or so reads the thermometer. I am so sick-as-a-dog sick i can't even capitalize.

i started feeling like dookie two days ago and now i'm at the peak of illness- that snotty, nasty, congested, nauseous, listless, and too tired to sleep point of the sickness. you know what i mean.

today is deadline day at the full-time office job, so yesterday and this morning were not ideal times to be under the weather. i stayed at home yesterday and wrote a full story and three-quarters of another, but it took me from 6 am to 10 pm with intermittent sleep- and whining-breaks interspersed throughout. this morning i went to work until 11:30, came home, and fell asleep for what i thought was a couple of hours - the clock read 5:35. oops.

...so i've been catching up on the blogosphere with what little strength i have, and what a day it's been in virtual-land. The DOOCE Heather Armstrong herself was on the Today Show talking to Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford, and she did a great job. I loved her cute dress and restraint in speaking with Gramma Gifford about "bahLOGing??" KLG kept stepping on Heather's words and trying to relate to the television audience by exclaiming wildly about this new-fangled fad called the Internet. Then, when Heather tried to make a point about boundaries and blog safety by comparing her online habits to the pros and cons of living in New York City, Frank's Wife cut her off a-gain by yelping "BUT I DON'T LIVE IN NEW YORK! HA-HA!"

"HA-HA?" This must be why I don't watch morning television. That, and I'm generally asleep.

I also got to catch up on the news of some of my favorite bloggers (or webblers as we like to call them over at TSB), including Nanette, Keely, and The Slack Mistress, as well as some I don't read every day, like Rosie O'donnell's r blog. I'm not sure what led me over to her blog today, but it's quite nice. She posts videos set to great music and clips from rehearsals for her upcoming Broadway show, No No Nanette (no relation to the blogger above). Rosie gets a lot of flack for being too political, too vocal, blahblahblah, but that's not what her blog is about. It's just about life, and I think I'm going to check her out more often.

I must be feeling a little better, since I started capitalizing again. But since I'm sure this won't last long, I'm off to watch Family Guy and Top Chef. The former being about where my brain is right now.

My second attempt at Scorsese-ism:

Here's a new one. My photos are part of a quiz devised by photographer-turned-B&B owner Diana Mara Henry! What a cool idea. You can check out the quiz and my pictures here - I shot them as part of an article on Henry and her B&B about a year ago.

So as you can see from the post below this one, there seems to be an issue with embedding flickr videos; or at least mine.

At first, I thought I might have violated a copyright issue because my shaky camera work short film includes a soundtrack by the band Bow Wow Wow. But it's still available on flickr, it just won't work here.

I know some flickr videos, like this one, embed just fine, so I'll keep investigating. That said, here is a YouTube fall back.

I've been having a blast playing with my new camcorder and movie software, so I thought I'd share my first travesty short film.

This is also the first video I've uploaded to flickr... there's been a lot of debate about whether or not it was a good idea to add videos to flickr, and I'm honestly still on the fence. I love flickr, like many people do, and would hate to see it compromised. But at the same time, I love flickr, and would rather upload my videos to just one site instead of two or three, preferably to one I already adore.

I figured I'd start uploading here and there, and make a more educated decision as to whether I love the vids or loathe them later on.

BTW, there are groups on flickr now both in favor of and against the video component, if you want to more actively join the debate. I respect them both and apologize for being such a flagpole sittah, but hey, what's the world without a little moderation? ;)

That said, world, meet Charley.

charleytest_movie.wmv

The weekend started in a bit of a whirlwind for me - straight from work to a Friday-night event,  leaving little more than a pile of dresses in my wake.

My office offers a nice perk that we weasled out of our publisher a few years ago -- 4:30 Fridays. Because I write for a business magazine, the idea is that we need to be accessible to the general business population during peak hours, so we have a nine-hour work day starting at 8:30 and clunking to a stop at 5:30 or thereabouts. There's a lunch provision in there somewhere that I rarely get to pay much attention to -- but at any rate, when 4:30 Fridays went into effect, you would have thought we'd been given Super Calzone Tuesday and Wear-your-pajamas-to-work Thursday as well, we were so damn appreciative.

Usually, 430F gives me a chance to go home early and watch more than the last 10-minutes of Oprah. Last week, though, it gave me only the chance to race home and change for an event hosted by one of my publicity clients, Robert Charles Photography.

I was supposed to have company, but at 5 pm when I heard the front door open and a pallid, sniffling ArcherVision came through, I knew I was on my own. He had no sooner dropped his keys on the table than he'd crashed on the couch with a blanket and the remote - victim of the dreaded season-changing cold.

On to the Log Cabin I went, and although solo, the event was very nice and I quickly forgot about feeling awkwardly alone. It was a combination retirement party for RCP's founder, Robert Charles Zemba, and fundraiser for the Children's Miracle Network, and stations of food had been set out around the room signifying different aspects of Zemba's life. An avid fisherman, a seafood station offered salmon steaks. A lover of the Caribbean, a tropical salad table was devised. And to honor his career as a wedding photographer, there was a carving station adorned with a giant wedding cake and flowers.

The best part of the evening had to be this, though:

The gnocchi - sirloin parfaits finally served carbs and beef the way I think they should be - dessert-style. The gnocchi was covered in creamy cheese, spooned into the cups, and then topped off with a layer or sirloin strips straight from a steaming wok.

I think I inhaled some of it through my nose.

Some emotional speeches from the Zemba family and dancing to the Dyn-O-mite Disco Review (Beep Beep!! Whooooaaa... Cheep Cheep!!) followed - I snuck out around 10 to see how Kleenex Boy was doing.

Saturday offered one of the first nice days of the year here in New England, so I did a little yard work and later had dinner with Justine at the newly renovated Cafe Manhattan. It's long been a favorite place of mine, but Teeny had never been, and I wanted to see how different it looked after eight months of being closed for construction.

Here's the weird thing though ... nothing looked different. I didn't mind much, as I never had an issue with it before it closed, but still, it was distracting to keep searching for a change. Thankfully, the food was as good as ever. I had the Capellini Aglio Olio, Teen had the Penne Gorgonzola.

On Sunday, ArcherVision was still recovering, but enjoying some of the 4/20 programming on Comedy Central. I puttered and cleaned and gardened until about 5, when it was time to set out again, this time for the Stevie Nicks concert at Mohegan Sun.

I've always liked Stevie, but never sought out tickets to a show before - these landed in my lap through work, somewhat unexpectedly. So, my faithful partner in crime Justine joined me again, and we made the surprisingly easy trek to Connecticut to see the Crystal Vision herself.

Can I say, I am SO glad we went. Stevie Nicks is awesome! She sounds great, she looks great ( she's almost 60, hello) and our seats were fantastic. The whole show had a theatrical aspect to it that we don't often see from newer performers -  not over the top, just added a nice wrinkle. Stevie changed outfits five or six times, had the trademark scarves and boots, and yes, she twirled. She also told stories about many of her songs, apologizing for not being 'very showbiz like, but what do I care?' Turns out Dreams was written in Sly and the Family Stone's studio and when Sorceror was penned, she was living with Lindsey and cleaning houses.

She did the standards - Gold Dust Woman, Landslide, Rhiannon, Stand Back - but also covered 'Crash' by DMB, to my glee, and encored with Led Zeppelin's Rock n Roll and her tune, Beauty and the Beast, for which she wore a long velvet gown and had scenes from the 1930s version of Beauty and the Beast playing behind her. Edge of Seventeen was about 11 minutes long with a percussion intro ... we could have OO!! OO!! OOOed!! for another 20 easily, though.

I was home before 11 on a 'school night,' just enough time to upload my blurry cameraphone Stevie pics:

Admin notes:
- I've cancelled my travel blog TravelJax, so all of my travel posts will now be here on this blog.

- 167 members and climbing at TSB!