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.