Erin Writes

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

I’ve been a busy (and productive!) girl this weekend. In addition to weddingstuff, I went to a party Friday night, sent the Toasted Cheese newsletter, finished watching season 3 of MASH, had lunch with Rand’s parents, sold a Mother’s Day calligraphy piece on etsy (woohoo!) and prepared it for mailing (I, um, had to make it too, as I didn’t actually have any in stock. I gave them all away last year).

I also got a haircut (but not really, because my stylist didn’t think I needed a cut. He shaped up the back a bit, as it was looking bushy, and didn’t charge me), bought some new shoes.

Other shopping adventures included picking up an external hard drive (I’m running low on drive space), buying a superclearance desk at Office Max for $30, which will get picked up when my parents come to visit in two weeks. (It’s the floor model, so it’s all put together…)

Oh, and laundry. Always laundry.

I’ve been lax with computer-related stuff this weekend, so if you’ve emailed me, played Scrabble with me on Facebook, twittered at me, or anything else, I will get around to it. Soon.

Have a great week!

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

Are you wearing green? I am!

Working today. I’ve been having trouble with my blog since wordpress got upgraded–specifically, accessing my blog using Internet Explorer on the computers at work. I could log in, but I couldn’t *do* anything. I solved the problem today by downloading the portable version of Firefox for my USB key. Looks good so far!

I had a nice mellow weekend at home. I got all domestic, making chocolate chip cookies on Saturday and meatballs on Sunday. I also did laundry, read a bit, watched some TV, and didn’t spend a whole lot of time online. I did play on facebook here and there (I have two ongoing Scrabble games–feel free to grab me if you want to play!) as well as some other stuff.

I had a fun day teaching math at the middle school on Friday. The 7th graders celebrated Pi Day by decorating digits of Pi to hang on the wall, playing games, and eating pie that they brought in! (Yes, I ate a piece, but only one!) I can’t believe they paid me for that.

And that’s the news on this end. Hope you’re all having a happy St. Pat’s! Enjoy some of my favorite irish-esque music, eh? (I might add some videos when I get home and can access YouTube.)

Jackdaw

Great Big Sea

Carbon Leaf

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

I h ave a million things to blog…okay, a million is probably an exaggeration, but still.

I took a bunch of pictures over the weekend that I have yet to upload. Soon.

Visiting with the family was good. It was my grandpa’s birthday, and so we had a little family get-together. My aunt and cousin who live in Maryland were there, so it was great to see them.

Of course, I left some things behind…a hairbrush, and a book that I was reading. Feh.

Also slightly annoying…I had been hoping my wedding dress would arrive before the weekend so that I could go and try it on. Alas, the bridal shop called me *yesterday* to tell me that my dress had come in. (You can read about my ongoing shoe quest over at my wedding blog, should you care about that sort of thing…) Rand and I have been plugging away at the wedding details, which I will write about in more detail over there.

We stayed up to watch the Oscars Sunday night, and I wasn’t as bored as I thought I would be. I may go into more detail, but here are the highlights (as far as I’m concerned):

• The musical numbers. Loved all of them. I haven’t seen any of the movies that had songs nominated (Enchanted, August Rush, Once), but I want to see them all!
• Jon Stewart bringing the woman who won for Once back onstage to give her acceptance speech since she was so rudely played off. Awesome.
• Diablo Cody! Whoo! She made me cry.
• Jennifer Garner being the picture of grace and style. She looked so adorably excited when Diablo Cody won.
• The cute French girl winning best actress.
• Ratatouille winning best animated feature.

Hmm…there’s probably more, but I’ve already forgotten. Sadly, I forgot all about joining Eden’s Oscar group and making picks this year. I tried to log in and do it at 8 on Sunday, but I was denied. Denied! Ah well.

Worked yesterday, and am working today. Work is good, but I’m so tired. Want sleep.

And now, I must prepare for a room full of 6th graders. Later!

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

Bullet-point version

• Finished season 2 of How I Met Your Mother 
• Tasted potential wedding cake
• Laundry
• Dinner with John @ Pizza Plant
• Stopped at Best Buy and Barnes & Noble
• Saw There Will be Blood (my insta-review=meh. ask me if you want more)
• Lazy Sunday (including a nap)

MY weekend extended into today. Nothing much to talk about there.

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. Please leave any comments there.

A longer version with photos will appear…well, sometime. Photos have been dumped from my camera to the computer, but have not made it online just yet.

The short version is this…busy weekend. Lots of fun. Very tired. Back to work.

Speaking of work, I’m down to my last two weeks as a full-timer. Very strange.

Coupla quick highlights:

• Meeting Jeff and Maya Bonhoff. They are excellent people.
• Singing. OMG, yes, I did.
• Getting my photo taken with Peter S. Beagle, author of (among other things) The Last Unicorn.
• Yoga
• Dancing
• Many hugs and friendly faces.

And I have work to do, so that’ll be it for now. More when I get the photos uploaded. Happy Monday!

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

Grades are done! Whew!

Apart from the grading, this past weekend was fairly mellow. Friday night, Rand and I went out for dinner at Danny’s on Genesee Street. We like Danny’s. It’s comfortable and homey and they make really good food. I had an excellent fish fry.

Saturday, we met up with Dave Huth and another friend from Houghton–they had come to Buffalo to do some errands and we met them for a long lunch at taste of India. They all had the buffet, but I went with the Chicken Muglai. Unfortunately, I don’t think I got what I ordered. It wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t taste right.

When I wasn’t grading, I was working on various crafty projects (some of them are Christmas presents–shhh!) and even doing a tiny bit of baking:

I went in search of a recipe using Heath bits, which I bought last time I went shopping. I found this. I thought, that sounds good, but I think it needs some chocolate. So I melted chocolate chips and spread them over the top while they were still hot. (drizzling proved to be unproductive.) I have to say, they’re quite tasty, and really easy!

I got my grades done and entered yesterday, so yay. I also got all but one last batch of Christmas cards out…the rest will go out tomorrow. I ran out of stamps.

Happy 6-days-till-Christmas everyone!

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

Plus Weekend Wrap-up, Part 2…

That is, sadly enough, the best photo I got at the Lowest of the Low concert last weekend. Rand, John and I got to Club Infinity early (before the doors opened) so that we could secure a spot at one of the “tables” along the walls. Unfortunately for us, the stools had been removed so as to pack more people into the space. Sigh.

I decided to stand behind Rand and John–between the “tables” and the wall–because the floor was about six inches higher there. That didn’t last. As more and more people began to crowd into the club, I felt more uncomfortable where I was standing. “Concert” and “Personal space” are not words that seem to go together.

There were two opening acts. The first was a local band that didn’t impress me all that much. The second was the Marble Index, a three-piece from Hamilton, Ontario, whom I’ve seen open for the Low before. I enjoyed them more last Saturday than I have in the past. They did a great job of setting the crowd up for the main act, and didn’t overstay their welcome.

As the concert began, this became my view:

Sigh. Soon after, I decided to sit up on the wood half-countertop thing that edged the “table” area. I figured there were too many people there for anyone to come and yell at me.

They opened with “A Casual Overdose” from Sordid Fiction, which I thought was an odd choice. A little while later in the set, they played “The Last Recidivist,” which I thought would have been a better opener.

I really don’t have the set list memorized, but I can say they played many favorites from Shakespeare My Butt. In addition to other songs from Hallucigenia and Sordid Fiction, they played several songs from Stephen Stanley’s upcoming solo album, and several from Ron Hawkins’ current solo album (which was NOT being sold at the show. Grr.).

For their second encore, the guys played “Letter from Bilbao” and then finished up with “Rosy and Grey,” both of which brought a little tear to my eye. (People were yelling for “Rosy and Grey” WAY too early on in the evening. I wanted to shout, “People, you don’t really think they’ll leave without playing it, do you? DO YOU?”)

I feel like I’ve sort of come full-circle with my Lowest of the Low experience…I was there for their reunion show at the Tralf (with Jen, Rachel, and another friend with whom we’ve sadly lost touch) in 2000, and there for their farewell show. It was strange being there without Jen…as many times as I’ve seen the Low over the years (I’ve lost count), I think this is the first one I went to without her. (she couldn’t be there because of other commitments…) Jen, I missed you!

And while this will be the last we see of Lowest of the Low (forever? who knows…), I’m sure it won’t be the last we see of Ron Hawkins, Stephen Stanley, Lawrence Nichols, David Alexander, and Dylan Parker. At any rate, I’ll bid a fond farewell to the band that’s been the source of many happy memories for me over the past seven years–the good times with friends, the road trips to Hamilton and Toronto and Fredonia, meeting the band at Spot Coffee, the great music, and at least in a small way, bringing Rand and me together.

Thanks for everything guys.

“And I’ll say, “goodbye, I love you.
‘Cause it’s time that I should go…”

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

We had a busy weekend. I still don’t think I’ve quite recovered! I’m currently uploading photos to flickr, and I’ll probably add them to the post as they become available.

Friday night was the musicfest at the California Brew Haus in Rochester.  One drawback of the venue…the back room (where they have the live music) is *freezing*. I positioned myself near the heat source, but I don’t think I got warm all evening.

Other than that, it was a lot of fun.  Got to see lots of friends, and lots of silly music. It was great to see Carla again, if a bit of a bummer that her better half wasn’t able to join her!

Got home WAY too late. (after 3. That’s several hours past my bedtime…) Had to get up to run to the bank and post office, so didn’t get to sleep in as long as I would have liked. Lounged about watching movies in the afternoon.

We met up with Jenn and Scott for dinner on Saturday evening. When our original plan was foiled, we decided to head to Gabriel’s Gate. It took *forever* for someone to come and actually speak to us at the door, and when they finally did, we were asked if we had a reservation. We said, “uh, no.” He said it would be a 25 minute wait. We said no thanks and went to Fat Bob’s instead, where we were seated quickly and got no attitude.

I *heart* Fat Bob’s. I had pulled pork and mashed potatoes. Mmmmmm.

After dinner, we headed to Madame Mocha’s on Lovejoy where Greg Klyma and Tom Bianchi were performing.

More later. Photos are uploaded…titles and descriptions to come.

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

This weekend was pretty mellow…which believe me, is fine!

Friday night, Rand and I caught up on some TV watching. Saturday, we intended to catch a showing of The Darjeeling Limited  at the Amherst…however, when we arrived (after lunch at Brodo), we found that the 2 pm showing had been canceled due to a private event. Feh.

Went grocery shopping. We’d intended to feed our little can of change into the Coinstar machine, but found that we would have been waiting a very long time. A couple had made it to the machine ahead of time with several large vats full of change. No kidding. We decided to try again after our shopping was done, but they were still there. After having fed nearly $1000 worth of change into the machine. Mildly annoying.

Later, we watched Hot Fuzz, which we’d gotten from Netflix *months* ago. No kidding. I liked it. Probably not quite as much as I liked Shaun of the Dead, but I liked it quite a bit.

Sunday, we visited with Rand’s family and watched Ghostbusters, which David had rented for his son. Hee.

The only other notable thing about the weekend? I’ve begun having wedding stress dreams. Three nights in a row. This had better not continue until the wedding. I’ll lose my mind. In the first dream, someone had brought me my clothes, but forgot my shoes. In the second dream, we forgot the music. And in the third dream, tons of people just didn’t show up (and not, y’know…third cousins I didn’t really care about. Like my best friends didn’t show up. It was dreadful.).

So yeah. Maybe I need to step up the yoga? Meditate? Hire a wedding planner? (Kidding about that last one. I’m not hiring a wedding planner.)

Hope you all had a pleasant weekend.