Growing Older

There's a number of things that I didn't like growing up, but now that I'm a semi-adult, I find that it doesn't kill me or may even now like it.

Brown Flexible Fabric Band-Aids: As a young girl, I wanted something that wasn't so drab. Muppets or Disney or even Clear would have been better than brown. But now, because I have the flex, I can type with my index finger just fine! And they seem to last longer than the plastic bandages anyway.

Singing when prompted by a phrase: My mother used to do this constantly, joined by my father at times, and it always drove me nuts, not sure why, exactly. But yes, I do this now that I'm older. Something someone says will remind me of a song and I will break out into a verse until my mother says "You used to hate when I did that!" I think it's just genetic.

NPR: Seriously, what kid wants to listen to talk radio? I wanted to enjoy music in the car, not have the news rehashed, and thankfully, most of the, time my parents obliged and actually liked a lot of the same music as me. But for some reason, I seem to be tuning into NPR pretty frequently now. Fresh Air with Terry Gross has been my daily entertainment while running to the bank for work and I'm actually enjoying the following of the campaign trail.

Sick

Patrick and I finally watched Michael Moore's documentary Sicko this weekend. Now I want to move to England or France or Norway or Canada, pretty much anywhere but stay here in the US. Patrick said, "I keep telling you, Toronto is the place to be!" I just don't know if I could handle the cold. I do have some reservations on Universal Health Care, mainly the tax burden of it. But when the United States is being listed as number 37 on the World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems, I have to give my reservations a second thought.

Christmas 2007

I have finally uploaded all my pictures from Christmas. I didn't take many this year, and those that I did are mostly of our baby niece.

Patrick and I talked about what a great Christmas we had this year. I was determined to have all our Christmas shopping done early, which was both easier and harder this time around. Harder, since we didn't start till after Thanksgiving. Easier, since we finally set a pretty strict budget instead of like years past where one of us would say "oh, I want to get this other thing for so-and-so...." and the so-called budget kept ballooning. We really wanted this year to be about spending time with our families and that's exactly what it turned out to be instead of the usual running around, crazy, trying to get things done . We wanted to spend time with our New Yorker sisters (et al.) since we only get to see them once or twice a year. And I wanted to squeeze Sophie as much as possible because the next time we see her, she'll have doubled in size.

Trail of Lights

We went to the Zilker Trail of Lights on Sunday with some friends. Patrick made his famous hot chocolate and we froze our butts off.

Enjoy the pictures!

Our First Tree

I was trying to take pictures of our first Christmas Tree, all decorated and lit up, but Calliope wanted some attention and posed for me too.

Calliope stretching for a belly rub

Presents are all wrapped! I think Patrick is excited that he hasn't had to do any wrapping and that all the presents are actually tagged this year - that way he knows which one is his. See the homemade tags?

The Birthday present is for my sister - a Christmas Eve baby.

For our niece!

Chloe decided to help with the ornaments for the tree. She likes playing with the brass bells and loves attacking the soft cloth ornaments. When I come home from work, I usually find them somewhere in the middle of our living room floor.

Chloe "helping"

A Better Bag

I normally bring my own bags to grocery stores and try to refuse bags when I can just carry the item in my hands. Every once in awhile, I'll forget to bring the bags in, or buy too many groceries to fit into the bags I do bring in, or just plain forget to say "Thanks, but I don't need a bag."

As of today, Whole Foods here in Austin has discontinued offering plastic bags at checkout (they'll still offer 100% recycled paper bags.) And to kick off their campaign, I got a free reusable bag from them! Now, every time I use the bag below, or any other bag I bring in, they discount 10 cents for each bag - which is double what they used to pay!

only 99 cents after today

Hopefully some other grocery stores will follow suit (ahem....HEB, Walmart, Target....) But I think these other places are still just getting used to the idea of people bringing in their own bags. I don't know how many times I've asked the bagger to not bag things in plastic before putting the items in my own canvas bag or "No, I'm not buying that green bag, it doesn't need to go in a plastic bag."

Being a typical 12 year old kid (and because everything they do embarrasses you), I remember getting embarrassed at my mom bringing in her own bags. Now, I'm glad she did that and instilled that into my head. Now I always keep one of those fold-up bags in my purse, just in case.

Eight Days...

Eight days until we leave for Houston for Christmas. Tree is lit and ornaments are hung. Gifts are all purchased, and all there is left to do is wrap them.

Yesterday, I came home to find our answering machine blinking. I press the play button, but all I hear is static. So, I go to adjust the volume and try to get it at that perfect spot where the speaker doesn't crackle and I'm not blown away by the decibels. It keeps cutting in and out and all I can decipher is that an order has been declined because of something having to do with the credit card information, like an incorrect number or date or something. When I try to play it back, I accidentally erase it. I guess I wasn't supposed to hear a message relating to my Christmas gift. Luckily for Patrick, our answering machine is a piece of crap.

After trying to listen to the message, I went down to the gym to go run. And since I sometimes try to time my workouts around Scrubs reruns on Comedy Central, I was able to catch one of my favorite episodes: The Scrubs Musical.

Lately

Things are going well here, it just seem pretty busy. Patrick's working crazy long hours and working on online school work, so he doesn't usually come home till after 9pm every day (and sometimes later.) So, on the weekend we don't do much other than sleep, eat, watch football, and as of late, shop for Christmas. While he's at his office I'm filling up my free time cleaning the apartment and trying to do this Couch to 5K training thing, but not really training for a specific run.

Kitties: Chloe's being much more cuddly as it gets colder and Calliope is just getting fatter - as confirmed by her latest vet visit...She's 13 freaking pounds!!! The Vet wants her at 11 and so I think she should started training with me. We could both stand to lose a couple.

We bought our first Christmas tree over the weekend and that's been a fun experience. I've never had a real tree before and the kitties have never been around one either. As Patrick brought it in our apartment, Calliope hissed at it. I'm not exactly sure what she thought it was, just that it was a foreign object occupying her space. Now, they both just like to eat the needles and drink the tree's water. I'm just glad that they haven't tried climbing it....yet.

Right now, we have white lights and about 7 ornaments on the tree, and a topper in waiting. So, it looks kind of sad unless you look at it really up close. Just waiting for the box to arrive with the rest of my ornaments, then I'll post pictures. It's nice to finally have a tree, it really makes it feel more like the Christmas season. In the past, Patrick and I would be gone for such a long time around Christmas, that it would have been just a hassle. But with a shorter trip this year, I had to have one.

Strike!

By now, I'm sure you have heard about the WGA strike. If you haven't, well, I'm not sure what lonely island you have been on, but all you have to do is tune in to one of the late night talk shows (Letterman, Leno, Daily Show, etc...) and realize that they have been playing repeats all week long. These are only the first shows to be affected on air by the strike. For many others shows, only half their episodes have been completed and for some, production has been completely shut down.

Check out this great site to get more information on why TV writers are striking: United Hollywood. It's all about the internet and new media. They should get paid for the work they do. Period.

Support the WGA!

Trick or Treat!

Every year, I hope and wish that at least the kids in our building will come by for some candy (good candy, too, if I might add: Snickers, Reese's PB Cups, Mounds, Kit Kats.) But, alas, we had no trick or treaters last night. I mean, I can't really blame them. I would do the same thing they do: leave the apartment complex and drive over to the nice, rich neighborhood to get loads of candy. But still, I miss seeing little kids all dressed up in their cute costumes.

And now, back when Calliope was all little and cute....

Calliope & Kitty

Jack & Kitty

Wake Up!

Patrick and I cannot stop laughing at this video. This is our life times two.

The Table

A few weeks ago, Patrick and I finally finished a 3 year project. We found, that it can really be difficult to stain a table when you don't have a dedicated space to do it, which in turn, made it take so damn long to complete. We needed enough time to sand the wood, condition it, stain it, then let it dry till it wasn't tacky anymore. Otherwise, kitty hairs get stuck in the stain. Not good.

And we had to do all this in front of our apartment door. You know, where the tarantula was from yesterday? I don't think our neighbors liked us too much on staining days.

Also, it seemed like there was a very small window in which we were able to stain the table.

• Can't be too hot, or we would sweat on the table.
• Can't be too humid, or the stuff would never dry.
• Can't be too cold, or our hands would freeze up (but like it really gets that cold in Austin.)
• Can't be out of town.
• Can't work on it inside, or the furry animals would have a race on it.

But now the table is done!! All rejoice and be glad!

Overhead of Finished Table

Closeup of Finished Table

Creepy Crawly

Today has been my day for all things creepy crawly.

Early this morning, I opened my front door to leave for work and saw this in the hallway, about 4 feet from my front door:

We've seen a couple of tarantulas around the apartment complex over the past week, but none on the third floor! I know that these are not poisonous and are pretty beneficial to have around as they love to eat roaches and scorpions, but man do they freak me out!
Background: while playing with my cousin's pet tarantula, it bit me and I ended up accidentally killing it after jerking my hand around to get it off of me.

This evening, as I was getting dinner ready, imagine my surprise as I cut open a bell pepper and saw this:

And in case it's hard to see, he decided to make more of an appearance.

Is Fall Here?

Austin, TX
71°F
Cloudy

Right now it is currently 71 degrees here in Austin, Texas. This is the second day in a row where I have walked outside and felt a bit chilled. I love this weather! Actually, yesterday was even better because it wasn't overcast but gorgeous outside. It's so nice walking out to my car and not sweating!

Now, can we please just put away the Christmas decorations and enjoy fall first?

Next on...

Just another show that I'm sad was cancelled. We finished the last Arrested Development DVD yesterday. Near the end of the series, they start making references to the series being cancelled:

George Sr.: I don't think the Home Builders Organization is going to be supporting us.
Michael: Yeah, the HBO's not gonna want us. What do we do now?
George Sr.: Well, I think it's Showtime. I think we have to put on a show during dinner."

Also when the Narrator blatantly says, "Now that's a clearcut situation with a promise of comedy. Tell your friends."

I feel bad that I didn't watch this show when it was on, that I didn't get a chance to support a show that is so much better than anything else that has been on network TV. So, since I missed the boat on this one, are there any other groundbreakingly good TV shows out there right now? We already watch The Office - well, I watch as Patrick nervously paces in the kitchen.

Anything new? Old? What series should we Netflix next?

Famous!

The back of our heads are famous!! Way earlier this year when we were still in need of coats, Patrick, Tracy and I went out to see Frank Warren talk about his PostSecret blog and books.

Over on the left, that's Patrick in the burnt orange hat, Tracy in the light blue coat and I'm two heads down from Tracy in a tan coat and right next to the lady in red.

You can see the picture on his blog here. Scroll down to the bottom. And while you're at it, check out the rest of his website.

How It All Started

Eight years ago today, Patrick pulled me aside in a 1942 house on Peck Avenue and spoke those words that I will forever remember as bringing us together: "Would you like to go see a movie?" He later told me that after much contemplation and thought of how to go about asking me out, all the plans and clever words went out the window at the last moment.

The movie would have to be put off till the following week, as I was heading up to attend the TX/ou game in Dallas that weekend. And he was going up to Dallas as well, but to see one of his best friends sing. I stayed with a bunch of friends Friday night and went to the game the next day, where he picked me up and promptly told me that I stunk. I had just spent the better part of 3-4 hours in the heat surrounded by other sweaty Texas fans, what do you expect??

We didn't end up seeing Mike sing that night. We got lost and finally showed up right as they were walking out of the building. I couldn't have even imagined that night that almost 8 years later, his friend whom I just met, would be singing at our wedding reception.

I mentioned to Patrick that I was going to be meeting my parents for brunch the next morning, so I'd need to go get my car from my friend's house fairly early. He responded, "Oh, I get to meet your parents?" So, only 4 days after he asked me to the movies, Patrick and I ate blueberry pancakes with my parents and my very talkative sister who probably helped relieve any anxiety or nervousness of meeting my parents for the first time. All a little unorthodox, but hey, we got it out of the way.

So, here we are: two Austinites who have been together for eight years, married for two, living with two neurotic cats in a "little place near Lake Travis," as Patrick likes to put it.

Happy Eight Years Honey!

What a Niece Weekend!

A few of my favorite photos from this weekend.

Sophie Drool

Surprise!

Toes

Blessed

Just three weeks before our second anniversary, we repeated the Catholic Marriage Rite after Father Samuel and had our rings prayed over and blessed.

Back in June, we found out that in order to be Godparents in the Catholic Church(technically I would be a "Christian Witness"), we would have to have our marriage be convalidated since we were married outside the Catholic Church at my home church in Arlington.

Patrick and I with the parents

After a lot of back in forth between a few Catholic churches, staff at the churches, a priest and a deacon, Patrick and I found ourselves on September 1st, joined by Patrick's parents and my parents at a beautiful church out in Lakeway so that our marriage could be convalidated in the Catholic Church.

A quote Nancy found that seemed fitting for our niece.

All photos courtesy of Portfolio Studio aka Paul Knudsen aka my dad.

Live at the Lake

We hopped up onto a half-wall overlooking the three infinity pools that blend into Lake Travis. Expensive cheap beers in hand and people watching. Laughing at the young drunk girls that keep slapping older men on the bums and stumbling into people because their not paying attention to where their feet are taking them.

The couple next to us has their 4 month old girl with them and are talking to another couple with their baby boy. The little girl seems so tiny, so tiny for four months. My niece seemed so much bigger than her, even at two months. I hope we do these things when we have kids, Patrick says we have to. We will have to get out of the house with the kids if we want to stay sane.

Waiting for the music to start, we stroll into some of the surrounding pools. Patrick teases me because I'm not fond of treading water in the deep end. We feel we could get used to this: Lakeway Resort pools, overlooking Lake Travis, with good music playing into the night. We go back to our perch on the wall for a bit and joke about the women decked out in way too much makeup and non-appropriate dresses for the poolside. Some of the music starts but it's no one I've heard of.

Finally, Bob starts to play, but he's doing a mellow set and only by the time we're ready to leave he starts to pick it up. We stay for a few more songs, then get out of there before all the drunk people leave and we decide we'll catch him at Antone's or Saxon another time. On our way home, a fire truck blares past us followed by an ambulance. Thank God we left when we did.