rescheduled

Birthday get together with friends rescheduled from tonight to next Friday due to illness.

seven years

Today marks our 7th anniversary. It's gone by so fast, and yet I can't really remember a time before Greg was a part of my life.

my birthday rewind

I had a very nice birthday yesterday. We stopped at the drive-thru at the bank to cash a birthday check (thanks Dad). Now here's something that bothers me. If I were a teller at a bank, I would notice when special occasions are written on the memo lines of checks and then acknowledge that occasion with the person cashing the check. Teller's have done that to me in the past, and it makes me all warm inside. Not only, did this teller not acknowledge my very special day, upon sending the canister back to us, she said, "Thanks Michelle." Um no, it's Michael. There's two dudes in this car! So after the bank we headed to the dreaded Wal-Mart. Their day-after-christmas circular featured Sony ear buds for my new iPod Nano that I thought would stay in my ears better than the crappily redesigned ear buds from Apple that keep falling out of my left ear at the slightest movement. Evidently, $38.62 was not the sale price. It was, in fact, the everyday low Wal-Mart price. I couldn't believe that I was spending that much on headphones. As it turns out, they were not comfortable in my ears either. They have since been returned. I'm pretty sure that I have normal ears, but perhaps I do not. I assume that when I get my iPhone (in less than a month!) I will have trouble with those ear buds too. God forbid that I will have to get a bluetooth headset.
So after the bank, Wal-Mart and the post office, we headed up to Valley View for lunch and to see the new flick Juno. Lunch at Hoggy's was good, the service sucked. Big floaty in my diet coke (and no, Mr. Waiter, that was not errant paper from my straw wrapper, it was chunky!)and long wait for two pretty simple lunch items. The movie was excellent. Go see it. Now.
Michele joined us for dinner at Macaroni Grille. I had the Layers and Layers of Lasagna. And as a special treat, our waitress serenaded my with an italian birthday song. I'm sure that I was about 10 shades of red by the time she was done. After dinner it was off to the mall to take advantage of the sales at Eddie Bauer with my birthday cash and gift card. How did I make out with all the markdowns? Not well, I got two dress shirts at full price (evidently, the only two items in the store not on sale). Oh well. I needed them anyways. On the way home Greg and I swung by Macy's and I got a new tie to go with one of the shirts.
Full bellies and empty wallets, it was time for bed. Friday night we are having a few friends over for dinner and drinks. Saturday night we're heading to a U of Akron basketball game with Tom and Brett. Sporty Mike strikes again... Fear the Roo!

christmas recap plus another candle and I'm a guy

I'm another year older today. The big 3-5. Doesn't feel any different than yesterday when I was a young 34. For Christmas, Greg and I lounged around the house and watched a few episodes of season 3 of the The Office. They make me happy and smile. In the late afternoon we went to the cinema with our friends Tom and Brett. We saw the new National Treasure flick. It was entertaining. After the movie we went on a search for someplace to have dinner. The only place open in the area was the Royal Buffet Chinese Restaurant. They had their all-you-can-eat Christmas Buffet for $9.95. There were actually quite a few people there for dinner. Being the huge chinese food fan that I am, I dined on salad, french fries and pizza. Our bills came on purple post-it notes. Also my fortune cookie fortune read: Keep an eye open for an opportunity in the field of sports. Well that sounds like me.

This morning I ran to the Hallmark store around the corner from our house. I picked up a birthday card for my sister and stood in the long line with all of the ladies and their day-after-Christmas sale items. The older woman in front of me turned around to show me the miniature train ornaments that she found. I looked at them and said, "Nice." To which she replied, "Well you are a guy." Brilliant observation ma'am.

a legend

We saw I Am Legend this afternoon. I'm not going to sleep well tonight. May have to watch a really cheesy comedy flick tonight to counteract the effects of I Am Legend. Waiting for Guffman, anyone?

a christmas greeting

more pictures of christmas past

The first picture is me with my very own pint-sized rocking chair. And boy, I definitely was not afraid to make a fashion statement with that plaid jumper. Hard to believe that ultra-liberal democrat Mike owned a gun...well an air rifle anyways. Finally, that's my sister Julie and I trimming the tree.

today's rant

When it's made correctly, and all of the ingredients are measured just right, there is simply nothing better than a vanilla iced coffee from McDonalds. When not made well, it's the most awful tasting concoction ever created. My local McDonald's has done a pretty good job of making them correctly. After trial and error, I learned that I should, under no circumstances, ever order a large. They simply never taste right, always bitter. Today, on the way to work, I ordered a medium. Pulled away from the window, took a sip and it tasted like dirt. If I turned around and went back in to ask for another, I would be late for work. I guess I just don't understand how a product can't be made the same way all of the time. Everything else at Mickey D's is consistent, why not the iced coffee?

christmas past - the photos

I asked my dad to send up some photos from Christmas when I was a kid. Funny how none of them have my Dad in them... Over the next couple of days I will share some of them with you. In all of them you will see what a trendy dresser I was. And that yes, at one point in my life, I had a full head of hair. I'm pretty sure the first photo is from my first Christmas. That's my mom helping me open my gifts. That's my sister Julie in that last photo working those yellow tights.

have you caught it?

once

We rented this dvd yesterday. It ranks as one of my favorite films of this past year. Great story and great music. Here's the synopsis from the film's web site: A modern day musical set on the streets of Dublin. Featuring Glen Hansard from the Irish band "The Frames," the film tells the story of a street musician and a Czech immigrant during an eventful week as they write, rehearse and record songs that reveal their unique love story.

there's snow place like home

Here are a couple of photos of the nearly foot or so of snow that we got over the weekend. As you can see, We haven't done a lot of decorations outside this year. Just a simple wreath with a big bow and a couple of spotlights on the front door. I like to call it understated elegance.

snowy drive home from work

g'day mate!

So, after checking my visitor map I've noticed that I don't have any visitors from Australia. CRIKEY! So please, if you know of someone in the "land down under", please have them check out my web site at gzpzguy.com. Ask them to comment on this post and tell me who sent them.

this american life

I'll admit it, I am way behind on getting on this bandwagon. Yesterday I listened to my very first episode of This American Life. Now that I have my new iPod Nano, I figured that I would download a few free podcasts from iTunes. I'd heard good things about this radio show but had never listened to it before. It was a lot of fun. This week's podcast was a re-airing of an episode from 2003 called The Middle of Nowhere. It featured a brief intro about an area in the Pacific Ocean, the size of Texas, where a great deal of that ocean's trash floats to and collects. Evidently there are five or so of these areas in the world's oceans. Who knew? The first act of the show dealt with a tiny island nation named Nauru. It used to be this lush island that was pillaged and for the last several years has been used as a sort of halfway-island for Iraqi and Afganistani refugees. My favorite, the second act, dealt with one of the producer's of the show and her struggle dealing with MCI and it's customer relations help-line. It had me laughing quite a lot. Who hasn't had to deal with the awful customer support folks and the long amount of time on hold.

more style

Greg picked out 3 t's too. We are so trendy. Please read my sarcasm into that last remark.

stylin'

I received my first order from threadless.com last night. They are having a sale on their t-shirts through December 16th. All regular t's are only $10. That's like half off. So, I browsed their huge selection and bought these three shirts.

my birthday came early

If I've not mentioned it, I have the best boyfriend. I think Greg knew that I needed something new and fun. When I got home from work, he asked if I might want my birthday present early. Now loving presents as much as I do, I said, "of course." Greg went to the other room came back, asked me to close my eyes and presented me with a new iPod Nano. My old iPod, probably 4 or 5 years old, no longer holds a charge and doesn't have a full color video screen. Well my new Nano does. He got me the black one that I wanted. It's amazing how small and thin it is. I've been having quite a bit of fun playing with it tonight. I think it will compliment the iPhone I will hopefully be getting in January.

my guys

I've had the last two days off. It's been nice and relaxing. Unfortunately, Greg got word today that the job he interviewed for a few weeks back is not going to happen. They have decided, for the time being, to not fill the position due to cost savings measures at the company. So that really sucks, and the search goes on. On the bright side, Tucker had been spending a lot of quality time with Greg. He's going to really miss him, when Greg goes back to work during the day.

cause i need another pair of shoes

These shoes would be perfect for this spring and summer. In case you didn't know, my birthday is just 18 days from today... And my shoe size is 13... And the blue is my color of choice...

Sherri Shepherd Doesn't Get That Whole BC Thing

Good Lord! Literally. I think she is a funny gal. But her grasp on reality and basic world history is quite skewed. Click read more below for the article and short video clip.

read more | digg story

fill er up

We had lunch at Akron's first Chick-fil-a today. It was their grand opening. Briefly considered waiting in line last night. The first 100 people got one free sandwich combo a week for a year. It was way too cold to camp out all night for that. The line was very long when we got there for lunch. They had employees in the parking lot directing traffic and taking orders to move the drive-thru process along. To be honest, we've waited longer in an Arby's drive-thru with no cars in front of us.

wish list

I really like these new shirts from Rubber City Clothing. I have the red one in the long-sleeved version. I wouldn't mind having the short-sleeved too. XXL fits me best. :)

in other inappropriate nativity scene news...

First it was the inflatables, now there are s'mores playing the roles of Mary, Joseph and little baby Jesus. Tacky, tacky, tacky. For goodness sakes, Jesus is a set of mini-marshmallows laying on a bed of chocolate and graham cracker. Thanks to Robyn for sharing this with me.

twitter-rific

I'm trying out the whole Twitter thing. It's a quick and short way to blog at any time from any where with my mobile phone. I can also post from the web. I guess it's a short cut for quick and brief updates. You'll always find my most recent post at the top of my blog. It reads Currently, then the update follows. You can read all of my Twitter posts by clicking on follow me on Twitter. I imagine it will be easier to make these posts when I get my iPhone in January. I'm not the fastest texter on a regular mobile phone.

piano recital, dora and the family

We had a lot of fun yesterday. Becca rocked the piano at her recital. Macy got her Dora on. And we all had a great time spending time as a family. Thanks for lunch Julie & Matt. It was wonderful to have Dad up for the holidays. Enjoy the videos and photos that follow.

christmas is tomorrow!

Well, it's the Derr family Christmas, anyways. As I mentioned in a previous post, my dad is up from Florida this weekend. My niece Rebecca is having her very first piano recital tomorrow afternoon. Following the recital, we'll be celebrating Christmas at my sister's. I wrapped the presents this afternoon. And yes, of course I used Martha Stewart wrapping paper. Then I made rice krispies treats in the shape of Christmas trees. I dipped them in green tinted white chocolate and Greg was in charge of sprinkling them. I think they turned out very nice. We'll be taking them with us tomorrow.

be careful

So I know this isn't supposed to be funny. But it makes me giggle.

holiday shopping opportunity and there will be a very large penguin

The Library Shop on Main is located in Main Library
in downtown Akron at 60 S. High Street.

back to work tomorrow

It has been a very nice and relaxing five days off from work. I could get used to having time off. Today, I made a tasty turkey alfredo pizza from the latest edition of Cooking Light magazine. Greg and I both agreed that it was quite good. I'll definitely be making that again. We also watched the latest season of Entourage on DVD this weekend. I like the short seasons of HBO shows. It's fun to get through an entire season, 8-10 episodes, in a short amount of time. I loaded all of our holiday tunes back on itunes and the ipods. So fair warning, if you are in the car with me in the next month or so, you will be subjected to Carnie and Wendy Wilson (of Wilson Phillips fame) singing Hey Santa! I like to divvy up the vocal parts among all the car's occupants. There's also choreography, or should it be called car-eography? Whatever you call it, it's good times.

rant of the day, part 2

Today's rant deals with tacky inflatable holiday decorations. On the way home, Thanksgiving evening, we passed a house not too far from our home. In the front yard was an inflatable nativity scene, like the one pictured. Ok, Jesus is the reason for the season, but should he really be blown up? To be honest, I despise all inflatable decorations, and they seem to be getting larger every year. At Lowe's I saw a Santa in a plane with actually moving inflatable propellers. I'm sure as the season moves forward, the nativity scene will be joined by an inflatable snowman, pengiun, and Mickey Mouse with santa cap. Perhaps they will be playing the parts of the three wise men. Happy holidays everyone!

a new look

Changed the look of my blog today. It was time for a bit of a change. Still working at adding some of the html widgets back to the sidebar.

it's in the mail

I got all of my Christmas cards signed, addressed and mailed today. I think that this is the earliest that I've had this task completed. Well that's one item off the holiday "must do" list. If only postage was only still 13 cents... We recieved our first card of the season on Wednesday. It was from our neighbors across the street. Jeff and MJ are always the first card we recieve every year.

the holidays have begun

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Greg's family. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous meeting many of them for the first time all in one place. They could not have been more welcoming and wonderful. I had a great time getting to know them. I hope that we get to spend more time together as a family in the years to come.
Friday night Greg and I went downtown for the kick off of Akron's Holiday Fest. We went last year and had a good time, so we've decided to make it our day after Thanksgiving tradition. It was quite cold, for those not from the area, we had our first accumulation of snowfall of the year this morning. It was actually very pretty. Back to Holiday Fest... the stage show was kinda hokey this year. But I suppose, if you can't be hokey around the holidays, then when can you?
The short fireworks display was pretty good again this year. They shoot them off the art deco styled YMCA. About half way through the show Greg suggested I use the video function on my camera. So for your enjoyment, here are a few clips of the fireworks. In the background you can hear the annoying woman who exclaimed, "wow" through most of the show. It may have been her first time seeing fireworks. Who knows?

happy thanksgiving

We're off in about an hour. We will be swinging by Greg's Mom's house before we head to his sister's for Thanksgiving Dinner with her family and Greg's brother's family. It's a day chock full of Sterlings.

almost thanks time

Today was my "work" Thursday. Tomorrow is my Friday, then five sweet days off. We're celebrating Thanksgiving at Greg's sister's place. It was wonderful that she invited us down. I'm bringing a couple of pies which I plan to bake on my day off Wednesday.
In other news, we saw the movie Dan in Real Life last week. It was really good. I nice family comedy.
My Dad's coming up from Florida the first weekend in December. My niece Rebecca is having her first piano recital. My dad hates the cold, so this is a big deal that he's coming up. We'll be celebrating Christmas a bit early on that weekend.
Greg's still looking for a job. If you know of any area transportation logistics openings, give us a holler.

a break from it all

Today marks my first full day off work in some time. I'm taking the next two days off, using some of the comp time I have amassed over the last several weeks. I'm having some "Mike Time" this morning. Greg has gone up to the employment assistance program with a few of his former co-workers. I slept in a little this morning and then walked Tucker. Went to Target and Border's to pick up a few things. Took a few photos of the beautiful maple tree in our back yard. Now I'm updating the blog and downloading some new tunes from The Killer's, Keane, and the Spice Girls. Hey, don't judge me! Gonna run to the grocery and then bake some garlic and sun-dried tomato corn muffins.

week from hell

So the first full week of November has sucked big time. Greg lost his job on Monday as a result of the assholes that he worked for before taking his new job. His whole department was let go. I hope that his previous employer's armpits become infested with the fleas of 1000 camels.
Meanwhile, in my work world, it was really busy. Still haven't had a full day off in about three weeks. I may need to schedule one day off next week for my sanity.
The few pluses of the week included Greg's car being under warranty and not having to spend hundreds of dollars on repairs. And getting to have breakfast with Greg at Fluries Cafe on Wednesday morning.
Oh yeah, someone stole money from car's change cup last Saturday. I guess I forgot to lock the doors. At least they couldn't figure out how to steal my Sirius satellite radio. And I backed into a tree yesterday. It's amazing what a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser can buff out...
Here's hoping for a much better week.

seven

Today is day number seven in a row for me at work, with no day off in sight. Joy.