Friday Night Fireworks

Since our July 4th attempt to see fireworks was a bust, hubby and I took Piper to see the Friday Night Fireworks in Coney Island. My camera wasn't quick enough to get pics of the actual fireworks, but they were amazing!

The famous Wonder Wheel and Dino World rides.



As hubby calls her, here is "No Fear Piper" on some crazy ride that had her spinning in the air.



She's the pink blur somewhere in here too. This ride has ear splitting loud music and my daredevil was dancing in her seat, ha!



Here she is rope climbing. Other than the girl running this game, I didn't see anyone complete it successfully.

A fire-throwing woman outside of the freak sideshow tent.

Who can go to Coney Island without stopping at the original Nathans? Mmmm, cheese fries!

Whoever though Coney Island would be quiet without Astroland was sadly mistaken. The place was packed tighter than sardines.

Pip had so much fun and was so tired out, that she fell asleep as soon as we got home. Now that's a successful night if I ever saw one!

Card Carrying

Bezzie over at Random Meanderings started a new meme all about Library cards. She wants us to pimp our library cards.

The white card is Piper's. She got that one while she was in daycare. The green card is my updated one. Both cards can still be used, but the green one has some neat features, like being able to add money to it to use the printer without having to fumble with change.

Ignore the really bad paint job. I have no idea how to blur stuff out.

Our cards were free, but I'm not sure if they are free for everyone or just Brooklyn residents. I also had my library card from kindergarten until just a few years ago. No idea where it went, but that one was green and yellow, if I remember correctly.

So, do you carry?

She's 83 again and she got my first quilt!

This past weekend, we celebrated Dirty Grandma's 83rd birthday again. We thought she was 83 last year, but we were wrong and apparently, she's 83 THIS year. Oops!

Dirty Grandma says "Thanks for coming t'mah party holmes." That Dirty Grandma is so badass!



After getting the ghetto out, she was feeling sweet enough to take a picture with me. She posed for so many pictures with so many people, it was like the paparazzi were after her. I think it must have been her American flag birthday star headband. Like I said before...badass!




Here are just a handful of cousins. Starting at the top left is Jeannie, Crystal, Nikki, Steven and me. When I was in the sixth grade, an eighth grader was bullying me. Jeannie (who was in 7th) kicked that bully's butt for me. Talk about love!



Grandma's cake was the little one on the right. There's a bakery here in Brooklyn that makes sugar free, diabetic friendly cakes and cookies. Its awesome that Grandma can actually eat cake on her birthday now. The other was a sugar filled, teeth shattering badboy from Costco.



She claps for herself when singing Happy Birthday. Oh, it makes me giggle.

She opened presents, including a quilt from yours truly. Its my first!

That skinny person is not me, its Jeannie. I only wish I was that thin!

Even a badass Dirty Grandma can get worn out. She conked out in her chair after all the excitement. The nap did her good though...after she woke up, she partied til 10pm, which is past MY bedtime.

Here's a flat pic of the quilt. The yellow is an old flat sheet that I'd never used and some blue fabric my mom had never used and gave to me. The squares are 8" across, making the quilt 40" x 48" (lap size) and they're not lined up perfectly. I need to learn to cut more accurately, but even so, it turned out really well, methinks.

I stitched in the ditch, although I might have veered off the ditch one too many times. The binding wasn't as hard as I imagined. It really is one of those things you just have to do, because it looks more scary on paper. I machine stitced the binding, using a blanket stitch, but will probably just edge stitch it with a straight stitch next time.

Overall, I love it. Look at the crinkly goodness!

What I did on the Fourth of July.

Sort of sounds like those essays you have to write after summer vacation is over.

Anyhoo, we had a busy Fourth. My uncle Kenny threw a graduation party for my cousin Lauren, who just finished high school.


Uncle Kenny and Piper

Mom was feeling well enough to go and cuddle with my cousin's newborn baby, Jewlian. Don't ask me about the spelling of his name. I don't understand it either.


Wonder who made that blanket? Heehee


Mini me and I.

We left in the middle of the party, hoping to make the fireworks show at the Hudson River. On the way there, we noticed the Empire State Building was decked out in red, white, and blue.

Because of the graduation party, we got to the fireworks later than we had hoped and weren't able to get a good spot. We were able to see some of the fireworks from an avenue (and a tree) away. That's about the best shot we got. Oh well, we tried!

Hope you all had a great Fourth of July!

Jo Jo the Giraffe

Jo Jo is the latest stuffie to fly off the hook. Jo Jo is a pattern by Andrea at Knits and Knots. Isn't he adorable? I love the way he turned out!



I'm generally wary of intarsia, but the chart was super clear and very easy to follow. The way the mane is worked is really clever too. I think Jo Jo will be a project I make on a fairly regular basis for baby showers from now on.

Jo Jo has a matching blanket too that is really cute.

I might be posting sporadically over the next few weeks, because we have 5 parties in 4 weeks and Pi's day camp starts next week. It already seems like the summer is going to fly by. I'll try to be as regular as possible, though.

Tuesday's Tribue

Tuesday's Tribute is to one of my favorite things ever: Epic Fail.I squealed with girly delight when Hubby noticed this.


Even if the double L is supposed to be a play on words, its plain stupid.Misspelling words on purpose: Epic Fail!

Deal or No Deal Casting Call

Anonymous Hubby and I heard that Deal or No Deal was going to be hosting a casting call for their new daily show in CT. Pi already had plans to spend today with my sister, so we decided to go on a whim.

It was held at a car dealership in East Hanover, NJ. Thank goodness it was done in a place with as much space as this, because the amount of people that showed up was crazy...easily a few thousand. It would have been mayhem on a NYC street.



Anonymous Hubby staying anonymous.



We arrived right before 8am and there were about 600 people in front of us. It was a pretty good spot, considering we hadn't camped overnight like some people did.



This was about the midway point. 95.5 PLJ hosted the casting call and did an awesome job making sure everyone was taken care of. They handed out bottles of water, protein bars, peanut butter bars, and played a ton of music.



This picture was taken right before we went in to get interviewed. At that point, we'd been on line for 4 and a half hours. Look at all those peeps who are probably still there now.

The Deal or No Deal peeps take groups of 10 inside to meet with a producer who interviews everyone. By interview, I mean you get 30 seconds to describe yourself and make a good impression. At that point, the producer picks the people she likes and those people get sent to a second set of producers for another, longer group interview (like 1-2 minutes).

They were casting for both Season 1 and Season 2. Season 2 is going to be career oriented, so they separated people with specific careers for that season after the 2nd group interviews. Everyone else who made it to the second interviews is considered a possible candidate for the show.

I made it past the first interview (Hubby didn't though) and went on to the second interview. Woot woot! Now I just need to be patient and wait to hear back from them. It can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 4 years (!!!) depending on when/if they want you. I'm hopeful but not getting too excited. There were thousands of other people there, so anything can happen.

It was a really unique experience. I can cross "try out for a game show" off my life goals list. ;) heehee