Pi Girl

If you know me at all and/or read this blog regularly, there is nothing in my genx column in today’s paper that you haven’t read before. But if you think seeing my name in Elmira’s favorite media to hate is fun, by all means, click away.

Short version: we’re having a membership drive, so I used my column as one giant ad (ok, it’s only a 477-word ad) for the Crystal Chords. Oh, and how your husband going to the ER really puts things in perspective when you’re about the go on stage in front of lots of people.

Since the Election season is pretty much on and Super Tuesday is right around the corner, newspapers across the country are scrambling to make their Election websites the best ever … or at least better than the local competition. So, we had a meeting to collectively look through the bits and pieces offered by Gannett News Service and decide what we wanted on our site. And our meeting got very side-tracked by this fun Candidate Match Game on USAToday.com.

Now, I know there are a ton of quizzes on the web you can take to determine the best candidate for you, but do they come with little bobble heads that move with each question? And do they offer a sliding scale so you can justify one candidate over another even though based on the real results maybe you should just vote with the candidate you didn’t realize you liked? Do they?

Yes, I am easily amused by fun quizzes with sliding bobble heads. The world really needs more of them.

Sorry, I skipped another day. I apologize, yesterday was mad busy and then I opted to end the evening by celebrating Michelle’s birthday with her family rather than blog. I know, where are my priorities. And besides, with all this Christmas spirit around here, I’m already thinking it’s December.

I thought I would share this; it’s an ad running in the other paper for the event we’re singing at this weekend. You know, in case you’re in Corning Saturday night. Or, if you happen to watch the Arctic League broadcast on Sunday morning on WETM between, say 10:15-11:00, you could catch the Crystal Chords and maybe (I’m not sure if this will really happen) Affinity too. And maybe if someone DVRs it, I can get it on YouTube.

I was unaware of this, but apparently today is Cyber Monday, much like Black Friday. Except instead of taking off work to go shopping at 3 am at the mall, you take up company time shopping online from your computer. I think I was clueless about it because everyday is Cyber Day when you work in the Online Dept.

Anyway, I’m back in New York. Nothing has changed. Well, unless you count the part where Date Night has been replaced with Pageant Rehearsal. I guess I just have to make that nice, long weekend with the hubby hold me over until Christmas is over.

They tried to make me play Mary again, but at least I was there to veto that decision. I don’t need another live baby Jesus again so the whole church can ask me when I’m getting my own baby to play baby Jesus. Instead, I got the Innkeeper role and all I have to do is make Joseph and Mary sleep in a stable. Phew.

Off topic, in case you’re dying the know the rest of the answers to the Song Quiz, they are now posted below.

When I started this NaBloPoMo thing, I figured contest would be the only obstacle to posting every day. And yet, I still made it work. I didn’t count on my laptop not working over Thanksgiving. It was actually the wireless that didn’t work, thanks to a switch Jason hit. I guess I’ll have to blog 2 more days into December to make up for it?

Anyway, we’ve spent the weekend in the the Baltimore area and it’s been most fun.

We dared the Towson Town Center for shopping, and it wasn’t too bad. Well, except for parking. And the food court. And the Apple Store.

We went to a piano bar in Baltimore. Jason had heard about this place and really wanted to check it out. It was highly entertaining and educational; Jason does not know the words to “Piano Man!” We need to get a Billy Joel iv into him immediately!

We went to the National Aquarium. I had read they have a baby dolphin and I wanted to see him, but he was not on display. Which makes sense. But I got to see the baby in Vegas, so it was possible. Instead, they just looped a video of the baby’s birth over and over again. My favorite part was a new exhibit they opened since the last time I was there: Planet Australia. Besides the fish and turtles and snakes, there were birds everywhere flying over your head. And they were so colorful and pretty. They would land on the rock right in front of you so you could admire their beauty. Or maybe they were just looking for food, but it was still cool.

Most importantly, we got to spend time with family. It was nice that we could stay longer than just dinner. Jason’s dad even came up and brought Jason’s brother, James, who I haven’t seen since we visited him in Portugal in 1999 (Jason last saw him in 2001).

So that’s what I’ve been up to while I was Internetless. Today, we’re having brunch with the grandparents and then it’s back home for us. I’m not looking forward to Sunday-after-Thanksgiving traffic.

I’m still not all packed, and I need to get ready, and Jason is STILL not up, so if we want to get to Maryland in time for dinner that means I don’t have much time for a medium to long entry for you today. So, I leave you with this:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

I was going to write about the lousy service at Friday’s last night, not so much because it was lousy or to warn people from going there. I mean it was the poor kid’s 2nd day on the job; who wouldn’t mess up? But his defenses were most humorous and I was just going to mock him in my blog and hope he learns the next time he sees 10 women (and 1 man) sitting in his section all wanting separate checks.

And then I got to thinking about how tomorrow is Thanksgiving. And then I felt bad that I would lynch this guy simply because he tried to overcharge me for soup and that’s not right. After all, I doubt I would do much better if I were in his position.

Instead, I’m going to be thankful that I have enough in my life to allow me to do fun things like dine out at a restaurant with my friends and enjoy their company. I’m also thankful for an able body and the opportunity to give back to the community by packing food at the Food Bank with those friends. And I’m very thankful that I get to then sing those same friends later in the evening.

What are you thankful for?

So, I’m at pageant rehearsal last night. Really, it was just chaos with a small helping of organization. I offered to cut some of the songs because, honestly, 12 songs is a lot of songs for kids to learn in a month’s time, or at least turn several of them into solos so the kids only have to learn 5-6 songs each. I also thought it would be good to cut the song called “Tannebaum” because everyone already knows “O Tannebaum” (Oh Christmas Tree) and we could use that instead.

But clearly, I am out of touch with these kids. As we played the cd of songs, one song became the clear “it” song of the night and everyone was fighting with each other to get that solo. They liked that the German driving beat of the song gave it an atmosphere of the apocalypse coming. And silly me thought they’d all want the solo for the pretty Swedish song. What was I thinking?

I have a feeling I’m going to be very sick of “Tannebaum” by Christmas Eve.

My mind has so left for Thanksgiving vacation already. Too bad my body is still at work.

In the meantime, I’ve been informed that it’s up to me to save the Christmas pageant … again. A few weeks ago, Jason put in the order for the pageant and when Diana and I asked what it was, found out that he wanted to order a MUSIC-LESS play. Fortunately, Jason had only put in the order with the church secretary, not the company, so that gave Diana and I time to find a real pageant, with music. (And the kids were most grateful when they heard the story too. Jason had only consulted with 2 boys who were more than happy to leave the music out this year. For shame.)

Well, now the play is in, and the first rehearsal is tonight. And guess who was called in to work and has to skip said rehearsal? Yes, that would be Jason. Maybe it’s a good thing I hijacked his plans and took a vested interest in the pageant this year.

Ooh, Song Quiz is fun, keep playing. I’ll keep it running until Friday and then post the answers because I’m pretty darn sure I don’t have enough readers to get all 30 of the questions.

Other than that, all I have for today is, do not see Bee Movie. And just for the record, Jason and I did not vote for that movie, but we lost. It had some ok moments, but it was not worth the $6.50 matinee price to see it.