Chronicles of the Holy Land: Part 1

Rocking the boat on the Sea of Galilee

Chronicles of the Holy Land. Stories in which I impart wisdom to those that stayed behind. Stories in which I attempt to convey to you, dear reader, what you missed. Stories that will resonate through your very soul.

We begin with Part 1: Rocking the boat on the Sea of Galilee.

It was a dark and stormy morning. Our travelers had chosen this day to take part in an epic adventure out to the semi-deep waters of the Sea of Galilee. Or Lake Kinneret, as I found out it sometimes uses as an alias when it wants to lay low. Ha! Get it?! Lay low? It's conveniently located 209 meters below sea level, making it the lowest freshwater lake in town.

Seriously. Back to the adventure. The darkness and the storms....

Half way out to sea, the captain starts playing some, ahem, oldies. Christian oldies. Circa 1985. We were touched.

It was about this time that Tiffany and I chose to have a little fun. I took a look at the planks of the deck, and thought to myself, "Hey, wouldn't it be funny to try to walk in a straight line whilst sailing on the Sea of Galilee?"

Tiffany was up to the challenge, and we began our feable attempts at walking in straight lines. Soon enough, the whole crew had turned its attention to us, as apparetnly we were making quite a spectacle.

We got a little bored of walking the plank after awhile, and the captain could sense our unrest. It was at that moment that he made the best decision in his life: to play Hava Nagila. Bam! The whole boat became a floating party.

Several of us made our way to the center of the deck, joined by 1/2 the crew and our tour guide, and we took off. Dancing our way through the song, singing at the top of our lungs, and trying to copy what the Jewish people in the circle were doing, since many of us Americans had never learned the proper dance.

Tremendous.

Israel - the pictures

Well my friends, you can stop twiddling your thumbs now. I have finally gotten around to posting some pictures from our trip to Israel. Here are some to wet your whistle:



This is a picture of a hillside in Jerusalem, taken from near the Temple Mount.

*Bible scholars, take note: the words "temple" and "mount" when paired together should ring a bell.





This is downtown J-town (my pet name for Jerusalem) at night.

*Bible scholars, take note: J-town is where it's at. All of it.





This is the fabulous Tiffany, giving a tour of the Valley of Elah.

*Bible scholars, take note: This is where David gave Goliath the smack down. For real.





This is one of the characters at the top of the Mount of Olives, posing with his donkey, Dr. Peter. Yes, that is the donkey's real name. I saw his driver's license. This guy will also sell you 20 postcards of Jerusalem for $3.

*Bible scholars, take note: Cool things have happened at the Mount of Olives.

As always, more pictures available at theramas.smugmug.com. More updates regarding the trip in general are soon to come.

I'm back, and have triumphed over jet lag

Yes.

There has been a severe shortage of posts lately.

But I have a good reason: VACATION!!!

Yep, Amar and I just got back from a 2 week trip to Israel. So, I promise that you shall soon be seeing posts again.

So for now, it's back to the office. Speaking of which, I came across this fantastic Dilbert cartoon. Those of you in corporate America - I feel your pain (and so does Scott Adams). Those of you not in corporate America - I know you must be green with envy:

Chicago Pictures!

Hey folks,
Here are some pictures from our trip to Chicago. All in all, I really enjoyed the town. I highly recommend the architecture boat tour. You really get to hear some neat history and see the city from an interesting perspective - the river!

Anyhow, I went a little Picasa crazy. I've just uploaded the pictures that I like (most of which are edited....). Here are some teasers.

You can check the rest out by going here.

Enjoy!

What a Monday!

I know, I know. I've taken several blogging breaks lately. Please forgive me as I explain to you the craziness of Monday morning. Get comfy...it's a long story....but worth it, I promise!

Amar has been in Chicago these last two weeks for work, so I joined him up there for the weekend. I'll share stories/pictures from that later this week, but I had to tell my O'Hare story before its vivid memory faded from my mind.

My flight from O'Hare to Austin was slated to leave at 8:20 AM. So our plan was to leave the apartment by 6:30 AM, put me on the train to the airport, and have me there with plenty of time to get some coffee and relax before winging my way back home.

Think again.

We actually left the apartment around 6:50 AM, hailed a cab, and headed for the train station. I think I got on the train around 7:00 AM or so, leaving just enough time for the ~40 minute ride. Little did I know that the train I got on (along with 50+ other people heading to O'Hare) wasn't going to take us all the way there.

No.

It stopped 4 stops early and booted everyone off before it turned around and headed back down town. So there we all were, standing on the platform with our luggage at 7:20, mere miles away from our final destination.




I tried to convince myself not to panic at that point. "You have plenty of time..." I said to myself. I even decided to put my cell phone (and clock) away for the rest of the trip so I didn't panic.

10 minutes passed and finally the next train came along. It was 7:30 AM, if you're keeping track, and I was supposed to board my plane in 20 minutes. So I again tried to calm myself and keep myself from making 10 contingency plans in the back of my head.

My prayer, at that point, went something like, "God, if You want me to make the flight, I'll make the flight. If not, then no big deal."

The train crept along as if the tracks were made of molasses.

Literally.

Probably going about 10 miles an hour at that point.

Heck, even the RUSH HOUR traffic I could see out the window was passing us.

"Don't panic," I reminded myself. "Stay calm. It'll work out. No need to stress about it."

Finally, I gave in and checked my cell phone for the time. 7:53 AM!!

Alarm bells went off inside my head, and I decided to text a co-worker to spread the word that I may not make my flight and to pass that info along to my boss. I clicked "send" on the text message just as we entered the tunnel into the airport. "Message sending failed," my phone told me.

Great.

We came to a stop and it was the moment of truth. Either I was going to go ALL OUT and haul myself to the terminal, trying everything I could to make the flight - OR - I was going to give up and admit defeat.

Well, I'm no quitter. So I decided that I've gotta go for it. Game face on.

So I slung my backpack over my shoulder, extended the handle on my rolling carry-on and headed for the nearest steps....along with about 200 other people with luggage. I immediately observed that the escalator was packed, so I picked up my bag and sprinted up the stairs. Additionally, the moving sidewalk people-mover-thingy was jammed, so I ran past it as well. I hauled myself up the last set of stairs and into the airport.

Blast! The security line!!!

Time check: 8:03 AM

I got in line, sent my text message, and waited it out. As usual, all the lines were packed. After all, it was Monday morning at O'Hare. What did I expect?

I got up to the point where they check your ID and boarding pass and I noticed that the "Airport Staff" security line was virtually empty. Now, I normally wouldn't do this, but I looked at the security lady and asked if there was any way I could hop in that line. She pretended I wasn't speaking to her....so I tried again, indicating that my flight started boarding 15 minutes ago...She looked around to see if anyone was watching, and then mumbled to me "go under the rope..."

So I did. Gladly.

I got in line and started throwing my stuff on that conveyor belt. Removing my shoes. Bumping into people...and folks started to notice that I needed help. So the lady behind me asked what I needed. "I NEED A PLASTIC BIN" I exclaimed, as I realized that I hadn't fully followed airport security measures. They tossed a bin to me and I threw my shoes and liquids in.

Boom.

I was through security. I threw my shoes on, forgot to zip up by backpack, grabbed the carry-on and tried to find out what gate I needed to be at.

K1! MUST FIND GATE K1!!! As the words "Final Boarding" flashed next to my flight number on the big board.




So I started running through the airport, bag flailing around behind me, scarves falling out, yelling "Excuse me!"

I found K1 and sprinted to the gate.

The poor agent said, "Are you Kimberly?"

"Yes, ma'am," I replied, handing her my boarding pass.

"You're in an exit row."

"Yes, ma'am," I wheezed, panting between words.

"Have a nice flight." And she closed the doors behind me as I walked down the jet way.

5 seconds to spare.

Jesus action figures

I just find it really ironic that these are made in China.

Anyone?

A taste of Texas

Last night we joined some friends, headed down to San Antonio and made our way to the Majestic Theater to see Lyle Lovett and his large band.

Now, I'll start off by saying that I'm not a huge country music fan. However, good friends were going so if we didn't like the music, at least we would enjoy the company. However, I will say that the sound of the "large band", some soulful backup singers and Lyle's gritty voice was really neat.

He had a fiddle, cello, 4 piece brass section, multiple guitars, 2 percussionists, a pianist, a steel guitar player and 4 backup vocalists. It was indeed large.

Their set ranged from jazz, to Texas country, to Bluegrass to Gospel. And it all sounded really good. I do wish, however, that they would have turned Lyle's microphone up a bit. In between songs, it was a bit difficult to understand what he was saying between the multiple "umms" but it was entertaining nonetheless.

The singers got really into the music and danced. And they certainly had some moves! The bass player had the biggest beard I think I've ever seen in person, and we half expected another band member to crawl out of it midway through the set.

All in all, it was a fun evening. I particularly liked "The Boat" and "Don't Cry a Tear" if you were curious....

Puppies!

Well, at long last, here are some pictures of our new puppies. We've had them for about a month now, and they are doing great!



Their names are Bella and Zoey, and they are Scottish Terriers. They are now about 6 months old, and are still very much in the puppy phase.

Anyhow, more pictures to come in the future, I'm sure. Check out the smugmug page for pictures and captions...

A few pictures from Poland

Since we basically worked 12-14 hours each day, I didn't get much time to run around town and take pictures. So on my last day there, I snapped a few from the taxi (most of which came out blurry). I had about 20 minutes of downtime before I had to catch my next taxi on my way out of town, so I ran down to main street and took as many pictures as possible. So here are a few....for more, check out SmugMug (I even added captions!).

The joke

Sorry, I realized that I left out the joke from yesterday's post...

I really enjoy puns.

The other day I was listening to the radio and was inspired, for some reason, so I invented a joke. Here goes:

Did you hear the one about the probate lawyer?




For the answer, click on "comments."

So many updates, so little desire to write

Ok, so honestly it's been forever since I've posted anything decent. Or anything at all. And I do apologize. I usually enjoy writing, but lately, I've enjoyed chilling out just a bit more. I have pictures of Poland and puppies to share, along with various other things to write about....

But all my pictures are on my other computer which is currently sitting in a car half way across town. So for now, hopefully a list and a joke will suffice.

Latest happenings:

• I went to Poland for a week, and lived to tell...
• We got two puppies! Scottish terriers, to be specific
• I am totally loving our sermon series at church lately (Everything from 8/26 onwards...)
• Reading another Brennan Manning book, and loving that as well
• Our company is undergoing a massive "re-org" so the job scene may change a bit in the near future
• Amar and I have been in the same place for more than a week!! Yay!

Poland: The journey begins

Well, I finally made it to Poland, in one piece. I wouldn't say that it was necessarily a smooth trip, but they got me there on-time in the end so a few things had to go right…

The Austin flight wound up taking off 30 minutes after it was supposed to have landed. However, by the time I reached Chicago, our other flight had been delayed as well, so after a sprint to the gate, I made it on the flight with about 30 seconds to spare.

Or so I thought.

The plane sat at the gate for about an hour more, due to an issue with the “flushing mechanism on the toilets” which I was very glad they were keen on fixing.

Or so I thought.

As it turns out, they decided not to fix it, and instead decided to rely on physics to do the flushing for us. Apparently above 15,000 feet, the air pressure differential is enough to provide a good, solid flush. Lesson learned.

We wound up getting to Heathrow about an hour late and had to take the bus to switch terminals. At this point, give the dodgy history of British Airways and their renowned baggage department, I wasn't exactly confident that my baggage was going to make the trip. And then I saw the security line, and I wasn't confident that I would be making the trip.

Or so I thought.

The first line I waited in was basically a batch processing queue for an escalator to nowhere. 20 minutes of waiting. The next line I waited in was a zigzag of about 10 turns that led to a mosh pit. Literally. About 8 random lines all fed into one holding pin, which seemed to lead exactly nowhere.

Or so I thought.

At the end of the second line, after several groups were let through to the next waiting area, I made a break for it and busted past a group of tourists into the next area. The “real” security area. And waited some more…Luckily I didn't have to get patted down, but bunches of other folks did. After the whole security check, about an hour and a half had past, and I wound up with about 20 minutes to spare before the next plane left.

Whew. I have to say that I was a bit impressed. All told, there were about 7 hours of delays, and yet I still made it to Poland on time. And with my luggage. Sweetness.
More on the rest of the trip later. Internet access/availability is a bit spotty, so I may be posting occasionally as I can.

Jet setting

Sorry for the delay in posting, my friends. I hate to deprive you of my eloquence...

Things are a bit crazy, but what's new. I'm heading off to Poland tomorrow, which should be interesting. Glamorous, I know. I'll even get to wear a hard hat and steel-toed shoes too!

To be honest, I'm a little nervous. I've never been to this part of the world before, and even though I'll be with co-workers, it'll still feel a bit lonely not having friends and family nearby. There's a 7 hour difference, which might also make staying in touch a bit of a challenge.

Oh, and did I mention the weather? Folks there are advising that we bring scarves, hats and jackets. It's already getting into the 40s at night, and coupled with the rain, it just sounds like an Eastern European paradise ;)

Seriously. I have a blanket in my cubicle and it's 90 degrees outside. Don't be surprised if I look like a block of ice when I return. Wish me luck!

Houseguest

While one of our friends is out of town, we're taking care of his dog, Wallace. How can you not love a face like this?

Office politics

Someone stole my lunch out of the office refrigerator.





That is all.

Tag, you're it: Volume 2

The second "tag" I've received is from my former roommate Malita, and it goes a little something like this:

The Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Fact #1:
My "internal clock" can tell you exactly when it is anywhere between 10-10:30 PM on any given day. How? Because that's when I'll inevitably start yawning profusely and falling asleep spontaneously.

Fact #2:
One of my legs is longer than the other. I found this out when, one day while I was using my computer (propped on my lap), I noticed that it sat at an angle. Sure enough, one of my legs is longer than the other from the knee to the ankle. Odd. Maybe that's why I keep walking around in circles....

Fact #3:
I have an addictive personality. Food and beverage addictions, that is. For example, I'm currently coming down off of a 3 year addiction to all things Diet Dr. Pepper. The replacement? My on-going addiction for all things grapefruit. Just the other night, my friend Eryn and I downed an entire 1/2 gallon of the stuff in less than an hour. And it didn't even phase us.

Fact #4:
I am a pathetically awful swimmer. In fact, I really don't like being in the water very much, other than the occasional hike through Barton Springs or sticking my feet in the pool. I pretty much feel like a drowned rat whenever I'm in the pool, flailing around trying to wipe the mascara out from under my eyes while also trying to keep my hair out of my face. It's pretty much the embodiment of glamour.

Fact #5:
I love to make people laugh. So much so, in fact, that kind of a subconscious goal of mine at any given outing with food + friends is to get someone to spit something out of their mouth due to me being funny.

Fact #6:
I am almost always cold. It's reached epidemic proportions, I'm afraid. My office is like a meat locker, and I have to always remember to wear sneakers to movie theaters to keep my feet from freezing right off. Honestly, it's likely partly medical (there's apparently a history of Raynaud's in my family...in fact, if you click that link, my hands look like that picture all the time). But still, I'm always cold. I love that feeling of thawing out when I leave the office and walk outside into the blistering heat. Oh, and that feeling of getting into the car when it's been parked in the sun all day? Love it.

Fact #7:
I really like nature. It just reminds me of how creative God is, and I love that. Just this past week I was flying back from TN and made sure to get a seat on the side of the plane that would face the West so I could take in the sunset. It was amazing. A bonus sub-fact is that I love trees a TON. I could probably hike around Northern California in the Redwoods forever...not to mention the Aspens in Aspen. Kinda catchy...

Fact #8:
I am a very competitive driver. That's probably an understatement, but I'll leave it at that. I'm a safe driver, yes. But I just really like finding the best, most efficient way possible to any given destination. And sadly, yes, I take a lot of pride in that....it's my Achilles heel, I guess.

Tag, you're it: Volume 1

Apparently I'm getting tagged a lot lately. The latest is from my childhood pal Amanda and it is called "4"...it goes a little somethin like this:

4 jobs I have had in my life:

• High school volleyball coach for a summer camp
• Bus driver
• COBOL programmer
• Super fabulous IT Project Manager

4 places I have lived:

• Austin, TX (the home I grew up in)
• College Station, TX (dorm room)
• Bryan, TX (Aspen house in the ghetto)
• Austin, TX (in the first home we've owned)

4 TV shows I like to watch:

• The Office
• House
• Project Runway (come back, I miss you!)
• Various real estate show....(TLC, Bravo, HGTV, etc.)

4 places I have been on vacation:

• New York
• Boston
• India
• Colorado

4 of my favorite foods:

• Ice cream
• Homemade mac-n-cheese
• Anything potato-based ;)
• Anything breakfast

4 pleaces I would rather be right now:

• Kayaking on Lake Austin
• Hiking in Aspen
• Hanging out with the McPeople and other dear friends...
• Vising Europe on vacation with my hubby

4 places I like to shop:

• Uh, can you say Banana Republic?
• Oh, and IKEA
• Don't forget about Target, my friends
• Lately...Hobby Lobby

4 friends who I will guilt into responding (artistic license on this one):

• TPalm? Where you at?
• Lippy...you're up!
• McPerson #1
• McPerson #2

New addition to the family?

Almost. But not quite.

Puppies, people. I'm talking about puppies...

Within the past 2 months, we've come so close to getting a dog. Actually, 2 separate times we've almost gotten a dog, and each time the deal fell through...for very different reasons.

So we're on the lookout once again. For now, we're both traveling a bit for our jobs, so it might be best that we take a puppy break...but we both still want one.

P.S. I'm personally obsessed with the K9 Advantix dog. You know, the "there ain't no bugs on me" puppy?! Oh my!!! I'm usually sternly opposed to ALL media that might feature talking animals. But for this little guy, I make an exception. Could he BE any more adorable? I think not. You should totally look those commercials up on YouTube...

Updated kitchen pictures

Woo hoo! We finally got the back splash tile installed, for those who care. Here are some updated pictures:

How it went down

Me: Driving in a parking lot.

Him: Also driving in a parking lot.

Me: Exiting the parking lot in the "main lane".

Him: Pulling into the "main lane" without noticing my car.

Me: Honking wildly as his car gets really close.

Him: Hitting my car and then stopping.

Me: Pulling my car over into the nearest parking space.

Him: Driving around in the parking lot for a few more minutes.

Me: Walking around my car to inspect the damage.

Him: Hanging out in his car with his friend and his cat.

Me: Noticing a bumper-sized scratch just behind the front right wheel of the car.

Him: Still sitting in his car, oblivious.

Me: Walking over to his car.

Him: Not noticing.

Me: Interrupting with, "Um, I think you just hit my car."

Him: (pause..........) "Oh, I did?"

Me: "Yes, you did. I can see paint from my car on your bumper. And paint from your car is on my car."

Him: "OK. I'll be over in a few minutes."



After we exchanged information, and his cat literally got out of its bag, we were both on our merry way. No major damage to report at this point, really. However I was quite floored by his response to my statement about him hitting my car.

"Oh, I did?"

Yes. Don't you remember about 15 seconds ago when I was honking at you and you were paying more attention to your cat than to driving your car? Yeah, that was you hitting my car. So yes, that's what happened. No harm, no foul. But come on here, wouldn't you want to at least check to see if you did any damage to your own vehicle?

*Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Boston: Been there, done that

We survived our trip to Boston. Actually, we did more than survive. We loved it! Great weather, tons of stuff to see, a great walking town. It was super fantastic. More detailed updates on Amar's blog: Here and here.

I've uploaded some pictures in two batches. One batch, the unedited one, is every picture I took during our trip. They have not been touched up, cropped, or anything special. A few of my favorites are below. I like to call this the "Rama" series:

First we have SleepaRama:



And then we have TanoRama:


The other batch is a subset of the aforementioned batch, but I've done a little work in Picasa (!). I get a bit carried away with Picasa at times, but I generally enjoy the results. Hope you like 'em as well. Here's a few:

A view from Christopher Columbus park to the water:


A street shot at night in Little Italy:



Links:
All Boston pictures: here
Edited Boston pictures: here

I think I'll go to Boston

Well, in lieu of taking a big summer vacation, we've opted to delay our official "vacation" until later this year. But November is too long to wait for a break, so we're taking a mini-break this weekend.

I've been there before, way back in high school, and I remember loving it. And since Amar's been there all week in training, he hasn't had much time to see the city. So it should be a fun, long weekend.

Gratuitous Boston Links:

• General Boston info
• We're staying near Boston Common
• We'll be navigating Boston's public transportation system

Wish us luck!

Green thumb?

This daisy is the pride and joy of my porch. Never in my life have I kept a plant alive for more than a week (that guy's going on a week now). And most certainly I've never taken care of a plant and had it produce a flower!

Ha!

And what's just as fun? I'm growing some basil in the pot right next to it...wish me luck!

Where am I and who are you people?!

Seriously, this must be some freakish hick phenomenon.

Local news shows continue to highlight the fact that the water is laden with bacteria. So I'll be they catch something all right. But that something might be more along the lines of ecoli.

Picture courtesy of Austinist.com

Moive review: Once

To celebrate our nation's independence yesterday, I, along with millions of other Americans, went to the movies. A group of us saw Once and we loved it.

I'd heard a bit about it a few weeks back, and was even listening to a radio show when the star called in to discuss the film. All that I'd heard was that it was sort of a musical, which I now kind of disagree with. While the music does play a huge role in the film, this isn't the song-and-dance type of movie that you'd see Baz Luhrmann produce. (Nothing against Baz, this just isn't at all like his work...)

All in all, it was a great show. I was a huge fan of most of the music, and it just felt so real. The actors were actually the ones that sang and wrote most of the songs, and that was just amazing.

Not to give anything away, but I was glad that this movie didn't end the way I kind of wanted it to. See it, and you'll understand what I mean. Looking forward to downloading the soundtrack...

Stereotypes

What? US? A bunch of what you say?




Oh yeah, hillbillies.




This picture, courtesy of CNN, was taken near Valley Mills, Texas.

Saturday night live!!

That's what my co-workers in Brazil when we work an all-nighter over the weekend....which is what we're doing this weekend.

So I'm going to be working from about 5PM tonight until we get done, which should be hopefully around 1AM on Sunday....

Wish me luck!

Song for the gas man

To the tune of B-I-N-G-O

There was a girl who had no gas
And Kim-bo was her name-o
K-I-M-B-O
K-I-M-B-O
K-I-M-B-O
And Kim-bo was her name-o

Gas man said he'd come by to-day
But he has not come by yet
Please come by to-day
Please come by to-day
Please come by to-day
Sang Kim-bo to the gas man

Gas man, gas man where have you gone
I need to take a show-er
Nice hot show-er
Nice hot show-er
Nice hot show-er
Sang Kim-bo to the gas man

Please come to-day if you so dare
I'd like to wash my red hair
Need to wash my hair
Need to wash my hair
Need to wash my hair
Sang Kim-bo to the gas man

I need to run an errand now,
I'm sure you'll come when I'm gone
Must wait here for you
Must wait here for you
Must wait here for you
Sang Kim-bo to the gas man....

Open letter to the city

You know, my dear city, this has just been a long series of days....I was looking forward to today, because I thought that you were going to send out an inspector to my house, check for any leaks in the gas line, give me a clean bill of health, and be on your merry way...all WITHOUT me having to be there.

Never did you call to schedule an appointment.

Never did you even hint about when you'd find the time to swing by.

You simply told me that you were too busy on Friday and might get to me on Monday.

Well, when I got home today, I saw that you'd left me a note. I was hoping that it said, "You're good to go! You're totally awesome! You're ACES!"

But no.

Apparently "Jim" told me, in all caps by the way, that "INSPECTOR NEEDS TO HAVE SOMEONE ACCOMPANY HIM FOR INSPECTION INSIDE THE HOME - RESCHEDULE."

Ok. Just a few things I'd like to point out:

1) I was told specifically by several plumbing entities that I need NOT be at the house when INSPECTOR came by.
2) There's a freaking GIANT gauge on the EXTERNAL gas line that clearly shows that it's holding 15 pounds of pressure, which I happen to understand is the correct reading of said gauge. This proves that there are no leaks in my house. Why would you need to come in? Why?!?!?
3) In order for me to REschedule, I would have first needed to SCHEDULE!!! Which, by the way, I tried to do countless times, failing at every single attempt. Scheduling was not this issue here, city. You and I both know that.

So "Jim" left his number. I called promptly after I got home from work...at which I worked NORMAL hours (i.e. 8-5)...which had me reading your note at 5:40PM today. Apparently, and I hope you know this, dear city, apparently Jim's normal working hours are 7AM to 3PM, and according to his voicemail, he's available to see customers Monday through Friday from 7-8AM.

Ah, lucky me.

LUCKY FREAKING ME!

This means, my best case for the next few days, as I see it, is as follows:
1) Jim checks his voicemail at 7AM tomorrow and he calls me.
2) I'm able to then schedule for Wednesday, if Jim's got a slot open in his busy schedule.
3) Jim comes out Wednesday and says everything is peachy.
4) I call the actual gas company on Wednesday and then ask them to come out to my house to actually turn the gas ON and they just might happen to have an opening on Thursday.
5) The gas company, who refuse to actually give you a window of time during which they will come to your house, calls me 30 minutes before they arrive at my house on Thursday.
6) I'm lucky enough to actually hear and respond to my phone while I'm at my office doing my JOB and the call comes conveniently at a point during my day at which I can sail down the freeway to my house in less than 25 minutes to meet the gas guy.
7) Gas guy waits for me to get there and is able to turn on my service.
8) I have hot water and a functioning stove by close of business Thursday.

But city, I know better. This is week #2 of this soap opera, and frankly, I know "best case" is probably more like "when pigs fly" so to be honest, I'm not going to get my hopes up. Getting my hopes up only means that they will be dashed against sharp, pointy, poison-coated rocks when just one of the above items fails to materialize. Getting my hopes up eventually winds up in a sorrowful, rage-filled phone call to my traveling husband in which I sound more like a sailor than an IT professional.

So no, my hopes will stay firmly on the ground, next to the gas pipe with the freaking GIANT gauge on it. That way, we may finally be able to meet in person.

What's that you say, city? You actually LIKE the look of my hair after I wash it in the sink because I personally refuse to take a cold shower in my own home? Why, thanks. That's kind of you. You probably never want me to have hot water again. Oh, and you're probably laughing your silly little head off about the brand new oven that is sitting in my shiny new kitchen completely USELESS, since it has no gas. You probably really like that, don't you.

Fine.

Be that way.

You showed me, didn't you.

We'll settle this at the gas gauge, city.

We're in!

This past weekend we successfully moved from our apartment to our house. Yay for us! Though it was a bit stressful, it does feel good to be out of the apartment for good. Even though we were able to get rid of several boxes of items (headed to Goodwill as we speak), it's still amazing how much stuff there was to move.

Today, I'm taking the day off work and staying home to meet various folks who are swinging by the house. The locksmith was here earlier, and now the countertop folks are working away in the kitchen. The plumber should be out later this afternoon, and all in all, it seems to be coming together nicely.

As soon as I can find one of the cables for my camera, I'll be posting some pictures. Wish me luck!

The standoff

I'm sitting at the new house.

I'm waiting for the cable guy.

There is a giant red wasp hanging on the ceiling in the kitchen.

I'm only 10 feet away from it and do not wish to anger it.

I am trapped.

I am praying that God would intervene and somehow the wasp would just die, suddenly. Maybe it has heart disease or influenza. Something that could potentially be fatal to a wasp. But I'm praying that it would die. Soon.

Otherwise, I'll have to beg the cable guy to kill it when he gets here. And since he's coming between 8-12 today, it might be a long wait.

From where I'm sitting, I have a perfect view of the thing. It's just hanging there, almost motionless with the exception of the occasional wing flutter (which just about sends me running for the hills).

Tools at hand to kill it or defend myself? A tiny broom that one of the contractors left the other day.

Please pray for my safety if you get this in time...

The sounds of silence

I walked into work today and immediately sensed something strange.

It seemed...quieter.

But people were talking, hands were typing, phones were ringing.

But I could definitely sense that it was quieter.







So I asked around a bit, just to do a sanity check. Turns out that the AC was shut off about 10 minutes before I walked in (although I will say that it was still quite cold!). It's amazing how I had become so used to the white noise. And to be completely honest, my ears started hurting.

They wanted that white noise. They kept trying to listen for it! And it started giving me a headache. After 5 years with the AC noise in the background, it hurt to have it disappear.

Funnier still? Everyone is talking about it. We're just a bunch of lab rats....

In a state of mourning...or about to be

Most of you know that I was born and raised a TV kid, though it does not pride me to say so. In fact, I've been trying to slowly rid myself of the addiction. However, there are a few spots in my TV calendar that will remain occupied until the various shows end. I just can't help it.

On my list for this season:

• Gilmore Girls
• Lost
• House
• The Office

Last week, I was in mourning over the end of a Gilmore era. Yes, tears were shed and I'm not ashamed to admit it ;) Amar was nice enough to buy me Season 1, so that I can hang onto a little Gilmore for a while...

Now it's looking like this week I won't fare any better. It is apparently "widely rumored" that there will be 5 significant deaths on Lost this week. Why do they have to go and do that?

Any predictions, you Lost watchers out there? I can't bear to write mine down...but if Sayid goes, it will be a sad day in our household.

Quick updates

Just a quick note to say that we're still working on the house. Here are some of the latest pictures: theramas.smugmug.com

Also, since we'll soon be moving, posts may be a bit spotty around here...just warning you :)

Distraction

Amar and I are spending the evening at a local coffee shop in Central Austin. I’m trying to read my homework for Bible study, but I continue to be distracted by the people around me, as you may well know, I majored in People Watching in college. So Amar suggested that I blog in real-time about my observations upon people watching. I will record the events, and then record my thoughts of said events in parenthesis. Here goes:

There is a semi-hippy sort of birthday party going on. Can’t figure out who it’s for, but people of all ages are in attendance. They have probably about 10-15 people already, and folks keep showing up. They have a large bundle(?) of balloons which they keep trying to weight down. Hippie man just went to grab a giant rock. (That seems to have worked.) In addition to people showing up continually, food and beverages are also in abundance. They have 2 full pies/cakes, several trays of other bakery goods, a tray of coffee mugs, a tray of cups of ice, and a whole big container of iced tea. (Woah.)

(Too many people on this deck are wearing crocs.)

There is a lady in the parking lot in her car, and she’s talking on one of those Bluetooth earpieces. Though to the casual observer, it looks like she’s in there talking to herself. She’s been in there for 30 minutes. (I am beginning to fear for her oxygen supply.)

Flies! Being attacked by flies!! Must cover my dessert!!!

Why are so many people wearing either crocs or cowboy boots?

Lady is still in her car…(I should check on her periodically to make sure she doesn’t lose consciousness. )

Party update: Whoops – there goes the tray of cups of ice! Splash! One of the kids just ran around yelling “Yum yum, cake cake!!”

A car alarm goes off in the parking lot… (but it must have been a really sketchy alarm because it made that beeping sound that trucks make when they backup. Sketch-y.)

Lady is now getting out of her car. Oh! She’s going to the party! Oh…she’s going to a different party. Never mind. I was fooled by the present in her hand.

Party update: More party attendees are arriving! So far the grownups outweigh the kids by about 10:1. Still can’t figure out who the party is for…Apparently the folks who have just arrived are the guests of honor. Much exclamation has broken out on the deck. Yippee! She’s here! (Whoever “she” is…) The kids have now been handed really large glasses of milk. (The perfect complement to the massive amounts of cake they are about to consume.)

Party update: Woah – major party faux pas. Someone just called someone else “the oldest.” Yikes. Not a good ice-breaker.

And the armed forces have arrived. (Whew – just when this party was getting out of control. Two fine members of our National Guard have now secured the deck.)

ALERT – CUTE BABY ON THE DECK!! I REPEAT: CUTE BABY ON THE DECK!

A woman just showed up with two friends, explaining Austin in the following way: “…Now, Austin has these things called ‘lakes’…” at which point I totally lost interest in what she was saying because 1) she wouldn’t be at this particular establishment if it weren’t for our “lakes” so THERE and 2) I didn’t find her shoes to be aesthetically pleasing.

Party update: Parenting advice was just given out to a young boy: “No matter what happens to your brother, your sister cannot be left alone.” (Way to go chivalry?)

Party update: Craig! Get the matches! The matches, man, the MATCHES!

Austin itself has struck back! The lady who made the "lake" comment just dropped her purse, spilling it's contents all over the place. Go Austin!

Ok - I really must be getting back to my reading...

Interesting observation of the day: food

I just realized that almost all the food I've eaten today has been orange:

• Pumkin muffin
• Quesadillas (cheese was orange)
• Orange

The only exception to this would be the coffee that accompanied the pumpkin muffin.

Odd.

I guess I'm just thankful that the food color inspiration of the day wasn't blue.

My calendar today

< whining >



This is my calendar for today.

Each little blurb is a separate meeting: orange, light orange, yellow, green...makes no difference. It's all craziness.

< / whining >

Thanks for listening!

Yeah, there's a snake trying to break in

On our way out of the apartment today, Amar noticed that we were apparently under attack:



Yeah, pretty gross. Our closet is basically on the other side of that corner where the snake decided to work his way under the siding.

So we told the office about it and they were going to call pest control.

We headed out for breakfast and then returned to the apartment about 2 hours later. And of course, he was still there. Still showing off his flashy tail. Still in the same position. We then determined that he must be dead, since he hadn't moved in hours. So I went in for a closeup:



Can anyone tell what kind of snake that is? Conveniently, the pill bug is in the picture for scale. I'd say there's about 6 inches of the snake sticking out...

My kingdom for a spoon!

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of breakfast food. At any given point on any given day, I could typically go for your standard "Economical": 2 eggs (scrambled hard, in my case), bacon/sausage, a fruit selection of some kind, and a bread selection of some kind.

Lately, upon breakfast food outings, I've been subbing out my typical fruit item (strawberries, pineapple, maybe even the occasional cantaloupe) for grapefruit. It is remarkably refreshing. And when I eat them, I'm reminded of my grandparents, who typically ate them for breakfast for as long as I have memories of them eating breakfast.

But back to the point.

I recently procured my own grapefruit from the grocery store this week. But upon arriving home and unpacking my goods, it occurred to me that I didn't have a grapefruit spoon. What's a girl to do?

Shop, of course.

So yesterday I went to Target in search of such a soon. No luck. And then something else occurred to me: never in my life have I seen a grapefruit spoon for sale in any store whatsoever.

And now I solicit you, dear readers, for ideas. Where can I get a grapefruit spoon?

If walls could talk

They'd say, "Hey Kim and Amar, thanks for putting me together so quickly!!"



Seriously though, we now have what look to be real, actual walls in the kitchen and we couldn't be happier. We're hoping to order the rest of the kitchen components soon, so we'll keep you updated...

For more pictures, check out our SmugMug site.

Thanks for asking

Yes, I have had some work done.

On my teeth.

Yes, again.

I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess. After my first trip to the dentist it was determined that I needed to give their office some more money and some more face time. That will eventually result in 3 additional trips, the first of which was today.

We decided to tackle the right side today. The left will come next week.

It's been quite a long time since I've had any portion of my face numbed, but boy have I apparently been missing out. And drinking a fruit smoothie afterwards? Too much fun.

Hope the next trip is just as successful.

Slow posts as of late

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. It's not that nothing is happening. There is a lot going on, actually. It's just that 1) I'm too tired/lazy/unmotivated to actually write about it or 2) it's just not blog-worthy.

Whatever the case, I'm sure things will pick up around here soon.

Stay tuned...

Et tu, Brute?

Now, when I was at school you couldn't necessarily say that we were any good at basketball. Not in the least. The most packed you would have ever seen Reed Arena was to watch Texas Tech coach Bob Knight come and throw a fit.

But over the last year or so, we've been on an upswing. Heck, on brackets all across the country, folks had us penciled in way past the first round of the NCAA tournament. And we were elated. We were thankful. We were due?

So we inked an agreement to make our coach, our winning, beloved coach, the highest paid in the Big 12. And Aggies everywhere slept soundly knowing that we had a chance.

Until now.

Way to go, Kentucky. Thanks for nothin'.

You gotta see this

If you're not a big TV watcher, you may want to change your mind on Sunday nights. The Discovery channel just launched a new miniseries called Planet Earth. It is incredible.

Basically, for the past 5 years, film crews have been all over the world filming the most amazing high definition video of rarely seen animals, habitats, migrations, etc.

If you like that kind of thing, then you'll really enjoy this show. It's an 11 part series which airs every Sunday night. Seriously. We love it. You should check it out.

That's the end of my promo :) Enjoy!

D-day

Well, today was demolition day for our kitchen. For those of you keeping up with our home progress, we're happy to report that we now have a toilet in our bathtub.

Anyhow, if you're interested in seeing some pictures, you can checkout our Smugmug album here.

Enjoy!!

P.S. "Before" pictures can be seen here.

I need a bib

I was eating lunch at my desk today, listening intently to a conference call while munching on a chocolate chip cookie. Sounds innocent enough, right?

Well, contrary to the popular belief that only 2 year olds smear their food on themselves, I managed to wind up partially covered in chocolate for the better part of the conference call and not even know it.

I happened to look down at my white shirt, only to see a HUGE smear of chocolate across my stomach. I stood up, checked the rest of my shirt, and bam! More chocolate! My cube neighbor joked that I had it all over my face, which, luckily for me, wasn't quite true. However, I then noticed that I did indeed have it smeared on my left forearm.

So I discretely made my way down to the bathroom and began dousing myself with water, trying to get as much chocolate off of my white shirt as possible. All the while, since they just installed automatic paper towel dispensers right next to the sink, paper towels kept coming out at me everytime I moved.

Was this the bathroom's feebile attempt to help a woman in distress?

Maybe.

So once my shirt was as clean (and now wet) as possible, I tried to nonchalantly walk back to my desk, hoping that no one would notice the wet, brown spots on the front of my shirt.

After reaching my cube, I realized that I was saved! I had a black sweater in the back of a drawer! Wrikled as it was, it covered up the offending spots. And so what if I'm wearing brown shoes and a brown belt? Right?

We're homeowners!

Yes, it's true. Friday we closed on our first house! I've purposefully not been posting about it because I didn't want to publicize all of the house happenings until it was legally ours. But now, we're in the clear. All of the paperwork went through without a hitch and we are officially homeowners.

In retrospect, the process was a LOT easier than I was expecting. I'm normally an optimist, but for some reason, during this entire process, I kept expecting it to fall through, or take a wrong turn, or have the house collapse upon itself.

I also read a lot of personal finance blogs and watch my fair share of home shows (house flips, home makeovers, This Old House....etc.), so I guess I've seen how things can go wrong. But we had a great realtor, a great lender, and a very easy going seller. So add all that up and voila, we get a house.

Here's the front of the house.

Which would make this the back of the house.

You can check out more pictures at our SmugMug page.

Up next: home improvement projects. Wish us luck!

I survived

I had a dentist appointment yesterday.

I don't like going to the dentist.

Not one bit.

I so dislike going that it has literally been years since I've darkened the door of any dentistry practice.

My dental philosophy: brush twice a day. Only see a professional if there is pain that is so bad you can't sleep at night.

So after a weekend of chewing only on the left side of my mouth to avoid the pain on the right side of my mouth, I turned myself in.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad. I was having nightmares of the doctor freely throwing around phrases like "root canal" and "total mouth overhaul" but nothing of the sort. Sure, there was a series of mega x-rays, and yes, there was some poking and prodding around the gums with a sharp metal object.

But all in all, I survived.

Immediately after leaving his office, I made stop at the grocery store nearby where I virtually cleaned out their dental aisle. The checkout lady must have thought I was a sicko with all of the dental paraphernalia I bought, but at least I felt like I was accomplishing something.

I do have to go back 2-3 times over the next few weeks to patch a few thing here and there, and get a cleaning (which I'm dreading more than the cavity filling). Seriously, why does that scraper instrument have to sound (and feel?) like fingernails on a chalkboard? It's hideous!

Mixing it up

Most mornings, upon arriving at the office, I head to the cafeteria to grab some coffee. There are a few options, including hot Starbucks, iced Starbucks, frozen Starbucks, shaken Starbucks and stirred Starbucks. However, in the effort to go easy on the bank account, I normally head to the "super mc. cheapy" coffee dispenser. I get my ~12 oz. of steaming, diluted "coffee" and I'm set.

For the past 4 1/2 years, it's been the same cheap brand. The same diluted coffee. The same semi-coffee taste.

Until today.

They switched it up on me when I wasn't looking!

Now there's not only a new brand, but a new machine and a new taste entirely!

How dare they?! I spend years building up a tolerance to the other stuff. Years, I tell ya! I knew just how much room to leave in the cup so that I could douse it with the proper amount of half-and-half. I knew exactly how much sugar to put in to make it taste more like candy and less like bad coffee.

Now? Now all of my proportions are off. Way off. And that's not really how I like to wake up...you know, conducting my own personal chemistry experiments with coffee in the cafeteria. Now I have to endure 4 more years of adapting to the taste. Yippee!

The great outdoors

This weekend the weather here was just tremendous. So tremendous, in fact, that a group of girls from church went on a hike. A 7.5 mile hike. Yeah, it was pretty nifty. You should come next time!

The hike started off innocently enough. That is, until we stumbled upon what looked to be a national crisis. As we approached the trail head, we noticed that there were two firetrucks and an ambulance stationed at the top of the hill. In the three minutes that it took for us to load up our gear and walk to the trail head, two more firetrucks and a hazmat team arrived. Woah nellie, you might say. And you'd be right.

We inquired with the firefighters whether or not we should start our hike. They all seemed pretty laid back and pretty much said that we could do whatever we wanted. Here's a picture of us entering the trail, while the fine folks of Ladder 17 look on:


After a few minutes of hiking, we saw the rest of the emergency crew coming up the hill, with the apparent victim. Apparently a biker had taken a rough tumble and injured his hand. It wasn't pretty, I can tell you that. But I'm not sure that it warranted a HAZMAT crew. Seriously!



After that minor drama, we hiked down a few miles to a nice river/lake/smallish body of water with pretty waterfalls. We decided to splash around for a bit, and let the dogs swim their hearts out. We continued our hike through the beautiful greenbelt, stopped for lunch, and then continued on.

All in all, an afternoon well spent! A few more pictures to share: