sing to me, muse

of the man of twists and turns, driven time and again off course

Feeling inspired.
Or something.

New posts coming soon.

Greet the world every morning with curiosity and hope.

fall foliage

For those of you following along... According to the foliage report which was updated yesterday, we are still in what is considered a moderate zone. Northern Maine is already past peak, whereas the rest of the state is either peak or approaching peak color. As you can see, the coast is usually the last area to give up its color.

only in atlantic city

Did I forget to post this picture of the Gummy Handcuffs we saw at the It's Sugar store? My bad. :)

2007, my year in review

Let's start with the subject of travel... The major highlight of my travels this year was the cruise. Our first cruise was a week-long jaunt over spring break with family and friends wherein we found ourselves sailing into exotic ports along the Western Caribbean.

We climbed ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico, experienced some of the culture and natural beauty of Guatemala, snorkeled the barrier reef in Belize... Very exciting, very memorable!

I landed in New York City for the third time, accompanying members of my family on their first trip to the Big Apple. You could say I was a sort of tour guide. It was a lot of fun. Shut up, it was!

After a few days of sightseeing, we struck off for New York state to attend my nephew's momentous graduation at the esteemed West Point Military Academy. We toured the historic campus and got to hang out with Danny.

We squeezed in a trip to the beach... Orange Beach. Sipping margaritas and splashing around with the stingrays. We had a great time. Maybe next time we'll try parasailing? Not!



We completed a weekend roadtrip to Dallas, Austin and back, in three days, to see Rufus Wainwright perform two great shows -- one at the Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie and one outdoors at the legendary Stubb's BBQ in downtown Austin.

Mid-August. Outside. 6 hours. Standing in one spot. It was totally worth it.

In other concert news, I saw Tori Amos perform for the 12th time! Her shows are always an experience.

While we were in Houston, we visited the Butterfly Center at the Museum of Natural Science. It was pretty cool.

On the way home, I saw Galveston for the first time. It has its own thing going on. It was nice.

Some other shows we caught closer to home...
Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveShow at the New Orleans Arena. Quite a production!

Matt Wertz at the Parish, where I discovered Jon McLaughlin and Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers.

Francis Cabrel at Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette. I still can't believe he came here to perform -- est-ce que ce monde est sérieux?

Fest for All in Baton Rouge. I went to check it out while everyone else was at Jazz Fest in New Orleans.

The Police reunion tour at the New Orleans Arena.

Dave Barnes and Matt Wertz Two Birds / One Stone Tour at the Varsity, a.k.a. how I discovered Gabe Dixon.

And let's not forget Josh Kelley at Wal-Mart on Siegen! (You know, the guy who just married Katherine Heigl a week ago.)

Some miscellaneous events that occurred...
Dave Eggers reading from his latest book at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. (Neeerds!!!) What is the what?

Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade (Should I mention the Isis parade?)

Monster Truck Show at the Centroplex Baton Rouge River Center



Femme Femme Femme exhibit at NOMA

Kathy Griffin FTW!!!1 How awesome is Kathy!



Movies I enjoyed...
Helvetica special screening courtesy of the New Orleans Film Society!

Paris je t'aime

Into the Wild, which I had the pleasure of reading before I had the pleasure of viewing on the big screen.

Other book moments I liked...
On the beach, leafing through some of Wil Wheaton's short stories.

Eat Pray Love. How else can you sum it up? Just remember that I read it before Oprah (and potentially Julia Roberts) ruined it.

What else?
I played music for the first time in years at the family reunion.
I think I did a funeral too. Did I make it through the year without doing a wedding?? Not to worry, I already have two booked for 2008. :)

Almost had jury duty for the first time.

One of my childhood friends died in a car wreck.

Another friend moved away.

We lost Uncle Gene. :(

Some of my best friends at work got better jobs and moved on. Literally and, I'm hoping, figuratively as well. The world has turned and left me here. Should I mention that I almost got promoted? Nah...

Made some new friends. McGregor, party of four?

My niece got engaged.

Matt got engaged! (All my babies are growing up!)

At least one of my siblings got divorced, possibly two?

I tried a yoga class!

Experienced what I would consider my sickest day ever.

And... I started a blog!

Suck on that!

Here's to 2008!

wow

24°F

It actually feels cold for once. My hands grew numb just crossing the street. Enjoy it while you can!

In other news, I discovered the Community Coffee equivalent of the Starbucks coffee drinks I have in the mornings sometimes. I find that the CC version has a better taste. Mmm, Mochasippi!

finding balance in my life

Mass Attack

now my life is complete, part 2

via loltori

blogito, ergo sum

100th post!!

Wow, can you believe it!?

Is anyone still with me?

Where do we go from here?

authentic greek yogurt

After having read some rave reviews, I tried some Fage (pronounced: Fa'-yeh!) yogurt today. I had the classic pairing of yogurt and honey, which regularly appears at the Greek table, and found it quite tasty!

T - to the A - to the S - T - E - Y mmm mmmm tasty...

happy blog day

In opposition to my previous post, I present:



Yay! What? I never said I wasn't conflicted. What a coincidence, though; as soon as I begin to prune my blog collection, I find out about blog day... There is something cosmic going on here. And according to the rules, I'm supposed to recommend 5 blogs -- preferably blogs that are different from [my] own culture, point of view and attitude. Screw that! Who makes this shit up??

blog fever and the unclutter

In an effort to un-clutter my life... I just spent some time removing subscriptions to blogs I never read. So far I managed to whittle the list down to 206 subscriptions. (Yeah, I started with 269. Get over it.) No wonder I never seem to catch up! I promise to continue to chip away until we reach a manageable amount of blogs. Stay tuned...

In other unclutterer news... Learn how to detach yourself from stuff and make the case for de-cluttering your life right now. Why does this subject always resonate with me? Don't you ever just want to simplify your life and purge it all?? Who's with me?

how fun are these

This brightened up my day a bit... It's neat with just the right amount of green and geek.

Some random lines from today's intake... They work great in and out of context.

• reveling in the absurdity of adjectives
• driven by morons who are circling the drain (for those of you who know, omg does that sum it up or what!?)
  

happy 50th post

yay! who knew i had so much to say!? actually...
i don't think i've really said much of anything.

yay! anyway.