Tricky Treaters

I'm always puzzled...

of all the Halloweens spent in New York, I have never had any tricker treaters. And even though it happens every year, I'm still puzzled by the lack of knocks at my door. Those tricky treaters...they go all the way to Connecticut and New Jersey just to get the best sweet treats around (and maybe to avoid needles in their candy stack.)

Hm.

It's a little sad not to see all the adorable costumed children smiling so brightly for a bit of sugar...but at least now I have nephews and nieces to hear stories about and receive silly pictures from!

Happy Halloween, Everyone! May you be treated, not tricked!

SUPER SEEDS!!

I found a quicker, less painful, less obsessive way to get the most out of sunflower seeds.

You go to your neighborhood Indian Market and you purchase these...

SUPER Sunflower SEEDS! Oh my goodness, aren't they humongous?!


"Curry Hill" (Lexington Ave in the upper 20's)
is my new secret to successful sunflower seed adventures!

File Making, Heart Breaking

I keep thinking how I need to educate myself more. I don't want to spend the rest of my life organizing files for Managers, Vice Presidents and Executives at different corporate offices

I need to take a course to expand my skills. I want to be able to dive deeper into areas that already interest me, but I don't know enough about. The problem here is that I have too many interests. Should I take a course in business? or English? Should I go back to school for theater? Maybe a directing course? stage management? I did print out a Screen Writing course that I found on-line. I followed the first lesson, and that was it. I never looked at the second lesson. I'm not for screen writing. I'd rather take basket weaving, it's nearly as precise. Perhaps I should try something almost totally new and foreign, like graphic design?

My co-worker suggested fashion design. "Fashion Design?!", says I, "Why fashion design?"

I don't really consider myself very fashion forward. So I get a bit of a rush whenever anyone compliments me on my attire or accessories. As you can imagine, when my co-worker, I'll call her "Rica", suggested I take some fashion design courses at FIT, I was rather blushed. She said I had a knack for throwing things together to make an outfit. This is the outfit I wore that prompted Rica to compliment me:

I took the belt from the skirt, tied it around the t-shirt and added a decorative floral hair-pin for flair. I have to give credit to my friend Robyn for the using a belt as an accent idea. Therefore, could I really go to design school? I mean, truly it may be that I am just inspired by those around me. But then I began thinking and I did design a new shirt in my head that I believe, had I actually sewn it together, could be a really nice, curvaceous top for some woman...maybe even me.

Maybe I do have a knack? With the right training...some focus and discipline...could I be the next "Project Runway" winner?

Then I think, nah. I can't believe the hype. If dressing funky turned into an expectation, rather than a surprise and delight. It would cease to be enjoyable to me. I like to experiment with clothing to shake things up and put a little skip in my step. I don't want to have a near heart attack every morning because I can't decide what to wear and the whole world is watching.

Nah, I guess that's why I've stuck to file making. It's helpful to others. It's all neat and pretty. And, for the most part, my creativity stays out of it. My creativity remains my own. It remains personal.

Kunda-what-now?

I took my first kundalini yoga class last Thursday night.

A friend of mine is training to become a yoga teacher and needed a few interested volunteers with whom to practice. She forewarned all interested parties that kundalini yoga is not the typical yoga we may be use to. "It's weird," she said.

Turns out, it is a little weird. Not as weird as I thought it was going to be...not by a long shot. Still, I could see where some people would be a little put off by it. Like the breath of fire where you pant like a dog.

I learned a lesson, though. I learned that believing in anything can make it work. (Generally speaking.) It works the same with entertainment as it does with religion and fitness and health. In nearly all mediums, it is the willingness to suspend your disbelief that gives them power. If I believe chanting and stretching and panting will strengthen and purify me...then it will. Or at least it will do more good than if I go through the motions while thinking "this is a bunch of hooey."

Sugary Wedding

A PICTURE STORY

Two weekends ago, I went to my friends' wedding. Carrie & Dan are an awfully cute couple.

So cute, in fact, that their theme incorporated old time candy at every table. Gummy bears, york peppermint patties, hershey's kisses, rock candy, red vines, M&Ms, pixie stixs, mary janes, gum balls, lollipops and smarties. And every guest got a bag to fill with any and all the candy of their choosing. Oh...call the dentist!


They even sealed their program by wrapping it with candy dots!

Oh-my-goodness-clever-and-cute!

My friend, Robyn, started flirting with some guy at our table and creating these sculptures out of tableware and candy .

It was quite amusing to all of us at the "misfits" table. Sugar boosts your creativity.


This is what six hours of sugar consumption will do to you.

We're a rather giddy bunch. Hip! Hip! Carrie & Dan!


Random acts of lifting. Sugar makes you strong!

(Boy was I glad to be off those heels for even a minute! phooh! Thank you, sugar muscles!)


Awww...Sugar makes you sweet.

Isn't that just the sweetest pose you've ever seen?

More Bad News for the Devil Rays.

An 81-year-old man is stung by a stingray that JUMPS into his boat, seemingly unprovoked. This, less than two months after beloved "Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin, was attacked and killed by an apparently unprovoked stingray while filming. It seems, the Tampa Bay Devil Ray's animal name-sake is out to rewrite it's reputation as a yielding creature which only attacks by virtue of defense and never takes initiative.

Are the Devil Ray's trying to tell us something?

Is this an omen? The Devil Rays are getting ready to pull out all the stops! Watch out World Series 2007!!! We're not going to play the "docile rookies" anymore! HERE WE COME! (Or, maybe at least the playoffs? No? Okay. How 'bout moving up the ranks to #4 in the AL East? Please...)

Winter approaches...

The one thing I actually love about the approach of winter

... is the smell of wood burning.

Something about the smell of a

toasty fire

in the winter is just such a happy thing!

Distracty mind

Oi vey! Planning a party is hard work. I'm all distracty and tired and keep back-tracking on things I've already decided on. It's a full time job. I don't have time to be at work! I need to get planning!

It was so much easier when we were in middle school and a party consisted of $1 store prizes and decorations and left-over halloween candy.

"Google" the term

(This is one of those "draft posts" I was talking about. Just sitting in the blog queue, waiting to get some attention...)


After reading an article entitled "Bush: Google government spending" in the METRO "The world's largest global newspaper" on Wednesday, September 27, 2006, it inspired me to think about the origin of words.

To summarize the article, Bush says citizens can "google" federal budget and spending. President Bush recently signed a new law that calls for a web site database to go online by January 1, 2008 that would allow citizens to track about $1 trillion in government spending on grants and contracts.

But where is Google in all this? Did they strike a deal? Is there a contract with Google and the United States Government? The new law has little to nothing to do with Google. Why not say "...Americans will now be able to '[Yahoo! Search] their tax dollars'", or "...Americans will now be able to '[Ask Jeeves about] their tax dollars'"? I know, I know...because it's not as simple and catchy.

There is no longer a question that "Google" is a term, as well as, a company. But when did this happen? Was it when Bush casually used the term in conjunction with a new law? Was it years ago? Is it right now via this blog?

When will we look back and not know where the term "google" originated? When will the origin of "google" be in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader as we laugh in amazement that Google was actually a company at one time?

Sunflower Guts!

Sometimes I feel guilty talking about the hippie neighbors upstairs. I mean, they are well intentioned. Also, I told them how much fun I had toasting the sunflower seeds that they gave me an entire bowl full of sunflower seeds, already removed from the flower!

I washed the seeds and laid them out to be toasted. Then I had a thought! Since the hippies were so nice as to already remove them from the flower, why don't I remove them from their shells. This way, when they are done toasting, they will be ready to eat, sans shell. Brilliant!



5 HOURS LATER...



I had the product you see below.



Left: Hulled shells, sans seeds
Right: Seeds, sans shells...Not much of a pile.

And some rather bruised thumbs. Ow!


I persevere (despite the thumbs). I lay the freshly hulled seeds out to be toasted.

Seeds a toasting in the dim toaster oven.

I was amazed to learn that the seeds still POPPED! Despite the lack of shell. I had thought, that perhaps the shell cracking was the popping noise I heard the first time I toasted sunflower seeds. But there they were - right in plain view. Sunflower seed popcorn was jumping off the foil like mad.

A little to quickly, too. Because, after five hours of intense labor, hulling seeds for easy and more delicious consumption...

I burnt half the product in just under 10 seconds.


Burnt and unburnt toasted sunflower seeds.

The upside is the ones that survived the carnage tasted pretty dang good.

And Andy wasn't complaining because he got to eat a bunch of tiny tasty sunflower seeds, in ten seconds flat. Plus, he likes burnt things.

Happy Anniversary, Linda!

Why, Thank You, Blog! Thank you for caring.

Today is my one year anniversary at my job.

Does anybody care? No.

Nobody really cares when someone can hold a job for a year. They care when you can hold a job for twenty-five years! Then, and only then, there will be EXTRA cookies for everyone!

But, you know what? I'm okay with this. Because today my boss and I hosted a meeting, and provided lunch. And there were LOTS of cookies left over.

Since it's my anniversary...I DID NOT REFUSE THOSE COOKIES. I enjoyed them thoroughly.

Congratulations, me.

Thank you, you.

You're welcome, me.

October is a Month to Celebrate and be Aware!

I have nothing to back this up...

But I've been told, that this month IS:

NATIONAL PIZZA MONTH
NATIONAL VEGETARIAN MONTH (October 1st being National Vegetarian Day)
NATIONAL HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH
BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH (I assume it's National, but it's a long enough name as is)

What an exciting month?!!

Also, I celebrate my One Year Anniversary at HBO tomorrow!

And my friend, Erik Tanouye ( http://tanouye.blogspot.com/) celebrates his 29th Birthday today! (Happy Birthday, Erik! You're NOT 30!)

What's more, my sister celebrates her one year anniversary at her job next week!

What a DAY! WHAT A WEEK! WHAT A MONTH!!

And, let's not forget, Halloween...!

----------------------------
10/10/06 at 10:57 pm:

A very astute reader pointed out that my boyfriend, Andy, also celebrates his 5th Year Anniversary at his job on October 9th! AND, if I'm not mistaken, my friend, Sean Taylor (http://www.thespotlightwithseantaylor.com), also celebrates his 5th Year Anniversary at that same place of business on that same day as well!!! Congratulations, all around!!!!!

Other birthdays this month:
NAT RINK - 30!!!!!!
JOSH COHEN - 33!

Who else has a birthday? Please add a comment! Let me know what else is there is to celebrate and observe in October! What a wonderful way to kick off the Fall Foilage!

My Brother, Alan, knows so much

Dear Reader(s),

My brother, Alan, the notorious Alan, the one who's made me a "psuedo celebrity", has pointed out to me that I should not neglect my blog, for the readership will come and go like the rising tide. And then they will just go...like, well, like popcorn in my prescence. Here one minute, gone the next, with hardly a trace to remember them by.


So... I just want you (dear reader(s), are you there?) to know that I will make a full-hearted effort to be more consistent with my posts. I have a lot of drafts saved. I just haven't completed them.

I will make that committment to you. I will finish my posts! I will write more often!

Please stay faithful to me. I will remain faithful to you!

I love you, Reader(s)!

Love, Linda

Self-esteem issues

My therapist falls asleep on me.

One of the things we were working on is my unfounded low self-esteem.

I think we may have found one source!

My therapist falls asleep on me.

LIONS!!!

Man in Convertible Plays His Music Real Loud

Yes, yes sir, we know you're there.

We know you are 45 with a bitchin' new car.

You don't have to play your music at full blast in order for us to see you there.

Because, well, when you slammed into that parked car...that pretty well caught our attention to begin with.