Halloween Block Party

Another year, another Uptown Halloween Block Party! We did a round through the streets, then hit the Union. The highlight of the night was probably Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite. He was amazing!



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I Won $50!

Today was awesome! First of all, it was the Friday before Halloween which means it's time to wear your costume to work! I politely told my coworkers that costumes were preferred, but wearing orange was acceptable. I loaned my sister my bunny outfit! Tracy, Brian and I played with my darts. Then, at lunch time I got to go to Stewart MacDonald and have a pizza party with them because they always celebrate Halloween!


















After work, Summer and I drove to Nelsonville and entered a costume contest at the Final Fridays event. It was at Stuart's Operahouse. I won second place! I won $50 Final Fridays Bucks, which means I have to spend it somewhere in Nelsonville's Town Square. I'm looking forward to shopping! After the contest, we went to Frank and Bean's house for a cookout. I ate SQUIRREL! It sort of tasted like duck. It was a very meaty party. There was also ham and meatballs. And a bonfire! It was a beautiful night.

Wieners

This weekend, my coworkers got together for a Wiener Roast. It was delicious! Cheryl always makes sure to get some Larry's Dawg House Chili Sauce when we have a potluck. Mmm. She also made her legendary taco dip. I made vegetarian chili. There was so much delicious food. Including S'MORES! Cheryl's daughter and her friend roasted a huge plate of marshmallows and brought them inside. I felt like I was totally cheating. But it sure was a delicious S'more!

And what a great week. I have enough leftover chili to have it for lunch every day until Friday, when I get to go to a PIZZA PARTY for lunch! I'm going over to Stewart McDonald to have lunch with Summer and Yumi. Everyone there gets really decked out for Halloween. So fun! I'll be wearing my cupid costume to work, that's for sure. Summer and I are going to surprise our aerobics class Thursday morning by wearing our bunny outfits over our workout clothes. I can't wait!

Cupid Pictures!

Halloween Party at Steph and Jeff's

Last night, we went to Steph and Jeff's 2nd Annual Halloween Party. It was at Oliver's in Marietta. It was my first run for my Cupid costume!



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Sarah Jessica Parker

So, last night was the SJP Rally at the Blue Gator. Yeah, I'm starstruck. There was a HUGE line to get in. Luckily my friend Julie was saving a spot in line for me. Julie got there at three o'clock. SJP was due to go on at 5. There were girls at the front of the line that had been waiting since NOON. They were only letting 300 people in. I'm glad they didn't bust me for cutting. I can't help that I have a full-time job. It shouldn't mean that I don't get to go support politics! Anyway.

So we waited forever. She was late, she didn't go on til six. I was actually expecting a much longer speech. She talked for less than ten minutes!!!! But it was fun.

She was wearing a cute white t-shirt that said "KERRY" in shiny silver letters, a black blazer that she took off pretty quickly, an AWESOME "Vote" necklace, super cute jeans, and... and... okay I will admit it. I TOTALLY forgot to check out her shoes. That was like my goal of the night. I hate myself. I just emailed this girl that wrote an article for the paper and asked her if she happened to notice them.* So perhaps there will be an update.



First, the LINE! There were an estimated 700 people in line. Julie and I were about 200 people back, and this is the line behind us.



Some asshat parked his ugly fat monster truck in front of the Blue Gator, with a whole bunch of Bush signs and this mean sign for SJP "S.J. PARKER WHERE WERE YOU WHEN ATHENS COUNTY REALLY NEEDED HELP". Dude, she's been making really awesome TV shows for me to watch. Give her a break.



Finally, the rally. At the end, I pushed my way up to the front. I was going to get her to sign my poster but when I got up there, she looked really stressed because all these screaming girls were SHOVING their stuff in her face for her to sign and I felt like an a-hole so I did what was more important to me anyway. Took a ton of pictures of her!



















*UPDATE! The girl who wrote the article just emailed me back. Whew! Now I know what her shoes were:

"Yeah, I checked 'em out. I wanted to put them in the story, but didn't know
what designer they were from. It was boots, paired with a cropped pair of
jeans.

Glad you liked the article! Thanks!
Lisa"

She didn't say what color the boots were, but since SJP arrived in a black blazer, I think it's safe to assume that they were black.

The Hours

WHOOH. I finished the costume last night. It was SO HARD. Mom logged countless hours helping me, and I totally appreciate it. I couldn’t have done it without her. I learned a lot more about sewing during the project, and I feel like I could create anything now! I’ll be taking pictures soon. When I got home, I painted my nails in preperation for the costume. Pink with red hearts.

Here is the grand total of time we spent on the costume:

Wednesday: 3:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (4.5 hours)

Thursday: 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (7 hours)

Saturday: 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. at mom's house, 10:45 - 3:00 A.M. at my house (18 hours!!!!!!!!)

Sunday: 10:00 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. (12 hours 45 minutes)

Monday - 6:00 - 10:00 (4 hours)

Tuesday: 5:30 - 7:30 (2 hours)

Wednesday: 5:30 - 8:00, 9:00 - 11:00 (4.5 hours)

FIFTY TWO HOURS, AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES. That is a lot of hours. I guess there were a few short eating breaks in there, but still.

Today after work, I’m going to the Blue Gator to see Sarah Jessica Parker speak. It’s a pro-Kerry rally. I’m really excited! I have my camera. Julie and I are hoping we can get her to go to Casa for dinner with us afterwards. If not, we hope she will at LEAST drink a beer with us. At the very very least, we hope that she’s wearing some amazing shoes, and that we get to see them.

Free Ipod!

My coworker Brian introduced me to this website a couple of months ago, www.freeipods.com. Supposedly, all you had to do was sign up, complete one of their offers, then get five of your friends to sign up and complete offers. Then, you would get a free ipod. I sort of doubted it, but we did some research online and it sounded legit. We both continued to recruit our friends and family to sign up for offers, and we both got FREE IPODS! Mine arrived today! I can hardly believe it. I got the new generation 20 Gigger. I have been wanting an Ipod for so long!!!!! I am so excited!!

Cupid, Draw Back Your Bow-oh-oh...

Today I started my Halloween costume! I decided that I wanted to be Cupid. But not diaper-wearing baby cupid, I’m going to be The Angel of Love in a poofy pink dress with red hearts, little glove things with hearts on them, a quiver full of arrows and a bow, wings, and hot pink fishnets with red heels. The vision came to me in the shower yesterday morning. Here is what I hope it will look like:

Actually I realized that I needed a bow and arrows, not a wand. So forget about the wand. I’m not the love FAIRY.

I went to JoAnn Fabrics yesterday and bought a pattern for a dress. It is going to be a LOT of work. I didn’t realize that I chose an IMPOSSIBLE pattern with HORRIBLE directions. I swear this pattern must be intended for EXTREME EXPERT SEWERS. Unfortunately, it didn’t say that on the package. This is the pattern:

I’m working on the costume at mom’s house. I was hoping to do it all by myself, but it appears that I will be needing a lot of assistance.

In further news, my birthday CONTINUES! I never had a birthday dinner with my parents, since I was on a plane to Seattle, so they had Adam and I over for lamb chops, salad, zuchinni with parmesan, and PUMPKIN CAKE. Mom knows that I love things with pumpkin in them, so she found this amazing recipe from Cooking Light, for pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. It was unbelievable. Everyone had seconds, and mom and I usually don’t have seconds of dessert. Happy birthday to meeeeeeee… still!….

A Relaxing Weekend

This was a great weekend. You could count it starting Thursday night, since that was a fun night. It was $5 poker night at my house. Yumi, Summer, Suzanne, Mike and I played. I was the third to last person to go out. Summer won! Poker is so fun because you also get to enjoy cheezits, shrimp, beers, pretzels, chips and salsa, etc. Friday night, Summer came over and we watched five episodes of Felicity! I got the 3rd season for my birthday, so we’re plowing through it. Man, is the third season good.

Saturday, Mom and I went to Parkersburg. We were going to go to the Olive Garden for lunch, for soup and salad, but it was freaking PACKED. Instead we went to Sam’s Club and ate free samples for lunch. It was the JACKPOT. We got two different kinds of panfried fish, a little piece of chicken cordon blue, a little piece of seasoned chicken, a little piece of pizza (I dropped my first one into the shopping cart, through the slots and onto the floor. It paused its descent to wipe itself all over my purse. I had to ask the lady for a new slice), a little M&M candy bar, and a little piece of pumpkin cheesecake! We were lucky they had that many samples that day.

Saturday night I went to The Union with Yumi for a couple of drinks. Afterward, Adam and I made snacks and played Trivial Pursuit. Neither of us won because we got too tired, but we were both doing pretty well!

Sunday I read for six hours straight. I wanted to finish my book and I did. I read The Secret History, by Donna Tartt. Meredith bought it for me for Christmas, and I finally got around to reading it. I LOVED it. It’s easily one of my favorite books I’ve ever read.

Sick in Seattle, and BUNNY AND UNICORN CUPCAKES!

Adam and I went to Seattle for my birthday at the end of September. It was a great trip! We did a lot of sight-seeing: Gasworks Park, downtown, Pike Place, Fremont, Space Needle, etc. For my birthday, I had a joint party with other September birthday folks Beth, Aaron, and Rebekah. We had a Mexican Burrito Feast!

Unfortunately, I caught a cold while in Seattle. I started to feel sick that Friday, and once we got back to Athens the following Monday, I only got worse. I was sick all week and went to the doctor on Saturday to discover that I had an Upper Respiratory Infection. I got antibiotics and I'm FINALLY feeling better.



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We had a second birthday celebration when we returned to Athens. A group of my friends got together at The Purple Chopstix. Summer got there early and DECKED out the table. It really looked amazing!!! She put an astroturf runner down the center, and stuck little fake flowers in it! Then, she made cupcakes with UNICORNS and BUNNIES on them. (Can you get a better friend?? Seriously???) She also made a little cake with pretty fake flowers around it. At every seat, there was a drink umbrella and a mini bottle of Absolut. Cheers! Yumi brought balloons! Dinner was fun and delicious.