Boo!
Happy Halloween!
posted by Sarah Reilly 10:55 AM -

Once in a Blue Moon
Here's an interesting tidbit I heard on the radio this morning... Halloween this year will have a blue moon! Having two full moons in one month is pretty rare (hence the expression, "once in a blue moon") but having Halloween fall on a blue moon day, well, that probably only happens once in a blue moon...squared?
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:39 AM -

You would think with an extra hour this weekend, I could've gotten all the household chores done and still have had time to catch up on sleep, right? Nope! The weekend was just totally packed! We went to a birthday party for a 1-year-old (with a magician and everything!) and a Halloween party on Saturday. Sunday was mainly cleaning and stuff - which always takes more time than it should! Today I'm a little nervous - we left Molly uncrated this morning. It could be good or bad...it'd be great if we could ditch the crate - it takes up a lot of room in the family room, and she can't figure out how to open the door even if it's partly open. But I'm worried that she's really not completely past the boredom chewing phase. Of course, that might turn out ok too - we just might have to get new furniture to replace our mismatched hand-me-downs... :D

Go Victor!
OK, I admit it - I'm a field band fanatic. I played bass drum for two years in marching band and it was great. Actually, I was pretty skinny those two years - maybe I should join a drum and bugle corp to lose some weight... Anyway, the NYS field band championship was yesterday, and my brother's school took first place in their class - woo-hoo! - so we waited up at the school (in the cold!) for all the buses to come back from Syracuse. They had three fire trucks escorting them all the way from the Thruway - sirens and lights going and everything. To anyone who doesn't know what's going on, it must be pretty frightening!
posted by Sarah Reilly 1:48 PM -

All I want for Christmas...
My Christmas wish list has dwindled to two items: Shrek on DVD and the new Apple iPod. I've got to get this. Now if only it were about half the price, that might be realistic. Unfortunately, although we're not poor by any stretch of the imagination, $400 on a new gadget is just plain silly. But I still want it!
posted by Sarah Reilly 12:04 PM -

I should not be allowed to read on weeknights. I'm reading Lord of the Rings, and last night I didn't go to sleep until sometime after midnight. I knew it was time to put the book down when I had to re-read a sentence four times just to have it register... As I'm already somewhat sleep-deprived, reading is a very bad habit for me. Maybe I should try to limit it to one chapter at a time - except then I'd never finish the book before the movie comes out! I'm almost done with book one, and the movie covers books one and two. I guess I'll be able to get some sleep in a couple of weeks...if I don't find another bad habit to replace reading with...or another book to read...
posted by Sarah Reilly 10:52 AM -

blog awol
Lisa and Mike's wedding was great! Aside from a couple of glitches - including one of the bridesmaid's cars running out of oil and Denis misplacing the bowtie for his tux - everything went swimmingly well. I continue to be amazed at the capacity of our Jetta's trunk - they got a ton of gifts, and all but the largest managed to fit in the trunk of our car! Of course, Kate's bad luck (the oil-free bridesmaid) seems to have transferred to Denis - not only did he lose his bowtie, but last night he got pulled over for a dead taillight. Oh, well.

An amazingly strange coincidence happened, too. My brother was in Ohio for a field band competition, and his band visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday. As they were leaving, he noticed a large wedding party pull up in a trolley bus. As we were getting out of the trolley bus at the Hall of Fame, I noticed a large group of high school students boarding their bus. It's really too bad neither of us thought to look for the other - we only realized it when we both got home last night. Weird!
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:46 AM -

Call me now!
My mom is being stalked by Miss Cleo. A couple of days ago, she got an email from Miss Cleo saying something along the lines of "I don't normally email people I haven't spoken to, but I have some very important news for you". Then yesterday, she got a phone message from Miss Cleo. This message was a bit more urgent, something like "I have some life-changing news I have to tell you, call me as soon as possible". I think she should call Miss Cleo back and ask her if she knows who's been leaving threatening messages for her (my mom, that is). Fortunately, my mom is smart enough to realize she's just being direct-marketed... I wonder who sold her name to that list, and whether they have my name too?
posted by Sarah Reilly 7:29 AM -

Here comes the bride
I went to see "Legally Blonde" last night with Lisa (who's getting married Saturday!) and some friends as a pseudo-bachelorette party. It was actually pretty funny. Then we went to Phillip's. Mmmm. They have every dessert you can think of, as well as french-pressed coffee. Only problem was, I only had 10 minutes at Phillip's before I had to leave for dance class, so I got dessert to go, and no coffee. :( But I have a lovely dessert waiting in my fridge for tonight! I'm getting very nervous about this wedding. I've never been a maid of honor before. Oh, alright, I'm really a matron of honor, but I hate that word - it makes me feel very old, and, well, matronly. :D
posted by Sarah Reilly 9:05 AM -

I knew it!
I shoudn't have gotten out of bed this morning. It has been (and will probably continue to be) a very bad day. Next time, I'm going to listen to that little voice which was trying to convince me to sleep in this morning!
posted by Sarah Reilly 3:47 PM -

Sleepy
This morning was one of those mornings where it's still dark when the alarm goes off, the outside air is quite chilly, and the bed is very warm and cozy. You know - the kind where you want nothing more in the world then to just stay in bed all day and sleep, and maybe read (I'm trying to read the Lord of the Rings before the movie comes out). Unfortunately, I had to go to work today. I think I need to rearrange my schedule so I can sleep in at least one day a week. I bet I'd be more productive that way...
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:19 AM -

Trekkie?
I'm not sure whether to be insulted or amused by Tina's latest post. :D I don't consider myself a Trekkie, although I might have been at one point in my life - like I'd ever admit it... But if it makes Tina feel any better, I took the quiz, and I too am apparently just a clone of Data. Which leads me to wonder whether that would be the answer every time, and who are the other robots? The only other one I can think of is the robot from Lost In Space...
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:27 AM -

Coming soon to a theater near you
Has anyone else noticed how all the events since September 11th have had movie titles? First it was "America Under Attack", then "America's New War", and most recently "America Strikes Back". In fact, I think I started hearing theme music on one of the news stations. It just struck me as very strange.
posted by Sarah Reilly 7:27 AM -

The weekend was almost too busy to write about, but here goes...

Monday
Vacation! Well, not really, we spent the whole day at the animal hospital at Cornell getting Molly's hips checked out. The good news: no surgery until it's absolutely necessary. The bad news: it will almost definitely be necessary - she's only 18 months old and has terrible arthritis already. :( But she was pretty cute all afternoon - they'd sedated her for the x-rays, and she was extremely mellow! Then I met up with the EAT team to go shopping for spa day and our Halloween party. Going shopping is even more fun when you don't have to pay for it all! And I think I might have set a world record for shoe-shopping. I needed shoes to go with the bridesmaid's dress I have to wear in less than two weeks - I walked into a shoe store 5 minutes before they closed, tried on 8 pairs of shoes, and actually walked out with a pair. Denis didn't believe me. :)

Sunday
We went to Ithaca to visit with my grandparents and be close to Cornell for Molly's appointment Monday. The drive down was very pretty - leaves are changing all over - but we saw a few flakes of snow on a couple different occasions. Yikes! I think it's the earliest I've seen snow in a long time... At least it didn't stay on the ground! But it was very nice to be sitting in my grandparents' log home in front of a nice roaring fire sipping hot cocoa. Ahhh.

Saturday
I spent the day trying to catch up on cleaning and laundry. I failed miserably, so instead I went shopping. Much better! I ran into Jenny and Aaron at Media Play (not Target!) and bought some bulbs at Home Depot - now I just have to find some time to plant them. My parents and I also went to my brother's field band show. It was soooo cold - we ended up staying near the concession stand, buying every hot food and drink we could until it was time for his band to play, and we left immediately after they were done... Admission for three: $15. Hot food and drinks: $12. Freezing one's nose off: priceless. :)

Friday
We went to the Victor homecoming game tonight. And I have to say, that was the best football I've seen all season. We creamed Newark, 34 to 6. I think the Bills should just sign all the Victor players up - they might have a chance at winning a game this season. However - and this is not a slam against cheerleaders in any way - is there a reason why there need to be 31 cheerleaders when there are only 32 football players on the team? And if you thought about that the way I think it came out, you have a dirty mind. :D
posted by Sarah Reilly 8:49 AM -

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
...except when it arrives too early...
<rant> I love Christmas. It's my absolute favorite time of year - I love the music, the pretty decorations, the challenge of finding the perfect gifts for people, the snow... But the Christmas season starts after Thanksgiving. I can't believe I'm walking into department stores in the first week of October and seeing Christmas trees up already! Just because they're fake and will stay green all the way up until December 26th does not give people the right to start Christmas before Halloween even happens!!! Even craft stores are into it - all of the Christmas decorations and supplies are already on sale. By the time I get around to shopping for things, all of the Valentine's day merchandise will be out and I won't be able to find any Christmas things. It starts earlier every year - pretty soon, I'm going to have to start my Christmas shopping in March.</rant>
posted by Sarah Reilly 3:51 PM -

Home Sweet Home
So it was a fun weekend and all, but I think we spent about 18 hours in the car when all was said and done. Yuck! The only good part about spending time in the car was that Denis' parents bought the first Harry Potter book on tape and let us borrow it for the ride up - I really like those books! And that I got a lot done on the totebag I'm knitting. Molly was very happy to see us last night. Every time we go away, I'm pretty sure she thinks we're never coming back. I don't think she can sense time in any increments other than "right now", "very soon" and "never". It's pretty obvious what "right now" means. "Very soon" would be something like, "there's a treat, and I'm being asked to sit, so I'll get the treat very soon". "Never" is everything that doesn't fall into the other two categories. Although, I'm pretty sure she knows we'll be back when we leave for work in the morning - that's become such a routine by now - but I wonder if she realizes when we're a little earlier or later than usual? Oh, well - I guess I'll never really know.
posted by Sarah Reilly 12:41 PM -