Happy Halloween!!!

Yes, this is me at work with my devil horns. I love Halloween!

My new BFF

I love Top Ramen, who doesn't. After I eat it I feel sick to my stomach and my heart hurts, but it's so good going down. I'm sure it's the 910mg per package that makes me feel ill. And who can beat the price of $.10 per package. That's a whole meal for $.10! And you feel so sick afterwards you'll skip the next meal and save money. Just kidding. No really, it's happened. So I was at Tops the other day grocery shopping and I saw this new addition to the Ramen area. It's called "Choice Ramen". It's a little bit more expensive, $.33. But the sodium is cut in half to 480mg, still not good but much better, and there is only 1g of fat in Choice Ramen and 7 in Top Ramen. I just ate it and it is sooooo good, plus my heart doesn't hurt and I don't feel like vomiting. I've only had the chicken flavor so far. One of the draw backs of Choice Ramen is that they only had chicken and beef flavor. They did not have Creamy Chicken or Roast Beef which are my favorite Top Ramen flavors. Anyway, Choice Ramen is my new BFF and I highly recommend trying it.

PS - I want to give a shout out to my cousin Mindi who introduced me to Top Ramen by making at least 6 packs at a time while she would baby-sit us.

Choice Ramen Nutrition Facts

Top Ramen Nutrition Facts

Sunday Tailgating

For the past three weeks people with Time Warner haven't been able to watch CBS or the CW because they couldn't come to an agreement so CBS pulled the stations. Since me and James were smart enough to have Direct TV (it's so much better) everyone has been coming over to our house to watch the Bills games but they have been at 4pm. Today was the first 1pm game in three weeks. My dumb Italian friend, Jimmy C, decided that he wanted to host a party today, but at my house. He definitely sent out an e-mail inviting everyone. Luckily, a lot of people were going to the game so only our good friends came over. I had a hair appointment at 10am and James had to work at 7:30am so I had to leave the door open for Jimmy. He decided to have his own tailgate party in my driveway. When I got home, Jimmy and Carter had their chairs out listening to pre-game. I joined them for about an hour and then James came home and we started to watch the game. But the power at the stadium went out and the broadcast was cut off. So we had to go back out to the parking lot and listen to it on the radio. The only reason we got to listen to it on the radio was because an announcer called the station from his cell phone. Crazy day, but the Bills won, thanks to the star quarterback Trent Edwards. And the defense showed up this week. Here's some pics of our fun Sunday afternoon!

Our "driveway".

Carter is very confused. You can see Milton the scarecrow in the back!

Not sure why this is happening but it's Raider's paintings.

The finished product - Silly Jimmy C

My project

Ever since I went to my aunt Shirlene's house last year and saw the vinyl lettering on her wall I've wanted some too. I waited a whole year to go back to Utah to buy this lettering. I went to Robert's Crafts and purchased this stuff and made room in my suitcase for three of them. Well I get back home and go to JoAnn's here to buy something else and I see these damn vinyl letterings. I looked everywhere for a year for those stupid things. So I ask the JoAnn's lady how long they have been selling them and she replies with "Oh, about 2 months". Craptastic. Well I finally got around to putting up the first one this weekend. But I was waiting for my stars to come from Overstock.com (my new favorite shopping place). Here's some pictures of my fabulous art work...

I heart Dunkin Donuts

In the newspaper about a month ago I received a coupon to Dunkin Donuts that was free coffee every Wednesday until October 15th. Since I already loved Dunkin because they are delicious, I was very excited to use the coupon. Every Wednesday since then I went and got my free coffee. I was very sad this morning when I realized today was the last day of free coffee. I went to Dunkin and they asked me to hand over my coupon. I was hesitant and asked the boy if he would give me another one with another expiration date on it. He said no. Instead, for everyone that came in today with their coupon they would give a coffee thermos to. That's right, I got a free thermos. And every time I take it to Dunkin I get it filled for only $.99!! And that's why I heart Dunkin Donuts even more. I am trying to get everyone on board for Dunkin Donuts and to give up Tim Horton's. I hate Tim Horton's! They always have such long lines. It's like they have crack in their coffee and all the crack addicts are lining up at all times of the day for their stupid coffee. If you want coffee from there in the morning you will have to wait at least 15 minutes. Down with Tim Hortons. I love Dunkin!

Happy 2 year anniversary October Storm

Two years ago today was one of the worst snow storms Buffalo had ever seen this early in the year. There was over 2 feet of snow that came down in 24 hours. Since it was so early in the year and all the trees still had leaves, it weighed the branches down and they broke off and fell on to power lines. I'm still not sure why it's like this but there is no law out here saying that trees can't grow into power lines. Obviously this was bound to happen since most the power lines go through trees, but whatevs. People in the east are tree-fanatics so I'm sure they didn't want to trim any of the trees down.

Anyway, two years ago on a Thursday it was about 8pm when we heard that there was a driving ban in all of Buffalo and the suburbs. At about 10:30 our cable went out. I thought nothing of it and we went to sleep. Apparently through the night there was thunder and so much snow that it began to weigh branches down on the trees outside and they began to snap and fall down. A lot of the trees hit cars and blocked streets. I'm a pretty sound sleeper so I knew nothing happened until I woke up at about 7 and looked outside. At the time we lived next to the highway (I know, ghetto) and there were tons of cars of the side of the road and the road in front of our building. We went outside to check it out and the snow came up to my thighs.

By the morning time our power had gone out which meant no hot water and no heat. I called my boss and we determined that it wasn't safe to be driving since I hadn't seen a plow in an hour and my car was being blocked by a huge branch. Then we called our friends to see if any of them had power. They didn't but had gathered over at Jimmy's house. So we got in the truck and drove over there. It was pretty scary but we made it eventually. We spent the day in the cold house playing games and that night we found the only place in the area with power. It was a bar that was running on generators. We headed over there for some hot food and warmth and to watch the Sabres game. The next couple days we spent most of our time there except to go home and sleep in the freezing cold apartment with every blanket we had.

We didn't have power for almost 5 days. I showered in cold water for the first couple days and then went to friend's houses that had gotten power back. Two of our fish died in those 6 days. One died because two others ate it's face off. Then one of the two left ate half of the other ones body. Pretty gross. All of our food went bad including everything in the freezer. Not fun to clean up. It was almost 3 weeks after the storm that the last people in the city got power. The lines for generators during that time was about 4 hours at any given time. They are still are re-planting trees they lost during the storm. It was a horrible, horrible experience and I never want it to happen again. Here are some links to stories about the storm. Wikipedia or CBS here or CBS here.

The huge tree that was in our parking lot...

The sunrise was the only light in the entire city.

The other tree that was in the front of the building.

The front porch.

Our grill was saved since it was right next to the fence. The tree branches fell around it.

This is one of the busiest highways in Buffalo and no one was driving on it. And that is a car that went off the side of the road and some power lines on the ground.

The sunrise.

That's me in the snow

The back tree a couple days after the storm

The tree in the front.

The top of the tree in front. Well what was left of it. The landlords ended up cutting the whole thing down along with the one in back.

The Great Pumpkin Farm

James and I ventured out to the Great Pumpkin Farm in Clarence. It's a bit of a drive, about 20 minutes, but well worth it. All this weekend the guy who carves the huge, 1 ton pumpkins was there and I wanted to go see him. Unfortunately by the time we got there at 4:30 he had already carved for the day. And apparently everyone and their children from Western New York decided to go that day too. It was 75 degrees that day, and that never happens in Buffalo in October, so everyone was out. They had a carnival there too which probably attracted the little ankle bitters. It was a good time. We saw the "Pumpkin Shooter" which is a big cannon that shoots pumpkins up to 100 yards. James got one big pumpkin and I got two little ones. I like to mess up carving the first one. Then have the second one for a backup when I screw up the first one. We also got a scarecrow man to stand up in the yard. Here are some pics.

The Great Pumpkin Farm!

The winners of the "biggest pumpkin" contest

James and the crazy humpback man

The huge pumpkin carvings

Just a little guy

The pumpkin tower

How tall are you this year?

I don't know what this is

Um, I don't know.

The pumpkin shooter

Me and the Scarecrow man

Go Sabres!

We sent EJ a jersy to wear for Sabres season. He looks pretty dern cute in it.

Sir, I'm not sure you should be driving.

I usually don't go out during lunchtime to run errands because of all the elderly drivers that are out at that time. Today was no different. I had to run to the Physical Therapy place to pick up a receipt and then to Target. As I'm waiting for the light to change, this elderly gentleman in front of me kept tapping his breaks. Yes we were already stopped so basically he was inching towards the car in front of him. After the light turns green he doesn't go right away and then guns it. We were turning left and he pulled into the other turning lane and almost hit someone so he swerved back into my lane and then went across two lanes to pull into the parking lot. Then he proceeded to turn in front of cars in the parking lot to get into Lowe's. This all happened in a manner of 1 minute. I'm not sure he should be driving.

Handbag Planet

So this new website is starting up soon and on their first day they are giving away a purse an hour for the first 24 hours. Go here to enter to win a free purse!!! How awesome is that?!

Thanks Dari!

My TV debut - Part 2

Apparentely the media just hordes to wherever I am. No, not really. Channel 4 news came to Buff State yesterday to interview my Corporate Finance professor on his opinion of the "economic crisis" that we are in. I just so happen to sit in the front row of that class cause I'm a nerd. They intereviewed him and filmed some of the class. My fat face just so happened to take up the full screen. I think I look stupid but if you want to see it go here, it should be "Monday Night's Headlines" and scroll to 4:09. If you think they actually interview me and I even talk on camera, you would be wrong. I'm just sitting there all nervous like and stupid looking.

Numero Ocho

My cousin Shanna was kind enough to tag me, and the theme is the number 8, muah ha ha ha.

8 Favorite TV Shows

* BH 90210

* ER

* The Office

* Grey's

* The Amazing Race

* Wheel of Fortune

* Law & Order

8 Favorite Restaurants

* Olive Garden

* Chef's - Local italian, yum

* Taco Time - It's a restaurant

* Macaroni Grill

* PF Changs

* Sonic

* The Melting Pot

* Red Robin

8 Things that happened yesterday

* Pilates class was cancelled due to the fact that I was the only one that showed up

* The laundry was did

* That girl JP Losman lost the Bills game for us because he sucks as a quarterback and should be playing for the Buffalo Jills, not the Buffalo Bills. Now we are 4-1 not 5-0.

* I had some good pizza and wings

* Me and Jimmy C spent some quality time together (3 hours) because he came over at 1pm instead of 4pm (because Time Warner dropped CBS so he couldn't watch football)

* I did not get all my cleaning done because Jimmy came over early

* I did not do my homework

* I did not get my car washed or vaccumed

8 Things I'm looking forward to

* Visiting Utah in a couple weeks and seeing all my family

* Visting Utah for Christmas!

* Mine and Kristin's trip to the Dominican Republic in February

* Finishing school - only 24 more credits!!

* Springtime

* James graduating and getting a new job so he can stop complaining about Verizon

* Moving away from this dump they call Buffalo

* Rachel, Eron and EJ to visit for Thanksgiving

8 Things I love about fall

* The leaves

* Halloween

* Thanksgiving

* Pumpkins

* Apple Cider

* Sleeping with the window open and having it be a bit cooler

* Football season

* Baseball playoffs

8 Things on my wishlist

* A new furnace

* A new stove

* My cabinet to be hung on the wall and not sitting on the floor

* A new phone that doesn't die every 10 hours

* My credit cards to be paid off

* To lose 30 pounds

* Finishing the basement

* For it not to get cold

8 people I tag

* Brooke T

* Dari

* Ashley A

* Ashley H

* Mindi

* Sara

* Aunt Ruthann

The Darwin Martin House

I'm a big nerd, I'll admit it. I love Architecture, I was even an Architecture major at one point. But I realized I could appreciate it more as a spectator. Frank Lloyd Wright is one of my favorite Architects. I love his style, it's so clean and organic. He designed his houses to fit with the environmental surroundings. He just so happened to have built a house in Buffalo. He also built Falling Water for those of you that might know what that is. I won't go into it too much but there is a lot of background to the house he built in Buffalo. It was for Darwin Martin and his family. It's 15,000 square feet, not to mention the Barton House and the Gardner's House on the property. It was built in 1905 and the family lived in it until 1937. After that the house was vacant for 15 years and it was partially destroyed. Different people owned it but now it's owned by a preservation group that is restoring it to it's original state. They offer tours everyday and for my birthday this year (yes, back in February) James bought me tickets to the in-depth 2 hour tour. That seems long but time flew and we didn't even get to see everything. I was so involved in the tour. It was awesome! They don't let you take pictures inside of the house for copyright purposes (stupid) so I took some pictures from the outside. Frank Lloyd Wright built a vacation house for the Martin's that is in Angola, about 45 minutes away. They are restoring that one right now too so when it's done I will be touring that one too. I know the only person that will enjoy this as much as I am is my cousin Sara, my uncle Ken and of course my dad. So Sara, uncle Ken and dad, these are for you!

The Barton House

Me in front of the Barton House

The pergola and the conservatory, which is now the gift shop

The front of the house

James is really excited to be there

From the side looking at the front of the house

The front of the Barton House

Looking over the wall to the pergola and the main house

The conservatory/gift shop