Way behind on posting...

Since I last posted:

• There's been plenty of good cooking


• Preparation for the big Halloween party


• The Halloween party itself (tons of pics for that coming soon - including the first annual Tortured Barbie trophy made by Brett - wait'll you see the trophy, and who won first place in our costume contest!)


• Nearly $700 in medical bills for Tucker, including an overnight stay in the 24/7 emergency animal hospital... Things seem ok for now, but he doesn't like medicine!


• Another Heroes episode!


• Did I mention plenty of cooking?


• Peter going into surgery this morning to get his appendix removed - keep him in your thoughts, and cross your fingers all went well! (Hey, he just got back from like six days in Hawaii, and the surgery was planned, so I don't have TOO much sympathy for him! ;-)

...and more! So, yeah, I know I'm behind on posting...I'll remedy that soon, covering all the topics above. And SPEAKING of behinds - check out this one I was naughty enough to snap a picture of while walking in to work from lunch today! Hey, it's not my fault the guy was a MAAAAJOR hottie and dressed in those loose fitting sweats like that! He was just begging for attention! Wish the picture was more revealing/clear... (And no, I'm not normally in the habit of snapping shots of strangers in public like that these days - but I might have to do more of it since I work on a university with lotsa hot guys!)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to relax with a little World of Warcraft before going to bed in a short while. Don't suppose anyone else here plays World of Warcraft!? These games would be so much more fun if I played with someone I knew!

Sean Ensign pt 2

Remember that recent promise to provide more links and pics for Sean Ensign? Here ya go! ;-) Nice!

House Gourmet

...or... "Cheating on Sharon with Brett!"

GASP! Brett volunteered to EAT OUT with me tonite (usually he prefers to bring food back home), AND was agreeable to going to House Gourmet, where he's been very reluctant to go with me. I'm TOTALLY glad he decided to go with me - dinner time is an even better experience than Sharon and I usually have for lunch!

Shortly after we were seated we were presented with hot moist towels to wash our hands. I think it was after we placed our orders that they brought out the mini spring rolls for us - on the house! Then we got the edamame in pods I ordered for an appetizer. And then dinner came - General Tso's Chicken and Chicken with Brocolli. Sure, these are standard issue carry out or buffet Chinese dishes, but they taste soooo much better and fresher at House Gourmet, plus they had fun ornaments carved from what I'm assuming are radishes - one with a large white swan, and the other with a salmon-colored rose.

I took pictures (mostly to send Sharon and make her jealous!), but without using the flash (which would've washed them out anyhow) they turned out a little dark and fuzzy. Anyhow - here they are:

And then after our leftovers were boxed up we were presented with an interestingly carved half orange, with toothpicks for each of us to eat it with. Very nice!

Will have to get Sharon there for dinner sometime, I know Brett'll be willing to go back, ANNNND we'll have to round up some other friends to go - hopefully friends who're adventuresome enough to eat the sushi with Sharon and I!!! Dave - whaddaya think - would the guys go for something like this!?

Heroes doing super!

"Heroes was the highest-rated first-year series on television for the week of Oct. 16-22 in the demographic of adults 18-49, ranking No. 8 among all 92 programs last week in that key demo. Season-to-date, Heroes is tied for No. 7 among all 107 programs in adults 18-49 and is the top-ranked freshman series in the demo. "

Sean Ensign Pt 1

Part two will be coming later, when the site I originally found this guy on (along with hot pics!) comes back to life - Kenneth in the 212 seems to be down tonite.

Anyhow...Saw this guy - hot! Then I watched the video and I'm wondering - is it a music video for a techno remix, or is it a work out video!?!?! Sure, the guy's HOT, but I think I actually prefer his side shot with the glasses on. Many of the other scenes seem like he wishes he was in the Backstreet Boys or N'Sync....ages ago.

Check out the video, but realize there's a lot of rehashing of still images in it (probably to fill in the music-only parts of the remix)

PS Here's another video - I DO have to admit if I looked like that you'd have a hard time keeping a shirt buttoned up on me. Oh, let's be hoenst, you'd have a hard time keeping CLOTHES on me!!!

Wait - I'm still watching the video now - he's STRAIGHT!? Hm. This requires more research!

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful...

...hate me because I'm Photoshopped really well!!

This is wild and crazy - and now you know what I have to go through every day before going to work, and I STILL just don't quite look like my pictures! ;-)



"No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted!"

Kittytude!

Something tell's me this little guy's afraid of NOTHING! Surprised the dog's not yelping!

Microsoft sends congratulations cake to Mozilla

http://fredericiana.com/2006/10/24/from-redmond-with-love/

Aaaw snap! Oh no you di'nt, beeyotch!!

ROFL! You'd think if Microsoft was going to send a congratulatory cake over to the Mozilla gang for the release of Firefox 2.0, the least they could've done was gotten a cake that LOOKED NICE!

Save The Cheerleader...

This is going to be my new Monday nite statement for awhile I think:

"WOW!"

Followed closely by:

"I WANT MORE!!!"

Once again, I LOOOOOVED Heroes! The interactions are great, and the new effects for powers we're seeing are loads of fun. You will believe a man can fly. Hell, *I* want to fly! Loved the sonic boom and the landing sequence! And it's great to see that Peter's coming into his powers, maybe realizing what he can do (I don't know that he's QUITE got it yet...).

If I were the cops wife, I think I'd be MORE than a little suspicious, and really pissed once she finds out what's going on. Sure, he's doing it all to be nice, but could she feel like it's a form of mind rape?

And hello - has the cop NEVER read a comic with a psychic? You can't read minds without getting overwhelmed until you get your power under control. Dooooh! ;-)

Even more of the character's coming together - Nikki meeting Hiro's buddy (who's name I forget), Hiro talking to Peter, Peter and the painter finally getting somewhere... Loved it!

When the cops said DL (?) had pulled a Houdini, I kinda wondered if he was going to have a shape shifting or phasing power. From the previews it looks like he's either phasing through solid objects, or becoming part of whatever he touches. A totally wild guess with little to base it on - if he DOES go "into" physical objects (as opposed to phasing through them), can Nikki's alter ego fight him in a mirror? Could be interesting!

Maaaaan - got another full week to wait for more! Can't wait!

Oh, and does anyone here also watch How I Met Your Mother? Another great episode!!! Wish we would've started DVRing The Class - we caught that last week and really enjoyed it. I figure we'll watch tonite's Two and a Half Men tomorrow nite...

Gay Hayride 2006 - the video evidence!

Finally got all the videos taken from last nite's adventures with the gay hayride uploaded to YouTube. The last one was so big/long I had to split it in two (thanks to the help of the nice and simple, easy to use, and FREE SolveigMultimedia AVI Trimmer software I found online) - YouTube has these issues about videos more than 100MB in size! Since YouTube is really good about streaming the videos to you before they're finished downloading, I'm hoping you don't find too much wait time to check 'em out.

Trust me - watch 'em - you'll get to see how big a dork I am when it comes to dancing to anything other than techno mixes I already know and without a major buzz! It ain't pretty! I was obviously looking at the feet of whoever was dancing in front of me. And when Sharon goofed up (she thought Brett was taking a picture of her, which threw her off), it messed me up even more - LOL!

Pocky!

While I DO love Pocky, I have to say they've never had QUITE this effect on me. Granted, I'm not some cute little Japanese girl in a kick-ass room!

Perhaps I need to wear that dress when eating Pocky? Naaaah....

All right stop, collaborate and listen

After getting back from the hayride, we were discussing Halloween costumes for this year. Sharon revealed a certain someone else might be Vanilla Ice, and before we knew it, Brett was pulling up some classic oldies to listen to.

And then Sharon got a little wild:

Before we knew it she was a dancing fiend - perhaps she was still going from a wild night of line dancing!?!? Either way, before I could grab the camera she was done. Didn't take too much convincing to get her back up and dancing again - yay! Crank up the volume and you might get to hear a little Ice Ice Baby in the background! ;-)

(and, darn it, I'm STILL waiting on the last of the line dancing videos to finish "processing" with YouTube...so those'll have to wait til tomorrow...sorry!)

Daddy's little helpers

Ahhh - the Halloween party's a week away, and we don't know what we're going to be, and I've hardly done the decorating yet! Better get my ass in gear!

First step? Get the stuff out of the garage - and so begins the holiday swap outs. Start with the tubs of Halloween stuff. Once Hallaween's over most goes back into tubs and some of the general fall stuff can stay out. And as soon as Thanksgiving is over, the fall stuff gets packed up in the tubs and shoved onto shelves in the garage while we dig out the Christmas tubs!

And I certainly can't do it alone! Here's "daddy's little helpers" - two of them are getting to experience this for the first time in their very young lives...

Nutmeg in, Nutmeg out

Nutmeg - it really adds just the right extra "something something" to certain dishes - eggnog, cooked spinach dishes, anything with a baked ricotta-like cheese... It doesn't offer any zing, zap or pow to the dish - it's more like a subtle earthiness that brings it all together maybe? Whatever it does - it's good!

I think mom gave me my first nutmegs years ago, telling me you don't buy the pre-ground stuff. It's pricey, and loses flavor in no time - a senseless purchse. Instead you buy whole nutmegs, keep 'em in a jar, and just grate what you need as you need it - that's fresh nutmeg flavor! And with rasp or microplane graters becoming all the rage thanks to the Food Network over the last few years - it's so much easier to get a super fine grating on nutmeg into your recipe.

You can see here what was left of my old nutmegs sitting along side today's purchase from Mr Bulky's less than 10 minutes from here (very handy!). They were something like $12.48/lb - so they certainly don't SOUND cheap! But a little nutmeg goes a long way, and in their whole format, they last a loooong time (while I don't know how long I've had the ones you see on the plate, it's embarrassingly long!). I just checked the receipt - that pile of new nutmeg came to exactly $2.00 (what're the odds!?) - I'll get many gratings (and many years!) worth of great flavor out of them...

Just as soon as I took these pictures I pitched the old ones and put the new ones in the old chicken boullion jar mom gave me for nutmeg. Ready to start cooking!

Yappy Hour

Brett works at Huntington Bank in Kent - there's a new branch that opened out in Macedonia (where we got to the "good theater" for movies) earlier this year, and they were having a special event this past Saturday morning. Various pet rescue/adoption services came out with cats and dogs needing new homes, a lady who sells special organic/fancy pet food set up, an organization was giving rabies shots and doing free chipping was there, etc. They also had a radio station out there, a couple photographers, clowns with balloon sculptures, and more!

Huntington employees (and the loved ones they could rope into joining them!) were asked to volunteer to help with the set up, hand outs, events etc, as well as directing visitors inside to set up new accounts. Folks got to bring their pets for a costume contest as well (this was like a couple dozen dogs and one cat!).

I won't go into the lack-of-organization that made some parts a bit of a mess - overall it was a real success, really got Huntington's name out there, made more people aware of the various pet adoption/rescue services, helped a lot of pet owners get their dogs chipped, etc. It was a lot of fun!

Brett and I were supposed to man the table where people signed up for the costume contest, but with the, eh hm, lack of organization we really weren't told what to do, so we sort of took liberty at making sure stuff was done where we could. Brett helped march Mister Noodles, a rott-and-?? mix, around to introduce him to people and tried to find him a home, while I handed out dog food bowls and foam dog-shaped hats to people and got 'em signed up for stuff, found answers to miscellaneous questions people had, etc.

Here's a few pics from the event taken on my cell phone (so focus isn't so great, sorry):

Crowd shot during a lull

Brett really didn't need to hold Mr Noodles' leash -
he wasn't going anywhere while the pet masseuse
worked him over!

Brett and Mr Noodles showing off their matching Huntington shirts - cute!

Gay Hayride 2006

We had A BLAST at last nite's gay hayride out at Boyert's Farm - our best one yet. I think this was our fourth or fifth time going. Usually we get a friend or two to go along, and I think once we went solo. Some feel it's too coupley or not very exciting and really don't get into it.

Me? I love the fun country stuff, the atmosphere (straw-dust choked that it is!), watching folks dancing, the tractor ride out into the field to pick a pumpkin in the dark (no moonlight this year!), the straw fights (sadly, there were none this year), etc...

Sharon decided to join us this year, and I THINK she had a fun time (judge for yourself - check out the pictures!). Her sister thought it was odd she'd go to a gay event, but I'm glad she joined us - we had such a great time! I think Brett and I were both a little tired after our long morning at the Huntington Bank "Yappy Hour" pet event out in the cold all morning, but we perked right back up while having fun with Sharon, s'mores, dancing, lassoing, cows, lesbians, straw and more!

Here's a link to the pics album (with captions) - see for yourself!

2006 Gay Hayride

Green Dreams

Justin Hartley: http://www.justinhartleyonline.net/
My new boyfriend? (I have so many!)


Whoooooo boy! Here's the guy who's playing Green Arrow on Smallville this season. When I first read about the new character/plotline, I was skeptical. We are LOVING the Green Arrow stuff on Smallville - it really seems to be re-invigorating the series, adding a fun new spin, etc. Not to mention SEX APPEAL!!! He's sooooo dreamy! (Squealing like a school girl) Brett's not too keen on the "pretty boy" look, but I have no complaints! And it's fun that they're working in the trick arrows, the nifty cool kick ass bow, etc. Wonder how soon we'll see a boxing glove arrow!??!

Click on that link above for even more great pics of him at his web site. Nice!

(Oh interesting - I see he was actually cast to be Arthur Curry/AC/Aquaman for the Aquaman TV show that didn't air. I've read you can download it from iTunes - might have to check that out. He's certainly a better, and more charismatic, actor than the guy who played AC on Smallville last season...)

Happy Birthday Conrad!

Conrad (of the incredibly famous and popular Peter-&-Conrad couple) turns 50 today - so wish him a happy birthday! From what I already know, Peter's going to make sure it's a great event!

Let's Get Some Shoes!

LOL This one's great! Not for the feint hearted - if you don't approve of the F-bomb getting dropped repeatedly, don't watch it! Otherwise - enjoy! (This guy could easily pull off an Andy Dick impersonation!)

Rainbow Wranglers Weather

I guess if we're only going to get one nice day in the forecast, this is for the best!

Saturday nite we're going to the Gay Hayride out past Medina (where Brett's folks live) - sponsored by the Rainbow Wranglers of Cleveland. I think this'll be our fourth year (although not consecutive) - and each time we've had a lot of fun. First year we went with a few friends, then I think Jay went with us, then we went by ourselves? Most of the gang just doesn't get into it, but Brett and I really enjoy it.

This year Sharon'll be gracing us with her presence. While no lesbian herself, I keep trying to convince her we'll get her some action before the nite's over! ;-) Seriously though, it really doesn't have to be a gay thing - I know other organizations sponsor the same hayride nites - I'd totally go if it was a work event (hmmmm...note to self!)

Anyhow - wish us luck for the weather forecast. Wouldn't be much fun riding a wagon out to the pumpkin patch in the rain, not to mention tromping around in the mud...blech!

To see what sort of fun you'll be missing out on, here's our pics from 2003!

Bindi, the Jungle Girl

After seeing how talented and well-spoken this young lady of 8 was when she read sort of a eulogy for her father after his death, I totally believe Bindi Irwin could pull off her own show!

"Like father, like daughter. Bindi Irwin, the 8-year-old daughter of the late 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin, will star in a wildlife series to air on the Discovery Kids network early next year. The show's working title: 'Bindi, The Jungle Girl.'"

For more of the story...

Heroes - can I time travel to next Monday nite?!

Wow, another GREAT episode! I need to patrol the web some and see how this show's going in the ratings, blogs etc. Ya ask me, it's two thumbs up all the way!

Love how the plot threads are starting to cross over. Love how the big cast is kept moving at a speedy pace. Love how we're getting new little tid bits. Great show! LOVE IT!

So we've decided Peter's getting the powers of the other "Heroes" - but on what basis? Proximity? Consciousness? Are we even right? I wondered if Peter is Sylar - perhaps driven insane by taking on all the other powers? And he could be committing crimes in the present using Hiro's time travel power?

Love his funky lop-sided smile.

Hate his brother, Nathan.

Ali Larter (Niki) continues to rock - been a big fan of hers ever since I saw her in Final Destination. So her other personality says "Niki isn't here..." So who's the other personality?

Still not sure how I feel about Claire, the cheerleader. Wasn't real fond of her at first, but she's growingo n me.

Love Hiro - he's a blast!

"Save the cheerleader.

Save the world".

Halloween's almost here!!!

Ahhhh! Less than TWO WEEKS til our Halloween party! Tons of people are invited - friends outside of work, people from where I work, Brett's coworkers... Neither of us have costume ideas. Haven't started decorating for the event (what if someone wants to come see the condo and make an offer?!?!). No pressure or anything but....AHHHHHH!!!!

For pics from two of out parties from recent years, check out these links:
Halloween 2005
Halloween 2004

Kitty in a basket

I don't even remember this shot taking place. My guess? I was goofing around with Simon in the basket, went to show Brett, and flopped down on the guest room bed behind Brett's computer. Did I fall asleep? I don't have a clue - but Brett shared this pic with me. Cute cat!

Blue Ant Group

Er, ah, I meant Blue MAN Group, although from where we were sitting they were more ant-sized in appearance!


Here's some pics Brett got on the camera phone, which I TRIED uploading the day afterwards, but the entry got lost...

(Brett was actually zoomed in for these pictures!)

And from these pictures you can see how much fun we were having. Or how much shock we got from having Brett fire off the flash in the darkness! LOL

Jay

Dave

Me

Brett

Recent outing with the guys...

These are pics that were to be posted recently but were lost by Blogger beta...

Michael and Nick were in town from the Land of Canadia, and we got together with them and Randy & Larry for some fast cheap pasta with Olive Garden's bottomless pasta bowls. Mmmm good food and good friends!

Sun Kittens

Moxie, and a special brief appearance by Simon, catching some rays. Now THAT'S contentment!

Ouch - Gorge Head

NOT the best self-portrait, but it's not easy to take a picture of the top of one's own head! Here's a view of the raw spot on top of my head after yesterday's run-in with a fallen tree. There's still some hair stuck in the raw spots I think? Hair looks goopie from the neosporin Brett put in it last nite...didn't wash it all out this morning.

I think the scraping must've looked a lot worse yesterday when Brett was cleaning them - you should've seen the faces and heard the noises he was making! Worse of are my neck and shoulders - talk about sore!

Love that receding hairline - hot, hunh? ;-)

Recent Cookings

Late last week I roasted a chicken, along with some veggies tucked underneath (onion, carrots and fennel). In a separate pan I roasted some of my freshly dug up russian fingerling potatoes from the garden - along with some thyme and garlic. It all turned out really good!

Since then I cooked up some of those frozen tortellini pasta with leftover spaghettie sauce one nite. Last nite I took the remaining tortellini (unsauced), re-boiled them briefly (better than just nuking them), added in the last of the white meat from the roasted chicken, and added homemade pesto from the freezer, lemon juice, olive oil and some crushed red pepper - turned out great!

Man Flesh!

Can I have him?

Please, can I?

PUH-leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!?!??!

(Christmas isn't THAT far off really!)