Flowers in My Hair

I'm heading to San Francisco today for a Web Publishing Conference. I'll be sure to take pics of all the alt-weekly cats to post here when I get back (I'm sure y'all didn't get enough of it from my pics of Little Rock). I'll be back on Monday. Til then. . .

Sunday Morning in Pictures

The puppies drink from the puddles in the driveway.

Colleen makes home-made hash browns for breakfast.

Ben caulks the front stoop. He's so handy.

Joe contributes to breakfast by throwing some sausages on the grill.

Todd and Jess come to visit and to meet the new puppies.

Puppies!

Colleen with one of the puppies.

Joe cuddles the new pups.

Joe and I went and spent the weekend at home in the Southern Tier. We stayed with Ben and Colleen, who were perfectly gracious hosts, at their beautiful home in Apalachin. They just adopted two cute-as-a-button golden retriever puppies, Blue and Kismet, who got pleeenty of attention from us while we were there. It was a picture-perfect weekend, and I hated leaving.

Butt . . . Butt . . .

Metroland stickers make hot asses hotter: Joe and I show our support at Lark Fest.

Nate Turns 31 Today!

Sorry to out your age, darling, but you seriously don't look a day over 25. ;-)

Nate will spend his birthday evening entertaining folks as always--everyone go to Justin's to wish him a happy one!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATE!

P.S. This pic is from Friday night--Nate and I had a fabulous dinner-slash-pow-wow, and then we met up with Robin at Elda's (of all places).

Fall Fashion Shoot

On Monday, Mel and I directed the fall fashion shoot. This is my third shoot, and my second time doing fall. Luckily, this time we were in a studio instead of on location. We had so many vendors and SO much merchandise. To have shot on location would have been a horror and a half. Thank goodness for photography studios.

Here, I'm adjusting the clothes on Shane, one of our models. I drastically cropped this pic--the issue doesn't hit the streets until next Thursday, and we don't want to give anything away before then.

TGIF

This weekend, the plan is to go to see Gram for Rosh Hashanah. (Happy Rosh Hashanah by the way, for all you people who are into that sorta thing.) I'm totally just in it for the brisket and matzoh ball soup. (Just kidding, Gram, don't worry! . . . But there will be rugelach and chopped liver, right? *wink*)

Tonight, a much-needed pow-wow with Nate. Followed by a cocktail or two.

Season Premiere Tonight!

Two words: Grey's Anatomy.

That is all that needs to be said.

I Miss My Girls

Where are you? :-(

Everyone's simply too far away from me.

Lark Fest

Joe and I have a beer on the street at Lark Fest; after Hector on Stilts played, Clay and Jeb signed a bunch of autographs for their excited fans.

My Favorite Face

Kate's New Haircut

This post is mostly for Kristie's sake (there, satisfied? I'm writing about you!) so she can see Kate's new hair. Bobbed with layers and plum lowlights. It looks great.

After Kate's mini photo shoot we went to see the Illusionist with Michael, which was just awesome.

Albany Turns into Wild West

There has been a disturbing spike in gun violence in Albany lately. It's unsettling that it's happening at all, but it mostly bothers me that it's been getting closer and closer to my personal space. For example, last week, I was at work and all of a sudden we hear pop! pop! pop! One of our staff writers, David, looked at me and said, "That doesn't sound good." A few minutes later, our general manager sent out an e-mail confirming that those "pops" were actually gunshots and that police had sealed off the block where it had happened (one block away from our office). This was in the middle of a busy workday in broad daylight. Luckily, the gunman had bad aim (it may have had something to do with the fact that he was on a bicycle), so no one was hit.

Then, on Monday night, as I lay in bed chatting on the phone, I hear pop!--a half-dozen times. It crosses my mind that the noise could have been gunshots, but I tend to rationalize those thoughts away pretty quickly. However, my brother walks in a little bit after that (from walking the dog around the neighborhood) and reports that there were gunshots around the corner from the apartment (about one block south of us) and that this time, someone got hit (actually, we learned later, two 20-something guys got hit, and they were rushed to Albany Med--their injuries were not life-threatening), and police had sealed off that portion of the neighborhood. The gunman (a different guy than the one from before) was also on a bicycle. They haven't caught that guy yet, but they did catch the first guy.

Now, while these shootings are alarming, they are only a drop in the bucket in terms of the amount of shootings that have been happening lately. Most of them seem to be occurring in the South End, West Hill and Arbor Hill (for you out-of-towners, these are some of the really rough neighborhoods in Albany). The police chief is adamant that these shootings are not gang-related, but group-related (whatever the hell that means). What's worse, the incidents have been under-reported--apparently it's not a "shooting" unless someone actually gets hit with a bullet. Read the daily's story about the multiple shootings here.

Oh yeah, by the way, the police chief wants to shut down two of the Albany police stations, including the station in Arbor Hill. This plan was announced one day after four people got shot on the same street that the police station is on. Explain that one to me. When our paper runs our piece on this, and the shootings, I'll be sure to post a link.

Saturday in the City

On Saturday, Joe and I braved the Ernesto leftovers to spend the day in Manhattan. We started our day near Harlem in the morning, and made our way down to Canal Street--a long journey, of which we actually walked about 40 blocks--by the end of the day. It's amazing how that happens. You start window shopping, and all of a sudden you're a couple-dozen blocks north or south of where you started. It's a trick the city likes to play on people.

Joe's friend Kirsten showed us around the campus of Columbia University, where she's earning a PhD in psychology. We then went for a walk to see . . .

the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Then, before saying goodbye to Kirsten, we went to lunch at a cozy Mexican restaurant in the Upper West Side.

During our 40-block hike, we came across Cheap Jack's vintage clothing store on 5th Avenue, where we met Sebastian, a sales-hobbit who whisked us through the entire store for about an hour, chatting with us and handing us overpriced items to inspect or try on. Here, Joe sports the '70s so-you-wanna-be-a-pimp knee-length leather trench.

Finally, after a lot of walking and a lot of getting drenched from the hurricane, we settled in at a sweet little eatery in Chinatown for dinner. Then we went and window-shopped for watches, and then back to Long Island for a night of house parties and fun.

Long Island

Ah yes, Long Island is where I spent my Labor Day weekend. I played beer pong for (what memory serves, anyway) the first time since college. It was a beer pong tournament, actually. Joe and I won our first round, but then got creamed by a duo of cheating overly tanned Long Island girls. We're not judging. Really. A couple pics from Saturday night:

Eric and Kim make the "loser" signal as they try to win a round of pong.

Joe fills cups in preparation for our second round of pong.

Dave, our gracious house-party host.

Temptation

There's one of those huge cookie-cake things in the editorial office in celebration of our new staff writer's birthday. I've been pretty good about eating healthily and avoiding bad things lately. Like huge cookie-cake things. And now one is in the office, calling my name. For the record, it's nearly impossible for me to avoid this giant cookie. I love sweets--my sweet tooth is about the size of the Atlantic. And of course, cookies are my favorite. So far, so good--I haven't given in. I just wanted to share my diet angst.

Quote of the Day

"'Bleh' is the new 'eh'"
--Michael C.

Joe Go Fest

I went home (well, to Binghamton/Vestal) over the weekend to visit the fam and to participate in what was affectionately dubbed the Joe Go Fest. Joe (in the blue T-shirt below) is moving to the City at the end of the week, and to celebrate the move, all his friends got together for some parties to see him off. A very fun time was had by all--for the most part. Thursday was fun and games; Friday night got a liiiiiittle out of control for some (you know who you are).

From the top: Laura is very animated as she explains something to me--of course, I forget what. . . . Next, the stepsisters pose for a pic. . . . Todd and Michelle hanging out at Dillinger's with a NASCAR-themed Miller Lite (yes, I was drinking them too--they were $2!). . . . The man of the hour: Joe with a smoke, looking a bit confused. . . . Joe being trashed with his friend Heather. On Friday we met Canadians, Seattle-ites and hometown peeps. Good times. Many thanks to Laura for prolonged use of her apartment (love you!).

Other notes from the weekend home:

--Dad tried to set me up with a hippie (egads)
--Mom bought me a 4-disc set of hits from 1956-1959 that I LOVE
--Took Dylan to lunch, and then to the bookstore where we bought The Lion King soundtrack
--Had dinner with Holly, Dad, Laura, Dylan, and Holly's dad and stepmom, Jim and Mary
--Got stuck in traffic at the toll on the way home, which means that college kids were comin' back into town

Out of Space??

That's what my blog peeps are saying. . . I'll have to figure this out. Till then, I'll try to do some updating on my MySpace blog.

Thursday (and Friday) in Saratoga

Had dinner at the Hall of Springs last night, then went to see the orchestra at SPAC. It was a spectacular concert, with pieces by Beethoven, Debussy and Saint Saens. Lots of fun.

Tonight I'll head to Saratoga again, this time to spend some time with Kate and have dinner and drinks and hear all about her camping vacation.

Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to bring my camera someplace to have it magically fixed for free. Or at least an inexpensive repair shop. I'm not the same without my camera.