Not so Fresh, not so Direct

Since it's so damn cold out I decided to Fresh Direct my deliveries this weekend. On top of being so convenient and super fresh, they were offering a free box of Clementines with any order until March 1st. Who can resist the sweet, tangy Clementines?

I requested an 11am-1pm delivery on Sunday. That would allow me to sleep in and be here in time for our friend Eric to arrive to spend the day with us. Eric came around 1. No Fresh Direct yet. We hadn't eaten, and I was getting pretty cranky. 1:30. 1:45. 2:00. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Finally I sent them an email telling asking what the hell happened, and we left for brunch at Popover Cafe. While at Popover's, which is 10 blocks away, we saw the familiar sight of a Fresh Direct man pulling a huge dolley loaded with precariously placed boxes, wobbling and begging to topple over. There goes my eggs. I'm not sure if he had my delivery on there, probably not, but I couldn't help feel sorry for this guy. 20 degrees outside, windchill even worse, pulling this huge dolley with boxes tumbling down and not a soul would stop to help. But ultimately, all I really cared about is my stuff.

When we got back there was no notice, no email, no phone message. WTF? Someone finally called around 7pm and asked if I received it yet. Um, shouldn't they know if I did. I told her I didn't. She said she has no idea what happened and offered to reschedule the delivery for tonight with $10 off my order. I took it. I couldv'e argued for more but wasn't in the mood.

The Butterfly Effect

We rented The Butterfly Effect from Netflix a few weeks ago and finally watched it on Friday. Now normally, a movie that stars Ashton Kutcher would not be high on my list. But I've heard from a few people that it's worth seeing so we gave it a go.

When I put the disc in the DVD player and queued it up to watch it prompted me to choose the Director's Cut or the Theatrical Version. We thought about it and figured we'd try the theatrical first. But that would require me to get off the couch and flip the disc over. No go. I was too comfy and too lazy. So we watched the Director's Cut.

The movie started off promising but in the end was too long with too many variations. Like, I get it. I get the point. David thought that if this was in the hands of a better director that it could be really good. Overall I thought it was pretty good. I guess I expected more of a Sixth Sense type twist. Still, the story was mildly interesting.

We IMDB'd it later the next day and found out that the theatrical version has a completely different ending. But I had already mailed it back to Netlflix. Damn, now I wish I got my lazy ass off the couch and flipped it. I guess this prove's the butterfly effect theory after all!

DJ Tech in da house!

Check out my nephew's new and improved blog here. Good job Brandon! I mean DJ Tech. I mean DJ formerly known as DJ MP (Mashed Potatoes).

P.S.-He likes comments so feel free to leave one : )

Yesh!

I'm embarrassed to say, but I finally got a new game. Back in the day I would be playing my Gamecube nightly. The minute I got home until David made me go to bed. I haven't really played much PS2 or Gamecube in a long, long time. I figured I'll look up what's new and see if there is anything good to pick up. Lo and behold there is a new James Bond game out-From Russia With Love. Complete with voice over from Sean Connery!

Stopped at Game Stop tonight and was lucky enough to find a used one. Now I couldn't leave with just one game so when I saw Lord of the Rings-ROTK for $14.99 I knew I couldn't pass it up.

Now if they'd just release my alltime favorite game Zelda everything will be A-OK. It's been delayed for a year and a half already. It better be worth the wait. Although, I don't think anything can compare to Ocarina of Time.

Oh, how I miss the Lost Woods :(

Magellan

Maria in the city

Maria is here and we were out an about all day yesterday. And it's cold. Damn cold. Bitter damn cold. I think last night was 20 at the most. But we are making the best of it and trying to stay inside as much as possible.

We waited in line at TKTS and got 50% off tickets for Sweeney Todd. Not too sure what to say about this one. We all left kind of scratching our heads and asking each other questions about who was who. A very minimalistic set where all the actors are also the musicians on stage. That was interesting yet in a way distracting. I wonder if I would've liked it more if this wasn't the case. I guess we expected something a little more grand. The set was entirely black and white with splashes of red here and there. A pretty morbid musical sprinkled with a little humor, mostly by Patti LuPone. She was amazing. At the end the audience stood up immeditately and cheered in a standing ovation that seemed to take the cast (and us) by surprise.

Afterward we ran to the train and went to get some birthday cupcakes at Billy's. David secured us a seat in this tiny busy DELICIOUS bakery and we quickly ate up our cupcakes and warmed up with some coffee. Then we were off to relax and warm up at Henry's. Ended up having dinner at Blue Smoke where we had to wait an hour and a half but no biggie. Drinks and company was good so the time flew. Well worth the wait for SUCCULENT ribs, gooey sticky mac n' cheese and yummy sweet potato fries. Even if the key lime pie was a little frozen everything else was perfect. Mmmmm, leftovers.

Happy Birthday Mariaaaaaaaa!

Maria is here for the weekend celebrating her birthday with us! Happy Birthday Maria! You go girl!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's everyone!
I have been showered with love today. First I received a dozen beautiful long stem red roses at work from my wonderful husband.










AND I just got a package messengered from one Hot Monkey and inside was a book I had asked about, A Taxonomy of Barnacles.

Oh what a wonderful day!

Tonight, dinner at our favorite Italian place Gennaro.

Olympic Heartbreak

Watching the pairs ice skating last night broke my heart. Before each couple would skate NBC would give you some sob story on hard hard their journey has been and why they need to win this. This made it even more nerve wrecking. The Russian couple was beautiful. And fully deserved to win the gold. After that disaster in 2002 it's amazing that anyone could skate again. Everytime the woman is thrown into the air I hold my breath and wince hoping they will make the landing.

But nothing was more devastating than watching Zhang & Zhang miss the quadruple salchow. I think we could all feel her pain. I was actually sobbing throughout the performance. These people have been training their whole lives. Apparently they have only seen their families for 1 week since training from the age of 13.

You go Zhang & Zhang. You made us proud. Next time, just do the triple.

Blizzard '06

Just got back from a weekend in Long Island visiting David's parents. We went out for one night and ended up staying two due the the Long Island Railroad having too many issues. Can you believe some people were stuck on the trains for 6 hours?

First off let me say that I thought the opening ceremonies for the Olympics was crap. Ice skating cows? A Ferrari doing doughnuts on the ice? Yoko Ono? Come on now. I thought Italy would do so much better. The only thing good was the pyrotechnics and Pavaroti. Even the lighting was unmoving. Bah!

So the blizzard. Not as 'blizzardy' as I expected. I was longing to be in Central Park once I heard they got 28". I think we only got a measely 15". Still pretty though. Especially at dusk when everything lights up in a bluish color that is spectacular.

Didn't do a whole lot outside of watching Olympics and eating. We did venture out looking for a good sledding hill but ended up driving around in bad conditions with no hills to be found. Guess we have to hope for another snowfall before Springtime.

An Apology

I'm sorry, person, for leading you astray.

I guess I'm not destined for the Amazing Race after all.

Top 10 Reason to go to Block Island

And now Celvyn & Nancy, compliments of David, the Top 10 Reasons to go to Block Island with us this year in August...

10 Warm weather, boogie boarding & sandcastle building on pristine shark-free beaches








9 CROQUET!!!!











8 Hide and go seek








7 Traditional New England clam bake








6 Kite flying on the beach










5 Lobster night








4 Campfires on the beach while toasting smores under a starry sky










3 Salsa dancing on the deck










2 Amazing sunsets from our deck










And the number 1 reason to go to Block Island...

1 Block Island Iced Teas at the Oar!









(Some images courtesy of Henry ? ?)

Congratulations Spo0ky & Sexy!

Congratulations to Spo0kybear and SN for making their dreams come true!

See you in three years!

Grammys

Can I just say that I LOVED the Grammy's last night. Especially the opening with Gorillaz & Madonna. I thought it was genius. I was so confused as the animation was done so well and integrated perfectly with Madonna's appearance on stage. And Madonna looked amazing. She never ceases to amaze me.

Other highlights were Mary J. burning up the stage signing ONE with more passion than Bono ever did. I also enjoyed YESTERDAY with Jay Z, Linkin Park and Sir Paul. Thankfully Paul didn't win anything as that album SUCKS big time. I don't think I've heard anything more painful than him singing whatever that new song was. Oy vey!

Not sure how U2 won as this album isn't all that. Not nearly as good as A.T.Y.C.L.B. Should've gone to Kanye. I think a lot of people probably felt slighted as they only really gave away maybe 8 awards live. How could they think running a quick blip at the bottom of the screen was giving the other artists their due honors? Although, I was thankful to do without all the country music crap.

And yes, I now agree Kelly Clarkson is good. Cel, let me know when the next concert is. Just don't tell anyone.

New look-Old flame

So yes, I chose a new template. This one is called 'Harbor'. It had a goofy lighthouse at the top but I removed it and now looks much better. I would like to put my own image at the top though so I will look around tonight.

Interesting thing happened last week. I was working from home (LOVE it!) and saw an ad for classmates.com. When the site began I had signed up and looked around but never found anyone I knew. That was years ago. So I decided to take another look around last week and who did I find but my ex-boyfriend from so many years ago. I decided to send him a message to see what he's up to. I mean, who's not curious as to what people from way back when are doing now? I sure am! So I emailed him and he emailed back! He's married (to a friend from high school, which I knew) and now has two adorable kids.

Very weird to talk to him again. Well, write to him. But nice to know that he's doing well.

Bad Hair Day

I haven't cut my hair since June 2004. Partially because I wanted to grow it long. Partially because I don't really have a hairdresser. The last time I cut my hair was for my Mom's wedding. I went for a blow out with her and ended up getting a cut as well. A $125 cut.

Yeah. $125 haircut.

So now you see why I haven't been back. But my hair was getting too long and unruly. I saw a friend last week who I haven't seen in a while and she said "Wow. It's wild". I knew it was time to get it done. So I figured since I haven't cut it in a year and a half, I was entitled to another $125 cut. I made the appointment.

Before I left David asked if I was going to get highlights. But I'm not a highlights type of girl. I've always prided myself on having naturaly blonde hair. No dyes. No nothing. But he made me wonder.

When I arrived at the salon my stylist looked at my hair and suggested I get some highlights around the top. It was slightly darker than the rest since it hadn't seen the summer sun in quite some time. But I told him I'm not that type of girl. He kept at it. With the combination of him and David both telling me to get highlights I gave in.

The woman was good. She just did Carol Alt and Doug Wilson's hair. But I quickly noticed she wasn't doing the top of my head, she was doing the WHOLE head! I asked her why and she said "ha, we tricked you". WHAT? Tricked me? WTF? But it was halfway done so what could I do? She didn't put the foil all over my head because she said that would be too harsh. She only left it on for 15 minutes. During that time I was not happy. I started thinking about the fact that highlights damage your hair. I didn't want to be one of those chicks with fried, dry hair. Ugh, what did I do? Why did I give in? So weak!

When it was all done it's not so bad. But not so great either. Looks like I spent the weekend at the beach with a bottle of Sun In. But after dropping $450 (including tips) I knew it wasn't worth it. For $450 I should look like a new woman. And I don't. He cut my hair shorter than I wanted. I spent all that time growing it long and now that was all for naught!

Next time, maybe I'll just do Supercuts.