I'm more apt to have various rums on hand, yet I've recently taken to making a refreshing glass of vodka with pomegranate juice, lime and club soda over ice. I normally don't care what kind of vodka, as it usually blends in with whatever its being mixed with, but with this concoction, I can really tell the difference between a smooth vodka and one that is bottom of shelf pushed way back, covered in dust variety.

So my question is, what, in your opinion is the better/best vodka brand?

..and not crazy expensive.

Thanks :)

The weekend is officially here! What are you going to do? Looking no further, here are a few activities I've highlighted that are going on this weekend:


Festivals this weekend:
* Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts
* Historic Lewiston Jazz Festival
* Buffalo Beer Fest
(yes, a festival devoted to BEER!)
* Polish Harvest Festival
* Tomato Festival
* Buffalo Irish Festival

Nice thing about festivals is that they can be squeaked in among all the other going ons in your weekend plans.


Elmwood Avenue Festiival of the Arts 25th and 26th

• 180 Artist booths:
  
• Lots of music: (entertainment roster)
  
• Food--ofcourse!! (list of participants):

• Cultural and Environmental Row:

[box]Westerrn New York is rich in arts and cultural organizations that only
enhance our community experience. Cultural/Environmental Row at the
Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts will be showcasing over 35
community organizations. At Environmental Row on Auburn Ave., learn how to decrease energy consumption while lowering your utility bills! Local Theaters, Art Galleries, small community choruses, children's arts and sports organizations will be on hand to share information at Cultural Row on Breckenridge Street. The Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts Environmental Row will be partially powered by The Sunweaver
Renewable Energy Show for the fourth year! Wind Action Group, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, and Buffalo Blue Bicycle(Buffalo's latest alternative to the combustion engine) will all be on Environmental Row[/box]






Historic Lewiston Jazz Festival is this weekend, 24,25,&26th

Its FREE!!

• 30 musicians

---Music schedule/locations:

• Antique Show
  
• Vintage Car Show
  
• Kid Stuff

probably food/wine and other nice add ons :)

[box]Jazz Musicians will perform throughout the village of Lewiston, NY in numerous restaurants and lounges -- as well as at a variety of outdoor sites along Center Street -- on Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday. All jazz performances are free to the public.

In addition enjoying jazz played by world-class musicians, attendees at the free event can browse for treasures at a premier antique show, view Jaguars and other classic cars at a vintage car show, and sample a wide array of culinary delights provided by local restaurants and regional wine producers. The Festival is presented by the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the event's founding sponsor, The Lower Niagara River Region Chamber of Commerce, the Village of Lewiston, and the Town of Lewiston.[/box]





Buffalo Brewfest - August 25 2007, 2-6pm - "Come spend the afternoon tasting beer from local breweries, food, entertainment and more". ((ok!))
495 Paderewski Drive, Buffalo 14212


^^director's pick, hehe




Polish Harvest Festival -Sat. Aug 25 to Sun. Aug 26
11:30A.M. - 8:00P.M.
"Festival that celebrates Polish "Thanksgiving." Features Polish foods & beer, live music, farmers' market,crafts, theme baskets, Polish folk Mass (8/26 at 11:00A.M.)"
199 Clark St., Buffalo 14212



5th Annual Tomato Fest Fri. Aug 24 to Sun. Aug 26
8-24-07 12P-9P, 8-25-07 & 8-26-07 10A-8P
"Festival includes delicious daily food, beer garden, farmer's market, Chinese auction, rides, games, crafts, live bands. Tomato Contests: Biggest,Best Dressed,Eating,& Sauce. Fri. - Ms Tomato Pageant.
Sat. - Car & Motorcycle Show. Sat/Sun - Disc Golf Tourney.
Sun. - 5-K race/walk"
Old Lake Shore Rd. & Evangola Parkway, Brant 14081




Buffalo Irish Festival Fri. Aug 24 to Sun. Aug 26
Fri-5p-11p, Sat-noon-11p, Sun-noon-9p
"The 25th Annual Buffalo Irish Festival featuring foods from Ireland & US, including Irish bangers,corned beef & cabbage, potato chowder, scones, soda bread,Irish stew, & a variety of beers. Goods & Craft vendors, Irish Step-Dancing, & live music."
5600 McKinley Pkwy, Hamburg 14075



more activities info for WNY area:


Not sure yet what I am up for; any one or all of them sound good. Beerfest is at the top of my list, I think.. I could just open my fridge for a nice selection.

Anyway, have fun whatever you choose! :)

~Carey

I'm looking to pick up a back up storage device. bad things can happen when you don't-- and it needs to be done regularly! I have a load of crap on various disks and such, but it becomes bulky and redundant; and not really safe in the long run. I want to be able to schedule back up, adding incrementally as I go. So yeh, thats on my wish list.

Also am sniffing around purchasing a new desk top. My needs are not being met with a laptop, although, I can't live without one of those either. Just need different stuff for different needs. My current desk top serves as the hub for mobility with my laptops. It is approximately 9 years old- a gateway dinosaur that has been really good to me and I have no intentions of ditching it-- but I do need something updated, that can multi task and have enormous amount of storage, etc. My intention for old desk top is to do something fun with it-- make it a server; make it connect every other computer together-- keep it part of the 'family'. My hands have been inside its tower too many times to abandon it completely. I have ideas, just not sure which i will follow through on.

I also need a new monitor for that desk top. The current one is crackling-- probably a lot of dust deep inside. Dust is a culprit of many malfunction. Keep all of it clean, clean it inside and out.. and your comp will be happy. Your comp might not be dead.. just dirty.

As for a new desk top, I entertain thoughts of building from scratch- something I always said I would do when I was ready for a new desktop. Or do I purchase from factory? The prices are pretty decent now- -although, the more I look, the more discerning and greedy I get, upping the price well over what it rightly should be for a desk top. Now that CompUSA is closed, where do i go to buy my parts?? I like to be somewhere that i can stand in front of the physical parts and drool while I contemplate all that goes into the end product. I began searching for pther places to go, with out much luck. Any ideas??

Computer stores where are you????

if I buy factory-- Gateway (eMachines ?)has always served me very very very well. Not sure what has changed over time, but I'd consider going to them to see what they have to offer.
Dell , HP , Acer (I don't know anything about this brand) and emachine seems to be the immediate PC companies.

I'm still skeptical of Windows Vista

24 inch screen monitors are neat.

And so, thats where I am at. Ooh, the replacement ac adapter power cord I recently ordered for my Toshiba Tecra came in-- laptop is working, so far so good. yay! no jack soldering for me!

and damn, if I don't need to learn more about my Cingular 8125 PocketPC Ive been real lazy on getting a few things going on that. Atleast I am now remembering that if I don't have an actual notepad and pen to write with, I have my PocketPC notepad and sytlus-- although my writing kinda sucks with it..

one of my book shipments came in, The Elegant Universe by Brian Green. I know I have read parts of it before, but don't have it in my posession. Now I do!

Have I mentioned how freakin great, Discipline by Paco Ahlgren is? I really need to do a more formal write up, since I will just otherwise keep yammering about it, without saying anything about it.

Hurray, almost Friday!

Discipline Amok

I'm back in book-eating mode; I was kinda concerned there for awhile, not being able to sit down and focus on the pages before me. Sure Ive been busy with little down time, but normally I would slip into a book whenever I had the chance. So thats all behind me. In the last two weeks, I have done some catching up. A previous mention of Jen Lancaster's, "Bright Lights, Big Ass: A self Indulgent Surly Ex Sorority Girls Guide to Why It Often Sucks in the City or Who Are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me?" was just what I needed to start off getting through the pile of books waiting to be read. Followed by "What the Bleep Do We Know", then Paco Ahlgren's, " DISCIPLINE " (fucking fantastic!!- write up later), and now just finishing up, Jim Al-Khaili's"Quantum, a Guide for the Perplexed". A run to Barnes and Noble last night provided me with another physics book ("Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down") and Kate Chopins anthology, "The Awakening" (19th century writer), not that I intend to read her anytime soon.

My laptop needs an ac adapter. I finally ordered one, as the continual fraying of the cord (even with electrical tape) was hindering the ability to use the computer. I ordered it off of Amazon. I rarely ever shop online, even though it is the ideal environment if I have to shop. Anyway, with it being Amazon, and me being the big (albeit cute) nerd that I am, I eagerly accessed the book portion of the site. Oh how easy it to click! click! click! to the shopping cart. Amazon stock should rise in direct proportion to my purchases this week. :-O It was difficult to slow myself down and stay within a reasonable limit. Book binging is an area that I am not disciplined in. So yeh, I'll be just finishing off my current pile when the books come in sometime next week.

Besides needing an AC adapter.. I wonder if I will need a jack as well? I am all gung ho for opening up the laptop, ripping out the old jack and soldering in a new one.. but.. BUT.. not sure if I trust myself to get it done correctly- as in, not frying the motherboard or melting something integral to the function of the unit. Well, I feel that I could do it, and it would be fun to try, but since there is little (or no) room for error, I don't feel inclined to risk it. Atleast not on *my* laptop, haha.SO I must refrain from this DYI. I'll know more what needs to be done once I get the AC adapter in my possession.

Temps are rising again-- hope to get more swimming in before the season is officially over. Ive been doing a lot of landscaping/house fixing/ laborious activities. Swimming is a nice balance- I think it wears me out above the other activities and I enjoy it most. Friday should prove to be a good day to go! The fall is my favorite time of year, but summer can hang on for a while longer.

I still have pics to post-- but not until I get my laptop up and running again. Although Im back to reading mode-- havent felt much up for writing lately. My passions ebb and flows..

I'm sure most of you have noticed that Halloween stuff is emerging everywhere as of late. Its the best "holiday" ever- but as with everything, let it arrive when its meant to, not pushed at us months before. I was just getting over, "back to school supplies" in the beginning of July, then the onslaught of Halloween goods.. but today, I saw aisles of.. CHRISTMAS decorations and wrapping paper! WHHHHHYYYY???!!!!!!!

My bank is in Lockport, I needed to run out there today for that and other errands, so I also stopped at Starbucks to waste some time. It was rather crowded and after chatting with the Baristas for a bit, I still had 20 mins to kill. A Dollar Tree is located immediately behind Starbucks, so I wandered over there. Thats when I was hit with Halloween goods (again, shock is now over), but when I rounded the end of those asiles, I was propelled into the aforementioned Christmas garb. eh..

Nothing humored me in that store (other than a Mabelline lip gloss), so I made my way back out and instead took the long way to the other side of town (trip down memory lane, more or less) for my "appointment".-- ok, so I ordered a pizza from Pizza Oven, something I haven't had in probably a decade. Their pizza has a unique sweetness and texture to it. Its just as I remembered. And I ordered it as I always had done before-- green sweet peppers and onions. Yum!

Since I have sat down at the computer, within 10 minutes, through email, I heard from 3 people from my long ago past. Its weird, funny and disturbing all at the same time. I mean, it shouldn't surprise me with this little thing called the internet and all, especially when I am easily found on Myspace-- which is why I have it to begin with, I know all but two people in real life-- but it always surprises me who comes out of the woodwork and finds me. Some people its been several years; but its nice to know (for the most part) who's been curious and stuff. oh, THEN my phone rang. There is a reason I don't answer unless I know the number on the caller ID. Anyway, as I usually have been documenting here over time, "stalkerdude" called again. Its been several months since the last call. but now THREE YEARS since last encounter. gah! No message as usual, which is good- but this time his name came up on caller ID. For those that call me at home, know that my messages are usually something not in my voice-- don't want to encourage this guy to call and actually hear me. And since it had been quite awhile, I was just thinking of changing it to me saying the message. So thats that..


Also have so many thoughts flowing through my head that I really wish it could all come out without me having to write it-- my fingers can't possibly keep up, and it flows so well in my mind-- but sitting to type it out gets all scrambled. Know what I mean?? But it'll come out.. just need to get into that mode-- that writers element.. Its like its brilliant in my head, but will I be able to get it out and have the same feeling, presence and understanding emerge as elegantly and effortlessly?

PS Ladycroft- thanks for thinking/knowing that I would "get" that quote. It also made me think of all of our conversations over the years-- from the time of us being little girls through the dorky teen years to the girl/woman we are now and have yet to become. Those profound convos are cherished always. And damn if we weren't on to something!

pk, lets see of i can get into my element..

Iced triple orange mocha latte. check.
Laptop- not preferred one, also old and clunky but working. check.
Belly satisfied, no need for eat breaks. Check.
Nighttime, but not too late to emerge into writing world. check.
Mind agitated and ready to release thoughts.. check!

pss. I crack up over those "clearasil gives you confidence" commercials.

Night peeps!