Ed's early birthday present

Edward has been wanting to make our extra room into a bar/lodge area. We've been dragging our feet since we didn't really know what to do with it. So for his birthday I decided to get him a bar! Well, it's a bar cabinet, but a bar all the same. I was shopping at Goodwill today and then on my way out I saw it there. It's a Target brand cabinet that was originally $200.00. I won't say how much I got it for since it was a present. So after dragging it in the house from the car, I spent almost three hours putting it together. I am very proud of myself since I can't even put together a 3-5 year old Lego set. Christopher can vouch for me on that one. Anyways, so of course I had to fill the bar with something. I got alcohol of course, but I'm very excited about all of my new glasses. (These are for me since Ed doesn't care if he takes shots out of a mug.) I got a 12 piece tumbler set, a 4 piece wine glass set, a 6 piece shot glass set and a cocktail book for all uner $22.00 at TJMaxx! How awesome is that?! And they're cute too. They aren't just your plain jane glasses. Anyways, here are the pictures of Ed's awesome birthday present.

Bug-a-boos and cutie pies

Well first off, I have to tell you about the gigantic bug that Emmy brought in yesterday after I took her out to the back yard to go potty. Ed said that it was a bumble bee, but whatever it was, I was screaming my head off and Emmy just looked at me like "it's okay mommy, I'll just eat it.". And she tried to which made me scream even more. So I did my classic don't know what to do with big bug things and put a jar over it for Ed to get rid of when he got home. Usually I would do this in Riverside and have Tim get rid of it, but since Tim is in Georgia, I had to wait for Ed. I just didn't want Emmy knocking over the jar since it was on a rug. I put a jar of spaghetti sauce on top to keep it heavy so that the bee didn't crawl out because of the plush carpet. This is my contraption. Ed laughed at me for it, but at least Emmy didn't knock it over.

Emmy checking out my new set up.

Look how giant this thing is! It's little furry legs were squirming all over the place when Emmy pulled it off her tummy. I'm just glad that she did it because if I would have been petting her and felt it I think I would have blown a gasket.

Here are some pictures of Emmy and Edward sleeping on the couch.

Right now she's looking at me like, "Mommy, I'm trying to fall asleep here."
And her eyes were wobbling shut as I kept clicking away with the camera. I've never taken pictures of her with my SLR before. I lent my snapshot camera to Tim, so I had to bust out the big guns.


Aww, isn't he a cutie pie?
I had to get one last shot of my baby girl.

New Harry Potter Trailer!

For those of you who didn't receive my mass email sending out the trailer for the new HP movie, here's the link. 2 minutes and 12 seconds!!!! Yay! I'm so excited I'm going to read the whole series again. http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/videogallery/video/show/669 As of right now there are 78 days, 9 hours, 25 minutes and 45 seconds until the movie comes out and 86 day, 9 hours, 25 minutes and 22 seconds until Deathly Hallows comes out. Well, by the time that I publish this blog, it'll be out dated, but you get the point. Has everyone seen the new cover art? I don't like it to much, but the podcasts have been analyzing it so much that I'm starting to like it.

This is the United Kingdom cover

United States Cover

You can click on the picture to look at more detail. The image is quite large so that you can see lots of the little details. The UK cover is much more fun to analyze, but I think that I like the US edition better.

Emmy's bath

Emmy let me give her a bath by myself today. I think she finally realized that when she gets a bath she gets fussed over a lot, which means lots of attention for her. Hehehe. Plus today was pretty warm so her wet fur is keeping her cool. Here are some pictures of one of her bath sessions. Now that she's nice and clean and had some special double peanut butter treats she's jumping around and playing with her little chicken like a puppy. She growls and tosses her chicken around and then jumps up and down. She's so hyped up right now. It's so cute!!!

She looks like a little rat!!!

Anything but clothes for Donovan!

We're going down to Philadelphia on Friday to go to Donovan's birthday bash. It's another Anything But Clothes party. I've bought a bunch of saran wrap for us to wear, but man I'm getting flabby. This is what we wore last year. Ed wore paper towels and bubble wrap and I'm wearing a purple mesh that I found at Joanne's for like $5. I felt like a Barbie when Juni was wrapping me all up. I had my arms sticking out and everything.

The Colored Purple fix

Sorry, in the movie Celie was played by Whoppie Goldberg, who also fits the description of not so good looking.

Currently reading: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go."

— Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"


I am currently reading The Color Purple by Alice Walker. I highly suggest that everyone add this to their book list. Later when I have the time, I will give you an brief analysis to entice you into this marvelous book. I will be comparing this book to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison for my grad app. sample for The College of Saint Rose. Unfortunately, my nicely written in copy is at home and it'll take to long to be sent, but I'm getting a copy from the RPI library to skim through. I've read it two or three times already, and absolutely love it. The pain and self loathing of the little girl makes your heart wrench. Anyways, I know that Oprah played Celie in The Color Purple a while back (totally suits her since the character is supposed to be super ugly), but everyone should totally read the book. It is absolutely amazing. The dialect used makes it a little slow to read, but it's not too hard to get through. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston was WAY worse. Ed tried to read it, but he didn't like it much because it was so...slang-ish. If anyone wants to read that, I have two copies at home. I had to read it for two different classes, but forgot that I had already bought and read it. I didn't figure it out until I started reading it again and was like "hey, I think I've read this before". Anyways, another good book if you have the time to read it. I'm enjoying The Color Purple way more though.

Boy, with all of the books I suggest you can start a book list from my suggestions. Heheh

Here have been my recent readings and suggestions:

1. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
2. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
3. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
4. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
5. The Shopaholics series by Sophi Kinsella
6. The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling (how could you expect me to leave this one off?)


Hmm looks like I've been doing a lot of reading lately. And here you all thought I was doing nothing. Anyways, I'm in the middle of doing some pretty heavy analysis on The Color Purple, so I must be off. I've figured out what the color purple's significance is, but I won't tell you so that I don't spoil it, however, I will divulge the themes that I've picked out.

Love
Hate
Failure
Fear
Gender confusion

Hopefully this will get you interested enough to go and pick it up.

Happy Reading!

I went running!

Yahoo! I actually went running today. I'm so proud of myself that I had to tell you all. It's a big accomplishment for me. Anyways, I haven't really felt like writing because this internship takes up all my writing time. Only fourteen more weeks to go! If you want to check out my Dove article that I wrote last night, it's on this website. http://www.wallofdove.com/
This is another one that I wrote. This one wasn't nearly as fun to write as the Dove article, although it does make me want to travel. http://www.sxmcarnival.com/ So far I've hand four article published, which is great. I can only put the website links for you guys for legal purposes. I don't want to get in trouble. By the end of this internship, provided I can stick with it, I can have a great recommendation letter from my editor and can count it as real writing experience. I'm very excited about how this will go. I've gotten into a mode where I write every day now, but the editing is still coming. Hopefully I can keep up with the MUD too. The head of the MUD told me she'd write me a letter of rec too if I wanted. Plus the ones from my professors, man I'll be rolling in letters. Grad school, here I come! *I'm keeping my fingers crossed though. Okay TTFN!

Get this

Freaking Troy weather! Yesterday I sat outside sunning myself in flip flops and having my lunch in nice 60ish degree weather. Today its snowing!

A new room!

I finally wrote a new room for the MUD. It was actually quite easy to write, but I just kept putting it off. I figured I should write something before I get too pooped out from writing with the internship. I have to write an article a day for them. I guess it's expected since this is a journalism internship and all. It's good practice for if I want to get into the journalism field. Anyways, tomorrow I'm going to start working for my cousin to market her new business. It's called Find Smarty (http://www.findsmarty.com) It's an internship program for older high school students to get some experience. It gives me something to do at least. Watch, because I'm helping her out, the temp agency is going to offer me a job. You know how those things go. Always bad timing. I'm also going to try to go to a job fair tomorrow in Albany. It starts at 10am so I'll have to go then before I start work with Jenjen. So I don't know if that will happen, but I'm going to try anyways.

Another thing that's been going on is that I signed up to take my GRE's again. So I started studying and man, I have a lot of work to do. All of this because I don't want to work. Hehe. Anyways, here is the room.

Secret Tunnel


From behind the wooden trapdoor the smell of damp moss and lilac permeates the air. Like a realm of its own, the otherwise parched stone bricks provide life for lilac vines and fuzzy moss. Cicadas’ constant vibration drums through the flagrant air, transforming the secret passageway into a picture of romance. Loose, light brown dirt covers the ground, but leaves no footprints to taint the divine picture of the tunnel floor. Io and Europa, two of Jupiter’s moons, pan slowly across the enchanted night sky, creating a subtle blue ambiance on the fragile petals of the lilacs. Though it appears that there is no way out of this sanctuary, hidden by the tangled lilac vines is an exit to the east.

Extended Descriptions

Lilacs Moss Vines Fuzzy

Clumps of deep purple lilacs grow towards the glowing moons. Created by a clever witch who enjoyed the sight of ivy, but smell of lilac, the lilac was cultivated into a vine-growing organism that grew quickly on the bone dry wall. The witch found however, that the lilac would perish after a period of time if it did not have a moist counterpart. To save her precious lilacs, she cast a spell for ever-growing moss onto the stonewalls where her beloved flowers were to grow.

Cicada Vibration Drums

The low drumming of the male insects flow through the air. Trying to attract a suitable mate, the male cicadas’ push on endlessly to find their match.
Io Europa Jupiter Moons
The pale light of a single glowing satellite could not give justice to the beauty of this secret tunnel; therefore the ceiling was enchanted to show the rotation of Jupiter’s smallest moons. The magical combination of the moons keeps the lilacs growing all year.
Echo

12 11 2 A cicada’s transparent wings catch the glowing light of Europa as it flutters overhead.


The lilac extended description is different from what I usually write for the MUD, but I liked the idea of someone creating a new breed of lilac. I actually don't like the scent of lilac because it gives me a headache, but a lot of people do and this tunnel is supposed to give the feeling of relaxation.