Just a reminder, I’ve moved the blog to a self-hosted site. Come on over and see what’s new.

iloveupstate.com

or

renovationtherapyblog.com

Either url will work. Don’t forget to update your links, Google Reader, etc. cause we kinda miss YOU.

I moved the blog to iloveupstate.com and there’s lots of new schidt happening…hop on over there.

iloveupstate.com

Movin’. Movin’. Movin’ Let’s keep the wagons movin’.

Yes, I’m moving this damn blog once again. When I moved from Blogger to WordPress I made the mistake of moving it to WordPress.COM when I should have used WordPress.ORG and done it on a self-hosted site. If you access this blog via iloveupstate.com – don’t fret, will point the new blog to that URL shortly.

You can find me at…

renovationtherapyblog.com

or

iloveupstate.com

What I’m trying to say is…this is the LAST POST on renovationtherapy.wordpress.com so if you use that, please update your feed (Google Reader, etc.).

Dang, I can be long-winded.

Now…for your trouble…I am going to do numerous enormous giveaways over the next several weeks. Hoping to have that first contest up on renovationtherapyblog.com & iloveupstate.com in the next few hours.

Thanks!!

xoxo,

Jean

Hello, my name is Jean and I am a Twitter junkie.

You can follow me and my musings (PMS! Accounting issues! SingAlongs!) by going here: http://twitter.com/RenovationThrpy

This weekend’s grand plan…

Butter cookies from the church cookbook? Perhaps.

Packing for a big trip? Perhaps.

Organizing my messes projects. Perhaps.

Getting the new blog relaunch off the ground. Well…

What are you up to?

We went to a recording studio tonight to…record some stuff. The studio was in someones apartment in NYC in a good sized apartment (condo?) building. The studio itself was so soundproof that you could play drums (should you choose) and the neighbors would not hear you. How’d the engineer do that? He built a room inside a room. The apartment had very high ceilings so he added a soundproofing layer on the ceiling, walls and then floor – it’s roughly an extra foot all the way around. He put sheetrock over the ceiling and walls (even crown molding!) and then put down hard wood floors on top of the floor. He built windows on top of the windows. Such an awesome setup. You can see the room inside a room in these pictures – look at the double doors and the window casement to see the thickness.

The guy who owned the studio had a dog named Betty. OMG. I am so in love with her. So cuddly! So happy! So tail-wagony fun! All you had to do was say “Betty!”and she would literally leap into your lap and cuddle up. I got at least 2 hours of good cuddlin’ in.

I think Betty is a corgi/daschund mix. Sweetest disposition. The engineer found her at Animal Control in Harlem 3 years ago. We renamed the studio ElectricBettyLand. You understand…

Fiance has been playing with new photography software application. Each photo is more traumatizing than the last one. This one made me burst out laughing. His caption on the photo is:

Our friend Alex is from Russia. He loves to make fun of our silly American customs and we also tease him mercilessly. That man has never met a condiment he didn’t like. Seriously, if he puts less than 5 condiments on an item it’s a shock. Anyway, last night he came over for dinner. After dinner Alex continued to forage around in the fridge, he found a jar of pickles. Did I mention that his stomach is also a bottomless pit? Sorry, I got sidetracked…so he’s eating the pickles and he’s moaning on and on about how glorious they are. Neither the Fiance nor I actually liked the pickles so we told him to take the jar home with him so they wouldn’t be wasted. Alex felt the jar itself was too much of a problem to carry home so he insisted on putting the pickles, juice n all into a ziploc bag. He then put the bag of pickles in his coat pocket and merrily went on his way. The Fiance and I just looked at each other and giggled. Alex is quite the character.

In other news, we went to a petstore tonight to see the shelter kitties. Unfortunately we didn’t find the little girl of our dreams. Still on the hunt. She’s out there somewhere. Which brings me to the film Coraline. We FINALLY saw it tonight. Of course now the Fiance is fixated on naming the kitty Coraline. Too many syllables for a kitty says me!

I have an enormous bag of dvd’s and cd’s to giveaway over the next several weeks. Yep, there’s gonna be contests & prizes galore! So keep your eyes peeled (gross) for the contests to pop up randomly.  

In the meantime, I needed a little pick-me-up and present. We received our annual bonuses last week (this would be a good time to hit me up for a loan – NOT) and I usually take a little chunk of change and buy myself something that I’ve been wanting – but don’t necessarily need (read: ’spensive handbags…). This year I cut that budget dramatically but still managed to find some fun girlie stuff to spoil myself…

May I present my first Danskos…yes, I’ve joined the cult:

Also, picked up these funky Dr. Martens… 

They scream “wear these and kick some ass whilst shyly smiling”. At least that’s what the intent is. Hah!

In the interim, you can enter this Dansko contest OVER HERE. If I win, I’m getting the black clogs.

So this morning my taxi driver was a bit…fast. Check out these self portraits via the iphone. I think they are hysterical. Some of the best pictures I’ve ever seen of moi!

Speaking of the iphone. I saw this chick walking down the street (I was in the speeding cab) and fell in love with her purse. Does anyone recognize it? LUV it.

So umm, talk amongst yourselves today. Nothing to see here. Ho Hum. Next.

:::whistling:::

As  I alluded to the other day, Mom found a church cookbook at our local junk store. The book(let) was assembled by the parishioners of the church directly across from my house. See…

You know who was especially excited about this recipe book? Silver/Sylvia. Tranny cats are big potluck fans. Betcha didn’t know that!

You can click into my FLICKR account to get bigger files to print. OK, without further adieu…a selection of old school church recipes from upstate New York:

The Best Sugar Cookies…

Soft Molasses Cookies (note: my Mom adds day old coffee to her version!!)…

Banana Cake (note all the Authors, do you think there was an *issue*??!?)…

Blueberry Fruit Cobbler (I think I went to high school with her son!)…

Pumpkin bread (and I think I went to school with her son too!)…