Monday, October 27, 2008

fun-filled weekend with good friends

Our best friends don't live in town anymore. Well, not all of them anyway. Tom and Nikki live in Binghamton and Nick lives in New Jersey. We dont' get to see them all that often and when we do, we try to make the best out of it.

Nick came into town Thursday night - around midnight - I was sleeping of course when he got in, but since Steve was off Friday, he stayed up and waited for Nick. I should have known that Steve would end up sleeping on the couch with Nick while I slept alone upstairs. Not even the dogs came to join me....

Anyways, I got out of work Friday at 4:15 and earlier in the day had found out that my bestest friend Nikki was going to be coming up too! She and her husband own a bunch of apartments so it's really hard for them to get away for long weekends. There's always something going on, they always need someone to cover something while they're away. We had been planning on having them come up too, but up until Friday, it was a "they can't make it" so I was an awesome surprise to find out Friday that they'd be actually coming. I got home and saw that Nick was busy on his computer working for most of the day. Tom and Nikki pulled up right when I got home...we didn't have any real plans, so we just hung out and caught up on our lives. The boys ended up going to the bars later that night but Nikki and I decided to hang back and have ourselves some good girl talk. We woke up to the boys coming home around 2:30 and stayed up and chilled for another hour or so.

Saturday Nikki and I had a few things to do: we met my mom at Casa Larga to go over the contract and details. I have to wait for the contract to get to me, then go over to my parents house with Steve to go through it with a fine tooth comb before sending our deposit in. That will hopefully happen tomorrow. Then right after that Nikki and I went to go pick up my dress! She helped me try it on and I pranced around the store for a little bit. Then we headed over to my mom's house to put it away until 2010!! It seems so far away, but I know time will just FLY. I'm SO glad Nikki was able to come up with me and do those things with me. It's so weird though, it seriously seems like it was just yesterday that I was helping her with her wedding. It's already been 5 months since she got married. So weird how time really does fly.

Then after all the errands, Steve and I had to stop over his parents' house to have dinner with his parents since it was his dad's birthday. We brought over a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake (his favorite) over for dessert. Then we headed back to our house where Nick, Nik and Tom were waiting. We were planning on hitting up the Haunted Hayride of Rochester out in Williamson - but it was pouring rain all day...but it cleared up so we were good! It was really muddy, but it was pretty warm out and we really had a good time! It was scarier than I thought it was going to be....they tried pulling me off the wagon like 4 times, but Steve had a good grip on me and wouldn't let me fall off.

We stayed in for the rest of the night since we're all old people and fell asleep on the couch around 11pm.

Sunday was a lazy day - Nick left right around 11am - he has a 5+ hour drive home. Tom, Nik, Steve and I ran a bunch of errands, stopped at Home Depot to get Hudson a new run (since he broke his AGAIN), get keys made, stopped at the hydro store and went to Pelligrino's for lunch. Tom and Nikki left around 4pm and Steve and I cleaned the house and relaxed.

Now, tonight I have stupid court for speeding. ARGH.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

It's in! It's in!

The calendar for Casa Larga is out!!! I just got an email today from the special events coordinator letting me know that the calendar is out for 2010 and we can go sign the contract! I'm SO excited! This is the second BIG thing we can cross off our list! Once we sign this contract and put our deposit down, we can do the same for the photographer (we've already decided on who we want to shoot our wedding), the florist (my mom and I are going to head over to Pittsford Wegmans in the next couple of weeks) and the DJ (I'm passing the reigns to Steve on this one). I'm EXCITED!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Toronto

it's been a family tradition since I was little to go to Toronto with the entire family. Sometimes, dad and I would go by ourselves.





We go there to eat, eat and eat some more. Toronto has the best Chinese food (authentic Chinese food) in North America. It's SO good. I can't even describe with words just. how. good. it. is.





The first place we go to eat has this amazing curry crab. HUGE crabs too. We always get the same thing, along with this incredible mango fish. Then after eating way too much, we go to the mall to walk around, get a bubble tea, etc. We all need to walk a bit after stuffing ourselves. After some walking and visiting of old friends, we check into the hotel, take a short nap then head to dinner around 9pm. Normally, dinner at 9pm is a big no-no in my book, but if we try to get any earlier, all we do is sit in a the 4 mile long line and we don't get to eat until 9pm anyways.





This place ad the oysters I had been waiting for. This oysters are HUGE and crispy and oh so good. I could probably eat 50 of them. Oh man. So good.





Here are some photos from the weekend:

This weird hotdog looking stuffed toy....weird

Mickey Hands

Me and Jen at 3.6.9 for lunch

Mom and dad ordering our food at 3.6.9

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Crackberry

I finally got one. Finally. I'd been wanting one, but I really didn't want to pay the extra $30 per month for the data package. I finally gave in. For my line of work - it really DOES make sense. It's super convenient for me to have it so if I'm in meetings, I can still get emails, know what's on my calendar for the day etc. It's nice.

Steve and I went to Verizon last night after work to get it. We didn't realize that he'd get a corporate discount through his work, so we had to go back to the house to get it and go back to the store.

I actually got into it with the customer service girl who was supposed to be ringing us out and getting my phone ready. It was pretty obvious that she was stressed, didn't like her life or her job. She was frustrated, pissed off. You could easily tell by her demeanor. So she tells us that Steve's paystub was too old and we told her that no one ever said it had to be within 60 days. C'mon, we had JUST driven all the way home and back again to get the phone. Steve told her that he knew there was a way to override the cost and we could bring the correct paystub in the next day. She was clearly not happy. The manager came over and said "sure, we can override the cost, as long as you make sure to bring in the stub tomorrow" after he said that, the stupid girl said to HIM "you're trying to piss me off aren't you" - she said it TWICE. I said back "never mind, I don't want the phone, I don't want to PISS anyone off" and she got nasty with me! She actually pointed her stupid little finger in my face and said "I never said I was pissed at YOU, I was talking to HIM" my reply "it doesn't matter who you're talking to, you're completely unprofessional and rude - you don't talk like that in front of customers, if I did that, I'd be fired" and she went on to tell me that I had to respect her. She told me that I was being out of line. Then she said "Do you want the phone or not" Okaaaaaay. Riiiight. I'm the customer remember? I'm always right! I'm spending hundreds of dollars here! I've been a loyal Verizon customer for over 10 years! PLEASE. I haven't done anything wrong!! I just want a new phone!

We requested that someone else take care of us. In the meantime, I just stared at her the entire time the other guy was ringing us out. Glaring. She said nothing. The manager said nothing. We still bought the damn phone.

This morning I called the store manager and explained the entire story from beginning to end. He said "I'm going to take care of this in 3 seconds" he did NOT sound happy AT ALL. I was calm, collected and explained that I understand we all get frustrated at work, but WE CAN'T SHOW IT. He was pissed and apologized over and over again telling me that this is not how they treat people, that she will get a talking to etc. Let's hope that actually happens. I did tell him that other customers heard everything and they were probably disgusted by her behavior as well.

Fuck her. If she can't handle that job, she should get a new one where her job description doesn't include talking to people.

My phone ROCKs by the way.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Halloween party

Korin had a Halloween/farewell party Saturday night. He boyfriend Andy is being deployed to Iraq in 1 week. It was a surprise party for him, just to let him know we all love him. I went early to help set up the house while Korin took Andy around town to waste time and get dressed. Andy, Don, Jame and Korin were the Golden Girls. I was hoping Steve would wear his costume over, but he wouldn't tell me for sure if he'd do it or not. Here are a few shots:


The Golden Girls
The boys playing with Kyle's HUGE boobs
And here he is! Jim Dangle showed up! Hilarious! The mustache kills me. haha.
Me (as Napoleon) and Jim

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Halloween costumes



Steve and I never participate in any dressing up for any of the Halloween parties we've gone to together. I think the last time I dressed up was in college and I didn't have this elaborate costume, hell, I was in college and poor...so I found this cute little pumpkin costume for like $19 or soemthing cheap and wore that with some knee high boots and black tights. It was cute. But nothing too fun or crazy.



I had no idea what I should be this year. Steve and I have talked about him being Jim Dangle from RENO 911 because it's so damn funny. I don't like the show, but seeing Jim Dangle run around in his khaki shorts is funny. I found a costume online, but now Steve refuses to wear it. He says he'll be the laughing stock of the party - but isn't that funny? Everyone is dressing up so it'll be fine. But no, he refused. Last night I went with Korin and team to find costumes, wigs etc. Jim Dangle was staring me in the face when I walked into Arlene's Costume shop - I called Steve right away and told him I was buying it. I told him that since I'm about to spend $5o on this stupid costume, he'd HAVE to wear it. I tried convincing him that I'd get the slutty girl version, but they didn't have it in my size. So finally, after some coaxing, Steve said "just bring it home and I'll try it on and see if I can wear it to the party" All sales are final though, so even if he doesn't like it, I'm going to find a way to stuff him into that damn costume.




Since 99% of the costumes for girls were all SLUTTY, I decided to go with...............................................................................................................................NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. Yep - that's right. No slutty costumes for me thankyouverymuch! Costume comes with wig, glasses and Vote for Pedro T-shirt. I just have to go to WalMart to buy those fancy dancy snow boots from 1985. Classic.




Stay tuned for pictures of Steve wearing the this costume. The shorts are the best part.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I bought my dress! :)



Mom, Jennifer and I went to Alfred Angelo's on Sunday. I wanted to show them THE dress...and get their opinions. I didn't think we'd walk out with the dress...I thought we'd go to a few other places before making the final decision, but there was a promotion going on and the dress was anotehr $100 off. I walked out and Mom said that it was beautiful. She said that if I loved it, really loved it, we should just do it. Especially since it was less expensive than we thought.
the back - my favorite part

the front

I can't wait. I love it. I loved it more the second time trying it on. It's perfect.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

reading(s)

I wasn't sure if we were going to have anyone do any readings at our wedding. Not that I don't like them, but I wasn't sure what they'd say. I'd want it to be personal, but who would do it? I came across this today:

"It is often said that it is love that makes the world go round. However, without doubt, it is friendship which keeps our spinning existence on an even keel. True friendship provides so many of the essentials for a happy life-it is the foundation on which to build an enduring relationship, it is the mortar which bonds us together in harmony, and it is the calm, warm protection we sometimes need when the world outside seems cold and chaotic. True friendship holds a mirror to our foibles and failings, without destroying our sense of worthiness. True friendship nurtures our hopes, supports us in our disappointments, and encourages us to grow to our best potential. (Bride) and (Groom) came together as friends. Today, they pledge to each other not only their love, but also the strength, warmth and, most importantly, the fun of true friendship.”

This quote is perfect for Steve and I. I didn't know who I'd ask to read this - then thought hey! This would be perfect for Lisa, Steve's sister to be a part of our wedding. I'm going to chat with Steve about this and then ask Lisa if she'd like to do it.

Taking mom and Jennifer to Alfred Angelo on Sunday to go see THE DRESS that I LOVED last week. Again, not going there to purchase the dress (at least not my intentions!) but Mom stated that if this is the first dress that took my breath away, after trying on about 8 others....we should at the very least go check it out. And the fact that it's less than half of my dress budget...well, that makes Dad's wallet happy too.