Coffee Talk in the Blogging World
According to BlogPulse the top 5 people currently being discussed the most in the blogosphere are:

1. Terri Schiavo
2. President Bush
3. Harry Potter
4. Michael Schiavo
5. Britney Spears

Kind of sad the Britney is in the top 5, ick!

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Tonight around 9:45 p.m. on the street parallel to mine, I passed by Jason Priestley walking with another guy and smoking a cigarette. He's not that tall, but has the same sideburns and killer smile that he always had. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt with an opened button down cotton shirt over it. I wouldn't have noticed him, but he smiled right at me and all of a sudden my mind clicked in recognition, hehe, as a result I'm still a little giddy :)

I left my cell in Hoboken
Better than my heart I suppose.

Last night, I went to Hoboken, New Jersey for the first time. I went via the Path Train, which is only a 14-min train ride from Manhattan. Hoboken is considered the hot spot for 20-somethings, but it was too much of a college boozing town for me. I was told that I looked like Sarah Jessica Parker by two guys, that was kinda cool, lol.

My friend and I ended up at Bahama Mamma's which had tiki-hut decorated bars and hiphop music. My friend, Stef had dancing fever because she danced for 2 hours on a raised platform, she dragged me up several times, but man it felt like a workout, I don't know how she was able to last that long.

Later, while jumping like a mock cheerleader to "Hey Mickey," the strap of my little Coach bag broke and crashed to the floor. I immediately gathered the contents that scattered across the dance floor, like my business cards.

An hour later on the Path train back to the city I realized my cell phone was missing (the third, mind you, in 6 months). So having no choice, I headed back to Hoboken for the 2nd time that night and begged the bouncer to let me back in without paying a cover. The bartenders said they did find a cell phone and I was so relieved until they handed me a Nokia and mine is an LG flip phone. Looking out of place, with my long winter jacket on, I went down on my knees onto the sticky floor near the dancing platform looking for my cell phone. A couple of guys were at first alarmed by my behavior but then asked me what I was looking for. When I explained that I dropped my phone, they gave me the 'good luck you drunk bimbo' look. I was just about to give up when I spotted my phone in the corner near a Heineken bottle. Relief is beyond the feeling that washed over me. I even hugged the mean guys who were pretending to help me, they kept repeating "your lucky" and indeed I was. One of the guys also said, "now that you got your phone why don't I give you my number." I laughed and headed for the train back to Manhattan yet again. When I got back I extensively cleaned my cell phone so now it is sticky and germ free.

Click Here to find out how I ruined my first phone.

My Toasty Apt Building
What condition are you about to have when you smell toast burning? A stroke? I think they say you're supposed to smell toast burning, but then again my dad had a stroke at the young age of 38 and he never mentioned such nonsense. Anyway, I digress.

Since moving into my apartment building, I smell toast on a daily basis even when I'm not toasting any. It comes in from my hallway at random times and smell's like someone is cooking grilled cheese or about to have eggs and toast. Several friends of mine have commented on it when visiting me.

I think the eccentric old guy on the first floor has a thing for toast. He lives by himself but also has two cats that roam the halls and meow like birds. I love cats and enjoy petting them, but I tell you their meows freak me out. His apartment is long and narrow, train style like and whenever he opens it I see lined up tin cans and hear Telemundo on the TV. He also carries in a classic red bicycle in and out but I've never seen him ride it, only carry it. The weird thing is I keep running into him around the city and I smile but he has no idea who I am, lol. I saw him in Central Park watching the Marathon in October and at the supermarket last week.

Blogging Beyond the Men's Club

Since anyone can write a Weblog, why is the blogosphere dominated by white males?

By Steven Levy
Newsweek
Read the full Story

Well, I love that I'm an oddity, sort of, and being among the female bloggers :)


Happy St. Pat's Day!
Despite being Italian my first name, Tara, is of Irish decent. In Gaelic it means 'The Tower' and Tara
is also a town in Ireland, where they used to crown the ancient kings. I've never been, only to Dublin, where being as name obsessed as I am, I took a photo of Tara Road and a leather shop called Tara Leather, lol.

Gas-Mask Car Shopping?
I just spent a long weekend escaping the city up in Quechee, Vermont. I tried cross country skiing for the first time. I had been downhill skiing since I was four-years-old, but had never done the Nordic Track workout version of xc-skiing till now. It was fun!

While up there, me and my girl friends were at a loss as to what to do after hours, since everything closed around 8 p.m. Seriously, when we were eating at Chili's they were mopping around our table by 9:00. We knew of a nice bar but there was a cover and we didn't want to do that. Even though I don't drink beer, we went to the 7 Barrel Brewery, which was supposed to of had a live band, but because of the snow storm they didn't show.

So, on Saturday afternoon when we were getting some coffee and loose tea at at this coffee shop in town. I asked the young hippy guy behind the counter if he could suggest a place to go or some things to do in town that evening. The guy, Travis, was from the nearby town of Woodstock, VT and had captivating blue eyes, I couldn't stop staring, but his hair was all Rastafarian. He was sweet and drew me a map to the aforementioned brewery and suggested sledding on this big hill at night. I was excited about going sledding, but it appeared I was the only one though, so I had to nix that idea unless I wanted to sled solo :( Being bold, I ever so casually gave Mr. Blue eyes with the tangly red hair the phone number of our condo, in case I said if he thought of anything else to do. After a fun evening of hanging around with my girls--eating way too much food (I cooked my famous pasta sauce, with pork and meatballs) and singing with silly accents, "I would walk 500 miles" outside in the snow, we fell asleep to an episode of The West Wing.

In the morning I noticed the answering machine light was flashing, indicating that we had a new message. It was Travis. He was saying hello, and because we didn't answer he said we had probably found something fun to do, which he said was 'awesome.' He added that he was calling because his buddy suggested we try going car shopping with gas masks on(period) No laughter, no teasing. It seemed like he was totally serious. My friends and I were like, "car shopping with gas-masks??" WTF? lol. My friend Stacy didn't seemed as surprised though, saying it sounded like a very rural New England thing to do, but of course she still found it odd.

Have any of you heard of this? Is this a typical outing for bored townies, like cow tipping? Am I missing out on some fun? Honestly, I am intrigued and am a little sorry I missed his call ;)

Link: the above cartoon comes from a google search which led me to the book, An Action a Day Keeps Global Capitalism Away which mentions this idea.