TEDxCLE 2011 ticket giveaway

Didn't get a chance to buy your tickets to this year's TEDxCLE event? Well you're not alone, they sold out in approximately 2 hours - a testament to how great an event it is.

If you happen to be one of the folks who weren't able to purchase a ticket you're in luck because thanks to the fabulous organizers of TEDxCLE I'm giving away 2 tickets to this year's much anticipated event here on the plum.

What: TEDxCLE Talks is a annual speaker series event in Cleveland that gathers people together to share their positive ideas for the world focusing on Technology, Entertainment and Design all from Cleveland.

Who: Speakers such as Ari Maron the brains behind East 4th Street development, Jonathan Sawyer award winning chef behind The Greenhouse Tavern, and Valerie Mayen of Project Runway and Yellowcake fame... Plus ten others.

When: Friday April 15th from 9am to 2pm at Detroit-Shoreway's own Capital Theater. The after party will be held at Battery Park Wine Bar immediately after the conference.

Why: To share Cleveland innovation, development and positive change with the world.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the 2010 conference and was blown away by the energy, intellect and innovation happening in Cleveland and the 2011 event promises to do the very same.

Don't believe me? Check out the TEDxCLE teaser video below:




To be eligible to win one of two tickets that I'm giving away simply leave a comment (with your contact information if I don't already have it) telling me what 2011 TEDxCLE speaker you're most looking forward to hearing. Hop on over to their website for a full list.

For a second entry you can tweet about the contest including @clevelandsaplum, a link to this post (http://bit.ly/h9coKx) and #TEDxCLE then leave a second comment telling me you did so.

The contest will end on Thursday April 7th and I'll announce the winners on Friday April 8th.

Good luck and I hope to see you all there!
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the ultimate 90's dance party

i'm down with the sickness, again, and i seriously wish i knew who i could pay off to stay healthy.

anyways...

friday, friday, friday i had the pleasure of hosting some of my dad's side of the family up in cleveland for the evening to celebrate my yiayia's, aka grandma for all you non greeks, 86th birthday celebration.

myself, my yiayia, my mom, CK, thea (aunt) eros, uncle nick and my cousins dina, jason, anthony and mara all had dinner at don's lighthouse which is conveniently located oh so close to my townhouse.

i've never eaten dinner at don's lighthouse before and besides the spelling errors on the menu and the need for some updated decor we had a very enjoyable meal. after dinner we headed to my house for a tour and some delicious coconut cake from a cookie and a cupcake, ice cream, fruit, coffee and wine.

the evening was great and there's something that hits ya right there when your yiayia tells you she's proud of you - tear.

saturday CK and i had a very errand oriented day. we started off at two dads diner in lakewood for breakfast where i ordered "the dirty sanchez", yup, i ate a dirty sanchez - embarrassing to order but delicious to eat.

with stops all around the great northern mall area picking up items for our 90's costumes we were officially ready for the 90's dance party over at seanski and nugget's condo. the first annual, yes we are going to have it again, 90's dance party was a complete success.

i mean, i constructed a costume comprised of clothing styles that i wore circa '94/'95 that were so spot on that i felt completely transplanted back to canton central catholic high school on a day that we didn't have to wear our uniforms but had mass so we couldn't wear jeans or something.

i rocked a floor length floral sundress with a white short sleeved t-shirt under it (you KNOW you did this), the actual black doc martens that i wore in high school (thanks to my mom for bringing them up from canton on friday), white scrunchy socks to compliment said shoes, a jean jacket tied around my waist and a shell and hemp choker necklace. boom, nailed it.

a shot of my outfit, too bad i'm looking at my shoes and you can't see my sweet hemp necklace and my jean jacket wasn't around my waist yet.

naturally we served 90's themed food at the party, i.e gushers, fruit by the foot and fruit roll-ups, aka AMAZING snacks.

bagel bites and totino's pizza rolls?!?! DUH!

zubaz? check. plaid? check. hacky sack? double check.

the aforementioned hacky sack in the foreground of one of my favorite parts of the party, hartzell, who straightened his normally curly and slicked back hair to pull off 90's grunge flawlessly.

can you tell i took some pics with my real camera and some with my cellphone yet? here's kelly rocking a polo shirt, pegged jeans and a twisted tea, larger rocking a DARE shirt with flannel, and miss lzone who is rocking her midpark high school cheerleader jacket from '94 while drinking out of a belle from beauty and the beast cup - perfection.

the party did have one major hiccup though.... our fog machine in the basement kinda sorta caused the condo's smoke alarms to go off. cue ladder and windows being opened. don't fret, it only halted the sweet 90's music for about ten minutes.

there were a few tech nerd things that occurred during the 90's dance party that are arguably the coolest thing ever.as he has for prior parties nugget installed a camera to record the party so we can post a time lapse video post party, well nugget kicked it up a notch.

a shot of the flat screen in the living room with the live tweet stream and a video feed from the basement dance floor, you can't tell, but that's seanski busting a move

he rigged a stream of 90's music videos to play on the flat screen before "dance time" and then when the dance floor opened the living room flat screen streamed not only showed the live video feed of the downstairs dance floor but also a live stream of all tweets with the hashtag #90sparty. you can even view all the public tweets in pdf form HERE.

when you were on the dance floor you could also view the living room scene from a large computer monitor - it was awesome and the guests couldn't peel their eyes away. and to add a cherry on the top of the tech party was that guests with an iphone could request songs with some fancy virtual dj app.

and that's when it got over my head....

all in all it was a rad party and perhaps all my scream/singing to the 90's is what caused this sickness to return.

back to bed for me, happy tuesday.

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

my weekend involved dinner with my 86 year old grandmother, my wearing of a hemp sea shell necklace while playing hacky sack in doc martens, making my own bloody mary and driving around cleveland looking at houses on the lake that i can't afford.

all of which will be discussed (with pictures) tomorrow because instead of blogging sunday night i decided to watch movies and nap.

priorities.

plus, i need to wait for a super awesome party recap video to be completed before i go sharing everything from my weekend with the internets.

you'll thank me later.

now if you'll excuse me i have another nap to take.

happy monday ladies and germs.

dinner in the dark - bistro on lincoln park

First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little sister Nicolette who is the most amazing sissy in the world and who without her yelling (lovingly) at me I'm not sure what I'd do - love you!!!
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This past Monday I had the pleasure of attending March's Dinner in the Dark at Bistro on Lincoln Park which is a unique monthly dining experience where you are "in the dark" of what you will be eating as well as who will be cooking it for you.

Dinner in the Dark is the brainchild of Chefs Jeff Jarret, Brian Okin and Ellis Cooley who pride themselves on bringing together Cleveland's Chefs and food lovers for a six course meal while having all proceeds of the event donated to charity unlike other monthly dinners out there.... Monday's event benefited the Tremont Farmer's Market and the Urban Community Schools.

We had a great group of people at the dinner and one of the chefs jokingly called us the "power table" as our table included myself, lzone, Kelly and Jose, joeG, Michelle from Cleveland Foodie and Kathy from Crain's.

Between the company, wine and amazing food it was such an enjoyable evening for all and I'm already thinking about next month's event.

Let's talk about the food though....

the amuse bouche was a foie gras creme stuffed vanilla macaroon

1st course was from Chef Mike Nowak from Bar Cento who created a wild mushroom voulevant with fennel puree and parsley

2nd course came from Chefs Jeremy Esterly and Mike Schoen from The Plucky Cluck Restoration Society who created a dish I'm already craving again in a pickle brined fried quail with fingerling potato salad and a bread and butter pickled tomato.

3rd course came from Chef Ellis Cooley of AMP 150 who called his dish anarchy because let's be honest, look at it! There were so many well placed and paired flavors I couldn't even write them all down while he was describing them because I was too busy enjoying them.

The intermezzo course was a prickly pear sorbet with coconut foam and black Cyprus sea salt

4th course came from Chef Pete Joyce of Bistro on Lincoln Park who created poached salmon with white asparagus, onion, and caramelized grapefruit with black pepper and white chocolate

5th course came from Chef Aaron Guzik from L'Albatros Brasserie + Bar who created a gorgeous beef brisket with kale, beets and celery polenta

Did you know that beef brisket is the new short rib and kale is the new spinach? Take note America.

6th course came from Chef Heather Haviland from Lucky's Cafe who created a toasted cashew and chocolate butter creme layered between sweet crepes cake - amazing

I think I'm still stuffed.

Such a wonderful meal from such talented chefs. For more information on upcoming Dinner in the Dark events follow them on facebook.

Well have a wonderful weekend everyone and don't get into too much trouble!

st patrick's day in cleveland 2011 + sweet moses + playhousesquare dark ride event

even though st. patrick's day was only last week it seems like ages ago. especially because i'm just now finally writing about it - you'll have that with the week i've had...

let's get this recap started.

per tradition my office was closed for st. patrick's day and my firm headed to winking lizard downtown by 9am for green beer, irish car bombs and corned beef pizza's.

the t::t crew! chris, jason, david, schwabe, joe, bruce, nicole, yours truly, melanie, salami rose and louie all love winking lizard.

next stop, per tradition again, some of us headed to flannery's pub to taking in the afternoon boys from county hell show - the sun was shining, friends were everywhere and i couldn't have been happier.

CK, me, louie and kristen outside of flannery's

after flannery's we headed to pickwick and frolic which i've been to for the last four st. pat's in a row to see pat shepard perform and meet up with muffin/jesse and the verdova's.

muffin, me and lverdova sporting our green at pickwick and frolic

by now it was about 5pm, we had all been at it for awhile and dinner was necessary so MOB, who had just gotten off of work swooped up me, CK, and the verdova's up off the side of the road and we all headed to XYZ the tavern for food and beer.

the verdova's and MOB decided to head home and since we were so close CK and i decided to "go hang out for like an hour" at my house before we headed back out to the harp to meet up with friends.

let's just say we didn't make it back out... whoops!

friday i had the day off and spent it relaxing/working/napping/etc and then a quick dinner at winking lizard, but this time in lakewood, with CK.

saturday afternoon was spent on a shopping/eating date with seanski by heading to the media preview of sweet moses soda fountain & treat shop which is located only a few blocks away from our homes in the detroit shoreway neighborhood.

this place is GORGEOUS, every detail has been accounted for and no short cuts were made while putting this place together. from a root beer float, to the candies, to the huge ice cream sundaes to the peanut butter and bacon sandwiches you can't go wrong with anything you order here.

sweets, treats, and ice cream galore all of which are the amazing brainchild of sweet moses owner jeff moreau

how pretty is this original/restored soda fountain?!?! love it.

i have a feeling that even if i ride my bike to get a treat at sweet moses i'll still end up losing the calorie battle this summer with all the stops i'll be making there.

stop by sweet moses this upcoming saturday for their grand opening celebration!

saturday night was the FABULOUS PlayhouseSquare and Lexus Dark Ride event where myself and lots of my beautiful friends got dressed up and shook our booties to DEV (who ROCKED) and Jay Sean.

jay sean can "hit the lights" while going "down" anytime in my books

me and kate who was one of the winners of my dark ride event ticket giveaway. i got to hangout with jocelynn (my other winner) too - good times, good times.

allison, shibani, me and alana - cleveland bloggers unite!

sunday CK and i saw lincoln lawyer which was a really good plain 'ol entertaining movie and then had a delicious dinner at tremont tap house while i found a new favorite beer in liefmans cuvee brut.

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd that's a wrap - and to think it's already thursday and i'm about to start the process all over again.

maybe i really don't stop?

happy thursday, kids.

twestival cleveland 2011

it's twestival local time!

what: twestival cleveland 2011 is a one day twitter festival where people meet offline to support a worthy charity. this year all proceeds go to the we run this city youth marathon program
when: tomorrow, thursday march 24th from 5 to 9pm
where: the fabulous AMP 150
admission: $10 donation to we run this city - tickets can be purchased online or at the door

hope to see you there, kids.

hold please

this is one of those weeks where i'm booked almost every night after work with an event, my calendar at work is back to back to back to back meetings and finding a few hours to blog is going to be hard.

i'm typing this at 11pm monday night, i just got home from an event and i'm exhausted.

but i mean i HAVE to recap St. Patrick's Day and this past weekend's festivities - how else am i going to be able to look back years from now and remember what i was did in march of 2011?

haven't you realize that this was one big online diary?

no?

fooled ya!

but the recap will have to wait another day (or two) because bed is calling my name and tuesday is going to be just like monday.

and to think i promised myself i was never going to be the blogger that posted excuses for not blogging.....

whoops.

happy tuesday kids!

fireside chat: volume two + playhousesquare dark ride winners announced

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

lucky for me i'm not working today and will be celebrating my love of all things st. pat's throughout the city of cleveland from dusk till dawn.

but thanks to the power of the internet (i.e. advanced scheduling of this blog post) seanski and i were able to record the second episode of our new fireside chat web series where we announce the two winners of my PlayhouseSquare + Lexus Dark Ride event this saturday.

you'll just have to watch the video to see who won .....



editors note: please excuse the nasty washed out lighting that occurs during this video - i mean, it's just not flattering on anyone.

congrats to the winners!!!

and just because it's st. patrick's day i'm going to share (again) the video that salami rose and i made A YEAR AGO TODAY teaching y'all how to make an irish mimosa - enjoy!



don't underestimate the power of corned beef.

have fun today guys, be safe!

windows schmindows

I don't want to go as far as saying that the honeymoon is over for me and my new townhouse because as I'm sitting in my living room looking at my surroundings I really do love the place.

But I'm realizing, much like everyone told me, owning a home is like a second job that you have to pay to participate in.

I purchased a newer ('06) townhouse because I didn't want to deal with a ton of immediate maintenance but as I'm staring at my kitchen windows, which are essentially an indoor water feature these days, I can't help but wish I had a property manager to call and fix everything.

The thought of dropping a couple grand mere months after I dropped a lot more than a couple of grand redoing my kitchen (counters/backsplash/lightening/dishwasher/sink/faucets) kind of nauseates me.

I'm nervous that if I don't get some replacement windows soon I'm going to cause more damage to the structure of the place though.

But, by getting new windows I'm probably going to have to repaint the whole area too huh?

$$$$$

And once spring officially hits I'm going to need to buy a lawnmower, flowers, outdoor furniture for the balcony off my kitchen and a grill.

$$$$$

So yeah, who wants to hire me to do awesome things for them so I can buy things like new windows?

I may not be cheap but I'm very skilled.

wink. wink.

do women really wear robes?

over two years ago (man, i've been blogging for a long time), i posted a "prune of the week" discussing how so many actresses on television drank straight liquor neat and how unrealistic i thought it was.

well i can now say that my original hypothesis is complete BS because i have become a bourbon and grand marnier neat drinker - go figure.

so there's one theory out the window, and i suppose if i go through my archives i can find more than a few more to also through out the window.

but that's not the point of this post.

the point is that i've made another random observation about television actresses.

they like to wear robes.

if there's a bedtime scene, the mom is always sporting a robe.

if there's a sick kid puking in the toilet in the middle of the night, the person holding back the hair is wearing a robe.

if it's a tuesday at noon and the dude is drinking a 1/2 gallon of half and half in a grocery store, er, wait, wrong robe reference...

if it's the middle of the night and detective lennie brisco shows up knocking, the women always answers the door in her robe.

my question is this, blog readers, do women really wear robes on the regular?

like i recall my mom wearing one every now and again, and i have one randomly hanging in my bathroom that i got as a gift approximately fifteen years ago, but i never even wear it.

am i alone here? do all of my female peers wear robes and i'm the minority? inquiring minds want to know.

historically speaking though, i have a feeling that even if they don't, in approximately 2 years i'll be the one wearing a robe whether i like it or not.

i'm ok with springing forward as long as i actually spring into spring

Have you entered to win tickets to the VIP Lexus launch party, Dark Ride, happening next weekend at PlayhouseSquare? Comment on this post to enter. ____________________________________________________________________

Ladies and gentleman it's that time again, time read about what I lovingly call... my life.

Thursday night kicked everything off right with the marketing industry wide COMM-Unity event at The Club at Key Center. It was a wonderful event where I was given the opportunity to network with some kick ass people and even got to meet some of my amazingly awesome readers Thanks to everyone who came out!

After the event a group of us including CK and seanski headed to Battery Park Wine Bar for food, wine, cocktails and to be entertained by the fabulous bartender Ben who I found out loves Greek girls - bonus points. After a great evening at BPWB we made a stop at XYZ the Tavern for a night cap before the snow storm rocked our world.

Thank God all that stupid snow melted.

Friday night I had every intent of going out to meet up with friends, but after making CK and I a hearty pasta dinner the food coma set in and before I knew it the jeans were off and the PJs were on.

Cue couch and TV watching.

Saturday night myself, lverdova, muffin and the klutz hosted a baby shower at muffin's house for our good friend babs. With catering from Duet's + wine + bubbles we had a fun affair celebrating our friend.

Babs opening presents, lots of presents.

Ladies, allllllll the ladies... except me because I was taking the picture, natch.

Me performing my trusting predict the sex of the baby trick on babs, I'm 9 for 9 and I say it's going to be a boy.

Something look similar here? Kim and muffin both decided to wear the exact same dress to the baby shower. My question though is, who wore it best?

Once the shower wrapped up a group of us headed to a very packed Velvet Tango Room for some moscow mules, sazeracs and french 75s. Per usual the drinks were ahhhhh-mazing.

Me and court enjoying our moscow mules at VTR - cold copper cups are where it's at.

After VTR the girls went and met up with the boys at Hotz's in Tremont - that's court, beaver, brooke, lverdova and muffin being way over dressed for Hotz's.

Sunday afternoon was spent watching the UD Flyers lose at BW3's in Westgate and "coaching" some bowling at Buckeye Lanes, while Sunday evening was spent doing some work/blogging while making delicious salmon fillets with salad for dinner for me and CK paired with some North by Northwest movie watching.

Great weekend, GREAT.

Have a wonderful St, Patrick's Day week everyone.

DARK RIDE: a vip experience and lexus launch party at playhousesquare

UPDATE 3/15: Lupe Fiasco has canceled his performance due to illness (although i'd like to see a doctor's note proving it), but as they say in show business, "the show must go on!". National recording artist Jay Sean will be taking Lupe's place this Saturday.
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You know when you're given an awesome opportunity to do something fun and you're so excited about it that you actually jump up and down?

Well, this is one of those instances.

The folks at PlayhouseSquare, Lexus of Cleveland/Akron, and 96.5 KISS FM are hosting one heck of a party next weekend.

DARK RIDE: A VIP experience and launch party for the new Lexus CT 200h is happening Saturday March, 19th at 8:30pm in the State Theater at PlayhouseSquare and will include a live performance from national recording artists Lupe Fiasco Jay Sean, DEV and DJ Flaco.


700 elite (and lucky) people who have tickets for admission will enjoy complimentary food and cocktails in a completely transformed for the evening State Theater with live music by Jay Sean and interaction with the new Lexus CT 200h (shown below) and Lexus IS-F.


On top of the normal adult libations there's also two Absolut martini ice bars and two champagne bars - y'all know how much i love me some bubbles - it's the Lexus lifestyle, baby!

No tickets to this VIP event will be sold, i repeat, you can't buy admission, but there are a few ways to get your hands on some tickets to this exclusive and complimentary event so that you can party we me and my fabulous friends.

You can acquire tickets at your local Cleveland/Akron area Lexus dealerships when the KISS FM street team is there, by listening to 96.5 KISS FM for your chance, by entering to win through Cleveland.Metromix.com, by connecting with PlayhouseSquare on facebook/twitter OR THROUGH CLEVELANDSAPLUM.COM!

You read that right.

I'm giving away two (2) pairs of tickets to DARK RIDE here on the plum and you can enter to win the following ways:
1. Leave a comment on this post telling me why you should come party with me, Lexus and Lupe Fiasco Jay Sean
2. Tweet about this contest including my twitter handle and a link to this post leaving another comment telling me you did so
3. Update your facebook status sharing a link to this post leaving another comment telling me you did so

I'll choose/announce the two winners a week from today on St. Patrick's Day - GOOD LUCK!

Note: You must be 21 to enter and must include your contact information in your comment(s) if i don't already have it.

Disclaimer: PlayhouseSquare provided me with tickets to this event for myself and to giveaway.
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to cover charge or not to cover charge, that is the question

like many other festive folks, i celebrated fat tuesday yesterday.

but that's not what this post is about.

it's about cover charges.

last night while sitting at a bar high top with CK enjoying the delicious mardi gras specials at roseangel i couldn't help but stare at the door.

not because i wanted to leave, but because of the amount of people that would walk in, realize that there was a $5 cover charge for the night and walk out.

there had to have been at least 15 people in the short time we were there leave and take their business elsewhere because they didn't want to pay.

now, i get that there was a band in the other room, a good band mind you, and that's why they were charging a cover, but this band obviously wasn't what was bringing people in and or causing them to stay.

i can totally see why a group of 4 who was just hopping around the detroit shoreway neighborhood for cocktails would walk away. that's $20 saved that they can spend on drinks/food instead of paying to get in the door to a place that they were probably only going to be at for an hour anyways.

i'm hoping this was just a onetime thing for roseangle because i really do enjoy the place - last night we had great food, service and cocktails.

but because of the cover CK and i left roseangle to head to the wonderful stone mad pub to meet up with all of our friends...

sans cover charge, naturally.

good times kids, good times.
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tweet up, university of dayton, and the perfect sunday

this past weekend was so jam packed i need to go all the way back to last thursday.

thursday evening i confirmed how much i love deagan's kitchen, cleveland.com and the cleveland indians thanks to an amazing tweet up while also learning that i need to put a password on my cellphone.

if any of you follow me on twitter, @clevelandsaplum, you may have seen this tweet, among others, from my account thursday night that read, "i have to poop. #bombsaway" - i did not write that tweet, my friend miss janet did though.

note to self: don't leave your unprotected cellphone on a table at a tweet up.

twitter breach aside my friend alana did a wonderful job organizing the tweet up, i had such a fun time!

some of my favorite tweeps!

after the tweet up myself, CK, seanski, joeG, taawd, bob-o, and louie headed to XYZ the Tavern for a night cap and some grub because if i had it my way i'd always end my night at XYZ.

friday night.... i came home after work and went to bed.

yeah, guess it wasn't so jam packed because i decided to stay in in preparation for my trip to university of dayton the next day.

saturday morning i hopped in the car with hartzell and AJP and headed to dayton for a duo 30th birthday celebration for my good friends lverdova and verdova.

lots of friends had gathered in dayton and we took no pause in heading straight to flannagan's pub for beers, lunch and to watch some flyers men's basketball.

next stop was the fieldhouse which although i didn't personally frequent the bar in college who could pass up a famous fishbowl, or three.

hatchel, me, hartzell, AJP, muffin and court enjoying a purple fishbowl

hartzell probably ibanking from his bberry decided he needed to finish the purple fishbowl all on his own, hence the lap placement. the girls moved onto the red.

next we moved onto milano's for a pit stop before taking our talents to the ghetto (student housing) for a rousing game of flip cup but we needed to get beer from sunoco first right?

please note on the left bo is buying some nasty test tube shots and brooke is rockin' the arbor mist and a 40oz of king cobra, naturally.

alumni and current students playing flip cup - for the record my team won 9 games in a row... still got it, yo.

ever heard of this beer? beast "special reserve"? it's actually CHEAPER than beast light. only the finest brews for us.

post house party the old folks headed to BW3's for food and reminiscing, a perfect prequel to my sleeping on the couch in our rented university of dayton alumni house we called home.

going back to UD always brings back such fond memories of my "youth" and i already can't wait to head back to dayton for my, GASP, 10 year reunion in the summer of 2012.

you would think my weekend would be done right?

wrong, i still had sunday funday to participate in.

by early afternoon muffin and i had made it back to cleveland and by 3pm i was ready to go back out.

CK and i started our day of fun at luxe kitchen & lounge for their mardi gras themed "chubby sunday brunch" where we enjoyed goat cheese fondue with fruit, beignets with lots of delicious dipping sauces, live jazz and amazing conversation.

next, CK and I headed to salmon dave's in rocky river. it was the first time either one of us had been to this restaurant but its reputation for fine seafood, their n'awlins themed special menu and live music intrigued us.

we drank sazerac cocktails and savignon blanc, and ate muffaletta bruschetta, lobster bisque, alaskan king crab legs, voodoo salmon + crawfish risotto + fried green tomatoes and bananas foster - all of which were phenomenally prepared and i would recommend this restaurant to anyone.

we seriously put on an eating clinic sunday.

for our last stop we headed back to my 'hood for a grand marnier (for me) night cap at XYZ the Tavern.

the drinks, the food, and the company of CK all made it truly the best sunday ever.

actually now that i think of it, the only time there's a better sunday is when it's a browns winning sunday.

good times, kids, good times.

company cleaner

i have a confession to make.

i'm a company cleaner.

i.e. i only really, really clean my house from top to bottom if i have company coming over.

i came to this realization today as i was starring at the water splash marks on my bathroom mirror, could i wipe them off?

yes, very easily.

yet, i don't.

could i take a swiffer to the hardwood floors in my kitchen? or a vacuum to my bedroom floor?

yes, very easily.

yet, i don't because i'm watching american idol and writing this blog instead.

i promise you guys i'm not living in a pig sty by any means, but i'd probably fail the white glove across the mantle dust test like whoa right now.

for awhile there my house was consistently spotless because i was having people over every week or two forcing my home to be in tip top shape, but since my last shindig i have yet to do a good thorough cleaning.

apparently i need to throw a party in order to get my "company clean" on.

so, who's coming over?

i need motivation.
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everyone needs their beauty sleep

a few of you have asked to see a picture of me from this past saturday's jump back ball after i failed to share any on my recap post.

well i found one, or should i say it found me, by way of seanski.

enjoy.


yes, that would be me sleeping on the table at the big egg at approximately 3am this past saturday night.

so what? i was tired.

at least i ate my chicken fingers before bed.
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what's going on?

i experienced something completely surreal a few hours ago that still has me shaking my head in disbelief.

last night i was minding my own business trying on clothes in an unattended fitting room at the target in steelyard commons when i couldn't help but listen in on the conversation that was happening right outside the door.

a family was discussing shoplifting.

and when i say "family" it was two adult women, probably in their 40's, giving two younger boys, probably 10 or 11, shoplifting tips.

"keep your head down from the cameras", one of the ladies directed.

"wow, that's a camera? you can barely see it up there", one of the boys responded.

"if they don't get your face, then they can't get you", the other lady piped in.

meanwhile i'm standing half naked in my fitting room with my mouth gaping open in disgust seriously considering opening the door and firmly pointing my finger in the shoplifting teacher's face and shaking it repeatedly.

but by the time i got dressed the professional shoplifting crew was gone and i couldn't help but feel like i should have done something, or at least let these people know that someone was listening to their lesson.

the whole damn situation just left me upset. i'm not naive, i understand stuff like this happens but actually listening to it live and hearing the voice of a boy who doesn't know any better already being pressured into shady situations at such a young age made me depressed.

does this kid even have a chance for something better?

and the cycle continues...
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