The Weeklies ~ Week 33

The Weekly Re-cap: I shared pictures of “Mama’s Lil’ Cutie” Isabella.  We learned about those rubber things that hang off the back of cars.  I shared the results of the poll about who you think Brenda will end up with on General Hospital and how thrilled I am that she’s back!!  I shared the recipe for Spicy Shrimp with Pasta that I love!!  I told you about something cool and FREE to do this weekend!!  Lastly I guest blogged over on the TU Biker’s Blog that Michael writes.  I wrote a post about proper riding footwear.

The Weekly Note to Readers: There are BIG changes coming in the next few weeks!!  Stay tuned for the big news

The Weekly Movie: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – I love the movie now just as much as I did back in 1989!  Granted, I’ve been calling everyone Dude for the last couple days – small side-effect of the movie….

The Weekly Downer: I haven’t been getting enough sleep lately and it’s making me cranky.  I really need to try hard to get back onto a normal sleeping schedule….

The Weekly Food: Banana & cubanelle peppers from the garden, home-grown tomatoes & American cheese, turkey sandwiches, Trader Joe’s baked cheese crunchies, and sloppy joes.

The Weekly Amazing Fact: The Brooklyn Bridge was opened for use on May 24, 1883.  On that day 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed the bridge.

The Weekly Birthdays: Vicki Vosburgh, Tami Bates Carlaw, Leigh Cummings, Tim Hennessey, Sam Lauridsen, and Tracy Kutey Colangione.  I hope you all had wonderful birthdays!!  Leave a comment to tell us what you did to celebrate your birthday!!

The Weekly Activity: We went to The Bronx Zoo and then to The Brooklyn Bridge with Michael’s Photo Group and we had a great time!!

The Weekly new people I’ve found on Twitter: Arbonne Forever, MSF_USA, Sensible Spender, CS_Albany, & Brugo Mug

The Weekly Charity I’m Pimping: LaDorka’s – National Multiple Sclerosis Walk
These women are incredible and walking for a good cause.  Please donate whatever you can.  They have a hefty goal.  Every dollar gets them closer to a cure for MS.

The Weekly Countdown:
Dutchess County Fair: 10 Days
No Destination Poker Run: 14 Days
Labor Day: 23 Days
Breaking Dawn Movie Premier: 461 Days

Change image from: http://vaynermedia.com
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure image from: http://www.horreur.net/fiche.php?nom=Keanu%20Reeves
Birthday Cake image from: http://marinasulaimantaha.blogspot.com/2010/07/colorful-birthday-cake.html
Brooklyn Bridge image from: Michael T. Henry Photography
LaDorka’s inage from: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Challenge/WIGChallengeWalkEvents?pg=team&fr_id=13099&team_id=178556

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The Weeklies ~ Week 32

The Weekly Re-cap: I showed you pictures of Isabella with her new Monkey Toy and my Dad entertaining.  I made Pesto and shared the recipe I used.  I tried sending a message on HootSuite and I shared a guest post called Who Will You Be When The Pilgrimage Is Over.  We discussed some good service I’ve received lately and lastly I made a request to all of you for donations for a Poker Run to benefit The Ronald McDonald House.

The Weekly Movie: Percy Jackson & The Olympians – The Lightning Thief – What I saw of it was really cute!  I need to go back and watch it again when I’m not distracted!

The Weekly Downer: Again – people who don’t return phone calls.  I have a contractor who I left a message for about 2 weeks ago.  Too late – even if he calls me back, I can’t do business with him.  If he can’t be bothered to call me when I’ve got paying work for him to do, he sure as hell isn’t going to call me back if there’s a problem after the job is done.

The Weekly Food: Pesto, Pork Chops, Steak & Cheese Burrito, Tomato Sandwiches….

The Weekly Interesting Fact: You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath.   (I guess I never thought about it, but it makes sense….)

The Weekly Birthdays: Tina Price, Joel Kuhn, Mariana Caglioti, Valleri James, Bridgette Almstead Garioli, Misha Gnazzo Yoshida, Carla Roberts Pryor, Tim Hoss, Jenn Boudreau, Kate Mostaccio, Diona Irish, and Melissa Tator.  I hope you all had wonderful birthdays!!  Leave a comment to let us know what you did for your special day!

The Weekly Activity: Interviews, phone calls, networking, and a motorcycle ride

Sofft - Floria

The Weekly Shoes: I love the shoes pictured above!!

The Weekly new people I’ve found on Twitter: TS Ensemble, Woo Themes, Glennpeter Jewelers,  and Jennifer Gish.

The Weekly Charity I’m Pimping: The No Destination Poker Run to benefit The Ronald McDonald House.  For donation information click here.

The Weekly Countdown: Days until Brenda returns to General Hospital: 5

The Weekly Hypothetical: If you had an over-abundance of tomatoes, what would you do with them?

Blue Flowers image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chitrasudar/2780206155/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Shoe image from: http://www.thewalkingcompany.com/brands/Product.aspx?ProductID=12144&pagetag=women_fashioncomfort&source=comfort
Percy Jackson image from: http://www.percyjackson.org/info/percy-jackson-official-site-updated/
Cake image from: http://www.giftacrossindia.com/cakes.asp

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The Weeklies – Week 30

The Weekly Re-cap: This week we talked about my guilty little puppy and the fish in my pool.  I informed you of a rude person who works at Colonie Center.  I told you about our yummy chicken, zucchini and mushroom dinner and discussed the results of the library usage poll.  Finally we talked about Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo coming back to General Hospital as Brenda Barrett and the Delmar Homeowners who tackled a kid for ding dong ditch.

The Weekly Movie: Mr Destiny, and Batman-The Dark Knight

The Weekly Downer: People not returning phone calls.  It’s rude and unprofessional!

The Weekly Food: London Broil, Chicken with zucchini and mushrooms over pasta, Dewitt’s steaks with baked potatoes (they were soooo good!!), cheesecake & birthday cake.

The Weekly Amazing Fact: A hummingbird weighs less than a penny!

The Weekly Birthdays: Adriane Powell, Tim Niekrewicz, Suzanne Marshall Akers, Scott Carpenter, Jennifer White, William Tragedy Yager, Paul Bolk, Jamie Lubman, and Terry McCann.  I hope you all had wonderful birthdays!  Leave a comment and tell us what you did to celebrate your birthday.

The Weekly Craft: I miss having time to do crafts….

The Weekly Activity: Searching for a job, interviewing and going to Michael’s gallery reception.

The Weekly new people I’ve found on Twitter: 5 Below, Red Robin, Will King, Ritter Sport, Marilyn Elmore, Dutchess County Fair, Vista Print, and NYSLabor.

The Weekly Charity I’m Pimping: As part of the Albany restaurant Dale Miller’s ongoing series of fundraising cocktail parties for area nonprofits, Kristi Gustafson and Steve Barnes will be guest bartenders from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday July 26th.  Dale Miller will donate 25 percent of the food and beverage sales in the bar during that time to Equinox Inc., the community-services agency best known for its Thanksgiving dinner.  You can RSVP on Facebook here.

The Weekly Countdown: 482 days until Breaking Dawn is released. How excited are you for this movie??

Weekly Grand Totals: I was awake for 36 hours straight and I finally crashed around midnight last night – hence why the weeklies are being published a bit later than usual.  Than you for your understanding.

What are you doing this weekend?
Please comment and subscribe.

Raindrop image from:  http://whiteboydancefloor.blogspot.com/2008/06/rain-rain-go-away-come-again-another.html
Hummingbird image from: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/hummingbird-sex.htm
Birthday cake image from: http://www.toward-the-goal.net/2007/06/

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Brenda Is Coming Back to General Hospital!

Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo

It has been confirmed that Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo (she got married again, I didn’t know that until I started writing this!!) will be reprising her role as Brenda Barrett on General Hospital on August 11, 2010.  I am ecstatic! She originated the role in 1992.  She left the show in 1998.  (She briefly returned in 2000 and had another short stint from 2002-2003)  This time she’s supposed to stick around for a while, but I haven’t read anywhere anything about the terms of her contract to know how long.  (If any of you have, please comment and let me know!)

In honor of Brenda coming back SOAPnet will be having The Best of Brenda and Sonny starting at 3PM on August 15th.  Also if you click the SOAPnet link it will bring you to a page that has 25 Classic Brenda Moments.

So who do you think Brenda will end up with on the show?  Who do you want her to end up with? Sonny?  Jax?  Jason?  Johnny?  Nicholas?  Dante?  Matt?  Steven?  Max?  Lucky?  Coleman?  Vote in the polls below.  Please vote once for each question.  We’ll discuss the results prior to her initial air date of August 11th.

    

Image from:  http://www.nbc.com/Las_Vegas/bios/vanessa_marcil.shtml

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The Weeklies ~ Week 28

108 Degrees in the sun on Thursday!

The Weekly Re-cap: I told you about my library – my Quiet Home Away From Home and the 4th of July.  I posted up my 1st poll – about your library use.  I helped a friend interpret her dreams about tornadoes and told you the history behind soap operas.  Last but certainly not least, I continued my interview series with an interview of my Mom

The Weekly Read: The Everything Blogging Book and Shift Your Habit.

The Weekly Music: EdXeno sang/rapped Vanilla Ice’s -  Ice Ice Baby during karaoke at Elda’s on Lark and it was awesome!

The Weekly Movie: We went to a pre-screened of the movie Cyrus.  It had it’s funny moments for sure, but I think they could have done more with the story to make it more interesting or humorous.  Not awesome but not bad either.
We also watched The Spy Next Door.  I always like Jackie Chan movies

Lucky

The Weekly Downer: A baby bunny falling into the pool and ending up in the skimmer

The Weekly Good Karma: Michael rescuing the bunny out of the skimmer and us getting to spend and hour or two with ‘Lucky’ before we released him back into the wild.  Click the link – you know you want to!  The bunny was so cute!

The Weekly Interesting Facts: Since we met Lucky why not learn about rabbits   Rabbit facts found here.

• A male rabbit is called a buck and a female rabbit is called a doe.
• A rabbit can see behind himself, without turning his head, but has a blind spot in front of his face.
• A rabbit sweats through the pads on its feet.
• Domestic rabbits cannot breed with wild rabbits.
• Rabbits are the most active at dawn and dusk.
• Rabbits can jump to a height of more than 36 inches.
• Rabbits can purr, just like a cat.
• Rabbits cannot vomit.

The Weekly Food: Steak, Portabellas and Zucchini on the grill and Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

The Weekly OMG: I swam in my pool for the first time this week!!  This is the 4th summer I’ve owned my pool!

Yummy Coconut Birthday Cake!

The Weekly Birthdays: Ryan Jones, Erin Carlotto, Jean Languish, and Kevin Mowry.  I hope you all have wonderful birthdays!!  Leave a comment and tell me what you did to celebrate!

The Weekly Activity: Celebrating Independence Day.  Bella & I also made a visit down to see Mom & Dad.  Dad replaced the brake pads on my truck for me.  Michael & I went out with some of the Times Union Bloggers.  We started at the Albany Pump Station and moved on to Elda’s on Lark.  A nice gathering of interesting people

The Weekly new people I’ve found on Twitter: DanielTosh, Albany_Weather, AlbanyJobs, YNNAlbany, Sue215, HunterMtn, SPAC_2010, and DeFrees.

The Weekly Charity I’m Pimping: LaDorka’s National MS Walk.

Isabella's 1st Birthday

The Weekly Countdown: Isabella’s 3rd Birthday: 16 Days.

The Weekly Hypothetical:  You’re a gossip type – how long do you wait until a person walks out of a room to trash talk them?

The Weekly Not-So-Hypothetical:  What have you been doing to stay cool this week? (It was 108 degrees in the sun here today!!)

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Why They’re Called Soap Opera’s

Luke & Laura ~ November 16, 1981

Luke & Laura married on November 16, 1981.  The event was watched by 30 million viewers and remains the highest-rated hour in American soap opera history.

I’m reading a book called Dr. Knowledge Presents – Strange & Fascinating Facts About Famous Brands.
An entry caught my attention:

Why They’re Called Soap Operas

Oxydol laundry soap started something new in 1933.  They began sponsoring a daily fifteen-minute afternoon drama on network radio.  Their program was called Ma Perkins.

It was popular, and soon other soap brands decided to sponsor the same kind of show.  The airwaves because full of afternoon dramas aimed at a predominately female audience.  The phrase “soap operas” entered the language to describe these soap-sponsored programs.

Some long-running soap operas of that era included Stella Dallas, Portia Faces Life, Just Plain Bill, Life Can Be Beautiful, The Guiding Light, Our Gal Sunday, and Backstage Wife.

(Incredibly, Virginia Payne, who played Ma on Ma Perkins, held that role for the entire twenty-seven-year run of the program – never missing any of its 7,065 broadcasts.)

While we’re on the topic, if you watch General Hospital answer this….

Luke & Laura ~ November 16, 2006

A couple of years ago when Laura came out of her coma she and Luke got remarried.  Everyone thought it was a farce because Luke was married to Tracy Quartermaine.  Now that it’s come out that Luke & Tracy were not really married, it makes me think – he is really married to Laura now isn’t he?  He can’t marry Tracy without getting a divorce from Laura.  Am I remembering things correctly?

Do you watch soap operas?  If so, which one?

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Interview Series ~ Jessica Traver

While brainstorming about what to write blogs about, I wanted to find a way for my readers to get to know some of the awesome people who I know.  The best way I could come up with was an interview series.

Meet my friend Jessica.  I’ve known Jessica since we were in high school.  We lost touch after graduation, but we were able to reconnect on Facebook last year.  So without further ado – get to know Jessica.

Jessica Traver

Name: Jessica Traver

Age: 30

Location: Staatsburg, NY

Hails from: Red Hook, NY

Jessica & Gary on their wedding day ~ February 14, 2004

Relationship Status: Married

Children: Giselle 4 years old

Occupation: Stay at Home Mom

What is the most challenging part of your job? trying to keep a 4 year old from not being bored

We’ve known each other since high school.  How do you think you’ve changed since then? Well I am not the wild child I once was, becoming a mother has mellowed me

You’re a stay-at-home Mom.  How do you think this will impact your daughter? I think being home with her shows her a surplus amount of love and support and will give us a greater bond.

The Traver Family

What do you think is the biggest challenge of being a stay-at-home? Wondering if my parenting skills are up to par, and hoping that I will instill the best in my daughter. There is no one to pat you on the back, since I feel most husbands feel its not a job.

Giselle ~ October 2009

Your daughter Giselle just turned 4.  How do you feel about her growing up and going to school next year? Giselle- Its going to be hard to let her leave the nest, but since she is enrolled in pre school now, I think that will ease my pain. I feel that she is developing a great head on her shoulders, she knows whats right and wrong. I feel she will become even more independent, and I feel that will be great as I do not want her to rely on Mommy and Daddy for everything.

Do you have plans to have another baby? yes one day

What’s guaranteed to make you laugh? Well hands down my brother and my husband. They are always guaranteed to have some story about work or what has happened in their daily lives. Bad luck follows them I guess

Maurice Benard as Sonny Corinthos on General Hospital

I know you watch General Hospital.  Who is your favorite character and why? Sonny- hes rugged and tough but yet he loves his family to death

Are you on Twitter? Yes

What’s your favorite meal to cook? Stuffed Shells

Are you happy that you still live near where we grew up or do you wish you lived in a bigger city? No I am content. I think living in the country is great when you have kids.

What is your favorite vacation destination? Florida since I lived there for 2 years

What is your favorite book? The Notebook

Tell me an interesting fact about yourself: I am OCD

What other questions do you have for Jessica?
Ask away?

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The Weeklies ~ Week 18

The Weekly Re-cap: We talked about the weather, Michael & I going out for a motorcycle ride, we wished Michael a Happy Birthday, mourned great TV shows that are no longer with us,  said goodbye to a 25-year-old blogger named Eva Markvoort who passed away, and learned about my naughty little puppy Isabella.

The Weekly Read: The Finishing Touch – Details That Make a Room Beautiful

The Weekly Music: Private Eyes by Hall & Oates because my friend Rude Cactus used it for his blog title yesterday.

The Weekly Movie: The Lovely Bones I read the book a while back and thought it was okay.  I didn’t love the movie.  It was kind of creepy like the book.  Though I did like Mark Wahlberg in it….

The Weekly Beverage: I drank a coconut creme Dunkin’ Donuts coffee on the way to The Albany TweetUp and it was yummy.  This is a big deal because I rarely drink coffee.

The Weekly Amazing Fact: According to OMGFacts: Giraffes can’t yawn.
Pretty much all warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals yawn. Birds, fish, mammals, and of course, people. An average human will yawn 250,000 times in one lifetime, and animals have been photographed yawning all the time. However, neither giraffes nor whales have ever been caught yawning.

Bugs Birthday Cake

The Weekly Birthdays: Lee Wooden, Sung Choo, Theresa Setzer, Jerry Bertram, Todd Harrison, Michael Henry, Jeff Beach, Aimee Giese, Brigette Moore, Cameo Crounse, Nancy Lee Grahn, Cami Rutherford Bajek, Lynn Kinnear, Paul Chenkus, Robyn Dousharm, Jim Milliken, Humberto Martinez, and Sheri Monaco.  Happy Birthday to all of you!  I hope you all had awesome birthdays!!   Leave me a comment to let me know what you did to celebrate your big day. 

The Weekly Activity: Michael & I went to the April Albany TweetUp.

The Weekly new people I’ve found on Twitter: Melissa Ward, WordPress.com, Bettie’s Cakes, Kimmy Tavarez, Two of a Kind, Jaci Sabolsky, and Grant Johnston.

The Weekly Charity I’m Pimping: The National MS Walk in Long Island is on May 2nd.  My friend Kim will be walking and she’s pretty close to her goal.  Anyone who can help with a donation would be appreciated.  Click HERE for the link.

Weekly Grand Totals: My blog has had over 6,500 views.  To some of you that might be nothing, but considering I only started it at the beginning of the year I think it’s pretty decent.  Thank you to all my readers.  Keep commenting and encouraging your friends to subscribe. 

The Weekly Hypothetical: If you were going on a trip, what would you most likely forget to pack?

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The Weeklies ~ Week 15

The Weekly Movie: American Pie 2, The Score (Also referred to in my Heist Movie Blog),

The Weekly Downer: I didn’t ride my own motorcycle   Soon though….

The Weekly Schadenfreude: Anything to do with Kate Gosselin (of the Jon & Kate Plus 8 fame) – between all the arguing with your ex-husband Jon and dancing on Dancing With the Stars, and photo shoots….  Who the hell is raising your 8 kids????

The Weekly Beverage: Lemon Drop Shot

Brooks BBQ ~ Oneonta, NY

The Weekly Food: Brooks BBQ, Easter Ham, Michael’s awesome hamburgers

The Weekly Amazing Fact: One quarter of the bones in the human body are in your feet!

The Weekly Birthdays: Cute~Ella Is Bold, Bill Flandreau, Sabrina Hayles, Kevin Kretser, Dean Temple, Beth Sarris, Nellie Haywood-Reynolds, Victoria Collier, Carl Clark, and Andrea Roome-Osterhoudt.  I hope you all had wonderful birthday celebrations surrounded by those you love. Did you do anything special for your big day??

The Weekly Activity: Motorcycle Riding with Michael

Merrell

The Weekly Shoes: Flip Flops!

The Weekly new people I’ve found on Twitter: Kelly Monaco, Bradford Anderson, Laura Wright,  Steve Burton from General Hospital, The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, Paul Miles, and The Empire State Book Festival.

Weekly Milestone: I published my 100th blog!!

The Weekly Not-So-Hypothetical: What would you like me to blog about??

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The Weeklies ~ Week 14

Every week I do a wrap up to summarize my week.  You can see my previous weeks as well.

HAPPY EASTER!!

The Weekly Read: Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge – The Book of Mnemonic Devices by: Rod L. Evans
It has things like the old rhyme to help you remember how many days are in each month:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November,
February eight-and-twenty all alone
And all the rest have thirty-one,
Unless that Leap Year doth combine
And give to February twenty-nine.

Good Luck Chuck ~ 2007

The Weekly Movies: Titanic, Good Luck Chuck & K-9
Good Luck Chuck is a hilarious movie!  I laugh every time I see it!!

Kristina & Keifer on General Hospital

The Weekly Downer: I admit it.  I watch General Hospital.  I’m really disappointed that Kristina hasn’t told the truth about who attacked her yet!!

The Weekly Beverage: It’s that time of the year again!  I’m craving Root Beer!!

Red Lobster ~ Grilled Maine Lobster with Jumbo Shrimp

The Weekly Food: Red Lobster, Boiled egg sandwich, leftover duck with mashed potatoes, Triple Lindy from Moe’s, Chicken & Sausage Ravioli from Trader Joe’s (I’ve gotta say, they were bland as heck and we didn’t like them….), and a Burger from The Rusty Nail.

The Weekly Amazing Fact: The 641 mile transportation network known as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway is the longest toll road in the United States.

Happy Birthday Everyone!

The Weekly Birthdays: Rebecca Striffler, Nathan Allers, Kathleen Henry-Workman, Terry Whitaker Cornick, Sharon Slater-Skold, Michael Piastro, Tyson Kreig, and Rebecca Moul Briffa.  I hope you all had wonderful birthdays!!  Did you do anything special for your big day?

The Weekly Interview: Cute~Ella Is Bold.

Bella with the scarf I crocheted (while it was a work in progress)

The Weekly Craft: I crocheted a scarf!

The Weekly Activity: Job hunting, writing blogs, photography meetup, and motorcycle riding.

The Weekly Not-So-Hypothetical: The weather is going to be BEAUTIFUL this weekend!!  Who’s going to ride?

HAPPY EASTER Everyone!

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