Wedding Recap: The Ultimate Party Trick

A few months back, Matt and I decided to cross-off #114 on our list of life-goals and learn the dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller!, a feat made possible by tutorials from thrilltheworld.com. This website was set-up by a Canadian dancer (the best kind of dancer, if you ask me) who aimed to break the world record for largest simultaneous Thriller! dance. She created a series of tutorial videos aimed at people with little to no dance experience. Now you too can be the coolest person at the next party you attend!

Although the tutorials cover the entire 6 minute version of Thriller!, our friends were already being such awesome sports that we really owed it to them to edit the song down to 3 minutes. Anyway, here is a video of the fruits of our labor from the wedding. Enjoy!

Night of the Living Wed from Sarah Stock on Vimeo.

Mwa-hahahahaaaa!

We did it!

We're officially Mr. and Mrs. "Casserole" now!  Here's a recap of our first dance:

Sarah and Matt's First Dance from Sarah Coryea Stock on Vimeo.

Fellow Brooklynites, we can't recommend highly enough taking dance lessons with Renata Shvarts at the Basic Ballroom dance studio.  She is responsible for the choreography, and with 10 lessons, we hope we were able to do it justice.

Special challenges arise when you can't practice in your dress.  I was worried that my bustle would take Matt out at the knees.  Also, the straps made it surprisingly difficult to lift my arms.  I had to really muscle through so as not to elbow Matt in the face in the approach to the lift.  (Although, a bloody nose would have really been a nice touch for the Thriller dance - more on that later.)  My shoulders were actually bruised the next day from pushing against the straps!  All in all, we were so happy with the end result, and I will be forever grateful to Matt for being such a good sport!

In related news, Matt has vowed never to dance again.  I think that is a crime against humanity.  That boy was born to dance!

Hey Iraq, you've just been Matt Stock'd

The images seen below have recently surfaced.

At first glance this looks like nothing more than a photo of a helicopter and a wall, but when you look closer there is that suspicious dark smudge there ...
And here is another photo, this time of a wheel, presumably of the helicopter seen in the previous one.  And there is that smuged again, although this time with a bit more detail ... what could it be?
Here is a photo of that smudge on the wall.  I think it might just be a face!  But why would a face be there.
Okay, so it is definetly a face.  And according to the caption, its in Iraq!  So this is what has been happening - my pal Logan has been stationed over in Iraq for too long.  Apparently, he got bored, and decided that what the country really needed was more Matt Stock.  I cant say that I disagree. 

Here is the template that Logan used for this little project.  I think I turned out rather well! I think this would make a rather nice tattoo.  In fact, I may be willing to pay for said tattoo if you would like to get it... 

Thank you Logan!  And get back soon!

Brothers in Trees

While on a recent trip upstate to good ole Greenville, NY, my brother and I found ourselves in bit of a predicament - the Nintendo Entertainment System didn't work! "Egads!" I exclaimed to James, "How are we going to stay out of trouble with no Nintendo?!?!?!" James looked to me and cryptically said "we don't. Today, Brother, we climb trees."

And so began a day that would go down in history as The Day When Matt Almost Broke his Leg for the Third Time.

The exciting part about this adventure (besides me not breaking my leg again and attracting the wrath of El Sar) was that while in the woods, we happened upon a single shedded whitetail deer antler!

Look how proud James and I were! Now that I have this antler in my possession, the obvious question is "what to do with it?" Sarah wanted me to graft this to my forehead as part of my RockBand outfit, but I felt as though if I'm going to do this I might as well hold out for moose antler and do it right. So, I am therefore considering suggestions as to what sort of craft project I should do with this one of a kind item. If I hear one that really strikes my fancy, maaaybe I'll just go ahead and do it. If not, I'll just keep this thing around intact and poke Sarah with it. I'm cool with both scenarios really.

Tie-A-Thon: Week 3, 4, and 5

Tie-A-Thon is going smoothly, despite my inability to keep up with a demanding 1 blog per week. Hence today's entry.

So week # 3:

All of the above ties were thrifted except for the Whale tie, which is just too awesome to not buy new. The one on the end is my favorite because of it's ridiculous retro-ness. Its military green which - lets be honest - is my color.

And then Week 4:

Looking at this week's worth of ties makes me wish that I had the foresight to plan themes. I mean this is almost a complete brown week! With so many brown ties, its a good thing that brown is my color. The ties on the outside were thrifted, and the ones in the middle were purchased new. The outside ties are two of my absolute favorites. The duck one is knitted and is one of those ties that knot very easily. The one on the right features either two cowboys or two British gentlemen on a fox hunt. I have thus nicknamed it my Brokeback tie for obvious reasons.

And now Week 5:

::SPOILER ALERT:: ::SPOILER ALERT:: ::SPOILER ALERT::

::SPOILER ALERT:: ::SPOILER ALERT:: ::SPOILER ALERT::
::SPOILER ALERT:: ::SPOILER ALERT:: ::SPOILER ALERT::

I know. But if I dont post this now, it'll take me a couple of weeks to do it. SO here are the ties that I'm wearing this week.

These ties were all thrifted. The first two are knitted ties, which is something that I'd like to find-buy-wear more of. And the last one is, well, a holiday appropriate little number I've been holding onto for a couple of months. My favorite of these three is the first one, because it ties like a dream and because pink is totally my color.

Tie-A-Thon: Week 2

Another week, another quintuplet of ties!

I know what you're thinking, is that really a quintuplet of ties? Were those ties all really born in a single birth? My answer, friend, is a resounding yes.

Tie-A-Thon: Week 1

One week down, numberless weeks to go! Here are the ties worn this week:

The Brown tie and the Bird tie were thrifted, I bought the black one new (before I knew any better), and I forget where and how I got the gold boring one. I probably wear the brown one the most, because I wear brown the most. That being said, the bird tie is my favorite because it is ridiculous. I only wore 4 ties this week because I was out sick one day.

Notice the craftsmanship - the finely knitted browns, the happy yellow symetry, and the life-like fear in the pheasant's eyes as the peregrine falcon swoops in for its mid-afternoon morsel.

Week One down ... how many more to go?

Tie-A-Thon: An Introduction

When I was in High School, I only had one necktie. It was a skinny little black tie, and I (correctly) thought that it was cool. I only occasionally found myself in a situation where I had to wear it, but when I did, I (correctly) thought that I looked "hip." Later, in my 3rd year of college, I found myself working a job that required that I always be wearing a tie. For the two years that I had that job, I owned 3 ties (Pineapple, solid red, and a solid gray.)

And now, after working my current job for almost three years, I have so many ties that I really have no idea how many I actually have. Restated - and this is for Sarah and her potty mouth - I have a poop-load of ties. Over the last three years, ties have come to the occupy the role previously held by t-shirts. I used to love finding and wearing cool t-shirts. Well, no more. Don't let "them" fool you, once you get a real job you spend more time in a dress shirt and tie than you do in a comfortable t-shirt. Hence my current situation: up to my neck in ties.

Anyways, my coworkers have noticed that I have an, uh, assortment of ties, and have logically challenged me to wear a different tie, everyday, consecutively. If nothing else, I figure this will be a good way to find out how many ties I have, and to rediscover ones that have been buried.

I am arbitrarily establishing the basic rules as being:
1. Once a tie is worn, it must remain unworn until this farce is over.
2. Incidentally acquired ties (either thrifted or gifts) can be worn. What I mean by "incidentally" is that, if I am out thrift shopping, and if I see a tie that I would normally purchase, I am going to get it, and I am then going to wear it during this streak. What I will not do, is run out and buy ties simply to prolong this streak.
3. Ties worn will be left at work, to prevent confusion, mistakes, and cheating. My coworkers do not trust me.
4. I will wear ties everyday that I work, including Saturdays and "casual" Fridays, because "casual" Fridays are a buncha crap anyways.
5. I will try to blog weekly about the ties worn.
6. It ain't over until I run out of ties.

I urge readers to guess what day and month they think this epic-tie-wearing-extravaganza will end. To the winner I will give my least favorite tie.