Two Pats on the Back

Really quickly... I need to give Cory a big pat on the back (or a tip of the hat, if you prefer), for winning a "major award!"

This weekend, Cory's website won the Florida Associated Press award for Best Television News website. Nice, huh? It's the second year in a row that they've won. Cory busts his butt trying to keep up with the Joneses (the station he beat has three full-time web coordinators), and it's about time he got rewarded. He even got a fancy-schmancy trophy!

Second, our little twitter experiment, the Florida Freakshow, has 250 followers and is growing every day. If you'd like to experience a little Florida Freakitude, visit us and see what you're missing by living outside the Sunshine State.

Sporty Weekend

First, let me preface this by saying I'm posting this on my phone... so if there are a few typos, cut me a little slack.

Cory and I are in the midst of a very sporty weekend. It started with Cory's beloved Mizzou putting up one helluva fight against UConn in the Elite Eight. They got hosed by the refs (or at least that's what Cory says), but it was a really good game.

Then, with acout 50 seconds left in the game (Mizzou down by about six), I look at the clock and say, "oh crap. We're going to the Hockey game!"

I might add that it was 6:50 pm. The game starts at 7:30. And we live half an hour away.

Oops.

See, a month ago, one of my Radio ad reps gave me some free tickets. Cool, right? Except when you forget you have them until half an hour to gametime.

So the game ends, we change into our Hockey-game clothes (Red Wings jersey for me, Charlestown Chiefs jersey for Cory), and haul ass to the game. The Blades win, all is right with the world. Cory even kinda forgets about the Mizzou loss.

We're on our way home now (Don't worry, Cory's driving. I had too many Molsons to drive).

Tomorrow, more fun... we have tickets to see the Cardinals play the Twins in one of the last Spring Training games of the year. We're hoping Colby Rasmus will play for the Redbirds... we'll see.

So that's our weekend. I've been tweeting about it on my twitter page, too... http://www.twitter.com/kbolesen.

Madness!

The NCAA tournament is underway, and there's something refreshing about filling out my brackets with a clear mind. Unlike years past, it's not cluttered with random information I picked up while being your friendly neighborhood sportslady.

My bracket, by the way, is doing all right. Not great, not horrible. Michigan screwed me over a little (though I'm happy they won. Go Blue!), and I missed one of the 8/9 matchups (but really, those are pretty much crapshoots).

The thing that makes me nervous is my final four. In one of my brackets, I have three #1 seeds. As my friend Matt said, "That never happens. Except when it does."

I haven't checked with Cory to see how his brackets are doing... While he's not competitive with me, I constantly feel the need to compete with him on all things sports-y (except for actual physical sports. We all know who would win those matchups).

So, root for me, root for a lot of #1 seeds in the Final Four, and root for Memphis to win the national championship. Go Tigers!

Oscar Thoughts

Thoughts on the 2009 Oscars...
1) What the hell was Jessica Biel wearing? It looked like they sewed a sack to the bodice of her dress so that she had a place to stash her drivers' license, a spare lipstick, and another pair of shoes. Really, does she need to carry a purse, too? It seems a bit superfluous.
2) Ditto the WTF to Tilda Swinton. Great actress. And I know she doesn't have the most feminine silhouette. However, that doesn't excuse her Horrible taste in clothing.
3) I'm completely sick of the Forrest Gump/Benjamin Button comparisons. What's the difference between the two movies? I had absolutely no emotional reaction to Forrest Gump. On the other hand, I could barely watch the last half hour of Benjamin Button because I was a complete wreck.
4) My sweetie just made me a white knot. He even went to Michaels' and bought the white ribbon for it.
5) I was slightly confused when they didn't honor Heath Ledger "in memoriam." Then I remembered that they did it last year. However, I'm still mystified that they didn't give a posthumous shout-out to George Carlin. I mean, his performance in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" may not have been Oscar-worthy (nor his performances in some of Kevin Smith's films), but the man left an indelible mark on the entertainment industry.
6) Now that I'm off my soapbox... Let me add that I'm absolutely thrilled that "Slumdog Millionaire" dominated the awards. It was truly a stunning film. And it made me think of one of my favorite songs-- Daler Mehndi's "Tanuk Tanuk Tun."

Enjoy!

There's actually a great story behind this video. If I get a chance, I may share it.

Fay, Fay, Go Away

We obviously survived Tropical Storm Fay. She made landfall about an hour south of us, flooding the streets of Marco Island and dumping 8 inches of rain on some areas to the south and west of us.

Here in the Cape, we only got a little sideswipe by Fay... a couple of inches of rain and a lot of wind. We were ready, though-- with many jugs of water and fresh batteries in the flashlight.

Cory started his new job officially on Monday, going in at 8:00 and staying until about 4:30. Then he had to turn around and go back at 11:00 last night to help cover the storm.

Since I'm not in TV anymore, I wasn't on lockdown. Instead, I was in my own cozy bed, with my cozy little Zoe, watching the Olympics like a normal person.

The weird part is that we never lost power. I know what you're thinking... we didn't really get the brunt of the storm, so why would we, right? Well... we typically lose power at the drop of a hat. The Cape doesn't have buried power lines. Instead, every house is hooked up to a big power line. A stiff breeze, a bolt of lightning, a steady rain shower, and we lose power. On a typical summer afternoon during the "rainy season," we lose power once or twice a day. But somehow, we managed to make it through Fay without a single blackout.

Other places around us weren't so lucky. Collier County, just to the south of us, had about 35,000 people without power.

For the record, Cory got to come home at 10:00 this morning. He was home for about 5 minutes before he fell asleep. It was kind of funny, actually... I was hanging out with him until he nodded off, and I left the room. About fifteen minutes later, I could hear him calling my name. Apparently, he hadn't realized that he fell asleep, and he thought that I just disappeared.

Like I said, he was pretty tired.

I'm obviously at home-- one of the perks of having a "normal" job is that the office was closed today. I'm so bored that I called my boss to see if she needed me to come in (all the VP's are there right now), and she said not to bother.

Oh well.

My Hero

I got back into town late Thursday night-- and still managed to get to work on time on Friday. After work, Cory and I went to grab a bite to eat during his dinner break.

On the way back, we were zipping about 55 mph down Pine Island road, a divided highway with turning lanes on either side. I saw something large in the right turn lane, swerved to avoid it... and realized it was a turtle, attempting to cross six lanes of traffic.

I yelped something like "We have to rescue it!" So we pulled into the parking lot of the neighboring strip mall, leaped out of the car, and rushed to the road. The turtle was hauling ass-- or at least, she was moving pretty quickly for a turtle. She was in the middle of four lanes of rapidly moving traffic.

The poor thing would take two or three steps, hear another car coming, and hide inside her shell. Once the cars had passed, she'd poke her head out, shuffle a few more steps, then hide again when another car was coming. And it's a busy road, so her progress wasn't particularly quick.

She was a good-sized turtle, too-- more than a foot long, so thankfully she was fairly noticeable. As traffic zipped by, we saw one car barely miss her-- her shell actually rocked a little when the car blew past. A few others braked or changed lanes when they saw her. When traffic finally cleared, we ran up and Cory grabbed her, ran across the median, across two more lanes of traffic, and set her down on the grass on the other side.

It was probably a good minute before she poked her head out of the shell, and she stared at us for a while, probably trying to decide if we were a threat or not. Cory snapped a quick picture of her, and I stood and wished I'd shot video of the rescue on my cell phone. After another 30 seconds or so of her staring at us, she started wading through the tall grass, quickly scooting away from us. Within about 10 seconds, she'd worked her way into some tall grass and we could barely see her at all.

I looked it up later and discovered that she was a Florida Red-Bellied Turtle. I told Cory that there's probably a society of turtles now who worship him as a god. I'm sure that they sing folk songs about him in turtle town.

Swamp Creature

So, we went to Corkscrew Swamp on Sunday and made the long trek to see the Ghost Orchid. I have to say, it was a little disappointing. There was only one bloom (three buds) and it's so far away, you can't see it with the naked eye. I'm sure if we'd gotten to see it when it was in full bloom, it would have been more impressive.

The best I could do was take this uber-lame picture through the spotting scope. Pathetic, I know.

Still, it was pretty cool to see something so rare, kind of like the first time I saw the Giant Pandas when they were on loan to the Toledo Zoo. Except Pandas are much bigger. And cuter. And easier to see from a distance of 100 feet.
Corkscrew Swamp is one of the most popular birding spots in Florida-- but we only saw a handful of birds there on Sunday. We saw one alligator, which made Cory happy (though we saw two, if you count the dead one on the side of the highway that was being devoured by about 20 vultures. Come to think of it, that's where we saw the most birds of the day, too.

Really, the most interesting thing we saw at Corkscrew swamp was another form of flora, these beautiful wild hibiscus that were growing there.

Oh well. Hopefully, the orchid will bloom again next year-- and maybe we'll get a better look.

Happy Honeymooning!

In the last week, I've had two friends get engaged. Not to each other, in case you're curious.

Our former co-worker Hayley got engaged to her beau, Nate, and my good friend, former speechie, and annual Oscar contest coordinator, Amy is marrying her man-friend Jeff.

The funny thing is that both happy couples were at our wedding. In fact, I'm pretty sure that they were the only two unmarried couples at our wedding. And in both cases, it was the first time we'd met the future grooms.

How cool is that? Of course, Cory and I would like to take complete responsibility for their successful relationships. By the way, our one-year anniversary is coming up in less than three weeks. No, we don't have any big plans. I can't take time off at work yet, so we'll just be our boring married selves.

Random Thoughts

Because I don't have the energy to make a bunch of seperate posts:

1) I had a four-hour interview today for a job that I really, really, really, really want. It's down to me and two other people. And I'm afraid that if I don't get this job, I'm going to really, really, really, really lose my mind.

2) So, the New York Giants won the Super Bowl. Huh. I guess I have to stop thinking that Eli Manning is a marginal talent that's always skated by because his last name was "Manning." It's going to be hard-- I've felt this way for a long time.

3) Why is it that every time I log onto my computer, it sends me to a page detailing the Microsoft Service Pack #2 and #3. It's not asking me to download anything. It's not giving me any new information. And it's definitely not set as my internet homepage. And yet, every time I log on, it automatically sends me to that confounded page again.

4) Taxes are a pain in the ass.

5) Yesterday was Fat Tuesday, and our favorite local hangout had some kind of festivities with a buffet. I didn't go, because I had to be up ultra-early for the aformentioned job interview.

6) Cory's most recent job responsibility at work is to answer the "contest phone." Every night, his station is giving away $500 to a viewer, and the contest happens right before he gets off work. He's been in a great mood every night when he gets home from work because he just ended his workday by making someone's day. Hell, $500 would make my week.

7) Has anyone else seen the show "Dirt" with Courteney Cox? I've been trying to discover new shows (mostly on cable) since the writers' strike started, and I caught an episode the other night. Not bad. Not great, but not bad. I also watched the premiere of "Welcome to the Captain" last night. As far as I'm concerned, anything with Jeffrey Tambor's seal of approval is worth watching. This review, however, begs to differ. The way I see it, a pilot isn't supposed to be a show's best episode. I'll keep watching.

8) Speaking of Jeffrey Tambor, I heard that an "Arrested Development" movie could be in the works.

9) Oh, I'm reading a lot, too. Mostly non-fiction type stuff about public relations, marketing, and how-to books about job interviews. I'm also about a third of the way through "Water for Elephants."

10) I'm finally started to get interested in the presidential race. Once again, I don't really have any strong feelings in favor of one particular candidate-- but I think it's great that for the first time in my life, a convention might actually mean something!

11) Today was National Signing Day. And for the first time in seven years, I didn't have to spend the entire day driving from high school to high school, trying to beat the traffic and make it to six or seven schools, interview dozens of high school football players, and together a feature story at the last second. I don't miss it at all.

So there it is... a little mini update. Nothing earth-shattering.... at least not yet.

Road Trip

Cory and I hit the open road on Saturday-- to go to IKEA!

The new store in Sunrise (A 'burb of Miami) is about 2 1/2 hours away from us-- but closer than the other new store in Orlando (about 3 hours away). The grand opening was in Mid-October, but the store is still so busy that you have to park 3 miles away at the Bank America Center (where the Florida Panthers play), then catch a trolley back to ths store.

Of course, it would have been nice if there had been policemen directing traffic and informing people of that arrangement. Instead, they simply blocked off all the entrances and let you figure it out yourself. It led to a few tense moments in the ol' Nissan Frontier, but all of our stress melted away once we finally got into the store. I think it was the smell of the cinnamon rolls at the snack bar. Few things on this planet smell as good as a cinnamon roll.

Anyway, we bought three CD towers (BENNO) with a gift card that my mom gave us for Christmas. We'd hoped to also buy the matching BILLY bookcase, but the store was out of stock in the color we wanted (had we known you could check stock online, we would have driven to Orlando, but that's a different story altogether).

Honestly, the best part of the trip was getting to go with Cory. I've had to drive to Miami for work several times, but in the two years we've lived here, Cory's never made the trek down Alligator Alley. So we drove across the Everglades and watched nature whiz by at 70 miles per hour. We tried to get into the spirit of it by listening to the Everglades Radio Network. And no, we didn't see any alligators. I don't know why, but they tend to hang out more on the west-bound side of the road, and it was dark when we were driving home.

We haven't put the CD towers together yet. Yeah, we could do it today, but I've got a lot of free time on my hands on weekdays, so I think I'll just save it for tomorrow. And maybe Tuesday. I'll have a lot of CD alphabetizing to do... and believe me, it's a multi-day task.

Sigh of Relief

I had such a happy thought today-- I'm done Christmas Shopping!

Usually, I start Christmas shopping months beforehand, but because I've been nervous about my job (apparently with good reason) for several months, I put it off until December. And I'm already done! Hooray!

Because of my impending unemployment, there are a lot of people I didn't buy gifts for this year. And we're not sending Christmas cards for basically the same reason. So if you don't get a card (or a gift) from me this year, don't be surprised.

So anyway, I had that happy thought... and then I realized... I doubt Cory's done much shopping for his family. And they're going to be here in a week.

Crap. I guess I'm not done shopping after all.

Wordless Wednesday

(Ok... so I'm cheating. It's not actually Wednesday. At least, not where I am. I'm post-dating this to make it a Wednesday post. And it's also not "Wordless." I couldn't find a photo I liked, so I'm posting a link to the promo that Cory produced for Wednesday night. So it's a "worded non-wednesday." Whatever.)

Soup's on!

Cory and I are both big fans of "The Soup" on E! In fact, it's a season-pass on our TiVo.... has been for as long as we've been members of the TiVo cult.

What I like best about the show is that it shows me all the insane, grotesque, bizarre highlights of televised trainwrecks like "I Love New York" and "Tyra"... without actually having to watch the trainwecks themselves. Kind of a Reader's Digest for bad TV, I guess.

But occasionally on "The Soup," we'll see something so funny that we'll actually start watching the show in hopes of seeing another gem.

At least that's what happened with "Yo Gabba Gabba!" If you haven't seen it... then you probably don't have kids. That's why we'd never heard of it. Yo Gabba Gabba is a show designed for little kids-- but we can't get enough of it. Mabye it's the crazy furry hat that DJ Lance wears. Maybe it's the recurring appearances by Mark Mothersbaugh (of DEVO fame) and Biz Markie (The world's worst rapper). Maybe it's the adorable "monsters" (Brobee and Muno are my favorites). Whatever it is, it's pretty entertaining, though I can feel my brain turn to mush as I watch it.

For more on Yo Gabba Gabba, check out this article from the New York Times.

Same Time, Next Year

Last night, I managed to make a fool out of myself at karaoke-- and I never even got up on the stage.

After work, I met Cory at our usual hangout, an Italian restaurant/karaoke bar. Odd combination, I know. He was there with a few of his co-workers and a couple folks that work at my station, too. Not long after I got there, Cory was called up to the front to sing. If you don't know Cory, you probably don't know that he has a great voice. And last night, he really knocked one out of the park.
The problem was the song that he sang.

"Alison," by Elvis Costello.

Hearing any Elvis Costello song always makes me think of my old friend Mike, who was quite possibly Elvis' biggest fan. And I mean that literally. It's hard to imagine anyone being more of a fan than Mike was.

Mike had kind of a love/hate relationship with the song "Alison." On the one hand, he used to get so ticked off with people who only knew one Elvis Costello song-- and that song was always "Alison." On the other hand, it's a great song. And for God's sake, Mike named his cat Alison.

So Cory's singing away, and all of these thoughts about Mike are reeling through my head, and it suddenly dawns on me... Mike died two years ago, almost to the very day. And at that point, sitting in the middle of the bar, I started crying. Not big, gasping sobs, thankfully. I don't think many people noticed... and I hope that those people who did notice just figured that I was crying because Cory was doing such a nice job with the song. Then again, I kind of wish someone had asked, so that I could tell them how great Mike was and how much I still miss him.

Photographs and Memories

I love my digital camera-- but it's just a little too big (and a little too nice) to take everywhere I go. A couple of years back, when Cory and I went to Music Midtown, we ended up taking a disposable cardboard camera with us. This week, I haven't been taking my digital camera to the Super Bowl, and I've kind of been kicking myself for that, but it's too big to fit in my messenger bag with everything else I'm lugging around.

A couple of days ago, Cory mentioned that he might like his own digital camera-- a small, fairly inexpensive one to take to places like amusement parks. His cell phone already has a camera-- but I don't think he's figured out how to transfer photos from his phone to our computer yet.

Last night, I bought a $15 digital camera. Yeah, it's a piece of crap, but it's tiny and it's quick. I figure if I'm walking down the street and William "The Refrigerator" Perry wanders by, I can snap a picture of him before he even knows it.

By the way, I have something kind of fun planned for the Super Bowl today. It might fall through, so I'm not going to tell you what it is just yet... but if all goes as planned, I may have a treat for all of you children of the 80s out there.

Belated Birthday Post

As many of you already know, Thursday was Cory's birthday. Unfortunately, I had to work all day, so I didn't get a chance to leave him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY posting on my blog.

When it was Zoe's birthday, I had adorable little baby pictures to show and memories of her kittenhood to share. Unfortunately, I don't have the same for Cory. Sure, he was born on yesterday's date in 1976 at 5:06 in the afternoon. Beyond that, the best I can do is this picture.

Doesn't he look cute in saddle shoes?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CORY!

Sad News

Cory's out of town for the next few days because his grandfather passed away this weekend. I feel so badly for his family. They're such a big family and such a close-knit group... nearly all of them live just a few miles apart. In fact, it seems like Cory's mom and her sisters talk nearly every day.

Just a couple of months ago, Cory's aunt Sheryl passed away after a brief battle with cancer, and it was just heartbreaking. Being an only child, I can only imagine what it's like to lose a sibling. It must be like losing a part of yourself. And now, the same family is mourning the loss of their patriarch.

I guess the blessing in all of this is that-- because they're such a close family-- they have each other to lean on during times like this. I'm sure the heartbreak will bring them even closer together. Still, it's just so saddening. My heart goes out to them.

More Pre-Valentine's Musings

Last year, Cory and I spent our Valentine's day driving to Athens, Georgia for the funeral of one of my closest friends, Mike.
Needless to say, Valentine's Day will never be the same for me.

Not a day has gone by that I haven't thought about Mike. On his birthday, Cory and I were packing up for the move, and I thought about the last major move I made, when I left Kirksville to move to C-Town. At the time, Mike was living in Atlanta, less than an hour and a half away. The day I found out I'd gotten the job, I told Mike the good news.
"Guess what? I'm moving to Georgia!"
Without batting an eye, Mike laughed and said, "Guess what? I'm moving to New York!"

While web-surfing, I still absentmindedly type in the name of his blog. I still accidentally forward him emails. He's still on my Christmas card list, in my address book, and programmed into my phone.

Mike died a year ago this week, and I still miss him.

Wherever you are, Mike, we love you.

Good News!

So, Cory's only been at his new job for two weeks, and already he's been offered a promotion! Hooray!!! He'll basically be doing the same thing he did back in C-Town, but he'll get paid a little more to do it here. Good deal, right?

Of course, every silver lining has a cloud. In this case, it means we won't get days off together... which was the best part about his job (pre-promotion). We get three more weeks of "weekends" together (actually Mondays and Tuesdays, but who's keeping track?) We will get to take Valentine's day off together, though. So far, our plans include a hockey game.

Aren't we romantic?

And a couple random thoughts...

1. We're still unpacking. I spent the last two days sorting, alphabetizing, and matching CDs to their cases (and in many instances, not matching CDs to their cases). There needs to be a law that every CD has the name of the artist and album printed onto the disc label. I didn't do an official count, but I'm guessing that I organized a little over 600 CDs in total.
2. Cory now has two days at his new job under his belt. So far, he seems to like it.
3. Apparently, January 24th is the most depressing day of the year. So if you're reading this, congratulations on staving off thoses suicidal urges for another 365 days.
4. On a related note, if you're ever feeling down about yourself, I have some words of advice for you. Go to Big Lots. Go now. You'll find the dregs of society there. You'll also find some great bargains. And any place where you can purchase cheap housewares and self-esteem is o.k. by me.
5. I have a convicted sex offender living within a half-mile of me. The Cape Coral PD was kind enough to send us a letter... detailing his offenses, his address, vital stats, and a mug shot.
6. It took over an hour and a half to post all those pictures. I hope you appreciate them.
7. I need to go to bed. It's my Sunday night, and I have to go back to work tomorrow.