Easter

Easter was once a holiday that I loved and it faded a bit while I was in college and grad school due to proximity and lack of time off. When we moved up to Buffalo a lot of the big family traditions shrunk and we all got older the easter egg hunts around our backyard were a little less intense (or nonexistant really).

When I went away to G-town that was the first year my family got a great deal on a vacation home in Myrtle Beach or Hiltonhead or someplace warm. It was also the first year I joined MTC (musical theatre club), and since Geneseo is a State school we did not have the week off for Easter, and our final semester performance landed on Easter weekend. So not only did my parents miss the first year performances but I couldnt go home for the weekend cause I had to perform that weekend. I think that year Bri also couldnt go to the vacation because he had school and I'm not sure if I'm mixing years because this happened all of the four years of Gtown,,, but one of the years I went to an Easter party in Rochester (freshman) and one year I came home to go to my friend Erin's house for her fathers amazing lasagna and Bri came with too.

Regardless... when I went to Bloomsburg, I still was not getting very much time off, and living 4 hrs away made me less likely to drive home while my family is all in S.C. or N.C. One year I went home with a friend from grad school Nikki and did all her family's easter festivities. That was super fun cause we painted eggs (syracuse colors cause it was prime NCAA time) and her dad hid them on us and we hunted them down for a long time in search of all of them (he's a good hider!).

I came home one of the two years I was in NYC but I had to be on a plane to go back to NYC mid Easter sunday which really takes the fun out of it.

This year I was home, but being home also means being available for two family Easters now that Kevin and I live together everyone seems to think that we have to mix holidays. I can't say that I fully agree but mostly because its been so rare for me to have Easter with my family that I didnt really want to share it just yet. I eventually gave in on that one.

So this year I woke up and Kevin told me he had hid my easter present somewhere in the house. YAYYYYY Like a mini easter egg hunt except he's terrible at keeping surprises so while he's telling me 'its somewhere in the house'.... his body and facial expressions all pointed directly at the bedroom closet... to the point where his eyes seriously couldnt turn away from the closet giving away EVERYTHING. I played along and searched in a few obvious places that it wasnt (like under the hats on the headboard and in a few boxes. But I also didnt know WHAT it was so that was super fun. He got me the new Rascal Flatts CD (WHICH I LOVE!) and just came out on Tuesday. I jumped on him and screamed "I KNEW IT!!!'.. hehehe. So fun.

Then we got dressed up and went to church. I was very disappointed by the lack of easter dresses.. To be fair I just wore a dressy version of what I wear to work, but the people at church were NO JOKE,,, wearing jeans and sweatpants! The only people dressed up were children below the age of like 5. I was amazed and slightly saddened as its a fun part of church. Also I was saddened by the mass exodus (pun intended) PRIOR to communion??? granted we sat near the back but so many people left before communion and a ton left directly after and people were actually racing the priest down the aisle.. I wonder if I could write a bulletin letter on 'appropriate church etiquette'. seriously.

Then I went over to my parents to hang out with them and my sister and had breakfast (my mom made this casserole with lasagna noodles, broocoli, cheese, eggs and ham),, my sister and I picked at that and then went to town on the fruit and the Entenman's coffee cake. We just kinda hung around for the afternoon then Kevin picked me up and we drove to a local firehall to go to his family's Easter brunch. Where I proceeded to eat the dinner buffet they had (and a few mini bites of cheesecake SO GOOD)...and then rushed out of there and headed back to my parents house for Turkey dinner (none of us like ham,, well i think mom does but its not what the majority of us like)... cranberry sauce and all. I stuffed myself.. mostly on turkey and cranberry but omg... SO FULL. I tried to hang around till my stomach shifted and I could have some awesome dessert that my mom made special for me (this french vanilla layer cake that I LOVE LOVE LOVE..) but Kevin had to work at like 4am this morning so we couldnt stay late. I might have to go over there this afternoon before its all eaten!..

Needless to say Easter was a busy and belly-filling day, but surrounded by family it was a wonderful holiday of which I'm sure I'll have many more.

Captcha

Can we briefly discuss Captcha... I know its the thing that 'somehow' makes my posting or commenting more secure,, but does anyone sound out or say the words that come out of this product?

I just commented on my Cuz's page and it capcha'ed me the word spamsham.... which I couldnt help but giggle even now saying it aloud but I wonder if it has any relation to the fact that Shannon has many of those letters in her name?


I wonder if I could 'set' the captcha someday to come up with words that I like to say aloud...

like 'polly wog'
'passive periphrastic'
'quantum'
'purplemonkeydishwasher' (my fave for the telephone game)
'hoodlum'
'mayhaps'
'indubitably (still laughing at that one right now!)

'well Bunk!'
'whozits'
'quark'
'cochlea'
'otolaryngologist' (yeah that would be a fun captcha!)

or if I could make it post something that they'd have to read for fun!
"Did you say something nice to danielle'
'Have a nice day'
'Greetings'
"If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again'

"Rinse and Repeat'
"Your query was not received"
"poo" (that one makes Kevin giggle)

hahahaha

We're having a party

So we've been in the new apartment for hair over a month now and we're getting more and more settled each day. It has been fun to decorate the different rooms in the ways that we like and while it seems like we spend 99% of our weekend running around or in Kevin's case working and homework-ing... its nice to just slow down and attempt to cook dinner and have an adult beverage (horrible beer in his case,, and lovely wine in mine!)

Anyway, we're hosting an apartment warming/bday party for Kevin in a few weeks.. and you are all welcome to come if you'd like. Sadly I don't think anyone from the WNY area actually reads this but your welcome if you'd like to make the trip.

After planning and organizing a move and its great success I needed some time to regroup and calm down before attempting to plan something again. Its so hard to get everything ready for your home to have a bunch of people come in and visit. Especially since most people havent been to any of my apartments and few to Kevin's parents house, that I know it will be interesting to some how the 'clash of cultures' occurs between us in our apartment. While on a tighter budget than I'd like, I want to have a nice homey apartment where people feel welcome but I cant always afford the things that I want and I find it wasteful to buy things that are cheap and not want I want at this point. So in being picky and shopping online and doing sale comparisons I find decorating to be fun but stressful a bit.

I find planning a party and not getting RSVPs back from the many people invited to be frustrating and a bit stressful also. When you get an invite to something, you check your schedule and maybe even check your husbands/wife/gf/bf's schedule and get back to the person a Y/N/Maybe. If you have no interest in coming , say No and be done with it. Your not going to hurt my feelings cause you cant or dont want to come! Instead people do nothing and if I knew only 3 people would come then I wouldnt make all kinds of food and buy lots of drinks and worry about seating. If I knew that before the day of it would be much nicer. But people hem and haw and I dont understand it.

Do you think its like New Years where you dont want to commit to an event because your not sure what better is going to come along? Where people are waiting for the big invite for the "perfect' nite? Do you think its just that people cant plan two weeks ahead of themselves? The party is at my house and I'm supplying the food and booze,, I mean really!! Its an economic stimulus plan funded by me! Free food and drink and socializing, that sounds like the best time!

Oh well, so I'm trying to plan an party and I'm doing my best to make the apartment ready and figure out what to serve and what to pour and there is no question that my level of apathy increases as more days go by and more people dont RSVP.

POO!!!

So anyway you should come and celebrate with us! I know there will be pizza and wings and beer and wine, so thats a receipe for success...:)

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Well I have absolutely no, nil, nada intention of cleaning anything on Wednesdays.. Because after three straight 10.5 hour workdays I'm usually 100% wiped out by the time I get home on Wed,, and only the mere concept that Thursdays are really my Fridays is what allows me to get up in the morning (Plus Thursdays are my date nite with my friend Tina so we get to do fun crafts or just share a fresh mozzarella and catch up!).

But I will consider a weekly cleaning project as a task. Perhaps Sundays as I feel like after I go to church that my soul is a lil more clean than it was when I went in, so maybe that is a good day to some homeward cleansing. Last weekend I scrubbed the bathroom, which wasn't terribly dirty since we've only been in the apartment for a month but with a dispenser of clorox wipes, some Comet and a bunch of paper towels (i know all you organic people are cringing at me over there, sorry) and I was off!. Today Kevin wiped down the windowsils because he thought they were sub-par on the cleanliness scale. He said that after a lot of scrubbing its output is mediocre at best.

Hmmm I wonder what we could conquer this week. I guess since there are so many 'still have to unpack and organize my own home' projects to be done I should stick with those for now. This weekends project is curtain hanging in the bedroom... they're too long and there are no curtain rods as of yet,, so it should be n interesting challenge

back to the 'mess' that is my work desk... FUll of charts!
eek
D