Halen tickets & party

Today was my uncle's birthday. I got him some movies, a gift certificate to Music For A Song, and 2 tickets to see Van Halen - 1 for him, 1 for me. The tickets went on sale Saturday at 10am and sold out by the end of the day so I'm glad I got them when I did. They are an ok band, but he loves them, so he was very happy about that. The concert is October 10th at the Quicken Loans arena (formerly Gund Arena) in Cleveland. We used to go to concerts like crazy when I was younger, so this should be a fun time. I'll have to request Thursday off though - there's no way I'm going even pretend I'll be able to go to work the next day.



Saturday, John and I were originally going to the next Barn Bash of the summer. But his one relative came in town from Seattle, and they decided to have a party for him. Sure we missed the barn bash and Victor Lee's general tso's, but we had so much fun. Wes, his one cousin, DJ'd and he was really good at it. People were all dancing around - it was awesome. Everything from The Twist to the Cha Cha Slide. We had Saki there too - Jen's a fan of Saki :)

Weekend

This past weekend was spent a bit of a drive away, but still cool. John was in a wedding of a good friend from college. It was in Cooperstown, NY so we took the day off on Friday to get up bright and early to be there for the rehearsal at 4p. The wedding was on a Saturday as most are, and it was a fun time. Although it was sort of strange, we were so busy we didn't have time to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Neither one of us are huge baseball fans - but it seemed like the natural thing to do given being in Cooperstown :-p Oh well..

I am now the proud carrier of Verizon. I ended up with a LG Chocolate phone, which I'm finding out a lot of people do not care for. Maybe I'm just used to Cell One's crappy phones, but I do really like this one! And from my company's discount + mail in rebate, it was free, so I can't complain too much :)

I found out a little more on the fishing tournament for Sunday. I'm not so crazy about it. For one, it's $150 to sign up, plus it's on my uncle's birthday. I read through the rules too, and some of them seem kind of lame. It would still be fun, but at the same time I'm thinking I could fish for free anywhere I like - especially in a pond on my farm, which I found out not too long ago has some fairly nice fish in it!

Meteors and other things

I was out tonight, in the middle of my yard, on a sleeping bag, enjoying the Perseid shower.. well, until I saw something in the trees. At first it looked like the moon: bright and orangish yellow, as I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Until it dawns upon me - um: new moon for the Perseids. This gets me really interested so I get up and run down my yard until I have full sight of it - and it's moving. It's orangish yellow color, brighter than you would believe, and it's moving. Not in a straight line either, not flashing, and definitely in our atmosphere. I'm a little freaked out - still. I watched it pass over and I stayed out there a bit longer, but couldn't stop thinking about that thing. Just the other day I heard Hot 101 talking about Alien abductions and the whole Area 51 thing and I just wanted to come inside. I am probably just over-exaggerating, but it really did freak me out. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. At all.

In happier news, I was reading the Tri-County paper for this week and there's a fishing tournament in Lake Arthur soon! It's bass only (which is a good thing) and John said we just need to get a boat registered in the lake and we're good to go! (He fishes there, but uses this 1 person 'belly boat' thing or something). It's August 26th, and it's for the Kyle McFeely Scholarship, who was a guy attending SRU in his senior year when he was killed in a tragic car accident. It'll be for a good cause and an excuse to fish :)

Cell phone

I can't decide on which cell phone to get. I am stuck in the "uncool" crowd as I end my (last ever) 2-year contract with Cellular One this month. (I really despise that provider). Anyhow, I'm fairly sure I will be switching to Verizon (since that's what John and the rest of the world has), but I don't know which phone I want. And I need to decide before August 20th in order to keep my phone number. Right now, I am leaning towards a Cherry Chocolate, but the enV has also taken a bit of my interest. At the same time, I don't need anything too fancy. I won't have a data package, and I will minimally use text messaging. I just want something that is small, bluetooth capable, and isn't one of those standard flip phones. Of course, one thing that I will miss is the ability remove the memory card from my phone, and put any songs or pictures I like on it. I was told Verizon puts their stupid little software on all of their phones to ensure you pay for doing those types of things :-/

Back from Canada

And I'm back *whew*! I'm almost thinking I should have taken Monday off of work or something. I have a ton of laundry to do, still some stuff to put away, and I've quasi-volunteered to do the farm's website (for the market stand) that I started on late Sunday after getting back.
Anyhow, Canada was an interesting time. We stayed in Norland at Lake Fishog that has no public land access, yet it is a public lake. So basically, unless you have a water plane or know someone who lives on it, you probably don't want to try to include it in your future Canada travels.
So it was 8 days - of fishing, drinking beer, and "roughing it". No electricity, no running water, just camping out and getting away from everything for a while. Certainly something I didn't know what to expect going into, but had a lot of fun doing!
Anyway, bugs love me, so I was putting on lots of bug spray. The bugs didn't really "bug" (lame pun intended) John the way they did me, so he was very fortunate in that aspect.
The fishing was really good. My largest fish were a 19" large mouth and a 17" small mouth. That was a lot of fun, and something I did everyday. The weather was great. It was warm and sunny with virtually no humidity everyday. It rained once for about 5 minutes - barely enough to mention. It made boating really nice in addition to the bit I decided to sun myself. I took my DS with me, but actually didn't get a whole lot of play out of it since I found myself being much more occupied than I had anticipated (mostly with fishing). I even brought a book I was really excited to read, but barely got through the first chapter.
Oh, and I took bunches of really cool pictures! I'm thinking about just buying a domain & space to put them on. Not sure what I'll do just yet but here's one to get you started - my small mouth :)

Canada!

I'm not sure where the time flew to, but it really has been since the 6th I last posted? Wow.

Anywho, the "Barn Bash" was awesome. Yes, so awesome, we are going to have another - August 25th I believe is the projected date. The band was great as always, and I enjoyed making cotton candy for everyone and answering the question of the night "So, why do you have a cotton candy machine?"

Last weekend John and I headed to Cabellas for our first time ever. That is a really cool place! Our venture there was to get some things for the upcoming trip to Canada for 8 days - fishing, camping, and well, basically being a PA hick. In the middle of no where, mind you. I ended up with 4 new lures. The one was a cute rainbow color, so of course I had to get it! :) A few of his other family members are going too - it's their family tradition. We leave this Friday to drive just north of Ontario. I started packing this past weekend and have done a bit more each day. I'm both excited and a bit overwhelmed because this will be truly roughing it. Bathing in the river, baby!

Today I stumbled upon a website - GetAFreelancer.com. It looks like the coolest thing ever. I just wish I knew more geeks so I could possibly tackle some of the larger projects too, like the 5G ones. The time constraint would just be too much for 1 person. I wanted to bid on a few small projects that I've seen, but until I get back from Canada, I think I'll hold off on that.

Fair & Fireworks

The 4th of July was spent at the Big Butler Fair with the boy. We rode rides, played games, and saw the fireworks at the end, which were a little disappointing for being the "Big" Butler Fair. I played a ping pong game and two fish followed me home. A silver one and a gold one. They're still nameless. John doesn't give them two weeks. (Unfortunately, he's probably right).

I finished with the Mario shirts, as you can see below :)



They were fun. I think I want to make some more characters now. John wants a Duck Hunt one, and I think I may make a Zelda one for me.

Now I'm getting excited for the Barn Bash on Saturday, I think it will be tons of fun! I just need to remember to stop and get sugar for the cotton candy machine.