Have You Read Any Good Books Latley?

I would like to
A) wish you all a wonderful and safe New Years Eve. Have fun, but be careful!
and
B) present you with my 2009 Books Read list...

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
Fluke (Or, I Know Why The Winged Whale Sings) by Christopher Moore
Fugitives and Refugees by Chuck Palahaniuk
Strangers in Paradise Vol 3 (graphic Novel)
The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn
Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson
Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut
Book 1 of The Malloreon: Guardians of the West by David Eddings
Book 2 of The Malloreon: King of the Murgos by David Eddings
Book 3 of The Malloreon: Demon Lord of Karanda by David Eddings
Superman for all Seasons (Graphic Novel)
Who is Wonder Woman (Graphic Novel)
Double Cross by James Patterson
Book 4 of The Malloreon: Sorceress of Darshiva by David Eddings
Book 5 of The Malloreon: Seeress of Kell by David Eddings
The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite (Graphic Novel)
The Complete Bite Club (Graphic Novel)
Strangers in Paradise vol 4 (Graphic Novel)
Fool by Christopher Moore
Watchmen (Graphic Novel)
Just After Sunset by Stephen King
Book 1 of The Elenium: The Crystal Throne by David Eddings
Echo Vol 1: Moon Lake (Graphic Novel)
Strangers in Paradise vol 5 (Graphic Novel)
Strangers in Paradise vol 6 (Graphic Novel)
Book 2 of The Elenium: TheRuby Knight by David Eddings
Book 3 of The Elenium: The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings
Boomsday! by Christopher Buckley
The Maxx vol 1 (Graphic Novel)
Amazonia by James Rollins
When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris
Wolf At The Table by Agusten Burroughs
Pygmy by Chuck Palahaniuk
The Big Book Of Barry Ween, Boy Genius by Judd Winik
The Sinestro Corps Wars, Vol 1 (Graphic Novel)
The Good, The Bad, and the Pugly: A Sheldon Collection (Graphic Novel)
Tales of The Green Lantern Corps (Graphic Novel)
Book 1 of The Tamuli: Domes of Fire by David Eddings
Book 2 of The Tamuli: The Shining Ones by David Eddings
Book 3 of The Tamuli: The Hidden City by David Eddings
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by J.K. Rowling
Under The Banner Of Heaven by John Krakauer
Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Enders Game -- Orson Scott Card
Skeleton Crew -- Stephen King
The Tommyknockers -- Stephen King
Money Shot -- Christa Faust
Phantoms -- Dean Koontz
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
The Shining -- Stephen King
Velocity -- Dean Koontz
Twilight -- Stephenie Meyer
New Moon -- Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse -- Stephenie Meyer
Shutter Island -- Dennis Lehane
Interview with the Vampire -- Anne Rice
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War-- Tony Horwitz
Breathers: A Zombie's Lament -- S.G. Browne
The Ruins -- Scott Smith
Thriller -- Edited by James Patterson
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo -- Stieg Larsson
The Devil in the White City, Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America --Erik Larson
Under the Dome -- Stephen King
I, Alex Cross -- James Patterson
Fresh Disasters -- Stuart Woods
The Elder Gods: Book 1 in The Dreamers series -- David Eddings
Midnight -- Dean Koontz
The Stupidest Angel -- Christopher Moore
"Unabridged, Unabashed & Undead": The Best Zombie Short Stories -- Eric S. Brown
Cross Country -- James Patterson
Shoot Him If He Runs -- Stuart Woods
American on Purpose -- Craig Ferguson

You know that Noon thing I talked about before?

It ended up being 500pm.

The flight out of Chicago to New Orleans was delayed because the engine stalled at the gate. And the next two airplanes that were going to take us here to NO were delayed or redirected to another airport because of snow.

All in all I spent around 12 hours in airports or on airplanes.

But United did give me a $150.00 travel certificate for my trouble, since the whole damn delay started with a mechanical failure.


Hellooooo Vegas in February getting $150.00 easier to do :)

Is it noon yet?

'Cause thats when I get off the plane in New Orleans and start my Christmas.

...and the bells were ringing out for Christmas Day...

it's not a happy holiday song...but it's one of my favorites, and I love me some Irish Punk/Drunk rock

So...

Merry Christmas from the Grinch Girl.






It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in at ten to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So Happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day


I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you

The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells are ringing out
For Christmas Day

Then And Now: Steak and Shake Edition

somewhere around (but before) 1 year old


almost 3 years old

The 2009 Death World Tour Continues...

Mere days after Local Radio lost an Icon in the death of Fred Honsburger, and the day after Brittany Murphy was found dead in her home, I log onto Yahoo to find out that Alaina Reed Hall passed away.

Name not ringing any bells?

Hall played Olivia, Gordon's sister, on Sesame street from 1976-1988.
I was born in 1978.
You can do the math there.

2009 was the year of death. I'm glad it's coming to an end.

Woke Up This Morning...

Got myself a...shovel?

The Princess and The Frog

(It was fantastic, go see it!)

All I want for Christmas is Braaaaaaaains

Eat N' Park's the Place for ...Santa?

Stuff A Bus 2009

My nieces had a blast at Big Lots picking out toys for other kids who "didnt have any Christmas"
We dropped an amount of money tonight that's gonna make me cringe in the morning, but it's all for a wonderful cause.

Mikey and Big Bob from the KISS Morning Freak Show will be out in the Miracle Mile parking lot for a few more days still,if you want to stop by ANY TIME DAY OR NIGHT to donate something.

Walmart and Target and Big Lots and Marshalls and TJ Maxx and Walgreens and Rite Aid have toys under $20.00.

Walmart is open 24 hrs.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

*Mom Face*

NaBloPoMo 2009

Make Room For Kids (#30)

Once upon a time there was an online contest where you could vote for your local Children's Hospital, where the winning hospital got a playroom from X-BOX filled with fun stuff for sick kids to take their minds off being a sick kid.
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh did not win.

Enter Ginny Montanez, a.k.a. PittGirl, from the defunct BurghBlog and the totally awesome why aren't you reading this if you are from The Burgh That's Church


Ginny has a thing about sick kids. She also has a thing about helping them. When CHoP lost out on that online voting contest Ginny decided she was going to raise the $10,000 needed to give an awesome X-Box/computer/games/playroom to CHoP, using just the awesomeness that is the people of Pittsburgh.

She contacted the Mario Lemieux Foundation, who is involved in something called The Playroom Project,that places playrooms in local hospitals. What Ginny wants to accomplish would be the first "big kid" playroom the MLF has been involved with.

Ikea of Pittsburgh also stepped up to the plate, amazingly offering $5,000 of furnishings for the playroom so that the MLF will not have to use any of the money raised on anything other than games and their accessories for the kids.


The MLF will be collecting the donations on behalf of Ginny and anyone awesome enough to donate to this cause.
You can donate HERE through PayPal and the Mario Lemieux Foundation

This is an amazing opportunity to do something good.
$1.00
$5.00
$10.00
Anything you can give will go to help a sick kid have a little bit of time where they can stop thinking about being a sick kid, stuck in the hospital.

It;s Amazing, What You Can Find At Walmart (#29)

At our local Walmart today there was a man selling raffle tickets for a local Fire Company. The winner gets an autographed Evgeni Malkin jersey. Apparently his son also works for the Penguins organization, because he had this with him to lure people into spending their $3.00 on a ticket.


It's freakin' huge.
And it's pretty, so so pretty.

also, I wish I had remembered that I had my real camera in my purse, maybe the picture wouldn't be so crappy If I had.
And I'm a hot mess in this picture lol.

Apache! (#28)

Happy Thanksgiving pt. 2 (#27)

Happy Thanksgiving (#26) Updated.

I hope all three of you who read this have a wonderful holiday with those you love.

I'm thankful for so many things in my life, my family, my friends, the love of a wonderful man. I'm not going to get all sappy and heartfelt here today. I don't often do that and I have to be in the right mood for it not to sound schmaltzy lol. I do reserve the right to come back later and edit this to include more if the mood does take me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

UPDATED :)
(told you Id be back)

I am so very thankful for my family. I don't always get along with my mother...heh...but she does more for me than I deserve. My father is too far away for my liking but I am grateful for his friendship and advice, and for that song he sings to me every time we talk, even though I am 31 years old now. My brother and wife, for being themselves, I always appreciate the time we spend together, and those momentary glimpses of the goofy sense of humor I know my brother has but mostly for giving me my Nieces, Elise and Lydia. I have been so blessed and lucky to have these wonderful little girls in my life. I have held both of them on the day they were born and have watched them grow and learn and constantly amaze me every day with just how smart and sweet they are. I love those girls more than anything else in my life.

I have the best friends in the world. Period. There have been many times this past year where they made all the difference and didn't even know it. Those I hang out with all the time, and those I have not seen in a while, to those who I have yet to meet in person, I love you all.

Blake. I am so very lucky to have met him. Out relationship is very unconventional at the moment, but I would not change a thing. There has been no other person in my life who can make me feel the way he does. When I am with him, every concern and stress I have just disappears. When I am with him it just feels right. I love you Bear. Always.

I'm so proud of her (#25)

"I Feel Like Mike Tomlin" (#24.2)

I lol'd







(h/t to Mondesi's House)

Itinerary (#24)

Pittsburgh (PIT) to Chicago (ORD) 12/26/09 Departing 7:18am Arriving 8:04 AM

Chicago (ORD) to New Orleans (MSY) Departing 9:35AM Arriving 12:00PM


Is it December 26th yet?

Baby Bennett Update (#23)

WTAE anchor Mike Clark recently spent some time with Kelly and her husband, Jason, and their little miracle Bennett.

You can CLICK HERE to see the video, or CLICK HERE to read the story.

Night at the Movies (#22)

On the advice of others I have added these movies to my download list:

Martyrs
Frontiers
Ichi the Killer
Oldboy
Dead Snow
Dolan's Cadillac
Thirst
The X Files: I Want to Believe.

Can you see the thread in my movie tastes?
If you can, do you have any suggestions?

Look at my feet! (#21)

Sometimes it's the little things (#20)

I was in a crappy mood yesterday, until I saw this when I went out onto the dock at work.

Currently Enjoying... (#19)

yeah I know it's filler, but Youtube still sucks and I cant think of anything else to write about.

Youtube is stupid (#18.1)

Because its been "processing" my two, no longer than 3 minute videos, for a few hours now.

SO part 2 will have to be whenever they decide a couple of videos of cats arent full of porn or terroristic activity.

So yeah.

Youtube sucks.

Callapitter. (#17)

Ginny (a.k.a. Jane Pitt, a.k.a. Pitt Girl) posted this link on her Twitter account.

In April of 2009 Amy Ambrusko lost her children Peter,4, and Kate,6, in a tragic car accident.

In August of 2009 Amy started a blog, a place to vent, to reminisce about her beautiful children, a place to grieve over her loss and to relive the joys and memories she has. It's not always pretty, or always happy but it's beautiful and haunting and sad and so many other words I can't pull out of my mind right now.

"Callapitter" is Amy's story. Her journey through life after losing her children. I'm grateful this strong woman is giving people a chance to follow.

Kenny wasn't like the other kids... (#16)

R.I.P. Ken Ober.

My mother always thought "Remote Control" was the dumbest thing on TV, but I loved that show and watched it faithfully.









(in other news, what ever happened to Julie Brown?)

Not Much To Say...(#15)

Pens won ( with .4 seconds left in the game! Guerin!!)

Steelers lost. (Booooooooo)

Not much else to say right now.

Pittsburgh Brew Fest 2009 (#14)

Friday night was Pittsburgh Brewfest at Steelhouse/Barroom/Saddle Ridge down in Station Square.

This was the second part to the awesome contest I won from the guys at Should I Drink That (If you are a beer snob you should be listening to this.)
I was excited for my second event, and a little nervous about getting to meet a lot of the people I talk to online...I guess you could call it my first Tweet-up, though I hope to get involved in more. I took my friend Natalie to the fest, and while she isn't a huge fan of beer she did find some stuff she liked. It wasn't as home brew centered as Brewing Up A Cure was, but I still had a really good time. Southern Tier, Great Lakes, Rogue, Straub, Atwater Block, Tommyknocker and Troegs to name a few (of my favorite things...)

Even better than sampling some awesome beer was meeting people I have up until last night only talked to on Twitter and Facebook, and through reading their blogs.
I had already met Doug Derda, one half of the SIDT beercast, but I also got to meet Brad (Sickpuppy) who is the other half of SIDT, Michael,Jenn,Bobby and Bethany. There were a few others there I recognized, and Michael was nice enough to point out who everyone was to me (srsly, I was like the new kid who comes into class halfway thru the year), but I didnt get a chance to meet them, it was seriosly crowded.
All in all I had a wonderful time, and am definately looking forward to attending next years event, as well as hopefully getting to hang out with some of these awesome people again.

What I will be doing on my breaks at work for the next few weeks (#13.2)

I should post about Brewfest, but Ill save that for tomorrow (#13)

So I'll filler this with pictures of my Nieces.

Dinner for Grammy's birthday at Johnny Carino's
Lydia got stuck in her chair.
Typical night out with my Girls.

Baby Bennett Goes Home! (#12)

If you have been reading here (all 2 of you) or on a number of other "Burgh Blogs" you know the story of WTAE anchor Kelly Frey, her husband Jason and their baby boy Bennett.

Well to add another miracle to the list, Bennett went home with Mom and Dad today.

This is the kind of news that makes you realize that there is more to the world around us that what you can physically see. Believe in God or not, something miraculous is happening with this little boy, and I wish him, and his family all the best.

Happy Birthday Sesame Street! (#11)

This post brought to you by the numbers "4" and "0".

The Jig is Up, The News is Out, They Finally Found Me. (#10)

There is no more amazing thing to see at a Steeler game, other than the action on field, than the reaction of the fans when Renegade begins to play.
Seeing that screen go black in the third, and if you are lucky like I was at last years Cowboys game, the fourth too, you just know whats coming.

NFL films presents...


And the 2009 version (h/t to bluzdude)

A Love Story in Pictures: El Campesino Edition (#9)

chips n salsa (my fave salsa)
raspberry margarita
chicken fajita quesadilla with sour cream on top
http://www.elcampesino.net/

Whats My Name (#8)

I love the way my niece Lydia says my name ^_^

Dear Sammy Sosa... (#7)

Ummm,

Is there something you want to tell us?

Cause this is you at the Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas on Wednesday...



and this was you at an event in May.




May was only 6 months ago.
6 months.
Six.

Just curious.

Erin

P.S.

Srsly? WTF?


(h/t to www.dlisted.com)

Taken from the "This isn't really a good idea" files. (#6)

Thats ONE mid sized pick up truck with TWO Loveseats, and anywhere from THREE to FOUR armchairs in the bed. Tied down very haphazardly. By a couple of college kids. Stoned college kids.


DON'T DO DRUGS KIDS!!

PLEASE GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD!!! (#5)

All. Day. Long.
Please, make it stop....

Hey, Soul Sister
Train

Your lipstick stains on the front lobe of my left side brains
I knew I wouldn't forget you
And so I went and let you blow my mind
Your sweet moving
The smell of you in every single dream I dream
I knew when we collided you're the one I have decided
Who's one of my kind

Hey soul sister, ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo
The way you move ain't fair you know
Hey soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight

Heeey heeeey heeeey

Just in time, I'm so glad you have a one track mind le me
You gave my life direction
A game show love connection, we can't deny
I'm so obsessed
My heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest
I believe in you, like a virgin, you're Madonna
And I'm always gonna wanna blow your mind

Hey soul sister, ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo
The way you move ain't fair you know
Hey soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight

Well you can cut a rug
Watching you is the only drug I need
So gangster, I'm so thug
You're the only one I'm dreaming of
You see I can be myself now finally
In fact there's nothing I cant be
I want the world to see you'll be with me

Hey soul sister, ain't that mister mister on the radio, stereo
The way you move ain't fair you know
Hey soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight
Hey soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight
Heeey heeeey heeeeey (tonight)
Heeey heeeey heeeeey (tonight)

"I'm not 4 until I blow out my candles and make a wish!" (#4)

According to my niece Elise this is how birthdays work. It didn't matter that she turned 4 years old on Friday, she was not truly 4 years old until she had blown out her candles and made a wish on Sunday.
So blow them out she did.
She had a yummy cake that she helped decorate with her mommy and she got to open presents and beat up the Nemo pinata my mom and I had bought for her room a year or two ago. The neighborhood kids who came over especially liked the candy filled pinata bashing, and the playing in the fallen leaves that came afterward.