OPENING DAY TICKETS!

Just got Red Sox Opening Day tickets! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will be cold but I don't care, it's my only game this season. I couldn't even get Yankees tix since they occur on weekends I have much more important things to do (friend's weddings!) But Opening Day! I've never been to Opening Day before! I feel like Kermit when he's introducing the first act on the Muppet Show. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And joining the great ranks of parents of twins....

No, not us stupid.

My boy!

Man those are going to be some OCD athletic babies!

New post

posted here

Sorry it didn't show up as new. I created it a while ago and just decided to post it.

What Superhero are you?

Well, at least I'm not Batman.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 75% The Flash 75% Supergirl 60% Wonder Woman 50% Spider-Man 50% Green Lantern 50% Robin 42% Iron Man 40% Catwoman 35% Hulk 25% Batman 25%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Aerosmith is better than Aretha Franklin

Horrors! Gasp you might say! How could I say that ANYONE is better than the Queen of Soul? I apologize friends, but, quite easily. I TiVoed the RnR HoF ceremony and Ms. Franklin sang a few songs as a tribute to Ahmet Ertegun who founded Atlantic Records and who passed away last year. I forget the first song she sang which was great. She then sang her hit, "Never Loved a Man (the way that I love you)" which was covered by Aerosmith on their latest studio album, Honkin on Bobo, changing the title to "Never Loved a Girl (the way that I love you)." I just like Aerosmith's version better (at least compared to Aretha's live version during the ceremony). Maybe her album version is better. It just seemed this song was too low for Ms. Franklin's range. Maybe it used to be her range, but it's not anymore.

I can't wait to watch the part about Patti Smith (she also got inducted along with R.E.M., Van Halen, Grandmaster Flash and The Ronnettes).

I love Rock and Roll (and yes, I know that is a Joan Jett song).

How many times a day do you check your email?

I figured since I know I do this too often, I would try to count the number of times I check my non-work email in a given work day. I lost count during the morning, so I tried to estimate the number of times per hour. I still lost count, so I estimated 5 times in half an hour. Let's see, for a typical 8-hour work day, that's 16 half hours times 5 which equals.....80! I am pretty sure that is too many times.

The Happy Blues

For those of you who know me, you know that the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band is one of my (other) favorite bands. I just bought 10 Days Out, Kenny's newest CD/DVD set. I just put the DVD on while I was making dinner since I couldn't decide what to play on my iTunes library (sometimes too much makes it impossible to decide - one of the reasons I don't own an iPod, I can't decide what would be worthy enough to go on it). So I just finally sat down to watch some of it and I was just watching the part about Etta Baker. She is so cute and can play a sweet guitar. She learned from her dad, doesn't read music, and played her best song that came to her in a dream. She plays "happy blues" (aka Piedmont Blues) instead of the Delta blues. She is probably about 80-something years old and as happy as a clam (sidenote - are clams really happy?) I just love the blues. It can mostly fit any mood you are in: Happy, calm, mad, sad, agitated, gleeful, whatever else you can think of.

This is a fantastic disc. If you like the blues, or think you might like the blues, buy this CD.

Flatbread

Mmmmm. We are getting Flatbread pizza for dinner tonight. It is YUMMY! I love pizza. Pizza pizza pizza. Plus it's the weekend so I don't have to work, work, work. Tomorrow we are headed to the Boston area to have dinner with my In-laws (Weird, they are now my in-laws) since it is my FIL's birthday. I will also attempt to get my lazy ass to the gym since I haven't been in about 3 weeks. - Hey, at least I can watch spring training!!!

Buying a house is a nightmare

Some of you know we were in the process of looking for a house and actually found a decent one in Portland. However.......

Buying a house is a nightmare mostly because you search forever and find a house you agree is nice enough to live in, in a good enough area, and even though it has some cracks in it, as long as the seller installs a radon mitigation system, fixes the hot water heater so it's not a bomb and bolts the toilet to the floor, you are still going to go through with the sale. However, the seller and/or the seller's agent then decides to be a TOTAL ASSHOLE and refuses to negotiate with you any further. So then you try to terminate your contract and you basically have to sign all these forms that you will never go after the seller to try to get the money back you paid to have the structural engineer come out to tell you that even though the cracks in the foundation go all the way through, the house is still structurally sound; even though if you knew the seller and/or seller's agent was a LYING P.O.S. when they told you they agreed to your terms earlier, but instead they totally didn't, you never would have had the structural engineer come out to the house anyway and would have terminated the contract right then and there.

Fuckers.

On the upside - who needs to be saddled with a mortgage at this point? We can save so much more money by renting and then we can afford to buy something we REALLY like. We might even be able to go sweat out asses off during a stage of the Tour de France.

Quitting time!!

Yeah!!! Now I get to go to my job where I actually interact with people!!!

Loss

One of my best friend's dad passed away a little while ago. He had been sick for a while but it's still hard when the end comes. There was a very nice service and a loving eulogy was read. Despite the bitter wind, it was a sunny day. I just wanted to say we all love you and are here for you whenever you need us.

Being sick and wedding video

**WARNING** The first half of this post is whiney but I swear it gets better by the end.

Yuck. I have been sick for the past week and a half. I am starting to get better but now Sean is getting sick which is no good. When your sick, the whole world sucks. I didn't go to work one day, I left early another day due to a coughing fit I had on the phone, your nose gets sore from so many kleenexes and you're usually in a fog most of the time. Like I said yuck. But, soon it's over and you can get back to your regular life.

On a completely different note, we got our wedding video yesterday. IT IS AWESOME!!!! I am so glad we had it done. The woman who did it for us did a great job, she put a great soundtrack to it and used some cool effects. It was great to watch it and see how happy everyone was. It starts with the rehearsal and ends with the reception. I was really amazed that so many people were smiling so often. There are some pretty funny parts too, like I had asked Sean to get the loop for my wrist from my train, and he's searching for it with an expression on his face like, "Really, there's a loop hidden in all these layers?"

So thank you all again for being part of our wonderful day.

Happy Snowy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone is having a nice day. I have been stuck in my freezing cold cottage since about 2 working from home since the weather SUCKS right now. It's not even really snowing, it's more sleet/ice/wintry mix (whatever that is) so the accumulation is low and the possibility of having fun snowshoeing or XC skiing in this stuff is also low. I hope everyone who went inland or to the mountains is having actual snow.

Working from home is WAY worse than working at the office. There are so many things I would rather be doing and they are all within reach, but I can't do them because then I would have to take a vacation day. Besides, my hubby is working too and the TV would bother him too much. I think I might have to take control back though within the hour since it is already after leaving time.

Sorry this is such a complaint-ridden post, but I hope you can understand why.

Happy VD! (Ha ha - I just love saying that!)

I am not a crybaby

So, even though I am not as big of a crybaby as my friend Scott, I am practically bored to tears right now so I am going to post the five movies that I am pretty sure I cried during:

5. Remains of the Day - When Anthony Hopkins reaches out to touch Emma Thompson's hand, but then pulls back, making you realize that they will never be together, it's a kleenex moment.

4. Green Card - I know, how many people actually watched this lame movie? But for some reason when I watched this long ago, I cried like a fool when they let you know that Gerard Depardieu is getting deported after he tried so hard to study for the immigration test pretending to be married to Andy MacDowell.

3. Life is Beautiful - For many, many reasons, but for two main scenes: when they are lost and trying to hide and run into the wall of bodies, and when Roberto pretends to be a soldier, ever the strong father, and gets shot.

2. Philadelphia - mostly the hospital scene when Antonio Banderas is there with Tom Hanks

1. Where the Red Fern Grows - who decided to show this movie at camp?! The title says it all.

Honorable mentions: Four Weddings and A Funeral (same as Scott for the eulogy), The Family Stone (mostly because I thought it was going to a comedy but was NOT), Field of Dreams (when Kevin Costner's dad plays catch), For the Love of the Game (when Kevin Costner pitches a perfect game)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

To my kid sister. I wish you the best year ahead!

Finally!

Sarah Louise Whitford, daughter of Barbara and Ned Whitford of Westerly and Sean Lewis Sweeney, son of Carole and Gerard Sweeney of Dover, MA were married Saturday, October 28, 2006 at three in the afternoon at Christ Church, Westerly, RI. Reverend Robert W. Anthony officiated. Ceremony music was performed by George E. Kent and the Christ Church Choir, trumpet by Richard Given, and bell ringing by Aimée E. Blanchette. Harvey M. Blanchette and Emily A. Sweeney read during the ceremony. The bride’s sister, Lucy E. Whitford was the maid of honor and the bridal attendants were Alisa Saunders, Heather Sanborn and Kara Fieldhouse. The best man was James Damon and the ushers were Ryan Saunders, Michael Freitas and Andrew Kruppa. Flowers at the church were arranged by Jane Barber and flowers for the reception were arranged by Julie Cronan, Susan Sweeney, Regina Murphy and Andrew Lidestri. The ceremony was followed by a reception at The Chester House in Westerly.

The bride, employed by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, ME, graduated from the Graduate School of Oceanography at URI. The groom graduated from the University of Maine School of Law in Portland, ME. He is employed by Pierce Atwood, LLP in Portland, ME. They honeymooned at the Orchard Cottage in Queenstown, New Zealand. The couple resides in Maine.

The couple was surrounded by lots of loving friends and family!

What is Manamana?

Answer: The first sketch of the first episode of The Muppet Show.

As a splurge over Christmas, I bought myself the first season of The Muppet Show on DVD. I watched the first three episodes last night. It is such an awesome show. Anyone who has kids ages 3 and up should own this show. There aren't any scary parts and the muppets are hilareous and what the kids don't get, the parents will. I think Jim Henson was on some heavy drugs when he created this show, but he was a genius.

Where else will you see a left-handed conducting frog? (Who knows who else is a left-handed conductor?)

Let's go Pats

I have heard a lot of talk about how boring the game between the Patriots and the Colts is going to be. I don't understand. Do people think it is going to be a blowout? That is the only kind of game that is boring. Do people not know that these teams are rivals? It is always exciting when rivals play (i.e. Red Sox and Yankees) even when it is a blowout. Maybe people are disappointed because there won't be any severe weather to contend with. This is a valid point, but that just means the strategy will have to be that much better. I, for one, am pretty sure this game will be anything but boring.

If you want to talk boring, let me tell you about this Microsoft Access class I took......

Sting Like A Bee

Muhammad Ali turned 65 this week. Most of you who know me know that I am not a boxing fan. I just never saw the point of watching grown men beat each other up. Maybe there is some sort of strategy or something, but I don't get it.

However, I am a fan of good people. This is not to say he was always a good person, but he did become a good person and mended the errors of his ways. He has given millions of dollars to charities and persevered despite his severe illness.

So, happy birthday to the greatest, keep on dancing.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I would like to take a moment to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Days like today are necessary to make us remember that there were people who had great hope for our country and world. We need more people like that to get others fired up about equality no matter what they look like, what language they speak or what religion they practice.