who wants to whirlyball?

Whirlyball: A combination of lacrosse, hockey, and basketball with bumper cars that you can play here in cleveland.

I couldn't make that up.

Well if you followed me on twitter yesterday you would have noticed my whining about having to go play whirlyball after work last night.

I had a breakdown because after willingly signing up for an AAF Cleveland agency whirlyball tournament I forgot about it until yesterday morning and then preceded to throw a tantrum because I had other plans but couldn't let my thunder::tech team down.

I went as far as to attempt to bribe multiple coworkers with $20 to take my spot on the team.

But alas, there were no takers.

So I headed to play whirlyball....


I was a good sport, I played my two games, both of which we lost horribly and headed home.

And that's the end of story because there's one thing that this post isn't.

It's not an "OMG, I so didn't want to play whirlyball but once I did it was so much fun!! I can't wait to go back!!"

NOPE.

I have zero desire to ever go back and play whirlyball - it just didn't do it for me.

Sorry, Mr. Whirly.

maybe someday i'll get booked on the maureen show

I love Hall & Oates, this isn't a secret.

I love my friend Moe, aka Maureen Kyle from WKYC, this also isn't a secret.

What you may not know is that I have a new love, a love of a "television show" called Maureen and a "band" called I Can't Believe It's Not Hall & Oates.

This video below includes both of my new loves, enjoy.



Amazing right?

Lucky for us the genius that is I Can't Believe It's Not Hall and Oates will be performing live during the Alan Cox and the Cleveland Kings of Comedy shows on May 20th at House of Blues and June 10th at Tangier in Akron.

I hope the Maureen show does a live broadcast.

cross your fingers!

Happy hump day, kids.

(side note: apparently it's write posts about comedy week here on the plum...)

if there aren't any pictures of my weekend does that mean it didn't happen?

It's time for my weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekend recap y'all.

Thursday night started out at Battery Park Wine Bar with CK, seanski, louie and MOB where I drank lots of bubbles and enjoyed an apricot arugula salad and meat and cheese board.

Thursday night the group ended up at XYZ the Tavern where I drank more bubbles and discovered that XYZ has an amazing jukebox. In the future I will make sure I always have a few $$$ to pop in the box.

#twss.

Friday night I had grand plans to attend the Nihonshu Night event at the Cleveland Museum of Art with Seanski...

Well I had those plans until I had a full out dramatic girl breakdown trying to get ready.

Ladies, you know exactly what I'm talking about...

The type of mood that no matter what you put on you feel ugly and uncomfortable. The type of mood that even though the scale says you've only gained 4 lbs it feels like it's 40 lbs. The type of mood that fun events, multiple birthday parties and bribes from friends can't even force you out of the house.

So Friday night I was jerk and canceled plans and went to the gym instead - an hour and a half of cardio was just what I needed.

Saturday brought a surprisingly nice and sunny day, the perfect day to take my new bike out for ten miles or so.

First I biked to the West Side Market to purchase the specialty Greek cheese(s) I needed for the macaroni supreme I was making for Easter dinner. I also picked up milk, butter and cream while I was there too. My bike ride home was a little harder with all the dairy on my back though.

Once I got home and put everything away the bike was still calling my name so I biked out to Wendy Park - it was such a beautiful day! I even got a little sun on my cheeks.

I rounded out the afternoon with a stop at Sweet Moses for some ice cream with CK and his little one so all my miles on the bike kinda were a wash, you'll have that.

Saturday evening CK and I had dinner (get the burger, it's delicious) at Lava Lounge in Tremont where my drinking of the bubbles continued even through our next stop at SouthSide to meet up with Muffin, Jesse, DBLB and Kirby.

Sunday, Sunday, Easter Sunday began with CK and I brunching at My Friends Restaurant before we headed to my Tiajo and Uncle David's house in Canton for Easter dinner with the family. Lots of lamb, egg cracking, sabayon eating and one rousing game of celebrity later we were ready to head back home to the CLE.

It really was a fabulous weekend but I had one major fail....

I didn't take a single picture.

Whoops.

Happy Tuesday, kids

It's time for some chucklefck comedy, kids.

I've been twitter friends with comedian Ramon Rivas for quite sometime now and I've been looking for an opportunity to go check out one of the comedy shows he produces through Chucklefck Comedy.

Well that time is now.

There's two great comedy shows coming up in my 'hood at Reddstone's upstairs lounge that I (and you) should take note of.


Sunday, May 22nd: Chucklefck's ReddStoned Comedy featuring ATL comedian Drew Thomas who's in town to headline at Hilarities Wednesday and NYC via Cleveland comedian Jim Tews.

Doors at 7pm. Tickets are $10 and you can be purchased online here. Get your tickets early only 50 seats available.


Wednesday, May 25: The My Name is Hannibal Tour featuring NYC comedian Hannibal Burress. You probably know him best from his writing/performing gig on NBC's 30 Rock.

Doors at 7pm. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online here. There's only 50 tickets available so buy them now because this is sure to be a sell out.

Good stuff right?

Be sure to follow Chucklefck Comedy on twitter to stay updated on all of the great comedy happening in Cleveland!
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Sidenote: I simply can't write about comedy without plugging my good friend Jason who runs a great original comedy blog full of radness (and really funny videos) out of NYC called Sure Thing Chief! Also, following him on twitter would be an excellent idea too - Check it out, yo!
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four seasons of sun would be nice

It's April 21st and the high temperature today in Cleveland is 48 degrees, the low temperature is 38 degrees.

Not cool, Mother Nature, not cool.

Can't a girl get some 60's? I'd even take a 59 at this point.

I keep buying all these spring clothes (like this dress*** from Nordy's) that I can't wear yet and if I have to put on tights one more time I may revolt.

I want Sunshine, sunglasses, beers on a patio, and riding my bike - I need some vitamin D!

So what did I do last night out of desperation?

I went tanning.

Stop judging me.

I'm desperate.

...

***I know it's another print Mom, get used to it, I'm trying to diversify my wardrobe.

everything needs a little spring cleaning

So I'm currently starting the process of trying to redesign my blog.

I've only been putting it off for over a year now....

Step one: The pink has GOT TO GO.

Step two: The pink has GOT TO GO.

Now I understand that I need plum representation (both literally and as a color), it is my brand after all, but typically plums are deep purple not hot pink/magenta.

I'm thinking something more like this.....

(Update: This is NOT my new logo I'm just saying I like this color y'all)

In this redesign process I also had to think about the whole Blogger vs Wordpress thing again, i.e should I switch or not.

I know, I KNOW, eeeeveryoneeee loves Wordpress, but Blogger (as a platform) has been good to me over the years so why ruin a good thing? Plus with new third party comment platforms like Disqus I can use a plug-in to make comments easier for replies and what not.

Wait, I may have lost a few of you out there with my talk of platforms and third party plug-ins huh? Mom, I'm looking at you.

Another thing I need to do is clean up my blog roll, there's so many new bloggers out there that I need to add and so many old bloggers still up there that I need to take off.

Seems to me like I'm starting to spring clean my blog.

Must be that time of year...

Happy Wednesday, kids!

a story for me and a story for you

Congrats to Dani from Apples to Apples who was chosen via random.org to attend the Cleveland Museum of Art's Ninohshu Night this Friday - hope to see you there!
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When I started blogging in '08 I would consistently tell funny self deprecating stories from my past to allow my readers to get a feel for who I was.

For example:

• When I may or may not have implied to Billy Joel, THE Billy Joel, that he had a small penis.
• When Lebron James smacked my bum.
• When getting my period for the first time as a 12-year-old on vacation in Hawaii my mom told me I couldn't go into the ocean because the sharks would find me.
• When I catch a masturbater on the corner of West 9th and St Clair.
• I could go on and on and on...

But after blogging for so long I feel like I've told all my random fun stories and I'm just a washed up old blogger.

Then I looked in the mirror and said, "You're Cleveland's a Plum dammit, you're a walking funny story!"

(I really didn't do that, I promise)

Then in a flash I remembered that one time a bird shit on my hand while I was riding my bike in high school back in Canton, Ohio.

OMG, SO SO SO SO FUNNY!!

Sigh, no it's not. Maybe I have told all my stories.

So, what's next?

Perhaps I can learn how to juggle.

happy hour, TEDxCLE, century cycles, native cleveland, tina's nite club and more...

Today's the last day to enter to win a ticket to the Cleveland Museum of Art's Nihonshu Night this Friday, comment on this post to enter.
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As I'm typing this late Sunday afternoon, I have the Pioneer Woman's short ribs in tomato sauce slow cooking in the oven, and I just finished making some shortcake for the fresh strawberries I just cut up.

my. house. smells. amazing.

CK better like this Sunday dinner of mine :)

But let's get to the rest of the weekend shall we?

Thursday:
- Appeared on the Fox8 morning show Good Day Cleveland with two of my favorite fellow Cleveland bloggers Michelle from Cleveland Foodie and Charity from I Heart Cleveland. You can check the clip out here.
- Attended a work happy hour with the awesome thunder::tech crew at Happy Dog where I drank lots of Guinness but still haven't had the pleasure of eating a dog yet. I need to get on that.
- Met up for happy hour with CK, seanski, nugget, janet, moe, mark, lzone and becky at Market Avenue Wine Bar in Ohio City then enjoyed a late dinner with the gang at Bar Cento. mmmmm, sunnyside pizza.

janet, mark, seanski, moe, nugget, becky, me and CK - lzone was the photog!

Friday:
- TEDxCLE at Capitol Theater in the Detroit-Shoreway Neighborhood!!! Such a great event, amazing speakers, inspiring talks and I already can't wait until the 2012 event. Congrats to Hallie and Eric on putting together another successful TEDxCLE.

Hallie and Eric dominating the TEDxCLE stage.

- Spent the evening at home with Seanski and Nugget who came over to watch TV, eat pizza and ice cream. We totally had a winning Friday night.

Saturday:
- Shopping day with Seanki and Nugget.
- Finally headed to the amazing NATIVE Cleveland in the Waterloo Arts Distric for their customer appreciation sale where I purchased an adorable CLE Clothing Co t-shirt for a little friend of mine as well as a Grey Cardigan plum themed print that I'm patiently waiting for to get framed. It's going to look so good hanging with the rest of my plum themed art in my "bonus room".

Hello Cleveland from NATIVE Cleveland.

Another shot of NATIVE Cleveland, cool place, huh?

- Lunch stop at Sweet Melissa's in Rocky River
- Bike shopping where I'm fairly sure we hit every bike shop in cleveland.... Spin (where nugget got his new road bike), Fridrich's, Eddy's and Century Cycles (where I got my new hybrid bike).
- I'm so glad I headed to Century Cycles because their customer service was beyond superb. Between chatting with me on twitter prior to my arrival and having all of my questions answered by their very informed staff I highly recommend heading over to Century Cycles in Rocky River for all your bike needs. I'm very happy with my purchase!

My gorgeous new Raleigh hybrid bike from Century Cycles in Rocky River - go there and buy a bike, everyone is doing it!

- Flip cup tournament at Major Hoopples where my team of timmybennett, colfrank and KJ had a rough start thanks to my soberness but then we won three games in a row to get back in the tourney. Sadly though we lost again to the team that beat us the first round in a 3-3 sudden death match.

Flip cup team "Sorry for partying" - KJ, me, timmybennet and colfrank.

AJP, me, KJ and colfrank being awesome at Hoopples.

-Pizza and beers at the Rivergate Tavern then a karaoke trip to Tina's Nite Club back in my 'hood.
- Tina's was AMAZING Saturday night. The place was packed full of new and old friends from the Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood and beyond.
- Best song of the night hands down goes to timmybennett for All Night Long by Lionel Richie, he literally had the entire bar dancing.
- Ran into a couple, Pat and Liz, on their anniversary night who headed to Battery Park Wine Bar and Tina's Nite Club because I mentioned them in my Cleveland Magazine article which literally MADE MY NIGHT. I think I converted some new Tina's recruits to say the least.

Our very own Gordon Detroit. You know you live in a cool neighborhood when your Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone and his wife Michelle like to karaoke at Tina's.

I love Cleveland, and you should too.

Have a good week, kids!

am i right? or am i right?

i don't wash my hands with hot water, but by washing them with cold water does that mean that my hands aren't getting cleaned?

well, the above statement is something that came up in conversational debate recently and my argument was the following:

soap + hot or cold water = clean

right?

i've been watching american idol this season for the first time in years and i'm obsessed, this is a fact.

but i despise james durbin, despise.

he's a huge poser and needs to be voted off.

down with durbin.

right?

i'm 30, this isn't a secret, and everyday that i look in the mirror i feel like i see another wrinkle.

but how much money do i need to spend on anti-wrinkle cream to make these lines on my forehead go away? i'm already using two varieties daily.

i wouldn't be surprised if all the anti-wrinkle creams on the market were all the same sucky formula.

someone out there is making a fortune on my wrinkles alone.

right?

today is thursday, tomorrow is friday.

wouldn't life be better if the traditional work week was monday through thursday instead of through friday?

am i right, or am i right?

win a pair of tickets to nihonshu night at the cleveland museum of art

I'm excited to cross another item off my "Ten things in Cleveland I still need to do to consider myself a true Clevelander list" next Friday by attending the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The fact that I've never been to the Cleveland Museum of Art is probably the item on the list that I'm most embarrassed about.

(hangs head in shame)

But upon hearing about Nihonshu Night (nee-hon-shoe meaning Japanese sake), an event next Friday at CMA pairing young professionals, art, sake, and food I couldn't mark the event down on my calendar fast enough.


Nihonshu Night Details:

what: a young professionals event that celebrates the current exhibition, The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art

when: Friday, April 22nd from 5 to 8:30pm

where: The Cleveland Museum of Art

why: Attendees can taste and learn about three different sakes selected by the experts at the Marchetti Company and indulge in Japanese/Korean fusion food samples created exclusively for the event by SASA, while Beat Matrix's Darrell Stout spins and one has the opportunity to talk with Seunghye Sun the associate curator of Asian art.

how: You can purchase tickets online for $18 a piece or win a pair from me!

That's right ladies and gentleman I'm giving away two tickets to Nihonshu Night to enter simply leave a comment on this post. For any extra entry tweet about this giveaway leaving another comment telling me you did so.

You have until Monday night to enter as I'll be announcing the winner a week from today on April 19th.

Here's to filling our lives with arts and culture in Cleveland, cheers.

Good luck to all who enter!

this is how you go out in cleveland

I can't remember the last time I went out Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sat nights in a row, college maybe?

Well I did it again this past week which left me little time for blogging but ample time for laughs with friends all over Cleveland.

Wednesday
- Happy hour at D'Vine Wine Bar with Muffin, MOB and Martha celebrating Muffin's new career!
- 1/2 off flights, 1/2 off appetizers and hanging out with your besties makes for a wonderful evening

Thursday
- Dinner at Sushi Rock with AJP and KJ
- Brown rice sushi and a bottle of sauvignon blanc makes me a happy girl
- Beers at Barley House with the ladies before Barley House became oonce oonce discoball Barley House

Friday
- Dinner and lots of Guinness at the fabulous XYZ the Tavern with the whole crew, too many to list but this picture shows the gang
- Ran into Cleveland Frowns and got to hang out with one of the lawyers behind the documentary Cleveland vs Wall Street which I need to check out.

Saturday
- Headed to Canton for a baby shower for my dear friend Erin at The Canton Club where I not only got to spend quality time with my friends/family but also got the news that I'm going to be a Nouna (godmother) to Erin's baby boy :)

My cousin mara, my nouna and my mommy at Erin's shower.

The parents-to-be Erin and Todd!

- Dinner at Three Birds in Lakewood with Muffin, Court and Mrs Towne where we dined on stuffed trout, BBQ short rib and beef tenderloin
- Bottle of champagne at Market Avenue Wine Bar with AJP and KJ then we moved to cocktails and fun music at Speakeasy and beer at ABC the Tavern
- Bed

Sunday
- Brunch with Klutz, Muffin, MOB, Beaver, Court, lverdova and Aubrey at Sweet Melissa
- Laundry, cleaning, laying on the couch.... annnnnd repeat.

I don't think I'm missing anything....

I fairly positive that one can officially call me "a girl about town".

Better than a lady of the night though, right?

Happy Monday, kids!

tedxcle ticket winners announced

I've kinda sort been a boring blogger this week haven't I?

You'll have that.

Good thing I'm about to make up for it by making two people's day by giving them tickets to the sold out, much talked about and anticipated TEDxCLE event happening a week from today at Capitol Theater.

And the winners are.....

Alicia @ Poise in Parma

and

Green Dog Wine

Their comments, numbers 9 and 15 respectively, where chosen via random.org out of 66 entries.

Didn't win?

Cleveland Foodie is running her ticket giveaway contest until this Sunday, enter here, and I Heart Cleveland is running her ticket giveaway until Monday, enter here.

Also, you'll be able to view all of the speakers via video on the TEDxCLE website after the event.

Thanks to Hallie and Eric for donating the event tickets and I hope to see some friendly faces next Friday.

Have a great weekend!

look ma, i'm in cleveland magazine

Do you know what it's like to get a magazine in the mail that you read, oh ALL the time and see your name on the cover?

No?

Well I didn't either until I got my copy of this month's Cleveland Magazine and saw "Alexa Marinos" on the cover - crazy.

Hey, that's my name!

April's cover model WKYC's Betsy Kling.

A month or so ago I was asked to participate in 'The City List' issue of Cleveland Magazine sharing some of my favorite spots in Cleveland. It was a total honor that they thought to include me and I sure did have a lot of places to tell the interviewer about.

A graphic illustration was created representing some of my go to haunts full with quotes and a "stunning" picture of me posed holding a plum.

This is so cool yet so so so so weird for me.

I'll wait for you to stop giggling at my senior-picture-meets-desperate-real-housewives pose that I'm rocking.

A model, I am not.

And yes, for those of you who are wondering why I'm not wearing black - believe me, I wanted to - but I was told by the photographer, "NO BLACK".

Out of the many Cleveland hot spots I mentioned the editors chose a great sampling of some of my favorite places including the following must check out locations:

- Battery Park Wine Bar, batteryparkwinebar.com
- Capitol Theater, clevelandcinemas.com
- Cleveland Browns Tailgating, clevelandbrowns.com
- The Clevelander, clevelanderbar.com
- Cleveland Gladiators, clevelandgladiators.com
- A Cookie and a Cupcake, acookieandacupcake.com
- Cropicana (formerly Sunset Grille)
- Krusty's Summer Sauce Camp, malachihouse.org
- L'Albatros, albatrosbrasserie.com
- Lolita, lolitarestaurant.com
- Tina's Nite Club
- Touch Supper Club, touchohiocity.com
- Wendy Park, wendypark.org
- Winking Lizard, winkinglizard.com

To check out the whole article pick up a Cleveland Magazine at your local retailer or view it online here.

It's funny to think that all of this happened because of my little blog.

We've come a long way, kid.
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It's April in Cleveland

Have you entered my contest to win a ticket to TEDxCLE yet? I'm giving away two coveted tickets so comment on this post to enter.
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Let's talk about the weekend shall we?

Thursday night I had the pleasure of attending a grand re-opening party at Dragonfly in Ohio City with CK. While Dragonfly has been opened for awhile now the have recently launched a new menu thanks to a collaboration with Chef Marlin Kaplan.

There's an Asian theme with plenty of sushi varieties, salads, sandwiches, entrees and classic cocktails. We got to try lots of items Thursday night with one of my favorites being the shrimp dumplings.

I ran into tons of fun friends at the Dragonfly party and I can't wait to head back for a full sushi dinner.

Next CK and I headed to Cadillac Ranch...

I'll wait for you to close your mouths.

It was for a good reason though, the Cleveland Scene Magazine best of Cleveland party. We got to meet up with friends and have impromptu rap sessions while sipping on free cocktails. win/win.

Some of cleveland's own bests - vince, frowns, brian, me, CK, alexis and erich

To end the evening CK and I headed to XYZ the Tavern for some chicken and waffles, naturally.

Friday as you guys know it was the Cleveland Indians home opener and while I ended up not taking off work it didn't stop me from heading out to the Clevelander after work to meet up with the likes of muffin, jesse, the klutz, the jerk, cubby and martha among others.

Once the cold hit though we walked over to City Tap for more beers and as a sober person meeting people out post day drinking it's always very entertaining to say the least.

It was at City Tap that I began to get hangry though causing me to sneak out. Hangry = Hungry to the point of crabby anger, learn about it.

To solve this hangry mood I met up with Seanski and we headed to dinner at Luxe where we lucked out with seats at the bar on a busy Friday night. There are two main things that I crave from Luxe, the goat cheese fondue and the short rib gnocchi. Literally I DREAM about the gnocchi it's that good.

I was sleeping by 11pm.

Saturday I headed to Canton for a hair cut/color with Abby at GSV Design Group, shopping with my mom and then the taking in of the movie Source Code (good, but I was kinda disappointed by the weak ending) before heading back to Cleveland.

I was sleeping by 10pm.

Considering I'm typing this around 4pm Sunday night I'm not sure how the evening is going to end but I do know that I'm heading to the eastside for dinner at Lopez on Lee and to see the movie The Music Never Stopped at the Cedar Lee theater with CK. I'll let you know how it is.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend - happy monday!

cleveland indians opening day 2011

It's opening day!

Today at 3:05pm the Cleveland Indians kick off the 2011 season at Progressive Field.

The weather today may not be ideal but you can't discount the fact that opening day means that spring has officially arrived.

Bring on the beer, hot dogs, nachos, foam fingers and cracker jacks because it's baseball season ladies and gentlemen.

And just to get you that much more excited check out the new video below from the Cleveland Indians asking... "What if?".

It'll give you chills.

What If? from Cleveland Indians on Vimeo.

PLAY BALL!