There's always room for dessert

Cover mania!

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:49:43 -0700

I wrote my first cover story(!). It went on sale this past Tuesday, so you should be able to pick one up at your local bookstore chain or record store. There are four different covers on sale right now (it's our annual "100 Bands" issue). They all obviously have the same content, but this is what the one that "matches" my story looks like (pun intended):

Matches cover

If you check it out, lemme know what you think!

In other news, it snowed 18 inches on my birthday. W00t! Needless to say, I am ready for spring. For many reasons, but one being Chris and I signed up for a Euchre league. How effin' cool is that?

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Stuffs

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:38:08 -0800

OK, it's been way too long since I've blogged. I'm gonna try to do a mini catch-up, in hopes that it will inspire some more consistent entries. I keep having things I want to blog about, but when I find some time, it's usually pretty outdated...

Anyway... A couple things...

So far in 2008, I've taken two "trips." W00t! First, Chris and I went to the P-burgh for a long weekend. It was super cold, but it was nice to get out of the Cleve-heave, and the P-burgh is only a two-hour drive away. We went to the Warhol Museum and also the "bodies" exhibit at the Science Museum. I was super excited about the Warhol, but ended up a little disappointed. Two of the main floors were closed (which the dweebs working the counter failed to mention), so we didn't get to see the soup cans or the Marilyns or a bunch of the other really famous ones. I mean, the Elvis' and the Brillo boxes were cool, but you really go to see the soup cans. Am I wrong?

The "bodies" exhibit (which, I think it turned out is the second form of this exhibit, and not the big one that was circulating awhile back, but supposedly cool none the less) turned out to be way more than I could handle. I am not normally a queasy person, but I the intellectual aspect of the exhibit was completely dwarfed by the emotional aspect. I kept having alternately hot and cold sweats, and had to sit down on every available bench. I ended up exiting early to let Chris finish the tour on his own. I was pretty disappointed in myself, but I guess it's a good thing I didn't go to vet school after all...

View of P-Burgh from the top of the incline

This past weekend, I made a SUPER impromptu trip to Chicago. (If any of my Chi-town friends are reading, please don't be offended. I'm going to come back longer once the weather is warmer.) Anyway, I had not seen my best friend from undergrad since July, and then it was just during the day at Warped Tour while I was on the tour. A much-needed "girl" weekend was had. I traveled on the MegaBus, which I highly recommend to anyone traveling in the Midwest. SUPER cheap, SUPER clean, nice crowd... And I was on a double-decker both times, so I felt very U.K.

Quick bits:
-- Apparently after five years of braces (ages 9 to 13) and nine months of headgear (nerd alert!), I still have a major bite problem (according to my new dentist). Looking into Invisalign... Anyone with experience have advice one way or the other?

--Looks like I'll be heading out for two weeks of the AP Tour this spring. More details to come, but hopefully will be headed to a city near you! :) I think I'll enjoy riding on a tour bus much more when it's not 95 degrees outside and I don't have to set up tent and haul boxes of magazines at 7 a.m. Just a hunch, though.

--Currently pretty obsessed with the presidential election coverage, though I'm being a detriment to society as I missed the registration deadline for the Ohio primary by ONE day. *doh!* I'm going to try to get tickets to the Obama/Clinton debate in Cleveland, though.

--I'm already getting pretty excited about baseball. However, Jacob's Field is being renamed Progressive Field for the 2008 season. Suck Suck Suck. Good thing Grady's coming back so there's still something attractive at the ball field...

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"Oh, so that's where you work..."

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:22:03 -0800

Noted NYC-based blog/gossip/snark-fest Idolator has critiqued our year-in-review issue, starring Paramore. I even get named!

Not sure whether I should be proud or... what.

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Big 12 North Champs

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:05:18 -0800

It what ESPN has dubbed the most "bizarre and unusual" season of college football, it's only "normal" that the (No. 4!) Mizzou Tigers and the (No. 2!!!!!) Kansas Jayhawks would face off for the Big 12 North title.

Though KU hung 76 on the Huskers earlier this season, I have a deep hatred for Mizzou stemming from the 2003 season when I witnessed in Columbia the Tigers beat the Huskers for the first time in 25 years, thus, I was cheering for Nebraska's neighbors to the south.

So while KU is the team coached by Jabba The Hutt (see photographic evidence below), Mizzou are actually this year's B12N Evil Empire.

A word of encouragement for the Jayhawks: In 2001, Nebraska lost its last regular season game (having been previously undefeated) to Colorado, sending the Buffs to Arrowhead to face Oklahoma for the Big 12 Title. Colorado went on to upset the Sooners, but in the divine intervention that is the BCS, everything that needed to happen in other conferences did, leapfrogging the Big Red over CU for a bid in the title game against Miami.

(Which they then lost, sending Nebraska's program into a tailspin which saw two coach casualties--Callahan was fired at 7:30 a.m. CST today. Hopefully that is all about to change now that Dr. Tom is back to right the ship. That way when friggin Musburger and Herbstreit and all the other pinheads I can't stand talk about the "return of the Big 12 North," they won't sound like jackasses since they're overlooking the demise of the B12N's greatest program of all time.

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I totally schooled Katie Holmes

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:46:16 -0800

Katie Holmes (aka Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek; aka wife of crazy, couch-jumping Scientologist Tom Cruise) competed in the New York City marathon yesterday.

Run, Joey, run

Now, I'm not bragging or anything (OK, yes I am), but apparently her crazy-rich hubby and uber-weird ~~cult~~ religion are only enough to give her a flat stomach after she (allegedly) gave birth to a child, but not a super-fast marathon time.

Not that her time was bad or anything--especially for her first(?) marathon. However, her time of 5 hours, 29 minutes and 58 seconds is 40 minutes slower than mine. No big deal. It makes me feel a little bit better that celebs (and more importantly, the girl who got to make out with both Dawson and Pacey) don't get to be the best at everything. Ha.

And while I do admire her homage to the FDNY, girl needs to get herself a sports bra. 26.2 miles with only that much support? Ouch. I think that's why all the pictures show her with her lips pursed like that. Hottt.

(Also, I ran my entire race with no music. Just sayin'.)

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Happy Halloween!

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:28:00 -0700

Boo!

No, that's not Daisy in the background.

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Red Sox win!

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:21:14 -0700

Having swept the Rockies, the Boston Red Sox are the 2007 World Series Champions. I think two in four seasons officially proves the "curse of Babe" is broken, the 2004 season wasn't a fluke, and the Cleveland Indians--the only team to win any games against Boston in the post season--are officially the second best team in baseball.

What does this all mean? Nothing, other than I have to wait until April (or March 31, as the case may be), to see Grady in his baseball pants again.

Of course, perhaps the off season will give me some chances to spot him in "street" clothes, similar to what he wore to Travis Hafner's wedding last year:

Grady (center) = yum!

I'd be OK with that...

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Mmm, Mmm. Good Weekend.

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:43:42 -0700

Happy Halloweekend! (Man, I totally bought into the marketing campaign on that term, huh?)

So, fall is without a doubt my favorite season, and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. The leaves, the air... The candy. The potential for a slutty costume. You know, the usual. Though I'm not (technically) dressing up this year, I've still been incorporating Halloween-related activities into my schedule, particularly this weekend.

Friday night I saw the Weakerthans at the Grog. This isn't really Halloween-centric in any way, but it was an awesome show. I highly recommend them to anyone--they're super fun and good and Canadian. Oh yeah, the frontman used to be in this little band called Propagandhi. No big deal.

Saturday morning, I was able to convince Chris to drag himself out of bed super early (i.e. 7 a.m.) and join me at the Lakewood Great Pumpkin 5K--running in costume optional. We decided we didn't want to be the only ones without getup, so I ended up running with a big pair of black wings made out of fabric with a spider web pattern, and Chris ran with demon horns and a spear. Turns out, the most popular costume was that of a 5K runner. Oh, well. I think we had more fun...

Later that day we went down to the West Side Market and picked out pumpkins to carve. I'd found those awesome patterns where you carve a big picture on the front and a small one on the back, and the back ends up casting the shadow of the shape on the wall behind the pumpkin. My dad had found them one year when I was in high school, and I had never seen them again, so I was fairly excited.

While carving pumpkins, I watched the Nebraska v. Texas game which fortunately was on ABC in Ohio. Though not directly Halloween-y, I'm pretty sure the Huskers gave the Longhorns quite the scare--at one point we were leading 17-3. In the end, Texas pulled it off, but the final score was only 28-25. Considering the way we've been playing this season, I'm basically putting this one in the "W" column. At least I wasn't feeling completely defeated for the fourth Saturday in a row...

After the football game, I went to see Ryan Adams play at the Lakewood Auditorium with my friend Brigit. The Lakewood Auditorium is literally the auditorium in the high school, so the setting was interesting, but the music was great. Crowd was weird--but definitely not as bas the at the meat-head frat jocks who kept pushing my mom and I around when we saw him at the Avalon in Boston... And though most people were at costume parties last night, I'm counting this as a Halloween-related activity as there's a song on his new album called "Halloweenhead."

Today I roasted pumpkin seeds (some with sea salt and some with my dad's homemade "magic BBQ dust"). I also made another "adult" purchase. No, not that kind of adult purchase. I finally got an upright vacuum. My handheld Dust Buster thing just wasn't getting the cat hair out of my rugs anymore. Gross, right? Anyway, say hello to my new Shark:

Theshark

She's a beaut, eh?

Yeah, this is my exciting life, but actually, this was a really great weekend. The first in awhile were I haven't had work-work to get done, which was really nice, especially considering we're starting production tomorrow. And though Halloweekend is over, there's still two days before Halloween. Pretty sure that gives me time to carve at least one more pumpkin and hit up a haunted house. And I get to display my pumpkins/help distribute candy to the trick-or-treaters at John and Brigit's, which I'm really excited about. I think it's been six years since I've lived in a house that got trick-or-treaters, so that will be fun.

There's only one thing that could make my Halloween better: Sugar Daddy's (the mini ones). They're my favorite Halloween candy of all time, and NO ONE seems to be carrying them this year. The last couple years I've only been able to find them at Target, and even they let me down this year... If anyone's seen these things, puh-lease let me know!

Sugardaddysmall

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Tribe vs. BoSox

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:44:32 -0700

Well, the ALCS starts tomorrow at Fenway, and all week I've been fielding this question: "For whom are you going to root?"

It would be feasible that I would root for either team, having lived in Boston (including during the infamous 2004 ALCS come back of the century and anticlimactic World Series victory). I am a big fan of captain Jason Varitek, owning a shirt with his name and number. And when I first moved to Boston, I empathized immediately with Red Sox fans, having had the Cubs be my default baseball team for as long as I was old enough to understand following sports teams (which is pretty long, considering I'm a Husker and they teach 'em young in Nebraska). Plus, the history and legend alone is enough for anyone who enjoys the sport of baseball to cheer for the Red Sox.

Now, having moved to Cleveland mid-summer 2006, I've experience about a season and a half of Tribe baseball. The Jake is a great field, and Cleveland supports its sports teams with unbelievable tenacity considering the general success(or lack thereof) of most recent teams. You get the feeling that everyone's sort of holding their collective breath, waiting for it to be like the "good ol days" (aka 1990s) when the Indians were a challenging foe on the diamond. However, like the Cleveland Cavs appearance in last season's NBA Championship, a sports renaissance may be dawning in Cleveland, and that's an exciting thing to be a part of.

But my real reason for choosing a team to root for is a lot simpler than that. This guy was on my fantasy team in 2005, well before I moved to Cleveland (or knew too many players who weren't Cubs or Red Sox). This fact alone I believe disqualifies me from any "band-wagoning" accusations. You need look no further than center field... (

Grady Sizemore. *le sigh*

GO TRIBE!

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Nothing says true love...

nobody@vox.com(greensneakers) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 18:58:37 -0700

Like hand-washing and waxing your brand new car. ;)

Last weekend I brought home the new Toyota. Woot woot! So far it's going really well. I am particularly fond of the sun roof. We'll see if my good luck continues when I head to the DMV (I refuse to use Ohio's term: BMV) to try to convert my Nebraska Purchase Contract into an Ohio Car Title. At least I'm paying the sales tax in Ohio... that should hopefully save a little trouble? We'll see.

In non-car related news, ran in the Akron Marathon this weekend as part of a 5-person relay team. I only ran a 10K, so no biggie. But it was a lot of fun being at an event again, though I felt a little nostalgia about having a pink relay team number instead of a yellow full-marathon number. I'm considering running the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati in May, which would mean training during the winter again, which turns out I enjoy a lot more than training in the summer. So, we'll see.

And I couldn't mention this weekend without saying ho-l-y crap, college football. Five top 10 teams lose (two to Big 12 North teams, mwahaha), plus a handful of other Top 25 losses means there's been quite a shake up at the polls. This is what I love about college football: the heart of the underdog and the possibility for anything. Now if only Nebraska could bring back the Blackshirts... Guess anything could happen.

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