Conan

This article is just one more reason that I love Conan O'Brien....except that I'm not a huge fan of the Tonight Show...but other than that, awesomeness.

Glory Days

I have never been a fitness buff (right, I'm sure ALL of you are surprised by that).

Back in the days of high school sports, two-a-days, sports camps and the like, I could hold my own, to a certain extent....though there was that time that I almost died in the weight room from trying to lift just the bar (I blame that more on my spotter than on my chicken-wing arms, but I've moved on).

And sure, when I was living with a personal trainer, I took advantage of that as much as possible (by joining her gym and willingly giving her lots of my money). She got me in great shape (just in time for my wedding), and while I tried to maintain that routine....let's just say I fell short.

Most recently, we canceled our gym membership. It dawned on me that I hadn't been in about 60+ days, and that I wasn't likely to get any value out of continuing to pay them. It just wasn't fitting into my schedule, nor did I make any effort for it to. So we bit the bullet and dropped out.

I now find myself winded after climbing 3 flights of stairs to get to my desk every morning (cardio has never been my strong suit). But I know that it hasn't always been that way, and I am getting sick of my chicken wing arms (though I will admit, the other night at Bible study, the 9th grade girls were comparing muscles, and they were impressed with mine...ha!).

So, the plan of action:
Amar has tried the 100 push-ups program before and liked it. I just realized that they also have plans for squats and sit-ups. Yippee!!

100 Push ups
I will admit that this is THE MOST DAUNTING thing that I've ever tried to do. I hate push-ups. Can't stand 'em. Am repulsed by the idea of them. But what's more off-putting to me is the idea of being hit in the face with my own flabby triceps when waving to a friend. So onward we go.

200 Squats
Now this is more in my comfort zone. We did tons of these in volleyball. So this will be a bit of a reprieve from the torture of the push-ups that I have to endure.

200 Sit-ups
Ah, the sit-up. Abs of steel, right? I don't necessarily have a lot of belly flab that I'm trying to cut through, but it could be better. So, if this is what has to be done, then I must do it.

Want to join me? These are all 6 week programs. I'm going to try to do them simultaneously, but we'll see how far we get.

Television

As Amar and I were catching up on work email this afternoon, we were watching the 25 anniversary of the Cosby Show on WGN. After about an hour of the Cosby Show, they started running another old sitcom.

Kim: Aww, Family Ties!

Amar: What is this? The white Cosby Show?




Yes, yes of course it is.

Wow

Please tell me that these people have something better to do.

Politico is reporting that the House of Representatives is now outlining how exactly members can and cannot insult the President:

House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has released a helpful, updated primer for members regarding their conduct on the floor and in committees.

Especially useful: The section on how to properly insult the executive branch in the in the chamber.

"Disgrace" and "nitwits" -- okay.

"Liar" or "sexual misconduct" -- ixnay.

Under section 370 of the House Rules and Manual it has been held that a Member could:

• refer to the government as “something hated, something oppressive.”
• refer to the President as “using legislative or judicial pork.”
• refer to a Presidential message as a “disgrace to the country.”
• refer to unnamed officials as “our half-baked nitwits handling foreign affairs.”

Likewise, it has been held that a member could not:

• call the President a “liar.”
• call the President a “hypocrite.”
• describe the President’s veto of a bill as “cowardly.”
• charge that the President has been “intellectually dishonest.”
• refer to the President as “giving aid and comfort to the enemy.”
• refer to alleged “sexual misconduct on the President’s part.”

Geez.

New Favorite Website

I've added a few sites to my Google Reader lately, but by far my favorite has been My Life Is Average.

(If you're familiar with the (sometimes NSFW) site FML, it's much the same, but a TON cleaner and funnier in most instances).

Readers post in with interesting observations, funny happenings, and general commentaries on how humor and irony play out in their day to day lives.

Here are some of my recent favorites, many of which brought smiles to my face over the last few dreary, Seattle-ish days (titles are of my own making:

Harry Potter in Real Life
Last night, I was at a high school football game. My friend paid the announcer in the booth fifteen bucks to say, "Ten points for Gryffindor!" every time our team scored. He did. It was the best night ever.

Shout out to Justin Timberlake
Today at work, I found a sign up sheet for a company barbecue. We were supposed to write what we were bringing. I wrote "sexy back". Everyone is looking forward to my dish. MLIA

An Epic Battle
Today I wore a shirt that has the "Hello my name is:" sticker filled in with "Ninja." I saw a guy with the same shirt, but instead it said "Jedi." Although I intended to have a staredown, he nodded at me; causing me to nod back. I think he just used the force on me. Well played, Jedi. This battle is not over. MLIA

Necessity: The Mother of Invention
Today, while driving to school, I saw a man driving a motorized scooter down the sidewalk. I didn't think much of it, until I noticed he was pulling behind him a man on a rolling office chair. Best. Idea. Ever. MLIA.

Again with the Harry Potter Awesomeness...
Today at school there were army recruiters. I jokingly said to my friend "the only army I'll be joining is Dumbledores". One of the recruiters overheard me and walked over. I thought he was going to give me a huge speech about how important the army is and we need to respect it. Instead, he high fived me. I think Im in love. MLIA


And now for a random picture of a donkey:




P.S. It is officially pouring.

September Flood

It's no secret that we've been very much lacking in the rain department lately. It is so dry, in fact, that not only does Lake Travis have islands...but those islands now have weeds growing on them.

Yes, they are now inhabited by wildlife.

Anyhow, the exceptional drought means that we wildly welcome any precipitation, no matter how much or how little.

But what is it they always say? When it rains, it pours.

About a week ago, it most definitely poured.

We live in an area that is near two creeks, one of which is known for flooding*. While we were in no danger of having water rush through our house, it was still pretty impressive. About 20 minutes after it stopped raining, I went out to take pictures (I'm a bit of a weather nerd...).

This was the scene in our neighborhood:


This is at the end of our street - waters were moving pretty quickly:



A few blocks North, Shoal Creek was definitely a river:


A few South away, the water was even closer to street level:



Sunrise the next day...beautiful!





*No - we are most definitely not in the flood plain. We made sure of that before we bought the house.

8 Years

I was having lunch at my desk as it poured down (much welcome) rain outside. I noticed a few friends posting Facebook statuses about where they were 8 years ago today. I don't have a great story, but it's my story, so I thought I'd share it with you.

September 11, 2001
I was a Senior at Texas A&M University, and I had an 8 o'clock class that morning. It was an Anthropology class, and we were watching a video about a tribe in South America. While not exactly compelling, it wasn't a bad start to the morning.

After class, I rode my bike across campus to the Business school where I had my next class. As I would typically do in between classes, I ducked into the library to check my email in the computer lab.

It was typically busy at that time of the day, so I didn't notice anything different that morning. I checked my email - again, nothing out of the ordinary. Then I tried to access CNN, and the page was taking forever to load. I asked the guy next to me if he was having computer problems, but his English wasn't the greatest.

I gave up, and started making my way into my next class. That's when things started falling apart a bit.

There were t.v. sets in the hallway of the building that my class was in, and as soon as I walked in, I could barely move for all the people who were just standing in the hall watching the news.

I looked up and froze: iconic buildings in New York were on fire. People were jumping out of buildings. We were clearly under attack and no one knew what to do.

We all just stood there: mouths hanging open, some people crying, others in disbelief.




I think I remember us seeing the first tower fall.




Do I go to class?
What happens next?
Do I know anyone in New York?
Will there be more attacks?





What does life look like now?








After watching for what seemed like an eternity, I decided to go to my next class. I couldn't even tell you what we discussed.

Once that class was over, probably about 20 minutes after it began, we all found ourselves once again staring at the news in the hall. Another building had fallen. I didn't even know that was possible. We were all in a state of shock.

I went to my next class, where I knew the professor was a Christian. I think we decided to pray in class.

After about 15 minutes, I went back into the hallway.

It's all a blur after that, but it was one of those days you don't forget.

Where were you?

This Old House: Episode 1

Warning: I get a bit nerdy about home repairs in this post...

Our house is about 60 years old, and while I love it, there are some things about it that occasionally need tweaking. The good thing is, I love tweaking things around the house*.

Most recently, I basically took apart the inside of the toilet. I've done some minor plumbing stuff in the past (replacing nobs, handles, flapper valves, etc.), and I thought this would be another routine replacement to fix a drip.

I initially replaced the old flapper valve, but upon testing my fix, I realized that while I had fixed the drip. I had apparently created another issue: the water wouldn't shut off all the way. This was no bueno, and I had definitely not fixed the problem.

I proceeded to do some googling, and found that I should probably also replace the whole valve. However, we've been a bit busy lately, so I didn't get around to fixing things in a super-timely manner (Amar had to bug me a bit...but the delay gave us a clear signal that we would not do to well in a 1 bathroom living establishment for too long).

Today, I (finally) stopped by the hardware store on my way home today and got the necessary parts (keeping my fingers crossed that this was the root cause...). After a few minutes of wrestling with the existing fixtures, I was able to replace the valve and tada - no more dripping toilet!

On the next episode, I'll finish painting the baseboards!

*Note: I do have a tendency to get in over my head at times, but never to the point where we need to call emergency services...at least not yet ;)