Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

So this year Melissa and I got a new victim, er, participant, Amy, and our theme was the 1960's. I was going to get all crafty and make a pillbox hat but that just didn't work out, so Melissa teased my hair and styled it quite beautifully. The photos don't quite do it justice, it's more impressive in person, as are her hair and Amy's.

I heart Halloween and I'm glad we've come up with a theme that's easy to follow from year to year. We're already planning for the 70's next year. Of course, at some point we might catch up with ourselves... then what happens, I wonder. Do we try to jump ahead in time or start a new theme? Hmmmmm.

See below for this Halloween and years past.

Melissa, me, and Amy, 1960's

A closer look at my hair. Things I have learned today about 60's hair and makeup:

1. It really takes a lot to keep that hair so high! Mine has plenty of body to spare but had to be repaired a couple times and has fallen flat again now at the end of the day. I think I probably should have slept in rollers or something crazy like that.
2. Gold eyeshadow gets everywhere. Like on your black dress for instance.

Melissa and me last year, 1950's

Melissa and me in 2005, 1940's

You seriously sentenced a guy to 10 years in jail for having sex with a 15 year old when he was 17?

What the hell is wrong with everyone? Don't we have bigger things to worry about? According to this story it sounds like two high school kids had consensual sex. If that's a crime then you'd better put just about every person I know in prison.

This is just so stupid I don't even know what else to say.

We are going to be upgrading our server shortly, probably tonight, so my blog may be offline for a while.

We'll get it back up as soon as possible!

I would love some 30% off suiting options.

Unfortunately, 30% off $300+ doesn't help me much at the moment. SIGH.

But I do love your suiting dress which is, by the way, not part of the sale.

Very nice. As all my faithful readers should know by now, I love pretty dresses. Apparently it is my new thing.

OK, from Pink Shoe Diaries I am going to attempt her meme from yesterday because it seems fun. I tag Clementine, Hashbrown, and MisaGracie, who will probably play and Heather, who probably won't.

Five Things I am Good at:

1. Microsoft Word. I know this is a boring one but I've been working in various admin roles since (and during) College and I've fairly thoroughly tamed this beast. If you need help figuring something out, I can almost certainly help you! Think outlines, style formatting, forms and auto-fill fields, mail-merges, etc.
2. Knitting. I can get you to purl, Sarah. Or, if you just can't do it, how about you learn to crochet? Hint: It's faster than knitting.
3. Drawing/Making Crafty things. OK, so I was an art major, and I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil. Not really related to my current job or line of work, but I try to keep the artist inside me from dying by making fun cards for friends and family, doing fun knitting projects (see above), and I'm working on my computer illustration skills. I haven't done enough of it lately, but I used to draw cartoons all the time on family vacations and at work. I think I need to start that up again, big source of amusement for others. Just have to be careful the work-related ones don't end up in the wrong hands.
4. Math. Maybe I should have been a math major instead - potentially more lucrative. I hated math in high school but was always good at it. I had to take Calculus in college and found it surprisingly fun in some ways. My boyfriend is in grad school for CS and has had to take some math-y classes, and I kind of like helping him study. Is that sick?
5. Fixing things. I have a little background in construction and construction management and growing up my mom more often fixed stuff around the house than my dad (she was home more and not one to make lists for my dad, she'd just figure it out herself) so I guess those things combined created Jenn fix-it. I'd rather take something apart and figure it out myself than pay too much money for someone else to do it. I can replace a lightswitch or outlet, refinish doors and windowsills rife with cat and/or dog clawmarks, patch holes in walls, hang things from hollow ceilings and walls with anchor bolts, etc. This doesn't mean I'd do something foolish like disassemble the dishwasher or rewire my apartment, but it does mean a leaky faucet doesn't have to turn into a $300 plumber bill.

Five Things I am Bad (and in some cases atrocious) at:

1. Confrontation. I am a peacekeeper by nature. I don't really do a good job confronting people about much of anything. I have done it sometimes but it really takes a lot out of me and I have to feel pretty upset about whatever it is to attempt this. I'm getting better at least at confronting strangers about simple things like their rudeness etc. I guess I'll work up from there.
2. Being a morning person. I don't think any tips will help this. I'm just not. For the first little bit, even if I'm in a pretty good mood, if someone crosses me in the morning I'm instantly furious. Also, I'd much rather live in a world where I could get up at about 10am and stay up till about 3am. That's a more natural clock for me. I think I can at least manage to force myself to get up earlier and go to bed earlier, but I don't think I will ever be a "morning person", waking up chipper and happy to start the day.
3. Exercising. As in, I never do it. Well, this isn't 100% true, I walk my ass all over the city (almost never use the T - as in, use it like 4 times a year), which is a good thing, but that's it. I don't run, belong to a gym, do fitness walking, play any sports, or even do situps or pushups (girl pushups) on a regular basis. I don't have an original excuse... no time, don't remember, don't feel like it, don't keep up w/it well enough to see results so I stop, etc. I am aware in my brain that it doesn't really take much, but I'm bad on the follow-through. Also, I'm no athlete, let me tell you. The only things I really like doing aren't so year-round in nature - biking and hiking. And hiking requires going somewhere worth hiking, which requires a car basically, which I don't have.
4. Seeing both sides. While at times I think I'm very good at this, I recognize that if it's something personal or of great personal importance to me, I'm pretty terrible at it. I guess this isn't always a bad thing - I guess it makes me a loyal friend. But if I think someone's wrong I can pretty much shut out any possibility that they have any kind of valid point.
5. Taking criticism. I'm bad at it. Period. I take things very personally usually. Even when I try really hard not to.

Tip time:

Using columns in Word: If you only want a portion of a document to be divided into multiple columns, enter all the text first, including any text before and after the column-divided section. Then select just the portion of the text you want to divide into columns and tell it how many columns to make. If you don't like where it breaks the columns (ie: it's a list of contacts and it breaks in the middle of someone's address), you can insert manual column breaks from the insert menu to force it to do what you want.

Not sure what it is exactly about this sweater, but I must have it. Unfortunately, it costs $180. Which means I cannot have it. So, what are the chances I can copy the design and make one myself? Pretty slim my friends. But I may have to try anyway.

Guess what? I don't even care if anyone else likes this sweater. I love it for some reason I can't explain. Maybe it's a combination of the color (which I always inexplicably love in sweaters) and the coziness of it. It seems like I should be sitting in front of a fire in it and sipping hot cocoa or something.

So, this sweet angel:

bit me in the face Saturday morning! Nice, right? Don't worry, he wasn't trying to bite me really, just snapping at me and I got a little nick on my cheek.

But I was pretty pissed! Do you think he was sorry after? For about 8 seconds. Then back to his grumpy self.

He had fallen on his ass going up the stairs because he's old and crotchety and his back legs don't work so hot sometimes, so I was helping him up and apparently that earned me a bite. I presume he doesn't enjoy the undignified process of falling ass-backwards down the stairs and then being picked up like a baby.

Fun times as always on Anderson Street.

I will of course humor Clementine and play along, but I have a fairly long middle name and like 2 other friends who actually have blogs so... I'm only tagging Melissa because she's the only one I think will play, though Heather is welcome to if she so pleases.

R: Right. I am this all the time. OK, not really, but I'm kind of stubborn sometimes. Also, if I am certain I'm right, I'll never back down. Ever. I might shut up about it but I'll go around with it in the back of my mind forever how wrong you are about whatever it is. Think of it as a part of my charm. When I was a teenager my dad and I used to argue a lot because we are BOTH right all the time, and when we disagreed this caused strife. Poor Keyrock.

E: Eating. Is it sad that this is the first word that popped into my head? It might be. But it is, so, there you have it. I love eating. As I said last weekend at my uncle's house while shoveling hors d'ouevres in my mouth, "Don't worry, I'm a Martinelli. There's still room for dinner." This was later proven.

B: Baking. It's getting to be cooler and that makes me want to bake. Like every day. Even though it's time-consuming, messy, and the cookies/pie/cake whatever get(s) eaten way too fast. I love making yummy treats... to Eat. See above.

E: Come on, another E? How about Equine. Clementine will love this one. As in hello, as a little girl I LOVED HORSES. I wanted a horse. I wanted a whole horse farm probably. I was in 4H and went to horse shows. No joke. I had horse posters in my room. It is my sincere desire that Hester Willa will share this love of horses. Oh, and unicorns. I still actually would be perfectly happy to have a horse or a stable full of horses. But I don't plaster my walls with them anymore.

C: Cavities. As in I've never had any. Well, I had one, but it doesn't count because it was diagnosed by Gentle Dental in Porter Square who we later realized had lied about Rob's alleged "several" cavities and about the need for him to have his wisdom teeth removed (luckily we found out these claims were untrue before doing anything about any of them). So I judge this cavity and filling as illegitimate. Still, only 1 cavity my whole life is pretty freaking good, right? I'm a total neurotic freak about my teeth. I used to have nightmares about my teeth crumbling or falling out.

C: Caretaker. I can't help it, maybe it's being the oldest child and the only girl, but I pretty much "Mom" everybody I know. I worry about them, check up on them, bake them things, run to the store to get them things they're too lazy to get themselves [or, sometimes, don't even want that badly] (note to Rob and Heather, this started in high school, it's not limited to you guys), hold their keys, hold their hair when they puke, clean up their messes, etc. This includes both human beings and pets. The good news? I might not ever have to actually go through childbirth because I think I've almost used my Mom gene up. I reserve the rest of it for Hester Willa.

A: Athlete. I am NOT this. Not that I'm lazy because I'm really not. But I don't have a natural athletic bent. I do love riding a bike and I love hiking and I don't mind walking my ass from one end of the city to the other. But going for a jog? No thanks. Joining a gym? Ha, that's hilarious. Being in some kind of organized sport-related venture? Funnily enough, I was on the ultimate frisbee team at Smith in its very early days, but when that started taking up too much time I quit. It's a big joke among my friends from college that when one of them first met me she thought I was an athlete. Principally because I wore sweats and sneakers a lot. I laughed hysterically when I heard this.

I guess that a lot of parents are now deciding, based on what evidence I can't figure out, that vaccinations are more dangerous for their children then the chance that they might get the disease the vaccination is supposed to protect them from.

I'm no expert or doctor obviously, but at least from this article the concerns seem pretty illegitimate and the parents sound a little wacko.

Clementine, what do you think? I know Hester Willa has already had some vaccinations so I'm pretty sure I don't have to decide you're nutty.

Do these people have a point? Or are they in the same boat with folks who enjoy having colonics? (ie: the boat full of crazy people)

OK Colbert, you've got my vote. Now don't let me down. My other options aren't fantastic.

Hi, I'm Jenn. If you haven't met me before I'm a total shoe whore and clothing whore. And, lucky me, I got a new catalogue in the mail the other day from Boden!

Don't worry, kind readers, Christmas will be here before you can believe it, and I am happy to report that I will accept gifts at any time. No occasion necessary.

Check out the cute dress!

How to be optimistic seemed like a great how to for a Monday.

Good luck everybody!

Really, he does. Here he is expressing his love, as am I, when I was at Clementine and Petunia's for Hester's baptism last Sunday.

About a week ago I had a crazy dream that I was watching Hester while Clementine and Petunia were out to dinner or something and abruptly Hester not only took her first steps, but started running around like crazy. I was all upset because I didn't want her moms to miss her first steps but I was so proud of her too that I had to break down and tell Clementine when she came to pick her up.

Anyway, that didn't really happen, but she's getting pretty close to walking! Check it out:

Ask Twitter!

I can see some people totally oppressing me for this but I think it's kind of fun and funny. It's akin to the silly voicemails and messages on white boards my friends and I used to leave each other in college sort of.

I'm at Borders and there's this woman a few tables over with assorted cooking magazines, and she's sitting there literally copying down what appears to be every recipe from every magazine, longhand in a notebook.

Now I guess if you are just looking for a pie crust recipe or something you don't want to spend $6 on a cooking magazine, and I don't really have a problem with you snatching a recipe (although um, there's this magical thing called the INTERNET where you can find stuff like this that's supposed to be free and you don't have to steal it from a publication). But if you are really going to sit there and steal all the contents from the entire publication, or multiple ones, it's just a little ridiculous.

Buy the magazines, lady.

Some search phrases that got people to my site on October 3:

1. leash laws
2. flambango
3. sysiphous

I guess I know how my friend "Dog Knower" got here.

Also, Flambango is my friend Mike's improv group, I'm sure it's wicked funny.

And sysiphous... that just makes me laugh. Long story, but Clementine will appreciate it.

I have nothing to say about David Gest, yes that would be Liza Minnelli's former husband, sporting this look. Really, you have to click on the link to believe it.

Wow, a helpful person calling themselves "Dog Knower" left me some great advice on this post. I really can't wait to follow it! Tonight it's all-off-leash all the time for Billy the dog! Children (and adults) and small (and large) animals (and all unsupervised cars with open doors) beware!

Maybe Heather the vet, Billy's first mom, would like to comment.

I dedicate this terribly unfunny quote to Rob Reed because for some reason he thinks Rodney Dangerfield is hilarious.

When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.

Rodney Dangerfield

It's a real problem.

Check out more problems.

I'm really loving the cute little sneaker-y flats that are all over now. Comfortable, cute and funky. Great for casual stuff like jeans or you can dress them up a little with a casual skirt or dress.

All I can say is: What the fucking hell?

Here is one photo from this past Saturday when Hester and Clementine came to hang out with me. Hester LOVES the ducks in the Public Garden!