« August 2004 | Main | October 2004 »
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Why do spiders creep me out so much ?
I am enoying a nice rainy day at home today, only disturbed by my run-in with a big ugly spider. I've always hated spiders, no matter how big or small. I just can't stand them. They creep me out to no end.
Well, it all started last night when Mike and I were watching TV and one of our cats kept pawing behind the couch. When Mike looked what was up he saw a big spider. I actually didn't see it but just the knowledge that it was there was enough to make me scream and run into a different room. Mike tried to squish it with a shoe. I said I needed to see proof so Mike looked for the dead spider - but no luck. He even moved the couch, coffee table, everything ... no spider. He finally had me convinced that it just fell through the crates of the heating vent.
Well, today as I was eating lunch (I made a yummy tuna melt and a big mug of tea) and reading the paper one of the cats was doing something by my feet. I finally looked up and saw a BIG UGLY FAT spider right by my feet, only a few inches away. I jumped up and screamed .... I am glad no one else was in the house or anywhere close by, they would have thought I was being murdered. After staring at it for a while I finally worked up the courage to squish it with a shoe. It looked pretty flat to me.
So after staring at it again for a while I finally worked up the courage to grab a whole bunch of paper towels and pick up the spider. I ran outside and tried to dump the spider out there. Well, it got stuck to the paper towels and I decided ... what the hell ... and threw the paper towel with the spider into the bushes. It will all disintegrate over time anyway. Right ?
Well, I think I am off to make myself another big cup of tea. I think I deserve it after all that excitement. :)
Posted by Hanna at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Busy ... Busy .... Busy
Another busy day. It seems like this week so far is just a continuation of last week's craziness. I am off tomorrow (have to work Saturday) so for now that makes me happy. I look forward to sleeping in and being lazy. I should try and get some things done but we'll see how it goes. I might just need a relaxing day without much to do. :)
Hope everybody else's week is going smoother.
PS: I am off to play the Sims now. Been playing pretty much non-stop during every free moment I have had. I *LOVE* the game. :)
Posted by Hanna at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Garlic Festival
Believe it or not ... I actually haven't played the Sims all day .... yet anyway. :)
We went to the Garlic Festival in Saugerties, NY. I read an article in our local paper about it Wednesday in the food section and couldn't get over how cool of an idea it was. I absolutely *LOVE* garlic and use it in almost every dish I make so I definitely had to check out this garlic festival.
I was amazed at how busy it was. The little town was overflowing with people and cars. It was crazy.
Lots and lots of arts and crafts booths with neat stuff. Every both had to have at least one garlic-related item. And of course there was also food. Lots of yummy food .... I was in heaven. :) Here are some of the foods we saw: Cajun crawfish, garlic chicken, chicken wings, garlic firehouse chili, clams, corn-on-the-cob, falafel, fried dough, funnel cake, gyros, garlic ices, garlic ice cream (yes I am not making this up !), garlic mashed potatoes, garlic mushrooms, garlic pasta, garlic pretzels, ravioli, shrimp scampi, garlic soup, garlic steak and so much more.
We had garlic cheese quesadillas and sauteed garlic mushrooms which were both very yummy I have to say. I wish I could have tried the garlic ice cream just out of curiousity but the line was just TOO long. Maybe next year.
After the festival we went to see the Saugerties Lighthouse which is located at the Hudson River. We had to walk through a nature walk which was different. I've never really seen a lighthouse that's not at the ocean. It was definitely cool though. I love lighthouses.
So now I am off to play my Sims. :) Hope everybody is enjoying their weekends.
PS: Click here to check out our photos.
Posted by Hanna at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Friday, September 24, 2004
Pittsburgh Recap
It's been a really busy week at work and I am so glad that it's finally Friday. Thank god. :) I am insanely happy that I don't have to work this weekend. Yay. :)
So here is my promised recap of our recent weekend trip to Pittsburgh. Sorry it took so long to get around to posting. :)
We left for Pittsburgh Thursday night. Had dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. It was called "The Original Fish Market" and a fancy seafood restaurant. Very yummy and just the right amount of fancy. I don't like the restaurants that are too fancy and make you uncomfortable. The food was very good and we had a very enjoyable dinner.
FRIDAY: The remains of hurricane Ivan made it to Pittsburgh and it was POURING all day. And I mean POURING. Wow, I have never seen so much rain before. It was absolutely crazy.
Had breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Spent a couple hours there browsing around and looking at all the different exhibits. I really liked the museum, had a very modern touch and some really neat stuff.
In the afternoon we headed to the suburbs and spent some time at the Monroeville Mall. Lots of shops and just the right place for a rainy day. :)
Headed back to the hotel and had dinner at the famous Chicago-based steak house chain Morton's. If you want excellent steak I definitely have to recommend Morton's. It's a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of treat though because it was definitely VERY expensive. Just to give you an idea our bill for two was way over a $ 100. Definitely YUMMY though. :)
SATURDAY Beautiful day. All the rain left the area and it turned out to be a gorgeous fall day. Walking around the area and watching the news we definitely saw a lot of flooding and reminders of Ivan.
We wanted to check out Point Park which is a really nice triangle-shaped park with a pretty fountain at the end and a river walk. When we got there all we saw was flooding. The park was flooded all the way back to street level, it was unbelievable.
Walked across a bridge to get to Station Square, a nice area across the river with shopping and restaurants. Walked around for a bit and then took the Monongahela Incline to the top of Mt. Washington. You have a really great view of Pittsburgh from up there. Walked around and took a bunch of pictures. After going back down we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe at Station Square.
Made our way back downtown and to the hotel later in the afternoon. After relaxing for a while we walked across another bridge (lots of bridges in Pittsburgh *g*) to go to a baseball game (NY Mets against Pittsburgh Pirates). The ballpark is brand new and REALLY nice. The view from our seats was really cool. (Skyline with the Roberto Clemente Bridge) And to top it all of we were lucky enough to see the Mets win. :)
When we got back to the hotel we saw Tom Seaver (Hall of Fame Baseball Player and now TV announcer for the Mets) who shared an elevator with us. Kind of cool :)
SUNDAY: Got up late and checked out of the hotel around 11. As we walked to the elevator from our room we saw a whole luggage cart full of Mets luggage. That confirmed our thoughts that the whole team was staying at the same hotel as we were and some of them even on the same floor as us. Boy does Mike Cameron have a lot of stuff - more than I'll probably ever own *g*.
After checking out of the hotel we drove around to see some neat neighborhoods. Went to Shadyside, a nice neighbordhood with a bunch of different shops. Had a super yummy bagel at Bruegger's Bagel Bakery. Wish they'd open one up in Danbury. :)
Then continued on to Sewickley where we also walked around for a while looking at shops and pretty houses. The weather was just gorgeous, perfect fall weather.
Had lunch at Bahama Breeze, a different kind of chain restaurant. Very yummy.
Explored the nearby Robinson Mall for a while and then headed to the airport.
Unfortunately our flight was delayed quite a bit and we had to spend about 4 hours around the airport. All in all it was quite an interesting experience though. Heard some funny stories when the airport bar filled up with a whole delayed flight going to Frankfurt, Germany. Apparently they were delayed due to mechanical problems, then delayed some more due to a broken cappuchino machine that caught fire onboard (you couldn't make that up if you tried *g*) and delayed some more due to a missing flight attendant that got sick from inhaling toxic fumes from the cappuchino machine. Met some interesting older guys that gave us advice on life and marriage. I hope I'll be like that when I'm old, still sharp and fit enough to travel and enjoy it.
We finally made it back home to our house in CT around 1 am Monday morning.
It was definitely a fun trip and I'd recommend Pittsburgh to anyone that hasn't been there yet. It's a fun city. We had a great time and lucked out with the weather so we still had two beautiful days. Luckily all the flooding in the area didn't affect us too much either.
Take a look at my photo album to see all the pictures we took. I'll eventually get around to making a webpage for our trip as well. :)
Now I'm off to play the Sims. Yay ... 2 days off from work. Wow, you know what that means ? 48 hours straight Sim playing. *g*
Posted by Hanna at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
We're back :)
Haven't posted in a while since we have been away to Pittsburgh for the weekend. We had a really good time and I promise to post all the stories and pictures as soon as I get a free moment.
We didn't get back until around 1:30 am Sunday night. Work has been really busy Monday and Tuesday and it doesn't look much more promising for tomorrow right now.
I did get around to playing the Sims 2 last night though after Mike put in my new harddrive for me. No matter how tired I was I couldn't put off checking out that game any longer. I am just so excited about it. It's definitely the coolest game ever. :)
I will try and get to bed at a reasonable time tonight but who knows .... I'll try and keep my game-playing to a minimum. We'll see ..... at this point I am hooked so there might be no hope for me. ;)
Posted by Hanna at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Very tired ...
I am really beat tonight as we were up till about 1:45 am last night. The reason being that my computer decided to crash and give us all sorts of problems. Mike was working on it (he was looking at it to make sure it was gonna be all set for my new Sims 2 game --- I can't wait *g*) when it started to act up and he ended up taking it apart, fixing it and rescuing all my files .... thank god it's much better now. He ordered a new harddrive for me which should fix the problem.
On a happier note we got a new "gadget" for our TV yesterday. It's Comcast's DVR service which is basically very similiar to TiVo, just built into the regular cable box. I was excited like a little kid when we started playing with it and am real happy that we have it. It's so cool to be able to pause and rewind live TV, plus being able to record all our shows without using any tapes or having to worry about reruns (you can set it to record all new first-run episodes of a selected show).
Well, I better get to bed now. I finished packing so I am all ready for our weekend trip. We'll be leaving work around 3 pm tomorrow. Yay. :)
Posted by Hanna at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Monday, September 13, 2004
Upcoming Weekend Trip
Had another busy day at work today. I don't know why but even when Mondays aren't that bad they just have the tendency to turn out to be bad in the end. I wish we could skip Mondays. :)
Before I forget to mention it we will be taking a short trip later this week. We are leaving Thursday night and coming back Sunday night. We are going to Pittsburgh. Why Pittsburgh ? Well, we are going to see the NY Mets play there.
I just checked the weather forecast again though and right now it says rain for all 3 days will be there. Wouldn't it be ironic if the game got rained out after we went there to go to the game ?
Oh well, even it does get rained out I won't be too upset. Of course I would rather have sunshine and nice fall weather but it will be nice to get away for a few days either way. Just be away from it all for a few days and just relax. I've been craving a vacation badly. :)
Posted by Hanna at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Taste of Danbury, Dad's Birthday and 9-11
The first Saturday in a while that I spent at work and I really wasn't in the mood to work. All in all it wasn't such a bad day and went by without any major disasters.
After work we went to the "Taste of Greater Danbury". It's a festival that's held on the green in the middle of the city every year. There are lots of different booths with area restaurants that serve samples of their food. I had some ziti with a vodka sauce from an Italian restaurant, a cheeseburger from an American/Southwestern restaurant and some vanilla ice-cream from an ice-cream place. Yum. :)
They also have other booths with activities for kids (face painting, clowns, ...) and usually also some live music. This year they had the British band Badfinger. It was kind of fun to see them especially since it was free.
On a different note it's also my dad's birthday today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD. :)
And last but not least my heart goes out to all the people who lost loved ones during the 9-11 attacks. Let's not forget that horrible day but hope that it makes us stronger.
Posted by Hanna at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Joey
So tonight "Joey" premiered. An avid Friends fan I was awaiting the season premiere ever since Friends aired its final episode.
To be fair it's not possible to re-create 10 seasons of Friends magic in one single episode. I knew it wasn't possible to have that same chemistry between the characters since most of them haven't even really been established yet. The only one we are familiar with is Joey.
It will take some time to get to know his sister and nephew and find out if they can have the same funny chemistry that Friends had.
All in all even though I sound bummed out I'm really happy about Joey and that there is something else to look forward to since Friends is off the air now.
Let me know if anyone else has seen "Joey" and how they liked it. I think the show could have a lot of potential - let's hope it stays on the air long enough to find out. :)
Posted by Hanna at 09:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Rainy Day
It was my day off today and I have to announce I really didn't do anything. Now that I only work every third Saturday I have much less days off during the week. I am really not complaining but I had so many plans for what I was gonna do on my day off. I was going to redo my closet and dresser, clean up the bedroom, do some scrapbooking, ....
Well, it all developed differently. It was a rainy day and I stayed in bed until about 11:30 or so. Had lunch, decided to do a load of laundry and then plopped myself back on the couch and finished reading "A Week in Winter".
By the time I was done with that it was already around 3:30 or so. Kind of wandered around the house for a while, surfed the web, pet the kitties and started dinner. (broccoli quiche .... hope it turned out ok *g*).
It's amazing how fast a day can fly by. Oh well, what can I say ? I guess at least it was a relaxing day. :)
Posted by Hanna at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack