reason #1305

...why i love my husband so much. he still leaves me love notes!

(the scheduled, early pot of decaf coffee won him points too)

big mtg @ work today so i brought the post-it for good luck.

poolside.

we're back from vacation.

as usual, i'm drowning in hundreds of photos of all the FUN we had. here are just a few pics of how we spent our 4th.... POOLSIDE!


that hat got around quite a bit!

missing sunshine.

yesterday it was almost 50 degrees here in the rochacha. even so, i'm missing that florida sunshine BAD. seasonal depression kicked my butt in gear to FINISH getting our trip photos online.

can i just say how much I HEART pictures?!?! going through them was like re-living the weekend all over again! i may get slack for taking a gazillion of them... but if that's what it takes to capture all our memories - I'll take the heat! you can check 'em out on my Kodak Travel Page.

my 'i love lucy' sand photo below is my desktop wallpaper at work. it helps get me through the long, grueling days. if you want to use any of the pics as your window to the sun:
- click on the image to make it bigger
- right click on it to save
- find the image on ur computer and open it
- right click on it 'save as desktop background'.

game day.

i present you... one crazed SUPER fan.



let's go GIANTS!

out with the old backgrounds.

i finally changed the background pics on my phone and computer. my phone's had a pic that my little bro sent me from his phone that he took when setting up their tree. (note the thumb) he was lucky enough to score the only evidence of me sitting in santa's lap (or next too. somehow his lap wasn't big enough for me as a chubby child).

my computer background has held a sneak peak into our xmas cards that I ordered. lucy gets more festive with each and every year. i wanted to share the blooper pics from that photo-shoot, but I couldn't ruin the surprise that was hitting mailboxes!


poor lucy.

happi bday.

happy birthday to me. happy birthday to me. happy birthday to NICKY. happy birthday to me. what a celebration this Floridian weekend! i am so grateful to have spent time with family and i can't thank our hosts, Justine and Lauren, enough for letting us invade and take over their apartment. i was showered with love and presents the whole weekend long which was just fantabulous. i didn't want to leave!

among my presents - a pedicure, pink winter gloves, a bottle of wine from my FAVE winery, an ironing board and iron, the cutest crafting TOTE and craft supplies, a mini dressform, sewing supplies and a gift card to Joanne's to stock up on more CRAFT supplies! happiday.

let me give you a closeup of how adorable the giftcard was dressed.oh - and how could I forget the best present of all. 3 feet of snow to shovel on the day of our return!

3 hours.

it's crazy how 3 hours on a plane can take you from this:


to this:


pictures to come SOON!

elf yourself.

i've been elfed! one of the best parts of my weekend was finding this insanely funny christmas site. i could spend hours dressing people up as elves and watching them dance.

it took a few tries to make sure I got the BEST spot in the elf lineup. (keep watching at the end, I even do an AIR GUITAR move) lisa looks like she's done this before with those hip swirls and jon's got the best neck rolls in the house. mc can't quite keep up with the rest of us (sigh), but his robot rocks the elfin world!

you can watch ours here or create your own elf lineup here.

ps - for those spread the elfin cheer, there really is no science to the lineup order! (boo)

happy turkey day.

from our home to yours, happy thanksgiving.

pics from the day are on my Gallery page.

pirogie day.

the pirogie debate of last week is officially over. we opened and then closed the polls and made about 325 pirogies in one day. I chronicled the making of a pirogie on my Gallery page.

this was our YODA pirogie. we waited till the end to eat it.

pirogie polls are open.

ok everyone. there is a HOT pirogie 'flavor' debate email flying around inboxes near some of us. (thank goodness for gmail 'threads' b/c if I logged in to see 34 reply-to-alls I would just log right out)

here's the deal: i'm polish. my family's polish. and we make darn good PIROGIES. twice a year we get a group together and pump out hundreds of the plump, polish treats. this weekend happens to be one of our bi-annual events hosted at my mother's house.

since we are the common people of our pirogie community and live in a world of democracy (not to mention yesterday was voting day for me in the Roch) I've OPENED THE PIROGIE POLLS as the official voting mechanism for this weekend's flavor.

so - grab your mouse and PICK a flavor, darn-it! (ur voting limit is THREE) the poll is in the left column on this page. (who knows, even if you don't come u may be the lucky recipient of our weekend's yummy product.)

to get you in the mood for Saturday... here are pics from last Nov's event at my aunt annette's house and here are pics from last Jan's event at my mom's house.

ps - I'm sorry Brian, but Tuna didn't have enough seats in the house to make the poll as a candidate. maybe next year.

gone truckin.

mcallister's dad has these old trucks that have spent many, many years parked in their back orchard. I like to think of them as FUN vintage, garden art pieces. there are two of them that have been in the same spot since as long as I have known mcallister. (plus a few decades)

his dad has been restoring the 1947 International Truck. since we were in canada this past weekend catching up on some long-overdue family time - we got to see how far it's progressed. I spent some time capturing photographs of it b/c I just like OLD things. i will admit, the orchard looked a bit empty now that this staple is being moved into storage.

while trying to research it, I found this neat website that provides copies of old classic advertisements, including trucks. above is a 1947 ad for another International Truck. looks a little different now that it is 60 years old than it did back then!

a wedding idea crossed my mind when I was photographing it. it reminded me of a story I read about a couple who used the bed of an old truck to serve up appetizers at their fairytale outdoor, country wedding. mcallister wasn't too fond of the idea but maybe it could work!

There are more pics of the truck & our weekend on my Gallery page.

buffalo bills.

Go Bills (more pics here)!

monKEY sighting.

When I bought my monKEYS, I sent a spare chimp to my brother's girlfriend Lisa. Lisa LOVES monkeys. She even tried to be one for Halloween last year. (i recall from the pics that she looked more like a bear... but whatever)

The monKEY that set sail for Virgina was Nigel and he wrote her a nice letter when he was packaged up for the trip. (he was glad the post-office had a Sharpie b/c he was quite unprepared for his important introduction).


(for those who can't read, you'll have to click to make the letter larger)

I was delighted to have received a monKEY mail message from Nigel last week. It seems he is adjusting to his new climate nicely. Doesn't he look at home in Lisa's doorknob!?!

NY state fair.

Today we went to the Great New York State Fair. Growing up I lived close to the fair, so it was a regular family outing each summer. This year was no different, except for the ginormous amount of food I consumed.

my aunt tina had her face painted while waiting for funnel cake and deep fried OREOS. (yum)

we visited the sand castle after the blooming onion n beers but before dinner. the castle's theme was 'Merlin's First Spell' and it was AWESOME! (I love Puff's dragon dish and bag of 'Puffy Chow')

this shirt about sums up my day. i found it for sale after the dinosaur bbq pork carolina sandwich and before the chocolate milk and byrne dairy soft serve twist cone from the dairy building.

then add the butter sculpture, the poultry building, the sea lions, visiting the wool yarn exhibit, playing some water games, watching the cows take home prizes, eating more fried dough, rocking to a 50s band and indulging in wine slushies from NY vineyards. that about sums up half our day! (i am GLAD I can say I didn't indulge in the SPAMobile)

Check out all the pics!

sunflowers.

not only is my mom pretty cool, she takes GREAT pictures too. Her and Tom went for a motorcycle ride along the 150 acre SUNFLOWER farm in Camillus, NY and took photos of the endless sunny sunflowers. i've been enjoying sunflowers from the public market but i'm still JEALOUS!

she called this one 'achu'. hah. he does kinda look like he's sneezing.

scituate, mass.

we're back from a quick 3 day weekend getaway. we visited the Lavelle family on what is proving to be our annual family fishing trip. I just love picturesque new england. this year we stayed in the quaint seacoast town of scituate, massachusetts. think boats, fishing, shops, boutiques, dining out, seagulls, lighthouses, lazy strolls on the coast, sunrises and sunsets, plus more.

as expected, everyone took lotso pics. i haven't organized mine yet - but I pulled a few out to help me hold onto our nice relaxing break for just a few more days.