The Angel Forever

Post BlogHer10 Tuesday Tales – giveaway reminder

Posted on August 10, 2010 2:28 pm by TheAngelForever

Today on Tuesday Tales, I was going to review It’s Raining Cupcakes by Lisa Schroeder. The book was mentioned in a magazine I was browsing through and I HAD to read it.

NHL and I finished reading the book last week. He was going to help me with the review for today. Then this "little" conference called BlogHer happened from Thursday to Sunday and jumbled up my plans. Rather than rush my review, I am going to postpone it until next Tuesday. Of course, I could not help but smile when there were cupcakes at my first event on Thursday evening. I immediately thought of Isabelle and her family’s adventure within It’s Raining Cupcakes.

In the meantime, please stop by my review from last week on Potty Animals for your chance to win one of 5 copies of the book.

Potty Animals

See you next week for my review of It’s Raining Cupcakes by Lisa Schroeder.

Categories:
BlogHer books giveaway nhl photos Tuesday Tales

Wandering NYC and better NY State license plates

Posted on August 9, 2010 4:41 pm by TheAngelForever

On Friday, I wrote about the ugly new license plates in New York State. If you missed that post, you need to check out how far we came over my lifetime, only to go back 10-15 steps. Ugh!

While in NYC for BlogHer, TechyDad and I opted to walk around the streets by the Hilton for a little while. Please note, we were so close to everything it was amazing. We walked a block over to Broadway. First, we saw this:

We opted not to have pizza there and continued to walk down. . .

I drooled and wished that we had tickets to see this:

Sad to say, we did not get to see that or the following:

We kept walking down and saw marque after marque of plays we would not get to see along with other interesting signs. Then we went into the Hershey Store for a few minutes.

There was a lot to see, but it was nothing like their home store in Hershey, PA.

Across the street was another chocolatey retail wonder. Here is the sign as it changed outside:

We had to go inside to wander around the three stories to compare it to the Las Vegas store. Not quite as much, but my oh my a lot of M&M packed into one NYC store!

While there, we saw the solution to the UGLY new New York State license plates. Here they are:

After this, we went back toward the Hilton and stopped by Ray’s Pizza for some slices to go. We wandered back around the corner to the Hilton and went back to the 31st floor to inhale, and relax before day 2 of BlogHer.

Greetings from BlogHer 2010

Posted on August 8, 2010 12:19 am by TheAngelForever

Just wanted to say hello to everyone from NYC. TechyDad and I have been here for BlogHer ’10 since Thursday. It has been a whirlwind of learning, networking, seeing/meeting friends, having fun and barely sleeping. There will be a lot to share in the coming weeks. For now, here is a photo of the two of us heading to the parties Saturday night.

See you on the flip side after we venture home in our shiny red Chevy Tahoe Hybrid (amazing SUV) thanks to the Chevrolet Sponsored Carpool. Thank you again to Lisa G and the rest of the amazing people that made the adventure downstate possible.

P.S. A special thank you to my parents for making this amazing weekend possible. If they had not helped out with the boys this experience would not have been possible. THANK YOU to an amazing Nana and Papa who are so very loved by the boys and us.

Categories:
Blogging Conference BlogHer jl me moments photos TechyDad

NY State license plates

Posted on August 6, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Growing up, one of the things that I liked about road trips was seeing license plates from different places. Driving from upstate NY to North Carolina and other parts of the south along the Atlantic Coast allowed us to see many items. Of course, I still remember the gorgeous license plates from our trip to Hawaii in 1988.

I think I took license plates for granted until recently. I knew they changed in New York from time to time, but never thought much more of it. Enter being an adult and realizing that the change in plates being an increase in registration fees and everything else that the state slaps on. Hello instant revenue in one easy step. For those of us in New York, we are experiencing this right now. Our very generous governor (on his way out – might I add) decided to alter the plates. Nobody knows why since they were not an improved look, we all speculate it was a nice money maker for New York which is in a lot of trouble.

So why am I complaining? It is not just because of the cost. It’s because of the look of the plates. The new plates are U-G-L-Y! Not being a fan of orange to begin with, they are bold, hard to read from a distance when driving, and have nothing to do with our state. If you are not familiar with the New York State license plates, here is a view of them from my life:

My feeling is that this should have been canned and redone to make it better. This was rushed and uncalled for at this point in time. Luckily, mine will not be switched out for quite some time.

My question to you this week:

What state are you from and do you like you license plates? Also curious if yours have changed a lot during your lifetime or stayed mostly the same.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #111

Categories:
Aloha Friday looking back me moments road trip

A childhood best friend

Posted on August 5, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It’s only fitting that today, while heading to BlogHer, I write about long time friends. Later today, while at BlogHer, I will finally be able to meet many people that I have known in the blogosphere for three or more years. I am so excited about this. The list of people that I hope to meet and some see again (from DisneySMMoms) would be too long to list here, plus I no doubt would leave out someone important without meaning to hurt feelings.

Last Friday, I had a reunion of a different kind. I have to admit, I was really giddy about this. I actually called my parents to see if I could have a friend come over to "play" at their house. When my parents heard that it was my lifelong friend and former neighbor Julespearl, they immediately agreed. Heck, they were excited at the prospect of seeing her. They had probably not seen her since my wedding, nine years ago.

Growing up, Julespearl and I were inseperable. The two of us would knit together on the porch in the summer, watch Little House in the Prarie first thing each morning, and share our dreams of teaching. She was actually one of the few people that knew I secretly wanted to teach when I started off at pharmacy school.

Julespearl and I have tried to get together in the past, but things just didn’t work out. This time we both knew it was a must. So the other night I sent her a message. I asked if she could come over to play – seriously! For old times, TechyDad even made WhirlyPop popcorn that I brought and we had ice tea as we chatted while the boys played. The sad thing, Julespearl had never actually met my boys in person while we both lived in the same city all these years.

It was like time had stopped and we had never grown up. We talked and talked and talked. Each of us catching up on things that have or are happening in our lives. We both commented on how special our neighborhood was growing up. All of the kids played together, summers did not need camp because we all went on adventures to the park and beyond together. It really was a different time period. As much as I love our neighbord here, our busy schedules means that we do not see each other often and it is sad especially based on my childhood.

As dinner time approached, Julespearl had to head home. She and her hubby were heading out to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary. Just another reminder that we had indeed grown up.

So today, as I make new friends and see others once again, I also look forward to making more memories when I get back home from BlogHer with my good buddy. I can not wait to sit down and knit together with citronella candles lit listening to Beetles in the background.