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For the past five years, my friend Karen has run a really awesome business called Girls Night In. She and former partner Alison have hosted educational lectures and parties, which are like Tupperware parties but with sex toys. Best of all, GNI is based on feminist ideals, so instead of a Cosmo-tinged “how to make your man go wild,” their focus was on helping the ladies ensure that they made themselves go wild.

Sadly, the party aspect of GNI will be no more. Karen will be holding a “going out of business” sale tonight in the hopes of sending all of those dildos and vibrators to loving holes homes.

The sale will be held at Amani International Coffeehouse from 8:00pm-10:00pm.

Any additional details that you might need can be found on the GNI site.

If you are in the Pittsburgh area, check it out. Your vagina will thank you. And so will Karen, probably.

I emailed this picture to the mayor’s office a few weeks ago and today I got an email from Gigi Saladna, the Communications Manager.

“Hi Kelly,
Just a note to let you know we did receive your email with the picture of the Mayor back on Oct. 29 (We’re a little backed up with emails!)
What a nice surprise! The Mayor loved it and thanks you for your kindness. (We were all teasing him how tall he looks in the picture!)
Thanks for taking the time to write to us – we really appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Gigi”

Our neighborhood had a Halloween parade on Saturday. A bunch of kids came out in their costumes and paraded down the main drag, cheered on by parents, grandparents, shopkeepers, and whatever patrons managed to stumble out of the bars. The baby is going as Godzilla this year, but we couldn’t find a Godzilla specific costume and I am not yet up to the job of constructing costumes, so we borrowed a dinosaur costume from my mom’s friend. It serves the purpose, kinda, but the baby was increasingly irritated with people assuming that he was some chump dinosaur. “I’m GODZILLA!” he would whine. Duh. Trampled Tokyo multiple times…ring any bells?

The baby actually once told me that Godzilla protects humanity from the tyranny of all monsters. Those were the words he used. Who is he?

Anyway, the parade was alright. I took a few pictures of the baby but mostly spent my time snapping shots of the boulevard, which is a good way to see how…odd the neighborhood is. It’s equal parts old world Pittsburgh and honestly-we-don’t-give-a-shit.

For instance:

There’s a drive-thru beer distributor. This is not unique to us, of course, but I think any place that has establishments that combine two things that aren’t supposed to go together (ie, drinking and driving) has a certain je ne sais quoi.

There were some miscreants about. These kids watched the parade with a certain amount of wistfulness in their eyes. I could tell they really wanted to still take part in all of the pageantry, but felt that they were too old now.

Or maybe they were just high.

Firehouse. Mediterranean grocery store containing the bomb pita, hummus, tabouleh, and grape leaves.

Luke Ravenstahl, Mayor of Pittsburgh, looking very…mayoral. I emailed this pic to the mayor’s office but have not yet heard back from Luke saying, “OMG thanks! I’m making it my default pic on MySpace right now.”

Me and Godzilla, who looks pretty gentle. Also, there is not a cheerleader growing out of his head, even though it looks that way. And, yes, I’m wearing a Sean John hoodie. My dad gave all three of us hoodies last year for Christmas and they were all brands that he had seen on drug dealers on The Wire. My dad’s weird. But that hoodie is huge and warm and I love it.

Anyway, speaking of Halloween, I’ve posted a very useful scary movie guide on MamaPop which you should peruse at your earliest convenience. To sum it up for you: Suspiria owns.

Maybe the lack of wholesome cinema in my diet can explain my attitude as of late, which is rather poor. I’ve definitely hit a slump and am viewing all of my duties with contempt. I did not do the readings for any of my classes over the weekend, I did not do laundry, I did not scrub poopy toilets (can’t imagine why not, I’ve been looking forward to it so), and am cranky at work. This morning, I realized, to my great annoyance, that I still needed to pack a lunch for the baby. As I told Angela, I have a very, “You need fed AGAIN? I just fed you yesterday!” approach to parenting at the moment and all this needs to stop because I need to make a living, get my master’s and keep my kid alive. God, adulthood is such a drag.

I guess I need to watch some Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood or something.

“Wolfman’s got nards!”

This week’s trip to Incredibly Strange Video yielded this gem from my childhood. Note that it’s the 20th Anniversary Edition. Gulp.

Also, if you are in the Pittsburgh area, ISV will be hosting a zombie double feature at the restored Hollywood Theater in Dormont. They’ll be showing the original Night of the Living Dead and the new Dawn of the Dead (which actually isn’t that bad). Show starts at 7:30 and costs $10.

Gmail tells me that I am currently using 412 MB (14%) of my 2890 MB.

412 Represent.

Here’s what I’m up to:

Geez. Yinzer much?

My co-workers and I went to Phipps Conservatory today to see the Chihuly exhibit. It was a field trip for grown-ups basically. It was really very lovely and I realized that Phipps is actually quite relaxing if you don’t have to chase after your kid (no offense, dude, but I still have nightmares about our visit there last year when you were having “a time” and ran past all of the expensive, breakable stuff in the gift shop). Since I’m so close to stuff like Phipps and the museums, I should really make a date with myself to just go check out some art every now and then.

I put a post up about this on MamaPop, but I was delighted this morning to read a post from Lee alerting me to the existence of a new Michel Gondry movie. Eeeee! I’m so excited for this! Gondry’s brand of goofy just speaks right to my soul. Though so does Judd Apatow’s which seems like it might make a weird intersection in my brain. Anyway, Mos Def might just be one of my favorite actors. He was awesome in Bamboozled and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy and looking at his imdb page I’m realizing that I’ve seen him in quite a few things that were equally rad. Of course, who can forget his tour-de-force as the Black Head of the CIA.

I got it wrapped up in this special CIA napkin!

It’s rainy here today. Shocking, I know.

I’m coming down off of a burst of energy that was stopped in its tracks by my lunch. Jwan tipped me off to this new place in the Strip, Big Mama’s House of Soul. My mom and I stopped there last night for take out. It’s goooooood. I got a fish dinner with greens and macaroni and cheese and a big hunk of cornbread. It seemed like I was eating for a good long while but when I went to heat up my leftovers a little bit ago, I realized that I hadn’t even made a dent. Two big meals worth of outrageously delicious soul food for under $10? Rad. Also, the place is decked out in Steelers paraphernalia and pictures of Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin adorn the walls. The woman who owns the place wasn’t there so her kids were running things. They got a little busy while we were there and when I pointed out that they had forgotten the husband’s ribs they kind of freaked out and started yelling at each other in that way that only unsupervised siblings can. “I’m telling Mama that you messed up the orders!”

Anyway, prior to the soul food road block, I had grand plans to attempt to organize the attic. Not surprisingly, the room that is not the husband’s studio is a wasteland of boxes. We have grand visions of putting the Sega Dreamcast and the old Nintendo systems up there and creating an Old School Video Game Room. I’d also like to clear enough space so I can do some yoga or some shit.

Also, I went to Target yesterday and procured some awesome kitchen gadgets: a meat thermometer, because Alton Brown said so, a vegetable scrubber, because potatoes scoff at my barehanded scrubbing attempts, and a citrus juicer, because Jen showed me hers and I’ve had to have one ever since.

I took the bus home tonight and while I was walking through downtown to catch my second bus, I passed by a guy who was blaring white power music from his car. The song was to the tune of “Glory, Glory Hallelujah,” and the chorus was something about the white man marching on. I’m fairly certain that’s on some White Power Greatest Hits compilation since it was featured in American History X and I’m fairly certain I heard it on some When Rural Skinheads Attack! type show on the Discovery Channel or some shit.

I looked over in surprise when I heard it and the guy and I made eye contact. He sneered at me. And I was totally intimidated by his defiance (not).