We're only in it for the money

I got a love letter from the guuuuvment today...

I got audited by the fucking IRS.

whhhhoooooo!
So basically, I can dispute it and then they'll probably crawl right up my ass even further, or I can just shut up and pay what they say I owe.

The funny thing is, I'm being audited for the one year that I had H&R Block do my taxes. Damn them.

Soon.

December Fifth.

That is the day that my super secret project will be done.

Really.

And on December 6th my friend is throwing a tiny launch party at Lucky's Lounge. Whhooooo!

Right on.

I saw this last night on television, and luckily someone had the good thought to "youtube clip it" within 24 hours, so that hopefully it can spread like wildfire all over the interwebs. Hooray for technology!

Super secret project and a really good blog....

Soooo, my super secret project is taking a whole hell of a lot longer to finish up than I anticipated, but it will be up soon... and it will be worth it. (at least, I hope so!)

There is not enough time in a day for me to do all the things I want to do.

In other news, I found this blog the other day... and It's really great....
http://www.my50syear.blogspot.com

Black Dahlia

I'm not really a fan of Halloween so usually I just go to whatever party I'm invited to as a 1950s housewife..meaning I just show up in something I'd normally wear.

But this year I decided to actually put a tiny bit of effort into my costume...

And another thing....

Whoever stole my damn pumpkin off my doorstep...
I hope you drop it on yer foot and break a toe or two... you shmuck.

Today is Halloween

I don't really like halloween all that much, but I LOVE zombies.......

DIE YOU ZOMBI​E BASTA​RDS!​ at Cinem​aSale​m on Satur​day night​,​ Novem​ber 1st.

This event​ gets bigge​r and crazi​er by the minut​e.​.​.​ Here'​s what'​s in store​:​

SEE! the film in the compa​ny of hundr​eds of (​Real,​ Live (​?​!​?​!​?​)​)​ ZOMBI​ES from the Salem​ Zombi​e Walk!​

HEAR!​ the World​'​s Great​est surf-​instr​o Misfi​ts cover​ band The Crims​on Ghost​s,​ will play a blazi​ng LIVE SET at 10pm befor​e the movie​!​

SEE! an hones​t to god FREAK​ SHOW!​!​!​ Serio​usly,​ there​'​ll peopl​e hamme​ring nails​ into their​ heads​,​ walki​ng on a bed of nails​,​ swall​owing​ live insec​ts and who knows​ what else.​.​.​

DROOL​!​ The Crims​on Ghost​s will be accom​panie​d by gorge​ously​ grote​sque green​skinn​ed zombi​egirl​ go-​go dance​rs inspi​red by none-​other​-​than the magni​ficen​t Maldo​nato Tripl​ets!​ Oh, BEHAV​E!​

MEET!​ Co-​write​r/​co-​produ​cer Haig Demar​jian along​ with assor​ted Cast and Crew MYSTE​RY GUEST​S.​.​.​ bring​ your DYZB!​ memor​abili​a and get autog​raphs​ for your colle​ction​!​!​!​

BUY! What'​s that you say? You don'​t OWN any rare and colle​ctabl​e DYZB!​ memor​abili​a?​ Don'​t worry​-​-​ that Undea​d Legen​d of Comic​s,​ Hack "​King"​ Derby​,​ has creat​ed an ALL-​NEW colle​ctabl​e poste​r for this SPECI​AL event​-​-​ only avail​able for sale AT the event​!​

WIN! Did we menti​on that there​'​ll be a "​Best Zombi​e"​ COSTU​ME CONTE​ST with CASH PRIZE​S?​?​!​!​?​?​!​

PAY! $10 admis​sion/​ $8 if you'​re dress​ed like a Zombi​e

Sadly, I can't go to this event... Instead, I'll be watching Henry Rollins rant and rave for hours on Saturday evening. But, go go go, if you can... the movie is great!

Wow.

I haven't updated this blog in a LOOOONG time.

Time for excuses......
I'm neglecting this blog because I've been working on a giant secret project that is almost ready to be revealed.

to tide you over, here is what has happened in the last month or so....
• my house is finally getting a new heating system • dolemite is still an asshole • i'm re-modeling my spare bedroom • a hutch is being built for my kitchen to hide dolemite's litter box... so you could say that his bathroom is getting re-modeled • Myk and Allison got married • my car overheated on the way to Myk's wedding • i've got costochondritis, which means the cartilage around my sternum is strained... it hurts! a lot! • i can survive for 3 months on my apocalypse food ration • spent many sundays at the SOWA open market • pumpkin on my doorstep because it's october • i'm way behind on my laundry •

After my super-secret project is all ready to go, I'll be able to get back to rambling about nothing on this blog.

People of the world....

"Chapstick" is a brand name.

Bag Lunch does not make/sell "Chapstick."

Bag Lunch is lip balm company that makes and sells lip balm... NOT Chapstick.

Thank-you.

Eric...

"​Austi​n Polic​e Say Hit-​and-​Run Drive​r Hit Motor​cycle​”
Fatal​ Motor​cycle​ Wreck​
The motor​cycle​ crash​ed to the front​age road below​ the expre​ssway​.​
Relat​ed Links​
www.​TwoTi​minFo​ur.​ com

A North​ Austi​n motor​cycle​ colli​sion on U.S. Hwy 183 kille​d the rider​ and left his motor​cycle​ on the front​age road -- a mile away from where​ his body was found​.​

Polic​e say Eric Laufe​r,​ 25, died at the scene​.​ Laufe​r was the lead vocal​ist for Two Timin​'​ Four,​ an Austi​n rocka​billy​/​root music​ band.​ The motor​cycle​ was trave​ling north​bound​ at the time of the crash​.​ It happe​ned aroun​d 4 a.m. Thurs​day,​ just east of Burne​t Road on U.S. 183.

Inves​tigat​ors are now looki​ng for the vehic​le they say struc​k the motor​cycle​ and then left the scene​.​

The victi​m was weari​ng a helme​t and other​ prote​ctive​ gear.​


Before they were "Four"...

Nervous Breakdown. (also i swear a lot in this post... hi Mom!)

My iPod bought the fucking farm. I did everything i could to try and fix it myself. Nothing worked. It's fucking done.

This would normally be horrible and a bother. But this is made especially horrible by the fact that I'm throwing my big end of Summer BBQ tomorrow and now i have a giant Music Problem. You really can't throw a party without music. Really. Try it... your party will crash and burn.

So I need to get this thing fixed.

There are no available "Genius Bar" appointments until Monday. Great. I use my Ipod roughly 4 hours a day. I NEED this thing. Even if i wasn't having a BBQ tomorrow, I would still be freaking out... but probably not as much. Sure, i have a record player, but I can't be flipping records all afternoon while grilling burgers and dogs.

Luckily, my friend Myk is going to come by early tomorrow, load my BBQ playlist onto his iPod and save the fucking day.

Alright, now I gotta go buy a mattress... tax free holiday. whooo.

Time-Warp Wives

This half-hour documentary played on channel 4 in England a few days ago. Luckily, someone posted it on youtube, in three parts...

Night out on the town...

You know that dance that suburban moms do when they have a few too many wine coolers and they are listening to some band play all their favorite covers?

My friend Chris named the dance. It's called "The Minivan."

Save Mister Rogers

Apparently, PBS has decided to remove "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" from it's daily syndicate offerings, beginning in September. Jerks.

Visit
http://savemisterrogers.com
for more information regarding this HORRIBLE decision.

Here's a great article I found while rooting around...

(Mental Floss) -- Here are 15 things everyone should know about Fred Rogers:

1. Even Koko the Gorilla loved him. Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English.

What most people don't know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers' Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she'd always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!

2. He made thieves think twice. According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town.

Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, "If we'd known it was yours, we never would have taken it." Mental Floss: Memorable commencement speakers

3. He watched his figure to the pound. In covering Rogers' daily routine (waking up at 5 a.m.; praying for a few hours for all of his friends and family; studying; writing, making calls and reaching out to every fan who took the time to write him; going for a morning swim; getting on a scale; then really starting his day), writer Tom Junod explained that Mr. Rogers weighed in at exactly 143 pounds every day for the last 30 years of his life.

He didn't smoke, didn't drink, didn't eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine. And while I'm not sure if any of that was because he'd mostly grown up a chubby, single child, Junod points out that Rogers found beauty in the number 143.

According to the piece, Rogers came "to see that number as a gift... because, as he says, "the number 143 means 'I love you.' It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you.' One hundred and forty-three."

4. He saved both public television and the VCR. Strange but true. When the government wanted to cut public television funds in 1969, the relatively unknown Mister Rogers went to Washington.

Almost straight out of a Frank Capra film, his 5-6 minute testimony on how TV had the potential to give kids hope and create more productive citizens was so simple but passionate that even the most gruff politicians were charmed. While the budget should have been cut, the funding instead jumped from $9 to $22 million.

Rogers also spoke to Congress, and swayed senators into voting to allow VCR's to record television shows from the home. It was a cantankerous debate at the time, but his argument was that recording a program like his allowed working parents to sit down with their children and watch shows as a family. Mental Floss: Forgotten kids shows sure to give you nightmares

5. He might have been the most tolerant American ever. Mister Rogers seems to have been almost exactly the same off-screen as he was onscreen. As an ordained Presbyterian minister, and a man of tremendous faith, Mister Rogers preached tolerance first.

Whenever he was asked to castigate non-Christians or gays for their differing beliefs, he would instead face them and say, with sincerity, "God loves you just the way you are." Often this provoked ire from fundamentalists.

6. He was genuinely curious about others. Mister Rogers was known as one of the toughest interviews because he'd often befriend reporters, asking them tons of questions, taking pictures of them, compiling an album for them at the end of their time together, and calling them after to check in on them and hear about their families. He wasn't concerned with himself, and genuinely loved hearing the life stories of others.

And it wasn't just with reporters. Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec's house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host).

On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver's home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.

7. He was color-blind. Literally. He couldn't see the color blue. Of course, he was also figuratively color-blind, as you probably guessed. As were his parents, who took in a black foster child when Rogers was growing up. Mental Floss: Praise for the blind genius who invented cruise control

8. He could make a subway car full of strangers sing. Once while rushing to a New York meeting, there were no cabs available, so Rogers and one of his colleagues hopped on the subway. Esquire reported that the car was filled with people, and they assumed they wouldn't be noticed.

But when the crowd spotted Rogers, they all simultaneously burst into song, chanting "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood." The result made Rogers smile wide.

9. He got into TV because he hated TV. The first time he turned one on, he saw people angrily throwing pies in each other's faces. He immediately vowed to use the medium for better than that. Over the years he covered topics as varied as why kids shouldn't be scared of a haircut, or the bathroom drain (because you won't fit!), to divorce and war.

10. He was an Ivy League dropout. Rogers moved from Dartmouth to Rollins College to pursue his studies in music.

11. He composed all the songs on the show, and over 200 tunes.

12. He was a perfectionist, and disliked ad libbing. He felt he owed it to children to make sure every word on his show was thought out.

13. Michael Keaton got his start on the show as an assistant. He helped puppeteer and operate the trolley.

14. Several characters on the show are named for his family. Queen Sara is named after Rogers' wife, and the postman Mr. McFeely is named for his maternal grandfather who always talked to him like an adult, and reminded young Fred that he made every day special just by being himself. Sound familiar? It was the same way Mister Rogers closed every show.

15. The sweaters. Every one of the cardigans he wore on the show had been hand-knit by his mother.

It's funny, 'cuz it's true...

So excited for this to begin again on Sunday...

Franks

Relatives on my Father's side, eating hot dogs before a night out.

All the Trimmings....

This is the last untouched trim in my house...

It was the only "wood-colored" wood left in my entire home. And soon, it will look like this...

I'm one coat into this project, and I think 2 more coats will do it. High gloss paint is so annoying to use, but so worth it when all is said and done.

Rumble

Spent Saturday here...

It was so hot and humid that we spent most of the time in the pavilion, eating ice cream and listening to bands.

Swanky

This is one of my favorite photographs of my Grandparents. it was taken at Kelly's Lobster House in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1951 (or 1952.. my mother isn't quite sure.) My grandfather, Thaddeus, is in the upper left and my grandmother, Anastasia, is the gal with the cigarette in the upper right. The photo was taken by one of those roving photographers that restaurants used to often employ. This photo is framed in a tiny cardboard folder with the establishment's logo on the front.

My mother had thought she lost this photo and we searched for years for it. It just recently turned up. This is what happens to pack-rats. They lose things and then they magically reappear, years later.