2019: Year In Review

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amusement parks, Beekman1802, roller coasters, Sharon Springs NY, travel, year in review

Nothing fancy except to say it’s been a crap year, honestly the whole decade was a bit of a shit show but onwards to 2020.

Let’s look back at 2019:

January:

• Started off the year bowling with co-workers from the gym
• 12 years since my friend from college passed away
• Root canal #1
• The first in a series of vet visits for our pup 😦

February:

• Visited former boss at the gym she was working at before she got promoted again (she kicked all sorts of professional ass this year)
• Visited Elmwood Park Zoo, and it was warm enough for the giraffes!

March:

• Root canal #2
• Piper had started hydrotherapy
• Saw Captain Marvel
• April the Giraffe had Azizi
• Sharon Springs trip for baby goat tour

April:

• Saw the movie The Public
• The Great Philadelphia Comic Con (Photo ops with Alice Cooper, Michael Dorn, and Noel MacNeal)
• Bowling with co-workers
• 16th birthday of a friend(s)/co-workers at The Carousel
• Seeing the news that Notre Dame was on fire
• Roller coaster trip with Gary and Wes (2 new states for me Texas and Arkansas), and ended up with 31 new roller coasters and passed my 350th different coaster on this trip. (Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World San Antonio, Fair in San Antonio, ZDT, Alleycats, Yesterland Farm, Six Flags Over Texas, Magic Springs), also got to see some culture via the Riverwalk and the outside of The Alamo in San Antonio, and Downtown Little Rock with Little Rock Central School and the William Clinton Presidential Library. Also experienced Buc-ee’s.
• Random guy *riding* through my town on a horse
• Dutch Wonderland
• Saw Avengers: Endgame in the theater

May:

• Free comic book day
• Colorado for Memorial Day weekend (Lakeside amusement park, Elitch Gardens are my new amusement parks, and met up with a friend for the day. Drove to Colorado Springs to see Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, in love with all their giraffes, and had a panic attack on the ski lift type ride. Wanted to see the views. It was gorgeous by the way.

June:

• Pittsburgh to meet up with friends, and then head to CEDAR POINT for the Run, Ride & Race
• New office space at work
• Wizard World Philly (Kato Kaelin being insane and photo op with Mechad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan)- FYI, Jeremy Jordan out of all the cons I’ve been to over the past decade was the most disappointing person to me. He looked miserable the entire time, and the whole I’m tired b/c we have a newborn just doesn’t cut it. You are an actor, act happy, I’m pretty certain you got paid enough to be there to not complain.
• Animal Adventure Park on World Giraffe Day
• Hugh Jackman in concert

July:

• Piper got an outdoor bath
• Saw Spider-Man: Far from Home
• More dental work, lots more
• Insane flash flooding that caused lots of damage in the area
• Animal Adventure Park x2
• Sharon Springs Summer Garden tour
• Lily Park, mini golf and lots of ice cream

August:

• Queen + Adam Lambert in concert
• Sunflower field
• Piper had turned 17
• Became obsessed with a TV show Expedition Unknown
• Keystone Comic con (Photo Op: Tom Holland) better the second year but still has a ways to go
• 2 years since Frankie passed away

September:

• Labor Day weekend trip to Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Zoo and Coasting for Kids are the main highlights) 1 new coaster at Kennywood, and a pit stop at Idlewild yielded another new coaster.
• Flight 93 memorial
• Chile Pepper Festival in Bowers, PA
• New laptop
• New iPad
• Animal Adventure Park, where an animal had just given birth
• “10th” annual Harvest Fest. (It was really the 11th actual fest, but 10th year since the first Harvest Fest was in 2009 on the TV Show Fabulous Beekman Boys.
• Hamilton in Philly!
• 37th birthday
• First international trip in a while to Canada to visit my friend. (Completed my first haunt activity at Casa Loma, saw her horse Strider, and visited Canada’s Wonderland where I got two new coasters.)
• Pit stop at Darien Lake on the way home and got 1 new roller coaster

October:

• Hugh Jackman with Keala Settle
• New York Comic Con!
  • NYPL (saw the original stuffed animals for Winnie the Pooh), Grand Central Station
  • Photo ops (Christopher Eccleston, Pee-Wee Herman, Clare Kramer, Tom Hiddleston, Angel Cast, met Burn Gorman)
  • Panels: Star Talk, Adam Savage, Angel, and The Orville

Haunted tour Fort Mifflin

Josh Gates Live!

Bowling for co-workers 21st birthday

November:

• NaNoWriMo
• The Hooters Concert (minus the drunk idiot I had to report)
• Author meet: Bill Haley, Jr.
• Watching The Mandalorian and a new favorite meme and character
• Target gift card fiasco
• Thanksgiving

December:

• After another big medical scare we had to put dear sweet Piper down. It still hurts and will hurt for a long while. Also put a damper on the holidays.
• Holiday party at work at The Carousel
• Saw Rise of Skywalker (it was good, could have been better, and could have been worse)
• Christmas Eve dinner with Family at The Capital Grille
• Wild Lights at Elmwood Park Zoo.

Overall:

Visited 2 new states, and ended up riding 45 new coasters.
State count is 33/50 (34 if you count a small layover where I didn’t leave the airport)
Roller Coaster count: 381 coasters
Got to see a bunch of friends I hadn’t seen in a while.
There were some good things and some bad, but really the year felt draining.

Josh Gates Live: Easton, Pa 10/23/2019

Tags

Destination Truth, Easton Pa, Expedition Unknown, Josh Gates, Live show, review

You may or may not know, but I found this TV show earlier this year called Expedition Unknown on the Discovery Channel. It’s such an interesting show and you learn things, and don’t realize you are learning. Josh Gates is the host, and every so often he does live presentations when he’s not wandering the world filming expeditions. I decided I had to go see him live and man he did not disappoint.

His way with words, the stories, the Q&A. He’s an amazing orator, and he knows how to keep you captivated. The 2 hours flew by, and by the end I still wanted more.

So if you ever see he’s doing a talk somewhere near you, go. You will not be disappointed.

The show starts off with some clips of Expedition Unknown, and some talk about ghost stories, and then some clips of Destination Truth (which I need to watch somewhere), and then more stories, and lastly a Q&A. Smart questions were asked and overall an enjoyable night.

Highlights from the night:

• Read Ray Bradury
• Every story has value (especially when traveling, learn to listen to someone’s story)
• We as people can’t leave a mystery be a mystery, we’re always trying to solve things
• Go away. Often.
• Vacation and travel are not the same thing.
• Easy vacations are the ones you don’t remember well, the ones where things went wrong are the stories you tell.
• On a trip leave a day open, to just do something out of your comfort zone.
• Don’t be afraid to talk to people.

Q&A Highlights:

• Books: appears to read a lot of horror at the moment,  (this was my question, I tend to ask questions of books because I’m a librarian and I’m genuinely curious as to what people read. Authors mentioned: Stephen King, and Dan Simmons
• He’s a history guy
• Antarctica made Josh Awestruck
• The first “The Secret” episode frustrated him to no end, and would qualify that as disappointing
• His free time is family time though by end of year he’ll have traveled 250 days
• His bucket list keeps getting longer
• New countries he wants to visit Serbia, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives
• Adrenaline gets him through a lot, when watching stuff later he’s like what did I just do
• 9-12 crew members on any given expedition shoot
• El Mirador is his favorite archaeological site
• Josh’s Indiana Jones movie Ranking: 1,3,2,4
• Thought Egypt Live was aweome
• Likes doing live TV events

Pictures:
Outside the theatre.

Yes, I splurged for the meet & greet. Yes, he’s tall. Yes, I’m very short. Yes, it makes for a hilarious photo.

Quotes & fun comments before the show started.

Josh Gates on stage:

Book Review: You’ve Guac to be Joking

Tags

Book Review, netgalley

Book Review: You’ve Guac to be Joking
Author: Cat Faulkner
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Release Date: March 5, 2019

Review: If you love puns and guac, “You’ve Guac to be Joking” is for you. This book is a quick read full of wonderful punny illustrations of avocado being various things and people. The one that stuck out to me the most is Hugh Guacman and it was a picture of an avocado with Wolverine claws. If you’ve had a bad day than this book has guac to cheer you up.

Notes: I received this from NetGalley and in turn I’m to provide my honest opinion of the material I reviewed.

2018 Year in Review

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year in review

Year in Review:

2018, was kind of a crapshoot year. Some things were OK, and somethings bad. Overall I’d call it a meh year.

January:
-Started off the year eating Pork and Sauerkraut, cause how can you not?
-A few snow days.
-Fraggle Rock turned 35!
-11 years since my name twin from college passed away.
-Cataloged STEM kits for work.
-Went to Elmwood Park Zoo.

February:
-Eagles win the Superbowl!!!
-Went to Vendor Bingo for the last time.
-Saw Black Panther in the theater.
-Reiterating this quote: For the record, I may work for the public, but I am NOT your servant.

March:
-More snow!
-Joined FB 13 years ago.
-20 years ago we lost our dog K’ai.
-Went to Sugarloaf craft festival.

April:
-Went to Great Adventure with Andrew, he survived and even liked most of the park.
-More Snow!
-Celebrated my pop’s 92nd birthday.
-Went to Elmwood Park Zoo and met 6ABC’s Adam Joseph.
-Tried the Railroad Street Bar & Grill in Limerick. Good grilled cheese.
-Co-worker passed away 😦
-Great Philadelphia Comic Con
-Met Paul Kasey (Weevil, Blowfish, and various DW characters)
-Met James Remar & Jim Cummings.
-Met Steve Whitmire, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Carol Spinney, David Bradley, Peter Davison, and a couple more DW people I can’t place their names.

May:
-Saw Avengers: Infinity War in the theater.
-Piper gave us a health scare with Canine Vestibular disease.
-Voted in the PA primary
-Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con
-Met Henry Winkler, Stephen Amell, Karl Urban, Jewel Staite
-Bob Camp signed some original Ren and Stimpy toys I had from my childhood
-Memorial Day weekend Travels
-Tarrytown, NY, saw Washington Irving’s home.
-Quassy and Lake Compounce amusement parks
-Saw Deadpool 2 in the theater.
-Drove to Killington and Okemo, VT to ride mountain coasters.
-Basketball Hall of Fame
-Went to Rhode Island and the Roger Williams Zoo and met my friend Patti for the first time!

June:
-Saw Solo: A Star Wars story in the theater.
-Libraries Rock: Summer Reading kick off
-Cedar Point weekend with friends.
-Run & Ride, did the 1 mile option
-Celebrated my mom’s birthday at The Captial Grille
-Celebrated Father’s Day for my dad and my Pop.
-60’s day at work.
-Went to Sesame Place.
-Went to Elmwood Park Zoo.

July:
-Hospital stay for cellulitis.
-70’s day at work.
-Met Bobby Rydell at work.
-Animal Adventure Park
-Beekman 1802 farm tour of the Garden’s
-Black Cat cafe
-Dairyland
-Howe Caverns
-Covered Bridge outside Schoharie
-80’s day at work.
-Supported a friend’s business.
-Visited the Sunflowers in Elverson.
-Saw Cirque VOLTA.
-Jammed my thumb.

August:
-90’s day at work.
-Tony Lucca & Jesse Ruben in concert at Sellersville Theater.
-Hospital stay for Kidney stone, and Kidney stone removal surgery.
-Left hander’s day!
-Food truck festival
-1 year ago we lost our dog Frankie.

September:
-Chile Pepper Festival
-Celebrated my aunt’s birthday.
-Toured Citizen’s Bank Park
-Keystone Comic Con
-Met John Barrowman, Catherine Tate, Joe Manginello, Mr. McFeely, Amy Acker
-Celebrated my birthday at Lorenzo and Sons pizza place in West Chester, Pa
-Banned Books Week!
-Gritty became the Flyers mascot.
-Went to Great Adventure.

October:
-New York Comic Con
-Professional Attendee, library sessions at NYPL Building is amazing
-Met David Tennant, Matt Smith, Alex Kingston, Mark Sheppard, Jodie Whittaker & Chris Chibnall in passing.
-Saw good panels: Star Talk, NYPL about Graphic novels, Good Omens, Ghost Adventures
-Cheesetober Fest
-Wings of Hope food truck fest
-Went to Knoebels

November:
-NaNoWriMo
-The Hooters in Concert at the Keswick.
-Hersheypark in the Dark
-Saw Bohemian Rhapsody in the theater.

December:
-Tumblr banning adult content and flagging random stuff.
-Family holiday get together.
-Duck Donuts
-Baked cookies twice.
-Holiday party for work.
-Bought a cool piece of art from an artist I follow on Instagram.
-Christmas with my Pop.
-Looking at lights on houses on Christmas Eve.
-Dusted off my blog.
-NYE bowling for my other job.

Ok, looking back on my year this way, I did some fun things, but no where near the normal amount of fun things I normally do. Here’s to next year being better.

Book Review: Flawed

Tags

2018 release, Book Review, Flawed by Andrea Dorfman, netgalley

Title: Flawed
Author: Andrea Dorfman
Publication Date: Sept. 2018
Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd
Received: NetGalley eARC

I received this book from NetGalley. I’m not obligated to give a positive review.

This graphic novel is really short. Under 100 pages. I know it’s listed as new adult, but I kind of feel like it should be longer.

Review: The book is a memoir of Andrea falling in love with a plastic surgeon. She’s in love with the person but hates his profession because of her feelings on plastic surgery.  Through letters and a long distance relationship, she come to terms with her insecurities she’s had throughout her life.

The illustrations in book are wonderful.

Overall a nice book for a quick read.

Dusts off

Tags

books, update, year in review

Hello out there blogland. I know it’s been almost exactly 1 year since I last posted. Where to start.

I’m now the full time cataloger at my library. I get to be with books all the time. It’s great.
I went to Cedar Point this year and rode Steel Vengeance. It was amazing.
Cellulitis and Kidney Stones are no joke.

I read 61 books during my book year. (I go from Christmas Day to Christmas Day)

Here’s my GoodReads link: 2018 Reading Challenge

I’m definitely going to try and make this bigger part of my new year. I have books I want to talk about,  Influenster items to review, and hopefully travels to show off.

Year in Books

Tags

books, what I've read, year in review

Goodread’s Year in Books Review

So lots of things happened this year, and I’m not going to get into most, but know that I became a full-time librarian/cataloger this year and I read a boatload of books. 93 to be exact.

Yes, that’s an insane number, and a majority are considered juvenile easy readers because I can read them while checking them over before checking them in. Some were really cute. Some were meh. I read a lot of graphic novels/manga this year too.

Goals for next year. More “big people” books. I’ve got about 20 out from the library that would be amazing starts for my 2018 list.

Check out the Goodread’s link at the top of the post to see the books I’ve read this year.

Some favorites:

• Ghosts
• I Work at a Public Library
• 7 ate 9
• Ms. Marvel- No Normal
• A Million Ways to Die in the West (tip: watch the movie first)

 

Book I didn’t like, and ironically it was a kids book titled Miffy at the Library. This book is all sorts of wrong. I know it was trying to teach colors and stuff, but you do not absolutely tell children, arrange the kids books of the library by color. Do you realize how many kids can potentially try that? Keeping the stacks organized is tough enough without a book telling kids something different than the standard library way of organizing their stacks.

Overall, it was a really good book year for me, and I hope to keep up my momentum in 2018.

Have a wonderful new year readers!

Coasting with Culture: Crossing the Tetons

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coasting with culture, Grand Teton Mountains, idaho

Once we left Yellowstone Bear World, it was off to Wyoming to ride another Mountain coaster, but before we got there we had to cross through the Teton’s. Here are some pics from right before we got into Wyoming.

I’ll bet you’ll never guess what this field is…

Look at that view!

I just had to zoom in on the mountains. It was awesome.

Thanks Gary for taking this pic of me 🙂

Sign at the place we stopped to take pictures. Seems like we followed a good portion of that trail as well.

This building almost felt like a step back in time.

So close to Wyoming!

Next up Wyoming!

Coasting With Culture: Yellowstone Bear World

Tags

coasting with culture, idaho, moose deer and bears oh my!, Yellowstone Bear World

After the rest stop, we made our destination in Idaho, Yellowstone Bear World. Part drive through park, part kiddie rides, and part petting zoo makes for a great spot for families of young ones in the area.

First up when you get there is the drive through wildlife park. There are deer, elk, and of course bears galore. All the animals seemed happy, well fed, and the park is well maintained.

We’ve made it!

Baby!

White Elk

Bears

Once the drive through part finished, we headed through the gift shop into park. We decided to ride the kiddie coaster to get it done and then we spent some time with the animals in the petting zoo.

While everyone else will tell you this ride was not evil, it is evil. It’s a spinning roller coaster, and while looking tame, when two adults are placed with two super skinny 7-10 year olds, the weight was not distributed properly and we spun WAY too much for my liking. (*insert getting old joke here*)

Baby Bears that were born in January.

Moose? Where’s the Moose? Turns out we didn’t have to look too far for him.

Next we went into the Petting Zoo. Here’s a picture of me showing what it’d be like stacked up against a grizzly. Wouldn’t stand a chance.

This chicken is not in the mood for any of your shenanigans.

We decided we wanted to get some selfies with the animals. Here’s Gary trying to get a selfie with the pig. Not sure it worked out.

I had better luck getting a selfie with this deer. She was super happy, and friendly.

She licked me for at least 5 minutes and wanted more!

She then realized that Gary was just as tasty, and spent a good amount of time checking him out as well.

After that, Gary took what has to be an awesome group selfie with the deer.

Which I tried sharing from the Coasting with Culture FB page, but it didn’t work, so check out the post here.

Next up, random pictures as we crossed Idaho into Wyoming.

Coasting with Culture: Idaho Rest Stop

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coasting with culture, hell's half acre, idaho

Yep, I had to break these posts apart again. This one is about a rest stop in Idaho. I know what you’re thinking, a rest stop is that interesting? When you are driving in Idaho, and you see a sign that says National Geologic Site at a rest stop you stop and check it out.

While the rest stop itself needed some TLC, the whole reason why we stopped was pretty amazing. It turns out that there is a lava flow field in Idaho. Who knew there had been at some point a volcano in the area?

Check out this website for a little more about the area.

Starting off our day we ended up in Idaho.

And then we ended up here. The rest stop itself again was bad, but lava trails! So that totally made up for the rest stop bathrooms.

Walking around the trails:

Our tour guide taking a selfie

Can anyone spot the typo?