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.