How cold can it get in Rochester?

La
Sent via camera phone by lukeawol.

Too cold.

Rachael's Birthday Party! (Pink Party)

And thus it begins. Rachael's pink party was tonight at Amber's place out in the middle of Gates/Chili. Not only are the roads absolutely horrible with it snowing as much as it did, but I had to go buy a pink dress shirt minutes before heading out to the party. But I had a blast, and there were 12 people total, all wearing pink. Those that didn't had to roll the die to wear something from the pink closet. Luckily, I wore pink otherwise I would have been stuck with the pink prom dress. Ha.

Click to Play

Dennis playing guitar on the playstation. It's funny since we were just talking about this game at work today and now I got to see it first hand. The game is a lot like Dance Dance Revolution, except you're playing a fake guitar instead of dancing on a pad. Everyone tried, and it was obvious Dennis and Amber rocked the house.

Formats available: Third Generation Platform Version Two (.3g2)

But now out to the garage from some piñata fun!

Click To Play

At last night's "Pink Party", Rachael was first up to knock the crap out of her big pink flower. People here are all in their late 20s.

Kelly & Dennis
Sent via camera phone by lukeawol.

Kelly and Dennis fixing the piñata after an unfortunate break in the rope. After 3 more times, Dennis switched to electrical cord to ensure Jake's proper finale in a few minutes. While you may not be able to see clearly all the events happening in the video, just know that it was freezing cold and we were using a metal broomstick.

Click To Play

After five people had their chance, it was now Jake's turn to hit the piñata. Someone should have told him that less is more.

Click To Play

We didn't want to spill the candy out in the garage, so Seth brought it in, walked up the stairs and spilled it all over the livingroom. Suffice to say, we were stepping on candy for 3 more hours.

Hopefully Jake won't be angry that I posted these wonderful photos, but the party ended around 2am and I made my long cold trek home half awake. I've never seen so much pink. My only regret is not getting a picture of me in my snazzy pink dress shirt. "Woah! That's pink!" is the comment I got when I walked in. Good enough for me.

Student Movie in my Office

Click To Play

Four students came to our office today and asked if they could film a short movie.. which took about an hour. I laughed so hard... very funny.

The exact script is very hard to hear, but it goes something like this:

Student walks up to the counter, glad. "Thank god you're still open. I need to drop a class."
Clerk: "Sorry, we're closed."
Student: "But I'm only a minute late. I need this class for my major!"
Clerk: "That minute means we're closed."
Student: "Hold on lady, I need this now!"
-scene change-
Clerk: "Get out of my way, I'm going home."
Student begins hitting her with a bat yelling obscenities and grumbling about add/drop deadline.
Clerk: "Why didn't you just register online!" and she dies.
-scene change-
Student walks to computer.
Student: "Fine, I'll just do it myself."
Student 2 walks in, notices dead body: "Hey, how's it going?"
Student 1: "Man, I've had a rough day. I couldn't drop a class in time."
Student 2: "Oh, you can do that online."
Student 1: "Oh? Sweet! Thanks."

Well, not the most clever of scripts, but I laughed and laughed as they filmed it from 5 different angles and redid parts over and over. I contributed! I gave suggestions and one liner quips. They're gonna give me a copy when they're done.

Sweet. Best Friday afternoon ever.

Nicole Kidman injured in car crash after zombie attack

Something about this news article made me laugh out loud.

"Eight people, including Kidman, stuntmen and cameramen, were taken to hospitals for examination and were released, Smith said. Warner Bros. said two crew members had minor injuries. Kidman was involved in a scene involving an escape from zombielike characters who are on the hood of the car."

When asked for comment, Nicole kidman declined. But several of her fellow actors replied exuberantly, "BRRRAAAAIIIINNNNNS!"

Link.

Games! Thursday night fun.

Click to Play

We're playing Scottland Yard with 6 people while another game has 5 people playing. Something about babies and war. *shakes head* Having fun at game night.

Formats available: Third Generation Platform Version Two (.3g2)

Life Transitions

Was thinking of about where I grew up versus where I live now. And where I will live in five years. Just big changes. Good changes.



Home for more than a decade.



Home for almost a decade.

My Name is Trouble

By: Nightmare of You

Well I've had this secret
And I feel it's time that you should know
When I'm in your arms it turns me on
But I've got a conscience too
And it says my heart's never in tune
With anything I do

So this is the last time that I'll hold your hand
I want to kiss you on the mouth and tell you
I'm your biggest fan
I'm your biggest fan

I've had this secret
And now it's time that you should know
I was wrong for stringing along
But circulating the streets in the pulsing heat
I scoured your town, completely aroused
And making love to your memory

So this is the last time that I'll hold your hand
I want to kiss you on the mouth and tell you
I'm your biggest fan
This is the last time that I'll hold your hand
I want to kiss you on the mouth and tell you
I'm your biggest fan

Sad minion of mine
Don't be so unkind
I know I stole your coat
You can have this song I wrote
I've just crossed the line
From fashion to crime
It's such a perfect fit
When I am wearing it
Sad minion of mine
Don't be so unkind
I know I stole your coat
You can have this song I wrote
I've just crossed the line
From fashion to crime

So this is the last time that I'll hold your hand
I want to kiss you on the mouth and tell you
I'm your biggest fan
This is the last time that I'll hold your hand
I want to kiss you on the mouth and tell you
I'm your biggest fan
So this is the last time that I'll hold your hand
(I wanna) Kiss you on the mouth and tell you
I'm your biggest fan
I'm your biggest fan

Shopping with Sheila...

Read the saying in the above picture. Pretty cool artist we came across.

Sheila and I are out shopping in the little shops all around Rochester... living large, having fun. It's so freaking cold, but we're doing it with a smile. We had dim sum tonight with Raquella and we're watching a movie and having midnight margaritas tonight. Nola's joining us soon.

Sheila and Raquella picking at some car

Click to Play

In a fun night out, Sheila and Raquella found a car that had fascinating ice buildup.  I only caught a bit of the end of their picking.

Formats available: Unknown file type

Tipper strutting his stuff...

Click to Play

Such a good boy... Tripper at game night tonight showing us his talents... :)

Formats available: Unknown file type

Winter tragedy and a visitor come Friday!

I worked. And worked. I worked all weekend. And I'm still not done. I meant to do a whirlwind thing on Saturday and Sunday and get this project done and over with. But I ended up sleeping in and not getting into my office until 2pm on both days. And then it got to be around 6, being dark, and I lost all motivation. So I got around 10 hours of work done, when the project requires about 20. Bah. But I'm slowly getting there, and should be done soon. Phew. What am I doing? My second position/job asked me to do an online application for them that would automate and change the way they process a major part of their operations. Now just to finish it.

Classes this quarter will be a challenge, for sure. I'm taking Pricing and Information Management. I'm almost done! Four more courses after these. How great will it be to be out of school again and have an MBA in hand?

Though the entire cite/campus/roads everything are covered with not only a THICK layer of ice, but also now covered in snow. And it's cold! No chance it's going away. I went to bed with no white on the ground and woke up to the brightest glare reflecting off everything in sight. I actually brought my bike into my office with me today since it was frozen solid last night with a half inch of ice all over it. That'll be good for the wires.

Sheila is visiting this weekend from Bing. Alison and I had originally planned to go visit her down there, but several people inquired about her coming up so she is! How exciting, except I need to clean (don't I always) and think of something new and fun to do with her. We always do the same 5 things, which I know we both like, but it'd be nice to add something new. 1. Midnight Margaritas at the Distiller, 2. Dim Sum at Golden Port, 3. Vegetarian Thai at the King & I, 4. Breakfast at a diner, 5. UR Campus tour (since we both attended). But hey, those are fun. But this time they'll be snow, so maybe we can repeat what we did 2 years ago and go sledding down Corn Hill!

We shall see.

Ice Trees

Ice Trees
Sent via camera phone by lukeawol.

The campus is covered with ice...

New Words for 2007

NEW WORDS FOR 2007

Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace (and elsewhere)!!!

1. BLAMESTORMING : Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2. SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

3. ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard

4. SALMON DAY : The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles.

6. PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

8. SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

9. STRESS PUPPY : A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

10. SWIPEOUT : An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11. XEROX SUBSIDY : Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

12. IRRITAINMENT : Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE : The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

15. 404 : Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested site could not be located.

16. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

17. OHNOSECOND : That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake).

18. WOOFS : Well-Off Older Folks.

19. CROP DUSTING : Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a Cube Farm.

- Author Unknown

Another Week In Pictures

I'm not feeling too inspired to recount my life at the moment, so here's another week in pictures!



Meeting Tom and eating a yummy homemade dinner!



Playing boardgames with TEN people at the stinky house that smells of cat pee. But I'm now officially a game night member!



Meeting my mother for dinner!



Gambling and winning big at poker!



And then cashing out a wad of cash! Woohoo! (thought Deb cashed out $1500 for the night)



"Helping" Jake with his car repairs. At the very least, playing fetch with Tipper!



Sitting in class and trying not to fall asleep. Though my classes this quarter are interesting!



And a view from the office after a fresh coat of snow this morning! Brrrr...!

Memories

Oh, I just found this last night going through my travel bag. How much fun was this, last year!

Worst headache ever imagined (for me) and stories!

I had to lie down last night. I was horribly in pain for about an hour. I am not sure it was a caffeine withdrawal (after 2 sodas in 10 hours?) or just a bad headache, but it came suddenly and I couldn't think. My mother called me today to warn me it could be a stroke. Thanks. That's nice. I took two advil and had a nap. That seemed to help.

It's always entertaining to get together with my aunts for an evening over dinner and discussion. But it always tends to become a discussion about me as a child. They're really funny stories.. and I always wonder why nobody else is ever discussed. Did nobody else say or do funny things? I guess I'm just special like that, that I had so many quirks from the time I was a toddler.

For example, apparently when I was 5, the aunts took me to the zoo with my brother. On the way there, we stopped at a rest stop to eat lunch, and quirky me said "This doesn't look like the zoo." "How many zoos have you been to Luke?" Ha. Or after walking through the entire zoo and them spending money and time on the entire day, they asked "What was your favorite part of the zoo, Luke?" and my response being "The birds in the parking lot." Apparently, even at 5 I had a love for little birds. But would they have toured the entire zoo if parking lot birds would suffice?

I was 6 or so when I visited my aunt in "the city" for an overnight visit. Not only did I find she was rich for having "two tvs" in the house, but that I spent a lot of time arranging the bathroom rugs that night. When my aunt spoke to my mother, she said that I wouldn't come out of the bathroom and that I was arranging the rugs. Apparently, I felt the need to get them perfect since I grew up in a snazzy perfect home with nice rugs. Ha. We were lucky to have walls, seeing how we lived in our kitchen for 3 months of the year during winter.

Then when I was 6, we were taking pictures for the family album and I was told to go clean up real quick. Well, never missing a beat to look nice, I went into the bathroom, wet down my hair and styled it as best any 6 year old could. Except I only styled the very front in the center... and it hung down over the right side of my face. I was apparently very proud. And the family cackled and laughed at little poor ol' me. :)

And the stories never stop. Apparently when I was in t-ball when I was 7 or 8, I played out field. And wasn't very good at it. Spent the majority of my time picking daisies and dandelions and walking around in circles singing. Hey, baseball wasn't my thing. Apparently I missed my calling. :)

Okay, embarrassing revealing stories about myself have come to an end.

Class tonight, class last night, overslept this morning, hungry from reduced eating, tired from working out daily and not enough time to do anything fun. But I did watch the new TV show "Grease, You're the One That I Want!" and I couldn't stop laughing.

Toodles.

Photo by Taylor

Helping Jake take down the xmas lights.

Helping Jake take down the xmas lights.
Sent via camera phone by lukeawol.

But so cold...

A new year begins with a bang...

As you can see by several of my previous posts, I had at least a little bit of fun over the last week. Last week's worth of work was as useless and silly as could be imagined. In total, there were four out of 25 people in the office for the majority of it and we basically counted down the hours until we went home. I wrote a quick application for our website that allows us to even do less work by avoiding phone calls and little to no work was due. Hence we were bored. I even found myself hunched over in my chair reading CNN with my eyes half opened on a couple occasions. But we got let out early on Friday and I jumped right on the road to DC around 3.

And this time I didn't take the wrong road and end up West Virginia! That I was pleased about. Each time I visit Laura, I get a tad better. Though the first 3 hours drag on like no other. But over the hump and you're there in no time. I lounged a lot this weekend, which was perfectly fine. I lounged all last week too. Ha! But I did go into DC while Laura and LukeO were at a Giants game. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay in line to see President Ford at the Capitol since I had a book bag. I was there when there were only 25 people in line. It's so sad, but really, Gerald Ford?

I even missed going in and seeing the Declaration of Independence. Damn National Archives stopped taking people in at 4:30 and I got there at 4:45. Sigh. Next time, perhaps. Cynthia said she's up for going there late Spring this year, so maybe she'll want to do all that fun stuff. Maybe egg the WH. ;) At least burn a bra or something. We had a great New Years at Laura's place, with her friends coming from in and out of town. Laura decked out the apartment, Luke inflated baloons, and there was so much delicious food. Much better than staying back in Rochester. Plus I got to catch up with good friends. Good to see Kiersten again since the wedding 14 months prior, plus she's invited me to come visit New York City with an air mattress on her apartment floor. Works for me! Laura said she's up for that, too!

Last night Tom, Nicole and Nola came over and we finished up the last 4 hours of Survivor. Don't tell Jake. He doesn't know I've been secretly watching it without him. But wow! What an amazing season. The last 5 episodes were certainly the best of the 13 seasons. Plus Mike made us all stuffed shells and it gave me an excuse to clean up my nasty dirty apartment after 2 weeks of being all nonchalant. Plus my new cat, whom I have named Starbuck I think, has knocked over FOUR plants in THREE days and had used the spilled dirt as her personal litter box. Anyone watch a beautiful cat with absolutely no flaws? None! She's perfect.. want her?

I'm already booked for the next five days. Then school starts up again. So I'm enjoying my freedom while it lasts and then will become a hermit again. And how wonderful is it to be 56 degree Fahrenheit out right now??

Rockin New Years Eve 2006/2007!

Had a ton of fun. But I will be getting on the road back to NY pretty shortly. Enjoy!









I will send more later. Toodles!

Having so much fun...

Having so much fun...
Sent via camera phone by lukeawol.

Happy New Year!