happy happy 2010.

2010. Sometimes it felt like it was flying by and others where it was positively dragging itself as though it's legs were broken. But when I look back at pictures, it's only the flying bits—which I am incredibly grateful for. I'm fortunate, in many ways. But what I remember most about 2010 is how fortunate I am for the amazing people I have in my life.

There were a few firsts this year. First high school reunion, first trip to Denver (and first professional-type convention). I had my first try-out for roller derby and thusly my first knee injury (meniscus tear). Still, I got my first derby name (Frankie Dee Bruisevelt)—and my first time out as a non-skating official. With the obvious exceptions, firsts are fun.





Then there are the things that happen every year. Holidays, birthdays, sunny days in San Diego in the middle of July. For the third year, Comic Con week was the thing I looked forward to the most and was not disappointed—a week in my favorite city with my favorite people surrounded by our favorite things. There are few things better than that.



We had True Blood Sundays and a game night here and there. Shenanigans abound. These are the people I know I can count on.




It was also the summer (or year) of Scott Pilgrim. I don't think a movie has quite dominated my life in such a way. Jason Schwartzman signed my phone and I got to meet Edgar Wright outside a classy old theatre before the sneak preview.

And as far as the furry friends? It was a year of first there too for the smaller one. Clark had his first therapy visit, his first agility trial and a bunch of first place ribbons. And Maggie's had her best year yet. Coming from a neglectful home, learning to be a dog and relax and play has been a process. But this year she's come out of her shell. It's nice to be able to take her more places. I think she enjoys it too.

Happy, happy, near year and here's to a lovely 2011.

one song a day: song five | song that reminds your of someone

This is another one of the contenders for favorite song, but it fit so perfectly here because it reminds me of Matt. Less than a month into dating, he burned this song to a CD for me because he said it reminded him of us. And it did, it has and I think it always will. It's one of the most down to earth love songs by one of our favorite bands.

And on our wedding bands, without speaking to each other about it ahead of time, we had the same line engraved on the inside of the rings...

I'm so glad that you exist.

The only bummer? Not a fan of the video.



Day 01. Your favorite song: Frank Turner - Photosynthesis
Day 02. Your least favorite song: Joe - Don't Wanna Be A Player No More
Day 03. A song that makes you happy: The Hold Steady - Slapped Actress
Day 04. A song that makes you sad: Spring Awakening/Johnathan Groff - Left Behind
Day 05. A song that reminds you of someone: The Weakerthans - The Reasons
Day 06. A song that reminds you of somewhere
Day 07. A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 08. A song that you know all the words to
Day 09. A song that you can dance to
Day 10. A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11. A song from your favorite band
Day 12. A song from a band you hate
Day 13. A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14. A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15. A song that describes you
Day 16. A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17. A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18. A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19. A song from your favorite album
Day 20. A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21. A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22. A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23. A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24. A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25. A song that makes you laugh
Day 26. A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27. A song that you wish you could play
Day 28. A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29. A song from your childhood
Day 30. Your favorite song at this time last year

one song a day: song three | song that makes you happy

The Hold Steady is a band Matt introduced me to when he became obsessed with them—and for good reason, they're fucking amazing. In the past few years, I've seen them live more than any other band in my life and their shows are always amazing. This is my favorite Hold Steady song, I love the lyrics and just the general feeling of the song, the up and down, the build up and the quiet. And every time I hear it, I turn it up and every time we've seen the Hold Steady, they've played it and I sing along at the top of my lungs. Craig Finn is incredible on stage, he always looks like he's having the time of his life and that makes a live performance. Remembering how that feels, hearing your favorite song played live, just brings that rush of happiness each time I heard it, no matter where I am.

We're just dust in the spotlight, we're just kind of floating.

Day 01. Your favorite song: Frank Turner - Photosynthesis
Day 02. Your least favorite song: Joe - Don't Wanna Be A Player No More
Day 03. A song that makes you happy: The Hold Steady - Slapped Actress
Day 04. A song that makes you sad
Day 05. A song that reminds you of someone
Day 06. A song that reminds you of somewhere
Day 07. A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 08. A song that you know all the words to
Day 09. A song that you can dance to
Day 10. A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11. A song from your favorite band
Day 12. A song from a band you hate
Day 13. A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14. A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15. A song that describes you
Day 16. A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17. A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18. A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19. A song from your favorite album
Day 20. A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21. A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22. A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23. A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24. A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25. A song that makes you laugh
Day 26. A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27. A song that you wish you could play
Day 28. A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29. A song from your childhood
Day 30. Your favorite song at this time last year

she said love may make you blind, kid.

Spring Awakening is coming to Rochester...

... and that is amazing in its own right. But if you watch the above video, note the risers on the sides of the stage with people sitting there. That is where Matt and I will be sitting for the Valentine's Day matinee show. I'm so freakin' excited, there aren't words.

Spring Awakening was part of the NYC trip that Matt put together when he asked me to marry him. In fact, that's was what we did the evening after we got engaged in Central Park. So it's special for that reason. It's also special because it's one of those rare musicals we both enjoy (instead of me thoroughly enjoying and Matt barely stomaching). It's not fluff (ie: not based on a Reese Witherspoon movie), the music is fantastic, the performances just suck you right into the story...

I'm gushing. I can't help it. I'm a musical nerd/snob and I just adore this show.

that's not how you play video games.

Matt: So, do you like the Playstation?

Kara: Yeah, I guess. I mean, I never thought I'd dislike it. I still like the Xbox better. It's more warm and fuzzy. Like, sometimes I just want to give it a cuddle.

Matt: ...

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.

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.

there's no way this is a good idea.

In preparation for the MAMA's House Halloween party, Matt and Anna have been concocting a plethora of shots, trying to tie them in via color or any stretch of the imagination to Doctor Who (in honor of Anna's Dalek Dress). So.. drinking ourselves silly on a Monday night. Go team!


And down we go...


My kitchen turned into a bar with Anna at the helm.


What the hell is in this thing?

A winner, maybe? Anna seems to think so.

Oh shit.. we better write this down. That was awesome.

fall days, dog days.

Matt and I took the fuzz balls down to the park today. Matt fell in love with the idea of getting an Airedale Terrier as our next dog and was even looking up info on the breed on his iPhone while we were there. I think we have "next dogs" lined up for years —since we're not going to be a three dog household. Also on the waiting list, dog names. I still want to call a dog Spiderman and we are definitely having a dog named ASBO at some point. But Matt pointed out that people names for dogs are pretty awesome and I agree. I see an Airedale named Charlie in our future somewhere.

Maggie stayed on-leash, but did better this time than previous ones while being around a lot of other dogs. Maggie's kind of a work in progress. I don't know what her previous owners did to her, but I can tell you that they didn't work on socializing her AT ALL. So it's been a slow and steady process just getting her to the point where she's not flipping out when she sees another dog she doesn't know. The headcollar helps.

I need to remember to bring my camera the next time I go to Ellison (which might just be tomorrow afternoon). Not only are the trees gorgeous in their fall colors, but I'd love to have some photos of my little social butterfly running around with the other dogs down there.

In other canine news, Clark needs to lose a few pounds: so sayeth the vet as well as the agility instructor. He's not morbidly obese, but on a little dog, two or three pounds can make all the difference. So, that means I just finished cooking dinner for the dog. Hah. It's nothing ornate, I'm just cutting his dog food intake by half and replacing that with cooked veggies. Tonight I learned that cooked carrots, peas and spinach are awesome —a sprinkling of uncooked celery... not so much.

With both Matt and I getting on the eating right and exercise wagon, it's kinda funny/weird to have Clark jumping on board. Maggie... well, Maggie has a goddamn hummingbird metabolism.

cute overload at home.

We have foofy, long-haired dogs because of Matt's allergies.

I grew up with rough-and-tumble labs and dals and he grew up in a dog-less house. Now we have two dogs, Maggie (who we adopted from Lollypop as an adult) and Clark (who we got from a breeder as a puppy). Matt claims that Maggie is his favorite, because he saw her first -- but now that Clark's settling down out of crazy.. well.. puppy-ness; they're finding more in common with each other.

Clark adores Matt. He'll sneak attack him in the morning by creeping up to wake him up by licking his face, loses his damn mind when Matt gets home and then there are moments like this where I'm glad to have any kind of picture-taking device nearby.

They're just two guys chilling out for an evening at home.

Also, please note the amazing combination of the Black Cross shirt with polar bear PJ pants. Someone is totally punk rock right now.