5 Things You Should Know

ONE
The Erie Blogger Misfits are meeting up tonight at Patrick's Restaurant in Harborcreek starting at 7PM. I think my brother Jr is coming so watch us fight over which one of us Mom loves more.

TWO
Three new little girls will be entering the world today around 5PM via Cesarean section.

THREE
Watch Paranormal State on A&E or miss out on the creepiest thing since Ghost Hunters.

FOUR
Flax Seed is the new Black.

FIVE
The last time Erie was this warm was back in 1937. We've set a record high today.

The New Year's Eve Classic

I had a pretty good vacation. How's 'bout you? The chicks I nanny go away for Christmas so I have a good two weeks off every year for the holiday season. The last few years have been so busy with splitting our time up between family parties and events that I haven't had the chance to plan anything out of town during my Christmas vacation in quite awhile. But Matt and I DID manage to head up to Buffalo, NY for New Year's Eve and The Winter Classic on New Year's Day with our friends Mark and Mary. The best thing about Mark and Mary is how laid back they are. We could change our plans at the drop of a hat and they'd be all for it. I wish I were more like that.

New Year's Eve was fun. We took a detour on the way to Buffalo and stopped off at the Seneca Allegany Casino in Salamanca, NY. It was like the casino in Erie, but much prettier. It didn't look like they took a week to build it and they had these fancy things called escalators. I lost 10 of my 40 dollars in one hour. Uh, that part sucked but the rest was nice. Then we headed off to our hotel in Hamburg, NY to eat and pretend to be locals with my huge camera around my neck.

We drove around and around Hamburg after getting turned away at the most popular restaurant in Hamburg. If we didn't have Mark's GPS, we would have been eating the free Chex Mix from the hotel for our fancy New Year's Eve dinner. I named the GPS woman Annabelle because she sounded beautiful and led us to the best rip off of Dave and Buster's I've seen: The Warehouse. It was a really nice bar/restaurant with 1/4 of the establishment being an arcade with basketball, airhockey, videogames, etc. We stayed for awhile, our food was awesome (and was really TWO dinners) but our waitress sucked. How someone gets a "rum and diet" mixed up with a "tequila and diet" is beyond me but for some reason I was punished the entire night for calling her out on it. No matter!

Then Annabelle led us to The Pourhouse! It was really fun and we felt very welcomed. They were giving out free NYE stuff so we decided to ring it in there. One of the greatest parts was when I offered to buy the first round and tried to pay with my credit card. The bartender (who didn't get one order wrong, even throwing four complicated drinks at her all at once!) said I'd have to start a tab because it's a 10 dollar minimum to charge. FOUR drinks and I wasn't even near 10 bucks. So great! In fact, my entire tab that night was only 20.50! The four of us ended up back in our hotel room for a champange toast and off to bed. No partner swapping, porn scene ensued.

We got up for The Winter Classic. It was freezing but awesome and really, once in a lifetime experience. I'm so glad we went. The Penguins won and the Sabres fans were so pissed, they set a dumpster on fire. Getting out of the parking lot was ridiculous. It took two hours to move from our parking spot. Thankfully, it was five minutes from our parking spot to the highway. Plus, we had our leftovers from The Warehouse in the trunk...or we would have died. The weather on the way home was horrendous and I was scared for my life, but we made it...and it was all worth it.

Happy Holidays

Another year over and a new one just begun.

Because You're Probably Bored

UPDATE! Sorry, I didn't realize I had a repeat link for the "green tea" one. Fixed now.

New Best Of Craigslist:

Rant

Green Tea From Hell

Ghostly

There are more here but I don't have the time to filter it all for you, so enjoy. And here is the other post about Best Of Craigslist.

Child Abuse

I know there's a child abuse hotline for kids who get knocked around by their parents, but who do I call when my kid beats on ME? "Better not cry, better not pout, I'm telling you why." You can tell at the end of the video she's already trying to apologize and asking me not to leave her.

December Erie Blogger Meetup

The misfits are meeting tonight at 7PM at Romolo's: 1525 W 8th St, Erie PA, or you know, 8th and Bayfront. They have really good chai there...and isn't as pretentious as Starbuck's. So, join us. We need new faces! Most of the boys talk about computer stuff and RPG's while most of the chicks talk about recipes and reality tv. So don't be too scared off if you don't know a thing about HTML. I can barely blog this in a different color.

Also, tonight's theme is charity. So, you can bring a non perishable item for the Food Bank if you like, or look like an asshole. Your choice.

I'm thinking about heading over to Greengarden Tavern afterwards for some atery clogging. Join me there after if you're too cool for the Blogger Meetup.

Happy Birthday, Kristen

When I first met you, I was afraid of you. I thought you were going to hate me and Patrick had built you up so much that I thought you would dismiss me as just your brother's girlfriend. I don't remember you being impressed with me at all and my fear had come true. You were a mystery to me besides what Patrick had clued me in on and I wanted so very badly to start talking to you at a mile a minute to gain any information I could.

I remember the first time that I wished we could be friends. I had read a story you wrote about a girl who had just committed suicide and what her last foggy, hazy thoughts were. It was amazing and I was so out of your league. I saw you at Christmas and sporadic holidays until you moved out of the apartment with Ray and we decided to move in together.

I barely knew you but it was one of the best things I've ever done for my maturity, for my sanity. It taught me so many things. YOU taught me so many things. Who knew I'd learn how to cook even the simplest things (fucking rice)? Who knew Showtime had soft porn? Who knew I'd learn that having a guy in your life at all times ISN'T the best way for a relationship to thrive? The reason we fought so much then is because there were so many things I wasn't willing to let go of or admit to. There were so many times you called me out on my issues and insecurities that I retaliated the only way I knew how, like a child who only knew how to throw a tantrum. It really improved the relationships I had then and led me to realize the weak, damaging relationships I now no longer have.

When Patrick and I separated, I thought I lost you for good. I'll never forget the call you made to me telling me everything would be alright, how it would get better every day from then on and how you'd be in the very next weekend to console me and make me half-done brownies. Among some other very important people in my life, you were one of the ones to really help me through the bout of depression I fell into. It meant so much for so many reasons.

I can't tell you how fast I drive every time I come and visit. It always seems like forever since I saw you last. I can't tell you how many times I think of you during my mindless, monotonous day. You would have enjoyed that horrible pair of pants that chick was wearing or the way that man was chewing his salad. You might have backed me up in that fight or went shopping with me for KY jelly. I'd have a dancing partner every weekend. I'd have a voice of reason to bring me back down to reality. I'd have day trips to places like intercourse, PA and we could start our own restaurant review column.

But then again, though I don't think it's nearly the right ratio of Kristen to non-Kristen time, I would be afraid to live closer to you. It's amazing how we pick up where we left off, but maybe that's because it's always really great between us. There's no overkill. There's hardly any agitation. And we can talk for hours because we don't talk every day. We have a long distance relationship that actually works.

Plus, we both really like reality TV.

I love you. Happy Birthday.

Proof I Have The Best Commenters

No Dreamhouse

Nostalgia

Knee-knocking

No middle finger yet

Now I get it

Namely peanut butter

And I just personally liked this whole month of posts. Enjoy your Monday.

A Cat In The Spat

This is from The Best Of Craig's List. I rarely laugh out loud at the computer because that is for crazies or attention seekers, but this made me do just that. THIS was pretty good too, especially the first line. And THIS one I wish I would have composed.

Finding Things To Do

I uploaded 2 short little videos of Britain singing Walking On Sunshine on my MySpace. I love when she says "good" It's more like "duhd"