Buy-Bye 2006

So, another year passes by at the blink of an eye. I swear I feel like 2006 just started. Twice recently I wrote 2005 on my checks by mistake. It's uncanny how fast the time goes. In two weeks I will be 35 and shortly after that, it will be the 5 year anniversary of my mother's death.

All this makes me introspective.

It's been a stressful year. Rich and I had talked about going to Africa late winter/early spring this next year and now we've instead booked a much needed spa trip to Rancho La Puerta, a wonderful health spa in Baja Mexico that we went to last year and loved. We booked it again this year with hopes that it will rejuvenate, revitalize, and renew... our spirit, quest for healthy living, etc... after an end of year that included health issues, weight gain, work stress, etc. We'll also fit in a short dive trip for Rich.. we're looking into Cozumel right now, but that one is up to him. With my deviated septum and nasal polyp, diving has been painful for me, so now I wave goodbye to Rich in his cute little wetsuit and spend the time lying on the beach and catching up on my reading.

This year we spent lots of time in Vermont with lots of family and friends, making the first of many years full of fantastic memories up there. Vermont for me has been a dream come true and I look forward to many many more years to come of more relaxing happy times there. We went to the spa, we went to the Keys, we celebrated our three year anniversary, Rich climbed Mt. Washington, a goal he had for many years, we camped, we went to Tanglewood, we spent time with our niecypoo who turned 1 in October, we did some work to the house in the 'Cha, and - as we speak - Rich awaits his bachelor of science (FINALLY) from RIT any day now, after many years of going to school part time.

After a fall rut with Rich working unbelievably hard at work and me getting both strep and bronchitis (figures), we have bounced back both mentally and physically and are dedicating 2007 to being healthy.

I am also going to make an extra effort to see more friends in 2007, starting with a visit from my wonderful friend Conway next weekend to celebrate both of our upcoming birthdays together. I'm excited.

Tonight we celebrate the New Year with our great neighbors: Kerrie and Dave, and Cheryl and Jeff. We are blessed that we live in such a nice neighborhood are looking forward to bringing in the new year together.. that is, if we don't fall asleep before midnight.

Happy New Year, everyone. Hope 2007 brings you everything you wish for.

xo

Open Mouth, Insert Foot (not Food)

Holy cow, I am completely floored by the last episode of the Biggest Loser. I mean, I honestly taped it and watched it again two days later because I needed to see the transformations all over again. How inspiring (I say while snacking on Cool Ranch Doritos. Just kidding.)

Let's start with Poppi. Rich and I mocked her from day one. She was Scary with a capital S. Really. Frizzy hair, big nose, shmata around her head... and one big fat face. Quite a porker recommending our home state. Need I say how amazing she looked at the end? I apologize to Poppi.. because she certainly made me "eat" my words (notice carefully placed pun). Rich still thinks she's a bit scary looking, but I think she is adorable. Erik had a colossal transformation as well. As did a few of the other contestants.

Now I am a large girl. But I dont have it in me to prance around in my spandex and sports bra on national television. I mean, who needs to see me jiggle? Further, I have been a loyal follower of the Biggest Loser and I cant help but wonder why the first challenge always includes (prior to any weight loss) these poor souls having to get over some type of tall wall... complete with fat men literally trying to push the fat women over the wall... It's a sad state of affairs. Fat jiggle everywhere and interesting camera angles while these people straddle the walls in their spandex. I always start the season thinking that the show is demeaning and pathetic and always end the season in awe of the transformations. I can't wait until Season 4 begins.

Oh Zippy Zippy Zippy

I finally got a chance to listen to the Christmas Canon song this evening and it is the cheeziest rendition of Pachelbel's Canon in D that I have ever heard. I mean, are you kidding? Adding Christmas words and an electronic guitar does not a good Christmas song make.

Silly Husband and Cute Boyz

Every once in awhile, Rich will say or do something and then he'll say, "You better not blog that." He's so funny. I think he checks the blog not because he's interested, but because he wants to know if he's mentioned. Hi honeybunny. Love you. Look how cute our boyz are.

A Zip Request: Bobby Doesn't Delight or Disappoint

Rich and I went to the movies the other night. He wanted to see the Bond movie, and I wanted to see Borat. We ended up seeing Bobby, due to the timing of us getting to the theater after dinner.

My nana LOVED all things Kennedy family and my mom loved JFK as well. When my nana and then my mom died, I took a few big picture books on the Kennedy clan as well as many actual newspapers from when Kennedy was shot... that were yellowed and sitting in the basement.

Anyway, I didn't know anything about this Bobby movie, except that Emilio Estevez wrote and directed it and that Demi Moore was in it as well. I can't say that I was thrilled with the movie. The movie was set up much like Love Actually... a day in the life of, with many different story lines going on at once. It was very disjointed and although all these story lines come together at the end during one scene, I still wasn't satisfied. Sometimes I didn't understand why the story line was in there. The movie did a good job at trying to depict 1968: racism, the civil rights movement, the regaining of hope after JFK and MLK JR. were both killed, an unpopular Vietnam War, blah blah blah, through these different story lines... and characters. There was no Bobby Kennedy in the film. There were occassional speeches played and video clips shown, but that was it. I wanted something with a more solid story line... I wanted Bobby and Ethel and Kennedy history and family secrets (part Kennedy family admirer/part People Magazine reader.) There was an all star cast that included Lindsay Lohan, Anthony Hopkins, Martin Sheen, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Sharon Stone, William H. Macy, Christian Slater, Elijah Wood, Heather Graham, Samuel L. Jackson, Helen Hunt, etc.. sometimes the all star cast made the movie and at other times, it was a bit distracting. (I must have commented on how old Helen Hunt looked at least 5 times.) Seeing Demi Moore as a drunk out of control movie star was just plain annoying and not very convincing.

All negativity aside, I do like movies that depict what it was like to live in another decade. I always wonder how politically charged I would have been if I lived in that time. Would I have actually attended Civil Rights marches? That part of the movie was the reason that Rich liked the movie more than I did, but the part that made me say it didn't disappoint. It succeeded in bringing you back to the country towards the end of the 1960s.. It just wasn't what I thought it would be.

Dear Zippy

Stranger than Fiction was a good movie. Rich and I both enjoyed it a lot. It's sweet and it's funny and it's intelligent. If you want a more worthwhile review, you should check out Ebert who gave it 3.5 stars. If I know you, I know that you're an Ebert fan and will respect his review, more than mine. Love, Michelle

I went to a Christian Rock Concert

The other day, I was driving around good ol' Rochester and I heard a radio ad for a very pretty sounding orchestra playing some type of Christmas music. It was the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.. coming to Rochester for one night only. I got home, poked around their website, saw a picture in the corner of a pretty snowy wintery scene, and decided that it would be a nice thing to do with Rich one night... so I asked him if he wanted to go. He declined with fervor, so I asked my friend Cathy, who thought it "sounded great" and we got tickets for last night.

Okay, now let me give you some background. It was torrential downpouring in the 'Cha, I had a terrible belly ache all day, and we were both having a very stressful day at work, so I was very close to saying screw it, let's just not go, but I knew that Cathy gets one night out for every few months, and I felt the pressure of sending her home to her kids. I decided to shut my mouth and go.

Again, it was raining like crazy, and the traffic in untraffic-y Rochester was atrocious as this so-called orchestra had sold out the one major venue in the 'Cha. We ended up parking pretty far away in a garage and running through traffic and puddles to get to the front door drenched.

On the way to our seats, Cathy had to go to the bathroom, which left me time to survey the scene. Here's where it gets scary. The place was filled with interesting folk: mullet-wearing women, men, and children, people with missing teeth, spiked black boots, acid washed jeans, etc... It was a far cry from a scene at the Nutcracker showing at the New York City Ballet, which for some reason, I was expecting. I thought this orchestra was going to provide the Nutcracker without the ballet part...

Cathy and I got to our seats and the show started minutes later and my expectations were crushed. I can't even describe what the music was like. It was this crazy heavy metal band similar to.. maybe... Twister Sister? or Slayer? Flopping their long curly hair (with bangs, which always frightens me) up and down as they played their electric guitars. I sat there and tried really hard to tell what Christmas songs they were playing, and I just couldn't do it. We sat through about four songs, trying to stop from cracking up because the rest of the place was totally into it as the flourescent lights came crashing into the crowd... people were standing and yelling and clapping. And Cathy and I were cringing and laughing. We stayed four songs. FOUR SONGS. Then we left. Back to the pouring rain. Back across traffic and puddles. Back to the garage and went back to the restaurant that we had been at only two hours before for a drink. Then, sadly, I sent Cathy home premature to her kiddies on her one night off. Today, we went to tell this crazy story and found that two conservative, religious, Christmas-enthusiasts are taking their families to see this "orchestra" in another city. Could it be just us?

Above are two pictures of one of the leads in the band. He doesn't exactly exude Chamber music player, does he? Also, above, is a marketing shot for the Orchestra. I guess I should have paid more attention to the website.

This is why I love Vermont

Because there were bumper stickers that referred to this website everywhere.

A Thanksgiving Made for Two

So Rich and I decided that we would go up to Vermont for Thanksgiving... my brother had a wedding in London and after a few last minute invites, we decided that we would take advantage of the four day weekend. We didn't really discuss details, we just said that we'd drive up Thursday morning when Rich got out of work.. I'd do the driving and we'd plan on getting there at around 1PM:

Michelle's thoughts: We'll pick up chinese or something along the way and get there, unpack, sloth, eat a quick non-turkey, but festive all the same, meal and go to bed early... really starting the weekend the next day.

Rich's thoughts: Michelle will drive, we'll get there at around 1, giving her plenty of time to cook the 17 pound (!) turkey I bought along with stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, and an apple pie for dessert. I will be exhausted from a night of work and will retire to the couch to watch football until dinner is ready.

I kid you not that my darling husband brought home a 17 pound turkey for us (mind you, I barely eat turkey..) and the list of ingredients with which to make the aforementioned required menu items.. and I slaved away after a four hour drive while he slothed the hours away on the couch with the dogs until dinner was ready. I was such a 1950's wife, I cant even tell you.

When it was time to eat, I walked into the den to find Rich sound asleep. I was not happy that I had to wake him from his slumber to come to the table to eat the gargantuan meal for 20 that I prepared.. but we had a nice dinner and even gave the dogs some turkey as not to feel as wasteful. (It's Sunday and not only did we eat turkey all weekend, but the carcass came home from Vermont to make turkey soup.) All in all, my meal came out great. The stuffing definitely was a bit too dry, but we both lived to tell about it... and Rich was very appreciative of our Thanksgiving for two.

The rest of the weekend was very nice and relaxing.. We ate lots of leftovers, walked around the town of Bennington, saw the movie Stranger Than Fiction, did a 7+ mile hike to Stratton Pond (see picture above and no, I have no clue who the guy is in the pond), went out for dinner, and just lazed around. Now, we're home. Rich is at a bar with a friend watching the Giants game and I am signing off to watch the end of the movie Annie (the original, not the cheezy remake). Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

There's nothing better than quality catch up time with an old friend

I'm very excited to say that I am off to Vermont tomorrow for a girly weekend with my old camp friend, Wendy... We met at Maine Teen Camp when we were 15... and though she grew up in Florida, we have been friends ever since. She's a mother of two adorable, yet - quite energetic - little boyz... She needs a break and will be driving to my house from her home in New Hampshire. I have had a terribly stressful and annoying week at work and am eager to catch up with an old friend, get a little silly, do a little hike, and just vegetate and read all the magazines that divulge juicy details about Britney's divorce for a weekend. Rich has lots of boy plans such as boy bond steak cookout participating, taco bean dip preparing, football watching, Buffalo Sabres game attending, and other things like that. Woohooo.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Are no scarify

Alva Levy at ubuyugoslavia@forevernet.pt sent me this email today with the above-referenced subject:

Where's there's muck, there's brass Don't mend what ain't broken. If you don't love yourself with passion, you'll love others with it. Passion is conserved. You can't judge a book by its cover. Attributed to Winston Churchill It's easier to turn falsehood loose than correct it everywhere it runs to

I really really need to talk about the underpinnings of nonsensical emails like this. First I decided that he was sending me a virus in gibberish code, but I've received other similar emails and my computer seems to be doing what I tell it to, so that seems to me to be a good sign. Then, I decided that Alva gets computer time at his mental hospital and needs to purge some muddled thoughts together between medicine intake and then send them out to various recipients in a "screw the world for confining me to a small confined space and putting me in a white jacket and giving me so little computer time" type gesture. But how would Alva get MY particular email? I need to understand. No one is trying to sell me anything. There's no stock tip, rolex offer, viagra prices, penis size reference, or any pathetic attempt to get me to give the sender my social security number, checking account, or any other personal information. So, what is it then? What does Alva Levy really want from me? Is he reaching out?

All theories welcome.

You can find EVERYTHING on the world wide web.

This was my favorite postcard when I was little. I cant believe I found it on the web. Is there anything in the world that can not be found online? I dare say not. But please... prove me wrong.

Niecypoo

I know I am biased, but have you ever seen anyone as cute as my niece, Felicia? This is in spite of the fact that she's got rarely an ounce of Kapperdoo in her.

My quest for the top 100 songs of all time

My friend Dave told me at a bar the other day that Dust in the Wind by Kansas was one of the 100 best songs ever written. So in an act of defiance, I am on a quest to come up with my own list, purposely leaving that overly quoted annoying ballad off. My list is an evolving one. I have decided that it's not in any sort of order... Just the top 100.. So far I have about 18 songs.. and I will reveal the list when it's done. I wanted to actually put the evolving list on here, but I think once you post you cant change a message... well, you probably can, but as a posting novice, I cant be bothered to figure out how. So be patient, my little bears... One day soon, you will see my masterpiece.

[I will take all song opinions under advisement, except for a vote of Shiny Happy People or Stairway to Heaven.]

Dream: November 19, 2005

While searching for a potentially suitable picture to post on my new 'audience of one' blog space, I found a well documented dream that I had on 11/19/2005. I thought I might share it with this vast audience. If anyone has any suitable skill in dream interpretation...

Dreamt I was walking around in a place where there were wild animals running free all over… lions, tigers, etc… Some people had guns just incase they got attacked… most didn’t. At first I thought I was in Africa, but I found out I was in the Hamptons. I was supposed to meet my parents and my Nana (none of which are really alive) and others at a lunch place outside… cause I was there with them and their friends… I was on my way, when I thought a lion or tiger was ready to attack me so I jumped into the nearest indoor place… only to find that it started to take off from the ground. It was a plane. To make matters worse, I looked around and realized that it was all Asian people on the plane. I was like where is this plane going? I knew it was somewhere in Asia because no one was speaking English and I started to panic. I have to get off the plane, I kept yelling. It was starting to fly and I was totally freaking out that I was now on my way to Asia. I begged the stewardess to turn the plane around… I asked her to tell the pilot that I got on by mistake after running away from a lion or tiger and didn’t have my medicine with me and would die. Finally, the pilot agreed and turned the plane around and let me off, much to the chagrin of the other passengers. They landed again and let me off and I went and found my parents and nana and told them what happened.

Testing my bloggability

Not like I ever expect anyone to read this, but I do like to hear myself speak, so this is the perfect venue for me. I have nothing to say... except hi. To me. Or anyone else that may like to actually hear me think aloud.