Richard Shindell and Everything Else.

I have so much to report. My biggest and best news is that I went to a Richard Shindell concert tonight at the Paramount Theater here in Rutland. I have never been there before. It is an old theater which was restored a few years ago. It is highly-detailed and beautiful inside. It is smaller than I imagined and the seats were a little bit cramped, but it was fun anyway. We were in the third row...Wow! My sister gave me a Richard Shindell CD a couple years ago and I have enjoyed listening to it from time to time. However, it is now in my CD player. I definitely have a new appreciation for this artist! It was great seeing him live as he is really excellent! Although the theater was not full, there were plenty of enthusiastic Shindell fans present. Please check out his website and listen to some of the songs on the lyrics page. He often performs with Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky who are also great singers.

As for the rest of my day, I sure have been busy. I was up early this morning for a dentist appointment. I had my chompers cleaned and they feel super duper nice.
Check out the dentist office booty! Oh, see the 70's looking toothbrush? Yessssss, although it doesn't look special, it is one of the softest bristled toothbrushes you will find anywhere.

I met Eric for lunch and we went to Roxie's, a snack bar that sets up a booth in Castleton for the summer. We had cheeseburgers, french fries, and onion rings. Delicious, and way better than the food from the New Village snack bar last weekend. We sat at a picnic table to enjoy the warm sunshine. I also went to drive by my alma matter, Castleton State College. Those were the days! Life was filled with fun and friends. Things were still hopeful and happy. I always get sad when I go by there. Even if I could go back, everyone else has moved on and it just wouldn't be the same.
I ran a couple other errands and went thrifting at the Open Door Mission on the way home. I got a pair of Lands End shorts for $3. I'm not a big fan of white shorts, but they seem to be brand new.

Here is also a picture of my new blanket (the pink one) from the Salvation Army earlier in the week. It now joins my collection. I picked the red one up at the Mission last year, and the purple on was purchased in Mexico. I have been using the new one on the couch and have found it to be super warm and cozy.

I have been meaning to report on this wonderful coconut gelato which I picked up at the grocery store. Although it is a little pricey at $4 a pint, it sure is delicious! It is made in Waitsfield, Vermont.

After I took this picture I put it on my chair and promptly forgot it was there and sat on it. Oops! Not to worry, it was almost empty and it was still edible, and now it is all gone anyway.

My sister Amy is still waiting for a kitten. One of her students may be giving her this little bugger that was born in their barn. Sorry about the crappy picture. I can't do anything about it.

That reminds me, sorry about the lousy job I did on the CD pictures from the last post. I guess I mean "lazy job", as I didn't feel like going back to fix them. Oh well.
One last thing, Amy told me about this book, The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle. I started it last night and could not put it down. It is a disturbing story about a boy who is sexually molested by his parents and is taken in by one of his Mother's friends. It is haunting and shocking, and I think it is going to turn out good in the end.
Ahhhhhhhhhh...all done now.

Music Matters...

Late last week received an order from my CD club in the mail. They offered a deal I couldn't pass up. I am really digging this new John Mayer Trio CD. I have always liked John Mayer. This one is a little bit louder than the last ones. A little bit of jazz and the blues too.

I have also been wanting Death Cab For Cutie for a while, so it's about time. I like it a lot.

Franz Ferdinand is good too.

I haven't listened to the Gorillaz too much yet.

But what I REALLY want is Morrissey...Ohhhh how I love Morrissey! I can't wait for this to come out!

And I really want this too. I really like Live at Stubbs. Matisyahu is great!

Other than that I got out earlier today and went to the Salvation Army. I got a blanket for $5 but that was it. They have a ton of crap that is completely overpriced. I can't believe how much they are trying to charge for everything. It is so stupid, it's funny! They had a ton of wedding dresses that these 2 chubby redneck women and a guy were looking at. Pretty entertaining. I tried to go to the Open Door Mission but I got there 5 minutes before they closed and they wouldn't let me in and they were not very nice either...Assmunches! Why on earth do they close at 3:25 in the afternoon? There was a fender bender on route 7 and there were 3 cops blocking the main drag. What a mess! I ended up getting some groceries and coming home. Good thing I got here when I did because I almost didn't make it to the bathroom. Bah! I ended up going out for a long walk at 4:30. It was really sunny and 53 degrees! I have never walked in our new neighborhood in the whole 8 months we have lived here. I sat out on the front porch for a while and twisted my foot getting up.
We are trying to figure out what to have for dinner. I picked up a bag of these at the store.

Eric's mom snuck these into the restaurant and was eating them with her dinner this weekend. Heh! They are pretty good!

Weekend Report

I have had a pretty busy weekend! Eric and I took a trip to Montpelier, Vermont yesterday. I haven't been there in a while as there are definitely more interesting places in the state to visit if you are considering making a trip. As you know, Montpelier is our state capitol. Eric and his sister grew up there and have a lot of memories of their hometown. It is noticeable right away that there is a different vibe going on there than here in Rutland. The sidewalks on Main Street were busy with people milling around and the street was bumper to bumper traffic. When we arrived around 4 in the afternoon it seemed that many of the stores were closed, but most of the restaurants were open. There was a film festival going on which would have been interesting if we had had more time. I desperately wanted to go to the ReStore to look for some art supplies. My sister has raved about this store, but every time I get to Montpelier it is closed. Unfortunately, we got there after 3 pm and it had closed for the day. Dang it! However, they have a website now, so check it out! By the looks of it, they have a lot of neat stuff. They have random things like old wallpaper books, empty lip balm tubes, and fabric scraps by the pound. We met Eric's sister and mother, Naomi and Deborah, at a newish restaurant called Rhapsody. Looks like the website is still under construction. They call themselves a "natural foods" restaurant. Naomi loves it because she is a strict vegan and there is no question in her mind that the food is safe for her. It was pretty good, but could use a little bit of tweaking in my opinion. It is a cafeteria style restaurant where you grab a tray and a plate and pick what you want. It is sold by the pound and some things are sold individually such as egg rolls and samosas, chili and soup. The best things were the mashed sweet potatoes, brown rice, salad, guacamole and chips. They also had lots of hot dishes such as vegetables and tofu, and cold dishes like pasta salad. I really was wishing for some dairy or cheese or vegan substitutes and maybe some bread and butter or croutons. I don't know if I would go there again. Zabby's Stone Soup in Burlington is similar, but a whole lot better. Afterward we went to the Hunger Mountain Co-op. It is pretty big with a nice selection. I enjoyed it because they had lots of neat treats we don't have around here and a great selection of bread. We called in a take out order at Finkerman's BBQ to take home. I wish we had eaten there instead! We ended up heating up BBQ at 1 am when we got home. Damn! That's good shit! We took a detour to Williston and Burlington and spent a while at Barnes & Noble and Starbucks. Although it was good to get out of town for the day, it was a long one and we found ourselves getting just a little bit crabby at each other.
Oh, on the way we stopped at the Pittsfield General Store on Route 100. I had never been there and was pleasantly surprised upon entering. They had a nice wood fireplace and tables, a deli counter, coffee, wine, Vermont products, snacks and groceries. We had a bowl of vegetable soup topped with homemade croutons. It was delicious! I would definitely stop there again probably to try a sandwich.
I talked to my sister this morning and she gave me a happy report about a blind date she went on last night. I am very pleased for her. She and mom ended up visiting the Humane Society again only to find that Bailey the cat had just barely been adopted. The search goes on. Amy also told me that someone at the Starbucks in Burlington told my mom that there is supposed to be a Starbucks in Rutland by 2007. Ohhhhh boy! I might be gone by then though.
I decided to be productive this morning and tried to make a pot of minestrone soup. It didn't come out like I had hoped. I made some beautiful croutons for the top which were the best part. Looks like I will need to shop for some salad veggies to put them on as I don't think I will be eating too much more of that soup unless a miracle occurs and it is magically better tomorrow! Eric and I went out this afternoon to do some bargain shopping at Mr.G's discount store. It is a fun crush and dent adventure. I pretty much always find something there. They always have 10 cent cans of seltzer which I enjoy. Bubbly and exciting, yet devoid of sugar and calories. Not like that really bothers me, but it is a delight nonetheless! We ended up going to the New Village Snack Bar to pick up a quick dinner. I always look forward to it opening for the season because it means summer is coming. Although it is tasty, it is a little bit sickening. I was eyeballing the creemees but that would have been too much at once.
Well, tomorrow is Monday and I have to continue with my job search. I have a couple ideas, but it is just going to take a little bit of motivation. Bummer...

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Meow!

This afternoon my sister, Amy, came to visit. We went to the Humane Society to look at the cats. Otto the cat is going crazy without any buddies around and she wants to find a kitten to keep him company. They didn't have any kittens right now but are expecting some soon. We had fun looking at all of the cats anyway. There were about 5 that we wanted to take home. A few were extremely friendly, such as Bailey and Cupcake. We met up with Eric and went to Friendly's for dinner. It was mobbed there and our waitress was hurrying us along and getting annoyed that we took so long to make up our minds about everything. There was a kid in the booth across from us that kept making the strangist snorting noise the whole entire time. Other than that there isn't too much going on. I finally got my resume organied and finished applying with the DET. I applied for one job and have to call a woman about an interview. I need make an appointment at the temp agency and fire out a few more resumes/cover letters in the next few days. It SUCKS! I have been procrastinating bigtime. I love not having to go to work but it can't last forever. Bah!

Spring Cleaning

Happy spring! It still feels like winter. I finally got around to cleaning my desk. I struggled for a long time with rearranging this dumb metal shelf, but I sure have a lot of space now!
I got my new printer all situated and it works great.

Oh crap! I still have to find a place to put all of the random stuff that was on my desk before.

Shopping, Sisters, Socks, and Squeeky.

Today I ended up going to Manchester, VT with my family. There are outlet stores there as well as some other interesting places, and my favorite radio station, WEQX. There is a great book store, The Northshire Book Store, which I may have mentioned before. It is really very big with many nooks. I saw so much stuff that I wanted. I also found a dollar on the floor. Lucky me. It was absolutely MOBBED when we were there as Paul Bremmer was speaking upstairs. We ate in the attached cafe which was ok depending on what you got. The baked goods and coffee looked really good but we were there to eat lunch. Afterward we ended up going to a make up store where I got some very special concealer, to Garnet Hill where I got a pretty sheet for $4, and to Cold Water Creek. The last stop we made was the Lion's Share Bakery for crossiants and coffee. We got there very late so there wasn't much left, but from past visits, I highly recommend the almond crossiants!

Oh! Check out this darn cool shower curtain that is on the Garnet Hill website on sale. We saw a sheet in this print.

Eric's family also came to visit at the same time. My mom and sister met Eric's sister for the first time ever. From our house we ended up going our separate ways. However, they ended up going to Manchester as well. They also went to the book store but we didn't see them. They went to totally different stores and Eric surprised me with these really cool socks from the Sox Market.

I have mixed feelings about Manchester. Despite the outlets being outlets, they are still VERY pricey. There was an unbelievable amount of fancy out of state cars mostly from New York and New Jersey. The stores were mobbed and the sales people also treat you as if you are a tourist. I try to stay away from places full of rich and snobby tourists. I don't care for their attitudes or their surburban assault vehicles. I just want to find good bargains and see some different sights.
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Earlier in the week I went to Burlington, VT for the afternoon. Eric was taking a class up there for half the week. We ate dinner at a new place called Moe's. It was pretty good. It was very busy and right next to a new Starbucks too. We went to the Christmas Tree Store right before it closed and I got some neat things there too. Don't you just love a bargain?

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It was a traumatic day for Squeeky, as she is antisocial and we had a lot of visitors. However, I bribed her with some chicken tonight and got her to sit ON me for 30 minutes. I petted her and she seemed very content. She is curled up on a fleece blanket on the couch right now. Good Night Squeeky!

New Sweater!

I got a new sweater!!! On our trip to Clifton Park, New York to visit our Grandpa my sister and I had a shopping adventure. We went to Clifton Country Mall, now known as Clifton Park Center. Check out their site with a virtual tour! This used to be the coolest mall when I was younger. Now it is kind of a has been mall. It looks the same but more than half of the stores are empty. I remember when all of the good stores started to go out. On trips to visit our Grandparents, we would often go this mall for something to do. It had good stores like the Gap, Limited, Express, Lane Bryant, Marshalls, Auntie Annie's Pretzels, and a movie theatre. It also had a Caldor and a McDonalds right next to it. Now it has a Marshalls Megastore which is the best thing there. The food court is still very much the same. Anyway, we took a look around at the generic stores and found one selling a few Ecuador sweaters. I found a grey one that fits me! It's certainly not the old one, but it it pretty close. It has that nice new wool smell.

There is a Target in Clifton Park now too. I normally get cucumber dishsoap by Method around here, but at Target I got Pink Grapefruit. It smells soooooooo good!

I haven't done very much today. I took a nap on the couch this afternoon. I talked to my sister on the phone. While I was waiting for my dinner in the oven I made some delicious chocolate chip cookies. They came out perfect! It must have been because of this new professional style pan I got for $4 at Big Lots last week. It sure works good.

Workin' Hard or Hardly Workin'?

Dude-check out this crazy mutated strawberry! It was delicious!

Hey Trish! Check out my cool socks!

Since I haven't been busy looking for a job I have had some nice free time on my hands. It feels like I have been cooking up a storm. Yesterday I made meatloaf. That is something I have never done before. I used a recipe from my 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook and boy, it sure was tasty! Today I made cream of sweet potato soup from a recipe I came up with last year and stored in my head. I made some baked pita chips to go along with it. It was great! I also made one of those Duncan Hines orange dreamsicle cakes. Not good. I have been oogling those Signature Cakes in the grocery store since they came out and finally I found one at the discount store the other day. Good thing I didn't have to pay very much for it. I don't think the dark orange part came out right. Believe it or not, that part is jello that you pour into the cake as liquid and it is supposed to set. It didn't really do it's thing and the cake is kind of mushy. I also don't care for the white mousse icing. It is so fluffy and fake tasting I thought I might gag. It feels like I have been doing dishes all afternoon and now I have to go do some more. DRAT!
I have been working like crazy on the zipper pins. I am trying to get some ready to take to a couple local stores to sell them. Also, the Farmer's Market is coming up. I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I thought I would by now.
Finished pins...

Pins in various steps of completion...

Here is some miscellaneous news:
Last night I twisted my foot up pretty bad. I had been sitting for a long time and my foot fell asleep. I stepped off a small step and came crashing down on it the wrong way. At first I couldn't tell what had really happened since it was all numb. It hurt so bad! I thought for a minute that I might have broken it but after it woke up I realized that I think I just pulled something. So I have been wearing shitty, uncomfortable sneakers around the house all day long.
I have been reading A LOT. I read Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It only took me one and a half hours and I didn't really care for it. I also read The Beach Club by Elin Hilderbrand. I really like her books. I also took the other two of hers out of the library. I am working on Nantucket Nights right now.
It was 57 degrees out today! I didn't go out but I had windows open in here. The fresh air feels really nice except I kept getting whifs of MOTH BALL now and then. Hmmmmmm...
I have also been subjected to the loud wind-tunnelish whirring sound of the dryer from the downstairs apartment under my room for much of the day. ANNOYING!
Tomorrow I am going to see my Grandpa at Coburg Village in New York. His birthday was this week so we are going to have some type of celebration. My Grandpa has lived at Coburg Village for a few years now and just LOVES it.

3 Quick Things

I had this awesome idea tonight...You know how they sell those tacky appliance covers? Yesssssssss! We don't have very much kitchen cabinet space here so I thought a great place to store stuff would be on top of the refrigerator. The only problem is that everything gets so dusty. So instead of using some nice fabric I am saving for special projects, I ran up to the attic to rummage through my old t-shirt box. I found some old Gap t-shirts that are too small for me, cut them up, and sewed them into these little pillowcases to fit the appliances. I was going to add trim but I think they look fine the way they are. Here you can see the mini-cuisinart and the 4 cup coffee maker are nicely covered.

Man, have I been enjoying all of that Canadian candy. I wish I had gotten some more of the Kinder candy in this special Easter packaging! Those little bars are so frickin good! I'm sorry to say there is only one egg left.

I just finished a really good book that I didn't even get to put on my reading list because I read it so fast. It is The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand. I just couldn't put it down. It looks like she has also written three other books which our library has.
Happy Weekend!

Sweater Search

I spent much of the past two days searching for a new sweater to replace the throw-up sweater. It seems that no one around here sells those sweaters any more. You know the ones...thick hand-knit wool sweaters which are made in Ecuador. There are a few on Ebay that don't look to be large enough. A few years ago there were tables of them EVERYWHERE. I am just going to have to wait and see what turns up. I checked out the selection at the Salvation Army (nothing good there) and the Open Door Mission (found a thin wool JCREW sweater). All of the clothes were half-price today. I used to go there on Thursday evenings when I got out of work and I was suprised to find a totally different crowd there during the day. It was mobbed with old people. I had a funny conversation with an elderly man about the men's sweaters. I was looking at a purple/teal/white sweater with snowflakes and he very seriously informed me that it was a woman's sweater. Firstly because of the brand and secondly because those were "woman's colors." I told him "some men might wear those colors" and he started to tee-hee over it as I think he took that to mean that a "feminine" type of man might wear it. I love to joke around with old people like that to see if I can shock them! I had better luck at Camille's which sells used clothing. They have a ton of stuff and are often looking to buy good quality used garments. Since spring is coming they have marked down much of the winter stock. I got a pair of llbean shorts and a pair of Lane Giant brown pants.

I also found this Lane Giant fleece pull-over marked down to a dollar. It looks grey here but it is a nice dark forest green color.

They had a few of my sweaters which were all too small, except for this grey one. It was only ONE DOLLAR, so what the hell! It needs a little bit of work but it is my size! You can see here that I was removing the pills with my super dog hair brush/pill remover.

In other news, still no job because I haven't been looking too hard. I called about unemployment and found out what the deal is. You have to keep checking in with them and prove that you are applying at places. For the sparse amount of money I will be getting, it really isn't going to make a huge difference. I really need to get my ass in gear. Yes indeed!
Since I was home I made homemade macaroni and cheese and salad for dinner. Yum! Then I spent the evening socked out on the couch watching American Idol.