Old MacEvan Had A Tractor...

We went to the local Lowe's yesterday to purchase ceiling fans for the four upstairs rooms.

Evan had no interest in the fans. He wanted us to buy this nifty gadget instead.

A Husquavarna riding mower. He pretended to drive it until he managed to knock some sort of part off of it. We picked it up off the floor, set it on the mower and scurried out of there into the lighting department

(OK...with a stop in the kitchen department so I could drool over new stainless refrigerators, gas ranges and...the most untouchable things...cabinetry and solid-surface countertops...)

Inkblot Test

What do you see when you look at this light fixture, which hangs at the delicious Juniper Grill on Carnegie Avenue in downtown Cleveland?

Popular opinion in the group I was breakfasting with the other day is that of a used condom with the tip snipped off. (I love the artwork behind it, by the way.)

We'll let you decide for yourselves.

Oh, and on a completely...and I mean COMPLETELY...different note: I highly recommend the Eggs Florentine there. YUM!

Kinky Kitsch

Guest photographer Ty sent me pictures of this sculpture she saw in an imports shop in the Big Apple, where she and her family are visiting.

I'm wondering if she's going to bring these back for all of her friends as souvenirs rather than designer knockoff handbags.

Hirsute Furnishings

Not sure how popular this Crate & Barrel item is going to be.

The color is bad...and I'm usually a huge fan of green. In fact, it's my favorite color. Except this shade (to which the camera does not do justice) is sort of a sickly, puke-inspired hue.

Worse, something about it really reminds me of a guy's hairy back.

Campus Life...Middle-Age Style

This is my good college friend, Dave. He's standing in front of his old college residence, The Clubhouse, on Lake Street in Kent.

Here are some of the places we used to hang out.

We got together today to catch up and reminisce. We didn't go to any of these hallowed joints.

Here's how we spent our day instead...

How on earth did we wind up in a mini van with four children riding around with us?!!?!?!

Oh wait...one of them belongs to me. The rest belong to him.

As does the van.

Still...could we have predicted this 20 years ago?

Seeking a Final Resting Place?

There's a good deal on one at the First Christian Church of Kent.

Used only two nights.

Get it?

Clever...

HAHAHAHAHA!

Another Obnoxious Tee

A friend spotted this lovely t-shirt at a local watering hole and sent me this pic the other night via cameraphone.

No commentary needed. I believe it speaks for itself.

Two Live Shows

It was a week of live music...and I LOVE live music.

First...a fabulous St. Patrick's Day show by Carbon Leaf at the Beachland Ballroom. Barry Privett, Terry Clark and the other boys out of Richmond, VA, rocked the hall with a cool line-up of Celtic-inspired tunes. Kinda of a once-in-a-lifetime show, according to Barry...it's not their usual setlist.

But it sure was fun!

Wednesday night -- another show... Matt Nathanson at the House of Blues. I've seen Matt live before, and he's always entertaining. I found this show at HOB to be a little lackluster musically...he's becoming increasingly more commercial. His show at the Beachland Ballroom last September was hands down the better of his recent Cleveland showings. Still, we had a great time and he does have a great stage presence.

On Friday night, I could have seen another band, local indie folk rockers, The Magpies, at Put-In-Bay Lakewood. A friend was urging me to come out to see them...but it was snowing heavily, I was in sweats watching TV in my comfy chair and it was late. I declined, opting for an extra couple hours of snooze time instead.

I do want to check out The Magpies sometime soon. I've heard good things about them.

The Sink Hole that Ate Public Square

You really can't appreciate the enormity of a sinkhole until you see it from above and size it up with all of the surrounding buildings, inlcluding Key Tower (in the background...supposedly the tallest building between New York and Chicago).

In this case...you can view this natural disaster from 25 stories above in Cleveland's historic Terminal Tower, which shadows Public Square.

Yes...the site of the Christmas parade in the movie, A Christmas Story. Yes...the epicenter of all things Cleveland -- no movie or TV shoot of the city is complete without a requisite Public Square view. And yes...now the site of a major sinkhole that opened up last week in the wee hours of a work day.

People are still marveling over the fact it happened before rush hour began.

It's quite a sight...not to mention a bit of a traffic challenge.

Where Have All the Good Cowboys Gone?

They're obviously not killing time in the C concourse security line at the aiport in Las Vegas, as evident by the shirt I stood looking at while waiting for 40 minutes to go through the scanner yesterday.


The shirt, which is hard to decipher in this size of pic, says this:

"How Many Cowboys Does It Take To Open A Beer?" - "NONE. She Should Have It Open By The Time She Brings It To You! "


Reminds me of another shirt I saw once and have always remembered -- a biker shirt that read on the back, "If you can read this, the bitch fell off."

Nice. Real nice.

Oh Man! I Didn't Need to See That!

Love it or hate it...one thing is sure about Las Vegas.

There's always something to see. Unique hotels. Entertainment. People watching.

A feast for the eyes.

Although, there are somethings I wish I hadn't seen during my stay here this week.

Yeah...it's sunny. Yeah...it's 82 degrees. But c'mon dude, NO ONE paid their good money to come here and see that.

Put your shirt back on!

A View from the Top...

Of the Playboy Club at the Palms casino in Las Vegas, that is.

The perfectly sublime ending to a perfectly weird day (albeit sunny and 75!!!) in Sin City that even included a run to McCarran Airport and back to retrieve my beloved (and temporarily lost) camera phone from an exceptionally handsome young Australian fella who was jetting off to New York. But that's another story you'll have to ask me about in person.

The view of Vegas from the Playboy club is nothing short of amazing...add in the traditional bunny cocktail servers...and its almost surreal.

As I was taking pictures, another member of our group -- Bill Klingbeil, a fellow PR guru extraordinaire who represents two-time World of Outlaws Racing Champion Donny Schatz (also present and accounted for at the Playboy Club with us that night), said I needed to break blog rules and have a picture of myself in it...and snapped one on his digital camera. Despite a nasty bout of bronchitis and a whirlwind evening of tracking down my errant phone (which apparently wanted to go to Australia), I think it turned out OK...despite the fact it appears I desperately need to be spending more quality time with my hairbrush...

Thing Were a Little Hairy This Weekend

Between the late-winter storm that pounded Northeast Ohio and the fact both Evan and I were stricken with some sort of feverish respiratory malady, Evan missed his scheduled haircut on Saturday morning.

Worse, because he didn't feel well, he managed to weasel his way out of showering that day, too. So this morning, he was sporting two days of horrific bedhead. His hair is an issue around this place...his father wants it buzzed off. I feel he should express himself. Unfortunately for him, his wild coiffure didn't help his case for maintaining a fashionbly shaggy 'do.

Needless to say, he had no option on a shower and hairbrushing this a.m. Although he did argue the fact that he would be wearing a hat when we did go outside for the first time 36 hours to run much-needed errands.

He was right.

If a Tree Falls...

In someone's backyard, does it count as a jungle gym for the kiddies?

Seriously. Check this out! We had a major ice storm here on Tuesday.

And when my friends Ty and Dan awoke Wednesday a.m., they saw this in their backyard.

They didn't hear it uproot and fall. And it didn't hit anything but a single phone line. What are the odds?

Last night we all were over there...and the kids were exploring...in the middle of yet another snowstorm (and blizzard watch!)

They look like little ants next to the thing.

Wannabe...

Doesn't it just sometimes tug at the ol' heartstrings when you see a small fry tryin' to play with the big boys.

Just like this little chair in the Sherwin-Williams cafeteria today (the company I work for leases space in the S-W Global HQ complex in downtown Cleveland).

It so wanted to hang with the barstools. But it just couldn't reach to such heights.

It's kinda like "the little engine that could."

"I think I can. I think I can."

Ok...maybe not nearly as tender and touching as that story.

But still...the absurdity of it caught my eye.

The Ice Storm

Yesterday, a huge ice storm rolled in here on the North Coast.

This was how the view looked from outside my bedroom window last night about 6:30 when I got home from work.

Can't even tell what you're looking at through that layer of ice, can you?

Houses and a streetlight.

I'm sooooo over winter.

The Day After

Apparently my friend and co-worker, Kate, had quite the evening last night.

She made a maiden voyage to O'Donnell's Pub to meet up with a long-lost cousin and $2 Tuesday.

The way she tells it, she got her money's worth.

So much so that while we were at Bice at the Ritz after work for happy hour tonight, she realized that all day she had been wearing her shirt inside out.

She pleads the fifth.

A Mighty Big Boobie...

Shirt that is. A game-worn one (the '07 finals, at that -- note Evan showing off the NBA finals emblem on it) belonging to Cleveland Cavaliers Daniel "Boobie" Gibson...autographed by the man himself.

Won by yours truly at a fundraiser the other night. Only out $10 in Chinese raffle tickets for such coolness, too.

I currently hold the title for World's Coolest Mom.

Even Baker, the geriatic Golden Retriver, seems psyched by our big win.

On a funny side note, when I won the shirt at the fundraiser Saturday night, the woman whose husband works for the Cavs and who donated the shirt said, "Oh you got the Boobie shirt."

That evening I was wearing a relatively low-cut top that requires a push-up bra and immediately, without thinking, slapped my hand over my cleavage to cover it up. I thought she meant MY boobie shirt. Still giggling over that one... .