How was your weekend, dears?  Mine was wonderful and terrible.  First the wonderful, shall we?

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Our nephew's first birthday.  You wouldn't know it from this picture, but he's a pretty jolly little fella (he hates hats, and was mostly confused by the room full of people he doesn't see often staring and singing at him, but hey, thus endures the strange tradition of birthday parties).

My sister and her husband love reptiles and its been a (year) long tradition to get Jake alligator items, but we went more traditional this year, getting him a Radio Flyer Wagon.  That sucker is heavy.  Trying getting that up the winding staircase of a big old Victorian house to your top apartment in order to wrap it.

Speaking of wrapping.  We didn't want to forgo alligators all together, so Aaron sharpied up our lime green wrapping paper for a little personalization (personal is always better than expensive if you ask me):

Excuse the glare!

Sunday was my mother's birthday, so we were back over there with her requested meal...Fried Chicken.  Hard to find good fried chicken when you and your boyfriend are vegetarians, but thanks to a little thing called the internet, we found Buckeye's Chicken down on Michigan Ave, and the more carnivorous members of the family all gave it good reviews.  We'll just have to take their word for it.

The unhappy news, is that Taffy, our older cat (she was a present from my father for my 11th birthday) had been acting strangely and unfortunately some blood work at the wonderful Summer St. Cat Clinic revealed she had advanced cancer.  She deteriorated quickly after her diagnosis and to avoid any further suffering, she was put to sleep Saturday morning.  We miss her terribly.

Now, go call your loved ones and tell them Happy Valentine's Day!

Who doesn't love a little generic rejection in the morning?


Dear Nicole,

Thank you for taking the time to apply for the position of Events Coordinator **** Foundation, Job Requisition #34332 at *****. While your credentials and experience are certainly impressive, you were not selected for this position.

Although we cannot provide you with additional feedback at this time due to the volume of applications that we receive, we would like to keep your application on file and contact you in the future should other opportunities arise that more closely fit your background.  At the same time, we would like to encourage you to visit our website at **** to review other open positions that maybe of interest to you.

We sincerely wish you all the best in your career search.

Human Resources Department


I put in  some clever little stars where the name of the place was because I'm not sure if I'll encounter any troubles by leaving them in, best to avoid, yes? Yes.  Although, at least I actually heard back.  With the amount of applications going out these days, most places don't get back to you at all, even on auto-reply.  So thanks, ****. 

Don't pretend you haven't imagined at least once how it would be to have your life suddenly turn into a musical.  You have.  We all have.  Its nothing to be ashamed about, its just a strange fact thanks to MGM.  But, that may be why Jordan Matter's series Dancers Among Us has been so popular.  It features dancers doing ordinary things around NYC in extraordinary (and impressively flexible) ways:

Just lovely.

Typically ever year around this time I buy myself a new winter coat.  With this year's never ending winter, I could have months of wearing it!  However, with my current "unemployed" predicament, I'll be skipping that tradition in order to keep money in the bank.  That doesn't stop me from looking though!

First is this little number from Modcloth.   An adorable website with constantly updated, well priced items.  That collar looks so cozy.  Perfect for nuzzling!

Its not secret that the Northeast is cold, and jackets with hoods are well appreciated.  Even more appreciated are the prices from Overstock and the ongoing $2.95 shipping.

Etsy is a very dangerous website.  Not only can you find amazing original items (seriously, half my Christmas shopping gets done on this site), but I can tell you (shamefully, from experience) that it is very easy to accidentally spend the entire afternoon browsing, only to look up and see its suddenly time for dinner and you're still in pajamas...oops.  But, hey, at least you got to support some independent artist-types.

And lastly, the splurge that I'd never actually be able to get, regardless of my employment status: a Lanvin Trench from Net-A-Porter.  So classy and timeless and ladylike.  I'd undoubtedly spill whatever it is I dared to hold while wearing it all over the front.  But, a girl can dream.

There's always next year.

http://myseriousbusiness.com

Egad!  NYS Unemployment and I haven't been together long, but we're already off to a shaky start.  After a bit of confusion, a sub-par website, and battling with inordinately long wait times/poorly designed phone trees (really, I had to use this website to find out how to speak with someone at this agency), I think my unemployment claim is finally straightened out.  We'll find out for sure on Friday.

I may have an unhealthy obsession with homes.  I can get lost for hours looking at real estate.  Let's check out one of my dream homes, yes?

This one is located in Buffalo on Franklin St, right near our Allentown district.  Priced at a reasonable $199,900 (Well, not reasonable for me in particular, but definitely more than reasonable for some folks),this brick carriage house of joy would be mine tomorrow if I had the chance:

The hardwood floors!  The stainless steel!  The brick! Oh, the brick!  My love and desire for this house could only be expressed in song, unfortunately the title 'Brick House' has already been taken...  I'm sure my little dream home will have no trouble finding a new owner. 

I absolutely love bookstores, and I'm lucky enough to live near one of the best in Buffalo.  So to treat myself after my interview today, I walked on down (easier said than done, the sidewalks were hit and miss as to what was cleared, so it was really more like "dash down the street avoiding cars and brown slush," but I digress..) to Talking Leaves to do some mid afternoon browsing.

I'm always in the market for a new author (suggestions always welcome) and left with a book by Tao Lin called Bed.

I've never been good at math, but I'm pretty sure that Fleece Blankets + New Books x Coffee = Improved Mood.