hey guys! i'm back to blogging!
check out my new blog here:
http://www.homegrown.tumblr.com

...and after an extended hiatus from tourney scrabble. i'll be playing again in february. so i'll finally see some of you soon. it's been way too long!

damn this slow ass live coverage. i need to know what's going on in orlando and i need to know NOW!!! go tommy!

Okay. I'm game. Here's my Johari.

So my birthday was wonderful! Thanks for all your well wishes. My family loved Tom. And Cincinnati was laidback. It was a lot of fun for sure. I see Arden Cup is shaping up to be a big fat lovefest right in our backyard. Unfortunately, we're headed to a music festival downstate so won't be able to share in the scrabble ups and downs. Good luck to you all, safe travels and agreeable tiles! I played hooky from work today so I've got a FIVE-DAY WEEKEND!!! I can't believe it. I'm cleaning and packing now. I'm excited to see the Roots, Flaming Lips, George Clinton and PFunk and various others. Well, back to work. Lots more stuff do before I get my hippie on! We'll be back early Monday and after a shower and unloading, we'll be out to Skokie to revel in the post-Arden glow. Late lunch/early dinner? See you on the other side of the weekend fools!

hi. wow. this is weird. do we know each other?
yes, it's been forever since i've posted. but IT'S MY BIRTHDAY (and my twin sister's birthday as well). tom and i are headed to cincinnati in a few hours. he's gonna meet the family. (cue ominous music)...i can't believe i'm up at 6am on my birthday. I've got the day off work. I'm hoarse because I went out to a show with some friends last night including aibretty. Thanks for the beer fool! Let's see, if you, like me, had never heard of Busdriver, do yourself a favor and find some of his music. He was incredible. El-Producto had the crowd moving and I left before Dizzee Rascal came on. All in all, it was a WONDERFUL night.
Tom's sitting here watching the scrapbooking hour on qvc. I don't know, somehow all seems right with the world. You guys have a great weekend. I know I will!

I can't remember how to put a cut on this thing. If someone tells me in the comments, I'll fix it so as not to run your friends page ragged!

UPDATE: Thanks redaragorn for showing me how to cut. So yeah go ( here! )

make me a muxtape.
i made you one.

Hey all. Sorry it's been such a long hiatus. I was kinda over Scrabble for a bit and then fed up at work. But now as the winter thaw sets in, I'm preparing to come out of my hibernation. First on my agenda, MUSIC.
Here's just a big clusterfuck list of what I'm listening to, who I've bought tickets to check out, what's on my music radar in general...so in no particular order:
The New Pornographers, Daft Punk, Girl Talk, Man Man, Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend, The Long Blondes, Made in Mexico, Explosions in the Sky, the Flaming Lips, Hanne Hukkelberg, Tom Vek, Okkervil River and some super secret hipster shit that's so cool, I can't even discuss it here.

...that last bit was pure sarcasm. But hey look there you are. Here I am. Welcome back!

Just thought I'd leave you with a little something fun as we head out to the RedEye. It's fucking freezing in Minneapolis, by the way!
Courtesy of anendlessnight.

Instructions: Open up your iTunes and fill out this survey, no matter how embarrassing the responses might be.

How many songs total: 3815
How many hours or days of music: 12 days

Most recently played: "Circles" - The Ensemble at Salaam
Most played: "Helplessy Hoping" - Crosby, Stills & Nash (22 plays)
Most recently added: "I Remember Painfully" - Daniel Johnston

Sort by song title
First Song: "A-Plus" - Hieroglyphics
Last Song: "Zombie" - Fela Kuti
Sort by time
Shortest Song: "The Ironman Takeover Skit" - Ghostface Killah (0:05)
Longest Song: "Introduction: What is Existenialism - Hubert Dreyfus (1:14:40)

Sort by album
First album: "Aaliyah" by Aaliyah
Last album: iTunes considers "Youth" by Matisyahu

First song that comes up on Shuffle: "This Time Anything Finite At All" - Songs: Ohia

Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death - 29 (but most are Death Cab for Cutie)
Life - 27
Love - 151
Hate - 8
You - 326
Sex - 21

That was fun. Tag, you're it.

Tom and I have been playing some incredible Scrabble. Nothing like some awesome home games to make me get back on the horse again! I joked that the reason I keep tanking tournaments is because I don't want anyone but Tom to know how good I'm getting...I even got to play the title of my favorite Pearl Jam album: BI(N)AURAL! That was definitely a highlight of our weekend games...
In other news, we're looking to move ASAP after discovering that our super's shoddy furnace fixing left us with carbon monoxide pumping through the house for nearly six weeks! Eeks...
So it looks like the Red Eye then Dallas for us, cause we'll be trying to move before the end of the month. Phew...well at least we didn't die. And that sort of close call, puts it all back into perspective. Carbon Monoxide Posioning = Death, Scrabble = board game that should always be fun (win or lose)...
PS: we saw Once, this weekend. Great fuckin' movie!

After all the hard work I put in during the fall, I've plummeted back down to 1085, a 105 point drop in FOUR FUCKING DAYS. I don't know what else to do but say FUCK RATINGS. I'm just gonna play I guess. We'll see what happens at the Red Eye, where yours truly will be ONE OF THE TOP FUCKING SEEDS AGAIN.
Grr. Rant over.

Sorry for my silence, sometimes life just takes over. Happy holidays to everyone! We're headed to Albany tomorrow to wrap up our incredible year of Scrabble. Happy New Year to you and yours. And hopefully, we'll see you soon! Lots of love! ERICA =)

So Tom and I decided yesterday morning that we should head to South Lyon, MI to play this weekend. Saturday's a divisional tournament and Sunday's another NAST satellite tourney. I'm so excited to play again! I've even been trying to get in some study since I got Baron's new Scrabble Wordbook. It's by far my favorite study tool, but proved useless when studying from the old version and I found myself challenging acceptable bingos that I'd never encountered before.
We are also signed up for Lisa Slankard's tournament in Elmhurst, IL the weekend after Thanksgiving. And in a sure sign of my insanity, I volunteered to work on Thanksgiving if need be, because I'm just too greedy to pass up triple-time pay. I've also secured our plane tickets and sent in our entries for New Year's Eve weekend in Albany! And to complete it all, we've got our tickets (still need to send in entry fee) to Minnesota for the Red Eye during MLK weekend.
Hooray! Work is winding down and I'm back to playing some scrabble. Now, let's hope I can pick up 62 points before New Year's so I can play up. Have a great weekend everybody. Good luck if you're playing if not, get to studying.
x's + o's...

I'm now rated 1138. I got a 101 point bump this weekend without acceleration points. I can't really get into all the details, but I will later. Here's a quick summary. During the NAST early bird, despite one early drubbing by David Weiss it was like I could do no wrong. My break served me well and finally getting over 1000 has relaxed me during tournament play. I was in third place before the final game, edging out Steve Hartsmann by spread points. He shellacked me in the final game, taking away those crucial spread points and knocking me into 6th place. I won $20 for the class prize and another $20 for high word of the tourney: V(E)RIFIED for 110 points...double double bingo biotches!
Feeling confident after the NAST I fell back down to earth losing my first two games of the main event. After a quick cig break with Tom, I put my head back on straight and won my next four before playing my "scrabble daddy" Lesley Salas. Lesley wins after I chicken out on UPSTAIR to bingo out. I finsh the day 4-3. But Sunday, I go 4-1, including a 9 point and 3 point win, which are upheld via recounts. I take 4th. Gain another 20 rating points and some cash for the scrabble fund. I'm feeling good and I should move into the 9th spot on the top 10 ratings gainers when it's all said and done over at cross-tables. I'll do a more detailed account later in the week.
Thanks all for your congrats and well wishes. I'm finally feel like I'm catching up to my Scrabble boys...

sorry for my silence. i've been working 70 hour weeks, literally. i work 12 hour days and on the weekends as well. i'm burnt out! no time for study, no time for play, not even any time for tom...4th quarter sucks.
i'll see you all again soon. i'll start playing again and posting again.
i hope you're all doing splendiferously. i'm off to notre dame this weekend for some much needed tourney play and next weekend's the dells. i have no expectations of doing well, as i haven't been to club in weeks. i'm just excited to spend some time with tom, scrabble friends and play this crazy game we all love so much. and did i mention i'm stoked not to be at work over the next 2 weekends!
ps: i'm now 1017!

Hey guys! I've been unusually quiet, haven't I? Well, we decided to play in Chicago over Labor Day weekend and it was a lot of fun. Jeremy ran a great tournament. At the last moment (literally the morning of), I was moved into the next higher division. I felt nervous and unprepared and played a pretty terrible tournament with moments of sparkling brilliance. Tom, however, continues his astounding play and finished in 2nd place, after starting the first day at 7-0!
But here's the kicker: I'M FINALLY OVER 1000!!!! I'm at 1001 to be exact and sheesh, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. 1000 was just a mental hurdle and now that I'm over I'm ready to put the time and effort into getting really good.
We're headed to Fenton this weekend. I'm hoping to pick up some more points in Sunday's Late Bird Open!
Happy September everyone! Can't wait for fall to get here...

...So Jeremy's got us signed up for his tournament here in Chicago. But we're thinking of heading to Hudson, OH for 3 days of open-play Scrabble. Could be the boost I need to get over that hump. But we're wondering what our friends are doing? Where are you playing over labor day weekend? And if you're not playing, what are you doing with the last hurrah of summer. I've also been filling Tom's head with the idea of camping instead of playing Scrabble since we've done nothing out-of-doors all summer. We'll be kicking ourselves when winter's in full swing. Tom's also heading to Lake George with me in October and Albany in New Year's. Hooray!!!

Comment and I'll give you a letter. In your journal, list 10 of your favorite songs that begin with that letter. ipecac_icecap gave me a W...

1. "What You Want" John Butler Trio
2. "Waiting in Vain" Bob Marley
3. "Wallflower" Bob Dylan
4. "Wanderlust" Bjork
5. "Wanted Dead or Alive" Bon Jovi
6. "Wasteland" Dan Bern
7. "We Made It" Ghostface Killah
8. "We Suck Young Blood" Radiohead
9. "Wear Clean Draws" The Coup
10. "Whatever" Jill Scott

Varied music, for my varied tastes (or personalities as it were)!

Find your own pose!

Tandem Cycle Traits and Tendencies
Tandem Cyclists are the stars of the sleeping world. Tan, relaxed, and wind-swept, they’re always smiling bright, no matter what blows life deals. Disease, public speaking, automotive failure — they take it all in stride, thanks to the steadying power of spending night after night with a best-loved mate at their backs.

Comfort Zone
Tandem Cycle Pose is part of the Sun Sleeper family.

A Note about Mattress Care
Due to the pose's bouncy mount, the mattress of a typical Tandem Cyclist couple can wear unevenly unless it is both flipped and rotated at least once a week.