Halloween

80s Rocker & 80s Workout Girl

The "Women of the Earth" dressed as: Elvira, Medusa,
Professor Zombie, Workout Girl, & Fairy

Things I learned from our 80s theme costumes:
1. They still sell paper clip earrings
2. Side ponytails hurt by the end of the night
3. Sweater sleeves make great leg warmers
4. Boys whine a lot when you put eyeliner on them
5. Faux-hawks on curly hair are difficult to achieve

First Dance

So Ouiser had a brilliant wedding idea today! Her friend went to a wedding this past weekend where the bride and groom started out their first dance song all slow and schmaltzy, and then kicked it up to Now That We've Found Love by Heavy D and the boys... with funny choreography!! If you don't know what I'm talking about, entertain yourself with the video below. I really liked the first dance song we had originally picked, but this might just be too good to pass up :)




On a completely unrelated note, last month's National Geographic said that redheads are going extinct! Extinct! What are the chances that my little redheaded genes will have the ability to trump B's Sicilian genes and actually help the cause? It'll be a while before we find out, but now I feel a responsibility to the greater good!

A weekend at home

B and I had a lovely weekend here in central New York. As I said before, it was one of our first weekends home in quite a while. And I know I complain about being gone all the time, but you just can't imagine how much your life falls apart when you're never around on the weekends. Houses don't get cleaned, groceries don't get bought, bills get overlooked, wedding planning falls behind, etc. But I'm very hopeful as I look to the coming months, because I don't see too many weekends where we're away.

Friday night we went out for a few drinks to celebrate Ithaca Chick's 23rd birthday. Then on Saturday we met my mom for coffee and all of us went to Jaynes Ave house. We haven't seen them in so long, it was great to catch up. And we had a Try This! recipe for dinner! If you're a subscriber to the email you'll get to read about our wonderful dinner that we tried and see a lovely picture. In the meantime, here is sweet baby S opening her 1st birthday present from us - a new alphabet book by Steve Martin that I heard all about on NPR, The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z!

Today I had a huge success in the progress of my back. As you know, I've been in physical therapy for about 4 weeks now to help stabilize my spine and my back. I've been doing exercises at home most nights and having appointments one to two times a week. And it must be working because I was able to make a major grocery shopping trip today without leaving Wegmans in tears. First time in years I've been able to do that!! As I said, we haven't been around much, so there haven't been many huge grocery trips. But I knew that this would be a big test of my progress. And honestly, I wasn't even expecting that much, just to be able to get through it better than before, so I was hugely surprised when we left and I was only in mild pain (without any painkillers). This is huge!!! I did my exercises immediately before leaving the house so my muscles would be tightened up and ready to go and it worked. Woo Hoo! I still have an extremely long way to go and am not cleared for any unsupervised gym activity at all, but this first step was a big one.

In other news, B made homemade sauce today and we got a little cleaning done. I also got to chat with my dear Feather Nester, who is (in theory) within days of delivering!! She and my mom (who flies into AZ on Friday for the birth of the baby) are in a mental tug of war with tiny baby. Feather Nester is sending strong "please get your booty in gear and say hi to your mother" signals, while my mom is sending "stay exactly where you are young lady until Auntie M can come assist in your birth!" signals. But like I said to both of them, the tiny one is the boss and no amount of wishing on either end is going to make her do anything she doesn't want to! Great planning for her future :)

Coffee Mafia

So B and I got such a great letter last night that I just had to share. Any by "great" I mean comically insane! A long time ago we signed up for a fancy coffee service and forgot to cancel right away so we got a bunch of extra coffee and then we owed them $60. Somehow this tiny $60 bill got lost in the shuffle and then went immediately to collections. Now... I've seen collections letters before. In fact, B was in a terrible van accident years and years ago and when there was a mix-up with the insurance company, his $23,000 medical bill got sent to collections. All of the letters for the huge medical bill - fairly normal. The letter for the $60 past due coffee - mafia style. Please amuse yourself today with the letter (typed exactly) from the coffee mafia:

Dear Scarlet Lily,

It's your choice.

There's an easy way and a hard way to collect money.

The easy way is for you to send a valid check for the full amount owed. We'll clear your account upon receipt of your valid check.

The hard way is for you to ignore this letter. This collection agency may hen be forced to continue collection of this debt.

It's your choice.

Pay in full. That's the easy way for both of us.

Pay later. That's the hard way.

Choose the easy way and collection will stop upon receipt of your check.

What the hell is that?!!! Is that the craziest thing you've ever read!?? I died laughing when I read it. I almost want to not send in my check just to see what "the hard way" really entails, but I did send it in after all.

The Good, The Bad, and The Prehistoric

We're going to do the round-up of good, bad, and prehistoric in reverse order. First, the prehistoric. As you can see below, our new exhibit Dinosaurs in Popular Culture opened on Friday night. The exhibit is great, especially considering the fact that our Dir. of Exhibits had no sponsor money to work with and put every little piece of the exhibit together (paint, panels, printing, fabric, wood, etc) for only $1500. To give you some perspective, we would normally want $10,000 for an exhibit like this.

The image below is the correct (red) and incorrect (grey) portrayals of the T. Rex. I find this particularly interesting because I had no idea about this until I started working at the museum. You don't study dinosaurs much when you're a psychology major. Anyway, scientists have known since the 60s that the T. Rex stood horizontal with it's tail off the ground, and yet all of my memories and mental images of T. Rex are of him vertical with his tail dragging. See! Popular culture interfering with science!

The next pictures is one of the many cases of dino kitsch. There was clothing, games, books, food, etc. This one is figurines.

This is A. making a silly face in front of the Dinos Across America section - a map of some of the roadside dinosaur attractions across the U.S.

Now for the bad. The bad involves me feeling like I have no blood in my face and I'm about to have an aneurysm and I'm instantly (and insanely) furious over something little. It only happens about twice a year, and today I realized that it happens with the perfect storm of stupidity and bad customer service.

So I'm walking around Wegmans, land of good customer service and good food, and I go up to the fish counter where there is a little sign that says that I can get a pound of fish for $11 or two six ounce servings for $8. This is something they do a lot and it's a great way to make sure you're eating a normal portion size. So I ask for two six ounce portions. Then the girl behind the counter looks at me like I'm crazy and says they can't do that because they would have to cut the fish and then couldn't sell the small leftover portion. And that's it. That's all it took for me to want to kill her and make a weapon out of fish and throw it at her. And had I not been too crazy with rage to get an actual sentence out of my mouth, I would have asked why the sign says that I can get that if I can't. But instead I sat there with my mouth opened and my head cocked, making "dumb face" at her because I knew if I spoke, it would be really mean.

So, yes, I sound like a crazy person. But I have to believe that everyone has their own crazy button. And I have to believe that with mine only going off about twice a year, I'm actually in pretty good standing. But just for giggles, please share your crazy button stories with me and make me feel better :)

Now for the good. The good was our engagement photo session yesterday. It was SO bad ass!!! We asked her to do an urban photo shoot since all of our wedding pictures will be nothing but trees and a lake. Not that that won't be beautiful, but it seemed like it would be too redundant to have all the photos with the same composition. Boy did she deliver! We got pictures in a graffiti park, on the train tracks, hanging off a train, standing in the middle of the street, etc. They're going to be amazing. Unfortunately, the prints are quite expensive, so I'll probably just have to look and drool and buy a few as presents, but I'm dying to see them! They go up on her website in a few weeks, so we'll have to wait until then.

Weekend plans

Not too much to report here this weekend. Tonight is the opening of our newest exhibit at the museum, a very fun exhibit about dinosaurs as they are portrayed in pop culture. The scientific inaccuracies of T. Rex, dino kitsch, the changing cultural views of dinos throughout time, etc. I'll be sure to take lots of fun pictures to post tomorrow. I have to run in to the museum in an hour for a VIP tour and then go back tonight for some free wine and cheese.

Tomorrow is low key home day and then we leave at 2pm to make it to our 4pm appointment for our engagement photos. Since the wedding location is very nature-ish and all those photos will have the background of trees and a lake, we're going more urban for the e-photos. Should be interesting! I feel like I should practice in front of the mirror so I don't make dumb faces :)

By the way, if anyone wants a mug or black t-shirt with the above logo, let me know and I'll get you one!

Delayed Birthday Celebration

So... let me take my head back to last week and recap our wonderful birthday trip to NYC. We left on Friday afternoon, a little later than expected, but isn't that always the way with trips? Conversation on the drive home that day:

"Did you remember to put that load of wash into the dryer this morning?"

"Uh... no. Did you?"

"Nope! Never even thought about it until just now when I realized that everything we have to pack never got dried."

Oops! So the trip was a bit delayed, but it meant that we never got caught in Friday night rush hour traffic, so that's good. The drive down was great. There is just no better place to have a great conversation than a long car ride. No distractions, no obligations, just quiet time alone. And as we all know, unless forced into it, it's nearly impossible to carve out time for moments like that. Anyway, we spent the whole trip chatting and telling stories. Stories that made me cry I was laughing so hard. "Did I ever tell you about the time in 6th grade when I pooped my pants on my spelunking trip?" I nearly puked I was laughing so hard! ("... so now I kind of smell like poop...")

So we arrived at the hotel around 8:45 and immediately dove into pouring drinks and catching up with D & Z. D was the lead singer of the band, and Z and I met when we were band wives - both are in our wedding party. And since they've been campaigning for her run for school board all year long, they were as desperate for a vacation as we were. After catching up, we brushed and polished and went out for a drink at a bar we found around the corner. It was a really nice bar in the W Hotel and we even managed to score some very coveted seats. So we relaxed and enjoyed the scene and our $12 drinks and commented over and over and over again how dreadful it would be to be a single living in NYC! The amount of money and effort one would have to spend is mind-boggling!!

B also got hit on in a comically brazen fashion. A woman saw him from across the room and practically came running over asking him if he was Irish, telling him how cute he was, etc, etc. She was 52, married for 25 years, in from Michigan, etc. More funny quotes for the weekend? How's this one for ya: "Do you do anything interesting other than make love to your fiancee?" Ahhh!!!! She eventually left, but reappeared as we were leaving long enough to grab his arm and ask "Are you sure you're busy tonight?" Bold woman! Good thing I couldn't care less about that stuff and find the whole thing funny or she could have been in a world of trouble.

The next day we opted for something relaxing and low key. After all, we knew there was an evening of clubbing ahead of us, so we thought it best to lay low. So we opted for the Central Park Zoo. As many times as I've been to New York, I've somehow never wandered around Central Park. It really is amazing that there is a 900 acre plot of land smack in the middle on Manhattan. But I imagine it's a necessity if you're expected to survive the concrete jungle.

Anyway, B has a deep love of animals and was ecstatic that he got to go to a zoo. It was unexpectedly beautiful! It's pretty small, but extremely well done. Polar bears (napping, but absolutely huge), penguins, sea lions (who, I swear, have evolved to learn how to pose and be a good tourist attraction), a rain forest house, and best of all - snow monkeys. Specifically, a baby snow monkey. Oh my gosh, I did nothing but squeal and point! So cute, and so tiny and rambunctious! I begged B to get me a baby snow monkey, but he wouldn't. He said that it would grow up to be stronger than me, which was a valid point, so I couldn't really argue it.

B's personal favorite was the rain forest house. ("If I was an eccentric millionaire, this would be our living room!" ) A big house filled with trees and tons of exotic birds flying inches from your head. I had to force him to leave, but we do have enough pictures of birds to fill an entire wall though. If anyone out there wants to do a bird-themed nursery, let me know!

After our zoo adventure, it was "lunch" at 4pm, naps, restaurant research, and getting ready. We went to the meatpacking district for our fancy dinner and our evening out. The boys decided they wanted steak, so we went to the oldest steakhouse in New York, the Old Homestead Restaurant. Like proper New Yorkers, our dinner reservation was for 9:30pm and we actually sat down at 10:10pm. Of course, it was wonderful and yummy and the waiters sang me Happy Birthday. As you can see from the picture, B was painfully full after his steak. (Flashy side note: Z and I noticed throughout the day that NYC is home to the largest engagement rings we've ever seen. Normal looking women with kids and strollers flashing diamonds as big as their children. Our diamonds seemed like "My First Diamond" toys that rich people hand out to children. But the woman at the restaurant won for having a marquis shaped stone that must have been at least 4 carats. Again, young, unassuming looking woman whose hand happened to be dragging on the floor from all the weight it was carrying around)

After our dinner it was time for some dancing. As we're all old and fell into a food coma, we had to end our midnight dinner with some coffee and a little Red Bull from the corner store. Classy! The first place that was recommended to me, Level V, told us that they had bottle service only, starting at $300 a bottle (tax & tip not incl.), and that it was a 2 bottle minimum. Well... OK then! Since 4 people can't spend $800 just to walk into a club, nor can they finish off 2 bottles of liquor without some serious cirrhosis, we tried the second recommendation, Hiro. Hiro was awesome! No cover charge, very cool decor, and packed enough to feel fun but not claustrophobic. Not to mention, as I said on Monday, there were women swinging from sheets! Very impressive, if not a little scary.

So that was it! It was an amazing weekend - so good to get out of town, catch up with old friends, and just have some fun.

Day & Night in New York

We're back from a truly great weekend in New York City! It's too late now to post pictures and give you the recap, so I'll give you a preview with two little videos. The first is a video of the snow monkeys we saw at the Central Park Zoo Saturday during the day, and the second video is from the club we went to where women were swinging (and performing elaborate moves) from the ceiling inside sheets! Sheets!

TGIF & NYC!!!

Some happy little dino toys for your viewing pleasure. Totally scientifically inaccurate, but cute nonetheless. They're part of our new temporary exhibit about dinosaurs as portrayed in popular culture. The logo they created for the exhibit is a Warhol-inspired piece with different colored squares with dinos in them - SO cute!!! Everyone is getting cute Warhol dino stuff for Christmas!

So tomorrow is Friday which is great for two reasons. First of all, it means that it is currently Thursday night and The Office is on in half an hour. Secondly, it means that we go to New York City tomorrow to celebrate my next decade of life! I realized this afternoon that as crazy as it sounds, this is the first time B and I have traveled when it wasn't to see family and wasn't some form of an obligation. Four and a half years together and we are taking our first trip that is just for fun!

I'm sure all of you whose families do not live all over the country have no idea what I'm talking about, but if you are in that situation, then you'll understand why we're in this position. And of course it totally pains me to spend the money on something so "frivolous" but I promised myself that for my 30th birthday I would get over it and blow some money unnecessarily for no reason other than to have fun and celebrate with friends. I looked at our hotel online today and immediately became an heiress: "Cost be damned!! Look at those redone slate floors, that mod architecture in the lobby, only the best for our big weekend!" It's all so exciting!

To celebrate the last day of the work week, let me leave you with a funny email response I got from my Office-loving co-worker when I hit a slump the other day:

I definitely think that 9-3 is a full workday. I once read an article about how people who work obsessively from 9-5 without taking any "me" time die before the slackers at work who do things like research Joan of Arc. People who have curiosities and who spend time researching them lead a fuller life because their knowledge spans subject matter and they have more things to ponder than just work related things. In short, I propose that we all take at least 2 hours daily to research subject matter of personal interest not remotely related to the museum, fossils, Mastodons, whales, climate change, or dinosaurs, and especially not clams or other types of invertebrate sea dwelling creatures. OK, I didn't really read an article like that, but I'm sure it exists.

Apples Made Easy

Quick and boring post today as it's the middle of the week and I generally don't have time to be interesting in the middle of the week. I did, however, want to give a little shout out to my new favorite kitchen gadget - the apple slicer!! Feather Nester got this for us off the registry as part of an engagement gift bag and it rocks. On Monday my mom was up and I was still feeling very fall-ish, so I grabbed some apples and organic pork chops and figured that I would improvise from there.

As I went to slice the apple, I had the epiphany that I owned one of these! Awesome. Completely great. And I imagine that if you have kids, it's even more of a time saver. As some of you know, I'm not the greatest lover of technology - I tend to think that most of the time it costs us time and human interaction rather than saving time and increasing interaction. So when I find a gadget, even one that isn't plugged in, that is genuinely useful, I'm very happy and appreciative.

The food picture looks a little like gook-on-a-plate, but it was actually very good. I sauteed apples, onions, rosemary, and minced ginger, then pan seared the chops, and put the whole thing in the oven (chops on top of apple mixture) for a while to finish cooking. Very good and definitely fall-ish.

Pumpkin Time

I'm happy to say that fall has officially arrived here in Central New York. I'm so in love with fall in New England that every October I long to just quit my job for an entire month and do nothing but soak up the brilliant colors of the trees, make pumpkin-flavored everything (pies, waffles, martinis, etc), pick apples, and wander around random corn fields. The first retreat I ever held was during mid-October in Vermont and the general atmosphere definitely contributed to my near-perfect memories of that weekend.

However, as much as I would like to live in the land of pumpkins and apples for eternity, I have to balance dreams with reality. And my reality lately is that we've been too busy until this weekend to even notice that fall was coming. The second reality? Air travel in America lately can really screw up the best laid plans. B. was supposed to arrive home from his business trip on Friday night, but never actually made it back until Saturday night. And I won't bore you with all of the pull-your-hair-out annoying details and flights and drama, but most of you have been there, so you know. Unfortunately, this not only canceled all of my cute fall-themed pumpkin activities for Saturday, it also left me at a house with no car, barely any groceries, and no computer. Ick.

So as soon as Sunday morning rolled around, I was determined to salvage some part of my pumpkin fantasies. We went to a pumpkin festival in the town over and it was a horrendous disaster. Partially due to the worst insulin breakdown my body has experienced in years, and partially due to the fact that I really overestimated what the festival would be like. The town we live in now is cute and sweet and a little fancy and throws amazing festivals - this was like a mini version of a state fair... with pumpkins. Not to sound like a horrible elitist, but there are only so many children on leashes, people without teeth but with bare midriffs, fried everything, and bad craft booths that I can take. And the clincher - bad caramel apples. I can forgive a lot, but not that. In the book of Scarlet Lily, that's the 11th commandment.

So we jumped ship from the festival and went to the tried and true Central New York favorite - Iron Kettle Farm. Simply bliss! Pumpkins everywhere, a petting zoo, a little haunted house, a hay ride, a corn maze - we did all of it. AND they have THE BEST caramel apples I have ever had in my entire life... ever. Last year, the woman told me that the chef's secret (in addition to making it from scratch) was that he used buttermilk. There are lots of pictures, but here are a few for your fall entertainment.

One of the things they do here is set up tons of displays using pumpkins. This is Peter Pan - notice the hay alligator and Tinkerbell in the tree. Peter is actually out of the picture because he is up on the mast.

My friend A. as a cow and me as a pig.

Mimicking the scared faces of Hansel & Gretel behind us.

The Office!

Today marks the second week of the new season of The Office. I never watch prime time TV, but this is the one show that I not only adore, but just makes me SO happy!!! Luckily I have a co-worker who is equally as obsessed as I am, so I can talk about it every single day with a fellow groupie. Now, if you've never seen it, it can be a hard show to get into since its comedy relies more on character driven humor, but once you're in, you very well may develop an addiction. I felt the same way about Scrubs when I first saw it - the first few times I thought it was dumb and I didn't get it, but then once I knew the characters, I thought it was hysterical. Anyway, as a joyous celebration to The Office, I found this video on YouTube. I've watched it countless times, and it makes me laugh so hard every single time that my stomach hurts. So if you're a fellow fan... enjoy! I now present: Michael & Dwight: SexyBack...

Life on the Homestead

Now that October has arrived, I've seen some very small signs that life may return to it's normal pace for a while. We made the best dinner last night! It was one of those "what the heck can we make with our very limited ingredients?" nights. So I made a fancy grilled cheese sandwich with sourdough bakery bread, smoked Gouda, and a little shake of basil. Oh. My. Gosh!! Amazing! Totally heavenly! Go try it!

The other thing that's amazing? The power of zinc. B came home from work a few days ago feeling crappy, and then I woke up in the morning feeling pretty bad myself. But three doses of zinc and vitamin C throughout the day for a few days and I'm feeling great. Unfortunately for B, he was too far gone for the vitamin dosing to be of much help, but he's still trying.

As for the other super intriguing news of the week - we took out the recycling. Now, the recycling has totally been our dirty little secret for months now. We've been religiously saving and separating all of the recycling, but they only come every two weeks, we could never figure out when it was, and then they didn't take it because we separated improperly. And then there were all the many, many weeks that we just forgot. So today on the drive home we noticed that our neighbors had their recycling out, so we went for it. FOURTEEN boxes of recycling!! Notice my thank you note to the recycling people :)

In other news, physical therapy is going well and I'm doing my exercises every night. As for the upcoming weekend, we are actually HERE!! But don't tell, because I'm not sure I actually want to see anyone. There are some cute fall festivals around here this weekend, so I think B and I are going to have some quiet some and enjoy the apples and pumpkins.

Buffy, meet Muffy

Well, I made it through the Board Meeting and Gala and lived to tell the tale. Despite having to leave the Saturday Board Meeting twice because of severe pain, and having the pleasure of being at the museum from 7:30am - 12:30am, the day went off quite well. All of the pictures are on the museum camera, so I'll see if I can get a few to post here. The only snafu of the gala was the fact that the $10,000 side table from New Mexico (that no one liked) sold for a whopping $300 at the live auction. And not only is that less than the shipping that we paid for, I have to call the artist tomorrow and tell him. Yikes!

I think the rest of the night was good. I literally did not put one piece of food in my mouth because I was making laps around the museum doing nothing but chatting with donors and encouraging strangers to make bids on the silent auction items. We made our goal, though, so that's good.

We also met up with a couple we met a year ago at the first gala and they invited B to the country club the next day to go golfing. So pretty much from the moment he woke up at 8:30am on Sunday, B was a 15 year old girl, waiting for her new love interest to call. "Did they call yet? Do you think they're going to? What if they stand me up? What time is it? Do you think they'll get a cart or walk? What time is it?" But they did call, exactly when they said they would and he got to spend the day in heaven, also known as the country club. I met them for drinks about five hours later (most of which I spent in scrubs, sleeping on the couch) and we had a great time. We were having so much fun that we ended up staying there and having dinner together. Oh, and they're 65. Seriously. They were as fun and cool at 65 as any of our younger friends. Either that, or we are just far more uncool that I thought we were... which would also come as no surprise.

So we've made it through the dreaded month of September, which I thought we barely would. I'm hoping that October brings a little more calm than September - more evenings at home, a little sanity, and lots of pumpkins.