graceomallet

Got my GenCon badge and event tickets a couple of days ago, so I can hold them and pet them and generally get all excited about going.

Also got my Great Big Sea tickets for September - they'll be playing at the Harbor again, and that was an excellent show! I should probably remember bug spray this time, though.

And TMBG are playing a Flood show in Cleveland right around my birthday, so my sister and I are considering taking Greyhound out there. That would be an awesome birthday present, since I got into TMBG when Flood came out.

I'm not sure what I'm more excited about right now - they're all pretty much neck and neck in terms of making me happy and bouncy. :)

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I'm on vacation, and so far I have spent two days on a train, two days at the New York Renaissance Faire and one day taking care of other matters. It's been a pretty full schedule. But I am back upstate and trying to put together some scrambled thoughts. It's not really working.

The Faire, as always, very awesome. Because I got to see the Crimson Pirates, in part. Because I got to see the Crimson Pirates with Dan O'Driscoll in very large part (long story, but let's just say for now the fact we went this past weekend was as very serendipitous). We picked up the new album and Ben bought me this great custom pin from Fellowship Foundry. It just says 'Om Nom Nom' on it. (I'm also getting a butterfly dragon goblet I'm not supposed to know about but I wandered back too early, so, um, oops. I told Ben to give it to me for Christmas so hopefully I will forget about it by then. Unless of course I read this entry. Heh.)

I also have discovered that yes, I can still blush. Rather a lot. See, this is what happens when someone who pretty much defines your NYRF faire experience since the early 1990's actually chooses to 'play' with you during a song ("Black Velvet Band", in this case). So. Yes. I matched parts of my outfit very nicely.

The Crimson Pirates, btw, did a wonderful job of covering 'Bow to Stern'. There was a completely kick-ass version of "A Sailor's Prayer" done during pub sing which I will link to if I can ever find video of it. Until then, here's "Rocky Road to Dublin". (For those of you not familiar with the Crimson Pirates or Dan O'Driscoll, he's the one in the middle.)

Yay! Great Big Sea is playing Rocks the Harbor weekend in August! Plus Zappa plays Zappa is playing Thursday in the Square also in August and apparently a very cool band with friends I know are opening for Spirit of the West...well, okay, that's on July 31st, but that's close enough to August. I wonder how many days I can get away with taking off that month...

*bounces around all happy-ily*
*should really get some sleep*
*doesn't want to, wants it to be August*
*just looked and realized the Mickey Hart Band is playing in July as well*
*wonders if she could just take the whole damn summer off*
*is probably really driving people bananas with doing this*
*will stop now*
*really*
*seriously*
*okay, now really*

:)

Today, I did a lot (and I do mean a LOT of walking). It being the first Saturday of the month, I did not have my usual game group and Ben's off to visit his parents. So I decided I was going to do something I have not done in a long time - well, two somethings, although it's been longer on the first instead of the second.

I was watching "Titanic" for the 80 billionth time the other day and it reminded me - I kept meaning to go down to Forest Lawn and find Edward Austin Kent's grave. For those of you not familiar with Mr. Kent, he was an architect who moved to Buffalo at the end of the Civil War. He was part of a writer's group that included Colonel Archibald Gracie and assisted Helen Churchill Candee into lifeboat 6 before losing his life.

I had done some research after watching "Titanic" when it was first released and knew had a headstone somewhere in Forest Lawn. However, I had no idea where. Today I decided to go find the grave. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to catch buses down to the cemetery, the main office had closed. So I figured I'd just try and find the grave anyway. Now, I honestly didn't expect to just wander and find it as Forest Lawn is HUGE. But I figured I'd get some exercise and if nothing else, I'd go visit Millard Fillmore's grave, as I knew where that was located. Once I got into the cemetery, I just wandered in whatever direction felt "right". Imagine my surprise when I actually happened across said grave! I sat for awhile (partially due to needing to stop walking for a bit, partially out of sheer surprise I found the headstone), picked up some garbage around the grave and then walked over to President Fillmore's grave site. Total walking time: a little over 1 and a half hours.

Afterwards, I caught another bus down to where the Taste of Buffalo is. Now, they moved locations a few years ago (I don't remember when, exactly) and I haven't been since they moved. The location is very nice - instead of it being along one street, it goes around a square, so there's plenty of places to sit and eat as opposed to trying to find a corner to wedge yourself into and hope you aren't jostled to death. I decided to say "to hell with the diet" and had the following: Rouladen, a crab cake & bruschetta combo, Sabzi Pakora, Chicken Makhani with Basmati Rice, Strawberry Shortcake (mostly the strawberry part as the biscuits were super dense and rather bleah), Machiatto Cheesecake, a tasting of wines and a couple of berry wine coolers. Except for the strawberry shortcake, everything was mega tasty and very filling. Most of the portions were actually fairly small - like 1 individual rouladen, 1 small-sized crab cake, etc. Except for the strawberry shortcake (comprised mostly of the giant dense bleah biscuits) from the sponsor of the festival. Their other option, which I did not get, was Seasoned Steak, Bacon Cheddar Cheese or Chili Cheese PLUS Pasta Fiesta Salad, Delmonte Fruit Naturals AND Carrot Sticks. That is a heck of a lot of food for 7 tickets. The shortcake was only 3. :) So I spent about 25 bucks (mostly cause the booze was also 7 tickets at $.50 a ticket), heard some horrendous cover bands, ate some great food and had a good time. Then I went home and took a nap. :) Tomorrow I go back to trying to keep to about 1500 calories a day.

I am pleased to announce that we have our phone back!! Hooray!

Oh, lovely lovely DSL, how I have missed you...


:)

Power is back on at the house, has been since Tuesday. Although every time I leave I expect it to be off again when I get back. :P The phone boxes were ripped off the side of the house and the phone company supposedly will not fix anything until a tree that is causing problems is removed. It was rotten, and split down the middle, with part of it resting on the downstairs roof. It hasn't broken off completely yet, which is leading to me running under it really really fast when I enter/leave. There is no way to get to the doors without having to go under it. And of course, getting it removed is our problem. Well. Technically our landlord's problem. Hopefully he'll be able to find someone to do it soon before it hurts someone. So - power, good. No phone or cable - doable. Dangerous split trees still being at house - bad bad bad.

I have decided my birthday (and this week, really) is a wash. Every time I try to find something good about it, something bad happens. We get power back but we won't have phones for god knows how long. We get a laptop, it gets screwed up. I get an ice cream cake for my birthday - only a day late! It turns out to have some cement-like caramel chewy thing in the middle and could not be cut before the ice cream melted. I wound up scooping out as much ice-cream as possible so I could /eat/ some of it but it does not resemble a cake at all. I get some irish breakfast tea for work, get a bug in it, drink the bug, trigger my gag reflex and spew tea all over my white sleeve. And freak out my co-workers. It's been that sort of week.

Still, it could have been a lot worse. And I am grateful for that. I still have my house, my husband, my cat and my family. The tree missed our car when it split. The laptop is fixed and if I go to Wegmans, I can use their hotspot to connect to the internet. Or get on from work when I have a chance. I can bleach the damn sleeve. And the cake...well, okay. That just sucks overall and I am never buying a cake from that place again. But in the grand scheme of things, it's a cake. Life goes on.

Yet another Olypmics has come and gone, and even though I didn't find myself as drawn into it this time around, I still got to see some good moments. And yet again I find myself wondering if I can afford to actually go see one in person. I doubt it'll happen, but it's a nice thought.

In other news, Ben was on vacation and we got to spend a lot of time together, which was lovely. And for my 5 year anniversary at work, I got a BIG bunch of flowers which I was totally not expecting. I had to put them in the one spot where Neko can't get to, so I don't get to look at them much, but they're beautiful. I wish I had a digital camera that worked, so I could take a picture. Mine died, alas. Oh well. Time to save up...

I should probably go do some bills. Maybe in a few minutes. :)

I went to Toronto this past weekend with my RL sister squidexplosion and, as is usual with trips with my sister, regret that it was so short.

( The story starts here... )

Yes, the cast is off. I'm going to have to go to physical therapy but I am currently typing with both hands!! Using the right hand feels wierd, 'cause there's still some odd sensations from the little swelling I do have but hopefully that'll pass soon.

And now I'm off to bed because I get to go find out what torture I'm going through twice a week at noon. Bah.

But in the next few days, I'm all about breaking out some Lush products and having a smelly bath, baby. Aw yeah.