b l o g o r e l l i

Happy Day To Cho!

Today is Cho's birthday -- yea! As a preamble, last night I planned a surprise girls' night out. First, we went to Inman Oasis for an hour soak in the Japanese wooden tub. Though no 10,000 Waves or Shoji Retreat, the facilities were  clean and our time there relaxing. We then proceeded to the bar at Oleana to wait for our table outside.

There's more to this story...but I'll have to wait until I get home tonight to tell because lunch hour is over.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHO -- Glasses Up to You!!!

Omedetou

That's Japanese for "congratulations"...
well wishes to Jeffé and Sarah (Ms. Clairvoyant), who got engaged during their vacation in Tokyo!

Road Race Queen

How much do I love feeling inspired by my friends' accomplishments?

A big and proud shout-out to The Dairy Queen, who not only finished the New York Road Runners' Half-Marathon last weekend, but logged in her best time yet!

She's working towards running a full marathon in the fall. Me? I'm working towards running, period.

CONGRATS, DQ!!!

Edgar Allen Cat

The words "Elizabethan," "collar," and "midnight" usually evoke a different meaning to most people than this:

The Dairy Queen's poor cat Midnight! She has an ear isssue and has to wear this horrible-yet-amusing-looking plastic funnel when her owner is out. I gotta say, though...besides pets in outfits, nothing raises my mood more than a good old Elizabethan (pet) collar photograph.

Auntie and Uncle Murforelli

For 28 years, I've called exactly three woman on Mother's Day: my own dear Mam, my Italian Nona, and my Hungarian Gammy. This year my call volume just skyrocketed, I mean, it was absolutely obscene, basically doubling. I guess it's a change of life...like, the one before you are 'flashing' hot and not growing leg hair any more.

Speaking of little ones, The Professor and I babysat for his niece last weekend so that his sis and her hub could catch an afternoon movie:

The Prof and Niamh bond through Dr. Seuss:

I've always been a bit 'different' in relating with, well, everyone. ARGH! :

Guest Writer: The Polish Princess

by The Polish Princess

"Everyone who knows me, knows that I secretly <3 pop music. It's shameless. I absolutely delight in purchasing $.99 singles of the current "Pop Hit DuJour". Somehow, I think my father forbidding me to purchase cassette singles back in the day lead to this obession. I've always justified these purchases by balancing them out with indie selections. This makes me feel like the combination of my great taste and "bad" taste somehow make me "even" in the end.

I'm 28 years old, I've love bubble gum pop, and it's helping me become popular with the 17 year-olds at work. So it's all good. And with the confession complete, I present my list of current Top 40 "must haves". Feel free to secretly download them...and enjoy. };)

1. Lost Without U, Robin Thicke : This song is an unbelievably catchy R&B *groooove*. What makes it sweeter is that Robin wrote the song for his wife while he was going through a difficult time (namely, poor record sales on his Grammy award-winning debut album). His gorgeous wife appears in the video with him. Also interesting to note: his father is everyone's favorite TV dad, Alan Thicke. (BLOGORELLI NOTE: I was wondering about that last name!)

2. U + Ur Hand, Pink : Pink just kicks ass and this song is no exception. It's particularly good if you feel yourself starting to slack on the treadmill. Put this song on, and you'll be back on top in no time.

3. Glamorous, Fergie : I know, I know...Fergie??? Seriously? Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of "The Dutchess". In fact, I find her pretty obnoxious and didn't realize this song was hers until after I was already hooked. But my Top 40 rule is this: love the song regardless of the artist. When it comes to pop music, there are often songwriters and producers who do a lot of the leg work. Case in point: "Since you've been gone". This track would have been great, regardless of who recorded it.

Here's one more sort of 'indie' pick...to balance out all that pop

4. Don't Feel like Dancin', Scissor Sisters : Quite simply if you don't feel like dancin' when you hear this song, then something is seriously wrong."

(BLOGORELLI NOTE: I have a little 'confession' on my own...that I lifted the boombox graphic in the header from Fred Flare's pocast, which everyone should definitely check out to rock out!)

Bobby, Again With The Log

This guy just can't stay away from wood...
from the Salem News :

Firewood sculpture ignites conversation in North Beverly
By Martina Brendel , Staff writer

"For Andy Warhol, it was a Campbell's soup can.
For Marcel Duchamp, a urinal.

For the landscape design team at... an upscale North Beverly design firm, a single cord of firewood was its muse.

Last month, [Employee X, Employee Y and Bobby Crocker] spent a day arranging $300 worth of firewood in cascading piles on either side of the entrance to the firm's office building...They dubbed their creation 'The Firewall.'

'There was a lot of traffic when we put it up,' said [Employee X,] an associate architect. 'People were slowing down, asking what it was. Some said, 'Light it up!' There was a lot of commentary.'

The wood piles are actually the firm's holiday decorations, [Employee X] said. Every year around Halloween, the staff brainstorms a new way to decorate their iconic purple building for the holidays.

...'A lot of people get wood to stack out front in the winter,' Employee X said. 'This was our mimicking that and asking, 'How can you do it differently?'

Their original design featured a series of 'cairns,' or rock piles, made of wood. They had to abandon it, however, because the piles kept falling over. Their next idea was to build a wall of interlocking horizontal and vertical logs. That, too, failed.

'After many attempts, we decided just stacking it was the best way,' Employee X said.

They settled on two cascading semicircles of wood flanking the building's walkway...the shape is abstract and not meant to represent anything, though some have likened it to a handlebar moustache.

The sculpture will be up until the spring, then four lucky employees get to take the firewood home."

Everyone gets their 15 minutes...for me, it was Britney's Spear's marital prognosis, for Bobby Crocker, firewood. Fifteen minutes for all, but unfortunately, no choice as to why.

Digest, Relax, SHOP

Once again, the magical "day after Thanksgiving" is here, signaling the true start of yuletide insanity around the country. Tonight, the news will report tramplings at Walmarts, facial burns at Dunkin' Donuts, and the countdown to December 25th.

Someone is starting earlier than usual this year. Bobby Crocker, you're such a sneaky elf!

Pimp My Newborn

1:09pm 7/9/06
[SMS From:: Jeffe]
Hey. Hows Vinz?

9:37pm 7/9/06
[SMS From:: Blogorelli]
Ur back…he's in the shop.

Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:03:56 EST)
From: blogorelli@gmail.com
a few things:
- how was lake pushaw/fishing?
- vinz is due wed, but no "movement" on that front yet. pretty sure he'll be late. i got confused by your text yesterday bc Vinny is in the shop and that's been on my mind. so that's why i said the baby was "in the shop." he is, in fact, still contained within Cho's stomach
- GO ITALIA!

Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:11:56 EST)
From: jeffe@gmail.com
yes, ha!, I realized after a while that you probably got that confused but I thought "in the shop" meant still in the belly.

- - - - - - - -

There's it is, the proof of my complete oblivion to the situation at hand, and recorded by my beloved technology even! As of today (one day prior to the due date)…bebe is still "in the shop." Vinny, though, is due home from the garage tonight. Bubba ChoBo looks to be staying in a bit longer. He maybe needs a few final tweaks...perhaps a spoiler, possibly some hot pin-stripes and a surround-sound scream system install before he pulls out and burns some rubber diaper.

(Below: One might be appalled at how many photos come up on Google when the search terms are "driving a car" and "baby." Really, parents...you should be ashamed!)

Dance Dance Anarchy

According to my spies, Bobby (and, by association, Cho) got some Dance 360 action going at the wedding reception they recently attended in San Francisco.

What began as a little harmless Tag Your Man* quickly escalated into a feverish Head To Head** when Bobby noticed another lithe male guest slickly breaking out moves described as "all bendy-like." Fueled by alcohol and the sheer competitive spirit seen only when a man tries to best another while consciously showing no acknowledgement of the second male's existence, Elast-o Man and Bobby continued to party like it was 1999...for four hours straight.

Cho, stone cold sober and observing most of the evening from her chair, said she'll never forget the sight. And apparently neither will her family, who were in attendance and had never seen Bobby bust moves at a wedding reception (or otherwise.) They talked about his fancy-free footwork for the rest of the weekend...

"Look!" Cho's mother cheerily joked in her French accent when a television show came on with people doing crazy dances, "Eetz Bobby!"

(SIDENOTE: I've only been in one dance battle myself, when my brother's ex-girlfriend and I had a Dance Dance Revolution face-off at Dave & Buster's in Pittsburgh. Though many of my most embarrassing pitfalls have been documented on this blog and by family members/friends in a format most historians would call "verbal folk tales," I can say with certainty that DDR made me feel my most clumsy in years. Why, my own mother was laughing so hard watching that she actually cried. As one cousin said after hearing that I broke my arm on the Park City snowboarding trip, "Well, we always knew that you weren't exactly graceful on your feet.")

The San Fran "Duel of Dance" ended in a draw, which was fortunate for Bobby's opponent. Bobby himself told me that defeat meant Rubber Man was "gettin' cut." Ok...he didn't actually use those exact words...but wouldn't this ending be absolutely brilliant had he?

Bobby, I only provide photographic evidence because I care. And...c'mon — these are TOO good not to show the entire inter-net!

Hmm...where have I seen these two = trouble before?

Holla! Cho and the Bump join in to take no prisoners.

Never content to merely prey on the forty-somethings doing the "sway dance," he goes straight to the source — Tracie, the bride!

My recently healed arm is scared of that lip bite...which is sure to make an encore appearance at Half Pint + Mr. Car's nuptials at the end of this month. DAMN!

---

* to tag in the next D360 dancer
** a dance-off between two D360 contestants