Happy Memorial Day!

Another busy weekend! Yesterday was quite an adventurous day... 7am (yawn!) start to drive down to Six Flags to hit all the coasters we could handle, then a little side trip to dinner at a place on the beach (the beach!!) :) before heading back home. A very long day, but a very good one that left me a tired girl with sand in my sneakers, but with a smile on my slightly sunburned face.

Then today the operetta company sang the National Anthem at the Jackal's game. What an amazing experience, and I even had the honor and surprise of conducting!

Tomorrow will be a girly catch-up day with Alisachka (in lieu of a barbeque or mad sale shopping)... and then by the time night rolls around I will be able to say that this will be the best Memorial Day weekend in memory!

addictive stuff.... may lead to procrastination!

Went mini-golfing again on Monday night (there was much cheating and tampering of scores... but it's all in good fun!) and then found the following link in my Inbox the next day...
Mini Putt... and, of course, addiction has ensued. And now this one today: Bookworm, of which there is a similar version found at MSN Games. Oh, the ways to procrastinate are endless!

giddeyup, horsie!

Busy weekend. On Saturday, Matt and I went horseback riding! Fun stuff to go trail riding, even if your horse (Bandit) only wants to eat and not listen to you until he realizes that you might actually know what you're doing. But fun nonetheless. Although I am a little sore! :o
After riding, we picnic-ed at one of my favorite places - a State Park, which is actually near where he lives. And I learned the rudimentary concepts of how to drive a manual car. Luckily I wasn't too bad a student and had a patient teacher. I didn't make the grinding noise once! :) And I hear that it is quite a step for a guy to let you drive his car... especially when it's a fancy, shiny red one!

Today was a G&S performance at the Loew's theatre in Jersey City. The theatre is very interesting - all guilding and scrollwork and drapery - built in the 20's. It is being restored, but taking a long time, due to the way city governments work. But still a great place to sing and perform. And we had a fairly decent sized crowd, too, which is always good!

And now I am tired and didn't get done what I needed to for work... so I'll have to bust my butt tomorrow morning. O well. You can't be all-work and no play all of the time! Sometimes you need to ditch the work and just PLAY! :)

A Few Thoughts...

1. I know it is the point, but I hate the fact that shows leave you in a lurch when they end their "season finales". ER has left me wondering who (if anyone) is dead after the tunnel car chase. And is Neela going to somehow end up back at County? And Gilmore Girls - How happy am I with the Luke thing, but disgusted with the Dean thing?

2. I need to find a summer job. But I am so tired of retail and the million night closings you have to do as the lower-than-low-girl on the totem pole. Any suggestions as to a summer job? Maybe I'll try to see if I can follow Smacky's footsteps and find a bank. Bank hours are good.

3. Date #3 (4 if you're like mom and count coffee) is Saturday... to go horseback riding. Supposedly he knows how... interesting. Puts a lot of thought into things, I must say. Now if I could just figure out what to do/how to approach/recognize the fact that his birthday is this coming Monday... very stressful thoughts for the relationship challenged.

4. A little German phrase for you: ich bin eine handpuppe (I am a hand-puppet) :)

Happy 17 May!

For those of you clueless people out there, the 17th of May is Norwegian Independance Day... the Norwegian equivalent of the 4th of July. It's cool - there are parades and authentic costumes and stuff. I was actually in the parade in Norway when I was two. Pretty cool, eh?

If you want to find out more about this really cool country (which my mom is from!) check out this website... I still need to check it out myself, but I'm sure it's a good diving board for information on Norway. :)

Happy Syttene Mai!

feels like choir tour...

Today was a performance with the G&S group in CT - we hopped on a bus and went up, did the show (on a teeny stage!) and came home. The experience reminded me of choir tours in days gone by - hanging out on the bus, random rooms as dressing areas (this time a gym), etc. It made me miss it all!

Last night and tonight have been girl nights with mom, as dad is off fighting the battle of Gettysburg with men from church again. Yesterday we went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (a favorite!!) and then some shopping. I got a cute summer shirt at Old Navy for $7.99!! After returning home tonight, we had salads at Wendy's and rented Calendar Girls. Fun with mom. :)

But I'd better get off this contraption now that it's thundering outside...

How true is this?

Came accross this today and had a little chuckle. :) Deep stuff, and true! I love them! (And I actually know someone who has played Calvinball! I want to play!)

PS: I meant to say it sooner - my Jeep has come home! It's been a week now and I am tres happy to say that it looks like new again and drives wonderfully. Even though we had a glitch with the radio/cd player when I got it back, even that has been ironed out... and all is right with the world. (Except that the insurances are still fighting - but at least I have my baby!!)

Thank goodness for the Gap Outlet!

Quick post on my morning. We had "teacher caper day" at school, which involves the student council kids in 8th grade coming down to the elementary school for the morning to shadow a teacher. I, of course, got a non-musical student... even though there were no less than EIGHT of our band students there. Well, luckily she only had to deal with three of my classes (before I had to leave for the other school) and vice versa - she wouldn't even sing with the first graders!!

Anyway, I unintentially ended up decorating my white shirt with coffee splatters from a defective travel mug and had to deal with it until I had my very early Tuesday lunchtime (more like a late breakfast, if you ask me! The curse of seeing choirs at lunchtime!). Lucky also that the school is two blocks away from a small shopping mall with a Gap Outlet in it. Run in, try on a shirt, go to the register. The friendly guy cashier asked "Only one thing?" as I placed the shirt down. I pointed to the shirt I was wearing and he nodded understandingly, sending me off with a "No more coffee for you today!" as I paid and left.

Well, at least the shirt was on sale - 20% off! :)

False Alarm

So the car place called me at home today (when I was conveniently at work) to tell me that my car wouldn't be ready... so when I got to the repair place I got the whole spiel. So tomorrow it is. For real this time. But not until after Fiddler on the Roof (with seventh graders! in the cheap seats! woo hoo!)

A blessing on his head, mazel tov, mazel tov! To see a daughter wed, mazel tov, mazel tov! And such a son-in-law, like no one ever saw, the tailor Motel Kamzoil!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love 'ya, tomorrow...

Oh, Joy!! Tomorrow at 4pm my car will come home again! It has been six long weeks of insanity - two car payments, two rental cars, one (regular) insurance payment, and many many headaches over the state of insurance in New Jersey. But at least my car will be mine again! I've missed it! :)

PS.... as an answer to the question I posed on April 27, the quote is from Anne of the Island. I thought you might get it, smacky!

Red Herring, Vintage Board Games, and an end to Vacation!

The scoop on Friday is this: We went to see a play titled Red Herring, done by the 12 Miles West Theatre Company in Montclair. Very interesting - a 50's era complicated love story/murder mystery/McCarthy-era 6 person play. Funny, different and interesting. Then, we wandered down the street and stumbled on the coolest retro ice-cream/soda shop that featured vintage board games on the walls and a menu with traditional soda shop items and crazy ice-cream concoctions. I actually had a fluffernutter sandwich, if you can believe it! It was a very nice evening and we had a good time... especially judging from the fact that he called tonight and we're going to do something again next weekend. :)
Other than that, I am lamenting my vacation's end, especially since it means a week of craziness, with 2 different concerts and a field trip with seventh graders into NYC to see Fiddler on the Roof (looking forward to the show, but it is a bad week for it in terms of scheduling!). It's late! g'nite!