Pi Girl

I’m bored and playing with the design again. It’s going to be messy while I test things out.

… to seek solace in a bottle or possibly a friend.

Just practicing … cause you never know when you’ll be called on to sing that 3rd verse to “Closer to Fine.”

Ok, people. Seeing how I have asbestos to remove from my house and a new furnace to buy, I do not have the money to bid on an opportunity to sing ON STAGE with the Indigo Girls in News Orleans September 16. So, here’s the deal:

I’m looking for a wealthy benefactor to bid on this for me. After all, you’d be giving to charity! The proceeds go to Sweet Home New Orleans which is an organization “dedicated to revitalizing the music and cultural community within the neighborhoods of New Orleans by helping our tradition bearers return to and stay at home.” See, it’s a good cause!

And since you get 4 tickets to the concert, and backstage passes, I’ll let you pick who goes to New Orleans. All I ask is that I get one of the tickets and I get to be the one on stage singing with the Indigo Girls. Of course, you’ll also have to fly me down there … and back. And depending on flight times, I might need to stay somewhere for the night. And I might need one meal. Just one; I can pack away some sandwiches for the trip. I might also ask that you take a token photo or 2 or 3 or 20 of me with the Girls.

So, you just think about it, all you readers who have a spare $5000 (or more, depending on how the auction goes) sitting around that you don’t know what to do with.

In the meantime, I’ll go back to yelling at my cat for scratching my arm up while I slept and made me have dreams that I had this really paniful skin cancer that danced around on my arm. It’s been a long week.

I pulled an awesome move yesterday when I stood outside in the cold, gray air for 3 hours in a tank top withOUT my sunscreen. So while I curse my stupidity and reach slowly for the aloe, I thought I’d look for stories of people who might also be cursing their stupidity this morning.

Like this chickee from the Miss Teen USA pageant. I read about it on Best Week Ever (which I highly recommend clicking on for the transcript of this video) where this pageant contestant tries to answer the question, “Why can’t 1/5 of Americans find the US on a map?” and fails miserably.

Any other winners out there I can post here to make me feel better? Email me.

So, I’m a little late on these but they’re up. We had Amber’s bridal shower on Saturday; we went with an Asian theme, complete with paper umbrellas and fortune cookies.

And I think I finally found a photo gallery software I can be happy with (thanks, Google!) so here’s the gallery of photos I took. I can tell you it’s a good thing I wasn’t the “official” photographer because I missed a lot of people and I only took photos during the wedding dress game. I missed the trivia game (since I was kind of running it) and the presents and I was pretty sure people didn’t want photos of them eating yummy Asian salads or chocolate cupcakes. Mmmmm……

And if you’re hungry for just about anything at all or desire a glass (or two or several) of wine, Amber and Dave’s house is the place to be.

I’ll post about Amber’s shower when I get the photos loaded. I’m still working on it …. ok, Jason’s working on it, since I used his way better camera. In the meantime, you get random highlights.

- Sure, it’s rainy and cold outside in August. But I’m making lemonade today because that means I get to wear my new shoes I got in Vegas from The Walking Company. They’re so cute and comfortable but definitely more of a fall shoe than summer. So, yea, I get to wear them early.

- Best Week Ever posted the Top 10 Karaoke Songs to Avoid At All Costs. Oops, we already broke one rule when we got Amber and Dave up on stage to sing Paradise by the Dashboard Lights on the Bar Crawl. Although, in my defense, BWE argues it’s not a good duet song because the man gets 70% of the song but that’s what I used to persuade Amber it would be ok to get up there because all the pressure’s on Dave. Not that it really mattered since I think there were more of us on stage than in the audience.

- I realize none of you care about this, so go ahead and laugh all you want or just stop reading, but this is directed to the writers of General Hospital. Seriously, Lulu needs to be paired up with Spinelli. You’ve taken a ultra-geeky stereotyped character and made him endearing; if he can win Jason’s trust, he is certainly most deserving of a romantic storyline and I think we all agree he is way better for Lulu than Logan. I realize Spinelli was most likely intended to last all of 3 episodes for comic relief but he’s won us all over and a part of me always wants the nerd (or, “Jackal” in this case) to win. Ok, rant is over.

Yes! I love it when my name comes up in the rotation. Here’s hoping for the upgrade to a hurricane!

And of course, I’d prefer it to be the type of hurricane that stays out in the ocean and doesn’t hurt anyone. Or, we just go big and make it so devastating, they take me out of the rotation. And then noone ever names their kid Erin again out of the horrible, horrible memory of the tragedy that was Hurricane Erin. Really, I could go either way.

And so ends another crazy NASCAR weekend at Watkins Glen. I was crazy enough to sign up for 2 shifts at the track selling merchandise for the Crystal Chords. And crazy it was. NASCAR fans are nuts.

Saturday was better selling day because I worked the main booth and didn’t see too much except some very interesting (aka drunk and/or half-naked) people.

Sunday was the better day though. I have never actually been to the track for the big race on Sunday before. I usually do what I have to so I can avoid it but this time I didn’t. I got stuck in the Family Zone, where the most interesting thing to see was the Hamburgler and Grimace make an appearance at the McDonald’s play area. But then Michelle called me over to where she was selling in the Tailgate zone because she wanted to take some photos for her mom. And that’s when the fun really started.

For one thing, there were way more interesting people there. Then, it was right by the pit so we got right up to the gate and could see Jeff Gordon’s and someone else’s car and the gas tanks.

Up there, we saw Jason, who doctored his Photo vest and I tried to take a pic but it came out horrible.

After the opening ceremony, there was a fly-over by the Air National Guard which rocked.

Before the drivers got into their cars, many of them did what most human beings would do before taking a long car ride - they went to the portapotties. Which were conveniently located next to the fence we were at. People swarmed. And yelled. “Hey Jimmy, look over here.” “Gas man, please move so I can take a picture of Jeff.” One woman gave her camera to a kind soul to take a photo of Jeff Gordon while he was doing an interview waiting in line to use the bathroom. That’s when he yelled the above line to us. It was priceless!

I think it was then that Michelle grabbed me because her favorite driver all of sudden showed up even though he wasn’t driving today. As she took off to get a good pic, the guys behind me asked who she had spotted. Which meant I had to remember who it was Michelle had seen. I went with “Michael Walter” but he figured it out (that wasn’t the right name).

After that, the cars took off. I realized why everyone had ear wear and yea, cars were racing. We got a ride back to my car from the wonderful Jeff with the golf cart.

When I got home, I was flipping channels and happened upon the race. Which wasn’t all that racy since they were stopped on the track so they could clean it. And that’s when a fan jumped the fence and ran up to a car to ask for an autograph from the driver. They played the radio of the driver and you could hear him say, “Uh, I’m kind of busy here.” The ESPN guys were loving it and couldn’t get over the drunk fans at Watkins Glen.

**Updated because I can’t believe I forgot to add this part** While I was bored at the Family Zone, I rifled through my free Star-Gazette and happened to glance at the horoscopes for Sunday. It read, and I kid you not: “You meet characters so strange, it’s like you fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.”

I’m posting this before I post the NASCAR stuff. While I had a fun weekend, there was a cloud hanging over it. In the past week, 2 of the sweetest dogs to ever walk the earth had to be put down. Both had very long and happy lives and we will miss them very much.

R.I.P. Nutmeg and Murphy

Ok, the turtle story has gone global. If you don’t live in Elmira, you probably heard it on Fox News or in whatever Weird News feature that you read.

John Cleary wrote a follow up column complete with photos of the turtle/urn. Now, I can almost understand keeping the wife’s ashes in a turtle, especially if turtles are her thing. I doubt Janice wants her ashes in a frog, but I know other frog lovers who actually would. However, that turtle is ugly. Or maybe creepy is the word I’m looking for.

Also, I’ve been googling the story to see what people are saying. Mostly, I’m just making sure noone is violating copyright laws but I think it’s cool that Elmira is spotlighted in the news, and for something other than a murder or a prison escape.

Most of the blogs and stories are just reprinting the AP or GNS story (supplied by the S-G). The Australia news articles are the best because it claims Anita Lewis must be in a “spot of bother” over the incident. Then, there are the bloggers who throw in their own commentary.

- There’s From the Back Pew, who offers a handy guide of “tips from the Home/Man Security.”

- There’s also Blogging for Bitter Women, who analyzed whether Anita could have subconsciously tried to step out of the shadow of the sainted first wife.

The news is amusing me to no end today. I will say that were I in both situations, perhaps I would not be laughing. In the first story, people could have seriously been injured. But because noone was hurt, I will continue laughing. As for the second story … it’s just funny. Even if it were me, it would still be funny. And if it were you, you could expect that I would buy you a ceramic turtle for Christmas.

1) The Keuka Maid started to sink this weekend. The boat was docked and I believe the owners were looking to sell it anyway because they couldn’t afford to land it for state inspection. But they were still booking parties for the boat. In fact, there was a wedding reception on board when the sinking commenced. Depending on who the bride is, she’s either furious that her wedding was ruined, or maybe she’ll realize that none of her guests will ever forget that wedding and roll with it. For her sake, I hope she’s laughing too.

*UPDATE* The wedding party does have a sense of humor. The photos from the paper are not all online but they have some great shots of the guests getting into the idea of a sinking boat.

2) This woman sold a ceramic turtle at her rummage sale. What she didn’t know is that her husband’s previous wife’s ashes were in the turtle. So, she contacted the Star-Gazette to see if she could locate the buyer. And now everyone knows she sold her husband’s wife’s ashes. So, I’m thinking, maybe if the husband had actually helped with the rummage sale, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. Or, maybe he could have mentioned the wife in the turtle. Or maybe the turtle could have been labeled. Something. Obviously, I’m blaming the husband. I sort of know this woman; she’s a well-known figure in Elmira. I can honestly say I don’t think she would intentionally sell the turtle had she known. But, really, any way you look at it, this story is highly entertaining. And the comments on the story are just as awesome.

**UPDATE** More of the story comes out in John Cleary’s Neighbors Column.

**MORE UPDATES** The turtle has been returned!