Yes, consider that subject line to be said in the vein of "Hello, Cleveland!" from the too-brilliant-for-words movie, This Is Spinal Tap. If you haven't seen it, run, now, and get it from Netflix or your movie purveyor of choice. The DVD version has THE FUNNIEST commentary track I've ever heard. The actors do the entire thing IN CHARACTER! I feel like I've already blogged about this. Forgive me if I'm repeating myself. It's just a REALLY FUNNY MOVIE, and it bears seeing if you dig music.

So, I'm here, but just for a moment. I have meetings and a photo shoot and all sorts of stuff dragging me out of the office today (photo shoot, I might add, is of one of my bands... not of me). I say dragging because I have SOMUCHWORK to do that I'm stressed out that I won't be in the office to do some of it. Which is why I've already been on the computer for a few hours this morning... Frantically trying to get ahead, which we all know is an exercise in the impossible. I only have a few minutes before I have to run upstairs and finish getting ready. Not enough time to start a work task, but just enough time to babble here for five minutes. Good thing I type fast.

It's going to be a busy weekend. Mike and I are headed up to Boston to see Sister Hazel, which is a work trip for me. While we are there, we are having dinner with my Crowded House/Neil Finn fan pal, Sarah. When we get back, we promptly head off to Melissa G's birthday celebration on Sunday. It's going to be a very busy weekend.

I'm a bit freaked out when I look at my holiday list and realize how far behind I am on everything this year. I'm one of those freaky people who is usually done with her gift shopping by Thanksgiving. And this year? Not even close. I need to get a move on, but the soonest I can do anything shopping-esque is not until NEXT weekend. I hope to finish then, but we'll see.

Ok, my five minutes is up. Better scoot. Have a good day and a good weekend all!

Greetings and salutations from chilly but sunny New Jersey. Please disregard the remaining leaves on the lawn... they blew there from the neighbors' yards. Really. (Ok, maybe half of them did.) It's getting so late in the season that they may not be raked until spring. Because there is the off-chance that the wind could blow them BACK into the neighbors' yards and then we won't have to rake them at all, right?

So I got home Sunday night, and I spent virtually ALL DAY Monday catching up on email. Because, you see, I did the unthinkable. I didn't turn on, think about, or get near my laptop the ENTIRE FOUR DAYS I WAS GONE. Yeah, go back and read that sentence again. I know it's unbelievable. I usually at least download my emails even if I don't read them. But I realized I really hadn't had "vacation" time this year... even when I'd been traveling, I was still working and extremely connected. This was my first real time for vacation... where it would be perfectly acceptable and understood that I would not respond until Monday. So I took advantage of that fact... to the extreme. It was blissful and wonderful, but it also meant a LOT of catch-up on Monday when I finally did turn the thing on.

And I've spent the past two days frazzled and crazed at my day job. This is supposed to be a quiet time of year for me. Things are supposed to be winding down. Two of my bands have holiday albums out and they are both touring in support of them, so to say things are a bit nutty is grossly understating the entire scenario. So I may be a little bit... incommunicado... over the next few weeks. I'll do my best to post here, because, frankly, I find it way fun to just mouth off at nobody in particular here. Therapeutic even. But you might not see me here every day. I'm sure you won't shed crocodile tears over that one.

So I had a nice Thanksgiving trip, but it flew by. Lots of time spent talking with family, laughing together, playing with all of the kids in the extended family, and taking a few outings (no, I didn't get anywhere NEAR a store on Black Friday!).

Everyone gathered at my grandparents' house that Saturday morning to figure out who was getting what and to do it all together so that it would be fair. It was bizarre and weird, and I felt like I was snooping as I went through things. It was three hours of adults trying not to cry in front of the great grandchildren, basically. You never knew what item you found that would set you off. For me, it was the bowl my Grandma always put her tuna salad in, and she ALWAYS made it for me because it was my favorite. So my cousins and brother decided among themselves that I should have it, and then when I saw it sitting on the kitchen table, I had to go into the bedroom and sit there for a few minutes to compose myself.

We came home with a car loaded to the gills with stuff. But as I said to Mike when I finally broke down and really bawled on the way home, I don't really care about the stuff. I'd rather have the people back. He said that it would make them happy to know that I had some of it and would give it a good home and remember the good times when I saw those things.

Anyway, the whole thing was very sad and difficult. I'll be going back over there one more time at New Years to go through some things I ran out of time to go through. I took really random, strange stuff in additional to the sentimental and family-related things... like a slew of old keys and game pieces, which I thought I could use for crafting.

They've decided to sell the house, so I think that saddened me even more. I was hoping it would be able to stay in the family somehow, but I just don't think that is possible. I wish it was possible to bottle the way their house smells. It has always smelled the same and it's one of my favorite smells in the world.

Aieeeeeeee.... I've gone all sad and weepy now...

Ok, yes, I did say I hate Black Friday yesterday. I will not deny that. However, I DID say that I love a good bargain (who doesn't?), so I've gone and put EVERYTHING in my studio at Scrapbookgraphics.com on 30% off sale through Sunday (sale started about two hours ago when I finished changing the prices...). You can consider it the play-along-at-home version of Black Friday! No crowds, no lines, and EVERYTHING is in stock!!!!

So I was just perusing the blogs I read every day, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm doing it all wrong... this blogging thing. Lots of people have photos ALL of the time on their blogs. Folks like Heather Ann Melzer, Tara Whitney (ok, the woman IS a photographer after all, so probably not the best example)... even my good pal Cathy Zielske usually has something photo-ish (or a flippin' funny video... you have to check THIS out immediately -- the chick is a comedian! Or should that be comedienne?) on her blog.

I don't usually have photos. Well, unless I've been to a concert. Or I have something new in the digi store to pimp. Or I have a freebie... Otherwise, I have no show part of the show and tell. Is this bad? Should I have photos? I don't know WHAT I'd have photos OF, mind you. I don't think you'd want to see me every day, and I know Mike would get tired of me taking his picture all of the time. I don't have cute kids or pets to snap away at. The plethora of pictures elsewhere just got me thinking that I could be doing this ALL WRONG and nobody has told me.

I obsess about the stupidest stuff sometimes.

So I have to get up at the ungodly hour of 4:45 (yes, a.m.) tomorrow morning so that we can leave early enough to get to my parents house in time for Thanksgiving dinner. They decided this year to go out to eat rather than have anyone responsible for cooking (don't blame them a bit), but that leaves us with a specific seating time, so we gotta really get a move on to get there in time (traveling today was out of the question due to Mike's work schedule).

And it's a sorta dressy place, so we will probably have to travel dressed up. Since I can't stomach the thought of either traveling in pantyhose for seven hours NOR consuming a large meal wearing them, I'm trying to come up with a dressy pants solution. I've been pondering this since yesterday. Wish me luck, or I'll be a total grouch when I get there. Since I've worked at home for seven years, I don't really do pantyhose anymore. Nor do I want to. So I'm hopeful that I can dig something out of the bowels of my closet that will a) fit, b) look cute, and c) be conducive to sitting for a long time in the car.

At least we're not flying today. The reports I saw while at the post office earlier showed Newark Airport with the worst delays in the country. Yes, my post office is kind enough to have a TV so that you can be entertained while you wait in line. It showed up around tax time this year and it's still there. This is good because there is usually a line and it usually moves VERY slowly. The travel report made me glad I'm not flying anywhere today.

Wishing everyone in the U.S. safe travels, good times with friends and family, or at the very least, something yummy to eat tomorrow. C'mon, big group hug... everybody in!

(And if I don't post for a few days, I'm just off having fun with my family and ignoring my computer...)

Before I get to the gist of this post, I wanted to say a big public thanks to blog reader Meg for sending my the color palette to jump-start my creative mojo! That was so sweet of you. I've been meaning to thank you for almost a week and kept forgetting each time I posted on the blog. Your palette is very cool and bright and NOT the kind of palette I would have come up with on my own, but I really love it and hope to play with it soon. You can name the kit for me when I'm done! Thanks again!

Soooo... I may be in the minority here and I may get blasted for even saying this, but to me, Black Friday is a huge nightmare. Evilness. Gives me the willies. I can't fathom someone wanting to get up in the middle of the night to be there when a store opens at 4 a.m. I can't fathom wanting to run around with all of those other shoppers (I have a big problem with crowds in general though... can't stand 'em). I'm all for a good bargain, but the way this has become such an "event" that it has a name kinda skeeves me out more than just a little bit. I know plenty of people who love it and brave the crowds. Ick!

You will find me far, far, far away from stores on Friday, enjoying what I am going to call a very, very colorful Friday (the antithesis of black, ha ha!) with my family, enjoying their company. That, to me, is the way the Friday after Thanksgiving should be spent.

So, am I the only one who thinks Black Friday, with all of its crass commercialism (it's so spend spend spend) and insane crowds, is yucky? Do tell, do tell.

My other pet peeve of late, besides the fact that Christmas/holiday commercials have been on TV for weeks now, is all of the car commercials this time of year. You know, the ones where there is a big bow on the new car sitting in someone's driveway... because it's the gift that's just too big to be parked under the Christmas tree... Well, I don't know about you, but have you EVER known anyone who got a car for Christmas????? Yeah, I didn't think so. 'Nuff said.

So I'm still sticking to my healthy eating kick, albeit in fits and starts. I'm doing pretty well over all. I would estimate that I've lost 15 pounds. I saw myself on camera this past weekend and didn't completely hate my appearance (just sorta). I have to share with you the greatest thing ever...

100 calorie Hostess Cupcake Packs

They are yummy chocolate goodness and I know exactly how much I'm eating, calorie-wise. It's a divine snack, and not much of a cheat. I love love love them so much. I do much better at this stuff if I let myself have small treats. Less apt to fall completely off the wagon... like I did on Saturday.

You see, I had my fellow Altered Art Chicks over all day Saturday for an altered art play day. Stupid me didn't prepare properly, so instead of getting all glue and ink-covered, I made some updates to the site. Needed to be done, so I felt it was time well-spent. Anyway, I bought snacks. Because when one creates, one needs fuel, right? So we ate WAY too many Cheetos and cinnamon Sun Chips and stuff like that. Yeah, I know. Bad, bad, bad. That's what I meant when I said I fell off the wagon. But I think doing that every once in a while isn't bad.

So Melissa alternated between doing stuff on the computer and actual paper crafting endeavors. Audrey came prepared with a project box full of stuff to work on -- chipboard stars, happy birthday cards... she was a woman with an altered art-y mission. As per usual when the Chicks gather, we laughed a ton and got a lot done. And had a blast. And learned that chipboard is a big fan of Audrey's! Who knew??????

So Friday night, I was playing on my computer late late late and put together a playlist for myself. I call it "Sing Along With Neil." And it's up on iTunes if you wanna give it a spin. It's my favorite Neil Finn songs to sing along to (yes, my title for said list should have already been a giveaway, huh?). I'm a car singer. Love to sing in the car. Love to make up new harmony lines each time I sing along with a song.

I'm not a good singer by any stretch, but I don't totally suck either. So I like to think that someday, when Neil pulls me up on stage (as he's been known to do on many occasions [not pull me specifically up on stage... would be nice, but it hasn't happened yet... I meant that he does often pull audience members up on stage]), I can impress the entire audience with my mad harmony skills. It's not the full playlist -- not all of the songs I selected are available on iTunes. But it's about half of them. I believe you have to have iTunes to listen. But it's a great mix. Go ahead and listen and let me know if you come up with any good harmony lines. I'm always up for some new ones! And if you ever see me singing my heart out at a red light, you can be fairly certain I'm harmonizing with Neil!

Twice in one week... popping on here... feeling like blogging, but nothing much to say. I'm not sure what that means -- the need to babble when I don't know what to babble about. I guess sometimes I'm full of words and they need to come out somewhere. And not in the form of an email pitch to a writer or an editor asking them (very nicely) to write about my band(s). Those are fun a lot of the time. But sometimes, words escape me in that context. Oh, don't get me wrong. I have plenty of words. But, at this particular moment, they're refusing to comport themselves properly. They're not spewing out of my keyboard in a well-written, concise, witty fashion. It's times like that when I have to take a step back and not do work emails.

So what do I do instead? I write on here. Which is a more public forum and therefore should be reserved for times when the words are not only comporting themselves properly, but are also cavorting and frolicking in the best way possible. Is that happening now? Not so much. So forgive me my lack of frolic. It's not because I love you less than the writers and editors. I just have to put the words somewhere. I'm sure you understand.

For as long as I can remember, I have been a writer. People find it strange that I can be a writer and a designer. Something about right brain/left brain, I guess. Words and language are left brain. Symbols, images and visual stuff is right brain. So I guess I'm a bit of an anomaly. I flip-flop between the two with a great deal of ease. Not sure how I manage that. I'm not a math/science person, and that is left brain. If I were to guess, I would imagine I'd be right brain dominant, but I have no idea really.

So I Googled, as one does to find out more, and I found this: right vs. left brain. Interestingly enough, the first response I had was left brained. She was turning counter-clockwise. But when I looked at her again, she was turning clockwise. I'm not sure what this means. Perhaps I do jump between the two. Looking at the left brain list, I am very much a logical person. Very detail oriented. But on the right brain side, I'm very strong on the imagination and spatial perception fronts (I scored ridiculously high on a standardized test in school on "spatial relationships"). So maybe the fact that writing and design are both passions of mine makes sense.

So I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I wrote a book. I started it in 1997. Finished it in 2003 (took me forever if you look at it, but I really wrote it in two concentrated several-month-long spurts... took me maybe seven or eight months all total). I had some people read it, critique it, give me feedback. Overwhelming positive comments. I started looking around for an agent, because to get a book published, you really need one.

But then life and my day job and a move in the middle of all of that really brought the process to a grinding halt. I put the book aside. Hadn't even LOOKED at the manuscript in the past four years. And suddenly, I wanted to take it out again last night and read it. See if it stood up to the test of time... would it still be ok all these years later or would I read it, snicker, and wonder what the hell I was thinking by writing it in the first place...

Well, 80 pages later, I am completely caught up in my own manuscript! Oy. I can't believe I'm admitting this here. It sounds so blatantly egotistical, but you have to realize, I haven't looked at this thing in YEARS. Not a glance in its general direction. I know the whole story. I know what happens. But I forgot all of the great and laugh-out-loud funny details I put in there. I found myself saying to myself, "I can't believe I wrote this." I sound so completely full of myself. And I'm not really. I guess I'm kinda proud of it, truth be told. Even if it never gets published, I wrote a book. How many people can say that? I'll have to let you know how the rest of it seems once I finish it. It could suck by the end of it. Who knows.

So I started having this little fantasy of having my book published last night while I was trying to fall asleep (and really wanting to sneak downstairs and keep reading, but it was already 1:30 a.m. and I needed rest). And it made me start thinking that I might want to try. I don't know. I'm not sure I'm up for the rejection that is certain to follow. Who wants to set themselves up for that willingly? My other big issue is severe lack of time. I would, of course, curtail my Mental Blocks playing on Facebook to make something like this happen. But how do I do that AND my day job AND continue to design? I need the former to pay the bills. I need the latter for my mental health (because nothing de-stresses me like a good PhotoShop session...therapy in software form). But writing... playing with words... that feeds my soul too...

I'll continue reading. See if it's worth my time. It does need one more edit before I'd send it off, but I have to say that so far, I don't have a lot to tweak. Minimal things... some culture references that need to be updated, a detail here or there that I want to fiddle with, but so far, I'm digging the book.

And I got the genesis of a plot for a second book as I was falling asleep last night. I might have to write another one soon. Maybe that's why the words are wanting to come out. The writing muse has awoken from her long-time slumber.

We shall see.

So now you know my secret. Well, one of them, anyway. Surprised?

Ah, the old conundrum... feel like blogging, nothing to say. At least no topic pops into my mind. Been feeling a bit blah the past few days and I'm trying to figure out why. Haven't put my finger on it yet. Something's bugging me, but it hasn't had the decency to really register fully in my brain yet.

Not sure what will give me clarity either... so if you see me around, looking mopey, well, now you won't know why, since I don't know why either.

But one thing that IS bugging me that I am aware of is this... holiday commercials on TV already. I'm all for being jolly, but I prefer to limit said holiday jolly-ness to the window between Thanksgiving and New Year's, thankyouverymuch. IT'S STARTING TOO EARLY. Didn't the advertisers get the memo????

I don't mean this in a bah, humbug sort of way. Au contraire. I am coming from a "could this holiday get any more commercial than it already is?" sort of place. After next week, this will all be a moot point, really, won't it? But for now, and for the past week at least, this has been annoying me mightily.

I'm also going to go on the record and say that I really have been a crappy designer lately. No, I don't mean designing crap. I mean doing a crappy job of being a designer. I think maybe my mojo is on hiatus. I can design in small bursts. Very small bursts. But then I find myself wanting to play "Mental Blocks" on Facebook instead (it's similar to this game). I could sit and play it for hours, and lately I have been. In the evenings. When I should be designing.

I'm not sure what is making me practice this avoidance behavior. Maybe I'm tired of giving my "free" time to something that has become a second job for me. Maybe I'm just being lazy. I don't know. So I am trying not to force myself to mosey on over to Photoshop unless I want to, because I'm certain that the results wouldn't be worth the time I spend on them. Not that playing Mental Blocks is a good way to spend time. But I do it while I watch TV.

So I'm a multi-tasking time-waster of the first order.

And now you know.

I said it recently, but I really do seem to have the best friends. Mike and I finally got together with Bill and Melissa on Saturday night. This celebration of my birthday (and Mike's birthday, and now Melissa's birthday) had to be rescheduled no less than six times due to scheduling conflicts, people getting sick, my Grandpa's funeral, etc. Not only did Melissa get me the Tim Holtz "An Altered Journey" video as a birthday gift, but she also made me the COOLEST book EVER celebrating our friendship. Here's a photo of the cover of it:

Well, needless to say it brought tears to my eyes. Because, you see, Melissa is a very linear scrapper. I am sure it gives her angst to put a photo on a page at an angle. See that title on the front? ANGLED, right? Go Melissa! And not only did she put photos on pages at angles, she did all sorts of quirky, Krista-esque things with ribbon and doo-dads... I was so touched that Melissa made a book for me in my style. Because our styles are quite dissimilar, I know it was a challenge for her, and she just put together the coolest keepsake. Thanks, M. You already know I love you, but I'm surprised our shared brain didn't notify me sooner that you'd been so hard at work on this book. I'll bet you were so anxious to give it to me!

The goodies didn't stop there, though. No, Melissa had contacted my good buddy Cathy Zielske to let her know I was having a birthday, and Cathy got all crafty and sent Melissa a layout to give to me as a gift. Well, as you know, my birthday was almost two months ago. Melissa has been harboring this secret gift for those two months. And I gather that top-secret exchanges between M & C were something along the lines of: "Did you give it to her?" "No, we haven't gotten together yet." And they both kept this a secret for two months! (Heck, I had a hard enough time keeping the tote bag I had Neil sign for Cathy a secret until she got it in the mail a few days later....) Who knew that life would throw so many obstacles in the way of our birthday extravaganza? Better late than never, I say, as I am now the proud owner of an original piece of Cathy artwork, which shall be framed in a shadow box and hung on my office wall... AND she included EYE CANDY in the form of Neil Finn on the layout! Wanna see it? Of course I'll share it with you:

Isn't it awesome, in the totally "CZ Simple" way that she has about everything she does????? Ok, I know I've never met you in person, Cathy, but that doesn't mean that I don't think we aren't separated-at-birth music soul mates of the first order. The fact that you crack me up on a daily basis is just a groovy bonus. We will see Neil live together one day. Thank you for my birthday present. Belated, sure, but that's not your fault! I'm awfully glad I started reading your blog and we became pals! You make me smile.

The Paper-Palooza sale at Audrey's barn on Saturday was a rousing success! She sold boatloads of paper and despite the way-chilly temps, we had a great time hanging out and eating a few too many ginger snaps between customers. Woohoo!

Two posts in one day... shocking, I know. What can I say? I'm feeling chatty or some such.

While clicking on Dictionary.com just now to check the spelling on something (because I was too lazy [see I TOLD you I was lazy] to get up and walk the three steps to my bookshelf to get out a real dictionary IN BOOK FORM!), I realized that, while handy, Dictionary.com would never take the place in my heart of the real McCoy, old-school, book version. Why? Because of Dictionary Smell. Have you ever noticed that all dictionaries smell the same? Slightly musty, but with a hint of the knowledge incorporated in its pages. I love that dictionary smell. It makes me feel smarter, somehow. Which is really counter to having to use the book in the first place, if you think about it. If I was smart enough, I wouldn't need to look the word up at all, now, would I?

So, yeah, Dictionary Smell. Good stuff to the word smiths of the world!

A friend of mine sent me an email forward this morning. I found it completely hysterical and realized by the way that it was written, it was actually a blog post. Being the author of a blog myself, I know how important it is to actually direct people to the blog. Give 'em the traffic, I say! So, without further ado, I absolutely insist you check out: Strap in, shut up and hold on. We're going back. Somebody got their hands on a 1977 JCPenney catalog. The photos alone are worth a visit, but the commentary is great too. I'm totally adding this blog to my Bloglines.

Ok, now that you are back, and have visions of mint green leisure suits dancing in your brain (and you know you want that matching cowboy shirt duo for you and your significant other), I just need to vent. In the interest of being a nice person, I won't out the company that did this to me. Unless they piss me off again, then all bets are off. But in last night's mail, I got a package. In the package was a DVD. A DVD I didn't order. Didn't want. And if I keep the DVD, I have to pay for it. If I don't want to have to pay for it, I HAVE TO RETURN IT!

Ok, fine. I'll return it. I don't want it. Make me go to the post office, why don't you! But, I ask, WHY does somebody think it's ok to send something like this to me and make me have to do something and, if I don't, I have to pay for something I didn't ask for??????????? That's just wrong. I know, I know, I sound lazy. I'm not really. (Ok, maybe I am sometimes.) (Ok, a lot of the time.) (Well, pretty much all of the time, but you didn't hear it from me.) I just resent having to package this sucker up and having to take it to the post office. I don't have to pay for said shipment -- the company I shall not mention was kind enough to include a postage-paid envelope. But, I implore you, if you work in marketing and your company thinks something like this would be a snazzy idea, please tell them it's NOT!

All of this talk made me think of something: does Publishers Clearinghouse still do their million-dollar giveaway? If so, why haven't I gotten an entry in years? Am I not worthy? Do I look like I don't need a million dollars? I remember I used to actually fill mine out and put the little sticker on the outside saying I wasn't ordering anything, but enter me in the contest anyway. And we all know that sticker was the kiss of death to my chances of winning, but I still had to send it in anyway, because, as they say, you've gotta be in it to win it. And I always kinda hoped on the big day that the announcer with the bundle of balloons in hand would show up on my doorstep. I've had no such fun in years though, because I stopped getting entry forms. Perhaps my years of "not ordering anything, but enter me in the contest anyway" knocked me off the list. But I could definitely still use that million. So if you win PowerBall and win a billion dollars, I hope you'll remember me in a monetary way.

Have a super weekend. We'll be kickin' it at the Paper-palooza extravaganza in Audrey's barn this weekend. Seriously, if you live nearby, come get some stuff. We're going to have crazy good prices to make room for our 2008 products. If that isn't enough incentive, we'll also have snacks and warm beverages. Yippee!

If you are in the NJ/NY/CT/PA area, Mootsie & Altered Art Chicks invite you to attend our
year-end Paper-Palooza Clearance Sale!

We need to clear out some old stock to make room for our new product line for 2008!

Saturday November 10th
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
1141 Madison Hill Road, Rahway, NJ ...exit 135 off the Garden State Parkway

View Larger Map

(The sale is located in our backyard horse stable ... look for balloons!!! Parking is on the street.)

Featuring:
* Textured cardstock
* Digital kits
* Cards, envelopes
* Mini-books
* Mini-book kits
* Bulk Paper by the box
* Embellishments
* Altered Items
* Vintage Items
* Wire Paper racks
* Acrylic Paper racks
* Gently-used rubber stamps
* $1 bin

This is a CASH only sale, doors open promptly at 10:00 a.m.!

Ah yes, good show last night. The theater was wonderfully small and intimate. We were in the fifteenth row. They played the entire new album, "Red Carpet Massacre" (which I really liked a great deal) which comes out next week. They played an "electro" mini set, composed of funky versions of a handful of songs, then they did a "hits" set. It was awesome, it was great, I danced, I sang along, and I had a blast!!!! I took a bunch of pictures... you can see them in this slide show:

And I even shot some video... not the best quality, but still lots of fun:

REALLY GOOD STUFF!!!!!

So, did anybody miss me? I was away for four days for a family wedding (and, wouldn't you know, The Tragically Hip were kind enough to schedule two dates in the area we were visiting, so we managed to squeeze those in too!), and spent yesterday playing catch-up. It was a great trip, albeit very whirlwind, as I flip-flopped between family commitments and rocking out and getting very little sleep in the process!

So now I'm back. I totally missed Digital Scrapbooking Day on Saturday since I was away. I trust everyone had fun checking out the sales and events all of the sites had cooked up! The day at Scrapbookgraphics was a smashing success from all I heard about it. Wish I could have been there! Our launch sale at Altered Art Chicks was a huge success. Thanks to everyone who visited and bought some goodies!

My subject line refers to my destination this evening. I'm going to see my teen idols Duran Duran... they are doing a string of shows in a Broadway theater. I'm so excited I can't sit still. We are in the 16th row, I think. Attending with me are Mike (maybe he was worried I'd run away with Simon if he didn't come with me), Melissa, Jenn, and Melissa's friend Maureen. Back before I was ga-ga over the music of Neil Finn, The Tragically Hip, Matthew Sweet and the like, Duran Duran had my music-loving heart. My friend Marcie has been to several shows in the past week and said they are amazing. So I'm very hyped up and excited, and I haven't even had any caffeine yet today.

So, today's question is: who was your teen idol? Who was in those posters on your bedroom wall back in the day? And don't you still have a teeny-tiny crush on that person still? (I know I'm not the only one!)