hybrid parking.

'

When we were in Canada last weekend, I dragged McAllister to one of my fave stores - IKEA. On our way in, I noticed Ikea now has parking spots reserved specifically for hybrids! Even though I don't have one yet, I think it's way cool. I later read that despite the 'hybrid' text on the sign, any 'green' vehicle can park in these spots. And I'm not talking about the color of your car either.

A green car is any low-emission vehicle, as defined by the recent Canadian federal government incentive program. Ikea even has implemented an anti-idling program, to encourage shoppers to turn their car off while LOADING up all their goodies. Neat-o.

I wonder when the Ikea stores in the US will start to have the sign? Just another example of the 'going GREEN' trend phenomenon that is occuring all around us.

naked fish.

Here's something that doesn't happen often - I travel and FORGET to bring my camera! That never happens b/c it's always in my handbag - but I downsized for my quick, 2-day trip to Boston and it forgot to make the leap to my luggage. BOO.

Last night, my Aunt Tina picked me up at the hotel for dinner & she had the BEST surprise. She brought along Aunt Karen w/o me knowing! Completely MADE my day! No camera didn't stop me from snapping a camera pic of the DELICIOUS meal we ate at the Naked Fish last night either. This restaurant started in Massachusetts and is known for providing fresh, simple, naked fish seared over a grill with olive oil and lemon. I had the Mahi-mahi, mmmm, and also tried Tina's tuna which was stellar! I hope to be back to the area soon to visit family and perhaps try one of those cuban cocktails - the Latin Love sounds great!

bamboo fence.

In our backyard, we have a pretty unsightly chain link fence that stands about 4 feet tall. It's so ugly, that I had to go back to the photos I took at our engineer's inspection 2 years ago to find a picture of it. It does it's job, but I really don't like looking at it too much.

Last year, we priced out a wooden fence option to replace the chain link. Even with a teeney-tiny yard, it was going to be PRICEY. This year, I've been debating an alternative to the wooden fence which is much more affordable. I've been looking at BAMBOO.

Bamboo is a natural, architectural material that is both durable and economical. There are a lot of different styles, however the one I like (to the left) is a rolled bamboo made of split canes. It is affordable and fits right into the GREEN environmentalism trend that is sweeping the nation. It would be quick and easy to install, we could do it in an afternoon and wouldn't be so permanent like the wooden fence.

Thoughts?

labels.

Does everyone know about 'labels'?

When I'm writing up some nonsense for my blog, there is space at the bottom to 'label' it. I can add as many labels as I want, which will appear at the bottom of the post online. Like 'party', 'lucy', or 'projects', etc.

As a blog reader, you could click on any label - like 'party' - to see all the other posts I have written about over the last 10 months with the same label.
I like to think of it as categorizing my nonsense for myself and others. It's like a search engine to my nonsense. It's also probably helpful b/c even though my blog has one topic (ME), there can be a lot of subtopics within me. I'm pretty diverse ;-)

it's official!

No last minute snags or hiccups, the kids made it across the stage! What a nice weekend for everyone!

I had so much fun hanging out with the family in Albany and getting to meet Lisa's family. What a sweet bunch! Looking forward to the next celebration already.

Pics are in and online. Trying to find a tool to so that everyone can upload to the same album. That way we can see who has better photos and order prints if we want. Stay tuned!

Albany Pump Station.

The Albany Pump Station draws its name from its location. It's a warehouse-sized building that was formerly used to draw water out of the Hudson River and pump it into Bleecker Reservoir. In 1927, the pump station moved over 7 BILLION gallons of water. It's a brew PUB today, with a bunch of its own varieties of beer on tap. The distilling vats are up above the bar, visible from all areas of the restaurant. There are also the huge CRANES that were originally part of the water works, which I found out have been restored and are now used on occasion to lift the fermenting vats.

Saturday night, we went there for some great food and beer. We were celebrating the college graduation of my little brother Jon and his girlfriend Lisa. There was about 15 or so of us, and we were in GREAT company. I had the popular 'Pump Station Burger', accompanied with a nutty, brown Ale called 'Kick-ass BROWN'. All in all, it was FUN. A great alternative to all the popular CHAIN restaurants that are always within arms reach.

graduation weekend.

It's finally here! Graduation weekend (University @ Albany) for my little bro Jon (aka: birdman) and his girlfriend Lisa. Hard to believe that those 2 faces will be awarded a college degree in just a few days....

We're off to Albany, NY tonight for lots of weekend festivities. A little rain isn't going to stop this party. Hat's off to the graduates!

snail mail.

I have some crafty friends who are great at making heartfelt, personal cards. While I'm not so paper/scissors crafty, I do know that I can take a GREAT picture. Which is why I love getting cards from Kodak Gallery.

You can MAKE cards or invitations and ship them directly to you, which I'll do if I'm buying like 20 identical notecards. I'll pick out a cool photo and leave them blank inside so I can write messages later. OR you can have a one of a kind card made and shipped directly to your recipient, which is much more FUN. Even the 'not-so-crafty' can get very creative with the right tools!

Take for example, the Kodak Gallery card I just mailed to my friend Allison. Do you remember how much I HEART Mikwright greeting cards? Well, I love them so much that I decided to make my own 'Nicwright' card since Allison loves them too. I uploaded a funny, provocative photo from our Europe trip to the Gallery website (no judgements PLEASE), added an even more provocative message to the inside and on the back and VOILA! You can't buy that in the greeting card aisle! I should also mention, it's just as cheap as a regular card. (and I won't have to worry about all those 2 cent short stamps I have.....)

I've also decided that Mikwright should run a CONTEST for their card purchasers to design a new card. I know some people who would be great at coming up with just-slightly-left-of-center ideas & photos! The prize should be... hmmm... unlimited mikwright cards for LIFE!

bathroom update.

This past weekend, my mother and her boyfriend Tom came to visit. We had a nice dinner at PF Chang's Saturday evening and Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day by attacking some household projects.

We purchased a new sink/vanity for our upstairs bathroom. The old one was a bisque color and didn't match the white toilet and bathtub. The new white one is what they refer to as a 'european' style, meaning it the vanity itself is slimmer and doesn't stick out as far from the wall. We like that, because the bathroom in our old city home is teeney-tiny. The 6 inches we got back really does help open up the small space. I'll take it despite the fact it's 106 sq in more that I have to clean!

Check out the photos on my projects page for the before/after!

postal rate hike.

Today marks another day that stamp prices increase, they go up to $0.41.

It is just my luck that I recently bought a ROLL of 100 stamps. BOO. As recent as like 3 weeks ago. I was obviously unaware of the planned increase, and was not informed either during my purchase. That doesn't make me happy. Am I supposed to buy 100 two cent stamps now?! Perhaps I can return them for the new Liberty stamps. Apparently they are good forever.

If you can believe it, stamp prices have increased from .10 to .41 in just 32 years! I wonder where the future of mail is going? It'll likely go digital like everything else. I'm thinking digital like perhaps the 'EZPass' of stamps, they'll just charge us as we ship!

oh.... but then what will the stamp collector do?!

towel rack.

Just in time for weekend guests, McAllister and I finished a JUNK project that we started a bit ago. We made a TOWEL RACK out of an old ladder I scored from a recent junk outing with Sondra. For $20 total (ladder + custom glass shelf), I think it adds the perfect vintage touch to my shabby chic guest room and I am very happy with the results.

Check out my projects page for the how-to!

mini toletries.

This week I stayed at the DoubleTree in San Jose, California. Nice hotel with some nice staff.

Not to McAllister's surprise, I forgot my toothbrush back home. Happens everytime we, or I, travel. I must have the most diverse, traveled portfolio of toothbrushes from drugstores across the continental US and Southern Ontario.

This trip was no different. What I found HILARIOUS (and atleast got a laugh out of the gent who delivered it) was the size of the TOOTHPASTE that the front desk gave me with my toothbrush. It was itty-bitty and did not even contain 5 grams of toothpaste. I mean it's awfully considerate to assume I'll need toothpaste as well if I'm enough of an idiot to forget my toothbrush. But really - that thing didn't even last me 2 rounds! It's a good thing I remembered my travel size toothpaste.

swiss pics.

I'm slowly getting through ALL the European photos we took on vacation. It's time consuming weeding through them all, tossing the ones Mc took (HAHA) and giving them fun and appropriate photo titles. (btw - I'm kidding about Mc, he took some pretty NICE photos with his new digicam!)

I'm very happy to report that Bourg St Maurice (that's in the heart of the French Alps in FRANCE) is done and up on my Gallery Travel Page. There are not a lot of them, we were only there meeting up with friends for one night. We love visiting these friends, and we only get to see them once in a great while since they live down in Hilton Head, SC. It's just crazy ironic that we happened to be within an hour of each other half-way across the WORLD!! Pic highlights include the scenic hour drive from Geneva, the Eiffel Tower of Beer and the fresh food of the market we hit up for breakfast before we bounced on out of there. Actually... there was no bouncing.... we hit MAJOR traffic given it was Saturday morning in a TOURIST town with ONE street get to and from it...

In case you haven't seen the rest of our Europe photos, every city/country is up on my Gallery travel page except ITALY. Stay tuned.

california bound.

The wiki says: On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the atmosphere and the solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the sun is above the horizon. When the direct radiation is not blocked by clouds, it is experienced as sunlight - the intense combo of heat and bright light.

We enjoyed some beautiful weather here in rochester this past weekend. Sunlight was ALL around and the clouds were sparse. Today I'm headed to california for work. Looks like more sunny skies lie ahead for me this week and that makes me happy. SUNSHINE is good for the soul.

browncroft.

What: More than 200 neighborhood-wide garage sales.
Where: Eastern edge of the city! Map the route.
When: Sat. & Sun, May 5/6 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Why: You’d like some junk in your trunk.

piperlime.

I heart SHOES. Who doesn't? I received an email from Gap about Piperlime, an online shoe shop that they opened. I love the name and their logo, makes me hungry for lime flavored Tostitos. Although I'm not sure whether I'd buy shoes online, they're website is so FUN. Fresh Juice is their scoop on shoe news and trends and it's great for shopping the latest shoe style and trends. Search styles like peep toes, fabulous flats, metallics, bows, black and white - there is a pair for EVERYONE!