Award!!

Anne at Is Anyone There? surprised me with the Addictive Blog Award the other day!! As always, I am very appreciative and humbled that I not only have regular readers/commenters, but they like my blog enough to give me these awards.  

The meme for this award is that I share why I began blogging:  Vincent D'Onofrio.  That's why.  I was a fan of his work and thought he was adorable, so I started looking online for info about and pictures of him.  

During my surfing, I stumbled on what will always be known to the original 'Vincent Vixens' as 'The Molly Blog'.  It was like a chatroom/message board and that's where I met Val, Eliza, Ann, Madi, Diane, Tess and other ladies who were also fans of Vincent.  The board would bog down frequently because we chatted so much.  It was during this time period that everyone decided to start their own fan blogs in Vincent's honour.  I started my blog in June of 2006 and just posted pictures.  But my fellow Vixens were doing cool slide shows and photo effects, rendering my static shots quite boring.  lol  :-)  It was at that time that I decided to leave the fan stuff to the pros and started posting pictures of stuff I liked, and eventually photos I shot.  Every now and then I'd rant about things that were bugging me....it kind of morphed into a diary from time to time too.  This was before Facebook, and I didn't have time to keep up w/ emailing people, so I sent out an email blast with my blog address and said that was the best way to find out how I was and what I was up to.  I still have a few friends and relatives who aren't on FB but read my blog.  

I chose the name 'JoJo' as my signature name, in part because it's actually one of my nicknames (although most people call me Jo), but it was also the name of Lili Taylor's character in "Mystic Pizza", who was the girlfriend/fiancee' to Vincent's 'Bill'.  It was after viewing "Mystic Pizza" one afternoon that I realized the wicked cute fisherman was 'that weird Detective Goren' from "Law & Order: Criminal Intent".

My avatar photo of Vincent, angelically gazing heavenward, has remained the same from the day I opened my blog.  I thought about changing it, but I keep it for sentimental reasons and to remind me of how this all started.  I still love Vincent as a performer and person, although my crush has waned, especially since I only have eyes for my sweet Bear.  But I just feel like to get rid of the avatar would be forgetting how this all got started.  I was taught that you should never forget where you came from.

Now to name 5 bloggers for this award, which was pretty hard to narrow down to be honest:

Wendy at The Crafter's Apprentice.  Wendy is a very prolific and talented crafter from the UK.

Lucy at The Trans-Gentle Wife.  I've only recently stumbled on this blog but I'm glad I did.  She's quite a lady.

Elsie at Mock Turtle's Musings.  Another amazing woman whose blog you need to check out.

Cathy at Life On The Muskoka River.  By far one of the funniest writers ever, and a Canadian to boot.

Kathy at The Giggling Trucker's Wife.  Love the stories of her life, past and present!

(Hmm....Cathy with a C and Kathy with a K.  Reminds me of a classic "Kids in the Hall" skit.)

Mini Scrapbook Kit

One of my Craft Kit of the Month Club projects was a mini scrapbook, with 4 pages, for a total of 8 front and back. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first. Then I had a brainstorm.....How about one d'evoted to Vincent D'Onofrio?! Click on the pics for a close up of all the doo dads and such!

Photos courtesy of Eliza, Val, Madi & the Valentine Cat.

Post #600

So. Post #600. I totally spaced on observing any of the other milestones, so I don't know why I'm observing this one but I am.

I started this blog in June, 2006, after searching around the interwebs for fans of Vincent D'Onofrio. That's how I met Val, Eliza, Axe, Ann, Mary, Jaime, Susan, Kris, Madi, Tess & Di at The Valentine Cat and all the gals on the Molly Blog. Their blogs were all pretty new too, in the summer of 2006. I am proud to call them amongst my dearest friends. And through our fledgling efforts to D'evote our blogs to the D'Ivine D'Onofrio, I met a whole bunch of wonderful people too: BASRIC, BobbyBeGood1, our only male Vincent Vixen Snarkangel, Jazzy, Nantz, Ruby, MauiGirl and Music Wench. I'm proud to call all of you friends. Other Vincent bloggers have come and go, and I keep in touch with some on Facebook. I apologize profusely if I have left anyone out!!

My fellow Vincent Vixens did a fantastic job at presenting Vincent pics and slideshows, especially Eliza, who works some serious magic with her treasure trove of pics. Unfortunately, other than posting stock shots of Vincent I'd snagged from around the web, I didn't know what else to do with it, and therefore decided to just write about miscellaneous stuff. I like to write and it's been a good outlet for me. It's been a fun 4 years, although I can't believe it's been this long.

Along the way I also found some great Deadhead friends like Aiko Annie at Cozy Shack, Daisy Deadhead at Daisy's Dead Air, Sugar Mag, Fancy Schmancy, White Rabbit and The Golden Road. Through White Rabbit, I connected with Petit Fleur who writes a great blog as well. Her young son comes up with some brilliantly funny quips, which she calls "Harleyisms".

I love Vaporback Writer's blog (f/k/a Danger Panda's Eats Shoots & Leaves) because she lives a few towns over from me and does a lot of writing about the history of places and people, and she loves to poke fun at Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer. I love the great travel shots over at Trigby's Rigamaroo. Trigby performed Donnie & Mike's wedding ceremony in San Francisco, and that's how I met him. He and his partner, Eric, surprise each other all the time with fantastic trips to exotic places. I can't afford to travel, so I am happy to do it vicariously through my friends.

And now I've also been enjoying the Hood Photo Blog, San Francisco Sidewalk Safari and Victoria Daily Photo, which represent some of the most breathtaking photography I've ever seen of my fave places. Val, at Incurable, writes some great stuff about her intense long distance horseback riding competitions she does in the punishing Texas summer heat. Maureen's I'd Rather Be Blogging is always good for a chuckle. I've also been perusing the blogs of some absolutely amazing artists, like Sam's 3 blogs: Silkie Sue, SaMmY's PiX n MiX & Gingerwine's Lost Toys. I always loved Drowsey Monkey's blog but she decided to take a break several months ago, although I see she's testing the waters again (Drowsey, if you read this, please restart your blog).

Sorry I don't know how to do links, but they are all on the side of my page.

All of these blogs, including, Just Some Thoughts, Siobhan's Neverland, Sylvia's Stitches, Seraphim Jewelry Design, Blue Eyed Girl, Marching 7/4 and Marble Forum, are what keep me inspired to make my blog interesting and eclectic.

I want to thank all of my wonderful friends and family who pop by to read, either regularly or now and then. I appreciate the support. A lot of blogs I've seen never have any comments at all and it means a lot to me that I do get comments. I love all of you.

So the other day in the car, I was listening to one of my fave songs, "Blow At High Dough" by the Tragically Hip, which was also the theme song of one of my fave shows called "Made In Canada", about the film and TV industry in Toronto. It was brilliantly written and acted, extremely accurate and I developed quite a crush on Peter Keleghan, who played Alan Roy, the head of Pyramid Studios. Peter was simultaneously on "The Red Green Show" as lonely, loony Ranger Gord, who I also adored. When I got home, I looked Peter up on Facebook and found a page. I thought it was just a fan page till I checked out his friends. Oh it's definitely him alright. So I decided, what the hell, I'll send him a friend request. I included a message saying that I've been a long time fan of his, and assured him I wasn't weird or a stalker. Less than a half hour later, I got a notification that he'd accepted my friend request. I was ecstatic!!

Last year I'd also done a similar friend request to another long time fave actor, John Pyper Ferguson, on whom I have had a major crush since 1993. To my utter bliss, he also accepted. I've always been star struck, but to have 2 of my 3 biggest actor crushes consent to be a Facebook friend is like the closest I will ever get to meeting them in real life, or seeing what they are up to, even though neither of them are on that much. Now if only Vincent would get a page! Then my trifecta of actor crushes would be complete.

I covet this pendant. I am thinking about buying it. It's like $45 though. But I love it. We'll see.

As I mentioned the other day, Sagan's boarding this weekend. Today I got up at 7:30 and checked the following things off my Do It or Die List: Cleaned, vacuumed & dusted the downstairs, washed the downstairs dog beds, put away the DVDs, CDs and books. It took me about 4 trips to and from the upstairs livingroom with arm loads of dog toys that had to be brought back downstairs and put in the toy boxes. I coloured 2 pictures this afternoon, and also started one of my craft kit of the month club projects. It's stenciling. Because I have always sucked, and will always suck, at stenciling, I am having to try to salvage it as I continue on w/ the project. Needless to say when it's done and I take a photo of it, the photo will not be a closeup.....

The weather's been very cool and rainy, which suits me just fine, but for the ever-growing horror show that is my backyard. But the longer it stays like this, the shorter the summer. Last year was so awful. Just so hot. Too hot. Africa hot. Tarzan hot. I-don't-think-I-can-stay-here-if-it's-gonna-be-this-Hot. That's why I will happily take this off & on rain, any day.

I met Brian on July 2, 1988, 22 years ago today, in Oxford Maine, after the Dead show. I don't really remember that specific meeting other than saying, "Hi" when we were introduced, as it was late and dark and everyone was flying on LSD except me, who had to drive about an hour back to Michelle's place in Freeport. It was the next day, July 3, when he and I bonded after I sold him my extra ticket for what I paid ($20) and he said, "I love you". We didn't start hanging out regularly till months later though.

July 4th always makes me feel nostalgic and I will probably do a post about what it was like to grow up in a place like Sandwich, in the 1970's and celebrate the 4th of July. It's so quintessentially American, especially when you grow up surrounded with the history of it like I did. The fledgling rebellion would meet at Fessenden's Tavern, which eventually became the Dan'l Webster Inn, where I worked every summer as a chambermaid. The loyalists would meet at Newcombe's Tavern on the other side of Shawme Pond. I was born and raised in the heart of America's birth. So was Brian, being originally from New Jersey and outside the Philadelphia area. And typical of children, I didn't appreciate it when I lived there.

Tomorrow's goals: Dusting & vacuuming the upstairs, washing the livingroom windows, taking the stuff to Goodwill, washing out Sagan's crate and cleaning the kitchen & bathroom. And crafts. Always crafts.