Fun in the snow!

Look at that smile!

Grand Openings weekend...

We took a ride out to the Hampshire Mall yesterday, it's "Grand Opening" weekend up and down the Mall strip... Dicks... Best Buy... Famous Footwear... Pier One... all are having their Grand Opening celebrations this weekend... boy I tell ya' the area has certainly undergone some major changes in the past year or so... the new Target.. Walmart... Barnes & Noble.. Linin N' Things.. Old Navy... Panera Bread... Mannys... Trader Joes... I guess all the marketing people finally realized that college students aren't the poor people they used to be - living off of instant noodles and the occasional pizza binge... nope... now it's the parents that are living off mac and cheese because we've sent all our money off to college with the kids...

Either way - it's kind of nice to see a revitalization of the old mall/flea market... and the added competition between the stores should be a benefit to us consumers... I'm not a huge fan of row after row of giant corporate box stores but I'm not opposed to benefiting from the price wars... so I may be a little shallow, but I'll look great in my new bargain-priced bathing suit as I float around in the kiddie pool sipping on the frozen margarita I bought with my savings!

Later...

My Boating Experience aka "People were screaming"...

ok... so if you follow along your fully aware that I'm off on a cruise... those who don't know me personally may not realize the irony of it all... so lemme tell ya'... I've been on a boat approx. 3 times in my life... settle back... get yourself a good stiff drink and I'll regale you with my stories of "Me & My Boat Rides"....

Boating experience #1: Those of you familiar with West Brookfield may know Lake Wickaboag... a medium sized lake... pretty... a nice place for a Sunday boat ride... A friend had just purchased a brand new 14 foot boat so we all decided to round up the families, kids and all, and take a nice float on the lake... it was a lovely clear day.. white puffy clouds... very serene... we loaded that boat up with 9 of us... and set off across the lake... about half way across the lake the sky began to darken... about 3/4's of the way across the lake it began to rain... by the time we were on the far-side of the lake it was thundering and lightening... NOT where you wanna be during a storm... so... back across the lake to the boat ramp we go... faster.. faster.. storm is really bad now... EXACTLY in the middle of lake... where the shoreline is an equal distance away in any given direction (as in too far to swim!) - pla.. pla... PLA.... the engine dies... we're dead in the water... the lightening is flashing... the thunder booming... and we've got no power... we had blown a fuse... it took 10 minutes, and the person with the smallest possible hands to reach into that dash and replace that fuse... luckily we HAD a replacement... I've never been so happy to be back on dry land in all my life.... UNTIL....

Boating Experience #2: This one was an ocean voyage... well.. ok.. a Harbor Cruise.. down in Hyannis on the Cape... I was down there for a weekend getaway with big Sister... sitting at breakfast, right at the Hyannis harbor, Sis says "Hey, lets do something touristy... lets take the harbor cruise and see the Kennedy compound"... I reminded her of my last boating experience (she was there) and said "I don't think so"... OH.. but she replied.. it's just a Harbor cruise.. they do it all the time.. what could happen.... not wanting to be a wet blanket.. I reluctantly agreed... yeah.. ok.. what could happen... so.. woofing down the last piece of my french toast we hurried to the ticket office... *phew... we just made the next trip.... For those of you who aren't familiar with this cruise, they have 2 boats.. the Prudence.. and the Patience... they take turns doing the tour... we happily boarded the Patience and set off thru the harbor... as we were motoring across the nice calm bay we encountered the Prudence returning from her tour... "Your gonna get wet!" someone on the other ship yelled... HUH?? What?? Oh well.. maybe it's raining out there... so on we continued to sail... just before approaching the Kennedy compound it seems there's an opening in the nice breakwater line... you know it's like a big damn that keeps the harbor water calmer than the open ocean... so we hit the opening in the breakwater... first we pitched left... then we pitched right... sitting on the top level of this double decker boat we were able to reach out and touch the waves... people were screaming... and I don't mean a little "oh"... I mean blood curdelling - from deep in the lungs SCREAMING!!! Turning around to see the captain in the wheelhouse I was looking for some reassurance that it was gonna be alright, but what do I see?? Just as we hit another HUGE wave the Captain - who was standing at the wheel of the ship went flying... hit the back wall of the wheel house... fell onto the deck.. and proceeded to just about roll completely off the ship... he caught himself at the rail.. jumped up and ran back to the wheel... OH.. so re-assuring... Well... we managed to get thru it... only to have to turn around and go back thru it again to get back to the pier where they promptly cancelled the cruises for the rest of the weekend!

Still with me here? ok... on to...

Boating Experience #3... Again... down in Hyannis... with the same Big Sister... this time it was "Hey... let's take a day trip out to Nantucket.." uummm... "no thanks, last time we got on a boat, people were screaming.." OH.. come on... it's a REALLY big ship, run by a professional company... what could happen? So.. again.. not wanting to be a wet blanket... I caved... alright... so off to Nantucket it is... other than some sea sickness (note to cruisers - DON'T play cards below deck when the water is rough!) our voyage to the Island was relatively uneventful... we had a lovely day and boarded ship for the ride back to Hyannis... approx. half way back... in the middle of the ocean... no other boats in site.. no rocks.. no nothing... the captain suddenly, for no apparrent reason, decided we needed to take a HARD LEFT!!! So hard that it was all anyone could do not to be pitched from their seats... WHAT THE?? nope... no explanation... did a whale swim out in front of us? was the captain letting a 10 year old drive the ship? who knows... all I know is it is just another boat ride in my short but exciting list of boating adventures...

So... now that you know my boating experience... wanna wish me a "Bon Voyage!"

Later....

Had enough yet?..

Ok.. so I'll stop torturing you all with the tales of my up-coming Caribbean vacation... I know it's hard on you.. what with the 4 inches of snow we got on Monday... oh.. and the inch or so we got last nite... I think we've all had enough already thank you... this weather has just been insane... it teased us with a few days in a row of 50 degrees... you could even see the grass... but then it turned it's back and dumped on us again.. so, I'll just keep my glee to myself... I won't mention that it's 87 degrees in Aruba right now... or that it's 81 in St. George's... and I certainly won't mention that wwlp.com is forcasting more snow for this coming Monday and Tuesday... nope... not a word... not a whisper.. not a snide little chuckle... not a single mention that I'm getting out of here for a break and your not... nope... total silence on the subject.... not one mention of 4 wheeling beach parties... my hunt for sun screen with an spf of 300 to protect my pasty white computer complexion from that strong Caribbean sunshine... nope.. not a word... not even about the 5 star catamaran sailing... oh.. and no mention of the 3 different countries my husband is going scuba diving in... nope.. no coral reefs... no brilliant blue beach water.. no palm trees... I wouldn't be that mean.... I'll just suffer through the next few snowstorms in quiet acceptance like the rest of you... nope... not a word! suckers! :)

Later....

Love those sales!

So.. we spent the weekend looking for 'cruise-wear'... and was it perfect timing! Love those Presidents' Day sales... we headed out to the Prime Outlets in Lee... not only do they have great bargains on a normal weekend... throw in the the holiday and we scored big... we pulled out of there with the back of the truck full of bargains... my favorite being the big floppy straw beach hat with mongo flower on the band... VERY cute.. all I need now is a pair of Jackie O sunglasses and I'll be stylin' in my own portable shade on the beaches of St. Kitts... oooo la la...

Anyway... so now that our suitcases are full... oh... that's right... still gotta pick up an extra suitcase from Mom... we're pretty well set... 3 weeks and counting!!

Later...

It's my vacation!

So.. I've been missing for a couple of days here on 9 2 Bay 2 9 2 10... no worries... I'm still around... this is just a result of my pre-Vacation work load... you know... pulling together all the stuff that needs to be done before you go on vacation... you think I'm missing now, wait till my actual trip! I've just been busy getting my passport... shopping for cruise-wear... selecting my shore excursions... picking up my tickets... you know... all that bothersome stuff that needs to get done before you board ship for an 11 nite trip thru the Southern Caribbean in a luxurious Junior Suite complete with it's own balcony... I tell ya' it's been rough... Do we want to snorkel with sea turtles or swim with the dolphins in St. Kitts? The 4x4 Beach Party or the Catamaran sailing in St. Maartan? The Pirate Ship that was featured in "Pirates of the Caribbean" sailing or a day at one of the worlds finest resorts in St. Lucia? OH... the horrible choices I've had to make... only one has been really easy... the Pub Crawl in Aruba... that one was a given... of course it doesn't start till evening, so I still had to decide what we were gonna do during the day light hours... *sigh... my work is NEVER done... Vacation planning is such hard work...

Later...

Paying attention..

Just in case you weren't... paying attention that is... it would be really easy to miss this one... it's been over 50 degree's round here for the past 4 days or so... so hang onto your hat (and gloves and shovels and scrapers) we due for a foot of the white stuff tonite... just when you thought it was safe to go back outside...

Later...

Unusually serious...

So an interesting set of developments from yesterday's post... an epiphany almost... In case you missed it, most of the conversation took place on the weblog forums at Masslive.com, I posted a link to my "superbowl fluff" post to the forum and it ruffled a couple of feathers... My first response was a rather informative missive explaining the difference between a bass and a guitar, thus explaining Paulo's lack of instrumentation at the bowl... ok... My Bad and thanks for the info... then I got another reply...

"when I read stuff like Bayblogs post, all I can think is how little a lot of people know about music. As you said HC, you can dislike the guy, but to say he was lame is, well, LAME."

Well.. how rude... and I pointed it out as such... in this person's reply he pointed out that his comment was nothing 'personal' but was a comment on my post, but that my comment on his post was 'personal'... huh? He called me lame and I called him rude... sounds personal to me... Oh wait.. is the difference that he said "Bayblog's POST" and I said "you, 44444's, came off as just rude"? The difference between "Post" and "you"... huh... maybe he has a point... or does he? Are 'we' what we write or do our posts have an identity all themselves? How do you seperate the person from the person's words? Can you? Doesn't a person have to be behind that post? The post doesn't just appear out of nowhere, with it's own opinions... OH.. but what about "fiction"... It's highly unlikely that Stephen King writes from personal experience... so what about that? If you criticize King's books should King take it personally? Crap.. wait... he made up the stories out of his own imagination, so isn't a critique of his book still a critique of his imagination? *sigh... this is getting exhausting...

Are we what we write or can you seperate the person from the words? Good question...

Ok.. so then lets take this a step further... I handed some extreme criticism to Sir Paul... and you know what... I felt it was 'nothing personal'... go figure... I was rating his performance and questioning his professionalism, not him... or was I?? He's a big impersonal music figure... not a person... huh?? Wait... no.... that doesn't make sense... If we are what we write... or perform... isn't a critique of the 'art' a critique of the person?? Double Crap... I hate being guilty... So I did it too... so... we're back to square one...

Performance versus personal... add in the old "people need to take responsibility for their actions" and you've got an even bigger mess... are my posts a 'performance' or is it 'me being me'? Is the guy critiquing my post commenting on my words or on me? Am I calling that guy rude or his words to me rude? Do I think Paulo's performance was not superbowl quality or do I think Paul is not superbowl quality? OK.. now lets add into the equation "Everyone has an off day.." Does one performance or one post or one comment encompass the entire person? Certainly not... Paul could have been having an off day, I could have been experiencing an extreme mind fart, and the commenter could have just been in a bad mood... All perfectly understandable... so... YEAH... we're back to "the performance should stand alone" and can be critiqued without the criticism falling back on the person... and the crap pile just keeping getting deeper...

Well... now that we all have some major food for thought, and I'm confused as hell... What do you think? Are we what write/sing/paint/build.. whatever? Is a criticism of the 'work' a critisicm of 'us'? Or does this post really suck? OH... but then if this post sucks, then does that mean that I suck? CRAP!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I'll just get back to work...

Later....

My bad...

So it was pointed out to me that Sir Paul plays the bass, hence the lack of chordage... well... my bad... and don't we all learn somethin' new every day... so.. we have an explanation for his performance, but sorry, I still wasn't impressed... I will give you that having the entire stadium singing along with "Hey Jude" was pretty cool, but I still can't get past the fact that this was one of the weakest Superbowl performances to date, well, at least to my date...

So, for me anyway, it was a pretty sad version of the Superbowl... weak commercials, and an even weaker 1/2 time show... all and all quite the disappointment... and even though I'm sure all you football fans would have preferred a 'blowout' score for your respective team - from a non-fan point of view, at least the back and forth scoring/fumbles/penalties were interesting... imagine that... the best thing about this year's bowl was the actual FOOTBALL! Go figure!

Later...

Superbowl Fluff....

That's right... Fluff... cause frankly I'm not a football fan... I'm strictly the commercial watching, half-time show Superbowl watcher... so how bout those commercials... eh... I've seen better... amazing how the fear of a little booby can take the fun out of everything... at least Ameriquest didn't get too scared... they had a couple of very funny spots, especially the cooking guy with the knife, the cat, and the pot of tomato sauce... (and their other spot "Your gettin' robbed" was pretty funny as well!)

BUT... my biggest source of Superbowl frustration?? Half-time... Paul McCartney... how long has this guy been around? 40 years, maybe?? You'd think he could play a guitar by now... even if he was faking it way back in the day with the Beatles, you'd think he'd have picked up some chords by now... Hell.. I play a more convincing air guitar with my 6 guitar lessons under my belt than he did with that bowl appearance... if you Tivo'd it, go back and take a look, the man's right hand NEVER moves from it's original position on the neck of the guitar... Oh.. he made the body movements... he made the appropriate "playing guitar is hard" faces... he even pointed it at the sky and dropped it back down in a huge crescendo flourish.. but not once did he change chords... Oh, he plucked a couple of the strings with his left hand, but that was it... Maybe he's so old he's got arthritis and can't play anymore... Maybe he's just so full of himself that he thinks he can phone his performance in now and get away with it... Maybe he figured everyone would be so dazzled by the special effects that no one would notice he wasn't really playing... you know... when you put yourself up on a seperate little stage, on the 50 yard line, during the biggest tv event of the year, you probably should at least try to do the job you were hired to do...

Ok..I'll admit, I was disappointed with the choice of artist for this event, McCartney is past tense in my opinion, and he has been since the Beatles hit that long and winding road, his flight with Wings always seemed second class to me... but this performance... this one was the last nail in his coffin for me... and of course, the coffin is made of Norwegian Wood...

Later...

Positively Balmy...

Finally, a break in the weather... I don't know about you but those weeks of cold were really getting to me... not a single day above 11 degrees... yesterday it managed to get to 53 lovely sunshiney degrees... aahhh... what a relief... it was almost like doing a 20 mile walkathon in a pair of brand new shoes - not a good idea and what a wonderful relief when you get to kick them off at the end of the day... ok... so I haven't done a 20 mile walkaton since I was 18 years old, but I still remember what it felt like... I have an amazing memory for pain... good stuff will be wiped from my brain within days, but the memory of pain lingers in my cerebral cortex like a kid at a candy counter... so many options... so much pain... hence the reason I have but one man-child... OH.. I remember child-birth... yeah.. won't go there again...

So anyway... back on track... these past couple of weeks have been cold... painfully cold... and even with this lovely break in the weather, I'm not likely to forget this years bout of frigid temperatures anytime soon... and even if I am tempted to wipe it from my memory, I have all those outragious gas bills to remind me... it's all been enough to make me consider calling a realtor and talk to them about trading this icebox for nice little bungalow somewhere a good deal closer to the equator... OH... ok... so it may not be that easy to get this born and bred Yankee to move that far away from her ancestral home... but I have been looking for a deal on Expedia for at least a weekends break from the horrors of the cold New England winter... I'm leaning toward Vegas, baby... but then again... maybe I should just pay the gas bill and call it a wash, cause frankly, I think a hot shower is the only 'winter warm-up' I'll be able to afford once I pay that gas bill...

Later...

Friday Quickies...

So I was watching tv last nite, and this montage type commercial comes on with quick shots of 'faces in the news', and who flashes across my screen, but dirty old just-crawled-out-of-a-rat-hole Saddam Hussien... Seeing his face was almost a shock... talk about a lack of information on someone... it's been so long since we've seen anything in the news about him that the image was almost one of those "Oh yeah... I remember him" kind of feelings... Really Strange...

More freakin' snow... they said less than an inch... looks more like 3 to me...

One of my first posts to this blog - way back in July of '04.. I used the title "The Mountains are Missing"... well.. this post could have used that title as well.. only this time it's not the 7 Sister's that are missing, it's the Mountains of snow that used to populate the center of Northampton... all week the road crews have been lining up their big trucks and hauling the stuff outta town... where to? I don't know - but I'd kind of like to find out.. that's gotta be one HUGE snow sculpture!

The new office space is very comfortable - thank you! Very light and bright and the neighbors that we've met have all been very nice... Only complaint... the bathroom... 29 suites in the building and it's got a one seater ladies room... which is where I've met most of the new neighbors - waiting for my opportunity to pee... OH.. and the mini-dumpster... since day one it's been overflowing... I did some calculations.. if all 29 suites were to bring just one half bag of trash to that dumpster when it was empty - the trash would be overflowing by the time the guys from suite #16 tried to put their half bag in... *sigh.. always something isn't it?

Have a wonderful Friday everyone... Later...

Getting settled...

So the horrible move is over!! YEAH!! And for the most part everyone and everything survived.. Oh, there's a couple new dings in the filing cabinets... a brand new scrape up the side of my desk... and the office mates are both complaining of fever and chills - strangly reminiscent of my husband and me and our illnesses... but all and all - it went rather smoothly... Hopefully this office will serve our needs longer than the last one did... it should... this one has a straight-forward flat rent on a non-lease, month to month basis... unlike the old space in which every bill was a surprise adventure... our lease stated that we were responsible for our percentage of water, electricity, and repairs for the building... which was ok.. till the lawn sprinkler system sprung a leak and we got to pay 25% of a $419 water bill... OH.. and then 25% of the Sprinkler system repair bill... OH.. and then there was the salon that opened in the building... tripling the buildings electric bill - of which we were still responsible for 25%... even tho our electricity consumption hadn't changed our bill tripled along with the opening of our neighbors (and landlords) business... add to that snow plowing... gardening... air conditioner repairs... and you've got a regular bill fiesta!

So.. the move was definitely worth the pain.. the dings.. the low-grade fevers... OH.. and if you happen to be looking for office space in Easthampton... drop me a note and I'll let you know exactly what hair salon/beauty school on Route 10 we were located next to... it's gorgeous space that's available there... if you don't mind the cellar flooding out every couple of months... it definitely could be a good space for you and your business... especially if you like the smell of nail polish and you live for a good monthly surprise!

Later...