Quick "hey"

I know its been a while and I have been slacking on my TV posts but things just seemed have been busy and busier this month and I didn't see it coming! Nothing overly exciting but we have been distracted at night watching Election stuff...and the weekends have been busy with odds and ends. I am due for a good update with some photos soon I promise!

Last weekend I took my niece to Six Flags and she spent the weekend. This past weekend we went to the annual Eagles Halloween Kid Club Party and then to see High School Musical and the most exciting event is that I won tickets to this Bravo's Top Chef co-sponsored fundraiser event in NYC tomorrow. I won the tickets last Wed and had been scurring to find some people to join me and its going to be me and Ben's cousin and his wife. The best part...I found out last night when the promotions guy from the radio station called to make sure my tickets arrived, that I was also invited to attend a VIP Meet and Greet with people from Top Chef prior to the food tasting event!! I am sooo excited.

So, I hope to take as many pics as I can. I am only bringing my point and shoot camera with me because I don't want to carry more than I need to for the day. Ben's cousin and his wife are due to arrive in the morning at my place then we will take a train into the city and figure out how to get from Penn Station to Grand Central where the event is being held. I am not too worried, I figure there will be plenty of people around to ask for help!

The event is from 12-3 and then when we head back we are going to go to dinner with Ben since we don't get to hang out with his cousin and wife very often so its sure to be a fun filled day! I promise to post pics!!

So that is what I have been up to! Be back soon!!

My niece's Baptism and other odds and ends

I have a lot to catch up on here on my blog. Of course most of it is my TV Talk stuff but I do have some other randomness to share!

Not too much new and exciting going on but I hadn't done a proper update in a couple weeks so I thought I should try and do that.

Let's see...in all honesty not really a whole lot has been going on. Work is good. Although I am pretty annoyed with the state of nj dept of education right at the moment because I was seeking some information and it came out that they have no record of me ever sending in my transcripts for any type of educational certification verification. They CAN confirm I have a $50 credit but don't seem to realize that I would not have just sent them $50 for fun. My transcripts and other papers accompanied that $50 but besides the fact it took them two years to contact me originally, the guy I spoke with tried to make it sound like I hadn't done anything in 4 years and proceeded to tell me they have none of my transcripts. This REALLY ticked me off and so now I have put some feelers out to a few friends and people I know to see if they know anyone I can speak with to handle this the best way. I am not about to send them more $$ and all my transcripts AGAIN if I am not sure they can actually take care of it and do what they are supposed to. Although the satisfying point for me is that I have a copy of the original packet, including recipts for my transcripts and how many I originally ordered as well as the extras that are still sealed (With original dates I am sure) so I am ready at any moment to show them my copy, including the dated cover letter! GRRRR!!

The only other big thing going on around here lately was my niece's baptism last weekend. It was nice. She slept through most of it! We went to eat afterwards and made it home in time to watch the Eagles beat Pittsburgh. Speaking of football, I am really enjoying this season so far. I took over running our football pool at work since I was the one who kept it going last year after Larry died. The first week was a little tough just because it was really weird to be the one sending out updates and doing all the organizing. I did do it last year at the end but I didn't do the updates and all the little things like that. This year's games have been full of surprises so that has kept it interesting and we have a few more people playing this year so its been going well.

Back to the Baptism....here are some photos for your viewing pleasure:
Tara using my point and shoot to take pictures. She enjoys getting to take her own pics with my camera and she usually does pretty good too!



Here is little devil Luke. He was a little sick with a cold and didn't want to leave mom's side so he was up with my sister, the baby and her god parents.






I thought this was really cute. The priest was really good with the children.



The Family...sort of!


Twins! I thought it was really funny that my dad and ben both were wearing the same color button up shirt and pants!


Luke being cute...


My sister, Luke, Tara, Sami and her godparents


Sami, her great grandmother (SHe is checking her out) and my sister


Now she is checking out great grandpa!


Luke likes to be in pictures so he got in on some of the action...


The cutie with me


uncle Ben and the cutie


And there is that smile...


Cute ball of tulle and grandpa




Uncle Ben and tara


Someone was apparently hungry...


Now she knows I got the camera on her...smile!


Aunt Colleen and Tara


This past week was busy but nothing out of the ordinary. I hung out after work with a couple friends on Wed to work on storybooks and we had a good time. Thursday was the first episode of Survivor-Yeah!!!! And last night was the debate so its been a busy week LOL. Tomorrow we are going to see ben's dad and step mother and grandmother. It should be a fun afternoon. In the morning we are going to go look for a new stove to order and hopefully be home in time for the Amazing Race and Eagles Football (What would I do without Tivo??)

I guess that about catches me up. I am trying to catch up on all my TV from the week right now as I type this. I also just watched Slacker Uprising the free movie Michael Moore made about voting and the 2004 election. Its a documentary on getting people out to vote. Anyone can stream or download it free on www.slackeruprising.com and its on itunes for free too. I thought it was interesting. I am thrilled Fall TV is back...lots to watch though so I must go now!!!

ta ta for now!

My Niece's pics and update

I had a friend ask to see what pictures we ended up deciding to use for my niece's thing. My sister picked out 7 and I added one more I liked and had them all printed. A few didn't translate as well as 8x10s so I ordered some prints of 5x7 and 4x6 today too. My sister said they just needed to be no larger than 8.5x11. I figure they can look and see what they liked best. There were some I liked that she didn't pick but I figured its there things so whatever they wanted!

Here are the pictures they choose:











And just for fun....one of me and my niece:


So that is that.

In other news...I chipped a tooth/filling in my mouth so now I have fit in going to the dentist tomorrow or thurs. I have an appt for thurs but I am going to call another place to see if they can fit me in tomorrow so I don't have to wait. It feels weird in my mouth and I really don't want to do any more damage to it by accident.

This weekend will be busy with my niece's pagent thing. I also want to get a jump on putting together stuff for our football pool at work. I think if I can get stuff together ahead of time it will be a little easier. We will see.

Work is a little hectic this week with two people on vacation in our department but nothing we can't handle. Been watching the Olympics at night and really enjoying it. Tomorrow I have scrapbooking stuff too so its a busy week. And on top of it all my allergies are hitting me (I tihnk its allergy not a cold but who knows). And no news on my camera yet other than it is at the service facility. The girl I talked to today (not my normal girl) was not as pleasant. I love Canon but I did think it was not a positive thing that the girl said they send out "rebels" all the time. It was good she said they get fixed but still didn't make me feel better! She said the estimated return date was next week but of course she also said that she couldn't tell if they had looked at it yet, just that they recieved it and opened a work order to look at it. Not thinking she was the best informant. I think she just annoyed because I called 4 times today and no one answered the phone and so the last time I just let it ring and ring and ring until someone answered-and that happened to be her. And it rang a LOT before anyone answered:)

I guess that keeps me up to date for now! Hope all is well!!

Trying to catch up...Last weekend til now!

Ok so I know its been awhile since I have posted some updates but nothing earth shattering has been going on....its just been busy and I haven't had the free time to post. So I am gonig to try and catch up...

Just for kicks, here is a pic of Ben and I from the wedding we went to a few weeks ago:

Now onto current updates....

Last weekend I got to spend an awesome weekend with my very good friend Kim! Originally I was going to drive down to her house after work on Friday and spend the weekend because we were going to the American Idol Top Ten tour Concert in Atlantic City. It turned out that another friend of ours from college, Jai, and her girls were going to be able to come to Kim's house too for the day. So Instead of going after work, I took the whole day off so we could all meet around lunch time at Kim's house. It had been a few years since we had all been together and I was really looking forward to it.

So friday, I went to work in the morning just for a graduation we were having. We have them all the time for students who are finished the program and normally I wouldn't mind missing it but one of the students leaving was really a special person I wanted to be there for his graduation. Right after it, I left and started my drive south! Kim lives near Atlantic City so its a bit further than I normally go and I was a little unsure how long it would take with friday "shore traffic" and so I took my "longer route" but it was better than it would have been on the parkway I think so I was happy.

It worked out well that Jai and I arrived within minutes of each other and coming from two different locations. I actually got a text on my cell just as pulled in front of Kim's house where she said J had just arrived and she thought it was me. I replied with "look outside!" because I was there too!

Jai's daughters and Kim's daughters had never really met. The last time they saw each other was when they were all babies so that doesn't really count. It took a little while for Nina to warm up to the girls (didn't take her younger sister any time at all!) but before long they were all playing together like old friends.

We decided to have some lunch first, then head to the beach! It was Nina and Kara's first time at the beach so that was exciting. Nina definately liked it more than Kara. Kara was actually asleep when we arrived but when she woke up and we introduced her to the ocean she was not happy with us at all.

Here are some photos from the Beach:

Sisters


Beach Babes

Not liking the ocean


After the beach we went back to Kim's house and played in the pool for a bit. It was fun but a little cold and the bugs were out biting so we didn't stay in the pool too long. Next up was dinner and we got some good pizza (Thanks Kim!) and had a tasty dinner with friends! At the end of the night before it was time for Jai and the girls to leave, I got a photo with all the girls:


After the kids were in bed and Jai had gone home, Kim and I got to do some of the important things in life....checking our email and exchanging photos! We were up pretty late too but it was worth it!

The next day started early with some early morning thunderstorms. I had a few cuddly visitors early on but it was not a bad way to wake up at least:) It was a nice casual morning gearing up for the concert that night. I already did my actual concert review but here are a few photos of us from before and during the concert!

Here we are ready to leave for Atlantic City:





Our first stop in Atlantic City was for dinner. Kim had heard that the Atlantic City Bar and Grill had some great wings and we thouhgt what better start to an evening out? While the food was good, maybe not the "best wings ever" (and their mozzarella sticks were "plastic" as I described despite the pictures showing more breaded ones LOL), it was a great time to be out for a meal with a good friend. Here are some pictures from dinner:


At the concert

Our attempt at "self portrait"


We had another late night in Atlantic City after the concert. And losing some of my camera stuff had not helped but it was still a fantastic night and I look forward to doing it next year!

Sunday was a much more mellow day and I was exhausted. I was trying to wait til later to drive home so to avoid as much traffic as I good. Kim made a great chicken dinner and after that I was all filled up and ready to take on the cars! I ended up going the longer route home again so to avoid some traffic that was on the more direct route of the parkway. Even though I did hit some traffic (which is to be expected in NJ in the summer on a Sunday!) and a slight detour where I got the wrong exit for the AC Expressway and headed BACK to AC instead of away from it (but I quickly rectified that and was on my way!) I got home around 11:30pm I think and it really wasn't that bad of a drive (time and traffic). Thankfully I had taken monday off of work to "re-coup" and I needed it! I slept in pretty late on monday and really did nothing but watch TV, edit photos and rest!

So as you can see it has been pretty busy around here! LOL I already updated on this weekend. Today was just sitting around, editing, doing photos and watching Olympics. I slept a lot yesterday and then we saw Dark Knight. I am off again tomorrow to take my grandfather to the eye doctor and to stop in at Best Buy and check on the status of my camera. I don't expect them to know anything but the girl said it was always possible, and if I was going to be around anyway I could feel free to call or stop in. I will stop in.

I don't plan to be down there too late though because I do have to work on Tuesday. I worked on Tara's photos today and we decided on 8 that I had printed and then when they get up here for the pagent on Thurs they can decide which 4 to submit. Tara's pagent is on Friday and Saturday. Hopefully I will have a camera but I am not holding my breath. Worst case is I could go back to film:) We will see what happens...Ben is going to a NHRA car nationals or something in Reading on Saturday and is leaving early and returnnig late so sunday will be interesting. We have Sami's baptism in the early afternoon but I don't think there will really be anything after it since my dad will be at the shore and isn't going. (Usually if we do anything its at their place.) Maybe we will all just go out to lunch or something. I will talk to my grandfather tomorrow and see what he thinks and talk to my sister more when I see her Thurs.

So If am not around much, or posting, please forgive me in advance. I will try to keep up by reading along even if I don't post but I know work is going to be busy this week since two co-workers are on vacation and that means that basically Jay and I are teaching all three classes between the two of us.

So ta ta for now!!