Category Archives: personal

Snapped, Svengoolie, and Still Sluggish on Sunday

I also watched Columbo, but it would not have been alliterative to use in the title. I am looking at another episode of Columbo as I type this (one letter at a time with the stylus; I really must get a new laptop), but I am more concerned to get this posted and get to bed. I like to go to bed early on a Sunday.

“One more thing!”

I went for a walk instead of a run again this morning. It occurred to me I could start doing Pedestrian Posts instead of Running Commentaries. Had I but thought to do that earlier, I could be paying more attention to Columbo now. This episode features quite the clever plan.

It’s been a favorite for years.

I have been more into movies than Snapped on Sundays lately, but today true crime called to me. I took a break to enjoy a DVR’d episode of Svengoolie. The Monolith Monsters. I find those old horror movies so fun.

I’m also a sucker for his corny jokes.

As you may guess from the desultory nature of this post, I am still feeling sluggish today. Oddly enough, I have not taken any decongestants, just some ibuprofen for my hip. Perhaps my chronic insomnia is catching up with me. But just listen to me whine about my aches and pains! I mean, don’t listen to me! My problems are all of the first world variety, and I will shut up about them.

In the meantime, I am approaching 250. I consider that more than adequate for a Wrist to Forehead Sunday post.

Sluggish, Stupid Saturday

I pick up my Tablet to make a Scattered Saturday Post, purely because I do not want to go a day without posting (counting the post I made this morning as yesterday’s), and I log on to WordPress to find that my last post got NO blogger love. I am such a Like junky, I find this rather devastating. But I tell myself it is a First World Problem and drive on.

There is not a whole lot to tell about my Saturday anyways. I mentioned earlier that I did not run. I had a headache so took a pill with a decongestant and pain reliever, and it made me feel rather sluggish. I was about to add that it made me feel stupid, but I have been feeling that pretty much all the time. Make whatever unkind remarks you like about me being stupid. There may be a joke there somewhere, but I am too tired to find it.

I did see my friend, Kim. We had lunch at Asteroga Ale House in Herkimer, NY. We went on to Pete’s Tavern for a drink but only stayed for one. Back home, my headache went away (finally) but I fear it is coming back. The sluggish, stupid feeling never left.

On the brighter side, I see I am over 200 words. I’m going to call that a win and go for a better blog tomorrow. As always, I hope you’ll tune in.

Lamest Fast Words

You know, like Famous Last Words. I may have used that title before. I could go back and check, but my Tablet is so slow and I am so lazy. Actually, lazy would make a slow Tablet OK, because I would be just sitting here waiting. As Inigo Montoya said, I hate waiting.

Where was I? Ah yes, making a late Lame Post Friday post. A nice reader commented that she enjoyed Lame Post Friday, then I inconsiderately did not make one the following week. Or was it two weeks? See above paragraph about going back and checking.

I got up earlier than I meant to (stupid insomnia), got dressed to go running, but walked instead. I apparently did something bad to my hip on last Saturday’s run. We may not see another Running Commentary Post for a while.

As I type lame words (pecking one letter at a time with the stylus, as you may have guessed since I mentioned the Tablet), I contemplate my Saturday. Will it be filled with Mohawk Valley Adventures? Will I blog about them? Will pictures be included? A little suspense adds interest to my morning.

I am feeling mildly pleased with myself, because I have posted every day since, correct me if I am wrong, Monday. Were they good posts? Let us not ask for miracles, but thank you for tuning in.

It LiFTs My Spirits

Rehearsals begin tonight for Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare, presented by Lift, Little Falls, NY Theatre Company. Full Disclosure: I am not at rehearsal. I’m not in that scene. But I am very excited for rehearsals to start. I have been studying my lines.

In light of this, I would like to throw back to past LiFT productions for my Throwback Thursday Post.

You tell her, Prospera!

Here is a dramatic scene from a performance of The Tempest in 2017 (why does autocorrect always delete the first digit of any number over 10?).

And here are a few posed shots.

A less dramatic moment.

The above picture was some LiFTers in January 2020, trying to make a plan to bring Shakespeare back to Little Falls that summer. We all know how that year worked out.

I thought I had some other pictures but as usual am having trouble navigating my Media Library. It will soon be time for me to start sharing new pictures. In the meantime, I hope this will do. Once again, thank you for tuning in.

Blog Before Bed

I didn’t see any hump.

I do enjoy a four day week after a three day weekend. Those of you who work weekends and holidays, don’t hate on me. Hate on the people who don’t have to go to work at all! Just kidding. It is not good to hate on anything, even lima beans (yuck!) (incidentally, autocorrect changed “lima” to “Liam.” Who could hate on Liam Neeson? Dat’s crazy talk!).

In case you haven’t noticed, this is going to be one of my foolish posts. I just wanted to post tonight instead of tomorrow morning. I also already fixed my lunch. I might try to sleep in till five tomorrow. What a decadent thought!

Getting back to my four day week, I should feel happy that I have made it halfway through with so little problem. However, I am mostly noticing how once again I am getting very little done. This seems to be a recurring theme in my life as well as in this blog (then again, it is a blog about my life, so what do I expect?) (And why does autocorrect officiously change “lima” to “Liam” but let a legitimate typo like “expevt” stand?).

I feel it is good to keep foolish posts short, so I will sign off now. Counting this morning’s post as Tuesday, I am up to three days in a row!

Fun with Friends at Salvatore’s

I missed making my Tired Tuesday Post for a good reason. We were meeting friends for dinner. Oh, OK, I could have come home and made a blog post before bed. I did not. Judge me if you are so inclined.

Our good friends Bonnie and Marty were up from Florida. They attended a wedding elsewhere in the state and took the opportunity to visit other family and friends, including us. Yay! We were happy to introduce them to one of our favorite places, Salvatore’s Pizzeria and Restaurant in Herkimer, NY.

We were invited to sit where we liked. We selected a table near the window but almost immediately switched to one across the room, more in the shade.

“They will not mind if we switch tables,” I said. They did not.

On looking at the Specials board, I had immediately decided on the Chicken Wrappini with spinach, feta, and raspberry vinaigrette. It was as delicious as I had hoped. Bonnie got a calzone, which I may have to get next time. Marty had a Meat Lover’s Pizza, which also looked good. Steve had chicken tenders. I may eat his leftovers.

We enjoyed catching up while we ate, and we had a lot of laughs. I love taking my far away friends to our local treasures!

Salvatore’s Pizzeria and Restaurant is located at 650 1/2 W. German St., Herkimer, NY, phone number 315-866-2600. They are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Have You Missed Me? Or the Monsters?

Six days! It has been six days since I made a blog post! What the hell, me? This is a monstrous situation!

Artist’s depiction of my troubles getting the better of me.

How’s that for a melodramatic caption? I actually do not feel that I am being eaten alive by giant insects. I do not imagine they would find me to be an appetizing treat, but of course I don’t know these things. I am really just trolling my Media Library for monster pictures so I can post something, anything.

“Could I be of help?”

No, I am not ready for the Grim Reaper! But it was a pretty cool decoration at the Halloween party we went to at the Herkimer VFW last October.

They would surely starve to death around here!

I do like to share this poster when I am feeling brain dead. Will my brain ever revive? Will I ever go back to making good blog posts and posting on a regular basis? Will I ever upgrade and start posting new pictures? For the answers to these and other burning questions (and a few luke-warm ones as well), stay tuned to Mohawk Valley Girl.

And So It Begins

I got an email last week about a table reading for Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare, the play to be presented by LiFT, the Little Falls, NY Theatre Company during the Canal Days this August (ooh, that was a long sentence).

Full disclosure: My friend Kim told me about it first, and I went searching through my emails till I found it. I have four email addresses and sadly do not check them all on a regular basis. Be that as it may, I am really excited to be starting Shakespeare again.

Of course there is that little voice in my head that says, “What are you thinking? You’re tired all the time. Your brain does not function at the capacity it once did, and you still haven’t found time to clean the damn house! How the hell are you going find the oomph to be in a play?”

To that voice, I explain, “Shut up.”

I wrote the above on Monday, because I was too excited to wait till the read-through to start blogging about LiFT and Shakespeare. We had the read-through last night, and it was FUN! There were people I have worked with before and have not seen in a while. There were new to me people (I mean, they weren’t brand new people) (I don’t think), and people who were new to the threatre. The more experienced people assured the newcomers that they would catch right on and have a lot of fun. Indeed, as we read, they certainly seemed to.

Now I have a great motivation to accomplish the elusive WordPress upgrade and share pictures of this new cast as we rehearse another Shakespeare play. No time to write more! I have to start learning my lines.

Has It Really Been 11 Years?

Yesterday was my blogiversary, if that is a word (my autocorrect seems to think it is). Eleven years of being Mohawk Valley Girl (here is a Freudian predictive text: my Tablet suggested “self-indulgent” after “being”). I think ten years is a pretty good run, and I believe I was over that when I fell apart and began posting so sporadically (as usual, too lazy to go back and check).

I suppose it would be nice to do a State of the Blog Post or even a Look Back, remembering my not so humble beginnings (although I suffer from low self-esteem, I have never been what you might call humble). In fact, it would have been nice to post at all on my actual blogiversary. Instead, last night I began a kind of a whiny thing then gave it up and watched Dateline. In the interests of Waste Not Want Not, I include it here:

I was going to attempt a Monstrous Monday Post, but I was simultaneously trying to get answers to questions about my WordPress account. I find myself completely unable to do so. I daresay it is, as usual with me, a case of Operator Error. However, I also have to find fault with WordPress. They say that if I do not stay on WordPress, they will email me an answer, but I have yet to receive an email answer to any of my questions.

I suppose I only ask stupid questions anyways. They say there is no such thing as a stupid question, but that is just not true. However, that discussion will require a whole other blog post to answer.

I was just “talking to an expert.

That is where I left off. As you see, I did not even put the end quotation marks. When I reach a frustration level, that’s it.

Quite frankly, I suspect WordPress of using computer generated answers with a face tacked on pretending to be a person. What answers I have been able to get have that generic, not-really-listening quality. Of course automation has been the wave of the future since, well, most of recorded history. I use the automated check-out at the store sometimes myself.

One could argue that WordPress has millions of bloggers and individual attention is impossible. One could further argue that since I am still on the free level of blogging, it is not worth WordPress’ time to talk to me. To the second argument, I would point out that at the bottom of every post I make is an ad. I do not profit from the ad, but I suspect WordPress does, so free blogger though I am, I am not entirely a drag on WordPress’ bottom line.

I will add that I have always been reasonably happy with WordPress. I am aware that I am whining. It would probably be a good idea to just make the upgrade and either leave my questions unanswered or trust that amswers will eventually make themselves known.

In the meantime, I see I am over 500 words. Wow! What a long whine! Uh, I mean Post. Thank you to all my readers (if anybody read the whole thing), especially any that have been with me since the beginning (Hi, Aunt Mary!).

Remember When I Used to Plug Local Businesses?

As the oomph to blog daily continues to elude me, I interrupt my non-blogging days for what I hope will be a decent Throwback Thursday Post. I only hope my Tablet and Media Library will cooperate.

Sing it, Phil!

This is throwing back only to last December, and to a time when I was making more posts about authentic Mohawk Valley Adventures. It is, in case you did not recognize it, local musician Phil Arcuri rocking out at Fratello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort, NY. We do still occasionally indulge in our Wednesday Night Thing.

So pretty!

This picture was taken a little longer ago, but Houle Flower Farm in Little Falls, NY may be looking similar these days. I must take a drive out and check.

Good dawg!

Ooh, here’s another local business I might like to go to again, the Saalty Dawg Saloon in Ilion, NY.

Will I go to these places again soon? More importantly, will I begin blogging about them on a daily basis? Will I figure out the WordPress upgrade and finally start posting new pictures again? For the answers to these and other questions of varying interest and importance, stay tuned to Mohawk Valley Girl. That’s me still, I hope.