update.

I received an e-mail this morning from an actual person (or so it appears) at the boston channel, thanking me for my e-mail. He's forwarding it on to the station manager. Even if this is just an auto reply, they did a good enough job making it appear legit. I'm satisfied. Plus, my vcr worked out, and I just finished watching the bachelor episode aired at 1:35am. Oh, and happy halloween.

ba.loney

I brushed and flossed my teeth, rinsed with fluoride mouthwash, got all cozy in my pj's, grabbed my super warm and fluffy blanket, and settled in to watch a brand new episode of the bachelor. Tonight promised to be a good one- lorenzo was going home to meet the four remaining bachelorette's families, and I was especially looking forward to seeing how the meeting went with crazy lisa, who apparently displays wedding magazines and comes out in her wedding dress. I settled in, and turned on channel 5. On came monday night football- minnesota vs. new england. I panicked, but then reassured myself by checking the abc website. Sure enough, there was a new bachelor on at 9/8c, october 30th. Was abc really channel 5? I checked the guide, but couldn't find a listing on any other channel. Back to the web, which confirmed that it should have been on channel 5 at 9pm. Those jerks at the boston channel decided that people would rather watch a football game that's also on espn at the same time, than one of the final three episodes of the bachelor. Oh right...they didn't cancel it altogether, but moved it back to 1:35am with no apparent repeat time at a normal hour. I was so irate that I actually took the time to write an e-mail to wcvbnews@thebostonchannel.com to let them know how I felt. I wanted to yell via e-mail at them, but took a deep breath and wrote a more grown-up version that may actually be read (though probably not). Maybe if you all write a similar e-mail, they'll feel a little bad about what they've done. Now I have to figure out how to set up my vcr recording to tape a show in the middle of the night. BA...LONEY.

vcr.from.1983

Until saturday, my aunt n. did not have a dvd player. It was a sad state of affairs, and since I brought a netflix movie with me, she decided it was time to move into the twenty-first century. We went to best buy, and picked out a brand-spanking-new dvd/vcr combo since her vcr was on the fritz. It was no wonder. This thing must have been from 1983. It was larger than the new combo machine, and must have weighed at least ten pounds more. I hooked the new one up, gave her a brief tutorial on the remote functions, and popped in balzac and the little chinese seamstress. (Good movie.) I was proud to share that moment with her.

le.madeleine

I went to the big apple this weekend to visit my aunt n. and to see spamalot. We do this every year in september or october, although we don't always see spamalot. We pick a new one each year. It was hilarious- as I'd heard, and despite being caught in a flash flood, we had a great time. We went to le madeleine for dinner at 4:30pm. Yup- we ate like old folks, although we didn't get any early-bird specials. It was delicious. It turns out that the landlord is trying to kick them (and the 12 rent-controlled tenants) out so they can demolish the building. Anything to make more money, huh? They still have 4 more years on the lease with an option for 8 more, and are fighting the eviction notice in court. They have a petition they're trying to get folks to sign, so you should check it out, and sign it if you agree with them. I did.

pilates.

I just finished a pilates video. It was pretty hard. The video itself wasn't outdated or bad or anything, but they had a rasta band playing within camera view. I enjoyed watching the steel drum guys more than the pilates instructor.

tail.talk

So *ac*, *ec*, *nn* and I are all doing what's been dubbed the "fall of fitness." Basically, someone comes up with a challenge each week or two, and we keep track of how we do. This week and last week, our challenge was to do 3 hours each of cardio, weights, and stretching. The cardio was easy since I try to run or use the elliptical pretty regularly. The weights also weren't tough- I love this one hour class called women on weights, so that was doable. The stretching part was rough. I stretch after running or doing the weights class, but for less than 5 mins. I'm not a fan of yoga, but there weren't really any other options. The good news is that *nn* told me about the on-demand shows. I did one called "yoga for a better back" tonight. It was hilarious. I thought that it was from the 80's. The woman had a super short but puffy haircut, with.....a tail. Not just a normal middle of the neck straggly thing, but a side tail that was clearly curled with a curling iron. I did some research, and it turns out it's not from the 80's, but from 1998 which is not so long ago. Her tail reminded me of a story my brother told me when he was in junior high. Some kid in his english class had a tail, and kept playing with it. I guess it bothered the teacher, because eventually she went behind him, cut it off, and tacked it to the board. This was probably in 1992. I can't even start to imagine what sort of legal action would occur if this happened today. Crazy.

turkey.lurkey

I was going to one of the kids sports classes today, and as I drove up the hill, there were seven wild turkey's wandering around by the gate. I've seen them before. Sometimes there are even more. I told the girls I was thinking of catching one for thanksgiving dinner. *m* said completely seriously, "ss, those are wild turkey's. They have diseases." No one can take a joke anymore.

what's.this.widget.crap?

I was all excited about changing my blog layout. Like my room (which is painted a neutral color so I can switch the bedding and subsequently the feel of the room), I get tired of having something look the same all the time. I'd checked out different templates before, but apparently not since they set it up to be "easier" for some people. While some of the options for layout are easier, I now can't figure out to customize the content on the sidebar. I figured out enough html to be able to enter images and categories with the old layout, but now there's some weird widget business going on which is giving me a headache. If anyone knows how to help me out (ahem....my favorite 26 yr old brother....ahem) this is what I need to know:

How to stick in a heading like "books I'm reading" followed by a list of both images, and type. I have one that's kind of working, but I can't add another photo without putting in a whole new heading which I don't want to do.
I also want to add a photo and either make that photo a link to another site, or add a link to click on below it. I tried to enter the html that I know (like using a href="..." and /a to enter in a link) but keep getting an error message. Clearly I just don't know enough about widget to figure out what to do. It's unfortunate because they're obviously trying to make it easier for some people. I guess I just like to make things difficult.

how.i.spent.my.sunday

I spent the majority of my day in the darkroom. I had several projects that needed to be finished up, so as soon as I woke up, I put on my running clothes and went down to the basement. My plan was to develop for a few hours and then hop on the treadmill. I ended up printing for so long that by the time I stopped (which was only because the light bulb in my enlarger burnt out) it was four o-clock. I was cleaning up when my friend *ab* called from london, and after we chatted for a bit I had to run to cvs to pick up some new prescriptions. So I never ended up running, but I did have a very productive day.

you.wish.you'd.been.here

Last night was my first bi-monthly "(not your granny's) game night." I added the (not your granny's) in there because I think that too many people think of a subdued, yet sophisticated gathering of older women when they hear "game night." While that's perfect if you're an older woman interested in playing cards, it's not exactly the type of thing any self-respecting 28 year old should be doing on a friday night. I envisioned a lively group sitting around the table with a varied assortment of game options in front of them. What games? Exactly. I grew up playing games- board games, card games, interactive games...you name it. My family was perfect for game playing since there are six of us, and all of us were similarly interested in participating. Now that we've all moved away and are spread out across the country, there is little opportunity to catch up with a quick game of rummy, or a high stakes shot at cranium turbo. While my friends are definitely game for some game playing, they're not as passionate about it as I am. So. Once I decided to host the get together, I had to purchase some games. I owned one- "would you rather" that *tm* gave me for christmas (since she knew how I felt about games), but the night I had envisioned included more than just one option. I decided against straight-up board games, and opted instead for ones that encouraged lively verbal participation, preferably amusing. I did some research. "Apples to apples" kept showing up on the top ten lists. This game looked lame, yet all the customer reviews were superb. Some even said things like, "I never would have picked this game off the shelf, but I played it with friends, and it's the best!! I bought one for everyone I know, and they all love it!!!" How can you argue with such heartfelt critiques? I picked that up along with "imaginiff" and "mad gab." Next, I called my parents, and arranged to pick up four of our family favorites from my dad's office. (I also managed to show up in time for some free indian food-mmmm...mm.) These included "catch phrase", "balderdash", "cranium turbo" and "outburst." Now that I had eight game choices, I moved on to food and drink. Game night felt like pizza and chips. Doritos in particular. At our last sibling card game, we'd tried baked doritos, and they'd received a thumbs up. Along with those, I grabbed some pretzels and a bunch of veggies to munch on. The pizza and pita/butter/cheese/garlic salt/and oregano appetizers were ready at home, so I moved on to wine. Since I'm not a wine connoisseur, I decided to find the best looking labels (without drinking tar) and came up with those you see in the picture. We only opened two- the taxi and the arrogant frog. The frog was good, the taxi- not so good. After some brief missing-the-bus trouble, everyone arrived and we started with the apple game. As promised, it was a blast. We moved on to imaginiff. This was my favorite. You use a wipe-off marker and write everyone's name in a space and roll a die to determine who would be the subject of the question. Then everyone picks an answer, and the people who pick the answer with the most votes gets a point. The highlight of this game was when *ac* was up as the subject. This is the imaginiff card:

Imaginiff... (*ac*) accidentally backed over the neighbor's cat in the driveway. Which would he/she do?

1. Bury it and say nothing.
2. Confess.
3. Buy a replacement and pretend nothing happened.
4. Place it on the road and say nothing.
5. Blame the neighbor for inadequate cat control.
6. Run over it again to make sure it was dead.

*ac* choose number 2, and everyone else picked number 5. It was one of the few times we all (except *ac* ) answered the same, which shows how right on we were. *ac* was offended, but it was so funny- especially because I could clearly picture the situation, with her reaction as #5 dead on. I laughed so hard I cried. We finished with "mad gab" which was just too rough for me. You're shown a card with a nonsense phrase on it. You then have to repeat it and figure out what it's supposed to mean. Like- "amen ask hurt" translates to "a mini-skirt." It sounds easy, but it's really rough when you're under the timer. It's good I just saw my dr and have great blood pressure and pulse. Otherwise I'd worry about my ability to play that game again!

dinner.party

Last night was dinner party night at *nn* and *br*'s place. They made delicious fettuccine with asparagus, and tasty marinated chicken. Plus *d?* made a key lime pie that I finished even though I was about to be ill, I was so full. It was a nice grown-up thing to do, which is important since we are all grown up now. Even their dog barney was well behaved. That's him down there with *gl* and *ac*.

earl.

Earl is a cool cat. Pretty much everyone who knows him agrees, even if they (like me) don't like cats on a regular basis. He lives next door, but is an outside cat who ventures over to our yard on a daily basis. He's tough. He won't back down from a fight with "wanabe," another cat we nicknamed due to his clear admiration for earl. We don't know where wanabe lives, but he tries to hang out nearby until earl kicks him out. It's not unusual to hear hissing catcalls and see wanabe streaking away like a bat-out-of-hell. Earl doesn't act like a normal cat. He has an almost doglike personality, and will greet most people with a nice rub against the legs. Once, we were coloring with chalk on the sidewalk, and earl rolled over on a pink and blue striped shirt we'd drawn. He got up, and had pink and blue stripes on his back. He ran away this past summer, and was gone for several days. We were all a wreck. His owners eventually found him several blocks away. He'd made friends with some people who were feeding him. So today, I was outside talking with one of our painters, and he (the painter, not the cat) said, "the cat just went inside." Sneaky guy- he'd walked right past me without my knowing. I kicked him out, but not before I got a few leg rubs.

back.to.the.stone.age

The ceiling in our study looks like cottage cheese. Tomorrow (wednesday) it's coming down, and we have to disconnect our internet and take everything out of that room. If you're trying to reach me, you'll have to call! I'm a little nervous about the no e-mail, blog check-ups, and internet access in general. I'm not sure how I managed in high school.

clean.clothes

We got a new washer today! Our old one broke for the fourth time in less than seven years, and instead of paying another $125 service fee (plus the price of the part) and waiting for two weeks (during which we'd have to pay to use a laundromat) the old one is out, and the new one in. There's a class action suit against maytag (our old washer- the maytag neptune) for the exact same problems as we had- the door latch breaking so the door wouldn't lock and run through cycles (it's a front loader- I guess they didn't want the door to open and have water pouring out everywhere), circuit board failure which caused the machine not to enter the spin cycle, and finally, mold growing on the rubber seal between the door and the tub. And yet maytag says they did nothing wrong. Funny. Even funnier is the fact that my parents had the same washing machine for around 20 years with no problems. When they got it, it was avocado green, and my mom even painted it white since it worked fine and she couldn't justify getting a new one just because the old one was ugly. Our new one is the lg tromm steam washer. It's pretty darn fancy. I sat down there on one of our many piles of dirty laundry and watched the wash cycle do its thing. For a while I didn't believe that it was actually working. It kept making pfft sounds and the clothes spun a bit, but there was no water rushing into the drum. Then I read the instructions (yes- after I'd loaded and started the wash. These things are pretty self explanatory) and learned that even though there's not a lot of water in the drum, there are very strong jets of steam shooting in, doing a very good job of cleaning the clothes, all while using lots less water. Sure enough, after ten minutes, I saw the clothes were looking pretty wet. I can't wait for them to finish.

fancy.event

A lot of my mail still gets sent to my parent's house. Mainly because I'm too lazy to switch my license address and actually contact everyone who sends mail to acton, so I just pick it up when I'm visiting. It sounds like I just moved a few months ago, but really, I haven't lived at home since I was in college. To the point. So I was out there a week or so ago celebrating some birthdays, and threw the interesting looking mail into my bag. Yesterday I found it, and opened some of it. I was very excited to find an invitation to the "annual blood donor recognition event" on november 9th at the seaport hotel. I wasn't invited last year and felt a little slighted. I'd donated 16 of a possible 24, so thought that I just didn't make the base number. Apparently there were a lot of people who weren't invited who should have been. The blood techs said they were going to be in charge this year! So I was excited about the invite. I always assumed it was a little shin-dig in the hospital, but it's apparently much fancier than that. They used to have it in the park plaza castle, and now moved it over to the seaport hotel. It's a nice dinner, and there are about 300 people there, so even though I'm going by myself and don't really know anyone other than the blood techs and a few regular donors, I'm sure I'll find lots of people to chat with!

leaf.peepers

Today was such a nice day. 58 degrees, sunny, perfect for the hike we'd planned a couple weeks ago. I picked *ac* up and we met *nn* at houghton pond in the blue hills and hiked the same trail as *nn* and I tackled a month or two ago. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because there were tons of people along the trails and at the observation tower. We asked this cute little old guy to take our picture once, and the two other times we saw him, he said, "Hi! It's the camera guy!" like we forgot him already. When I was a kid, I remember people talking about how beautiful the fall foliage was in new england. I didn't appreciate it. Sure they were fun to rake together and jump into, or make leaf rubbings of, but I definitely didn't gaze out the window on highway drives and think how nice the sun looked reflecting off the warm reds and yellows. So it's a good thing that I still live in the area and am able to appreciate the leaves. The warmth that's reflected kind of counteracts the shortened days. We got a bunch of great views, apparently just in time since peak leaf season is over in our area. I think we'll still head out on a few more hikes as it gets colder, just more bundled up.

curse.bank.of.america

Today was an exciting day for me. I paid off my bad credit card. This card's been with me since college, when I apparently signed up for it. At that point I wasn't really savvy on the whole interest rate thing, and this guy had what I now know to be a bad one. It stuck with me for years, and I would pay it down, then build it up again. The past couple years I've been paying a little each month, and finally bit the bullet and paid the balance. I'm really excited about canceling it since it's an mbna which recently merged with bank of america. I hate bank of america, and will do whatever I can to avoid dealing with them.* I can't wait until the credit card folks ask me why I'm canceling. I'll tell them two reasons- one, the interest rate sucks- two, I hate bank of america and don't want to do business with them or anyone affiliated with them. I'm giddy with excitement!


*A year ago, I used one of their atm's, and my card got stuck. Not eaten, just stuck. I asked one of the greeters to help get it back for me, and she said they couldn't give it back. What? She asked if I knew why it had been retained, and I explained again that it got stuck when it was being returned. She smiled and apologized and basically said I was out of luck. I went to my bank, and they implied that the b.o.a. folks were crazy. As long as I had a picture id and my card hadn't been reported as stolen, I should have been able to get it back. Because of the stupid bank of america atm and the supremely unhelpful banker, I had to order a new debit card which could have taken 7 days to receive (but the very understanding citizens bank guy put a rush on it and it only took 2 days). I used this card as my main credit/debit card, and had many automatic payments linked to it. So I got to go through all my accounts and change the billing info, and then had to memorize a different card number for logging into my account. All just three days before going to california. Horrible. I hate them. Hate them.

high.school.phone.calls

I don't know about all of you, but I think of the phone as a way to plan stuff- dinners, meeting up for a drink, asking a quick question, etc. I don't tend to have really long phone conversations just to "catch up," except sometimes with my buddy who lives in san diego. Even that happens rarely. So. The other day I get a call from my friend *km* whom I haven't seen in a while, and who had e-mailed saying she'd call to catch up. Regardless, I was waiting for her to ask something specific, and felt silly when I remembered that we had planned this time to chat. It reminded me of being a freshman or sophomore in high school, and having a friend, melissa, who would call daily wanting to talk for over an hour. It drove me crazy. I didn't know how to tell her I thought it was a ridiculous waste of time considering I saw her everyday in school. Eventually I told another friend that I wasn't a fan of the chatty phone calls, and the news got around to melissa. I think she may have been hurt which was unfortunate. I didn't mean to hurt feelings, I just wasn't interested in talking on the phone without having a specific goal to accomplish while doing so. My chat with *km* was nice however, and once I realized that we were catching up like friends are supposed to do, I appreciated the time. It's something I could do every so often, but I'm still more interested in using the phone for a quick question, and saving the catching up for another time.

too.much.to.drink

Alright. It's time for another bachelor update. I watched it at *tm's* house, and we decided that the current bachelor-a prince- isn't even that cute. It must be the prince title that's attracting all the attention. Anyway. One of my favorite girls, kim, got booted. Really it was her fault. They had a group date at the beach, and she had more than a little too much to drink. She fell asleep on a beach chair, and when they woke her up, she was still drunk. She thought that the bachelor was a waiter, and started mumbling about who knows what. It was really unfortunate. She's a small person, and it was a long, hot day at the beach. I think that alcohol just hit her harder than she anticipated. So it goes.

moving.green.line

Today I made the 40 minute drive out to my parent's place in acton, ma to celebrate some birthday's. My mom turned 29 again on friday, and my youngest brother is 20 tomorrow. Happy birthday both of you! We had a great dinner that my dad and aunt made, some delicious apple crumb pie, and I got my butt kicked at pylos by *k* three times. By the time I left to drive back to boston, it was 11:30pm and there was no traffic. As I stopped to turn onto rt 2a, a state police car went by followed by a truck with a "wide load" sign attached. Next came a large flatbed truck with a green line T on it. Yup. That's right. The same T you take to get to boston college, cleveland circle, or riverside. After that was another "wide load" truck and finally another statie. Strange. Stranger still is the fact that this is the second time I've seen the exact same line up. I tried to take a picture, but I didn't have my camera, and my phone isn't advanced enough to take a photo in the pitch black acton night. There must be some sort of T manufacturer or mechanic out in littleton or westford. They go pretty slow, so I've never followed them long enough to figure out where they end up. It's a mystery.

i.need.itunes.help

This is for all you computer savvy people out there. While I know stuff about computers, it's just the bare minimum to get by. This particular question is about importing music into iTunes. Obviously, I have no problem loading a regular cd. After all, it basically does everything by itself- all you have to do is click the import button. However, I have two dvd formatted discs which do not result in an import button when the songs load in iTunes. I've copied the files into iTunes which works for adding the songs onto my iPod, but once I remove the disc, I get the little exclamation mark that tells me the original file cannot be located. This is a problem since I don't want to keep discs floating around forever. One of the discs only has 16 songs, while the other has about 100, plus the two seasons of the office- the original british one, not the annoying american version. Share your brilliance and I'll be forever grateful.

bachelor.review

This girl brit, on the bachelor, is a beer chemist. I'm not sure if this is a fancy title for a factory worker, but still...a beer chemist? *nn* this sounds like the path you should take.

So far I like kim (interior designer), sadie (publicist) and rosella (make-up artist). I don't like erica (a spoiled brat socialite), andrea (a weirdo hotel concierge who sang opera from a balcony) and desiree (a 22 yr old realtor who keeps calling him "baby," a term that I can't stand when you're talking to anyone over the age of 2). I thought I liked lisa (a 25 yr old marketing manager) but then she started talking about how she wanted to be married by 27, with a one year engagement, so she had 10 months to find a guy and get engaged. Oh, and she took the prince out to hug a tree with her.

Next came the roses. He gave the first rose to lisa- the tree hugger. She also made out with a pair of 2 karat diamond earrings. Score! Kim and sadie got roses, but not rosella which was sad since she sold her car to buy the gowns for the show. I really felt bad for her. Of the ones I didn't like, erica and desiree made it, but andrea got shipped back to the us.

Not bad for the first episode. We'll see how things go from here on out.

kickball.games

Yesterday was member appreciation day at the gym. They had free- (healthy) food, chair massages, knee and shoulder evaluation by two physical therapists, and nail polish change at the spa. They had also planned a kickball game, members versus trainers. I decided that I loved kickball even though I probably hadn't played since sixth grade. Apparently I was the only one since no other members showed up for it. I wasn't interested in taking on the undefeated trainers by myself, so they called it off. Next time they're putting up a sign-up sheet so people who sign up will feel like they have to show up. Maybe I'll put together a kickball team to get some practice. Or I'll just join these guys.