30 Day Challenge – Day 12

Where your family is from

map of italy

Both sides of my family originate in Italy. Please don’t ask me where in Italy, because I don’t know…maybe one of my relatives will see this and tell me. 😉

My great-grandparents settled in Brockway, PA…then my dad’s parents in Ridgway, and my mom’s in St. Marys. I grew up in St. Marys.* (Ridgway is about 10 miles from St. Marys.)

PA Map

*No, there isn’t an apostrophe in St. Marys, PA. I don’t know why.

St. Marys is known for being the home of Straub Beer:

And Decker’s Chapel, which I used to think held some kind of record for being the tiniest chapel, but it doesn’t:

decker's chapel

30 Day Challenge – Day 11

Recent picture of yourself

Well, this is the most recent picture of myself I can find that I’m willing to post:


erin&susan

(taken by Jen, on her phone)

30 Day Challenge – Day 7

Favorite TV Show

Really?

I love TV. In fact, there’s a 30-day meme going around that’s ALL TV that I might have to do when this one is finished. But in the meantime…

There are so many things to love about The West Wing. I had a hard time choosing a scene to post, but I do rather like this one where Ainsley Hayes meets the president for the first time.

I love this show. I love the writing. I love the characters, and the actors who play them. I love the blend of drama and comedy. I love everything about it.

I have lots more to say about TV, so I think I will be doing that other meme. 😉

30 Day Challenge-Day 2

Favorite Movie

My standard answer to this question is these three movies:
Continue reading

Miscellaneous thoughts

I’m not going to start by blogging about my lack of blogging, because hello…boring.

I logged in and I noticed that I had several beginnings of posts saved as drafts that I will probably never finish and post, because I no longer care. That happens more and more lately…

I just uploaded a few photos to flickr–things that were on my phone. I still have some stuff on my camera that I will get around to uploading soon. (I love sending photos from my phone–it’s so easy!) Among those photos is one of my little red Chevy Prizm, which I recently said goodbye to. I’d been driving it for nearly ten years, which is about as long as I’ve lived in WNY. That probably needs its own post one of these days…anyway, we bought a Honda Insight, and the Civic is now my driving-to-work car.

I am liking my phone quite a bit, but am finding myself tempted with the idea of an iPod touch so I can have access to apps not available for Droid. It occurs to me that I have never bought a new iPod–I’m on my second hand-me-down from Rand–so it wouldn’t be totally insane. 😉

I’m finding that I’m not reading as much as I would like, and my to-read pile grows by the day. I’m going to have to start making a dent in that. Here’s my current to-read shelf at goodreads, which I’m certain is not complete…not all of those books are in my possession, and I know there are books in my possession that are not on the list.

The last non-school book I finished was my friend Seanan’s book A Local Habitation, which I owe her a review of. I am a BAD FRIEND. (I liked it, by the way. Maybe not as much as Rosemary and Rue, but there was plenty to like. I promise to write a proper review in the next week!!!)

And finally, today was the last day of school before SPRING BREAK, BABY. I am not going anywhere fun/interesting, but I will be enjoying my week off. Whoo!

Craft show

The first photo is my stuff–the bottom one is the girl who was sitting next to me.

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Kiva

As a part of our wedding gift, my good friend Jam gave Rand and me a gift certificate for Kiva. So what’s Kiva? Here’s some info from their about page:

Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

The initial gift allowed us to make two loans: over time, those loans have been (mostly) paid back. Today, I went to Kiva and used a portion of our balance to make a new loan and give a small donation to Kiva to cover operating costs.

I think Kiva is a really cool organization, and I encourage you to check them out!

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Phone blog!

I just set up WordPress for my phone. Pretty cool, right?

I was going to post more today…some romantic lyrics, or a poem, or pictures or something, but I never got on the wireless network. I’ve been relying on the phone for my internet needs instead.

So, I hope you’ve had a pleasant Valentine’s Day. Enjoy!