wine tasting

ignore if you will the awkward posing and totem pole head thing that steph and i are doing... this is a bunch of girls i work with! the two on the left are high schoolers working for me in the box office. steph is the technical manager of the box, lauren (flowery shirt) was the manager, and cate and meredith are our wonderful marketing team.

we had a great event last thrusday - wine tasting, silent auction and live auction. created lots of chaos and work for me and the girls but i loved it. super fun, got to meet lots of the involved patrons of the theatre, and got to dress up! (no wine on duty!!!) plus, all the money we raised is like job security, right?

now complete with super awkward photos!

steph came over sunday afternoon so we could work on cakes and candies for her parents 25th wedding anniversaryparty this coming saturday. we finished up all the candies: chocolate lollipops shaped like roller skates, boats, and bowling pins because that's what her parents like to do. we baked one cake and made the icing (thank you gma koci for telling me what recipe to use!)for the cakes. all in all it was very productive. we also managed to watch some of the patriots football game. although i will remain a bucs fan until i die, apparently i am also now a patriots fan.

she borrowed jeremy's apron so we could take a twinsie picture... :D

kitten mania

kittens are nice to have around the house. they make cute little noises, melt your heart...

and sometimes help out in the kitchen!

Release week!

I couldn't get to the bookstore on Tuesday but we went today. If you haven't read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon start there. This one is #7. Best series ever.
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honesty is a great policy

Image via Wikipedia

beka has tagged me for this fun little post. the irony is that on colbert last night his guest was a man who spent six months living as a "radically honest" person. apparently this is a new movement that encourages people to say whatever they think without any filters whatsoever.

as you can probably guess, this caused many problems for him personally and professionally and he has since quit the movement, written a book, and is mildly famous.

i will attempt here to just tell you ten honest things that you may or may not know, and leave out the radical portion. although i would love to write a book and go on the colbert report to talk about it. i could shake stephen's hand. squeee!

1. if i hadnt met and married jeremy, i think i would be a crazy cat lady. i like my kittehs and want to keep one. but if we foster very often, that could turn into a whole flock of cats. or a pride? herd? pack? what is a large group of domestic housecats called? that information is probably no surprise to anyone, but it is true and honest.

2. i have a collection problem. not like with a colelction agency, because we pay all our bills. but with collecting things. when i get one thing thats part of a set, i have a strong compulsion to collect the whole set. this happens with series books, with figurines (and i dont even like all that crap), with my beanie babies (that i still have!!!), and lots of other things. it hasnt risen to haorder level proportions, but once again, without jeremy's semiannual house purges, i would totally be that person on tv who needs an intervention.

3. i love the color black. if i had to dress all in black everyday, i think i could do it. also it is a huge part of our decorating scheme.

4. my current job, as manager of a theatre box office, is the most amazing job ever. i love going to work everyday. if you don't have a job that you love, you should try and get one. after a few years of working at a job that was ok, doing something amazingly fun is such a blessing.

5. one collecting problem jeremy and i share is nalgenes. between the two of us we have maybe 20? completely fills an entire cabinet. all the shapes and sizes and colors... so pretty. and useful.

6. in high school i made a vow that i hated country music and would never listen to it. now it is one of my favorite genres and i listen to it all the time.

7. another pronouncement i made to jeremy when we got married was "don't ever expect me to wake up and cook breakfast for you because it isnt gonna happen buddy." and... you guessed it, i eat those words with a side of turkey bacon most mornings. but i dont mind. eating breakfast is healthy! plus he cooks sometimes... this morning he made french toast with chicken sausages and it was wonderful.

8. i don't wear blue shirts with blue jeans and secretly judge people who do.

9. when i see a really fat person eating french fries or ice cream i also secretly judge them. (but not so secretly anymore).

10. my favorite thing to do after work is curl up on the couch with a bag of potato chips, a glass of cheap wine, jeremy, cricket, and the tivo remote. trash tv is the best, because i don't have to think. although we have been watching a lot of jeopardy lately, which is good for the brain.

i would love to hear ten honest things from
mandy
anna o
darci

i don't think any of my other bloggy friends will participate but i think some facebookers might:
gaby
ellen
jessie
ceci
lanelle

i'm only going to say this once...

well one more time...

this is the last week to participate in my fundraiser for cystic fibrosis. the good folks over at fundraising headquarters have swwetened the pot for YOU. if you donate at least $25 this week, you get a free book (from them). i'm going to go all out and say that for every $25 donation, i'll also send you a book. i have lots that were great but i'm not going to reread.

let's recap:

a.) you donate $25+ to help stop CF. (all you have to do is click on the box in the sidebar. super easy!)

b.) i send you a list of my books to choose from.

c.) the good folks at unleash your story give you a list of books to choose from.

d.) i meet my fundraising goal and finally...

(and i think this is the best one)

e.) we all get the warm fuzzies for helping someone else out.

quick - before sunday when the fundraiser ends!

this is what cricket looks like pretty much all the time now. she isn't mad, or even irritated enough to move, but she expresses her displeasure at having three kittens (they have more of the adorable factor than her right now) who are loud and have an annoying mother living in the house. she leaves the room when i bring them into watch tv, usually after sniffing them once disdainfully.

but if you were competing with this, you might be pissed too. look at those faces!

cricket is definitely still number one cat and has bed privileges so don't feel too sorry for her. she woke us up the other night because she was snoring so loud. jeremy had to get out of bed and go over to papasan where she was snuggled up and shake her and try to move her on her side. kinda like when bryce spends the night.

concrete jungle where dreams are made of

we went to nyc on sunday to see bryce's current band play a show. we did a brief overview, which included a statue of liberty sighting, a visit to ground zero to peek at construction of the new memorial, times square, rockefeller center, central park and tons more. we ate hot dogs in the park and watched street performers. we rode the subway (surprisingly easy to master once we got the hang of it - we were helping other people find their way by the end of the day). we drove to long island and saw the empire state building in the skyline of the city but didnt go up inside. we saw the rainbow room and radio city music hall and bowery st ballroom. it was amazing.

seeing bryce was great as always. he looked great. we hadnt seen him since december so it was nice to have the excuse to go to nyc.

the set his band played was super short, mostly bacuse the lead singer had a bad attitude about the number of people at the show, but we enjoyed the two songs we heard and then got the rest of the set time to hang out with and talk to bryce. so that was awesome.

i wish i had better pictures to show you but our camera "came" in the mail on saturday but it was an empty box. we called amazon and they mailed a new one, which we received today, just in time for our trip to NYC on sunday! not! next time we make the trip it will be at least for an overnight stay so we will get much better pictures then anyways.

summary of the trip: short but amazing. nyc is a great place to visit but i don't think i would like to live there. unless i was a multi-millionaire. then maybe. :)

There she is...

Miss America. We are in brooklyn looking at the statue of liberty. Gonna see bryce's show in an hour or so... Woo hoo!
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Catnip and the scratching post

..Make for an extremely entertaining evening. These cats are crazy!
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onward and upward

things at work have been getting really hectic, which is great. it means i am learning things, we are selling tickets and having shows, and the day flys by. it also means i do not have as much time for social networking as i did before. i definitely need to take some time and update everyone on things that have been happening.

my boss, the box office manager lauren, is leaving at the end of septemeber. i will be stepping up as the interim manager, with the idea that if the position isnt filled by a certain date by someone from the outside, i will be permanently promoted and keep the title and get a pay increase. awesome. if someone is hired, that's ok - i still will be the assistant manager and nothing else will change. i am really excited by the challenge this presents (still learning all the ins and outs of everything) but i love what i do and i really love (almost) all my staff. we have fun in the box. i look forward to going to work.

jeremy got to see his first show at the palace last night: frank santos, the r-rated hypnotist. he was pretty funny, and got some people to do some really crazy things. one super straight-laced woman thought she was a madonna impersonater from vegas and sang "like a virgin." that was great. he was a little crude at times, but he definitely labeled himself appropriately so we knew what we were getting. plus, we had house seats, so for free everything is a lot funnier! stephanie (my new technical manager, she has been at the palace for years and will be invaluable during this transition) and her boyfriend saw the show with us, then we all wen tout for dinner and drinks at ignite, my new favorite place to eat (and conveniently located two doors down from the palace).

he is still looking for a job and we are still optimistic. tomorrow we are headed to portsmouth to troll around downtown, then to the beach for a picnic. the nice thing about having weekdays off while jeremy isn't working yet is that when we do stuff on a monday or tuesday there arent really any crowds. although the crowds here are nothing compared to la, so we are good either way.

i ordered a new camera today, thanks to the ochsners and shivelys, who gave us an amazing going away present of an amazon gift certificate. thanks to them you will all be getting baby kitten pictures soon from a real camera and not a cell phone. i love my berry but a real camera is still better for pictures. they all have opened their eyes and are really beefing up. scarlet and cricket are much more tolerant of each other now and we are a happy family of five cats (four of which are temporary. hoping to get the number to three temporary, two permanent, but so far jeremy is still winning. we will see.)

contest: ARC giveaway!

i have advanced reader copies of two great books to giveaway to two lucky people. one is the book i just reviewed: food, girls, and other things i can't have. the seond is secret society by tom dolby. i haven't reviewed this one yet, but somehow wound up with two copies. i would love for whoever receives the second copy to also review it on his or her blog, but that certainly isn't a requirement to enter the contest.

rules:

open to continental usa people. i would love to be able to ship things all over the world but we are currently a single income family. deal with it.
one book per winner. this way we can share the love.
contest ends sept 30. plenty of time to enter.
entries: please leave a comment on this post letting me know the total of all your entries.
current followers +5
new followers +3
donation to my CF readathon +20 (shameless self-promotion, but hey it is for a good cause. entries count regardless of amount donated)
answer to the following questions +1 per answer
what is the best thing to do in new england in fall?
what was the best book you read this year?
what was the worst book you have ever read?
who is your all-time favorite author?
what is your favorite song and why?
link to this post on your blog, twitter about the contest +5 each (total of 10)

basically it is really easy to enter yourself. i am super excited as this is my first giveaway. please spread the word and hopefully two people are very excited to recieve new reading material around the first of october!

please leave your email address or some other way to contact you in your comment.

Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have

by allen zadoff

now on sale

from the back:

What's worse than being the fattest kid in your class? Being the second fattest.

Andrew Zansky is a seriously overweight teenager who doesn't fit: in his pants (size 48), in his family (parents are divorced), or in school (a too-small desk, a too-beautiful girl). If only his mom weren't a caterer. if only his parents were back together. If only he were thin - Andy imagines his life would be completely different. But she is, they're not, and he isn't. What to do? Discover a hidden talent for football, of course.

This compelling and laugh-out loud funny YA novel follows the trial, tribulations, and triumphs of a thoroughly believeable character, complete with AP American History, a libidinous best friend, and the new girl who sees beyond the obvious. As Andy inches toward adulthood, he comes to understand that feeling different doesn't make him weird or special; it makes him just like everyone else.

my review:

i read a lot of young adult fiction, and ninety-some percent of it is from a female perspective. obviously i would be more drawn to those stories because they are (shocker!) easier to relate to. i really loved this story though. even though the main character is an overweight boy and i am a thin adult woman, a lot of the issues he deals with are ones that i either dealt with in high school (fitting in, trying to be popular and well-liked) or can currently relate to (just because i am thin and exercise does NOT make it ok to eat an entire bag of chips in one sitting. seriously not ok).

the way the story plays out in the end was a little unexpected and andy grows throughout the book. there are lessons to learn from the story but it is in no way preachy or moralistic.

i recommend this book - check it out on the publisher's webpage or buy it on amazon.

labor day

This morning we went to merrimack for a tour of the anhueser busch plant. They brew and bottle nine beers there. We toured the grounds, the entire plant, and got to see the stable of the east coast clydesdales. At the end of the tour we got two free beer samples and found some great stuff in the gift shop.

We stopped on the way home for lunch then took a two hour nap. Not a bad labor day! Tomorrow I begin my workweek and jeremy starts looking for a job!
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welcome to new hampshire

now that i have my computer back, i can upload the few pictures i managed to take before killing the camera. you can see that the welcome to nh sign says welcome in english and french, because a large percentage of our population in french-canadian. it also has our state motto: live free or die. i think i have already posted about the awesomeness of this motto, but i will pause for a second, brief mention: our state motto kicks your state motto's ass! ad astra per aspera? who out there (besides dorky me) even knows what that means??? or what state it is from? and i dont even know what california's is. maybe something about going into debt up to our eyeballs and not paying teachers' salaries???

this is a side view of the first covered bridge i have ever seen (i think - at least the first one i remember). we drove up to the white mountains on the second or third day i was here and stopped off the highway to see this. apparently there are tons of covered bridges in new england, so this will be one of many pictures you see. i loved the sign that was posted above the entrance to the bridge. we didnt drive over it so thankfully we weren't fined. :D these kinds of scenic views are one of the many reasons i love my new state! (the state motto is right up there!)

today was a gorgeous day and with jeremy's help we got a lot of decorating type things accomplished: curtains hung, pictures hung, shelves created and hung, pot rack hung. not nearly as many piles of stuff on the floor!

Homemade pizza

Our first attempt: hamburger, onion, garlic, red peppers and four cheeses all over. Zucchini, squash and broccoli on my half, olives and mushrooms on jeremy's. Can't wait to try it! Bake faster!
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the update

my read/write-a-thon started yesterday and i am on track to meet my weekly goal! if i get 25 unique donations this week (of only $5 - or more) i get a barnes and noble gift card to fuel my book addiction. diana gabaldon has a new book coming out september 22 that i have my eye on... please make a donation (its easy - you just click on the button to the right and follow the instructions) and help me stop CF! i have had one fantastic donation so far and an 10% to my goal of $500!!!

jeremy is staying the night in ohio tonight and tomorrow around 7pm he will be here, in new hampshire. i havent seen him in almost two months. i kinda forget what he looks like. i could not be happier that he is rejoining me, especially since college football starts this weekend. i already have two big 12 games set to record so i am very happy.

when he gets here i have a honey-do list about a mile long. he can hang pictures and shelves while i snuggle cricket!

i have a ton to do tomorrow morning before work. bikram, laundry and cleaning the house. thankfully i don't work until 11 so i should be able to get it all in. tomorrow will be a beautiful day to leave the laundry on the line to dry. i need to get the couch slipcover cleaned so i can cover up the mess that scarlet made birthing her first baby. icky.

we are a happy family of five until tomorrow when we become seven.

watching martina mcbride and kid rock sing "picture"

kid rock is strangely compelling and martina is killing this song. yay cmf in nashville!

circle of life

these are two of the three surviving kittens from scarlet's litter. the third baby is all black with a white foot and nose. too cute. the two that didnt make it were one that was white and black like scarlet and a second grey and white one like the one above. i had to take care of those dead babies and it was totally depressing, especially before breakfast and coffee.

scarlet is doing well and nursing and still sweet. she was upset that i took two of her babies away but i couldn't leave them in the box! lauren at work already wants the calico baby. i wonder how long until i can figure out if they are boys or girls. im not supposed to touch them until at least a week has passed so maybe then i can find it.

i had a scary moment last night when i thought she wasnt going to finish delivering the babies. the grey and white one she had first was doing really well and they were resting and chillaxing in the queening box and she wasnt in active labor, so the vet at the emergency hospital said she was fine and i could sleep without worrying. i woke up at 2:45am and checked on her and she had had the calico baby but no others so far. the final three kittens were delivered sometime between then and 6:30 when i got up.

my first foster delivery went well, but i really wish jeremy had been here to help me deal with the ones that were stillborn! he left kansas this morning and will be in ohio tonight then onto new hampshire and me tomorrow!!!