Getting back into the swing of things over here in Kitten-Land. Life is finally returning to normal.

When I got in from work last night I grabbed my pile of mail that was sitting on the floor. Bills, bills, bills…NETFLIX! Jackpot. For, in my hot little hands, I knew that I held a movie I’ve been itching to watch. That’s right, Hell Ride on dvd had finally arrived.

I didn’t have time to watch it last night, but I’m using today’s Video Tuesday to psych myself up for it. Plus, I just read a review over at Road Captain USA’s blog and now I’m even more excited to see it!

I just want to thank everyone for such kind advice and thoughts at the passing of my uncle. As you can imagine the suddenness and finality of the accident been tough on my family and it’s heartbreaking to see everyone so down-trodden.

I will get back to posting next week. You all be safe.

What would you do for a BlackBerry Storm?

That was the subject of a contest held over at Crackberry.com recently for those who consider themselves BlackBerry addicts. They were giving away 10 BlackBerry Storms to those who were willing to do whatever it took to win one (and they actually had to follow through on their promise!).

They received 3,000 entries to the contest and “a popular theme of entry that emerged was extreme brand loyalty, or in other words, showing off your love for BlackBerry and/or CrackBerry for the whole world to see.”

The first winner was TJ of Revelation Tattoos in Toledo OH, who had a lifesized BlackBerry tattooed on his leg. Two things of note: 1. TJ didn’t pay for his tattoo. He works at the shop and had it done for free. 2. The tattoo artist, Brian, is a total Mac fanboy and die-hard iPhone lover. It must have killed him to do this tattoo!

While I don’t find the fact that he had the tattoo done to win a phone all that shocking (I hang out with a LOT of tattoo fanatics/artists who get work done for less meaningful things), I find the backlash a little surprising. What makes this guy’s tattoo any different from anyone willing to have a Harley-Davidson tattoo put on their body? It’s essentially showing the same kind of “extreme brand loyalty.”

If you’re interested in reading the war of comments you can read them at Crackberry.com and on Information Week’s blog, which also did a post about this today.

We all have bad weeks. It’s the nature of life.

Last Monday it started with my commute home. I work in Boston now and am a slave to commuting on the train. I typically take the 5:25 commuter rail train because it is an express train that goes directly to my town and saves about 5-10 minutes. I am usually home in about a half hour.

It was a normal commute until the train stopped dead about three stops from where it was supposed to. Then we heard that a man had driven his car in to the train tunnel at my typical stop and the car had been hit by an earlier train. Initially, we had heard that the driver was actually ok. He was elderly and had gotten confused as to where to exit the station. The 2 1/2 hours it took me to get home was irritating, of course. I got home just in time to see the smashed car being towed away from the train station, among the many news crews that were there covering the story. Later that night the driver had actually died from injuries he sustained from the crash.

Tuesday was election day, of course. Aside from the obvious presidential results, my liberal state of Massachusetts had three questions on the ballot that resulted in the most asinine results.

Wed., Thurs. and Friday-typical work and life frustrations. Eagerly looking forward to the weekend to wash away the events of the week. Have a few cocktails and a nice night out with my husband. All was going to plan. Until yesterday.

Late afternoon  I received a call from my mother letting me know that my uncle had been in a motorcycle accident. He ended up dying as a result of it. At the time nobody knew the circumstances of the accident or the extent of his injuries. My dad told me that he was wearing a helmet, but it was a shortie so he had a big bump over one of his eyes.

Today we learned that the accident was a hit & run. They determined that someone had run him over due to the extent of injuries to his chest and stomach. There is now an on-going investigation into the accident and who is responsible. And  the kicker? It was my uncle’s birthday.

So now I’m left to ponder: as a motorcycle rider, is it just inevitable that our ticket will be punched at some point? This is not the first time my life has been touched by someone close to me having an accident, or even the first time it’s been a hit & run.

Are we just tempting fate every time we jump on our bikes to go for a leisurely drive? And is it really worth it?

I managed to get a ride or two in the past few weeks before the weather turns really cold (hey, I mentioned before that I’m a total wuss when it comes to riding in cold weather! If it’s under 70 degrees I start to whine and complain!). We stayed pretty local, but the great thing about where we live is that we don’t have to venture far for some really beautiful scenery.

This will be mainly a photographic post. I gathered some of the images that I think represent what autumn feels like in New England.

Salem Common, Salem MA

carved jack-o-lanterns

somewhere off the Kancamangas Highway in New Hampshire

in the mountains in NH

mountain view

colorful corn at the Topsfield Fair

gords

hubster checking out large, prize-winning pumpkins

KISS pumpkins! These RULE.

me freezing my butt off on a charity ride

Hubster & me enjoying a frosty beverage in a toasty Irish bar after a day of riding

Back in September fellow blogger, Micah and the guys from Lucas County Choppers, embarked on a road trip from Ohio to Michigan, traveling 1000 miles in four days (you can read blog entries from day 1, day 2, day 3 and day 4 as well as see the flickr photo sets from Michigan on Two Wheels). As with many road trips on two wheels, they encountered their fair share of inclimate weather, scenic landscapes, good road food and great memories.

They also took video of the entire trip and edited it down into a four-video series, which I commend them on. I know from personal experience that it’s a daunting task to take a ton of video and attempt to edit it down to short, digestible clips for mass viewing.

So, here’s the first video of the series: Toledo to Frankfurt.

And try to check out the other videos of Lucas County Choppers: Michigan on Two Wheels. You won’t regret it.

My evening was a blast! Costume was a success (even though I threw it together at the last minute!). I think I managed to be extra creepy this year!

Vampy kitten

How was your night?