowd. Good event overall. I think they raised $30,000. The only downer was high winds leftover from Hurricane Lili knocked out power towards the end of the event, but since the beer taps still worked and the bartenders had flashlights, a lot of people stayed for a bit more. Crazy.

What box do you get put in?
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Clinton For President

I'm wholeheartedly in favour of Clinton for President in 2004. However, not the Clinton you think I'm referring to (ahem.. not Hillary). I'm referring to former-President Bill Clinton. The idea was brought up on a local talk show that while the President cannot serve more than 2 consecutive terms, it apparently doesn't say anything about that President running at another time. If former President Clinton keeps giving speeches like this one in England, I don't know of a better idea. Clinton surely showed everyone in the E.U. and in the White House here that he's much more articulate and more able at rallying leaders to an idea than Bush. I'm liking this idea more so everyday. Bill Clinton for President in 2004. Yes.. I like it very much.

*post note* Blast. Just found out the Constitution does say that a President cannot serve more than two years. That's it. Darn shame.

Resurgence of Snow

The Canadian Rapper, Snow, seems to have made a bit of a resurgence in the music world. After his hit single, "Informer," got buried under the drift of other one-hit wonders, he will be coming out with a new album this November. Since I live close enough to Canada to actually pick up their radio stations, I heard his reggae-pop tune bouncing on the former 101.1 The River (now 105.1 out of Niagara Falls/St. Catherines, ONT area). Canadian stations are required by CRTC that 35% of the content on their airwaves will be Canadian. These guidelines were created basically to ensure that the United States didn't quietly take over all of the Canadian media. And I like to think, in a happy happy kind of way, that if it weren't for these guidelines then we never would have great imports like Kids In The Hall or Sarah McLachlan (when she was a true Canadian import). But getting back to Snow: his old single, "Informer," seems to have popped up all over in-house radio stations in restaurants, playlists for various blogs I read, and aforementioned Canadian radio stations. If you couldn't stand Mr. "12 Inches of Snow" in the past, you have one thing to be grateful for where he's concerned. His second cousin is Steven Page, of Barenaked Ladies fame. If it weren't for "Informer," "One Week" would have never been as big a hit (according a quote by Steve on a Snow-fansite.

Light! Damnit! Light!

I had the distinct experience of going through several years of Girl Scouts while growing up. Fortunately, I had friends to "share the pain" with me. In the end we ended up with some pretty funny memories of different shenanigans. The most popular memory being of the time one of our fellow scouts getting stuck in a urinal at a Lock-In.

The troop I belonged to wasn't huge on badges, or maybe I wasn't, but our leaders insisted on some sort of pomp and circumstance come the end of a school year. One year, the leaders decided that we needed to light candles and talk about the freedoms we have in this country and what we all would do as Girl Scouts to protect those freedoms. This led to much hilarity as we tried to light candles while reading the little notecards provided to us. The shining moment in it all was my friend Anne trying to get the candle to light. In her frustration she exclaimed "Light damnit! Light!" She was admonished by our Leaders, but not before the rest of us had bust out laughing (if I remember correctly).

Anyhow, this all came rushing back as I looked through some of the many papers I brought back to Jamestown from my parent's house. I found the notecard I had to read while light the candle. When we practiced we also read anything and everything written on the note, including emphasizing anything that was underlined (in italics).:
Scout #4 -
"May the light of this candle shine as a symbol that I will serve My Country. (Light #4) In a democracy everyone counts, and I am important because I am part of the vast nation of people who respect human freedom. And because we respect human freedom, we shall take responsibility in serving our country to keep it free."

Sure, it was a good message but we just weren't in the mood for it I guess. By June, most kids don't give two hoots about ceremony and just want to get on with vacation. Still. Good times.

What Underappreciated Female Vocalist Are You?
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Perfect Autumn Day

There are a few days in my memory that I can pick out as being just perfect. Yesterday was one of those days. It was perfect in a "My Bird Performs" by XTC kind of way. Matt and I had traveled to Rochester to celebrate my mom's birthday this weekend. Yesterday we slept in a little bit, got up and had blueberry pancakes made by my dad. I don't usually order pancakes at restaurants, or even make them myself, since no one seems to be able to make them like my dad.

After my parents left for church, Matt and I washed up and lounged around a little bit. My parents returned. We had lunch (liverwurst, another thing I usually only eat at my parent's house) and then wandered outside to chat with the neighbors. My dad just started a darkroom class at the Community Darkroom. He had taken it about 20 years ago, but was rusty on the latest developments (ha ha) in developing pictures. Part of his homework for his class was to take some black and white photos. At first, only my dad was going to go out. Then we all ended up tagging along down to where the Stutson Street bridge is located on the Genesee River.

My dad got some shots of the new Patrick O'Rourke bridge being built. I finished off my roll of color film and grumbled over not getting any pictures of Matt and I (again). The sun was bright, but not overwhelming. The air off the lake and river was refreshing but not too cold to need a jacket. We hung around the river for a bit, pointing out different shots my dad could take of the two bridges, the river, sailboats, weathervanes, and other odd assortments. I stood listening to the sound of cars rumbling over the steel deck of the bridge. Just as we were going to drive away, a sailboat sounded its horn. I looked at my watch: 2:55 PM. I said, "The bridge is going to go up!" We drove a little closer to the bridge, got out of the car, and headed over to a dock to watch both sides of the Stutson Street bridge open like a dual drawbridge to a castle. My dad's camera clicked as my mom and I murmered, "Cool.. what great timing!" It was a bit of childhood for me. In another year or two, the Stutson Street bridge will be closed and torn down.

On our last stop on the Irondequoit side of the river, my dad and I tramped up to where the new bridge will start. The deck isn't down yet, but the span goes all the way across the river. I looked out towards Irondequoit and breathed in the air. It was home. I could feel the edges of time sweeping away and it was like I had never really left. It was the perfect day.

Time For A Change

I was tried of the old block-style template I had, so I'm trying out this. I think it has a more clean look to it. Any comments?

To Understand a 28% Tax Increase...

Our County Executive announced his budget on Wednesday night that included a 28% tax increase. Before you jump to conclusions, you must understand several things.

A. State Mandated Medicaid is up $7.4 million dollars for 2003
B. the contribution to the NYS Retirement System is increasing $1.6 million
C. There is a $1.2 million increase for Community College Chargebacks
D. Non-Executive Elected Official's budgets have increased $1.4 million

My boss has cut his budget $7.2 million. That still leaves us about $12 million in the hole. The public seems to get it. It's Medicaid (and a wavering national economy and aftermath of 9/11). There's no whining here. Just plain facts, people. Speaking of...

How They Lie

One of Pataki's folk thought he'd try to sneak one by us. Robert Hinckley, a deputy state health commissioner said new legislation in January added $40 million to counties' costs, less than 1 percent of their increased Medicaid bills. Also, he said, Medicaid costs have grown by an average of 4 percent in New York under Gov. George Pataki from 1995-2001, compared to an 8 percent average nationally. "Under Gov. Pataki, county property taxes have been held in check across New York," Hinckley said. Right. And I have a bridge to sell you as well.

The word here is that Hinckley and company over at the state health department haven't been giving Pataki the real deal when it comes to figures about Medicaid. Of course Pataki believes them. Still voting for him? I would suggest Carl McCall, once again, as a very viable alternative. At least he doesn't have his head up his ass.

"Everyone should love each other. It's fucking bullshit if they don't."
- Josh Lidsky Sept. 13, 1979 - Sept. 16, 2002

Josh loosened his ties to this physical world last week. He was an amazing guy I knew from WBNY. If I didn't know that already, it would have been very apparent from the memorial ceremony this past Saturday. If you're not a fan of organized religions, I'll tell you try Unitarian Universalism. At least Josh was sent off with a dignified ceremony. Plenty of memories and good thoughts. He will be missed, but I now think he had to leave, despite our best intentions to keep him here as long as possible. I think we all knew he would leave us and that he knew completely what he was doing.

No.. I don't know what I want to do. Someone suggested recently that I create a type of ezine where I have people from all over the world (or this country at least) write reviews or little stories about where they live/hang out/eat/etc. This person suggested it could be very addictive. I told him in a roundabout way he obviously doesn't read my blog and that's why I have it. To make people addicted? No, to share various views from all over the world (and a lot of my own of course). I am clueless to what I actually want to do to earn a living "when I grow up."

In Your Pajamas

I spent my Sunday in my pajamas. That's not to say I didn't do anything. In fact, it was a very good day. I woke up just after 10 AM, toddled downstairs and read the newspaper. Matt then went out and got some Tim Horton's coffee/bagels/doughnuts for us to munch on. Somewhere in there I checked my email and then went back downstairs because it was almost noon. And noon on Sundays means Trading Spaces! You can guess where I was parked for the next three hours.

After being a couch potato, I found some Lifetime movie to watch and proceeded to start doing some laundry during the commercials. The movie ended and I did some dishes with Matt finishing them off. I straightened the house, talked to a friend on the phone, ate leftover pizza, and watched some more tv. Sometime during this, the dryer (the "new" one) decided not to work. We're not sure what's up with it, but it won't go on. Perturbed but not willing to accept failure, I hung up the remaining wet items on a drying rack/over the side of a laundry basket/on hangers. It's all good for the moment. Matt will hopefully figure out what's wrong tomorrow when he takes a personal day (since he has to or else he loses the day).

I brushed my teeth. That sums up the day. It was good not to have to go anywhere and to just get crap done without a lot of hurry, hurry, hurry.

And by the way, Happy Birthday Sean!

drunk mmmmm drunk.. it rarely happens, but when it does.. watch out!

Colder Than A Meat Locker

I'm freezing right now. Our office has two temperature settings: hot and cold. A former co-worker who was fairly reserved surprised us once by proclaiming, "Hang some meat!" as he sat down in his seat. My fingers are almost stiff and my feet are definitely suffering. Woe is me.

Spider Outside

I watched a spider dance around the side of the building while listening to the noon news. The wind had picked up and it appeared that the spider was trying to get its footing. It eventually was able to scramble back up to a web in the corner. I don't know if that web belonged to that particular spider, but it was somewhat mesmerizing to watch this spider contend with nature.

Gut of Steel

Matt and I got some artery clogging garbage plates from Nick Tahoe's on Saturday night after the Sarah Slean/Doves concert. Niether of us finished, so we packed up the leftovers and brought them home. I didn't honestly think Matt would eat leftover Nick's, but last night (over 4 days later), he heated up the remnants of the garbage plates in a wok and chowed down. I have to admire his bravery although he was reaching for the tums this morning.

I Hear Wedding Bells!

I must send out a big congratulations to my friends, Heidi and Kevin, on their recent engagement (and wedding that will happen in less than a month). *sings* Heidi's getting married... she's gonna have a party.. they're gonna have babies. Just kidding on the last part! And I'm lucky enough to get to be part of the second, more official wedding ceremony in July. Hooray!

What does Blogaratzi Mean Anyway?

Samizdata has created a glossary of blog terminology just in case you wanted to know the difference between warblog, newsblog, punditblog, and kittyblogger.

Journalist Who Lie

Thank god for Meg. She made me smile today with her post on journalists who smuggle weapons onto planes and then write about how lax security is at the airports. Journalists do stupid things occassionally and then revel in the fact that they either got away with it or were caught. I know all about this. I took great pride, and gained acceptance in the newsroom, when I was escorted off the premises of a hospital for interviewing an employee without permission. Nevermind the fact that before I visited this health establishment I had called the hospital repeatedly, trying to reach someone there to give an interview or give permission for me to be there. Some quick background info: the hospital was trying to ban a hotdog stand vendor from selling on the sidewalk next to the hospital, claiming the smoke from his stand was creating a health hazard. The city said "no dice" and let the guy keep his stand there. A year later, the hospital opened up their own hot dog stand right by the main entrance to the hospital. Hipocrisy? Sure! And I was lucky enough that a guy I went to high school with was flipping the burgers for the stand, so he gave me a quick interview before I had to go. I got caught being there, but lied through my teeth about getting the interview. So I got caught and got away with something. I should note that this hospital is pretty much shut down right now. Hm.

Gotcha!

A carful of teenage girls caught me singing along with "Peter Pumpkinhead" by XTC last night. I got mostly just a smile from the one girl. I tried to ignore them, but couldn't help smiling myself. I think the turned up volume made them notice my car next to theirs at the stop light. "Peter Pumpkinhead told the truth!"

Must Have Been That Combination of Chocolate and Beer

Phew! Did I have a bizarre string of dreams last night. I believe it started with me being in Buffalo by the waterfront (Lake Erie). It was night time, but I was going to surf with one of my friends (Shep). This is kind of funny since I don't surf and Lake Erie really isn't the kind of body of water you surf on anyway. I decided the waves were too small or something and wandered over to this group of people that were jamming on some musical instruments. I picked up this sawed off cello (sawed off at the top end of the neck) and started doing this slap thing with the bow against the strings. It was really cool sounding and the people I was jamming with thought so too. We took a break and I walked away, talking with Shep. He said the group, The Fleetwoods, wanted me to come jam with them at some club down the road. I kind of nodded and said that would be cool. Shep then got excited and mentioned that it was better than that since the two main people in the group (Mick and someone else) were the Fleetwoods, as in Fleetwood Mac. That raised an eyebrow for me and I thought to myself, "Hey, I can't wait to tell about this!" The dream changed after that and went into something about being "in the hood" and trying to take a magazine out of the library, but not having my library card. I don't know. That should teach me for mixing desserts with alcohol late at night.

Chanteuse Extraordinaire

Matt and I saw Sarah Slean, The Doves, Danny Michel, and My Morning Jacket at The Water Street Music Hall on Saturday night. What an amazing concert! Sarah is just incredible. She really exuberated raw power and emotion during her performance. It felt good to see that kind of talent in person. The Doves were pretty cool too, but I had a hard time hearing the vocals. Whoever set up their sound didn't do their voices justice. There was a pretty cool light show and video backdrop during their performance. For a pre-concert interview with The Doves, click here.

Possible Terrorists in Lackawanna

I woke up Saturday morning at my parent's house in Rochester, shuffled downstairs, and was met by my dad saying, "Hey, Lackawanna made the news!" The news of suspected terrorists being arrested in Lackawanna surprised us since this is the city my dad grew up in and the place where my grandmother still lives. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the Yemeni population in Buffalo live in that city (according to the Democrat & Chronicle). While I don't believe all Yemenis are terrorists (same goes for any ethnic group), I wonder if the high concentration of Yemenis and proximity to the Canadian border made for the almost-perfect spot for those Yemeni-Americans arrested to seem unobtrusive. Think about it: if you were a terrorist and wanted to go unnoticed, wouldn't the best thing to do is blend in with your surroundings by being around people like you? If the six men arrested lived smack dab in the middle of white-bread America, I'm sure they would have been noticed or even watched more carefully than where they live now. Most people don't think of themselves as racist, but drop something out of the ordinary (read different) into a neighborhood of one kind (white, black, disabled, etc.) and people notice. They talk. They may even make your life difficult because they are afraid to confront the fact that they are uncomfortable with people who are different from them. What are your thoughts?

We're In the Laundry Business

Matt's brother came over last night and helped set up our electrical line for the dryer. We now have a washer and dryer that work. Matt celebrated the moment by washing and drying several loads of dirty laundry. No more laundromats!

Pizza Party at Work

One of our secretaries won a pizza party from a local radio station that she entered back in March. Since the party was for up to 20 people, she invited the Law and Legislative Offices department to join us at noon today. I'm pretty psyched about it because I just ran out of "lunch makings" at home and I was getting a little tired of yogurt or cottage cheese for lunch. It's the little things that count sometimes. Plus, it's something to look forward to today. No one is really around in the office and I'm itching to get on the road as early as possible.

Off to do Advance Work for Spitzer

Lucky me gets to leave the office and go help with advance work for State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's visit(s) to the county. This is pretty cool since I've never met him, but have heard nice things about him. Things have been quiet around the office from my standpoint. My boss is going nuts with budget items, but that area doesn't concern me, so I kind of noodle around looking for things to do. I'm currently trying to figure out different things with my computer that in the end will make my life easier. Ha!

Traveling Again

Matt and I are going back to Rochester this weekend for the Clothesline festival. I mentioned this before but the weekend might have a nice twist to it. It turns out that Sarah Slean is also in town and I've always wanted to see her. If the show doesn't sell out, it would make for a very cool Saturday night. Plus, one of my friends who just moved to DC is in town and will be at that concert. Bonus I say!

Another Year Later Reflection.. by James Lileks

Check out James Lileks' blog for his one-year anniversary post. Very well written and some good thoughts.

A Year Later

I've attended two memorial ceremonies today for the anniversary of September 11, 2001. Originally, I wasn't going to attend the one in Jamestown, but as I got ready this morning I realized I would regret it if I didn't go. I'm glad I did. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was nice to see some people I know there. The noon ceremony here in Mayville was shorter, but just as heart-felt. Last night I got to thinking about what we were all doing a year ago here in the offices. One thing that struck me was how we were glued to the television. I remember sitting down with my lunch of yogurt, fruit, and water. I knew I had to eat even though I didn't feel like it. It just didn't seem right to take in some nourishment, especially in front of a television spewing out so much tragedy. I've become a little interested of that snapshot in everyone's lives. The moment when they first hear the news. What were you doing when you found out? How did you react?

A year later, there is a sense that people have moved on but have not forgotten. Some of the effects of the attacks weigh heavy as we contemplate what our president may do next in his quest to rid the world of "evildoers." I can't say I agree with everything he does. I'll leave it at that.

"We're Going To Albany!"

Those were the exact words of my co-worker this morning as we celebrated the news that Tom Golisano beat Governor George Pataki in the primary for the Independence line for Governor. With Golisano in as a third candidate for Governor, the chances that H. Carl McCall will beat Pataki in November are up even more. Before the primary, people were saying that even if Golisano didn't win the Independence line that the numbers are there in the Democratic party to finally put a Democrat in the Governor's seat after 8 years absence. I'm hoping that's true.

Orange Alert

Not to get overwrought, but we're on Orange Alert here in the United States. We'll see how it all shakes out tomorrow I guess.

A Lesson in New Buildings

I've been waiting the day they tear down my old elementary school and build a new version of it just down the hill from where it currently exists. The Democrat & Chronicle has a story today that says the District has to send that item to a referendum just in case the residents in the district aren't too thrilled with the idea of the school district spending even more money in an already very costly building project session. Blame New York State for that one. It may seem the easy thing to do, but really.. NYS screwed over several school districts across the state. They offered up this great building project incentive, offering up to 95% (I believe) reimbursed aid for districts wishing to engage in building construction. Schools across the state took the incentive and ran with it, even if they didn't need new buildings. Then the state reneged. Surprised? I'm not. The end result: districts had to raise taxes after promising this wouldn't cost the taxpayers a dime. Who do we yell and scream at in Albany? I don't know the answer to that. If I had more time to research it.. I would.

Primary Day

Exercise your rights! Go VOTE!! We still have a Governor's primary here in New York State despite what you may think. Andrew Cuomo and Charles King still appear on the Democratic ballot and we need every "D" to turn out to vote for the "3 M's" (Carl McCall for Governor, Dennis Mehiel for Lt. Governor, and Bill Mulrow for State Comptroller). Ok, that's my politicking for the morning.

Another Dark, Dusty Basement

Matt hooked up our washing machine on Saturday, so I ventured into our scary basement to help clean. Our basement isn't necessarily cluttered with stuff the way my parent's is/was (depending on your definition of cluttered). It's really dusty and full of cobwebs. I mean, really full of cobwebs. I went through with an old broom and just collected gobs and gobs of the stringy stuff. Ew. The floors are a mess as well since the concrete, or whatever stone it is, seems to be flaking away. I did wash two windows so that light could get in better and I also cleaned the sink in the bathroom. If the toilet worked, we'd have another bathroom in the house. Just perfect for those boozy parties where you don't want people tramping upstairs to puke. Of course, we never have those kinds of parties and most of our friends stop drinking long before they reach the puke stage. It would be nice if it worked. Oh, and if you're wondering why the basement is scary: we have one of those old coal-converted-gravity-air furnaces that looks like a huge octopus growling in the middle of the basement. You seriously could fit a body in its main cavity where the coal used to go. And there goes my imagination running away again.

City Now On-line

Rochester's self-proclaimed alternative newsweekly City is now available on-line. I browsed through it a bit to see how many articles they provided on-line. I particularly liked the fact that they include cover stories for the past couple months. Anyway, I believe Shep had mentioned something on his blog awhile ago that it would be nice if City was online

Is This America?

Thanks to Wil for this heads-up.

Overview of Changes to Legal Rights
By The Associated Press

September 5, 2002, 11:44 AM EDT

Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks:

* FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.

* FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.

* FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.

* RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

* FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

* RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.

* RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press

Courtesy of Newsday.Com

Big Brother Is Watching Us

I knew there was a reason why I didn't like George W. Bush. Tom Paine gave me a much greater reason to not only dislike Dubya, but possibly fear his administration and what it's doing to this country. Go read it here.

A Girl's First Vibrator?

I'm admittingly a Harry Potter fan. My interest waned a bit since it's been so long since book 4 came out and we're all still waiting for book 5. Naturally, I had to laugh when I saw a link for the Nimbus 2000 on-line and then read the comments. I always knew our society was all about sex.

Quick Vacation Synopsis

I finally have a moment to breathe to get this down. Vacation was nice other than wishing it was longer. If you have the opportunity to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding, do it. It's hysterical. I saw it with Matt on Tuesday since it finally came to the Jamestown area. My trip to Skaneateles with my mom went well. We mostly window shopped there and had some pretty amazing ice cream. The trip to the Outlets in Waterloo (just off the New York State Thruway) was more successful. I bought a lot of nice work clothes for very nice prices. All items were under $20. That trend continued the next day when I got some preliminary Christmas shopping done and found more clothes for great prices. I spent more on the new Martha Grimes mystery than I did on a single piece of clothing! Oh happy day *smiles*

I did get to see a few friends, have few drinks of the alcoholic and caffiene-laden variety, hear some jazz music, and generally laugh a lot. The garage sale went well too. We made a couple hundred bucks, so it was deemed a success.

One of the only things that grated at me were some comments my mom made. For example, my parents, my mom's best friend and I were eating dinner and somehow conversation came around to my former-boyfriend Matt. My mom made the comment, "That was my favourite Matt." I don't even think she realized what she said, and while I have nothing against former-Matt (that sounds so funny), you would think my mom would have been a little more tactful. Oh well.

My parents did travel back to Jamestown with me so we could see the fireworks display at Bergman Park. The Zambelli Fireworks Company put it on. Wow! It was just fantastic! We sat pretty close to where they were shot off and it was cool to see the chrysanthemum (sp?) style fireworks create a chanelier effect over the crowd. Actually, the sparks fell pretty close to the audience and didn't extinguish until they were nearly on top of us. A little nerve-wreaking but cool nonetheless.

On Monday, we got our washer and dryer courtesy of Heidi's parents. We fed them dinner after Matt and Heidi's Dad huffed and puffed to get the machines in the basement. A tiring vacation in some ways, but a good time all around.

Like, Finally Or Something

The Associated Press has put out a news article on Linguists Defending Teen's Use of "like". I never, like, realized the linguist complexities of that word. I mean, like, it totally goes against my ninth grade English teacher, like, said all the time. "It either is or isn't.. how can something be 'like something'?" Something like that.

Guilty Pleasure Comes to Buffalo

I may have missed this in the Buffalo News, but apparently MTV is filming the next "guilty pleasure" series at SUNY-UB. I first heard about it via my former neighbor, Janine, who is a freshman at UB. Her roommate had been asked if she was going to rush since the camera crews thought she would be a good person to film. That must mean she has a nice rack in addition to the fact that she already has blonde hair. I have friends who were addicted to that Sorority real life series this summer. This can't be good. Anyway, I have no doubt that Tom Calderone had a hand in getting this next installment filmed in Buffalo. It would be too much of a coincidence otherwise.

It's Over Already??

That vacation seriously needed to go for another four days (which would have brought me up to the weekend). I'm back now and have lots to tell since I didn't have time to blog last week (aside from Monday). Unfortunately, I have to go back to this thing called work. I ran into my supervisor at the Labor Day Festival and she said last week was "wild" and that they all missed me. It's nice to be needed *grins* More to follow.. maybe on my lunch..

The Deep, Dark, Dirty Basement

I get this feeling that I will never get that basement smell off me or my clothes. I have spent the last three days sorting through piles of junk, looking for saleable items for the garage sale. We have over twenty bags of garbage sitting on back patio of my parent's house right now. The good news is that my mom has just about finished sorting and putting prices on the stuff we can sell. I spent most of today washing things up so that people might actually want to buy them. I'd tell you where the sale would be (hint, Town of Irondequoit), but I really don't need any stalkers *wink*

Tadpole

I saw Tadpole at The Little on Friday night. Great movie. I laughed quite a bit. It also helped me reflect a little on my own teen years. I had this thing about pushing myself in the maturity level department when I was a teenager. I wanted to be more sophisticated, older/whatever but at the same time I wasn't emotionally ready for that. I think that's the story for a lot of people, but I've picked out several specific events/points in my life where that's very apparent.

Vacation Update

I love not being at work. I would just be getting out of work right now and instead I'm hanging out at home! On my list of things I hoped to do while I was away I've accomplished some with others happening soon. Here's where I stand:

1. Going to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding tonight with my parents
2. Drank several mugs of hot tea (from England!) with my mom
3. Been to Java's twice, Cibon's once. Wrote in my journal at Java's last Friday

I also got to see Sean and Anne before Sean took off for Lowville, NY for teacher orientation. We went to Salinger's last night and took in a couple pints of good beer (Harps for me). Tomorrow my mom and I are headed off to Skaneatles (did I spell that right?). Should be a nice departure from the house. Otherwise, who knows when I'll update again. You got a flavour of it at least!

You are the 1955 Ford Fairlane Crown Victoria.
Take the Which Classic Car Are You? quiz! By Harry and Bren.

Vacation Time

I will be leaving the rural county of Chautauqua tomorrow afternoon for the more metropolitan county of Monroe. I'll be there for a week and a few days. Phew. That means I'll try to update my blog when I can, and it could go several ways on that:
1. It gets updated every day because I can
2. It gets updated once when I have a moment between pricing items for my family's garage sale
3. I say "Hey, I'm on Vacation. Screw Blogging!"

The suspense grows! Tune in daily to find out what Julia will do!!

I'm so kidding.

How To Succeed In Print Media In a 24/7 News World

The newspapers around here suck. Seriously. And one of their biggest gripes is getting press releases in the middle of the day or having a press conference scheduled to make a major announcement. They get mad because they only print one edition of the paper and if something happens at any time that's not convenient for them to get it into print, they get scooped by everyone. I have an easy solution to fix this rant of theirs. Use Your Friggin' Website!!! The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle does an excellent job of this. I can look at their website throughout the day and still be up to date on the latest news happening in that area. That's just the opposite of what most newspaper websites are like. The majority will just put up the stories that appeared in the morning paper and then not update the site until the next day. Stupid I say. Why bother having a website at all if you're not going to use it to its full capacity. I have a lot more respect for the D&C since they got a clue and essentially went 24-hours with their news coverage via the website.

A Nice Sing-A-Long

I have a somewhat daily ritual of singing along to whatever is on the radio, in the tape player, or in the cd player on my way to work. It started when I worked the dayshift at the radio station. I was hanging out with some friends and staying up way too late (sometimes 3 AM), so when the time came to get into work by 9 AM, I was dragging. Getting four hours of sleep isn't really good on the voice, especially if this is a reoccurring thing. My way of "waking up" my voice was to sing along with anything that was on the radio including speaking out loud. I usually practiced my intros and outros to the news when I was speaking out loud "I'm Julia *****, WJTN news. It's (temperature) degrees and (weather descriptor) outside. The complete weather forecast follows the news. The news is brought to you by (fill in sponsor)." I don't know if it really helped, but at least I didn't completely like a frog when I did get on the air for the first time that day.

The whole thought of this crossed my mind as I sang along with "Charm Attack" by Leona Naess while driving down Route 430. Without consciously thinking about it (until the memory popped up), I was trying to match tones, blend vocals, get the right articulation and energy of the song. Always practicing I guess.

At The Drive-In

Matt and I went to the Drive-In for the first time since both our childhoods. Our friends invited us along although we drove separate cars. XXX and Austin Powers: Goldmember were the two movies. We only stayed for XXX since we had already seen Austin. Movie was great for an action flick. Tony Hawk and Matt Hoffman had cameos. That's all you need to know. It was cool to hang out in the car, yell at the screen and not get yelled at by others, eat really buttery-salty popcorn, and not pay an arm and a leg to see two new films ($10 total for the two of us). I'm hoping the drive-in stays open for at least a month or two more so we can see more movies this way. I'll be sure to bring a thermos of hot chocolate, my own popcorn, soda, candy, etc. so I don't have to buy theirs next time. Oh yeah, the last film I saw at the drive-in (if I recall correctly) was The Black Hole and Sleeping Beauty.

I'm Velma, which ambiguous dyke are you? Quiz by Turi.

Lists For the Week

Like Jenny, I accumulate lists. Currently, I have about 3 different lists I need to work on befor I go on vacation. List A: What I need to pack for the trip. List B: What I need to get done before the Trip. List C: What Matt needs to do while I'm on my Trip. The last list could cause some strife since I know he will be totally schlockered with work-related items. If I didn't have to worry about those three lists, here's my list of things I'd like to be doing:

1. Reading the latest Elizabeth Peters mystery
2. Going to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding or The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (requires a trip to Buffalo or Rochester)
3. Drinking hot tea (preferably Twinings English Breakfast or Bigelows Constant Comment)
4. Writing in my journal while drinking coffee at Java's (again, requires trip to Rochester)
5. Hanging my newly framed pictures (won't be ready for two weeks though)
6. Putting my pictures from my latest roll of film online for friends (can't happen until I finish the roll off)
7. Taking walks around my hometown neighborhood

Take a guess of what's on my list of things to do while I'm on vacation in Rochester. I hope I don't end up spending too much of it in my parent's basement, sorting things for our garage sale.

If you didn't have to worry about any chores or work, what would be on your list of things to do?

Good Weekend Featuring Irritability

It was a decent weekend aside from being a little irritable and having to work Saturday morning. Matt and I hung out with some friends in the area, stayed up way too late, and despite the fun times actually got some housework done. Saturday morning was the Counter-Terrorism Drill at SUNY Fredonia. I didn't like having to get up early, but the event itself wasn't bad. My role was assistant information officer and all I had to do was make sure the media stayed behind the yellow tape, videotape the event, and then make some phone calls after the event to see if any other media outlets were going to stop by to get sound. The drill itself went well. It was weird to watch kids walking out of a dorm area coughing and some with "injuries." It seemed pretty realistic only because the make-up job was awesome. The main lesson learned from the event was that a unified communications system will definitely help if we were to have an actual terrorist attack of some sort (or major catastrophe).

The Extending Branches of My Family Tree

I found out I have a cousin who is doing the geneology work for my dad's side of the family. My grandfather was one of 13 children, so even just that bit of research could be pondersome. It was cool to look at what she had so far on her internet site and then email her with some additional information. Most of my dad's side of the family (as in his grandfather on his dad's side) came over from Poland and lived in an area called Goleszow, Mielec District. It was called Galicia at one point I guess when the borders for Poland were jumbled around. I tried researching that area on the net, but the only information in English I was able to find related to the concentration camp (sub-camp of Auschwitz) that existed in Goleszow during World War II. Pretty sad stuff. Matt wondered if that would be why I have such an interest in the Holocaust (including dreams about the Holocaust). Up until yesterday, I didn't think my family really had any connection with the Holocaust. Now I wonder if any of the relatives that remained in Poland may have been witnesses or victims themselves. An interesting note: going through my great-grandfather's lineage I found out that one of my ancestors married a woman who died on the same day (October 22, 1898) that I was born (October 22, 1976). Not unusual, but I did notice that quite a few people in my family's past either were born or died on the 22nd of the month.

County 10, City 7

The County was victorious in the County-City Softball Game for Charity last night. I was super happy about the whole event because not only did we win, we also raised boku bucks for our charities (hopefully will be $1,200 after the last remaining dollars come in). Despite some injuries that kept people off the field, or that happened during the game, it was a positive experience. The crowd was huge compared to last year when attendance was down due to rain and changed dates of the game. Quality Markets, who provided food free of charge, estimated that we had over 300 people there since they ran out of food at one point. Matt is a little bummed that the city lost and that he didn't go for a power-hit that could have won the game for the city. I can't say too much since I didn't play (believe me, it's better that way!). Maybe next year. I still can't get that bat-connecting-with-the-ball thing down. Ah well.

Am I The Greatest Song In The World? Rock: Indeed, I am the greatest song in the world! But you shalt never hear me, for I am far to great to be heard by the ears of mortals. Are you the greatest song in the world?

Will Julia Survive A Pit Match Against Clinton And Bush?

. 24% chance Bush would kill you. . 24% chance Clinton would kill you. . 66% chance he would sexually harass you. . 52% chance you would kill them.

Enter Combat

Seeing Friends On Their Way

The past four days have been a whirlwind of seeing friends. As mentioned earlier, Mike & Londa came down for a visit. On Saturday, I drove home to Rochester to see Sean & Anne since Sean was hired to teach 11th and 12th Grade English out in Turin, NY. I was afraid I'd miss him the week I'm hoping to go home, so we got together for dinner at Sinbad's on Park Ave. After that we went and saw Check-Out at The Little. That was pretty cheesy, but worthwhile for the local cameos. Naturally, coffee at Java's followed where I ran into Heidi's brother and sister, Scott & Gretchen.

Sunday, I met up with Matt and went to Sinbad's (again) for lunch. Aaron S. showed up after that and we went to California Rollin so he could partake in some delicious sushi. Matt had this crazy double roll called a Mighty Spidey (I think). It was pretty tasty. Then I drove out to Pultneyville for Matt F.'s going away party. His parent's house is awesome! It's actually two houses in a sense that a whole house was added onto a smaller house. As we went on the tour of the house (which was set up nice enough to be in a magazine), Matt's mom kept pointing out what part was the old part and the new part. I finally asked, "What do you mean by "new"?" She replied, "Oh, 1858." I jokingly said later that they could adopt me just so I could live in that house. Seeing a bunch of my friends from high school was definitely the highlight of the weekend. I hadn't seen my friend, Ben, since he had a house party about two years ago. Matt has a running joke that Ben is just a figment of my imagination since he's never met him, but has heard all the stories. I took a group picture of everyone at the party, so hopefully it comes out good enough to publish.

Add Another Second to My 15 Minutes of Fame

I picked up the paper yesterday morning to find I had been quoted by the mayor of our city regarding our annual County-City Softball Game for Charity. Another thing for the scrapbook I suppose (kidding). Although, my Aunt & Uncle who live in Gowanda did call me at work to tell me they were saving the article to show my grandmother. At least my quote was a good crack at the mayor.

Listening to Future CD on Lazy Saturday Morning

I love how I can now create CDs, but not burn them but yet still listen to them in the pre-burned stage on my computer. I have one "future" cd now playing. It feels like it needs a few more songs, but I think the song order is near perfection. I'm hesitant to burn it mostly because some of my compilations take on a life of their own in terms of relating back to personal going-ons. No use having that out there in the open if no need be, right?

In other news, it's great to wake up and do nothing but eat a lemon poppy seed scone with lemon curd on it, browse through our flimsy newspaper, read some email, and relax.

House Guests!

Our friends, Mike & Londa, came down from Rochester for a visit these past two days. We've had a good time with them. Thursday, we went to Bemus Point and had drinks on the porch of the Hotel Lenhart with the rest of the Jamestown's NEXT crew (site info a little outdated).

Last night we ended up going for a dinner cruise on the Summer Wind around the southern end of Chautauqua Lake. That was quite a bit of fun actually, since it's something Matt and I really havn't done for fun in awhile. The weather was perfect other than getting a little cool as the sun set. After the cruise, we headed over to Wegmans where Mike & Londa lamented over the fact that our Wegmans has a much more extensive selection of teas. Apparently the Rochester Wegmans & Tops stores have a watered down selection. We mused that it was probably due to so many Wegmans being in that area where we only have one. After that stop, we came home and watched Swingers. A late night, but lots of fun. I'm now waiting for the rest of the house to wake up so we can go for "breakfast" (more like brunch at this point).

Bucky Lasek is My Hero!

Matt and I had an awesome time at the Gravity Games in Cleveland this past Saturday. We got in just before noon and paid $10 for parking. That was our first sign of price gouging for an event. After getting wrist banded and finding some restroom facilities, we made our way over to the Bike Street Preliminaries. We both had slathered on the sunscreen since the sun was really beating down, but there was a nice breeze coming off Lake Erie. It was the perfect kind of day, although we heard it had been terribly hot the other days of the Games.

Ryan Nyquist tried to pull off some cool tricks in practice that used the judging stands, but wasn't able to get his dismount down. He did manage to pull off some amazing tricks. I believe one he pulled off after his run was done was a backflip and double bar-spin truckdriver. I'm stealing this from the finals story on the Gravity Games website. That sounds like what he did, but I'm not certain. Nyquist was in first after the pre-lims ended.

Properly sunburned, Matt and I took off to get some grub and decide whether to leave the games to get dinner with our friends, Heidi and Kevin. As we rounded the corner by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, our decision to stay put was finalized when we saw how many people were already sitting in the stands for the Skate Vert finals. Mind you, it was just after 3PM and the skate practice didn't start until 6:30, with the Finals beginning at 8:30PM. After a few attempts at trying to reach Heidi, we grabbed some over-priced cheeseburgers, water, a Gravity Games baseball cap to cover my sunburned face and listened to the soundcheck for Filter.

People in the stands for the Skate Vert Finals were cool. I talked to this older guy for a little bit about his kids, our job and Cleveland nightlife. The stands were full a little bit after 4:30PM. Kids started swarming anyone that was coming out to practice once 6:30 hit. We had decent seats, about 5 rows up from where the drop-in is located. If you click on the link I provided above for the Vert Finals and look at the second picture which shows the whole ramp, Matt thinks you can see me in the stands (left side, wearing a white shirt, going straight back from the drop-in). The vantage point we had made it difficult for me to figure out when a skater had fallen since we couldn't see down our side of the ramp. All I do know is that Bucky Lasek is awesome! I'm also a big convert when it comes to Sandro Diaz and Bob Burnquist. I think they rank up there personality-wise and they have a cool skating style. I was a bit disappointed in Andy McDonald, but it's all good.

Next month, Matt and I are hoping to get tickets to see Tony Hawk at SUNY-UB. That would seriously rock!

Bocce Champion

I am now considered a Bocce Champion in some circles in Chautauqua County. The Italian Festival at St. John's Church has a Bocce Ball Tournament every year where the "Good Fathers" (priests from around the community) compete against other groups. First, the "City Fathers" (city of Jamestown officials) squared off against the "County Fathers" (the County Executive, two Legislators and myself) where we soundly thumped them at the game. Then the "County Fathers" took on the "Good Fathers," but were not succesful. Of course the game is stacked in favour of the "Good Fathers" since the boundaries of the bocce playing field are made up of kneelers. My "ringer" status was made apparent yesterday by scoring 14 of the 21 points our team gained in both competitions. I was even the topic for the discussion for a local talk show. So I've finally found a "sport" that I can excell at. Bring it on!

A Statement on My Green Thumb?

At various points today, at least three men have commented on my care of my Jade plant on top of my filing cabinet. The first was my boss, who said, "You need to water that plant! Probably fertilize it as well." The next came from our Commissioner of Social Services, "I think your plant needs to be watered." And the final comment was from the Deputy Director of Social Services: "That soil has a very compost texture to it." I'm convinced either I'm clueless about plants or my mom is channeling her thoughts all the way from England (where she and my dad are on a cruise) in an effort to rescue my Jade plant. Excuse me while I go get some water for the poor, withered thing.

The Budget Bloodshed in Monroe County, NY

Listed below are links to stories about Monroe County Executive Jack Doyle's proposed 2003 budget. Read, weep, and take action:

Monroe County Budget Highlights
Human Services Cuts
Elimination of Cornell Co-Op
Cuts to The Arts

If you're wondering why I'm concentrating on Monroe County, it's only because this is indicative of what is happening or will be happening around New York State. Why? Two words: Medicaid increases. What to do? Contact your state representatives and complain bitterly about the burden placed on our counties by the state in terms of Medicaid costs. The state passes off costs to the counties in new programs like Family Health Plus, that seem great on the surface but in reality cut into the counties' budgets, making it increasingly difficult to fund non-mandated programs like roads and bridges maintenance. Sure, the state isn't all to blame for the financial woes of the county, but they are the main culprit.

The Internet is a Wonderful Thing.. for Trivial Things

While watching a Heinekin beer commercial the other night, I began to wonder who sang the song in the commercial. It was familiar, but I couldn't quite place the group. Off to my computer I went and typed in a simple search on what I thought was the song title, "Never My Love." Instantly, I had a link to the artist, The Association. Now, if I had remembered I had the link, I could have simply gone to the Music from TV Commercials site and scrolled down to the commercial in question. Now I'm stuck between just buying the CD or scrounging through my dad's record collection so I can tape myself a copy. Someday I'll get a record player just for old times sake.

Finally! It Took Them Long Enough..

Skaters in my hometown of Irondequoit finally have a place to go skate. I remember how neighbors and the police gave kids in my neighborhood a hard time about building ramps in their own yards. It was rediculous. My parents understood the issues, but tended to agree that the skaters should have a place they could go and not be persecuted. So hooray for the entreprising soul who saw an opportunity and ran with it.