Pimp Your Laptop

Makes me wish I had a Mac. See this (only $14) and more from Vinylville.

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Now that we've finished watching all 7 seasons of 24 courtesy of Netflix, we're watching Season 2 of Dexter. We must have caught Season 1 on some other channel last year because we've never had Showtime. I said to Steve this one of those shows that if you read the premise on paper, you would never imagine how it could work. But it does.

They also have one of the best openings, right up there with Mad Men.

And can I please tell you how happy we are that Sons of Anarchy has started their new season?? I'm so glad that TV seasons are all over the place these days, not strictly Sept - May like they used to be in the old days.

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The NYS auditor is gone for a few days. It's pretty painful in that she's very young and I have the feeling she's going "by the book" in requesting lots of information, rather than just random samples that the seasoned pros request. Yesterday was so incredibly boring I was actually feeling depressed by the end of the day. Auditor overload I guess. And it's only been two days.

But today is Friday, which can't help but be a good day.

And I've been on fire with new designs. I'll have two new cards to post this weekend - going to get them into my Esty shop first. I have to finish setting up one in the Groove - just did the test stitch of a quarter of the design last night. Hope to get that done before work this morning so I can stitch it up on my lunch hour.

Life is good. (Except for the auditor parts.) :-)

A Trio & Food Network Shows

.Check out the one on the right - I love how that turned out. That's the same design, with a stitch added down the center of each point. I've been doing that a lot lately - using an existing hole (the point) and stitching the other end using my needle on the fly, so to speak. I love the ol' what-happens-if-I-do-this thing.

* Edited to add: The two outside ones will have a little something in the center, like the middle one does. It's the only one that's finished.

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My BFF Tivo has been patiently holding a bunch of shows for me, since before vacation even. Last night I caught up on some Food Network shows. One of my new favorites is The Best Thing I Ever Ate, which features of a bunch of Food Network hosts/chefs talking about just that, with a different theme each week.

I also enjoy the Challenge series. I was so happy to see the episode I started watching last night featured one of our friends from Ace of Cakes, Anna, with Ben as her assistant. My first thought was, "Oh Anna, why put your sweet self through that stress??" I could only watch about half before I had to go to bed, but I did skip to the end to see if she won, because that's how I roll. But I will go back & watch the rest of the show tonight. Because that's also how I roll.

One of my all time favorite series is The Next Food Network Star. I am very happy to see last season's 2nd place winner, Adam Gertler, doing so well. (He was robbed last year - should have won!) Check out his armchair reviews of each episode of The Next Food Network Star - they make me laugh out loud sometimes!

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Adrian Grenier

.Every once in a while I'll buzz through the HBO online guide and Tivo a few movies I think we'd like to see, for those slow times between Netflix and regular TV. Some are stinkers, some are not. We watched The Notorious Bettie Page over the weekend. As I told Steve, that was the weirdest movie I've seen that held my attention. And it didn't even have a plot! Most weird movies are stupid and irritating, for example, Magnolia. The only decent thing about that movie was Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I don't just say that because he's from Fairport. I think he's an outstanding actor. (And just for the record, my movies don't have to be neat & orderly with clean, happy endings, but that is my preference, I admit.)

That's how I found Shot in the Dark, a film documenting Adrian Grenier's search for his father, whom he has not seen in 18 years. I'd read about it a few years ago but forgot about it, I guess. So it's been in our Tivo queue for weeks now. Every time Steve opens the listing to see what it is, he groans and closes it. I think he hates documentaries as much as I love them. Last night Steve worked late so I settled in with my dinner of popcorn and Crystal Light and watched it.

I really loved it. I'm still thinking about it this morning.

Number one, can I get an amen from my women friends that he is so dang good looking? I've hardly seen two photos where he looks the same - but I chose my favorite for above.

Number two, it was very real. I read a few of the comments on imdb.com about the movie and people were dissing Adrian's mom for her free-love lifestyle. That's how it was in the mid-70s, just coming off the 60s. (His dad was dissed too. Seems to me there's enough blame to go around for the dad not being in his life. I don't get that at all.)

His stepmom initially comes off as pretty cruel to a little kid, hanging up on him when he called his dad. But she was the only one we heard apologize to Adrian's face. "I was wrong. I'm really sorry."

I also liked that it was never mentioned that he's a TV star now. Oh wait! I didn't realize until I researched it for this entry, that this documentary was filmed in 2002 , two years before Entourage. (Don't you love that show? It's one of our very favorites.)

I found this photo of him with his mom and dad at the premiere. I'm glad the step mom came around and all this worked out. I'm sure she went to the premier too. (I Googled her but there are too many Debbie Dunbars to go through.)

Entourage - Season 5 begins this Sunday!

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Yellow Squash & Corn Casserole

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Yellow Squash & Corn Casserole from Julia Johnson, AllRecipes.com.

I'm out of practice and need to brush up on my food photo skillz. The macro shot was unusable.

I used regular corn, not cream-style corn and I used a bit of Splenda instead of sugar. Oh, and Colby Jack cheese because I didn't have any Parmesan. Other than that, I followed the recipe to the letter. ;-) This was so delicious, I'll be taking it to work for lunch this week. Even Steve, a vegetable non-eater declared it, "not bad". Higher praise for vegetables, you'll not come by from him.


I watched part of the Democratic convention last night because I wanted to see the tribute to Ted Kennedy. It was fairly moving but what really got to me was watching an emotional Maria Shriver watch her uncle & extended family. I feel like I "know" her from her friendship and interviews with Oprah. I still don't quite get what she sees in Arnold but it must be something. Still, she seems like someone you could just hang out with. (If you're Oprah, I mean.)

I said to Steve that these political conventions should be produced by some former Olympic organizers and/or Olympic television producers. Not that they need the same entertainment value, but man oh man, the production could definitely use some tightening up. Way too much wasted time between events. I haven't watched any conventions in years but the delegates are still way too silly. I never understood that. Imagine being a foreigner seeing that for the first time. What the serious business of politics has to do with silly hats, I'll never know. It's embarrassing, quite honestly.

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Charm City Cakes

.Another good thing that Gretchen turned me on to is the Food Network's Ace of Cakes. I love this show, love the people. It's filmed at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore so I got it in my head that I wanted to do a drive-by of the bakery, just to see it. I didn't really expect to find their address on their website because I know they don't want to be found because tourists and fans would be a pain in their neck. It's a working bakery with people doing their jobs, in a clean environment, no less. The minimum price for their cakes is $500 (!) so if I'm paying that much for a cake, I want the employees paying attention to their work and don't want a bunch of goober tourists sneezing all over my cake. You're welcome for that visual.

A month or two ago I found what I thought was their address somewhere but neglected to write it down. By the time it was time to leave for our trip, I was hoping our new GPS could find it. (Also need to note here that the Hyatt does not offer free wireless anywhere in the hotel or I would have looked it up again while in Baltimore.)

We'd had a long day on Sunday and it was time to leave Baltimore to head to Virginia Beach. The only thing our GPS could find was Charm City Catering. I called Mom & Dad to look up the address of the bakery online for me. Bless their hearts, they looked high and low for the address.

Finally Dad came up with something, which turned out to be a private residence. I think he just said any ol' thing to get me off the phone. :-) We decided to give Charm City Catering a try, then we were outta there. Nope, that wasn't it either.

My dream was shattered. But we did enjoy a lovely tour of some interesting neighborhoods in Baltimore. Stuff we would not have seen otherwise, for sure.

I know they don't really want to be found but doggone it, I thought I was special and deserved to see the place. I was just going to roll down my window and take a picture. I wasn't even planning on getting out of the car and have Steve take my picture in front of the building. Is that so wroooong??

I looked all over the site when I got online the next day and couldn't find the address either. Then I remembered I must have gone to whitepages.com and looked them up under business look-up. There it was. I think it was right because I also found this by Googling "Charm City Cakes address" - read some of the comments too. (Just before I uploaded this entry, it seems there's a problem with that page I just linked to but I'm going to leave it here, assuming they will get it fixed.)

At least I don't feel so alone in my quest to drive by a building I've seen on TV.

Oh well.
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Clearance Sale & Celebrity Dreams

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Setting myself a ridiculously high sales goal for Pine Tree Designs 2008 has really got me thinking, (I-hate-this-phrase-except-it's-perfect), outside the box. Also known as desperate. Seriously, counting my dead inventory this past weekend has renewed my desire to get rid of it. This is stuff I bought wholesale to resell when I was in that store in Fairport 2 or 3 years ago. Some of the shows I participate in do allow buy-sell stuff but I think I've said before, I want to be known as an artist first & foremost. I don't want to dilute my "brand". (Sorry, there's another over-used word.)

So I decided to have a clearance sale at work. I made 3 signs to post at strategic locations around the building. Everything is 50 cents or 1 dollar. I spread it on the table in the Break Room with a cash box. No pesky emails - just leave it up for a week and see what happens. I've invested nothing but a little time making the signs. As I said to Steve, "I stand to make TENS of dollars here!" I set my expectations rather low and have been quite pleasantly surprised. Because I put one of the signs by the coffee area, people started shopping right away Monday morning.

I'm finding myself happier about finding good homes for this stuff than making money. I think that's funny/weird. I just didn't want it to go to waste.

I've been having celebrity dreams almost every night lately. I'm just hanging out with these people where they work, because they are my friends. Recent nights have included Wease, my favorite local DJ, Christopher Meloni (from Oz and L&O SVU), Rosie O'Donnell (on the set of Password) - and last night I hung out with Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa. I got to go to a concert with them and watch from backstage - and the alarm went off just as they were about to go on. I hate when that happens!

I have no idea what's up with this run of celebrity dreams but I can't wait to go to sleep tonight. (After watching Numb3rs the other night, I tried to put in an order for a Rob Morrow dream but it didn't happen. So much for positive thinking.)

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Private Sessions

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Just the other day I learned about a show I had not heard about, Private Sessions on A&E. I immediately Tivoed it because I love interview shows. In this one the artist performs as well. I've just watched the Ringo Starr episode so far - Queen Latifah is next in the queue. No one will ever accuse Ringo of being a great musician, but he's such an icon, it was thrilling to watch. He performed 4 songs, I think it was - with Dave Stewart - and a bunch of kids young enough to be his grandchildren. They had tiny video tape pieces where people ask him questions - I assume these are always famous people because in Ringo's case Yoko Ono and Max Weinberg asked questions.

Lynn Hoffman is the interviewer and she seems just right, knowledgeable*, sincerely interested - not too anything. Check it out.

*except for the fact that she says Ringo has been called "the world's greatest drummer"

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Kathy Griffin

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Finally! I can upload pictures again. Don't know what that was about.

Steve and I went to see comedian Kathy Griffin at Turning Stone Resort & Casino Friday night. I love her show on Bravo, My Life on the D-List and her stand-up shows too. Seeing her live did not disappoint one iota! She was fantastic!

It surpassed my expectations actually. I probably had a little Dennis Miller residue in my mind. To refresh your memory, we saw him in Las Vegas last spring, and although we were disappointed by the length of his performance (1 hour) we enjoyed it. Until - we got home and saw the (almost) verbatim performance on HBO. I know that shouldn't have mattered because we enjoyed him when we saw him. But like I said, I think I was afraid Kathy would do too much material I'd already seen, especially because I think I've seen her a lot.

She did not. She did a couple of classics but she was as topical and current as I'd hoped she'd be. She talked about winning an Emmy recently. Of course she talked about OJ. Steve and I are still "doing lines".

Turning Stone is on an Oneida Indian reservation about 2 hours from here - built in 1993. I bought the Kathy Griffin tickets at the beginning of the summer and tried to book a room at the resort. They have 4 hotels and every one was sold out for Friday night. We figured there must be some big event but only recently learned the PGA was holding a tournament there. I went online earlier in the week to see if there were any rooms available and there were some, but they looked to be $295. Um, no thanks.

So I had booked us a room at a Super 8 down the road. Even the Super 8 was $95. Anyway. I worked until noon on Friday and then we left shortly thereafter. I got to stitch while Steve drove and that actually worked out pretty well. The Super 8 was stinky and I mean that literally. We had a non-smoking room but it had clearly been a smoking room at some point. The hallway reeked of smoke but I had hoped our room would be our little oasis. Nope. I would have asked for another room but I figured that would be true of any other room, that they probably didn't have any rooms that had always been 100% smoke-free. We joked that the Non-Smoking signs on the doors were magnetic and they slapped them on whatever rooms they needed to. We were only there to sleep but I couldn't even bring myself to take a shower there the next morning. I filled out one of their comment cards explaining about the stench and checked the box saying I'd never return. I sure hope they don't send me a gift certificate for a free night! P-U!

We had stopped at a McDonald's on the way there for lunch (that chicken wrap is pretty tasty by the way). We weren't hungry for dinner so we ate after the show. There are tons of restaurants at the casino and we ended up at one that we knew was expensive, but it ended up being the most expensive meal we've ever eaten. Yikes. The service and the food was exquisite but c'mon, it's just food. It's one of the places that I actually have trouble finding something to order - it's lots of seafood, balsamic dressings, prime rib, veal, ostrich. Only 1 chicken dish was offered and not a pasta dish in sight. We both ordered strip steak. I practically never order beef and this was outstanding. Still, if I had to do it over again, I'd go somewhere else.

I sound pretty negative for someone who had such a good time, don't I?

But the show! Let me tell you about the show. We had arrived a couple of hours early so we could get the lay of the land. We walked around the casino for a while, checked out the restaurants. The show started at 8:00 so we wandered back to the Showroom around 7:00 to see what time the doors opened. They were already open so we went in - we were about the first ones there I think. An usher led us past a line of about 30 uniformed ushers, all poised for duty, to our seats. That itself was kind of interesting/odd.

I knew it was table seating but hadn't looked at a map of the venue or if I did, I didn't understand how close we'd be so I was kind of shocked when the usher kept walking and walking. We sat the front of those red tables, slightly left of center. We were about 20' from Kathy. When we sat down, Steve looked at me, "Did you know these seats were this close?" He looked kind of worried so I said, "Relax, this isn't Gallagher. There will be no smashing of melons and she doesn't pick on people in the audience." (I didn't exactly know if that last part was true but I was pretty sure.)

Steve has seen Kathy on TV but not to the extent that I have. So on the drive to the casino I told him, "You know, she loves her gays and her gays love her." He said he knew. He's not homophobic but I tease him that he is. Sometimes, when gay stuff comes on TV, I'll catch him looking away. Not in a horrified way, just in an uncomfortable way.

Because we were seated an hour early, we got to watch lots of people come in - and I noticed they were all heterosexual couples. I found that kind of disappointing - where are her gays?? Turns out they like to make a late arrival because they started coming in droves. Each of the rectangular tables around us seated 6-8 people. None of the straight couples at our table were really talking to each other - but I swear, any table with gays, it was party-time. I whispered to Steve, "Damn it, I want some gays at our table." I had already turned my chair to face the stage when I sensed someone filling up the last two seats at our table. I turned around hopefully. Nope. Just more damn heteros.

Kathy delivered a line early on that I've heard her say before - she'll ask where her gays are? women? men whose wives dragged them to the show? A quick elbow to Steve's ribs prevented him from whooping it up at that line. Even though it was true.

Being so close was cool. You know, she's had a bunch of plastic surgery, talks about it all the time, but she looked less "plastic" in person, than I thought she would. I was so enjoying myself, I found myself thinking at one point (conscious of the Dennis Miller 1 hour show) that if she stopped right now, I'd still feel satisfied. I had no idea what time that was but she continued on for a while after that. Turns out she did 1 hour and 15 minutes. But it really felt like 2 hours. I told Steve it's because she talks so much that she uses sooooo many words, it feels like you get your money's worth.

We're hoping to find another show to go to there sometime so we can stay onsite. The cheapest room seems to be $155 for a weeknight and about $200 for a Friday night, so we'll see. We drove home in 90 minutes so even if we drove home afterwards, depending on what time the show ends, it's not a bad drive home even. But we love staying in hotels. Don't know why, just do. (Non-smoky hotels, that is.)

Here's something interesting I learned, Turning Stone has been "dry" since they opened due to disputes with the state. There was a note on their website recently (wasn't there when I bought the tickets in July) that they are currently working with the state regarding the serving of alcohol. They ask that people not bring in their own alcohol. There were signs to this effect at all the entrances but they looked like temporary signs, so I thought they must have lost their liquor license until I researched it just now. By the way, the trash bin outside the entrance we used in the parking garage was overflowing, lots of beer cans were visible. I couldn't find anything per se in my quick search, but I think maybe at one time, patrons were allowed to bring alcohol into the resort, I'm not sure.

The drinks at the show were priced normally, which surprised me too. I had a bottle of water and a glass of pineapple juice while Steve had a soda, I think. It was "just" $7-something.

Lots of fun, for sure.

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Wedding Cards & TV Shows

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We're off to Pennsylvania tomorrow for Nick & Jill's 2nd wedding, the big one. Here are some cards I made for the occasion.

To Nick & Jill from Stefani, Steve & Simon.

To Jill from Gretchen.

To Nick from Gretchen.

To Nick & Jill from Paul.


To Nick & Jill from Mom & Dad. Similar to this anyway, as I recall - I think I forgot to scan it before I gave it to Mom a few weeks ago. I think it was this theme but probably one of my square cards.

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This year Mom and Gretchen got me hooked on dance shows - Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. I knew nothing, zip, zero about dance so it's been very enlightening and entertaining. For someone who used to be such a reality show snob (sorry, they're called unscripted shows now, aren't they?), I can't believe I got so caught up in these kids on So You Think You Can Dance. And as I told Gretchen, I think I have a bit of a girl crush on the host, Cat Deeley. She's just as cute as can be and quite perfect, in terms of hosting. Ahh, to be 7-feet tall, thin, blond and British.

What surprised me though, is how emotional some of these dances make me feel. It's the story behind the dance, I suppose, but it's all part of it. That Mia Michaels routine about her dad who passed away a couple of years ago - totally got to me.

Then today I was watching the Tivoed performance show of this week, the final week. When Danny danced his solo to We are the Champions, I got kinda teary. That probably had more to do with learning he was adopted at age 10 and wondering what his life was like before that. I watched him dance that three times.

And who doesn't like a handsome young Asian man with a funny personality and wacky hair, I ask you?? All the b-boys and girls, but especially Hok, totally amazed me with their break dancing.

I still don't get krumping.

In other guilty pleasures, I continue my Design Star addiction from last year. (Design Star is the only show where I've actually voted. For the winner, I might add.) And I'm finding Bravo to be really stepping up. I've always loved Kathy Griffin's D List show. I even like the Hey Paula trainwreck. And I love, love, love Flipping Out. It's laugh out loud funny to me and that's rare. Now I'm worried I'm going to like a new show in the fall, that looks so bad, I'm going to have to give it a try. When I say bad, you know it's on Fox. It's called Kitchen Nightmares:

Inspired by one of the UK’s biggest hits, KITCHEN NIGHTMARES is seen in more than 50 territories around the globe, and the series reveals a whole new side to Ramsay. He’s still prone to the explosive outbursts and spectacular confrontations familiar to fans of HELL’S KITCHEN, but he also shows his sensitive and nurturing side -- a unique blend of fury, passion, inspirational leadership and tough love that can turn a small spark of talent into a roaring flame.

Gretchen watches Welcome to the Parker so I'm just starting that one now. God bless Tivo.

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You'd think I would be getting a lot of Pine Tree Designs stitching and cardmaking done with all this TV watching, wouldn't you? Never enough, I'm always in a state of panic. But I've started outsourcing some of the work. Mom and Pam are going to stitch my business cards. And I've been talking to Steve about taking over the business end of it. He would absolutely love that, be great at it and he's more than willing.

I guess this is how little companies grow, isn't it? True to form for all business owners, I'm sure, it feels weird, to let go of things. But good, especially to people I love and trust.

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Red, White & Blue and Johnny Depp

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7" x 7", made with cardstock, thread and paint. $26.00

I've mentioned that Steve and I have been watching some old TV shows via Netflix DVDs. We're watching 21 Jump Street now, a show neither one of us ever watched back in the day. At first I wasn't sure I could stick with it, it's so 80s-over-the-top, it makes me cringe. Especially that Peter DeLuise - stop overacting!! But it's kind of growing on me. And that poor Johnny Depp. One would never know from this show that he would turn into an amazing actor.

Here's some trivia from that imdb link above, true or not:

Johnny Depp and Peter Deluise sang the JUMP!! backup vocals to the opening theme song while Holly Robinson sang the lead.

Johnny Depp did not want to work on a television series but agreed to a six-year contract only because he did not believe the show would last more than one season. He also found it difficult to turn down the money and the chance to work with Frederic Forrest. But the show became a huge success mostly due to Depp's presence. By the third season, Depp was chafing at having to stay with the show instead of accepting various film offers. He began to complain about the scripts and often gave listless performances. With the help of his lawyers, Depp was released from his contract and left the show after the fourth season.

When Johnny Depp became increasingly disillusioned with the show, the actor would amuse himself by changing his lines.

Johnny Depp often wore a tube sock in his pants as a joke during the filming of this show.

As Johnny Depp became increasingly frustrated with the series, he began to put forth ridiculous suggestions for his character to the producers. One such a suggestion included the discovery by the other characters that Tom Hanson was obsessed with peanut butter, and would be discovered by the other characters smearing it all over his naked body.

And so I leave you with that image of Johnny Depp's naked body. The end.

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