Dog days of summer

The dog days of summer hit me this week. It's 102+, I'm worn out and overdue for vacation. Feeling overwhelmed, I have opted to do extremely little this week to combat my ever-growing to do list. I know I need to post my final list (4 of 4) ---gonna do that soon, I swear. Also intend to post some decent pics of the disheveled upstairs per Ang's request, but for now, these are on my computer and since I'm actually posting, figured…why not?


For reference: the thin french doors above the 3 kitchen windows lead to the bedroom. The two windows in the middle are over where the tub will be in the bathroom.

So, from the inside, the doors are open and you can kinda see through to the bathroom on the left. This, friends, is my "glorified" attic. And when I say "glorified" I really mean overpriced storage space. I will refresh these with some pictures that are a little better postitioned (most of this junk is not in there anymore, either.)

Electrician says he's coming next week (we'll see...) And we now have a drywall team lined up for week after next (we'll see…). Meanwhile, the insurance adjuster came by our house this morning and that awful storm last May (despite our greatest attempts to 'will' it not a problem)… totaled our year old roof. So looks like we'll be getting a new roof. Good times.

Just doesn't seem fair

Also this week- I have been asked to help this darling girl get a rec for rush- whoa! Has this has taken me back…and made me feel old.

So I've been scrambling to help her get all her paper work in order (way past due) and *trying* to remember all the stuff that goes into this. She is a precious young lady but she has some things 'working against her' as far as rush goes. Which is odd since these things -in the real world- are actually fantastic and impressive. Specifically, she has 30 college hours to start with which means she's a sophomore when starting at UT which is incredible. Wow- how driven! How impressive! Well, from a rush perspective, being a sophomore means that the 'positions' in each sorority which she could fill are extremely limited. As far as numbers go, instead of the 50-60 spaces in a typical pledge class, there might be 0-3 spots to be filled. To complicate further: the older girls who are actual sophomores may have good friends they want to pledge… only making it even more difficult for a newbie. Just doesn't seem fair, does it? Anyway- it is truly amazing how much time goes into this whole effort being on the other side of the fence. The 'old' side of the fence, that is…

And if you are reading and you happen to be one of the darling friends who I suckered into helping me out: thanks again. And just think fondly of all the good times, party pics, date parties and bridesmaids dresses she will end up with as a result of your effort…

One up, one down

Thursday came and went… no call or sign from the electrician.


However, I am the proud owner of a cast iron tub! Props to Kelley and Meghan W for the tips on tub shopping. I have moved on to focusing on paint chips and finding a set of french doors for the closet.

Also, Mr. Price knocked down a 2-buh-4 upstairs so I can continue to move boxes of junk around.

I'll call it progress.

Still in disagreement over if we should pick a target date to complete the upstairs. Stress vs. motivation?

3 of 4

my list of 100, continued.

1. i got my one and only MIP at my first football game as a UT freshman
2. the guy i said "i would never date" ...i married
3. i have never broken a bone
4. strawberry daiquiris make the back of my neck itchy
5. my hair is naturally curly
6. i love planning parties, coordinating get-togethers and entertaining
7. i am coming to terms with my inner tree hugger
8. i LOVE mcdonalds french fries dipped in their spicy mustard (try it!!) and i'm not ashamed to admit it. however, i have a REALLY hard time eating anything else off their menu
9. some days while at work, i day dream that i am at home serving ice tea with fresh mint to friends... and i smile.
10. i was "head of standards" in my sorority as a sophomore/junior and absolutely hated it
11. i am snobby about chicken and dumplings that aren't made from scratch and rolled out (quartered biscuits do NOT = dumplings). Adele would roll over in her grave
12. after 10+ years of living in austin, i didn't realize that those were bats flying around at night...
13. i have strong nails and horrible cuticles
14. i have walked down the street where Maria sang "I Have Confidence," seen the terrace where Rolf and Liesl sang "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and the knelled in the church where Maria and the Captain got married.
15. my vision is getting much worse, yet i rarely (if ever) wear my glasses. (bet you didn't know i had glasses!)
16. i went to catholic school and rolled my cotton knee-highs to my ankles which was not allowed. (so we could REALLY quickly roll them up if a Sister came walking down the hall) ...and when i moved to the 'vine and started going to public school, i was disappointed i couldn't keep wearing my uniform.
17. i get carsick really easily ...not pretty
18. i have more christmas decorations than anyone i know (except maybe kelley)
19. i'm kind of a clothes/shoe/purse 'horse' if you will ...the downtown neimans shoe guy used to call my cell phone when they'd get in new shoes he thought i would like....
20. i still have my prom dress and i would still wear it to a formal event today (but with much better shoes)
21. i wouldn't wish home renovations on my worst enemy
22. i am allergic to oxycotin. which i learned 3 days into my recovery from my tonsillectomy at age 23... an experience that I seriously wouldn't wish on my worst enemy
23. i have fairy godmothers (in addition to my real godmothers) and they have named themselves, picking from "flora, fawna and meriwether" seen the movie 'the ya-ya sisterhood'? it's kinda like that.
24. i have extremely long and skinny toes. seriously. they look like fingers. (gross)
25. i hate pigeons. a quick story from my freshman year of college: [background... there is a myth that if you see an albino squirrel on campus, it is good luck.] so.... to amuse myself i started a rumor that if you can touch an albino pigeon, it is good luck, too (since there are so many, you had to actually *touch* them, i would reason) but since they would run away if you got close, i would explain, you have to kick them. (teehee) well... i only told this tale the first few weeks of school while walking to class with people i'd just meet. LOW and BEHOLD... at the end of my second semester i was walking to class and someone and they told ME the "myth" that if you could kick an albino pigeon it was good luck. victory! talk about paying it forward. =) i simply replied, "i've heard that, too." i sometimes wonder if the myth lived on...
    

now seriously team, i want to see your lists...... don't make me withhold ;) a quarter-list will do.

2 of 4

100 "me" observations (con't)

1. i am fascinated with cilantro and it's 'powers' which leads me to: i WANT to be healthy, yet haven't worked out (PT aside) since Oct '02


2. i am trying not to over commit to volunteer work


3. i LOVE writing thank you notes, i find it relaxing.


4. i tend to overdo things, then burn out. for example: in the 9th grade, i won district in varsity original oratory on the debate team.(don't laugh) then quit the next year when i was actually in high school.


5. i lived in paris... and smoked (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em)


6. i took an overnight train to carcassone by myself, then watched the sun rise from the walled city


7. i was class president for three years, but had the 'party house' in high school


8. i meet my favorite musician, and she hugged me (!)


9. i hate Ouija boards and scary movies


10. if someone sneaks up on me... i jump easily


11. i am an organizational nerd and secretly love office supplies (just don't like using them at work)


12. it is hard for me to not be completely transparent with good friends, but i am fairly 1-dimensional with co-workers/strangers


13. fight-or-flight response? fight. definitely. turns out, i bow up rather than back down


14. i had a twin


15. my guilty pleasure? watching "the girls next door" i love it!


16. i had long blonde hair until the third grade


17. as far as i'm concerned, there are four seasons in a year: winter, spring, summer and football


18. my husband *may* have married me for my longhorn season tickets. and if it did weigh into the equation, i don't blame him.


19. i drove and moved myself to college and when i drove into the austin city limits, i felt like i was coming home


20. i can quote steel magnolias to this day, and when i'm sick (or hungover) i watch breakfast at tiffany's and feel better


21. i dance in the house ALL the time when no one is watching -or- with joe


22. when i was little, i had a fischer price record player and three records: 'won't you come home smurfette," "thriller" and the soundtrack to "the sound of music" with my mom's permission, i would listen (and dance to) the pointer sisters...


23. i had a THICK southern drawl as a little girl ...paired with a tongue thrust (the latter of which, i unfortunately did not grow out of)


24. i also had a tiny rabbit fur coat which i wore year round


25. we had two 'last dances' at our reception (while folks lined up for the 'sending off' starting at the end of the 1st song): (1) "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Iz (a/k/a Israel Kamakawiwo'ole) (2) "I Will" by The Beatles

Ding Dong

starting to think about the upstairs more and more- latest time drain: figuring out how to get more storage/closet space up there. (the current closet has been deemed just enough space for me... thus leaving mr price without storage)

well it finally dawned on me... HELLO?! the "landing" (or the mini hallway leading to the door on the far side of the bedroom) who needs a hallway leading to ONE ROOM? ding-dong. don't know what i was thinking. current plan: new door at the top of the landing, enclose existing landing, keep current door and hallway becomes his closet.

don't know why that was not painfully obvious. uggh- thinking within the walls. [insert eye roll]

this, of course, changes the electrical plan. good news is: although the electrician already has the electrical plan... he hasn't started yet. see... silver lining to this minor stumble.

Rockin out

Hi team blogger-reader-friends!

Today i am doing chores around the house that i have been postponing for ages. In between letting coats of paint dry, i have been making a play list. Is your volume on? 'Cuz if it is, i'm guessing you already noticed. You can stop it if you you're not feelin' it or just don't want your cube neighbor to hear the party at your desk.

I've added songs that could either (a) classify as a theme song for me (b) a current/recent favorite that i can't get enough of or (c) noteworthy in my life.

Do you have a theme song? Let me know and I'll add it.

Otherwise, enjoy the tunes.

1 of 4

the first set of my 100 "me" observations

1. see below


2. I am a night owl (11:30 is a typical bedtime, but rarely earlier)


3. I am a 'cat' person


4. i love vodka martinis


5. my grandmother taught me to oil paint


6. being around people energizes me


7. i look awful with bangs


8. i am left handed


9. creme brulee is my absolute favorite (i LOVE the sound of cracking the sugar)


10. i would love to move abroad


11. i plot to move to nyc a couple times a year


12. apparently, i am exceptionally hard on myself


13. my house caught on fire christmas morning of 1986


14. i bought by first [town]house at age 23 (without the help of anyone)


15. i'm obsessive about being efficient


16. i rarely -if ever- read


17. growing up i had a tennessee walking horse named "Diablo"


18. if i could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be steamed artichokes with aioli


19. if no one is around to make me do otherwise, i'll eat ice cream for diner


20. right now in my fridge/pantry i have: picked ginger, caviar, maraschino cherries, whipping creme, but no bread, fruit or crackers (this is quite typical)


21. i have way too much glassware


22. i adore my husband - he's my best friend


23. i miss katie couric on the today show


24. my childhood was spent in waco, but i grew up in grapevine


25. i'm a daddy's girl

looking forward to your list/items! any surprises here? bored to tears?

100 things

Was talking with Kendra and MimiB about making a list of "100 things about me" kinda like those emails that go around and get you to answer a bunch of silly questions like: "Do you have any tattoos? Chocolate or Vanilla ice cream?" But instead of following a script- you just go at it. Listing things about yourself. I started mine yesterday and it turns out it is REALLY funny the random things that come out. It turns out they move pretty quickly when you get going and one will lead to another, etc. Makes for a fun stream of consciousness (and we know how my brain works in that regard…) when you look back at it.

Anywho… I am going to split my list up into multiple posts because 100 items is a bit much. I am also going to try to not send you running for the hills with any TMI items. But you should really try it for yourself! And when you do… please dazzle me with #21.. Or #37…. Or the whole darn list if your feelin' it!! I'd love to read it.

Posting starts tomorrow. I'll get things going with this one:
1. I love (and possibly overuse) the phrase "turns out…"

Oh, and... no tattoos and i'd go for the swirl.

2nd verse, same as the first... ?

House update

So, Monday night I realized that I am REALLY ready for the closet space that finishing out the upstairs will provide. "Realized" = became very fussy. Honsetly NOT feeling the urge to want to add anything to the upstairs or mess with contractors again.. But the closet space, oh, the closet space…

it's like a golden little carrot dangling in front of me.

So there isn't much to update at this point, but Joe did call the electrician on Tuesday and true-to-form, he said it would be late next week before he could schedule us in… And so it begins. (or continues to 'begin'…)

Anyone know a good place to find a clawfoot tub? I'm in the market...

Ham

Madeleine is 8 months old now-- these pics are from family dinner at our house June 29th and the little doll would NOT stop laughing. It was awesome. She's learned to throw her head back and look up when she laughs.... if you weren't already laughing, you are after she does her little trick.

She's quite the little ham, in more ways than one: 95th percentile in height, weight and head size. Seven teeth and she just cut # 8. The camera comes out and... well-- just see for yourself:

She loved the lazy susan...

I'll post my favorite from the night on Muddy Line...

That Sinking Feeling

ah, the fourth of July: stars and stripes, fireworks, long days on the lake and the traditional Lake Austin water balloon fight, cook outs, and sinking ships.

Wait, what was that last one? Yes-- we capped off a fantastic day of celebrating our independence by towing my brother's brand new electric-less boat back to the boat slip and as fate would have it... we never quite made it back to their boat slip.

Picture it with me if you will: almost midnight on a mostly quiet lake, the ACC fireworks over and a quiet boat full of 11 party-goers pulled behind another boat. But wait! Another fireworks show can be seen! In the distance a spectacular fireworks show is exploding from a private lake front residence. On the front of our boat, Nathan proudly holds the large American Flag waving in the air (Iwo Jima style) that you can see in the glow of the fireworks. Which of course inspires songs and commentary about towing the other boat to freedom and the like... you know, the 'huddled masses' and all.... You've seen the pictures: Haitian refugees piled onto a boat and sliding through the water in the dark of night. That's what it looked like behind us.

The fireworks show ends and a few minutes later, a boat zooms by us.

Seconds later we hear shrieks of "STOP! STOP! STOP!!" The boats stopped but the first wake from the speed boat flooded the front of the in-tow boat and the bough never resurfaced. Picture a toy boat being pushed down under the surface of the water... oh, but it wasn't a toy boat and the people on board were quickly swimming away from the sinking boat. The whole ordeal took less than 10 seconds and as soon as the boat was completely underwater.... that big*ss boat rolled right over!

"HOLY SH*T!" is right!!

Quick head count and lots of shouting for people followed by throwing life jackets overboard. We pulled some people onto our boat but it was already full. Shrieks to other boats to "stop!/slow down!/no wake!/capsized boat!" surprisingly worked quite well and within a few minutes, we had a couple boats drifting up to fish people out of the water and some folks at a nearby house yelling offers to help.

The calls to 911 got a police boat on it's way and it came hauling arse up the lake.. oh, but wait... it zoomed right past us... nice. Forget the 4-5 boats of people honking, yelling and waving... and of course the wake it left behind for us to deal with. Then again, with my brother clasping on the bottom of their boat (which was barely peeking up from the top of the water) we might have been at the point of not being able to make it any worse (given that everyone else was out of the water)

Just when we thought things were under control... the 8-month-preggers Elizabeth had a panic attack (understandably so) and so we quickly found a boat to take her to shore and soon thereafter, a ride home.

Some ingenuity at work: within 10 minutes, we strategically tied ropes to the boat and managed to tow it to roll it back over. Still completely full of water, of course, but at least now balanced underwater right-side-up with one rim of the boat slightly above the water line. Matt swam (is that a real word??) it into an abandon dock that the neighbors offered to us to get it out of the way and somewhat hold it still for the night.

Anyway- another hour or so of dealing with firemen, search & rescue and police and we finally were out of there and found rides home for everyone. We fished a few more personal belongings out of the water but between the wind and things sinking, there wasn't that much remaining to recover except for a bunch of cups and cans. We even scooped out Reagan's backpack-- still full of his stuff!!

So... The night finale *kinda* overshadowed the 1000+ water balloons we tossed at the morning's annual Lake Austin water balloon melee. Or the great day of sunshine and friends. Or the fireworks shows. Or even the extremely hilarious "tow to freedom" under the fireworks, American Flag, and singing of "We're Comin' to America." Yes, this will forever be the Fourth of July when we sunk the ship.


Ode to This Forth:
...the firecrackers red flare,
water balloons bursting in air,
police searches through the night
and the ship is still there...

Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave?
o'er the lake of the free
and the final home of our stuff.



HAPPY 4th! ~from the bottom of our... lake

Mid-year resolutions, revisited

Thanks to Mimi for her clever input, my goals have been renamed for tracking purposes. Feel free to ask me 'So! How you doin with all that...

1. junk in the inbox (f/k/a 'email shortcomings ')
2. junk in the trunk
3. junk in the attic
4. junk in the fridge (f/k/a 'menus')
...anyway?"

Encouragement (or chastising, however you work best...) is appreciated!

Mid-Years' Resolutions

I never really make New Years' Resolutions, but I feel like a lot is going on right now and we're making some substantial changes in our day-to-day life so maybe this is the ideal time to institute some changes for the better.

1. email shortcomings
At this moment have exactly 3,020 unopened emails in my gmail account (yikes). To be sure, this is not something I'm particularly proud of. But where does one start at this point? I hate that there are email trails just hanging out there that I essentially killed by not being on top of my email. A quite clever friend started titling emails with things like "URGENT, Life or Death, HOT COFFEE!!!" to get attention in my inbox. Nice approach.

I totally remember a time when I was on totally on top of my emails and couldn't understand when people weren't. Note, I wrote "remember" because it is certainly not anything of recent history.

My goal is to get better at immediately organizing/filing/deleting emails as necessary and logging into my personal account on a more regular basis. Granted I've got some things working against me on that last part (gmail blocked from work) but nonetheless- I want to log to email at least 3 times a week AND respond to the emails I read/open... not just save them for later.

2. junk in the trunk
That's right - sister's derriere is, um, growing disproporiate to the rest of my frame -shall we say? I recognize that I lead a sedentary life and for quite some time now I had simply accepted that fact. Again, nothing I was particularly proud of-- it just is what it is.

Well, my plan is to start *gasp* horror of horrors... start ...exercising. Yep. Pam, my incredible physical therapist, has recommended several different activities for me and I want to start excercising 3 times a week. Or maybe 2 to start out with. They are all low impact of course and my back feels so much better the next day, not to mention the seemingly endless benefits.

Benefits such as my heart's health or saving the embarassment of gasping for breath after simply walking up a flight of stairs at work or the avoidance of being called lovingly referred to as 'thunda thighs' (or equivalent junior high slur) during sunday night family dinner.

3. junk in the attic
For the longest time, I postponed cleaning out all our junk and extra boxes "until the remodel was finished" Wouldn't you know, all the extra junk and boxes have actually played a part in postponing the completion of the remodel.

My goal is to get rid of a boat load of old clothes I never wear, books I'll never read and papers that simply collect dust.

This one is gonna be a tough one because clearly I come by the "pack rat" gene honestly (if you've ever been to my parents' or grandparents' houses - I KNOW you've got my back on this one). So this will be a true paradigm shift for me.

So dear friends, I call on you for help. Anyone who is particularly good at purging 'stuff' ...I will bake you a cake, organize your blog links, format recipe cards for you, (geez, my list of things to offer is pretty pathetic here) ...be forever indebted and share a few glasses of wine (bingo!) if you would be so kind to help me out on this one. I don't really know where to start.


4. menus
I haven't done it in over a year.... but when I did make a weekly 'menu' --or a couple weeks at a time-- it was INCREDIBLE how much effort and energy it saved. Yes, that's right. Between each night trying to figure out what to eat, if have the stuff for it, yada yada... or making trips to the grocery store and aimlessly wandering the isles with a general list in hand... it adds up.

When I would take the 20 minutes to sit down and write out a meal a night for a week (with maybe even some leftovers for lunch the next day)... it would save me 10-15 minutes per night. If you do the math... it's quite the time saver. Goal is to start this back up again.



I think I will stop here because i already feel a bit like a wet cat and wondering how the hell I'm gonna tackle all these things. One day at a time, right? Keep me on track.

And you? Any mid-year resolutions?