to you brave shoppers out there today:
I have not in the past, nor will I ever patronize Abercrombie & Fitch. However, if that sort of thing turns you on, you'll be happy to know that according to The Associated Press, "teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch will have male models, clad only in underwear, greet shoppers at stores in major cities Friday." Go to the Abercrombie website for a little teaser. LOL

zzzzzzzzz.....

I think I am the only one in Cleveland at work today. The roads were deserted this morning, except for the few brave shoppers who will not be intimidated by sub-zero temperatures. I also think I am catching Kevin's monster cold, which he has just started to get over. Oh great. I'm seriously thinking of heading home when someone comes in...I'm by myself for another hour possibly. Blah.

On a more positve note, we had a nice time yesterday at my Aunts'. Mom came into town Wednesday night, after taking a wrong turn (oops!) which landed her in Lakewood. She was tired. Originally we had planned to go down to Columbus Wednesday night, but since Mom never got here till after 8, we elected to go down yesterday morning instead. We had yummy turkey, and everything one eats on Thanksgiving. Dinner was followed by pecan and grape pie (ew) and a lengthy game of Trivial Pursuit. That game lasted hours. We played for about 4 hours, ending finally at 10pm with Mom in the lead (5 pie) and Aunt Marcia and I tied at 4 pie apiece. It was time to get going home. The drive back last night was smooth- no traffic or anything, but by the time we got home it was late and I was exhausted.

Kevin spent the day at his Mom's, and then paid our friend Jerry a visit. Everyone keeps asking me if it bothered me not spending Thanksgiving with my husband. It didn't, really. We would have had fun if he'd been with us, but being the only male in an estrogen-filled house was not desirable for him. Don't blame him on that one. I hate being the only girl.

Wonder if Dad and Scott got a deer yesterday...

she likes hanging Chinese paper cuts

Since the Columbus Dispatch decided to do concert reviews of Nelly and Guns N Roses instead of Tori, I'm posting the review of the Cleveland show instead. The Plain Dealer gave a very complimentary review. Read the review here.

but now I must be leaving...

Beth was here last night, staying with us so she could make her meeting with the Lake County Captains this morning. Apparently the Cleveland area now has a minor league farm team - Class A affiliate of the Indians. Anyway, best of luck to Beth on selling them her product. To see what Beth does, go here.

Anyway, tonight my Mom and I head to Columbus to spend Thanksgiving with my Aunts. Happy Turkey Day, everybody!

you're just too used to my Honey

Kevin yesterday decided to do some early Christmas shopping at Best Buy. So, we are now the proud owners of this Sony Home Theatre System. Did I want this to be my Christmas present? Take a guess.

Friday
Good seeing Matt and Julia, even if they were just passing through for the evening. We tried to play Trivial Pursuit. Matt, Julia, and Sue all did fairly well. I sucked. Admittedly, I was the worst player of the evening. I was so tired I spent most of the game with my head down on the table.

Saturday
Had a nice relaxing morning chatting with the girls. Sue and I left for Columbus around 1:00. We thought we'd run into traffic from the OSU v. Michigan game, but it was reasonably clear all the way down. We made it safely to my Aunt's, spent some time catching up. I finally told her I had gotten married. The reaction I received from her was not the reaction I had at all anticipated. She was happy, and I thought she would have screamed at me. I love it when family surprises me. :o)

on scarlet's walk

Ok, I have lots to post, but I know you are all dying to know how the Tori show was, so I'll talk about that first.

We arrived at the Palace Theatre in Columbus at about 7:30 or so. Debating about whether or not to purchase any memorabilia, I opted not to when I discovered that tour t-shirts were $35! I am a loyal EWF and I love Tori, but that's ridiculous. Maybe I'll find one on e-bay sometime. Anyway, we got to our seats - first row upper balcony - and sort of took it all in. The show was sold out, so there were people milling around everywhere.

The opening act, Howie Day came on at just about 8pm. I have to comment on this - I have never so enjoyed an opening act as much as this one. Howie Day was really, really good. So good, in fact, that I'll probably purchase his CD some time in the near future. He was the lone guitarist on stage with maybe 5 or 6 recording devices of some kind. At different times during his set he would record a few bars, loop them, and continue the process until he had layer upon layer of rhythms (by hitting his guitar), vocals, chords, etc. Sue thought he sounded a lot like Bono. I disagreed until at the end of one of his songs, he broke into U2's One Love. Which was really cool. I loved him. He called the people in the box seats Muppets. :o)

Tori came one just after 9pm. Now, I love Tori no matter what. She put on a great show, which included songs from all the albums but Strange Little Girls. Fine with me. She did 23 songs, including my favorite bee side Never Seen Blue:

Set List
Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
Little Earthquakes
Pancake
Space Dog
Sweet Sangria
Sugar
Black-Dove (January)
Wednesday

Band leaves

China
Never Seen Blue
Twinkle

Band returns

Honey
Cornflake Girl
Don't Make Me Come To Vegas
Amber Waves
Precious Things
I Can't See New York
Spring Haze

1st Encore
Taxi Ride
Take To The Sky
Horses

2nd Encore
Tear In Your Hand

I was pleased with the concert except for all the idiots who got up and walked around during Tori's performance. People were so rude, including three teenagers sitting in front of us who talked incessantly throughout the concert. Grrr.

To read more about this show,go here.

35 hours till Tori!
Not that anyone's counting or anything. :o)

39 years ago today

JFK was gunned down in Dallas today in 1963.

Incidentally, this has been an interesting and eventful year for the Kennedys...the conviction of Michael Skakel, the discovery of the PT- 109 wreck...And I remain obsessed.

that reminds me
If you are so inclined to see photos of me trying on various wedding dresses, go to Sue's Blog and follow the links and instructions. Never mind how I look, though, because I was hung over.

so I let Crazy take a spin

It's going to get really busy this weekend! I'm so excited for my visitors, though. Sue, Matt, and Julia will be arriving tomorrow. Julia and Matt are stopping en route to Columbus to visit another friend. Sue and I are headed to Columbus on Saturday to visit with my Aunt and to see the Tori Amos show that night.

Next week, though, it gets really crazy:
Monday: 2 Choir rehearsals
Tuesday: Bell Choir Rehearsal, Beth visits
Wednesday: Beth goes to Indiana, Mom visits and we go to Columbus
Thursday: Thanksgiving in Columbus, driving back to Cleveland that night
Friday: Work all day
Saturday: Pageant Rehearsal
Sunday: Church, Choir Rehearsal, Beth stops on her way back from Indiana

Hopefully my Mom and I will get some Christmas shopping done amidst all my activities. I've got most of my gifts purchased, with the exception of my brother and sister and in-laws. Oh, and my husband. I also want to get my Christmas tree sometime in the near future, but I refuse to do that till it's actually December.

here you go!
Click on this link to go to my Wedding Photos page on Andy's website.
Username: webguest
Password: november
Disclaimer: If you wish to download all the pics in zip format (second to last link), it takes a very, very long time. Like, several hours. To see thumbnails, click the last link. Each individual photo is also shown, but they take a while to load.

Let me know what you think! Enjoy!

something safe for the picture frame...

After I get the go ahead from Sue's beau Andy, I'll post the link where you can check out our wedding photos. Hopefully that will be by the end of the day. If not, then tomorrow.

4 Days Till Tori!

driving on the vine, over clotheslines
but officer I saw the sign...

On the way to the grocery store yesterdy, Kevin pulled the Jeep over into a deserted parking lot, put it in park and got out. "You're driving," he said. I said "No f***ing way". Well, guess what. Kevin gave me my first driving-stick-lesson as I drove in circles around the parking lot at Southland.

I felt confident enough to drive over to Giant Eagle, so we're on the way and suddenly there's a stop sign. I stalled the car, and the lady behind me honked her horn at me. I panicked, stalled about 3 more times and managed to jerk the Jeep out into the middle of the road. Kevin was very calm and patient with me - a good teacher. But the lady behind me laid incessantly on her horn and I was on the verge of tears going "I can't do this!" So, Kevin gets out of the car, walks around behind it and screams at the lady "Go the f*** around!!!!" She stopped honking her horn. LOL I was laughing hysterically, and barely managed to get the clutch/ gas thing long enough to park it. My legs were shaking by the time I turned off the ignition and we laughed ourselves silly all through the grocery store.

you always did prefer the drizzle to the rain

Nice weather we had over the weekend. The sun didn't come out once. Blech. I did get a few things accomplished, though not as many as I had hoped. Cleaning happened, 'cause I'm trying to get ready for my visitors this weekend. Between now and Wednesday, though, I've got a ton more to do as this weekend BOTH our guest rooms will be in use. At the same time!

I have been married for one month. :o)

One week till Tori!

Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny black car in the night?

From today until Decemebr 26th I will be living my life by the calendar. My days will be filled with rehearsals, meetings, hours of practicing, not to mention cleaning, shopping, and getting ready for the holidays. Yep. Here they come! The commercialization of it all makes me ill to my stomach, yet every year it gets worse and worse.

on the other side of the galaxy

Yesterday almost directly across the street from Arhaus, where Kevin works in Walton Hills, there were several massive explosions as two local businesses went up in flames. The fire made National news headlines. Check out the story here on CNN. Kevin said it was pretty scary. All the major businesses in the area were evacuated, including the Ford plant, and Arhaus. Here's the kicker- they forced all of the people in the office at Arhaus to leave, while the warehouse workers, including my husband, were told they had the option to go but only if they felt their lives were in danger. Gotta love corporate America. That's all I have to say about that.

gimme somethin' to believe in...

I want to be in a band. Badly. I've started to pay more attention to what's been on the radio lately, in order to compile our wedding set list. Every once in a while a song will come on and I think "I could so play this!" Ok, so in my pseudo band I could play keys and sing. Kev can play bass or guitar. Kev's good bud, whom I endearingly call "80's Frank" can play drums. (If he ever gets a set of his own.) We'd be set. The first song we would cover would be by Poison, I'm sure. LOL Every rose has it's thorn. After that though, I'd have a bloody hard time trying to get them to play Indigo Girls tunes.

you told me last night you were a sun now
with your very own devoted satellite

Had weird dreams again last night. I suppose they stemmed from my persistence at getting Kevin involved in the wedding planning. His job is to find and hire a DJ, hopefully through a connection we have at Lentine's. This "connection" is who I had a dream about last night. A naked dream. *Shudders* Incidentally, Lentine's is where I met Kevin.

This morning when I woke up, our bedroom, not to mention the entire house was bathed in orange light. I peeked out the French doors in the dining room and saw the most gorgeous sunrise I've witnessed in a long time. In fact, I think the last time I was up early enough to catch a sunrise was about 3 years ago. I should get up early more often.

the next project, continued...

Last night Kevin and I went through our CD collection. Our list of songs has grown to about 65, total. I guess I didn't realize how tough it would be to plan out about 6 hours or so worth of music. Anyway, I still need more suggestions because after last night, I looked at our playlist, and so far it contains songs mostly by the following: Motley Crue, Whitesnake, & Van Halen. (Can you tell who picked these??) I actually conceded to some Def Leppard and Bon Jovi tunes. Who doesn't love Jon Bon Jovi? *drools* Anyway, I'll post the playlist maybe tomorrow. I need more suggestions on stuff that isn't '80's Rock. Please!

the next project

Ok, our next wedding thing we're working on is the DJ/ set list. I've been racking my brain trying to come up with stuff to play during the reception. Here's what I've got so far, and I'll continually update this list as you add your suggestions. Which you must add.

First Dance of Bride & Groom: Thank You ~Led Zeppelin, covered by Tori Amos
Father of Bride/Bride:
Mother of Groom/Groom:

For Dancing (not necessarily in this order, of course):
Fields of Gold ~Sting
Ship of Fools ~Robert Plant
Heavy Metal Drummer ~Wilco
Ice Cream ~Sarah McLachlan
The Look of Love ~Diana Krall
These are Days ~10,000 Maniacs

Please add, comment, make suggestions!

Grace...
I don't mean to be cryptic, but I love these words by Leonard Cohen, covered amazingly by Jeff Buckley:

Well there was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show that to me do you
But remember when i moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah

Does anyone have any Jeff Buckley discs they'd be willing to burn for me? Please? Pretty please?

have a seat while i...

Check out Sue's new blog, entitled Take to the Sky!

Meg Squared

Over the weekend I had a chance to reconnect with some friends from college. Kevin had never met Mary Ellen, and neither of us had met her husband. We had a nice time eating, drinking, catching up. Meg and I perused the B-W yearbook from our senior year, while finishing off a bottle of Bailey's (me) and a large bottle of Beringer White Zin (Meg).

After Mary Ellen and Ed left to go back to Columbus, Meg and I attempted to get Kev and his friend Jerry into a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. I was kicking ass, but we ended up calling the game after only about a half hour's worth of play, as Kev and Jerry were bored to tears. *Shakes head* I think they just didn't want to lose to a couple of girls.

Meg ended up spending the night, due to the excessive amounts of alcohol consumed. At least we had a good time, reminscent of that incident in college when we gave Julia a make-over, followed by Meg's consumption of an entire bottle of Boone's. *Sigh* Those were the days...

mahwige...mahwige is vhat bwings us togevah, today...

A friend sent this forward to me yesterday. I got a slight chuckle out of it. All the males I passed it on to guffawed:
My wife and I have the secret to making a marriage last: Two times a week, we go to a nice restaurant, have a little wine, some
good food and companionship. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.
We also sleep in separate beds. Hers is in Sydney and mine is in Melbourne.
I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.
I asked my wife where she wanted to go for our anniversary. "Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!" she said. So I suggested the
kitchen.
We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.
She has an electric blender, electric toaster and electric bread maker. Then she said, "There are too many gadgets and no place to sit down!".
So I bought her an electric chair.
Remember.... Marriage is the number one cause of divorce. Statistically, 100% of all divorces started with marriage.
I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was Always.
I haven't spoken to my wife for 18 months. I don't like to interrupt her.
The last fight was my fault. My wife asked, "What's on the TV?".... I said, "Dust!"
In the beginning, God created earth and rested. Then God created man and rested. Then God created woman. Since then, neither God nor man has rested.
Why do men die before their wives? 'Cause they want to'.

I make no sense!

What are your personalized lyrics??
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ugh

The last couple of days have been a total mess! Tuesday I managed to rip a huge chunk out of my last contact lens. I've been wearing my awful glasses since then, which has resulted in a constant, incurable headache. Not to mention that I worked way too late yesterday. Not to mention that we haven't seen the sun in about 2 weeks.

Things are looking like they may shape up a bit for the weekend. The temperature is supposed to hit 60, and I've been talking with some out-of-town college friends about getting together this weekend. Also on the agenda is the completion of the front yard landscaping. Hoo hoo!

foodgasm

I think we finally decided on which caterer to book. Check them out here. As I've said before, we're going for fun and informal, but there will most definitely be nothing like a pig roast. Our choice should be somewhere in between. Hope y'all like BBQ!

and speaking of the Kennedys...

The USA Network has made a movie about the murder of Martha Moxley. Entitled Murder in Greenwich, it apparently follows the investigation of the murder quite closely. It ends with the June 2002 conviction of Michael Skakel, nephew of Ethel Kennedy who was married to RFK. It only took 20 flippin' years to determine he was guilty. (Just like Ted Kennedy in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick. Just like OJ. Just like Robert Blake. Just like Winona Ryder. When is it going to end?)

ah, those Kennedys

I'm not one for politics. I have my opinions, I'll vote tomorrow, I'm somewhat up to speed on most of the major issues. Today, Bill O'Reilly makes a valid arguement on the lack of integrity in Attorney Generals this nation's had since RFK. I've said it before. I'm obsessed with the Kennedys.

it is not the holiday season yet!

This really irritates me. Not only is it still and only the beginning of November, but it's not even that cold yet. This afternoon while doing my banking, I noticed that the North Royalton Police Department was hoisting their mammoth green tinsel "Season's Greetings" sign onto the side of their building. This totally makes me want to vomit because they do it earlier and earlier every year. I remember last year I was sickened when they did it a week before Thanksgiving. I mean really, people!

Hollow Weenie

I have to comment on the differences in Trick-or-Treat in Ohio and New York. I don't know who devised these "rules", but I find them odd. This was really my first true Halloween here, since now we have a house and can actually give out candy. Anyway, apparently in Ohio there is no door-knocking or doorbell-ringing before the exclamatory "Trick-or-Treat!" to which I was accustomed. Here, the kids just come up to the door and yell it as loud as possible and hope you hear them. The other "rule" is that trick-or-treating is allowed only between the hours of 6-8pm. This makes sense to me...less time for trouble to occur.

I made Kevin answer the door last night while I was reliving some old Halloween memories while talking to my mother on the phone:
Mom: Remember the year you dressed up as a No. 2 Pencil?
Me: Yes, Mom.
Mom: Remember the year you dressed up as a witch and answered the door?
Me: Yes, Mom.
Mom: Remember the year you decided to dress up as a Punk Rocker?
Me: Yes, Mom.
Mom: Remember the year you dressed up as Charlie Chaplin?
My mother recalled practically every ridiculous costume I've ever worn for Halloween.

Last night we were getting so many kids that finally Kevin just sat outside on the front steps with the candy and his 6-pack of Bud Light. I heard one all black-clad young child exclaim incredulously "You're giving out beer?!? Wow! You're cooler than Eminem!" Poor disillusioned child.