arts and farts and crafts.

I went to the Second Storie: Indie Market today with Matt D and Adam.
It was such an incredibly cool event. The cash I brought was positively burning a hole in my pocket. Being so close to the holidays, I needed to remind myself to buy for other people —I did (and such purchases shall remain nameless on the internet).

But I also got one lil' thing for myself. I've been admiring this poster since I saw it in the window of Taco John's.
It's by fellow RIT alumni, Pete Lazarski, who is a super talented designer/illustrator/wizard. It's going to look sweet up on the wall over the orange love seat we picked up from Ikea last weekend.

my dog fails at cinema.

As a goof, I stopped on one of the movie channels that had Beverly Hills Chihuahua on to see if Clark would pay attention.


He didn't just pay attention, that little asshole called my bluff —he watched the whole damn movie while I cooked dinner.

a city in the armpit of some mountains.

Pittsburgh was a weird city and yet, a fun trip. There's literally nothing leading up to getting to Pittsburgh. No buildup of suburbs, just boring highway dotted with signs for fireworks warehouses and then, BAM, there's a city.

Priceline landed us in a pretty swank hotel near the river and the convention center, right across from PNC Park.


We started out Saturday by visiting the Andy Warhol museum, across the river. The museum was about 50% Warhol, 40% Shepard Fairey and 10% pulpy old movie posters.

It was fantastic. I got to play with giant, floating, mylar pillows, stand next to a two-story Shepard Fairey paste-up, see 21 fading Elvises (Evli?) and brought home my first real Fairey print (and a sticker too).

After that we went to this crazy old record store. It was like walking into the pages of High Fidelity.


We refueled with a cookie and some mochas at a fun, lil' coffee shop near the record dungeon.


Then we drove through a mountain to go to Ikea.


While at the mall near the Ikea there were some baked goods shenanigans. I found a Christmas Cake Wreck: The Ass-Faced Santa.

And then there was a gingerbread metropolis!


Ikea Time Warp. We got a fold out loveseat (an orange one), new coffee table, end table and some other odds and ends. It's all there on the cart, oddly enough.


The next morning, we headed out in search of a delicious breakfast. We went to one of the incarnations of Pamela's, a Pittsburgh staple. The pancakes are so good, that when the President was on the campaign trail, he had some —then brought the staff in to cook a Memorial Day breakfast for a bunch of troops in DC. God damn, they were some of the best pancakes I've ever had in my entire life. I don't have a picture of the plate, because they put me into a good food coma.


After that, we stopped at Trader Joe's to stock up on TJ goodness before heading home. It's crazy. We bring coolers, cooler bags and seriously do a month or two of grocery shopping. Trader Joe's, Rochester is just as much of a stain on the Rustbelt as Pittsburgh. Please come save us.

on the road.

We're on our way to Pittsburgh for the weekend.



A new city to explore, Ikea stop and Trader Joe's. I am quite excited.

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work it.

I've been sandwiching work in between strength training in the morning and cardio in the evening. I'm also not eating like an idiot. I've stopped drinking soda cold turkey and I've cut artificial sweeteners from my diet as well. That's made a huuuge difference on how I feel day to day. That artificial sugar stuff is garbage.

This has been going on for the better part of two weeks now.

Something I've learned through this whole process? That core exercises suck when you have no core strength to begin with. Also, this has all but solved my going-to-bed-too-late problem, now that I am ready to pass out around 10:30 at night.

I need a real exercise mat for the morning stuff. The yoga mat I picked up at Old Navy does nothing in the way of softening the floor. It's good for the basics like crunches and stuff like that, at least.

werewolf bar mitzvah. spooky scary.

I love Halloween. I was especially excited for a True Blood themed Halloween this year (at least for me and the jack-o-lanterns that graced our front porch).
Sookie.

Bill didn't come out so good. The pattern was a mess after the transfer.

And Eric.. oh, Eric. I think he actually turned out the best. Still, I'm not afraid of Eric.

While the Sookie costume kind of came together quietly over a few weeks, I was bouncing up and down as I got ready for trick-or-treaters and the party. The most startling part of the outfit was the wig. I've never thought about going blonde before and I'll never consider it in the future. It was just odd and the wig was huge. I had to tame it's madness into a side ponytail deal.
It's hard to see in the photo, but I even had a silver chain looped around, circa season one. Oh, the nerdiness.

Matt's moon costume was awesome when he had the sky-board on and eerie when he was just covered in white face paint. I think he scared some kids at the door. :D He made it all by himself too and had a blast doing it.

We hung out at home until about nine, because I love the fact that we get trick-or-treaters. To help with our ongoing efforts to eat right, I ended up buying candy that neither of us would touch: mini tootsie roll pops, lemon heads and the ultimate leper of the candy world, Twilight candy hearts. I unleashed that sparkly awfulness on about 40 or so kids who came to the door and left with necco wafers emblazoned with Twilighty sayings.

After that, we killed the porch lights and headed to the MAMA's house bash.

MAMA's house rocks and throws the BEST Halloween party. I love getting the chance to see the City Newspaper peeps. Among them was a Sam Merlotte. :D


Anna's Dalek costume kicked ass. So did the Doctor Who themed shots that fateful Monday night was filled with. I think I filled my Merlotte's glass twice with Time Rotors and I did a few of the TARDIS shots in the neato test tubes she got.

The boys were Calvin and Hobbes. I think this is them acting out a panel from the comic strip. I'm not sure, I'm kinda stealing the party pics from Matt's flickr.

Sunday, we rejoined MAMA's house for brunch and then headed to Target to sweep up some Halloween clearance deals. It's a great time of year for people who love things with skulls on them. :D I think my favorite is the glittery, black skull that's now on the table near the door.

Then the post-Halloween let down set in Monday morning. Next year seems so far away.