Bad Tattoos

Not only bad tattoo jobs, but bad ideas as well!  Includes this gem which claims to be a result of a lost bet.  Here is the rest of the gallery.  

My Birthday Week!

My favorite holiday of the year is tomorrow - my B-day!  I have some good things planned with my lovely friends which I will talk about soon.  As for this past weekend, I had a wonderful day on Saturday dozing off with Meatball on the couch while watching Bob Ross.  

His voice is so soothing, it lulls me to sleep!  And I want to pet his afro. What I did watch reminded me that I have to draw or paint something.  It's been two years since I touched an art supply and my art college education is going to slip away if I don't practice soon.  My action-packed, 4 wedding summer started with the first bridal shower on Sunday.  I gave her this off her registry,

Pyrex Prepware 13-pc. Set

which I secretly coveted for myself. One down, 3 more showers to go, along with bachelorette parties and the actual weddings. Oh boy.

Service project

I went to a catholic high school that has an alumni association that does a good job of keeping in contact with the alumni.  I got an email back in February that the alumni were doing a service project to help an inner city school in downtown Cleveland.  I emailed them back telling them I would volunteer to help.  I have been feeling sorry for myself lately still trying to deal with the effects of the breakup of my family from 4 years ago.  I knew that helping these kids would help me see how nice my life really is and get me out of my funk.  

Here's how the day went:  The events planned for the kids (grades 3-6) were a "field day" with different events.  The event that I was in charge of was the long jump.  There were other events including hula hoops, an obstacle course, free throw basketball, etc.  I had to measure how far each kid jumped, record it, and write down the best boy and girl from each of the 5 teams.  I literally bent down 50 times to measure and by the end of the day my thighs were burning!  But it was worth it to interact with and help these underprivileged kids have fun.  At the end of the games, there was a pizza lunch and a surprise talent show that even the volunteers didn't know about.  The group I was with came up with a dance and original lyrics in 10 minutes.  When it was time to perform, the volunteer "judges" gave my group a high score.  Then, the last group of the day went up and did the exact dance to Soulja Boy and won the talent show!  My group was so mad that they didn't think of that!

When the day was over, I went up to the principal and gave her my name and number and told her that I would love to help any time in the future.  I told her I was a graphic designer so I could help with art or anything.  I hope she calls me.  Here is a pic with me on the left and my group.  The girl who's arm I'm linked with is ChaNautica.  She is in 6th grade and was telling me how all the kids have cell phones because of how dangerous the neighborhood is when they walk home from school.  I wish all the best for these kids and hope they enjoyed hanging out with me as much as I did with them.  

  

Yeah I read teen books........What?

Teen books have come a long way since I was a teen in the 90's reading Babysitters Club and R.L. Stine. Sick of reading Chick Lit and other adult fiction, I recently discovered teen author E. Lockhart. I read The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book (which are a continuation of each other)in a weekend. The main character, Ruby Oliver, is so awkward and worries about the craziest things. Yet she and all the other characters speak in this dialogue that is very adult and witty. I'm dying for the next book in the series that Lockhart is completing right now. To tide me over, I picked up Fly on the Wall, also by Lockhart, and it was SCARY how similar this book is to my life! Gretchen Yee goes to art school where they take drawing class (me in college, check!), parents dropped the bomb that they were getting divorced (me in 2004, check!), is reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka in school (me in Mr. Manley's English class in college, CHECK!). I mean the first two instances could happen to a bunch of people, but I think the Metamorphosis is not fodder for a teen novel and that is one of my all time favorite books! Because of all of the above, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, mostly when Gretchen was a human and less when she was in the fly on the wall of the boy's bathroom sequence looking at naked boys and discovering her hormones. I guess that's the part for the teens.

Hudson & Downtown 140

Hudson, OH is one of my favorite places to visit. It has a cute Mainstreet USA type of vibe. There is a plethora of dogs being walked by their owners all along the streets and the city in general is dog friendly. You will see water bowls for dogs outside the shops and signs stating that a portion of the proceeds of the items for sale in the store will benefit the humane society.

Last Saturday, Danny and I went to Hudson to visit Downtown 140 for lunch.

I had a spring vegetable tart because I LOOOOVE veggies. And this had plenty - fresh peas, fava beans, asparagus, and morel mushrooms.

The best part of the day was going back for a second time to Main Street Cupcakes! I blogged about the first time here.

Clockwise starting from top right: Lemon Drop, MSC Mojito, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Pineapple Coconut Dream.

And the winner of the best cupcake out of those four......

Lemon Drop!!!!  Tasted like a lemonhead candy rather than natural lemon.  So good!

Blurbs

• My work is moving to a new building, and it SUCKS!  They prematurely took down my cubicle so for this past week and next week I'm all out in the open for everyone to see.  It's also a drag to pack office stuff that's been sitting here for 14 years.

• Last night's The Office was hilarious when they were talking about parking in the auxiliary lot. I loved when they called the meeting with all the big shots.  Totally reminds me of my work. And I cheered when Jim got down on one knee!  I didn't think the Jim and Pam storyline would move so fast.  Meanwhile Danny was looking at me horrified that I was so excited about a proposal.

• I won a Mariah Carey prize pack including her new CD E=MC2 from the Cleveland Free Times by entering the contest by email.  I had to get it on my lunch break because they are only open M-F, 9-5.  I probably would have saved money just buying the CD then by driving to downtown Cleveland and paying for parking though.  Oh well, it was adventurous to drive downtown at least.

Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

With the help of JustJenn's recipe and Danny's suggestion to use maraschino cherries in the centers.