it is midnight on a frrrrriday night and here i am in full fredonia gear, pj pants and hoodie, getting ready for bed. yeah that's right. my lip gloss is poppin. i don't even know what that is from but it seemed like the time to get it in this entry.

i saw othello tonight. it was an entertaining show but quite long. my favorite part was my dad doing the intermission give-us-your-money speech, especially when he was just rambling because he figured no one was listening, but i was! sometimes i think my dad is the funniest person in the world. i was seriously laughing hysterically at some things he was saying while most other people were shivering to death or avoiding the actors with the collection baggies.

summer is a-slippin by. i've really enjoyed my summer. new apartment, new kitty, new person whom i like a lot, going to the beach every day of course, and did i mention the new kitty. if you haven't seen him already, go over to (e:anne) 's journal for a peek (or continue reading). i seriously love this cat and i am NOT a cat person. but i am in love with him. I LOVE YOU OSCAR PRESTON!!!!!

living on richmond is soooo loud. i realize it even more because i tend to spend a couple nights a week in amherst in a residential, quiet neighborhood. then i come home and i hear at least 3 fire engines and/or amublances an hour, car alarms, construction workers, random crazies outside, and of course the traffic. i'm not really complaining but i had no idea how loud it was! but i still love where we live and i'm super pumped we got our pad.

by the way i love DVR. i have DVR-ed saved by the bell on TBS for about two weeks now and it is heaven. what better way to wake up than to zack, slater, screech, kelly, jessie, lisa and mr. belding? (we won't mention the other one...) ps it's funny how many celebrities were on saved by the bell before they made it, well at least some b-list...scott wolf, christine taylor, bridget sampras or whatever her name is, ok she's really probably e-list...but of course there's also tori spelling as violet. oh and leah remini as stacey in the malibu sands episodes. there were probably others that i can't remember offhand. man saved by the bell is so fantastic. the caffeine pill episode was on a couple weeks ago. such emotion, such drama, such power. let's not even talk about the zack and kelly breakup episode.

well have i rambled enough for you? what else can i talk about?

i love la nova pizza

i love grape bubble gum

i hiked in zoar valley the other day and it was super great

i am so excited to see (e:mike) in his new glasses and new wheels.

i hate rite aid and will forever deny its existence in the eckerd on elmwood.

hiking man and i spend a great deal of time together and i like him a lot and i think he likes me a lot and that's cool.

i'm singing in the bernstein mass in the fall and that piece is f-ed up but that's the best kind of music.

i love facebook.

i love saved by the bell.

I LOVE THE KITTYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yes my friend Ashley and I made kitty litter cake at my house yesterday in honor of poker/margarita night at her house with her, her mom and stepdad and hiking man.

We ended up abandoning the recipe pretty much and made our own green/funfetti variation which ended up looking more like a cat pooping in a garden. Oh, well. It looks gross but it was very yummy. Enjoy. :)

p.s. I really wish pictures would upload in the correct order.

It begins.

Apparently I look funny when I pour things.

One of my true loves...funfetti cake.

The litter, aka crumbled up cookies with green food coloring.

Making little corn out of lemon Tootsie Rolls.

Makes it more authentic!

And grosser.


mmmm cake.


PRETTY PUDDING.


Cooling the cakes.

Lucky, who did not move from our feet the entire process.

"Drop a cake...or a cookie...do it...just do it..."

See?


THE BOY!

Crumbling up the cakes.

The recipe calls for two whole cakes to be crumbled up and then put back together with pudding. Makes it look grosser.



Funfetti and white cake with greenish pudding.

The cake before we mushed it all down.

You're actually supposed to do it in a real litter box but a) we couldn't find one small enough and b) we didn't really care that much.


Layer 1.

Layer 2 - the "litter".

Poop?

Pudding, mmmm

A closer look.

OUR CREATION!

Before it was served with the authentic pooper scooper!

(It was new. At least, that's what I was told.)

YAY CAKE!



Hungry?!?!?!?!?! :)

i can't sleep. i hate when i can't sleep. especially when you drift off while watching tv before bed and then you get in bed and suddenly WOO wide awake.

today i made something called kitty litter cake with a friend of mine. we played poker at her house and decided it was the perfect occasion. you can look up a recipe online by typing in "kitty litter cake" in google. we changed a few things around (such as replacing the suggested cake types with FUNFETTI!!!!!) and it really didn't turn out to look so kitty litter like but man, it was tasty.

i like poker. i also like euchre and am itching to play.

school starts preeeetty soon. i went back to school to get some stuff out of my classroom and it was like walking through a war zone. there is construction EVERYWHERE! you name it, it's being constructed. i wonder if they will really finish before school starts. from the way things looked, i wouldn't be surprised if they weren't.

i snore.

what a great entry. thanks for everyone's bra responses by the way. it's interesting to see the variety of ways there are to put on a bra. who would have thought? by the way since i posted the survey (and yes (e:maureen), i know you woul rthink of my surveys from freshman year!!! those were the best!!!), i put my bra on by hooking it in front and swinging it around. i find it quite annoying to hook it in the back, or hook it first and then put it on. honestly i think i just put it on that way because that's how my mom does it and i just learned from her.

i really need to start calling some people back and getting some stuff done. i'm a big huge slacker.

i'm still no more sleepy than i was when i started this but i can only ramble for so long.

i really want some grape gum.

good night.

A friend of mine and I are having a debate/discussion/fight.

Ladies, how do you put on your bras?

I realize that there are a variety of ways and I'm trying to prove the point that the way I do it is not crazy or unusual.

Thanks for your input.

(from billboard.com)

R. Kelly is revisiting his short film series "Trapped in the Closet," two years after the original became a cultural flashpoint. Ten new installments of the saga will be released on DVD Aug. 21 via Jive.

The Independent Film Channel has come aboard as a partner in the new release. IFC will air all 12 of the original episodes in the weeks prior to the DVD and will also stream the entire 22-installment series on its Web site. It is unknown when the 10 newest chapters will be broadcast.

The new round of "Trapped" videos finds Kelly portraying an old man named Randolph, complete with a pot belly and a fake white beard that nearly falls off mid-scene, as well as a preacher in a gray Jheri-curl wig and garish orange suit. In one of the final chapters, Kelly's Sylvester character talks business with a "Sopranos"-esque mobster who is eating a giant plate of spaghetti.

The first "Trapped in the Closet" DVD has sold 233,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Kelly is also in the midst of promoting his most recent Jive album, "Double Up," the latest single from which is a remix of "Same Girl" featuring Usher and T-Pain.

I finished Harry Potter about half an hour ago. Tears were streaming down my face as I read the last few pages and then afterwards as I sat there thinking about the fact that I just finished the last Harry Potter book ever. EVER!

i was just browsing nickel creek's website to check the tour dates, completely forgetting that they will be here for thursday at the square this week!!!!! i don't really enjoy the square but i will definitely be there. you should check them out, they are a great bluegrass/countryish band. YAY!

Well (e:Anne) and I are back from our Europe trip, as she mentioned in her most recent post. Naturally one of the first things I did when I got back was organize all of my photos, plus her photos, which ended up being a grand total of 584. Amongst that ginormous collection of photos are some I took specifically to put them up on estrip, so I present them to you now. Here is an album of everything we ate in Milan and Madrid, (e:Paul) style.

(e:Anne) enjoying some yogurt at Toronto's Pearson Airport, getting ready to fly to London-Gatwick.

A white-chocolate macademia nut cookie from Starbucks. It was so good.

(e:Anne) enjoying her first European Fanta since 2005. She swears it's better than here.

A baguette from some place in Gatwick's food court.


Now we are at our first dinner in Milan, and this was our four cheese (quatro formaggi?!) appetizer. Mmmmmm...

Authentic Italian pizza...and yes we ate every bite!



Next day walking around Il Duomo, the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. We got sandwiches from a stand right near by (the worker was in love with us too, he kept telling us how beautiful we were, awww)

.

Cookies.


Next day's lunch. We stopped at a supermarket and ate in a random playground. I love brie.


OMG gellato. OMG uuggggghhhhhhh it's so good.


Our last dinner in Milan. This is a plate of some random cheese, tomato on bread, some kind of fancy ham, a word I can't remember (the stuff in the middle, (e:anne) knows it) and fancy liver on toast. Liver makes my mom gag so I ate hers. I don't love it but I'll eat it. Of course after that I figure I've had enough liver for the year.

Our main courses.


This dessert was sheer heaven. That's a pear on top, which I took off and gave to (e:Anne) - she said it was also really good.


Lunch in the Milan Malpensa Airport, waiting for our flight to Madrid.


More gellato. This was better than what we had had the day before.


Now in Madrid - we didn't get in until approx. 10:30 and sat down to dinner around 11:30. Looking back on it, this meal probably wasn't that fantastic, but I was starving and it was warm and salty. Delicious.

By the way those thing that look like mozzarella sticks are croquettes, which were full of some kind of dough and ham and cheese.


Happy 4th of July, aka (e:Anne) 's birthday!!! We started off our day with Chocolate con churros, which is basically sticks of fried dough that you dip in warm puddling-like chocolate. Mmmmmmm...

Birthday lunch - Paella Valencia, which is rice, vegetables, saffron, chicken, mussels and prawns. I really liked it except for the fact that the prawns still had EVERYTHING attached, including eyes legs and antenna. It grossed me out too much so I gave those all to (e:Anne).

Apparently Pano's has great paella. I want to try some now.


Birthday dinner, haha.


"I can't wait to eat this ice cream!"

"I can't take one more bite."

"I'm going to explode."

But we did it!!!!


Thursday -
Thrilling croissant from Starbucks.

Madrid has a Dunkin Donuts!!!!

Lunch (yes I got pizza even though I was no longer in Italy!) It had four cheeses, and one of them was blue cheese which I had to scrape off most of. Unless accompanied by chicken fingers and wing sauce. blue cheese should not be on pizza.

This was the greatest thing I've ever eaten I think. Melted brie and white aspargus on toast. MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMmm

Dinner/Dessert/Snack later. More gellatto. The vanilla tasted like lemon but the chocolate was great.


Now we are in London for a day before we fly back to Toronto. This was Friday's breakfast.



Mars bar! I love them and eat many of them when I am in Europe. I know they are just like Milky Ways but I swear they're better.

Dinner in Covent Garden.
FISH AND CHIPS AND MUSHY PEAS mmmmmmmmmmm



Saturday morning, getting ready to leave. : (
I think it's funny that I could easily find a bagel in an Underground Station in London, but (e:Mike) and (e:Jill) couldn't find any in an airport in Tennessee.



Unfortunately, my last meal of the trip. Hoooooray, airplane food!


So to sum it all up, we ate some pretty delicious food. But we walked a lot too, so none of us came back with too much extra "baggage". Notice the difference in portion size, as well?

Have a good day peeps. Go eat something yummy!!!!!!!

• edited*

ok, also in this entry, some pictures from the big (e:mk) and (e:anne) move out to richmond - two weeks late. oh well!

Bringing the U-Haul home to load up.


Mommy bought us breakfast :)

The puppies wanted some of it.


(e:Anne) and company loading up the truck.

Meanwhile, i was already at the apartment signing our lease and paying the first month's rent. i had lots of time to explore before they got there. this first picture is a drawer that was left by the previous tenants. thanks for all the extra supplies!

Back balcony - the view




My favorite part of the whole apartment...a little window between the living room and kitchen.



My room, a little bit moved in.



This is our peace lily. His name is Mahatma.




Fast forward to yesterday and my first charcoal grill lighting experience. I must say it went pretty well except that I probably didn't light enough and the chicken took like 45 minutes to cook. But what's the rush really?



This is marinade (pronounced like "speedy" sauce). It's made somewhere near Binghamton. It's like their version of Chiavetta's but way tastier.


(e:Mike) and (e:Jill) and I had our own housewarming party last night, complete with mini umbrellas.



Sometime we'll have a bigger housewarming party and we'll let y'all know!

have a goooood weekend :)

wow I was such an asshole for like 2 years.

I'm going back and reading all of my old entries and from like March 2004 - September 2005, I mentioned how I missed my friends and hanging out in like every single entry. I kept saying like "I hope we can hang out tonight! I hope I can do stuff this this weekend! I miss you guys!"

But did I actually make effort to change this? NOOOO I just kept NOT hanging out with people that LOVE ME and ENJOY MY COMPANY and instead spent all of my free time with my awful ex-boyfriend.

Why didn't everyone hate me? Well actually I think you did probably. I specifically remember both (e:Mike) and Diana writing entries a couple summers ago that might not have been aimed at me exclusively but I know I was definitely the target partially.

I'm sorry. Seriously, I feel like the biggest jerk when I read those. I feel like I never came home, never went out, never spent any of my summer weekends with my friends. I know that people get caught up in relationships but I feel like I was really stupid. And I'm sorry. I will nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrr let that happen again.



I promise that even if my adventure tomorrow yields something that is long-lasting, I will not be an asshole! You have my word!!!