miss updating my blog -- FB and Twitter take up all my time, but finally decided to try importing my blog. pardon my experiment if it gets annoying.

We are here! will have more updates later.

Xmas '08!

Happy New Year to all!  see pix below of our holiday in NC as well as in NYC

     

      

       
  

I don't know how to live my life without Don. We have been dear friends for 17 years and he was a constant in my life.

We met working together in a restaurant in Blowing Rock, NC.

Two of the most significant moments of my life involved Don:

1. He was the only one of my friends that had the balls to tell me my ex was, how shall I say, not my best choice. Because of that admission, I ended the relationship and found my true love, Alex. Alex, by the way, likes very few of my friends. But he loved Don. Whenever I would go on some rant about something or other, he would say, "Just call Don, please." He also saw how my face would light up every time I saw his name show up on caller id.

2. The day my father died, my mother drove 3 hours to the restaurant where we were working (we were actually packing up the place after it was sold). She sought out Don first before seeing me, to tell him of the situation. My mother, similar to Alex, has not taken a liking to most of my friends. But she knew to go to Don first to inform him of the situation to ease the tragic blow I was about to receive. I spent the night in his arms crying, laughing, screaming. But most importantly, I was comforted. I cannot imagine going through any tragic moment without Don to hold me.

So, those were the doozies, but my favorite thing about our friendship was our silly ritual of calling each other on every holiday. It wasn't Thanksgiving, Christmas or Groundhog Day without a call from Don.

He was the person I could always call no matter what, when or why. There was never judgment, but there was always support, guidance and love.

I'll end this memo as Don and I ended every call we had, "I love you and miss you."

What an historic day. I hope everyone gets out to vote. We tried this morning, twice! but the line was so long that we'd still be waiting.

Having an election party tonight.. made Obama-logo sugar cookies and tons of other food.

Also, met Jon Bon Jovi yesterday -- he's such a cutie-pie.

obama/biden08!!!!!!

~k

# of days till election:2

# of days till new prez:78

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPG5wqscMjo

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/10/29/hockey_mom/index.html

i'm a few days behind in reporting this.. but it still makes me laugh:

from www.foliomag.com/2008/tv-guide-sold-1 :

TV Guide owner Macrovision earlier this week said it agreed to sell the print edition of TV Guide to Beverly Hills, California-based investment firm OpenGate Capital. Terms were not disclosed at the time of the announcement, but according to SEC filings, OpenGate purchased the magazine for $1, less than half the cost of a single copy of the magazine.

As part of the financial terms, Macrovision will loan OpenGate up to $9.5 million at 3 percent interest. For now, Macrovision will keep TVGuide.com.

According to the most recent Publishers Information Bureau figures, ad revenue at TV Guide was mostly flat through the third quarter at $154.7 million, up 2.4 percent. Ad pages, however, were down 7 percent in comparison to the same period last year.

In its announcement, Macrovision identified the print magazine as business "not aligned with its core corporate strategy.” The company said its primary goal for the product is to consolidate “key technology assets, including the interactive program guides.”

In April, Gemstar-TV Guide stockholders approved the company’s merger with Macrovision Corporation, the Santa Clara, California-based digital software solutions firm that agreed last December to acquire Gemstar for $2.8 billion in cash and stock.

When I told people we were going to Poughkeepsie for our anniversary, everyone responded, "Why??"

The reason was that I wanted to get out of town, see fall leaves, relax, and not travel too far. And I'd never been up there.

Found a lovely Inn -- Inn at the Falls. 38 rooms with only 2 floors all facing a waterfall.

Took Friday, Oct 10 off and drove up. Only took 1 hr 15min to get there (Alex drives really fast). Chilled on Friday, had a teppanyaki dinner at O'Sho.

Saturday we have a lovely breakfast (in traditional bed&breakfast style) -- pastries, bagels, cereal, fruit, eggs, sausage. We sat on the porch overlooking the water for our morning treat.

Then we drove up to Hyde Park to see the Vanderbilt Mansion (Freddie's younger brother built the Biltmore House in NC, which is the largest house in the USA) and FDR's home. Also drove by the CIA (Culinary Institute of America). That evening we went to a fantastic dinner at Aroma Osteria.

On Sunday we drove around Vassar (where my good friends Jen & Merritt went to college) and up to Millbrook Vineyard.

Our Room:
       
view from room                                            our room (equipped w/ sweet flat-panel tv)

   
view from breakfast porch                          view of inn (reverse view of previous pic)   

   
                                          beautiful houses in downtown Poughkeepsie

Vanderbilt Mansion
   
front of house                                 side of house                              back of house

                            
gardens                         Holy Cross Episcopal Monastery - across the Hudson and view from the Vanderbilt Mansion
                                            He gave them 1/2 mill and his personal architect so not to "ruin his view"


FDR's Home

       
side of house                         front of house - taking down the flags     statue of the roosevelts


       
us on fdr's back porch                        us facing fdr's back porch       final resting place of frank & eleanor

the stable





    

watching mike easley (nc gov) praising obama and saying that nc will vote dem this year. bout freaking time!!!!!

msnbc said nc has had the most negative ad campaigns in recent years, citing jesse helm's racist anti-gant ad from 1990 -- i campaigned for harvey gant. but did have my gant stickers removed from my car at app (those asses were in the minority of the school).  point was if the candidates will use equally negative campaigns for this election.

i hope not.

speaking of that region -- barack was in asheville (western nc) while michelle was in eastern nc campaigning

come on nc -- pls vote obama!!!