Looky looky! A new motifa for spring.
I know, it does not look all that impressive. But the redesign has a lot of archival goods, so it’ll be easier to maintain in the future (I hope.).
It’s not as elegant as I might have liked it. Basically there are html pages for each entry. I’m making them includes in a php file, but I want the old html files to be redirected to the php file. Soo… I had to do a messy chop() thing in PHP to just ignore the meta redirect tag, so all is happy.
You can pretend you know what I’m talking about. I certainly didn’t explain it very clearly. Buut, now there’s better access to other stuff on the site (the digital pictures and old archives). Wahoo!
Oh yeah, I’m in class right now but I am such a speed-master at completing labs I had time to write this post. Muah haha.
I’m about 3/4 done with a new layout that I’m halfway satisfied with. And it’s easy to change. So I might change colors more than every 10 months or something. Maybe.
So, anyway, I am absolutely devastated that my favoritest band ever, Eve 6, might be breaking up. They were dropped by RCA earlier this year and the rumors are flying that this might be the end of the tour and the end of Eve 6 all together. Sure. My first real favorite band and they have to go breaking up on me! Geez. And are they playing in NC before the end of the tour? NO! They are finishing up in NEW YORK of all places. Hey-zoos, I just moved away from there!
I know where you people live. I’m considering it your PERSONAL responsibility to go to one of the last Eve 6 concerts for me. Do you live near one of these places? Here’s some that I’m choosing to highlight:
4/03/04 Pottsdam, NY Cheel Arena – Clarkson University
4/16/04 Cleveland, OH Western Reserve
4/18/04 Albany, NY College of St. Rose
4/22/04 Poughkeepsie, NY The Chance
5/1/04 Fredonia, NY SUNY College
5/2/04 Rochester, NY Penny Arcade
*** Modified – I just got this news:
7/15/04 St. Louis, MO FREE SHOW LAST EVE 6 SHOW EVER
Can we say the last Eve 6 show ever is ON MY BIRTHDAY! (in MISSOURI to top it all off) So, I’m not sure if I am happy about turning 23 now or not. Hehe 
Yeah I know some of you do. And some of you could go to MORE THAN ONE of these. Complete Blasphemy. (I’m thinking Anne should get the other pocket of her pants signed….)
I suppose the most aggravating part of this to me is that RCA did absolutely no promotion for their last album. Did I hear ANY songs from “It’s All in your Head” on the radio? No!!! But I could hear “Break me up inside” or whatever that song is from Evanescence on 3 different radio stations at the SAME TIME. (By the way, you might note that I am NOT an Evanescence fan AT ALL.. I want to shove a sock down the lead singer’s throat, to put it nicely). I won’t even mention how much promotion Clay Aiken is getting… especially around here. Heck, even CLAY AIKEN’S MOM is considered a celebrity.
Enough of that. On to more pleasant things!
This weekend Oak and I went to the Bier Garden in Portsmouth, VA. He enjoyed many new beers, and I had some PaulAner and Hoegaarden. I don’t understand how you’re supposed to choose beers when the names are German with about 50 consanants each. I didn’t even know how to pernounce half of them, let alone know what they were. Luckily, I did understand the food menu, so I had a pretzel, goulash soup, and some weinerschnitzel. Mmm, schnitzel.
It was nice to get back in touch with my German-American roots. (My grandmother hailed directly from Western Germany! wahoo.) One of the guys we met there had FAR too much fun saying quotes from the Chapelle Show. Not that I didn’t crack up every time.
One of the greatest things about living in the Carolinas is the ubiquity of Waffle House. And every Waffle House you go to is different – a different crowd of people with varying degrees of waitstaff pleasantness. We stopped at a random WH on our way home and had perhaps the most pleasant WH waitress ever. I think the key is to go during the day, and not at 2am with all the drunk people. That’s definitely key. The double plus: Oak and I had lunch for $6.50 total! muah ha ha. (I think it helped I wasn’t very hungry, but STILL!)
Texas Cheesesteak with hash browns is quite possibly one of the best meals at a restaurant to be had for under $6.
I think the key accessory for spring is a brightly colored jacket. The question is: blue trenchcoat from Old Navy? Perhaps a Gap Mini Peacoat or a Mint green Trenchcoat. You can even get a purse to match!
All I know is, it absoutely CANNOT be black! (Especially on the trenchcoats… can we say computer gamer look? not chic!). If I end up getting one of these hot little numbers, I’ll be sure to inform.
Oak has mastered the art of the Southern baby back rib. Oooh, yummies. I know his working at Danny’s Bar-b-que for awhile would be put to excellent use. lol
Today was a lazy day. I woke up late, got dressed slowly, spent too much time in the frozen foods section at Harris Teeter (Hellow, SERIOUS yummers there), eating a super Oak-burger (those of you who know what an Oak burger is, they are famous! Mine had onions and pepper jack cheese), frisbee golfing (serious hiking through the woods with that), then home for some more lounging, reading, etc etc. Around 9 was the riiiibs. Aaah, too good.
Look at us being all true Southern and stuff.
And a message for Anne for when she gets back from spring break – Did you know they make ONION TATER TOTS now? Whoever heard of such a thing. We had to buy some of course.
P.S. I was inspired to work on my website last night. I wanted to do fancy fancy things with redirects. And, I cannot get it to work. *sigh*. So if anyone is an .htaccess master, let me know.
You long time readers out there might remember back in the day when my website had this (extremely hot, if I do say for myself) splash page (circa spring 2002). I swear I discovered that fabric!!!! Only I knew the hotness it could unleash on society.
Well NOW it’s everywhere, in many color schemes in many different uses. Luckily Shira got me a black-motifed purse for my birthday last year so I was still early in the process. But, just a few weeks ago I bought a huge beach tote bag at TARGET with the same pattern!!!!!! TARGET! My motifa has totally gone mainstream. *sigh.*
Not that people don’t compliment me daily on the hotness of my purse anyhow, it just seemed like my little secret until it began to leak into society. Just yesterday I was watching Divine Design, an HGTV show with this Canadian designer that has this ecletic mix of laborers actually do the work on the room. It was a room for a teenage girl, and what are two last-minute touches? MY MOTIFA!!! A purse on one of the bookshelves and a pillow on the bed. Hel-low!
First the cherries (motifa on my website turned fashion essential from 2001 era). Now this.
The hotness of these past designs actually kind of depresses me on my inability to come up with a decent layout as of late. I promise, it’s coming.
I came. I saw. I conquered!
The title of this post reminds me of fun times in high school marching band. There was this girl, Sara, that marched behind me one year and insisted on singing, “Rice-a-roni, the san franisco treat!” pulling my braid for the “DING DING.” Aah, yes we were so mature back then!
Now I will get back to the point of this here story!
Had a lovely weekend in the sunshine state! I guess we had an abnormally sunny couple days, which of course I am not arguing with!!
My traveling went incredibly smoothly both ways. This is something new for me; I’m usually delayed and sprinting to my connecting flights, et cetera. Fortunately I beat the “snow storm” Raleigh was having and flew through warm connections (Atlanta and Ft. Worth, Texas). Ding!
What is an adventure without some good exploring? We found an extremely hot Goodwill in downtown SF on Thursday night, where I got some extreme book bargains! Ding. If only we had enough time to look at the clothes! Then we headed to the Mission district for a Mediterranean meal that had incredibly bad service but tasty food. Fire-baked bread is just so fun!
Friday Shira had a serious presentation/practical thing at school, so I headed to St. Helena for some shopping and lunch at Model Bakery. I must say I felt very posh while eating my panini. There was a magazine photographer taking pictures for part of the time I was there. Maybe I’ll be in some famous magazine someday. Keep your eyes peeled for me!
Once Shira was all finished up, we went to a wine tasting at Merryvale vineyards. We got a bit tipsy off of what was probably about 2 glasses of wine total each and had fun pretending to be Wine Snobs – “This has ABSOLUTELY no Tannins! Now we know THIS one wasn’t OAKED!” The other “tasters” there had lots of useful terms to pick up along the way; they also had tons of fun bragging about their extensive wine cellars as well. Well, perhaps one day I will be among the Wine Snobs and will totally understand! lol.
Then it was off to Trader Joe’s! This place was just so incredibly hot. Sure, we have the Whole Foods and Fresh Market, but they just don’t compare. We got a variety of potstickers and some other tasty morsels and headed home for some piggin’ out and movies.
Aaah, the next morning. We had some incredibly tasty crepes (with Nutella, of course) and then headed out on the long and winding roads to San Fran. It was after this experience that I realized how FLAT North Carolina is. You just don’t see the big mountaintops and stuff in Raleigh.
This time into the city we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge! This was just exciting. We stopped at a park on the water with a bazillion cute dogs running about. People were wind surfing in the water (are they cray-zee? burr!). I took the obligatory pictures of the bridge.
North Beach was next. We found Shira’s favorite, XOX Truffles, where we had a couple tasty morsels and to fuel our shopping efforts. We even found the Rogue brew pub and bought a bunch of brews for Oak. Needless to say he was very happy when I brought those puppies home!
Since I’m such a fan of sea lions, Fisherman’s Wharf was a must. The sea lions were absolutely hilarious…. ORP ORP!!!! There was also a Tulip Festival which was tres disappointing (flowers in planters? that’s a FESTIVAL?). That’s okay though because we had corn dogs and I bought a pair of really hot knee socks.
Chinatown was next. The old Broadway geek in me couldn’t help singing “Grant Avenue” from Flower Drum Song in my head most of the time we were there. I think Chinatown was my favorite part of San Francisco, it really feels like you’re in another country or something. I also bought some Sushi Candles, which we have been in desparate search of for several months now.
(SF Travel Tip: Make dinner reservations!)
Back to the mission district. Oh boy this is the place to shop for even more Hot Stuff. Gotta love the cheap goods! We were SO focused on the shopping that it was like 10pm when we realized we had to EAT some dinner!
Oh dear. We drove around San Fran like maniacs, in desparate search of something that was not Indian, Chinese, or Italian. In other words, we were being incredibly picky. Every place that looked enticing had hours of waits. I think we had some hallucinogenic moments when Shira was convinced that a small Chinese woman on our (short) return to Chinatown was Out To Get Us. (Okay I agree she was pretty sketchy..). I am still entertained by this. (Carrie is quite easily amused!).
We finally found Zuni, which was amazingly STILL OPEN at 11:30 pm. I had a very Fancy belgian endive salad and a delicious gourmet burger. Shira and I were both pretty unimpressed with the apple tart. Quel Horreur! They obviously need Shira to take over as pastry chef. We found out later that Zuni is one of the hippest places in San Francisco. (i.e. most customers were wearing Cool Funk glasses) So the search was worth it – Shira after that struggle I am glad we didn’t just Go Home or eat at McDonalds or something! haha.
Well, I am exhausted just recording all of this! I had an awesome time, but more exploration is definitely needed (hellow… a bazillion wineries, boutiques, et cetera – who can resist?).
Now I’m bi-coastal, baby yeah ! 
