was about to head to bed, but i need to wait another 20 minutes until the Nyquil kicks in. My bedroom is about 95 degrees right now..holy cow. i forgot to turn the fan on today, and now it's sizzling in there. the CATS will probably want to sleep naked tonight. I fired the fan up,so hopefully the room cools down in a few minutes.

Despite being sick, i got lots o' crap done today. Worked a lot on my Jeep. that was oodles of fun. I took the backseat out, because i really don't want people riding with me. haha. i hope the weather stays warms, since there's nothing better than driving around in the jeep with the top off. However, Clear Channel Keggers softball practive is scheduled for tomorrow night, so that pretty much ensures that it's going to rain.

Even though i'm under the weather i managed to head out in the jeep for fresh air and to grab some dinner. I'm gonna start a campaign for Boston Market to install a drive-thru at their location on 22. That would really improved my quality of life. The people in line in front of me had screaming children. a congested head + screaming children = me disliking the children. if i could drive thru, i wouldn't have to listen to the screaming.

Also, as i pulled into the parking lot, a church group was out front protesting the DaVinci Code. I thought that was unusual, until i realized that the movie theater was next door to Boston Market. Once i figured out what they were doing, i was inspired to drive my jeep headlong through their group. that way, they wouldn't have to live in a world where Davinci Code is one of the biggest movies of the year. but calmer heads prevailed.

sigh. i feel so bad for the children who were protesting. they're not even old enough to see the movie...but mom and dad can stick 'em out there with a sign. Of course, i'm SURE they've all read the book...oh wait..probably not... it's actually a good read and leaves lots of room for interpretation. If i was religous, i think that book might have made my faith stronger...but hell, what do i know.... it's a book and a half-assed movie people! luckily, i was on a mission, and once i got my 1/2 chicken and cornbread, i stopped caring.

do me a favor...go protest something that matters. for instance....can we protest the fact that the streetlight in front of my house was burned out for over a year? that's an issue that affects me. or protest the fact that Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan get more time on the news than the Iraq War. or that david spade is STILL on television! didnt "just shoot me" teach us anything??? I expect they'll turn that stiff into a movie in 10 years.

luckily, i have a double order of Boston Market cornbread....and if THAT"s not the key to happiness, i dont know what is..

Jeffy-palooza is off to a rough start. I was supposed to head up to Elmira this weekend for a family reunion, but came down with a cold on friday, and i'm stuck here on the couch sniffling and coughing. Ellie's off to Mexico for the week, so it's just me and the cats here at the house. Looking forward to relaxing and getting healthy!

It's another wedding weekend for us! We headed out on the road for wedding NUMBER 2 this year. Our friends Veronica and James were tying the knot.

It was quite an exxperience driving into YOUNGSTOWN OHIO for the wedding on saturday. Youngstown is a beautiful, vibrant city full of culture....if you define "full of culture" as "run-down and desolate in the hell-hole that is Ohio". People in Newark, NJ are afraid of Youngstown. it's that run-down.

unfortunately, the exit we were supposed to take was closed, and we got detoured into bad section of Youngstown. If you're not familiar with that town, the "bad part" is "any part of Youngstown that is not a highway"

We met our friends Rob and Maggie at the hotel, and got to the church with almost no time to spare. luckily, the ceremony was in a nice church.

On the way to the reception, we got horribly lost, and ended up arriving 90 minutes late!















Rob and i all dressed up for the ceremony. Nice product placement Rob!
















Dancing with the bride!
















YAY! Open bar! This was also the moment when i realized that all my friends were not drinking, and therefore i was the only lush.















Yes my dear...the tango is the most seductive and romantic dance. allow me to show you! (cue the tango music)

Luckily, the one saving grace of Youngstown is that there is an IHOP. so we headed there after the ceremony and reception to grab a late night snack. Of course, to me that means "huge breakfast"

On Monday we headed off to New York City for a one-night excusion on the new "Freedom of the Seas." Ellie and I were invited to go, since she's in the travel industry. It's a brand new ship and they're doing a bunch of trips to show-off the ship. it was on the TODAY show earlier this week too.

So let me get this straight...we get a free one night cruise on a brand new cruise ship, and all the food and alcohol is free? I don't even have to tip the bartender? THERE'S A CASINO??? What's the catch? oh, we have to drive thru New Jersey to get to the ship...ahh..there's always a catch.

So we drove thru Jersey (stuck for 2 hours on I-78 when a tractor trailer wrecked!) And got onboard.















Here's our stateroom. Nice linens, plasma screen tv...and a view of Jersey. damn. we need to get this boat moving!















It's a little chilly..but i had to check out the pool deck. This is actaully the kids pool, but i'd probably love it, since there's water guns and buckets.




















Look who's the first one on the dance floor! C'mon! It's early! Can't we wait til later for the dancing?? That's my way of saying "i need at LEAST 4 more Jack and cokes before i'm comfortable embarrasing myself with the white-man-overbite dance."















here's my plug for Royal Caribbean. Check out the logo placement. There's a rock wall on the right too...but i avoided that. Drinking + Rock wall climbing = imminent danger.















All dressed up for dinner with our friends! Got to enjoy wine, shrimp and beef. mmm. I even got escargot for an appetizer. yum. who would've thought that snails were so tasty?
















It's a little breezy on deck! OK, let me rephrase that... There's gale force winds on deck. I'm not used to having long hair! i walked outside and looked like i'd sprouted an afro.















Uh oh...this is trouble. Kim and I found a spot in the casino! hahaha. (evil laugh). Ellie won 13 bucks on her first spin! Of course, we lost it... sad to say i walked out of the casino two dollars poorer. :(




















In the elevators, they have carpet that tells you what day it it. Apparently people pass out on the floor of the elevators and forget what day it is. Anyway, We wondered if they changed 'em quickly. Wow...do they ever. This is at 12:05am, and they've already changed 'em all to TUESDAY!















It's really late. I've had a few too many drinks...i'm a little fuzzy. where'd my wife go? hmm..she was wearing green...oh, here you are. hey hun, you look nice....what's wrong? you're not saying much... oh wait...you're not ellie. dammit.

Ellie was watching a movie earlier today...it was a JENNIFER ANISTON movie. It seems like there's ALWAYS a jennifer Aniston movie on TV or On Demand. I got wondering how many movies she's been in, because it seems like a lot... thanks to the wonders of INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE, i discovered that she's done about 35 movies. I got thinking, you could probably play "6 Degrees of Jennifer Aniston." If you're bored talking about Kevin bacon movies, give this a try. She's already hafway there. according to IMDB, Kevin bacon has credited roles in about 65 movies. Way to go Jen, you're halfway to mediocrity.

Two questions (actually it is "two" questions vs two questions)

Two Names You Go By: Hurley, Jeff
Two Parts of Your Heritage:English, Welsh
Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:A beat up Abercrombie tshirt and my favorite ripped jeans
Two Things You Would Want in a Relationship:Fun, Honesty
Two of Your Favorite Hobbies:Playing online, cooking
Two Things You Want Really Badly At The Moment:Serenity and a warm muffin
Two pets you had/have: Georgie and Jasmine
Two people who will fill this out:me and someone else
Two things you did last night:played mini golf and ate at Isaacs
Two Favorite Places to eat: Isaacs and Tokyo Diner
Two things you ate today: A muffin
Two people you Last Talked To:1My wife and Jilly
Two Things You're doing tomorrow: Assembling a grill hopefully, and then cooking on it.
Two longest car rides:Panama City FL and Chattanooga, TN
Two Favorite Holidays:1. 4th of July and Veteran's Day (my birthday!)

1. Who was your first prom date?Prom was Renee
2. Who was your first roommate(s)?Dietz, in college (maple 203 A).
3. What alcoholic beverage did you drink when you got drunk the first time?Mad Dog 20/20
4. What was your first job?Board-op for WEHH-AM
5. What was your first car?1984 AMC Eagle Station WAgon
6. When did you go to your first funeral?When my granfather passed away.
7. How old were you when you first moved away from your hometown?First time i moved was college in 1994
8. Who was your first grade teacher?Ms. Ames...who got married and changed her name. completely screwed with my tender mind.
9. Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane?Minneaplois, MN
10. When did you sneak out of your house for the first time, who was it with?L lived 20 miles from a town, there was no where to sneak to!
11. Who was your first best friend and are you still friends with them?Sean...we talk now and again
.12. Where did you live the first time you moved out of your parents house?Mansfield University's MAPLE dorm
13. Who is the first person you call when you have a bad day?I don't call..i IM my peeps.
14. Who's wedding were you in the first time you were a bridesmaid or a groomsman?J. Overacker's
15. What is the first thing you do in the morning?Shower
16. What was the first concert you ever went to?Petra (some christian rock group...don't really know why). the first REAL show was Queensryche and Suicidal Tendencies.
17. First tattoo or piercing?Still wroking on it
18. First celebrity crush?Topanga!
19. Age of first kiss?I think it was 14
20. First crush?Umm...i don't remember...that was a while ago. probably some poor girl in my elementary class

I spent the evening avoiding the monsoon that's raging outside. While i was surfing the internet, i came across this list. read closely..it's important

10 REASONS ALL SQUIRRELS MUST DIE:

1. Squirrels are the spawn of Satan.
They live mysterious lives in the forests plotting against the rest of the world.

2. Squirrels cause millions dollars of damage to power transformers and lines every year.
They are one of the top causes of power outages and damage to very expensive equipment. They seem to be attracted to transformers and fly into them like Kamikaze pilots.

3. Squirrels have killed innocent citizens by causing car wrecks throughout the years.
How many times have innocent automobile drivers barely avoided running off the road trying to miss (or to hit) a squirrel taunting them in the middle of the road? Some are not so lucky and wreck due to these furry little beasts.

4. Squirrels do millions of dollars worth of home damage.
They are masters of break-ins destroying siding, vents, wires, etc. in the process.

5. Squirrels have no respect for privacy or property rights.
They move into attics and will not leave. They are not invited. An attic is not an oak tree, and they know this. They are too lazy to build their own homes so they try to take over someone else's. They move around in the attic at night scaring young kids and women.

6. Squirrels are notorious thieves, stealing food and property from other animals and people.
They are the most skilled thieves on the planet. They are despised by birds lovers They steal nuts from bird feeders and fruits from trees. When measures are taken to prevent them from getting the prize, they try that much harder.

7. Squirrels assault people's gardens all over the world causing millions of dollars in crop damage.
They get into people's gardens and destroy the vegetables, fruits, and flowers. They rarely even consume them, they just destroy them for the fun of it.

8. Squirrels caused the black death in Europe and currently carry numerous life threatening diseases including rabies and bubonic plague.
It is a historic fact that squirrels, as well as their brothers the rats, were one of the carriers of the black plague in the Middle Ages throughout Europe leading to the horrible end of millions.

9. Squirrels are the most reprehensible animals on the planet and will strike any other animal or human they come in contact with.
There are countless documented accounts of squirrel assaults. They antagonize people and are formidable foes. It is no accident that squirrels are portrayed in film as they are, insane little creatures that do not think anything of taking on people.

10. Squirrels terminate and castrate other squirrels.
Naturalists have discovered an alarming behavior among certain squirrels. A Male squirrel will invade the tree of an enemy squirrel and bite off the nuts of the young in the nest.

hahaah....i love it when i'm right. I would like to publicly state (with ellie as my witness) that i called the results on "american idol" tonight. yep. i'm so psyshic that Dionne Warwick is asking me to work for her.

when they said CHRIS and KATHERINE were the bottom two, i said "chris is gone". ding...thanks for playing, please pull around to the 2nd window. cue the "had a bad day" song...

Who's gonna win? i don't care...let's say...Taylor.

tonight was worth all the bad kareoke singing for the last 10 weeks. i honestly expect that Chris will be a huge star, but that was classic tonight. he and Taylor are the two perfomrnaces that i'm looking forward to at the AI Tour in Hershey.

for all the crap i give AI, that was a great show tonight. Now if they'd jsut stop with the cheesy group songs.

I posted one of these earlier about living in Rochester. However..this is the classic one for us PA residents (and i can understand every one of these!)

[] You refer to Philadelphia as only "Philly."
[] You've refer to New Jersey as only "Jersey."
[] You refer to Pennsylvania as "PA" (pronounced Pee-ay).
[] The first day of buck and the first day of doe season have always been school holidays in your town.
[] You can use the phrase "fire hall wedding reception" and not even bat an eye.
[] At least 5 people on your block have electric "candles" in all or most of their windows all year long.
[] You know what a "Hex sign" is.
[] You know what a "State Store" is, and your out of state friends find it incredulous that you can't purchase liquor at the mini-mart.
[] You own only three condiments "salt, pepper and Heinz ketchup."
[] Words like "hoagie", "crick", "chipped ham", "sticky buns", "shoo-fly pie", "pierogies" actually mean something to you.
[] You eat cold pizza (even for breakfast) and know others who do the same? (Those from NY find this "barbaric".)
[] You not only heard of Birch Beer, but you know it comes in several colors: Red, White, Brown, Gold.
[] You know several places to purchase or that serve Scrapple, Summer Sausage (Lebanon Bologna), Ring Bologna and Hot Bacon Dressing.
[] You eat a cold soft pretzel from a street vendor without fear and enjoy it.
[] You know the difference between a cheese steak & pizza steak sandwich, and know that you can't get a really good one outside PA.
[] You live for summer, when street and county fairs signal the beginning of funnel cake season.[] You know Blue Ball, Intercourse, Climax, Bird-in-Hand, Beaver, Moon, Virginville, Paradise, Mars, and Slippery Rock are PA towns.
[] You know what a township, borough, and commonwealth is? (At least you vaguely remember.)
[] You identify drivers from New York, New Jersey, or other neighboring states by their unique and irritating driving habits?.
[] You you ever been in a traffic jam in Lancaster county? (Or do you know that a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a horse-drawn carriage on the highway.)
[] You know several people who have hit deer more than once.
[] You carry jumper cables in your car and do your female passengers know how to use them.
[] You still keep kitty litter, starting fluid, de-icer, or a snow brush in your trunk, even if you live in the south.
[] You think that driving is always better in winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
[] You built snow forts and leaf piles that were taller than you were as a kid.
[] Your graduating class consisted of mostly Polish, German, & Italian names.
[] "You guys" is a perfectly acceptable reference to a group of men & women.
[] You know how to respond to the question "Djeetyet?"
[] You know how to pronounce Bryn Mawr, Wilkes-Barre, Schuylkill, Bala Cynwyd, Monongahela, and Llanerch.

Opening day for Hersheypark! There's nothing better than opening day, since there's NO LINES! I waited 5 minutes for Storm Runner (rode it twice today!). Jilly from KISS was with us, and she had never ridden Storm Runner before. It's fun to ride with someone on their first Storm Runner ride. haha. I still scream every time it launches. wow. i love this coaster.

We ended up riding every coaster in the park today, except Comet. Go figure, there were LINES at Comet! I've ridden that one a few hundred times, but i still love it.

I got to ride the front car on Great Bear again (2nd year in a row), which is absolutely ridiculous. We went back later and rode it again. We didn't ride anything except for the coasters! haha. Love it. can't wait to go back out and ride some more.

No, i didn't grow up in Rochester...but after living there for a few years, these all make sense. haha.

The only thing at the annual May Lilac Festival is snow.
The worst four-letter word you could say is "Fuji".
You can't swim at the beach.
Toronto is about 70 miles away, but it takes four hours to get there.
You know that a "Can of Worms" is not something that you take fishing.
Tsunami style rains don't stop you from drinking at Park Ave Fest.
Your baby's first word is "Wegmans".
You ask lifetime residents where the George Eastman House is, but they don't know either.
In a city where it snows at least 90 inches a year, they build a new sports stadium with no roof on it.
Your biggest celeb siting is seeing Lou Graham buying bagels at the A+.
Your low-fat diet is never low enough to exclude an Abbott's Frozen custard.
You think Seabreeze is the greatest amusement park in the world until you're 15.
You order a white hot and a pop, and the counterman knows what you're talking about.
The words "Dinosaur Barbeque" makes your mouth water.
You awaken from a deep sleep, look at the clock and see that it's 6:00, but you have no idea whether it's AM or PM.
When 18+ inches of snow falls overnight, but you never thought of NOT going to work.
In winter if the temperature hits 45 degrees and the sun comes out, people walk around downtown wearing shades and no jackets.
Half the change in your pocket is Canadian, eh.
Your idea of a seven-course meal is a six pack of Genny and a bucket of Buffalo wings.
You can compare Nick Tahoe's garbage plate to at least 3 other knock-offs in competing restaurants.
You have 18 different festivals from May to September just for every nationality to celebrate the warm weather.
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Rochester, NY.