OverGround

sister conversations

2011-07-01T16:04:00.002-05:00

Today I was chatty chattin' with my sister on the way home from work and somehow we ended up talking about birth weight which led me to sharing with her that at one point early in my life I believed that when I was born I weighed 8 lbs 7 oz. Only later in life (read: middle school or early high school) did I receive clarification on the issue. The truth was, I weighed 7 lbs 8 oz., and for some reason, this was both a relief and a source of great distress for me. I had shared this false and robust information to countless of my friends, only to find out that I was a normal, smaller sized baby.* (Having a little sister who weighed a mere 6 lbs 4 oz. at birth is a lot to live....down to?) I genuinely felt like I owed it to those people and to my reputation to go back and inform everyone I could think of about my correct birth weight.

After I told my sister this she responded with the following:

"Yeah, it's kind of like when I found out a couple years ago that my half birthday is actually June 5, and not on Cinco de Mayo like I always believed. I guess I could have just done the math, but you know."

*I know now, being an adult, that 8 lbs 7 oz is not abnormal. Please keep in mind that the girl feeling those feelings was young and without birthing experiences of her own to draw from.

fun with poses at work!

2011-04-26T11:16:00.004-05:00

Long time no blahg.

To break up the monotony of not blogging in quite some time, I've decided to post a couple photos of me doing dumb things at work:

I call this "A Penny for Your Thoughts":

And this is "Art of Cube":

Hope everyone had a great Easter!!

On my turntable....

2011-01-04T10:54:00.000-06:00

DFSG Wintery Mix 10-11:

1. Doll is Mine - Blonde Redhead

2. Wolves - Phosphorescent

3. Fake Empire - The National

4. Helplessly Hoping - CSNY

5. Winter Winds - Mumford & Sons

6. I Am On Your Side - Ryan Adams

7. What Light - Wilco

8. Fidgeting Wildly - Centro-Matic

9. Still Afraid - Bosque Brown

10. I Believe, I Believe - Murry Hammond

11. Lovely Day - Bill Withers

12. I'll Believe In Anything - Wolf Parade

13. All Thoughts Are Pray To Some Beast - Bill Callahan

14. Heartbreaker - The Cardigans

15. Bruises - Chairlift

16. It Aint Easy - David Bowie

17. A Black Wave is Comin' - Doug Burr

18. Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

19. What a Day, What a Day, What an Interlude - Castledoor

over the river and through the woods...

2010-12-17T10:32:00.008-06:00

Hipstamatic edition.

Last weekend, the husbo and I drove up to Kansas to visit my mom, sister, uncle and grandparents and split the difference between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've always loved my grandparents' house - from the decor to the layout to the exterior - just about everything. But I think as I've gotten older and now have a house of my own to decorate, I've come to appreciate it way more...and to see how, though our style definitely incorporates more modern elements, there are definite similarities in aesthetic.

Here are some of my favorites:

My mom cross-stitched the piece hanging on the wall behind the old fire extinguisher turned lamp...

Favorite place to hang out as a kid. So many moving pieces...

Canes galore...

Get your education on!

Vignettes...

She sits, therefore she is...

In the key of C minor...

To catalog or not to catalog...

All year round, folks...

And non-hipstamatically...

Sigh.

grocery sexism anecdote

2010-11-22T12:05:00.003-06:00

Having Mondays off, my beloved K-Ho often takes care of running errands or doing things about the house on this day. Today we're having some good friends over for dinner, and Kevin was in charge of going to the grocery store for "our" famous chili recipe that is actually not "my" recipe at all.

So we're talking on the phone and he's telling me how amazingly cheap all of the stuff was, and I asked him if he had trouble finding the chili seasoning since our usual grocery store is in the middle of a remodel and who KNOWS where they'll decide to put the seasonings! He said that he found it will relative ease, but that while he was looking for it he overheard two women talking who did not notice him standing there. They were joking amongst themselves how funny it is around the holidays to see men shopping in the grocery store who clearly have no idea where to find anything.

Kevin promptly cleared his throat, walked up to them and said,

"Excuse me ladies, can you please tell me where I can find the groceries?"

dining room before & after

2010-10-24T11:16:00.012-05:00

Okay! After a "long and grueling" process comprised mostly of me finally just rebooting my iPhoto.....my before & after pics finally showed up! Here are some before shots:

Sans furniture:

Looking from dining room into our living room:

We were thinking that since we have our cute little chair rail that we might try doing a different color on top and on bottom - LOOK OUT - we're crazy! Who knows what we'll do next! We had been on such a roll with the den and the kitchen and wanted to get our paint on again while we were in the zone, so we picked our colors and I went to the store one glorious Saturday. I wanted the top color in the dining room to be the same color we will end up using in our bedroom - a light gray leaning more towards the blue end of the spectrum than the brown. Since this is a dining room where food will be eaten (and occasionally thrown), I was thinking that it might be a good idea to get a satin finish for that room rather than flat like we'd done in the other two rooms. This is what I call Mistake #2. Mistake #1 was my overconfidence in my new abundance of painting experience (one large wall) to the extent that I didn't think I needed to tape the floor boards or chair rail. I love those new edgers, but in my experience they do NOT eliminate the need for tape if you want to do the most clean paint job you can. NOTED!

I started with the bottom, darker section of the dining room first (dark gray), and I notice as I'm going along doing the edging that 1) Man it probably would have been a good idea to tape, and 2) this paint isn't drying as seamlessly and magnificently as the other rooms we did. Hmm....and it looks a little shinier than I imagined....Hmm. NOT COOL. I went ahead and finished the bottom section, Kevin came home and lovingly confirmed my suspicions. It was looking like crap. So before we proceed, Kevin patiently and manly-ly (shh) taped off all the top section and we decided to do the top using the flat gallon we'd purchased for our bedroom and just exchange the satin gallon for another flat version since we hadn't opened it.

NOTE: Sherwin Williams has great paint, and I'd been able to get all the paint we've used thus far at deep discounts, but they have really inconvenient hours and a horrible return policy - in that they won't do it if they've colored the paint. While I'm really glad to know that if I happen to buy 10 gallons of UNcolored paint I can return it no problem (???), it was irritating that we had to wait two more days to go and talk to a manager before finally getting an exchange. I think we'll be Home Depot paint customers from now on.

We also bought a flat half gallon of the same paint color we'd used on the bottom, so we could sand and paint back over it. What we thought would be a one day job turned into four, but at long last we finished!! Here are some after pics:

And with a little floral styling:

We still need to put more stuff up on the walls, but I already think the house is looking so much cooler and so much more "us" with all this paint! Who knew!

I'll make sure to take more "during" pics when we do our bedroom! PAINT!

Paint Colors:
Below Chair Rail - SW Wall Street
Above Chair Rail - SW Evening Shadow

snafu!

2010-10-14T10:26:00.002-05:00

This morning it was made clear that my camera & computer are in cahoots against me to sabotage my before and after documentation. Boo for malicious cahoots! Boo I say! I uploaded the pics to my computer and at the very end of the importing process, iPhoto "unexpectedly" quit, deleting the photos from my computer AND MY CAMERA! What?! Irritating! So I've contacted iPhoto help and they're supposed to give me a call so we'll see if they can help me restore my precious photos!

In the meanwhile, here's a photo of the sweet hound we'll be dog-sitting this weekend for our BFFs. I present to you Sir Charlie Technology!

more before and after coming soon!

2010-10-12T12:03:00.004-05:00

We just finished painting our dining room yesterday (with a couple minor flubs along the way that extended the process). HUZZAH! I have to get the right lighting to take an after picture this evening with my good camera and I'll post for you to see! For now, I'll leave you with this lo-res before picture from my phone:

I have a better before with my "good" camera as well, but hopefully this subpar shot will leave you wanting more....right? RIGHT?!

Stand by for full post with good pics and details on our little mishaps....

paint crazy

2010-09-28T10:44:00.009-05:00

Recently having been inspired by several friends as well as Apartment Therapy, we decided to start painting the interior of our house, one room at a time. Sherwin Williams was having a big 40% off sale last weekend, so I figured then was as good a time as any to get started.

The house we just purchased was a flip by the realtor who sold it to us, so originally we thought we wouldn't need to paint until the walls got dingy because they looked so nice and new. Once we started decorating, however, I quickly realized that if your walls are painted, you don't need as much decor on the walls to make it feel decorated, and less decor = less work. Nevermind the fact that we still have thousands of things to put up on the walls...

I decided to start looking at Sherwin Williams' paint colors online, which really is of no real value other than getting me pumped up about painting, only because the colors on your screen are not the same as the colors you actually get in the store - just go to the store! They're everywhere! I went to SW last Saturday and literally sat in the store staring at paint samples with a blank look on my face for an hour and a half! Staring! The only thing that kept me from feeling too self conscious about it was hoping that I'm not the only one that is so indecisive about choosing colors. The guy who checked me out at the end confirmed my suspicion, when in an effort to make myself feel less creepy, I asked him if there were others out there like me. Shwew! Not creepy, just meticulous. Or at least that's what I kept silently telling myself.

I finally chose my colors (one for the den and one for the kitchen) and pick up a few supplies since all their paint supplies were 35% off, and I headed home to begin the transformation of our lovely little home.

Kevin knew that I was purchasing paint, but what he did not know was that I was planning to surprise him by having the den painted by the time he got home that evening. Our den is the product of a garage conversion, and it's probably our favorite room in the house. It's huge, so we decided on just doing an accent wall and go from there. I picked a deep brown - much darker than Kevin and I had originally agreed upon (zoinks!) so I was hoping he'd like it...

Here is a semi-before picture (pardon the mess, I had to shove all the furniture around to make room for the tarp and such):

I had already started edging when I thought to take a picture...

Here is an after picture (note: furniture still not back in place because I had to wait for Kevin to help me move it - the tv is a giant dinosaur of a thing on top of that heavy piece of furniture and while I managed to ooch it out from the wall, I couldn't get it back):

This picture doesn't really do it justice. It looks BEAUTIFUL! I want to be in that room all the time! Especially now that we have the furniture moved back in place.

I strategically left the house when I knew Kevin would be getting home because I wanted to see if he would call me or wait until I got back - a good gauge for his level of thrilledness (shhh). Sure enough, he called me while I was picking up some food for us and left this message:

"BAAABE! IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!! I LOVE YOU! I'M CALLING YOU BACK RIGHT NOW!"

I wish I could attach audio because it is a hilariously adorable message!

Then on Monday, Kevin decided to tackle the kitchen by his lonesome while I was at work. He did a glorious job in a room with many more corners and crevices than I had to deal with. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished product:

I LOVE IT!!! The paint is completely changing the feel of the house and giving it so much more character!!

Last night, after I got home to witness Kevin's glorious adventure in painting, we decided to go to Garland Road Thrift to look for frames and to see if we could find any cool chairs to use as extra dining room chairs for when we have people over. Instead we found this:

I instantly fell in love and it was FOURTEEN DOLLARS. That's it!! I instantly knew where I wanted to put it in our house and I remembered that we had some leftover paint from a previous project a while back, and soon enough, we were leaving the store with it, a frame and several National Geographic Magazines from the 70s.

We got home, got to sanding, and before the night was through, we had this refurbed (new word, get over it) beauty:

I think it looks exactly like I hoped and I love the way it looks up against the new chocolate wall in our den!

It feels so good to see the house really coming together! I think next up is picking the perfect gray color for our bedroom...

a sucker for your marketing

2010-08-20T10:40:00.004-05:00

Last week (was it last week?!) I got to take a trip up to NYC to play a show with Miss Sarah Jaffe at the Living ROom. It was a blast! I stayed with my bestie Julie in Brooklyn (more pictures of that coming soon) and the venue was awesome. The entire trip was awesome.

Sarah just sent me the link to a video shot of one of the songs we played. It was a new song we'd never played before and she taught it to us during sound check. I think it's an awesome video and an awesome song by an awesome songstress and I wanted to share it!

I love music!

things I wish I'd thought of part 1

2010-07-26T15:36:00.004-05:00

THIS is one of the most amazing and awesome ideas ever!! So cute, and I'm not gonna lie, I might steal the idea. Except that I might also lack the motivation and drive to actually do it.

Here are a few of my favorite entries:

Adorababy!

usps

2010-07-07T10:44:00.003-05:00

I really love this font. Can any of my designy friends tell me what it is?

(Jenae I stole the image from your blog, hope that's okay!)

"clementine" cover

2010-07-02T10:58:00.001-05:00

Sweet Sarah Jaffe posted this today and I can't stop listening to it. A really good cover can really make your weekend.

*smile*

catalog living

2010-06-28T11:00:00.002-05:00

Thanks to J-Ro for the inspiration for this. Just found a hilarious new website that I'll be obsessively RSSing...if one can do such a thing.

Catalog Living.

I LOVE humor like this! It reminds me a lot of Unhappy Hipsters.

Hours....I could waste hours.

whilst

2010-06-21T15:57:00.005-05:00

I have just had a small, but satisfying victory today. Let me give you a brief history that is actually so brief it doesn't justify my calling it out as a history to begin with, but I digress.

I have always enjoyed the word "whilst". I enjoy seeing it, I enjoy writing it, I enjoy saying. Speaking of saying it...I have ALWAYS, ALWAYS pronounced this word as though I were saying "while" and adding an "st" at the end. No question, right? It's a different way of saying the word while, so why would it sound any different?

I'll also take a moment to say that I don't question myself too often when it comes to pronunciations. I have my weaknesses and I have my strengths, and pronunciation is definitely one of my strengths. My parents taught me phonics and the rest was history. It didn't hurt that I worked at a credit card bank as a telemarketer for FOUR AND A HALF YEARS, and had to read each person's last name CORRECTLY as it popped up mere milliseconds after the person answered the phone, lest I be immediately deemed a worthless excuse for a human being were I to pronounce it wrong and be trying to sell them something. Let's just say I love being hung up on. (I was actually a really good salesperson and made quite a bit of money, but it sucked the life out of me and subsequently I have avoided any career path that might in any way lead to sales, but that's another post that I may or may not ever write.)

Meanwhilst... (see what I did just then?) I have heard people use the word whilst quite frequently lately and they have ALL been saying it with a short "i" sound. Like...will...st. The first time I heard it pronounced that way, I was like, oh well, I'll just rest in the satisfaction of knowing that I know how to pronounce that word, and not everyone can be as pronuncitorally (don't look it up) gifted as I. But then I started hearing it more and more and more, and I started to question myself, but was never in a situation where I could easily do some research.

Today provided that opportunity. I was reading a document at work that used the word "while," and that was all it took. I was a'researchin'. And much to my glorious delight....I was correct!! I even tried to look up British pronunciation in case my fellow Americans were just trying on some foreign pants for size, but no!

See here and here and here and so on and so on.

It's not as much "Ha ha! Suck it, I'm right!" as it is, "Cool! I was right! Goooooo Phonics!" and whilst...ahem....I wasn't hooked on said phonics per se, I embraced them just the same.

In the famous words of the BEP.....Tonight's gonna be a good good niiiiight. Oooh Hooo.

work shenanigans

2010-06-11T15:53:00.005-05:00

So it's Friday (holla!) at work, around 3:54pm, and I'm getting antsy because it's about to be the weekend, what what! I get up to forage for some gum and decide to stop by my sweet little mailbox in the supply room at work, and I find two things.

1. a magazine that I don't read or subscribe to, but continue to be responsible for.

2. this:

Now instantly I'm irritated, because if something was so "urgent" why not just bring it to my face, can I get an "amen!"? So I'm flipping the envelope over to open it, grumbling to myself all the while and hoping I haven't missed some deadline because someone couldn't walk a few feet over to my desk to deliver such an urgent message. I open it, only to find this:

I started laughing so hard!!

Conclusion: I love Rhealyn Carter and no one can tell me I don't!!

Happy Friday!

a little homestead update

2010-04-28T15:39:00.008-05:00

I've been way out of the loop and I definitely experienced a Project 365 FAIL. Turns out, buying a house and working and trying to do music = NO FREE TIME AT ALL.

In lieu of a crazy word-filled post, here are a few pictures of our house adventures thus far. We're still in the process of moving out of the apartment - have to be out of there by May 31. We're moving as much little stuff as we can over there and we'll let movers do the bigguns. I LOVE our new house and can't wait to actually be living there.

This kitty has been our friend since the first day we came to look at the house:

Practicing in a completely empty house = magical acoustics:

First encounter with this previously very shy feline that lives two doors down. Adorbs:

First dinner in the new house - Keller's. Perfect perfect perfect:

K-Ho likes to send me progress pics of how he's doing with the house/apt during the day. I love his little status updates....let's just say the top of our closets were a hot mess this morning....now - all gone!

Kevin, trying on...er....out our new shower curtain:

I love my husband! We haven't been able to take anything really big over to the house because none of the many many windows have blinds, so we've been taking things over and hiding them in closets, etc. He took yesterday and today off work to do house stuff and sent me this glorious picture with the caption, 1 down, 9 to go! I didn't even know he was planning to go buy them today!

Can't wait to be there full time!!

everlasting arms

2010-03-28T10:16:00.003-05:00

My sweet friend and fellow musician Mara Miller alongside Josh T. Pearson in Paris. I LOVE this video so big.

sxsw

2010-03-27T08:29:00.007-05:00

SXSW was awesome. I went down solo this year because Kevin was busy being the responsible breadwinner and working up a storm back here at the homestead. I went down to play shows with Sarah Jaffe, four to be precise, and just hang out and see some great music. We had our first two shows on Thursday, so I headed down Thursday morning, and after a surprisingly smooth experience getting my wrist band, I started the glorious process of trying to find a parking space...

I FOUND ONE! I found a gem of a parking garage that was fairly central to everywhere I had to go that weekend, so I parked there every day. Glory & praise be to San Jacinto & 9th! $8/day keeps the stressful parking process away!

The first show on the list was an afternoon party put on by Little Radio at a venue called Red Eyed Fly. This band I'd never heard of called Shadow Shadow Shade played right before us and they definitely made a fan out of me. I love lots and lots of harmonies and boy did they give them to me. They were super fun and made me wish I was on stage singing with them. Aces!

While they were finishing up and we were getting ready to load our stuff on stage I looked over and saw a man sitting on the back porch of the venue reading an article that inspired me to creepily hover over him whilst trying not to create a shadow and take a picture:

Adorable! He was doing his research!

After the show we trekked over to St. David's Episcopal Church of Austin to get ready for our showcase that evening, which happened to be one block away from my much coveted parking spot! We played that evening after Sharon Van Etten, who I'd never heard of before, but whose voice made me want to cry - in the best way. Her voice was phenomenal and the church sanctuary acoustics seemed to perfectly compliment her style. Beautiful!

Brooklyn Vegan even featured our showcase in their Day 2 in Music & Review. Woohoo! Great pictures and I couldn't believe they chose us alongside peeps like Band of Horses and Broken Social Scene!.

After we played, I went with my friend Lisa to see Kashmir at Maggie May's. The are a Danish band that Kevin & our friend Dragan are both really into, and they were fan-freaking-tastic! Incredible music and great stage presence. It was a great way to end our first day.

Friday was my "day off" so to speak and the festival was my oyster. As good fortune would have it, my dear sweet friend Julie was in town from Brooklyn. She does "web stuff" for Doctors Without Borders up in NYC and got to come down for the interactive portion (read: Nerd Fest - her words not mine) and decided to stay for the music, so we got to hang out all of Friday. I loved seeing her and I miss having her around.

We hung out all day, went to see a fun outdoor show across I-35, then trekked back, got some street food, then headed back to see Cymbals Eat Guitars play at Emo's tent stage. They were fantastic and we stood right in front of the sound guy and had great sight lines.

**cue cold front that swept blusteringly through the city while we slept, only to mock our lack of socks and heavy coats the following morn

Saturday we had our first show at 1pm for the ReadyMade Magazine Party at the Palm Door, which is a beautiful venue. We played with Anais Mitchell, a wonderful folk singer/guitarist who sounds a little too much like Joanna Newsom, but who has hooked up with some major players (Ani Difranco, Bon Iver, The Low Anthem, and more) on her new folk opera album, Hadestown.

Then Sarah, my friend Paul and I walked the many many blocks with our instruments and new tote bags courtesy of ReadyMade to our final venue, where Sarah and I were left to do a duet set since our drummer Jeff had to skedaddle and our guitar player Robert had his own set to do. We played at J Blacks, a great venue (upon looking up the link I just realized that there is a J Blacks in Dallas as well), along with Denton's Seryn, Fort Worth's Telegraph Canyon, and Dallas's Doug Burr.

A great way to end a great weekend. Until next year!

news

2010-03-12T10:50:00.003-06:00

There's no hiding the fact that I'm way behind in both uploading my daily pictures as well as blogging about them. Between increased responsibilities at work and buying a house (what what!!) personal down time has been a luxury these days. In the interim, I leave you with this-

43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49

2010-02-18T20:24:00.008-06:00

No excuses. Just the photes (sic). Last week was a complete blur of activity, so I'm really grateful for this project to help me remember all of it.

43/365 - I went into the studio to record with Jacob Metcalf, and he was getting ready to track some final vocals and guitar when I arrived.

44/365 - I went back to the studio in Fairview, TX the next day to lay down some solid gold violin tracks with my friend and fellow violinist, Petra. The studio was actually a house that had been entirely converted into a recording studio business, and it was in the most beautiful area. When I was leaving at about 3:30pm, the driveway looked gorgeous underneath the trees and with the remaining snow.

45/365 - For Valentines Day Kevin and I went out and did some preliminary house hunting to rule out/in certain neighborhoods we'd found online, then finished the night off at our favorite restaurant in Lakewood - Scalini's. I love that we have a place that's "our place."

46/365 - The 15th was the 33rd anniversary of Kevin's birth, and as part of his gift I got him a gift card to Good Records. After we went out to dinner we decided to drop by and put it to good use. I love this record shop and I hope it stays around forever.

47/365 - A friend of mine got me a special soap from her place of employment (LAFCo in Highland Park Village) for my birthday last month and I've been using what's left of my other handsoap like crazy so that it will run out and I can use my new soap! I've got a case of the crazies!

48/365 - I love the art on our walls, and I love that much of it has been made by local artists, many of whom are our friends. This little gem was a piece I got from my sweet friend Shay the female portion of bee-things.

49/365 - Some evenings after a long day at work, there's nothing nicer than picking up some sushi from Central Market for dinner. No dishes, no mess, just sweet (or would that be salty?) deliciousness.

There. Whatever.

arts district snow day

2010-02-17T09:23:00.003-06:00

In the spirit of photography and snowiness, I thought it would be great to post someone else's photos today. Someone whose ability to shoot far exceeds mine, though I'd guess he's not using a Sony Cybershot...

Our External Affairs VP at work just sent out some photos that were taken of the arts district on our recent snow day last week. The photographer is Jeremy McKane, local web designer/photographer.

You can see the stunning photos here. There are a lot of photos of our center - the Winspear Opera House & the Wyly Theatre, and there are also pictures of One Arts Plaza, Booker T. Washington High School and the Dallas Museum of Art. I could look at these pictures all day!

birthday suit

2010-02-15T15:15:00.002-06:00

Today is the husbo's 33rd birthday and in honor of the occasion he decided to don his best birthday suit.

He's so handsome! I love my boo and I'm glad we get to grow.....mature together.

42/365 et al

2010-02-11T22:02:00.009-06:00

This will be today's photo and various others that I shot today in a piece I will call "snow day."

42/365 - "car trek"

first tree

prep

morning tree

en route

cathedral

belo

olive & ross

new neighbor

dusk

SNOW DAY!

41/365

2010-02-11T22:00:00.004-06:00

I was home not feeling well yesterday from work. While I rested I was able to catch up on one of my favorite dramas (said with a short "a" sound) Damages. I hadn't realized that the new season had begun until my dear friend Liz reminded me. I LOVE this show! Such a stellar cast and so unlike any other law dramas on tv deez dayz.

"damages"

39/365, 40/365

2010-02-11T20:53:00.004-06:00

Sunday was my good and long time pal Jesse's birthday. This is me saying Happy Birthday Jesse to him on my blog, but I don't think he reads this, but at least you'll know I said it, right, Internets?

Anyhoot, the day after Sunday, which was Monday, I went to work via a different route. My phone indicated to me that traffic on 75 was going to be a beast, so in an attempt to avoid the aforementioned traffic, I got to see some different scenery, like you'll see in the picture below. For some reason I have always loved these Ford model vans, do not ask me why for I know not.

"ford"

Tuesday, otherwise known as the day LOST comes on, I went for the first time to watch LOST with a group of 300 people at the Angelika. It was put on by an organization called Red Carpet Crash, and I'm thinking about going again next week, but we'll play it by ear . By the way, for those of you who love LOST like I's do, you should check out the weekly episode recap on videogum.com immediately:

Episode 1

Episode 2

Now, back to the blog. We went with several friends and ran into some others while we were there. I never knew there were so many LOSTees! Afterward, one of our friends Colin won a door prize - HOLLA! - and it was a bag full of comics. I love when my friends reveal their inner nerd.

"red carpet crash"

DO IT!

36/365, 37/365 & 38/365

2010-02-09T09:14:00.006-06:00

I'm waaaaay behind, but I plan to trick you by blogging all the photos I missed in a few different blogs. You'll be nary the wiser. Without further ado.......I present you with the photos!

For 36/365 (last Friday) The Crash That Took Me was playing at the Double Wide, and on but a moment's notice, my sweet friend Sally Glass came up to see us play. I love her! This is a phote (sic) of her taking the stage before we went on.

"sally glass"

Then on Saturday, for 37/365, I spent a good part of the morning working on a film score project with a friend of mine. He's composing most of the music, and my job has been to arrange/transcribe a few of the pieces for strings and add a few parts here and there. It's been a really fun and exciting project and I hope I get to do more like it.

"garage band"

For 38/365, we went down to Cleburne to hang out with Kevin's family and "watch" the Superbowl. And by that I mean hang out, talk with family, then look up and get excited when everyone else starts yelling enthusiastically and hope they show and instant replay. I meant to take a picture of their house while it was still daylight because they bought a beautiful old home a little over a year ago, but I totally forgot, so instead I took a picture of a little CD that our friend Dragan burned for Kevin and left at our front door. I love it when people leave things cutely and gingerly leaned against other things. (What?)

"gift"

Until next time! (check back in about 30 min or so)

33/365, 34/365 and 35/365

2010-02-05T19:18:00.005-06:00

Okay so here I am, blogging yet again with pictures in threes. But! I will not let myself fall behind to four pictures!! So this may be a little shorter and sweeter, but I'll get better! I believe in me!

First up, 33/365. LOST. Season Premiere. FINAL season. LOST watching party. Dharma themed snacks. Need I say more? Yes. I LOVE LOST.

"Season 6"

Next, for 34/365, I took a photo as we were setting up for band practice for a show we actually have tonight at the Double Wide, woop woop! That's where I'll be going after I finish this blog. I love music and I love the peeps I get to play with.

"Crash"

Finally, for 35/365, I was laying on my bed last night just winding down before I went to bed, and Kevin's closet door was ajar. I knew this would be my picture. I saw the remnants of Kevin's LOST watching outfit hang with quiet pride in the closet. I love hilarious things.

"Workman"

Til we blog again!

32/365

2010-02-03T09:22:00.005-06:00

In our Project 365 group, February's theme, appropriately enough is "the things we love." Since I got to just stay home Monday night and not really do much for the first time in a couple weeks, I thought I'd start off taking a picture of one of the things I love most of all...that's right, get your trash cans out and your index finger ready...my husband.

He is my best friend, he makes me laugh harder than anyone else can, he challenges me and he's my number one supporter and fan. Plus he's not hard to look at.

"husbo"

Oh, in addition to loving my husbo, it should also be mentioned that I love hot tea, though I do not love the two in equal portions.

31/365

2010-02-03T08:53:00.004-06:00

The 31st day of the year was also my dear friend Candiss' birthday as well as the final performance of Showboat. Unfortunately I missed Candiss' bday dinner, but Kevin and I did get to share the evening after the performance together. We decided that we would make some late night chili and just relax and we did just that. I got the chili recipe from my friend Rhealyn and we LURVE it. We had to go grab all the ingredients at the store after I got home, so I decided to take my camera with me.

I really like the O Organics branding at Tom Thumb. Some of you designer types might disagree with me, but I'll stand my ground!

"chili"

Here's a picture of the chili the first time we made it:

I's a gettin' hungry!

mini blog re: LOST

2010-02-02T10:22:00.002-06:00

Tonight marks the season premier of the FINAL season of LOST ever. EVER!! Kevin is the one who got me into LOST. We had just started dating and I was really sick in bed for about a week. He brought me cough drops, nyquil, food and Season 1 of LOST on DVD to watch. I was not into the show and didn't really know if I wanted to be, but what choice did I have? And so began my descent into LOSTeeism. I even joined a now dissipating discussion group, but that's a conversation NOT to have another day or ever.

We are splitting up tonight to watch the LOST opening episode tonight. Kevin started watching it with his brother and cousins 6 years ago, and that's how he's going to start this season, too, down in Cleburne. I'm sticking around in Dallas to watch with a couple of friends here in town, so I won't see him until late tonight. As we were getting ready this morning we were talking about it because we're huge giant nerds, and as we were walking out to our cars to go to work, he paused, looked back at me and said,

"Just think, next time we see each other everything will be different."

I love my husband.

[POST BLOG CONFESSION]: I feel a twinge of shame every time I capitalize all the letters in LOST. But I can't not capitalize them!

30/365

2010-02-01T17:11:00.004-06:00

This post, like my next photo is inspired by the creatures of the sky. My new coworker and fast friend, we'll call her "Dana", knows that I have a definite and overwhelming penchant for owls, or as I like to call them, hoot hoots. Said penchant developed after I started dating Kevin many moons ago and he started to grow his glorious beard out. I was perusing the various booths at my favorite local antique shop Dolly Python, and stumbled upon the cutest little ceramic owl ever my eyes had seen. It was adorable on its own, but it was even more adorable because it looked JUST LIKE KEVIN. JUST LIKE HIM.

Naturally I purchased my new tiny treasure, and thus began a new collection of various owl items, most of which are antiques or unique representations of these sweet beasts of the night. Over the weekend, "Dana" sent me this article about an overly verbal owl disturbing his neighbors and it left me no other choice but to make my photo for the day owl focused. The small owl on the left was my first owl purchase (and Kevin's non-living doppleganger). The wooden one next to it is one my mom got us to add to our collection.

"what a hoot"

Now just try to tell me there's not an uncanny resemblance:

He's even got a feathered friend on his shoulder for crying out loud!

29/365

2010-02-01T10:46:00.004-06:00

At work last Friday, as a spin off of our weekly Programming & Marketing meeting, we decided to do a little research for an upcoming event as part of our lecture series. On March 16 in the Winspear Opera House, we're presenting David Frost & Frank Langella in a conversation, an event I'm particularly excited about. To help with marketing ideas for the show, we ordered pizza and bought Frost/Nixon to watch over lunch. Such a great movie! And therein lay the inspiration for my photo.

"research"

I love my job.

28/365

2010-01-29T18:00:00.005-06:00

Last night I missed the daily photo deadline by 3 minutes. Graciously, my group facilitator didn't ban me from the group and let me post anyway. I got home from the opening night performance of Showboat around 11:50pm, and started immediately "taking off my face" and getting ready for bed. As I was washing my face I realized that I hadn't taken my photo for the day! I looked at the time, making sure to not get soap all over my phone, and realized it was 12:03am. NO-hooooooooooooooo!! I quickly scrambled around trying to keep the soap out of my eyes and kept darting around the room like "a crazy" (as my former Russian violin professor used to say) chanting, "What should I take a picture of?! What should I take a picture of?!" with classic poor grammar, while Kevin laughed at me.

Finally I just settled on this art on our bedroom wall and snapped a picture with my phone before I crashed into bed. Oh the places we go. To bed.

"us"

Vote!

2010-01-29T10:02:00.004-06:00

For bee things! They are comprised of my good friends and married designers Jeff & Shay, and they were nominated for a poppy award on the poppytalk blog for favorite handmade papergoods!

Go vote for them here!

Jeff is the crazy cat who designed our wedding invitations and programs for those of you who might remember them. Here's a photo of the programs for those who forgot to 'member:

Check out their stuff and vote for them when you get a chance. I love supporting local art and I am in disbelief sometimes regarding how many wonderfully creative friends we have!!

Also if you don't have plans, check them out tonight at We Are 1976.

26/365 and 27/365

2010-01-28T10:30:00.004-06:00

I'm down to only two picture days at a time! Woop woop! This week it has been really challenging to find interesting things to photograph because my schedule has been exactly the same all week.

1. Wake up after snoozing as long as possible.

2. Go to work.

3. Leave work right at 5:30pm so I can get home, shove something in my face and make it to Showboat rehearsal by 7pm.

4. Go home around 11pm driving 70mph in hopes of making it home in time to see my husbo before he hits the adorable hay.

5. Repeat.

I've already taken a picture of my Showboat music score and a super secret shot I snagged during rehearsal. Since this month has been "The Places We Go," I've kind of tapped out my resources. But maybe I'm just not thinking creatively enough.

For 26/365, I had just plopped down on the couch after rehearsal. Kevin was already asleep and I was going to make a couple plays on my outstanding (read: yet to be dealt with) Words With Friends games to "unwind," and this was on the coffee table in front of me. K-Ho has been playing at home more lately, and he loves his new Nord baby (full working name: Nordstrom Electroliver, III)...hence my photo:

"Buttons"

For 27/365, I took my photo whilst I was at work, since I haven't explored that part of my life in photos yet. Plus I just got a promotion to a new position at work (what what!) and decided it was high time I organize my desk, and subsequently my life. So in the afternoon when I had a few minutes free I did it! And took a dang picture to commemorate:

"40 hours"

22/365, 23/365 and 24/365

2010-01-25T11:05:00.007-06:00

Contrary to what I keep telling myself, and you, dear reader, I keep blogging in 3 day increments! I'm going to try my darndest to turn this around! Don't give up on me!!

SIDEBAR: I've recently learned that Latter Day Grammar Rangers now find it necessary to shorten the number of spaces between sentences from two to one. This is something I find infuriating. Not because I disagree with the idea necessarily, but because I find myself CONSTANTLY deleting the afore-necessitated space. Like just now I had to delete my extra space. And now. Also, I believe it was probably established as a new rule by a frequent twitterer. MUST MAXIMIZE CHARACTER UTILIZATION! TWEET! But that has nothing to do with this post. It's just that every time I'm writing a blog, I think about it because of the constant space-delete space-delete that will inevitably occur, and the unfair judgment it might bring upon me if any of the self-proclaimed enforcers of this new rule (read: Monica Hopkins) notice that I missed one.

Anybuns, on to the photos!

For 22/365, I went to go see Dallas Theater Center's Give It Up at the Wyly, then afterward we met up with Julesdwit who was in town from her homestead in NYC and headed to Vickery for some late night tacos with some late night friends.

"delicious"

For 23/365, I chose one of my favorite brunch locations, Garden Cafe, which I believe I've mentioned in a post before. I met Jro, Jules & Candie there for a delicious brunch after I got my hair cut. (space-delete)We sat outside to start until it started raining. It was one of those gray, but really bright days. (space-delete)I love those days!

"garden"

For 24/365, I decided to take my photo at home. (space-delete)After church, I came home, plopped on the couch and turned on NPR to listen to the rest of the This American Life that came on while I was in the car on the way home. I. Love. That. Program. Now they are in the middle of their winter pledge drive, so there were some interruptions, but I loved it nontheless. I love listening to that show in my living room. There's something that feels very old school about it until I remember that I'm listening to it on my DVD/mp3/TV/Radio stereo system, on top of which is our DVR. The only thing old school about the picture is the only game system we own, the original Nintendo. I'll Dr. YOUR Mario!

"this american life"

GO IRA!

21/365

2010-01-22T10:43:00.006-06:00

This week has been absolutely crazy. I only realized in the middle of Showboat rehearsal last night that I hadn't taken a picture yet, so I just pulled my camera out while our conductor, the illustrious Jay Dias was stopping momentarily to go over part of the score with the brass section, and ever stealthily snapped a photo. Only my stand partner Miguel was any the wiser.

"act II"

I love music! Plus I have a 2 measure solo in this show! Ha ha! I love it! Movin' on up!

17/365, 18/365, 19/365 and 20/365

2010-01-19T23:20:00.009-06:00

I promise I'm not going to keep blogging in multi day increments. This has been a pretty crazy weekend and beginning of the week....I got a promotion at work, woohoo! It's fantastic but it's left me busier than I have been at work in a while, and with rehearsals this week (see figure 19/365), I haven't had my evenings as free as in recent weeks.

So, a concise, yet not terse summary of the last four days.

17/365 - I worked on a film score with my friend Curtis of The Theater Fire fame for a film called "Carried Away" recently. There is a second project in the works, so last Sunday I went over to his house so we could work on a game plan for writing the music. I love his house and opted to take my picture there.

"recording"

18/365 - My birthday!! Kevin and I had brunch, then headed to the mall for a bit. We stopped inside the Nasher store at Northpark because we'd never been. At the back of the store is an awesome kids section, and when I saw these patent leather baby shoes I knew this would be my photo for the day. They are so ridiculously hilariously cute!

"tiny feets"

19/365 - I started rehearsals with Irving Lyric Stage for their production of Showboat in concert last night and decided to take a picture of some of the score. I do musicals with them about 2-3 times a year and I love it! I've been doing it for about 3 years or so now, and we've done Sweeney Todd, Carousel, Dallas Divas, West Side Story, The King & I, Funny Girl and now Showboat. I've been doing it long enough that I've become friends with the other musicians and it's a mini reunion every time we do these shows. I love playing in bands, but this satisfies the orchestra nerd that resides deep within my weary soul.

"showboat"

20/365 - Tonight was the second rehearsal for Showboat. It's a fun gig, but I got a little overwhelmed when I realized that we have Friday & Saturday off this week, but this Sunday through next Sunday will be constant rehearsals/performances every night after working every day.....it will be a tense week and I think I'll be cashing in a massage gift card I got for Christmas shortly after the run is complete. I can't think too much about my schedule and how little time I'm going to have to myself, I just kind of have to keep my head down and push through. I think I'll be looking to this phrase more than once over the next week and a half.

"mantra"

Wish me luck taking my pictures every day and getting them posted on my blog! SHOWBOAT!

14/365, 15/365 and 16/365

2010-01-16T20:24:00.007-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted the last couple of days' photos! Yesterday was an eventful day at work to say the least and I was a little distracted.

First, we have 14/365, which was a fun filled evening over at Sir Jesse Hopkins' house. He got a new tv for his new place and invited a few friends over to watch our favorite Thursday night line up. Perched on his piano were the photos I got him as a housewarming gift. Love my friends!

"Jesse's House"

Then there's last night, 15/365. I left work a little early to meet Sarah Jaffe to play a show in Denton last night with Seryn and Robert Gomez. It was Sarah's last show in town before she goes on a fancy pants European tour with Midlake, woop woop! A couple of the guys in Midlake go to St. David's Episcopal church in Denton, where the show was held last night. It was a beautiful, traditional church and it was a gorgeous and perfect venue for the event.

"St. David's"

Today, as a pre-birthday celebration, I went with Jessica Roberts (Jro) to get my eyebrows threaded by Miss Kim then we met up with Jessica Allen and her ridiculously cute daughter Cecelia to eat at Garden Cafe. Then we went back and hung out at J-Ro's new place for a bit where I captured today's photo (16/365). Cece decided that she needed to reorganize Jro's bookshelf. And by reorganize I of course mean dump them all on the kitchen floor.

"Who Me?"

13/365

2010-01-13T23:21:00.004-06:00

Well would you look at that - I'm actually posting a photo on the same day I snapped it! Tonight I went over to Elissa's house to eat delicious food stuffs and start our bible study that we've been talking about starting.

Tonight's menu was homemade tomato basil soup and grilled cheeses. Now I'm drooling thinking back about it. It was amazing. A little simmer here, a little blender puree there, and voila!! Gourmet in my mouth!! I know this isn't a very lengthy post, but the crack of midnight approacheth and my body is about to approacheth my bed so deal with it.

Love you!

"so I creep"

And as an aside, Elissa introduced me to a new book that is both disturbing and uproariously cute!

Check it!

12/365

2010-01-13T10:55:00.005-06:00

Last night K-Ho and I went to see August: Osage County at the Winspear. It's the second in our Lexus Broadway Series (sponsorship plug, what!), and it's the first straight play (read: non-musical). I absolutely LOVED the show. The star is Estelle Parsons, who has done a lot of acting, but most of you probably remember her as Rosanne's mother Beverly on the 80s-90s hit sitcom "Rosanne."

Upon reading the cast bios I discovered that almost everyone in the cast has been on one or more of the Law & Orders, and that fact pleased me more than I think would be reasonable. I heart Law & Order. I also heart Words with Friends, but those are topics for another post.

I was initially taking pictures inside the theater at the beautiful set (which you can see if you click on the link above), but then an usher kindly informed me that it wasn't allowed. So, after much debate and not wanting to run into a cease and desist situation, I decided not to post my illegally obtained photo of the set and instead took a few photos outside on the walk back to our car. I took three that I was satisfied with, but could only choose one for Project 365, so Kevin helped me choose one that he felt was more unique than the others.

tree + wyly (this is the one I was originally going to use)

patrons retreat

and finally, 12/365 selection, "the lurker"

11/365

2010-01-12T09:18:00.003-06:00

Last night I met my friend Elena for dinner at Hunky's in the Bishop Arts District. We hadn't seen each other in a very very long time and we both like ourselves a good hamburger, so we got our Hunky on. (gross!) I really love the Bishop Arts District. There are great little stores and restaurants and a cool bike shop and there's just a great sense of community every time I walk around down there.

I also got a new iPhone camera application with new filters and wanted to try it out, so I joined my love of Hunky's (and dinner with Elena) and my excitement about my new filters and thus I bring to thee:

"hunky's"

9/365 and 10/365, et al

2010-01-11T11:18:00.008-06:00

So this weekend was packed full of events and occurrences worth documenting. Saturday was filled with three birthdays of very important people.

Starting off the afternoon was the first birthday of my friends Nick & Trisha's sweet baby Sophie:

Pretty adorable.

Also at Sophie's party was my friend Audrey's daughter, Alice June, displaying a pipe cleaner rendition of her family, complete with orange puppy dog:

Also adorbs.

Next was my bff J-Ro's birthday, which because I was having so much fun in the moment, I managed to not take one photograph the entire time. Because I'm a good friend.

Finally, was other dear friend Ashley's birthday, hosted at a beautiful home in Oak Cliff. Here are a few pictures to document, including my 9/365 photo:

Carli, Ashley & myself:

Birthday girl, a la raccoon:

9/365 - "duet"

Then yesterday was a day of relaxation and recuperation from all the celebrations. I watched a Law & Order SVU Marathon, had lunch with Ashley and co since Sunday was her real birthday, watched more SVU, and took my strengths finder test that my friend Stephanie got me for Christmas, thus resulting in my photo for yesterday:

10/365 - "strengths"

marital conversation

2010-01-11T10:35:00.003-06:00

This is an excerpt from a conversation Kevin and I just had over the phone. I was asking him how he slept last night (he was just rousing from slumber as I left for work this morning) and was telling him that I had the hardest time getting out of bed this morning. He told me that he had some crazy dreams, and before he went into any details, I shared with him that I, too, had some crazy dreams.

I dreamed in two parts. In the first part, I don't remember much, only that Jared Harris, guest star of various Fringe episodes as well as Law & Order, was someone I was afraid of, but whose trust I was trying to gain in order to outsmart him.

In the second part I worked in some office with wood paneling, and all I can really remember is that at one point during work, our office got shot up as in a drive by shooting, but the shooters were walking by in the hallway, not driving, and I dove behind one of four giant high backed living room chairs of various colors that were all around the room and just stayed low until the shooting stopped. I injured my elbow somehow because there was a bandage on it for the rest of the dream, but I didn't remember whether I was shot or not. What I DID remember was that Legacy, of So You Think You Can Dance fame, also worked in the office with me, and after the traumatic shooting he comforted me with an embrace and ultimately a passionate kiss. Even as I type this I'm laughing hysterically, much as I was while I was telling Kevin this over the phone.

"Oh good, great, so you cheated on me. And you cheated on me with Lord of the Dance. Excellent," he responded.

"Are you jelly?" (short for "jealous" because I think it's hilarious to speak in ridiculous abbreves to Kevin) I asked, still laughing uncontrollably the whole time.

He replied assuredly, "I am totes not jelly. Also you are now forbidden to watch So You Think You Can Dance. So there's that."

Jacob Metcalf @ Trees, cont'd

2010-01-09T11:48:00.003-06:00

Here are some MUCH better photos of Thursday evening's concert. Oh Canon 5D, how my husband longs for thee! They were taken by photographer David Wilson. I'm so glad someone got some really great shots!

7/365

2010-01-08T15:00:00.012-06:00

Last night I played at Trees with Jacob Metcalf as part of the Local Edge Live concert series. It was free and it was a glorious line up. We opened the show around 8pm, followed by, Baruch the Scribe, Seryn and then finally Spooky Folk.

It was a wonderful, Denton-heavy line up (we were the only Dallasites on the bill) filled with amazing musicians. My 2/365 photo was an image of one of the rehearsals we had for this show. One of the two rehearsals I was able to attend, that is. That's the one thing about playing with really excellent instrumentalists. We didn't have a single rehearsal with everyone present, and the show went off beautifully without a hitch! Jacob Metcalf, the band's namesake, guitarist and lead vocalist, decided that for this show he'd like to do something a little different. Different = 9 string players on stage, all with direct inputs (that's "stage talk" for fancy plug-in thingys). Every sound guy's delight......or worst nightmare. I knew two of the string players already - Miss Buffi J, cellist extraordinaire, who I've known because she plays in bands such as Robert Gomez and the Polyphonic Spree, and we also play in the orchestras for musicals together 3-4 times a year. I heart her. I also knew Markus, another cellist I know through Kevin, who lives in Nashville primarily and does studio work as well as playing in the Kopecky Family Band. In addition to my already great friends, I met 6 new people/string players, including Miss Petra Kelly, fellow violinist lady who also plays with the aforementioned Spooky Folk, and she also wrote/arranged the violin parts for Jacob's songs, which were so gorgeous.

The sound guy was completely accommodating and Kevin said that the music sounded perfect from the audience and it was just a really wonderful time. It's not often that I get a chance to play with a group of strings like that alongside a band, and it was sooooo much fun! I couldn't stop smiling the whole time!

Here are a few pictures I took/gathered of last night, and I'll sum it up with my 7/365 photo.

Jacob getting his mic check on:

Blurry Buffi & Markus:

Petra & Jacob:

Orange Me & Petra:

De la audience ("borrowed" from Mark from the edge's twitpic):

De la stage ("borrowed" from Mark from the edge's twitpic):

And finally, 7/365 - "conductor"

That cute little tweet tweet was our "conductor" and Jacob cleverly painted a little tuxedo on his chest. Totes Adorbs!!

6/365

2010-01-07T09:41:00.005-06:00

So last night, Kevin and I went with Eric & Mandy (Kevin's cousin & his wife, as well as being our friends) to see National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen at the Winspear Opera House as part of my work's Brinker International Lecture Forum. It. Was. Awesome. Not only is he an incredible photographer of all things polar, he was also quite hilarious. And Canadian! What's that aboot?!

We (our Public Relations Director at work) got him a spot on KERA's Think from 1-2 yesterday, so if you're interested in hearing his interview with Krys Boyd, "The Stories Behind the Shots," click here.

I tried to take a few photos of him on stage presenting his photos. Most of them turned out blurry and I was trying hard not to get forcibly removed by one of our friendly but dutiful ushers for taking photos, but I got a couple acceptable shots. (if you don't enlarge them....DON'T enlarge them....you're enlarging the photo, I knew it!). I tried to find the shot I ultimately ended up choosing for yesterday's picture on his website but I couldn't. His photos, despite my inability to fully capture their clarity and intrigue on my Sony Cybershot sans flash, are truly incredible. He did a book signing after the even for his new book Polar Obsession. There's a really cool video embedded in that page with a short version of a story he told us about last night. Check it out!

All that to say, here's my photo for yesterday.

"Curiosity"

5/365

2010-01-06T10:29:00.002-06:00

Last night I hung out with my wonderful friend Elissa. We went back in time to Mesquite, Texas, land of the greater part of my upbringing, and in honor of the trek, we also ate at.........get ready for it.........Olive Garden. I knew a lot of people who worked at Olive Garden when I was in high school, and let me tell you, from what I understand the restaurant business is a scandalous business of late nights and debauchery galore!

But.....that has nothing to do with my photo for the day yesterday. I decided that picture of Olive Garden wasn't going to cut it, so my picture comes from the guest room of none other than Elissa. Her design aesthetic is something I've always coveted. She has an artistic sense like no one I know for decorating her home and I find myself just looking around a lot while I'm there and trying not to steal too many ideas.

"multi-purpose"

4/365 - "warm"

2010-01-04T23:55:00.004-06:00

Okay! At long (4 day) last I am caught up on my photos!! I had another rehearsal at Jacob's house, but rather than take another picture there I thought I would take a picture of another place I'd be visiting tonight....our room. :)

"Warm"

We have a cornucopia of furniture in our place. From IKEA to Eurway to thrift stores, etc., we have pretty eclectic taste. I think my very favorite part of our bedroom is the quilt on the bed. It was a quilt that Kevin's Granny made for him when he was 1 year old, and in addition to being sentimental and familial, it also happens to bring all of our mish mash of colors in the bedroom together. I love our bedroom and I love it best by lamplight. Feels cozy and welcoming.

3/365 - "Alice"

2010-01-04T10:25:00.003-06:00

Day 3 (yesterday) was a great last day before starting back to work after the holiday. Came home and took a nap after church - Sunday naps are the best - then Kevin and I headed out to the IMAX theater up at 635 and 35 to see Avatar in 3D on the IMAX screen. We got there about 30 minutes before our showtime thinking that surely it wouldn't be sold out on it's 3rd weekend out in theaters. We were wrong. So we ended up just going to the "regular" 3D screening 30 minutes later. Which was also almost completely full. CRAZY!

I read that as of yesterday, Avatar had already (in only 17 days) grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Apparently only 5 films have ever done that. I was pretty skeptical about the movie initially, and in conversation about thoughts on the movie I may have uttered the word "lame" more than once. But then when it came out I started hearing repeated rumblings about how great it was, so last night we decided to check it out. I must say....I enjoyed it quite a lot. If you haven't seen it and are interested, here are a few things you should know:

1. it is 3 hours long
2. it took 30 minutes for my eyes to adjust to the 3D
3. people will clap when the movie is over
4. you will feel a strange urge to explore outside your race/species to find love
5. that might or might not actually be true
6. it took about 10 minutes for my eyes to adjust back from 3D. I couldn't even look at my phone screen without squinting and making some sort of indecipherable noise of discontent. My precious eyes!

All that to say, we really liked it. Feel free to make your own decision after you see it. I took a few photos from last night's IMAX excursion, and finally settled on this one for my Project 365 pic:

"Alice"

2/365

2010-01-03T14:49:00.003-06:00

I'm still running a day behind, but hopefully I'll catch up tonight - I have another photo idea in mind. I am playing this Thursday (1/7) at Trees w/my good friend Jacob Metcalf's band. (SIDEBAR: It's a free show that starts at 8pm for anyone interested in a glorious and FREE night out!)

We rehearsed yesterday at Jacob's loft, which is one of the most beautiful places and I love all the natural light during the day, so I decided to take yesterday's photo at his place before we started rehearsing.

"Practice"

1/365

2010-01-02T11:51:00.003-06:00

Okay! So I'm not a day late after all. Or at least my first photo isn't. I took this photo last night. We went with Dragan and Elissa to see the Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra at the Wyly then headed to Ships afterwards. That's where this photo was taken.

"Ships"

the things we see

2010-01-02T09:43:00.002-06:00

In addition to blogging more regularly this year, I resolve to be a part of this group my friend and her husband started. (I love my creative friends!!)

I honestly don't know that I've ever done anything consistently for a year straight. I'm getting started a day late, but I'm going to do it! And I think it will give me motivation to post my pictures here on my blog, too. As we speak I'm charging my camera!!

Here are the details of the group:

About Project365: The Things We See

Just another group of folks participating in the wildly popular Project 365. Optional themes included.

Here's the gist.
Project 365 is a creative endeavor in which participants shoot one original photograph each day for a year. Our purpose with this group is to create a collective space to share and view these photos for anyone who would like to participate. Photography skills need not be honed, nor equipment professional, the only necessity is a desire to take the picture and take part in the community.

Though the idea may be simple, life can easily intrude upon one's intention to commit to taking an original photograph each and every day, 365 days in a row. This is why we've decided to create themes for each month of 2010, to provide a general guide for our photographic pursuits. If you'd like to join in on the themes we would be most pleased, though you need not feel obligated. If you'd like to come up with your own themes or keep it freeform, that's completely up to you.

Each month will have its own theme, and within some months we may create weekly themes that fit into the theme for the overall month. (Ex: Color is the theme for the month of March, with Week 1 being monochromatic, Week 2 complementary, Week 3 your favorite color, and Week 4 black & white.)

We are also working on creating a blog for the project where participants can post photos. More on that soon...

Monthly Themes (Details on weekly themes will be posted on the blog).

January: The Places We Go (Home, work, the grocery store, etc.)
February: The Things We Love (People, possessions, hobbies, etc.)
March: The Spectrum We Perceive (This month is all about color. Apologies to the color blind.)
April: The World We Love (Enjoy the changing of the seasons and observe the natural world.)
May: The People We Meet (Friends, family, strangers, co-workers, etc.)
June: The Light We Feel (Let light be your subject. June 21 is the longest day of the year {and our anniversary}, so you'll have plenty of golden hours.)
July: The Places We Live (Its too hot to be outside in Texas. Take pictures of your domestic life.)
August: The Things We Read (Words and letters are all around us. Find typography in its natural state.)
September: The Things We Dream (Fantastical images, subconscious moods. Try to capture a feeling that may be slightly unreal.)
October: The Things We Keep (Hunt and gather. Collect.)
November: The Things We Eat (Don't wait til turkey day to think about your food.)
December: The Shapes We See (Embrace the abstract and focus on form, lines and shapes.)

Wish me luck!!

and now for 2010

2010-01-01T16:56:00.002-06:00

I thought this was so clever and wonderful and it made me happy when I saw it! I thought it would be an appropriate first post of the new year.

Happy New Year!!

we finally made it!

2009-12-31T09:23:00.004-06:00

Not exactly......BUT! Kevin's and my band The Crash That Took Me's albums are available for purchase on iTunes!! Go check it out here!

The singles are $.99 each, but the album as a whole is $7.99 through January 14th, so you'll save some money! Act now! :) Check it out and let me know what you think!

contrastiness is close to Godliness

2009-11-30T16:22:00.006-06:00

Yes, I made up a word. But I only did it to support the message of my blog. What I am about to post is a little embarrassing, and I've gone back and forth about whether or not to post it. Will you judge me? Will you not want to come to my house again? Will you think twice about letting me hug you? All these questions I mulled over and over in my mind and decided that the outcome was worth the potential judgment I might receive.

Let me first provide you with a little background info. We are blessed enough to have an apartment with two (count 'em, TWO) bathrooms. We LOVE this. That way when one of us has to get up way earlier than the other, we can use the guest bathroom as a courtesy. We usually end up using the guest bathroom to take showers anyway (who knows why). But, since it is just that - a GUEST bathroom....for GUESTS. So when a quick cleaning of the house happens, you can assume that the guest bathroom has to take priority when we're racing against the clock like we so often do.

The past few months have easily been the busiest of our lives to date - my work's grand opening, the approaching holidays and trying to play catch up with my personal life since grand opening has come and gone. I'm ashamed to say that the deep cleaning segments of our life got more than neglected. Most concentratedly (there I go again) in our bathroom......the NON guest bathroom. I'm getting nervous even as I type this.

Now, in order to desperately cling to my reputability as a person who gives a hoot about cleanliness, I will say that I had not used the non-guest room shower in I don't know how long. AND, because of its position in the apartment, our bathroom has the least amount of air circulation in our entire home.....so it doesn't dry as quickly, leaving opportunity for........gross things to exist.

Last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I got up early when Kevin went to work and decided that I was going to clean that bathroom (more specifically the tub) once and for all. (I have cleaned it more than one time, fyi). I could not stand it anymore. It was to the point where I didn't want to even go into our bathroom, and that's no way to live!!! NO WAY TO LIVE!!

GAH! I can't believe I'm actually about to post this on the internet. Please note, that the before picture is NOT a representation of our usual state of cleanliness!! PLEASE NOTE!

Please ALSO note that we were not using the bathroom in its state as seen in the first picture. We were just ignoring it and hoping it would clean itself.

Before: *hanging head in ultimate shame*

And now........REDEMPTION!!

Look! I even did a little "life style" photo styling by adding the body wash back into the picture. Like in the before and after pictures of those women who used some revitalizing skin cream and in the before picture they are dimly lit in yellow light and have no make up on, etc.

I cannot tell you how many times I just walked back into my bathroom after I was finished cleaning, simply to gaze upon its newly discovered glory. And then I would sigh. Over and over I would repeat these steps. I'm still doing it. I've all but forbidden Kevin to take a shower in there. You see....if you don't ever use things, you never have to clean them! It's genius!!

And on that note, I'll thank any of you reading this in advance for not judging me too harshly in the comments.

THANK YOU. And God bless cleaning supplies.

KXT Launch!

2009-11-09T10:41:00.004-06:00

While I will mourn the loss of local gospel station 91.7 (which really just moved to an AM frequency, so it's not gone, fear not!), I have been SUPER pumped to hear about NPR's new music station that's taking over it's FM slot.

Today was the official launch day so with great anticipation last night I wrote myself a note to put in my car to serve as a reminder to listen on the way to work this morning. Let me just say....

I LOVE THIS STATION!!! It's playing everything you can usually only hear on satellite radio plus local musicians from the Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton area!

Just this morning on the drive in I heard a local band from Denton, the Pixies, Bob Dylan, Fleet Foxes and Chomsky!! I've also been streaming the station on my computer since I got here and have heard Paul McCartney, Matisyahu, Foo Fighters and The Stranglers. I can't believe Dallas finally has a radio station like this!

Sarah Jaffe, one of the goils (read: girls) I play violin with, is doing a live solo acoustic set at 3pm today on the station, which is amazing!! I'm so thrilled about the increased attention to the arts in the area, and we've really been lacking consistent radio support of local artists. Sure, there's the Adventure Club on The Edge on Sunday nights, as well as NPR's music night with our very own Paul Slavens, also on Sundays, but those are limited to one night a week, and they are competing with each other at the same time no less! (Side Bar: Paul Slavens' music show is moving over to KXT Sunday nights, so keep tuning in, or if you never have, START!!)

Here is a blurb on the website citing what the website is all about:

"KXT is a new radio station found at 91.7 FM in North Texas, and at kxt.org worldwide. It’s an incredible selection of acoustic, alt-country, indie rock, alternative and world music, hand-picked just for you – the real music fan.

KXT features between 9 and 11 hours of local programming each weekday, bringing you an eclectic variety of artists and genres, including a number of performers from North Texas and elsewhere in the Lone Star State.

Gini Mascorro will host the KXT Morning Show, Monday through Friday from 7 to 11 a.m. Joe Kozera will take listeners home weekdays with the KXT Afternoon Show from 3-6pm and the KXT Evening Show from 6-8pm.

90.1 at Night with host Paul Slavens, which appeared on KERA-FM for a number of years, has moved to KXT and is now known as The Paul Slavens Show.

National shows appearing regularly on KXT include Acoustic Café, American Routes, Mountain Stage, Putumayo Music Hour, Sound Opinions, The Thistle & Shamrock, UnderCurrents and World Café."

For the weekly programming schedule click here. For today's "Acoustic Cafe" (11a-1p Mondays & Saturdays) they've been playing the following so far:

Monsters of Folk (featuring Centro-Matic's Will Johnson on drums!)
John Fogerty
Regina Spektor - in studio guest this week!!
Alison Krauss
Lyle Lovett
Buddy & Julie Miller w/Robert Plant
Joss Stone
Paul Westerberg

Ridiculous!! I went online and pledged this morning when I got to work to be part of the launch team. SO COOL! And though there will be a bit more world music than I'd prefer, and maybe the word "cafe" could be used a little more sparingly in their program titles, I think this is going to be a really really great addition to the air waves!!

KXT, Dallas welcomes you with open arms!

unidentified object

2009-10-30T16:53:00.002-05:00

I stumbled upon this mysteriously unidentifiable object in my parking garage on my way back from lunch today.

If not for the label, I think I may have lost some sleep over this. Thank you to ye who has Microsoft Word and a laser printer! Thank you!

mommy style

2009-10-24T23:19:00.007-05:00

I ran across this cute blog a while ago - a "mommy style" blog because she's a mom who refuses to stop being cute just because she's got kiddos. She makes a lot of her own clothing and I love it!

Which brings me to the crux of this post. I saw this post she wrote and decided to link to it. She calls this her "ladies who lunch dress" sans champagne glass.

She's doing a giveaway of the dress, and I figure I might as well give it a shot! The dress is adorable and I love the color!!

I first discovered her on a wardrobe refashion website that focuses on using only second hand items to refashion or make your own clothes and I've been a fan of hers ever since. It makes me think about maybe trying to sew something one day. Maybe. Someday. Possibly.

Check her out!

toobs toobs toobs

2009-09-11T09:27:00.014-05:00

I went on my annual toobing (sic) trip with "the girls" to Austin again this year over Labor Day weekend. It was a glorious and much needed vacation and I got to spend some real quality time with my friends. The typical Austin toobing cast is as follows:

Jessica Roberts, a.k.a. J-Ro, a.k.a. booker of the hotel every year and founding member.

Julie Whitaker, a.k.a. Julesdwit and/or Jules, who flies down to Texas from her not-so-new-anymore home in Brooklyn, also a founding member from back during her A&M days. (We don't talk about those days, and we certainly don't "Woop" about those days)

Jessica Allen, a.k.a. new mommy who unfortunately had to be with us only in spirit this year so she could tend to her sick babby (sic yet again - I like purposefully misspelled words). We missed you!!!

Lindsay Hampton, a.k.a. Hampton, a.k.a. Hamps, a.k.a. queen of the Jell-O delights who was until this trip a toobing virgin.

Miss Briana McKeague, a.k.a. Brawny, a.k.a Bri joined us this year and provided not only good times, but her access to Kenichi an amazing sushi place in Austin where she works.

And then of course, there is myself, Becki, a.k.a. Becks, a.k.a. the one that has to be "calmed down" the most on the trips (though I'm sure my friends find my easily riled up nature to be nothing short of hilarious.........right?!?!)

We drove down Saturday afternoon, and didn't get settled in until later evening because J-Ro's iPhone decided that it, too, wanted to take a vacation, so we had to go on an adventure to "The Domain"....a very new and high brow out door shopping center in a part of Austin we usually don't go to, which housed the closest Apple store to our hotel. Then when we got there, they didn't have any Genius appointments available until Monday anyway. So J-Ro decided that her phone could take a vacation if it wanted to and we made our way back to our usual hotel. (Feel free to skip the intro) We like it because it's green and we don't mind using the same towel for 2.5 days. :)

Saturday night we went to eat delicious Mexican food at Gueros, a local hot spot with ridiculously good food (and beverage). We partook of their amazing chips & salsa, fajitas and margaritas. To top off the food experience, Julie's wish came partially true while we were at the restaurant. She had wished for only one thing while we were in Austin - to see the cast of Friday Night Lights. All of them. Hopefully they'd all be at Guero's, she dreamed as we were making our way there. Well we walk up onto the patio, and who do we see?!!? None other than Connie Britton!! And she happened to be dining with a comedian friend of hers who Julie had happened to see perform in New York not too long ago.

SCORE! One cast member down.

Then Saturday, better known as the Day of the Toob, we did just that. We went toobing! We go down the Comal River, which is technically in New Braunfels about 45 minutes south of Austin. Each year we prepare more and more in advance. This year we each had our own little coolers that hold 6 cans each and a little top compartment to hold our jello delights. We got koozies for drinks and throw away sunglasses at the gas station in case we lose them on THE WATERFALL OF DEATH!! (which is actually just a very small dip after the initial toob chute that becomes slightly less small if the river is lower than usual, which it was on this particular trip) Last year was the first year I encountered "Trouble on the Falls" wherein I lost my toob, cooler, sunglasses and umbrella.....yes I use an umbrella. I'm quite pale, and I've learned over the years that I must be kinder now to my skin than I have been in the past. Needless to say, I walked around the fall this time.

The river was a blast, equipped with all sorts of River folk and we had so much fun! After the river we went and ceremoniously ordered friend pickels, fried okra, fried mushrooms, cheese sticks, chips and salsa and water to rehydrate - like ya do. Then we went home, changed and got ready and went out for a night on the town to the aforementioned Kenichi where we had sushi and sake AND had ANOTHER FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS sighting! Oh the fortune!! I don't know who it was, but it was a blond, younger guy, and Julie said he's the nerdier guy on the show, so maybe you avid FNL fans will know who I'm talking about? Mmm?

This post is getting ridiculously long, so I'll finish up by posting a few pictures of our final night in Austin. I took my camera but forgot to charge it, so alls I gots is a few pictures from my phone.

This toobing trip is something I look forward to every summer and I had the best time this year! Thanks to my friends that I love so much who care just as much about this weekend as I do and want to make sure it happens every year!!

Hip Hip! TOOBRAY!! (work with me)

thought of the day - fear

2009-09-09T14:33:00.001-05:00

"Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In {spite of} this I shall be confident."

-Psalm 27:3

"I gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which I must stop and look fear in the face...I say to myself, I've lived through this and can take the next thing that comes along...We must do things we think we cannot do."

~Eleanor Roosevelt

And then in a different context:

"God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him."

-Psalm 67:7

Peekaru? Peekaridiculous

2009-08-25T16:15:00.004-05:00

So a couple of weeks ago near the end of the work day, a friend IM'd me. He said he'd found something that he thought I'd find hilarious and he sent me a link. Now automatically I'm skeptical. Once you've told me I will think something is hilarious, I assuredly won't. Too much build up. I was feeling the pressure as I prepared to put on a typewritten show to affirm the hilariousness I was sure NOT to experience.

I click on the link.

BLAM!!! I'm confronted with that which does make me double over in laughter immediately. This:

What on God's green earth is this?! Is it real? It CANNOT be real! I do some research. It is real.

Does anyone else believe this to be a completely ludicrous device?! My first thought when I see it is death trap.

Any other thoughts? Do any of the two of you who read this blog own this product or know someone who does? In the timeless words of my old college literature professor, "Questions? Comments? Testimonials?"

When will we be able to DVR our lives?

2009-08-15T20:52:00.002-05:00

*this is my first blog from my phone FYI. I'm very hip*

what does it say about technology in this day in age when I was just overhearing a conversation in the ladies restroom at the movies, missed a key word in the story, and I SERIOUSLY thought for a split second that I could just rewind and hear it again?

Or rather does it say something more about me?

about that....

2009-08-14T08:54:00.002-05:00

I'm not really sure if what I wrote last night made sense or not. I remember having a thought, but being really tired and I'm not sure I quite expressed it the way I'd hoped. But hey, I blogged! Right?! RIGHT?!

I'll leave you with this to think about today:

dear john

2009-08-14T00:09:00.006-05:00

[ASIDE: I'm blogging tonight for the first time ever from the comfort of my lovely bed. I usually blog at a desk or something, but I'm finding this new experience to be quite pleasant, and I think the thought of blogging in my bed might actually be encouragement enough to start blogging regularly once again!]

I was thinking on the way home tonight about how the overuse of certain words can completely make them devoid of their actual meaning. For example, the word "dear." We start corporate correspondence (or at least I do) with Dear.

If we're going to put our honesty cap on, none of the agents or assistants I'm corresponding with are particularly dear to me. I would also like to start using the word more and really meaning it.

"She's such a dear heart!"

"Oh dear!"

According to thefreedictionary.com.....

How many times do we use the word "dear" and not mean any of those things?! It's something that becomes so part of everyday speech/writing that it becomes meaningless. And what about the phrase "Love you." Do you ever catch yourself saying it because it's what you're supposed to say when you hang up the phone? Or walk out the door? This one really bothers me, and I know I do it myself. I don't say I love you to people that I don't love, but sometimes when I'm saying it, I'm saying it because it's habit. Or it's what I'm supposed to say at that given moment.

Let's take back the dear's and the I love yous! Let's really mean things when we say them! Let's remember WHY someone is dear to us. Let's remember WHY it is that we love someone so much!

Let's!

And to finish randomly, here's a picture of me on my bed blogging (and or pausing from my blogging to take a picture of myself) and listening to the Allman Brothers' "Ain't Wastin' No More Time":

Not the best picture of me, but hey. It's late, I'm tired, and I is who I is, capiche?

from out of the reagan administration

2009-07-13T10:25:00.003-05:00

Here is an article I saw on Kerri's blog today that I found very thoughtful and interesting.

And this is a quick biography on the woman who wrote it.

poison, winged creatures, creatures of the night, and my cute husband

2009-07-09T10:44:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I finally, after some reluctance, jumped on the Twilight bandwagon. When I first heard about it I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in engaging in a silly story about "the cold ones" (read: vampires). But.........everyone was so interested in it I thought it might be one of those books that our entire generation talks about and owns, like Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive album that all of our parents owned.....Do you feel like I feel?

So.....in anticipation of just that, several months ago I found the first 2 books on amazon - paperback, naturally - for a great deal, and I just bought them. What the hey. If I get the urge to actually read them, they'll be there. It wasn't until a couple weeks ago when we were down at Kevin's parents' house for a belated Father's Day dinner that all of that changed. My glorious sister-in-law Natalie is......how shall we say............QUITE into the books. :) She asked me if I had read the books or seen the movie, the answer to which was no on both counts. She lovingly suggested that I might begin reading them before our big family vacation (which will involve approximately 20 hours in the car each way) to the Teton Mountains so she has someone to talk about the books with. I obliged.

I started the books, and initially, my low expectations were justified. The writing style of the author isn't the greatest, and it was somewhat of a turn off. Also, the beginning seemed a bit cheesy to me. But.........it wasn't long before the story sucked me in beyond anything I had EVER expected. Suddenly I couldn't put the book down. About halfway through the first book I was so glad I'd gone ahead and purchased the second because I knew I would be moving seamlessly into that one as well.

I can't even remember the last time I felt this way about reading. When I was in high school, I was a good kid. I didn't rebel, didn't sneak out, etc. The ONE way I most frequently broke the rules was reading past my bedtime. I know, look out, add her to your prayer list folks! I would bring my little desk lamp under my covers - so hot it would get! - and read until 1-2 in the morning on school nights. My desk lamp had one of those on/off devices that you have to twist that's part of the cord. And just in case my parents were to come in and catch me, I would have the on/off switch twisted as far as it would go before turning off, so that with just a quick flick of my fingers it would be off. Yes....I was all about strategy even at a young age.

All that to say, it was really thrilling to feel that way again. There have been more than a couple nights where Kevin wanted to go to bed, so I laid on the the floor with some pillows, and read by the light of my iPhone until my eyes would stay open no more. I am INTO this saga.

So my mom was in town this past weekend for 4th of July, and I finished the first book while she was here. Kevin and I decide to go rent a movie for all of us, and Kevin so lovingly offers up Twilight as a suggestion. He's not so into it, but he knows that my reading of said book has been out of control so he sacrifices his own desires and we rent it. But we compromise, and help him maintain his masculine sensibilities by also renting Quantum of Solace.

So we watch the movie, which, though it naturally couldn't fit all the nuances of the 500 page book into it's 2 hours, but it was much better and much less lame than I was expecting. Kevin even admitted it wasn't bad. So after the movie we're hanging out in the living room watching some tv program that I can't recall, when I happen to look over at Kevin's computer screen.

Here is what I saw:

In case you can't see the detail, let me break it down for you in the order in which I noticed each part.

1. First I noticed in bright red type amid the brightly colored website the title of the page - "Caterpillar and Butterfly Defense Mechanisms" - ADORABLE

2. I noticed what he had searched in the google bar - "poisonous butterflies"

3. Next I noticed the website URL - www.enchantedlearning.com - this is when I lose control and start laughing beyond my capacity to stop, as he looks innocently up from his "research."

4. Now, giving in to my heaving laughter, I notice the cute little pictures of caterpillars and butterflies and what their defense mechanisms really are, such as, hiding, bad smells, poison, etc. - also hilarious and endearing. Bad smells!??! Come on! That's hilarious!

It is at this point that it's clear why I married my husband. He is one of the most adorable people in the world with his incredibly intelligent science mind, and he makes me laugh harder than anyone I've ever met in the whole world.

It took me so long to stop laughing that I forgot to ask him how he went from Twilight and vampires to poisonous butterflies and their defense mechanisms. I want to hug that hilarious train of thought real big!

Kevin Howard RULES!!!

secret confession

2009-06-26T09:38:00.003-05:00

I love pepperoni pizza Combos.

They are essentially dog treats, they are gross and I love them. Go on and judge me if you must (Liz Lowrie).

Okay, Grammar Ranger!

2009-06-17T15:53:00.003-05:00

I just read this blog article and man did it step all over my grammatically correct toes. The entire content essentially says that judging a person for their incorrect grammar usage (which, in this ever developing e-world we live in where much of our communication is done in writing - facebook, text, twitter, email, IM, etc. - I almost involuntarily judge all the time) is antiquated and an unnecessary hang up.

She says this:

"So a lot of grammar does not clarify meaning, it just serves to show you are good at grammar."

Ouch. Do I really just cling so desperately to my knowledge of grammar out of sheer snobbery? Am I just secretly delighted that I generally use fairly decent grammar, and get irritated that others can't be bothered to know the differences between your and you're or their, there and they're, because come on, how could you not know?

An excerpt...

"What good grammar reveals is what sort of education you had. The more conventional and well-funded your education was, the better your grammar will be. And this is largely how people use grammar—to make snobbish judgments...It’s snobbish because it’s a set of rules that are not actually that useful. Yes, there are some grammar rules that, should you violate them, completely change the meaning of your sentence. However these situations are so rare that they are actually interesting, and even created a bestselling book: Eats, Shoots & Leaves...

Most grammar rules don’t matter, though. That is, if you get them wrong, the reader still can find the meaning. For example, few people know when to use effect and when to use affect. But it doesn’t matter because the first is a noun and the second is a verb so the likelihood you'll mistake the meaning of a sentence because of a grammar error in this case is extremely low...People get hired and fired for getting along with people. Not for knowing when to use lay and when to use lie."

Okay, I get it! I'm a judgmental jerk!! I'll try to stop being a Judgy Judgerson.

p.s. I'm sorry if grammar is a boring subject about which to write, but I'm trying to blog more and Mrs. M tells me that I just have to write something. Anything. Every day. So here it is.

Grammar.

unashamed

2009-06-15T16:26:00.002-05:00

I was in the car the other day when Metallica's "Unforgiven" came on the radio. Let's just say I didn't change the station.

happiness

2009-06-10T11:10:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure about the intent of this comic, but it struck me as really moving for some reason. Recent family events might be what are prompting me to delving deeper into the philosophical realms of this comic, but I couldn't help but be affected by it.

On one hand, it might be just implying (COMICally) something to the effect of, "Oh happiness is just another checked off box on the scavenger hunt of life?" I don't know.

On the other hand, it made me think of, from the poor cute elderly wife lady's perspective, just how fleeting love/happiness can be in the grand scheme of things. One day it's here, the next it's not. One day a person you care about is here, the next day they aren't. I literally almost started tearing up when I was reading it! Blarg! But it does make me want to go home and hug Kevin for a while.

I have definitely been feeling more emotional the past week or so, so pardon my ridiculous "insight" into this silly comic. I don't really even know why I'm posting this.

FIN.

"memorializing" country nuptials

2009-05-26T10:11:00.019-05:00

My dear friend Tammy got married this weekend to her dear beau Adam down in Fredericksburg, TX. More specifically at the Red Barn at Pepper Ranch, and if you haven't been to Frederickburg you should check it out. It's GORGEOUS. It's about an hour and a half west of Austin, and being in beloved Hill Country, I'm sure you can imagine it's glorious magnificence. I may or may not have just wanted to use the phrase "glorious magnificence," but don't let that diminish it's actual grandeur. It was extremely beautiful. I was a little nervous driving down because I haven't been there before, and being primarily a city girl, I only feel half confident navigating the country roads and not second guessing that I missed Loop SH TX 290 South Business CR West East North every mile.

ALSO.....GPS......not so hot in the rural areas, turns out. I'm not complaining because the very idea of GPS and the fact that we can use it successfully probably about 85-90% of the time is a minor miracle. However, when you're driving to the country, are already unfamiliar with the gravely/dirt-y terrain, and your GPS is telling you the location is in the center of a cow pasture where no building can be seen for miles, but there are plenty of no trespassing signs....when the only phone number you have is the bride's and you don't want to trouble her before her wedding...it can be a little frustrating. But hey, I made some new friends:

They were quiet, pensive friends, but friends nonetheless, especially in my time of need. Their silence (and a static riddled phone call back from one of the bridesmaids handling the bride's phone) served as my guide back to the ACTUAL location of the wedding versus the pretend GPS location.

Here are some of my favorite photos I got of the wedding:

(this one is my favorite):

It was a gorgeous, intimate ceremony, and I am so happy for Tammy & Adam!! And everyone should get married in Fredericksburg. Just make sure you take plenty of pre-recorded talk radio to keep you company on the 4.5 hour drive to and from, particularly if you're driving back that night and not arriving home until 1:30 in the morn. But man my bed sure felt nice.

To the Vanderkolks - Salud! And always remember, when you toast someone, it's polite to make eye contact whilst toasting. (I prefer to make the eye contact as intense and uncomfortable as possible)

spam inspired posting

2009-05-18T15:55:00.001-05:00

I'm not talkin' 'bout cans o' meat, y'all! I have recently been bombarded with spam comments by the same person....we'll call him "Ed," since that's what it says "his" "name" is. As annoying as that is (does anyone know how to report an unwanted commenter, by the by? I've searched and can't figure it out)

One good thing about "ed" is that in my one by one attempt to delete all his comments, I realized that I used to post a lot!! A LOT! I don't know what has happened in the last year or so....other than acquiring a husbo (or would that be an husbo?) and a new job that I love that keeps me busy. I don't really spend all the much time on the computer when I'm at home and since I'm so busy at work, there's no blogging time there...

I know there have been times when I've been out with peeps and thought "this is 'totes' blogworthy! I MUST blog about this on my weblog!!" And then by the time I'm home in front of the computer I've either lost the drive or the memory.

So.......that's it for now? Anti-climactic, eh? I'll try harder to be better for my "loyal" readers. :) If anyone is reading this now I guess you have to be loyal, or at the very least you just haven't taken me off your RSS feed despite my postlessness. :)

THANKS!!

we all sing with the same voice

2009-05-04T14:13:00.003-05:00

Takin' it back, what what!

I know this is no substitute for a real post, but it's what I got, and I'm givin' it to ya!

I was talking about this with a friend at lunch - our most memorable Sesame Street songs/skits, etc. This one was most definitely my very favorite song they ever sang. Though Crystal Gayle feat. her hair, Savion Glover and James Taylor also stand out, this one shone above the rest. I guess even since I was little, I was a staunch supporter of equality and connectedness.

Plus I always wanted to be able to do a back handspring like the girl at around 2:09 sec. in the video. JEALOUS!!!

flutter..........more like future....?

2009-04-09T17:03:00.003-05:00

Here's to all the twitters and tweeters out there on the interweb.

I found this to be hilarious. I hope you do, too.

dallas center for the performing arts

2009-03-10T09:52:00.003-05:00

Here is a little update on the construction progress of the venues we're building. (And by "we" I mean not myself in anyway, but the amazing design & construction department that's in charge of making drawings into what you're seeing now.)

Have I said before that I love my job?

a teeny tiny bit of self promotion

2009-03-06T15:44:00.001-06:00

And really it's more promoting Sarah, and only 1/4 promoting me.

ACL STAGE LEFT - beta 01 (Sarah Jaffe) from dutch rall on Vimeo.

SO COOL!!!!

kittens

2009-02-15T00:05:00.004-06:00

I have not words to express the majesty to which you are about to submit.

food cookin', cookin' them foods again.....

2009-01-30T09:36:00.009-06:00

(NOTE TO READER: it looks like a lot of words, I know, but don't worry, pictures are buried "deep" within the contents so it will aaaaall be worth it)

For those of you who know me at all, you know that I'm not one to......cook. Or at least not until more recently anyway. I was spurred to change that in myself recently by a trip to see my family in Kansas this past Thanksgiving. I teamed up with my mom and Kevin to make potatoes au gratin, deviled eggs and pumpkin pie. Now while the pumpkin pie making process is not much more than pouring and mixing, it was still the first one I ever made, and I was proud of myself. *beam* And the potatoes - shwew! Now that was a' cookin'. So I stored that little recipe nugget in my brain to take home and make for Kevin's family Thanksgiving and it was a hit! Seconds abounded! (in that people got seconds-sometimes I don't make sense)

So I got a bit of the cooking bug, but I've begun to realize how ill-equipped our kitchen was for......cooking. Not the kitchen itself, it's been equipped just fine, but rather the utensils were lacking. Like, oh I don't know...a CUTTING BOARD. And a NON-SERRATED KNIFE for, let's say....CUTTING POTATOES! All of these epiphanies came to me while I was getting preparing the potatoes au gratin for Kevin's side of the family. It was then that I realized that a serrated steak knife was simply not going to work. I wasn't making potato chips au gratin after all.

Luckily (and unluckily) we have a Tom Thumb within walking distance from our apartment. (don't worry I drove) I say luckily obviously because of the proximity, and I say unluckily because Tom Thumb is ridiculously expensive and I prefer the flagship Kroger any day, and it's still pretty close, but not close enough when your potatoes are turning brown with every passing second you're out buying all the things reasonable, cooking people already have in their homes!!!

So I stock up some and things are fine. Plus I learned about the whole "put the potatoes in water" trick. Also I learned that I should check my utensils before I begin preparing ANY meal.

All that to say, on Tuesday, our office got out a wee bit early because of the impending inclement weather, and Kevin's been on a mini-vacation of sorts so I suggest that we cook at home, where we can be cozy while the wintery arctic blast mix descends upon us. He naturally agreed. So I look in my allrecipes.com recipe box because I'm feeling in a chicken mood. They have one titled "Easy Garlic Broiled Chicken", and I like the word "easy" and so does Kevin. We also had some wild rice in the pantry so we collectively decide this is going to be our cozy night dinner of choice.

Problem 1: I don't know how to broil anything.

Now I know that I seem like a cute little fool to some of you (Annie) cooking connoisseurs, but I'm just learning. And I did go into this at LEAST knowing that when you broil something it cooks from the top burner of the oven, so I wasn't completely clueless - just to the nuances. So to fix this problem, we do two things - a) google the phrase "What is broil?" which leads us to this answer, which is helpful....then b) call my mom, who was more helpful and has broiled successfully many a time.

I should also mention that for Christmas, since we had been talking about cooking more, etc., Mom got us this amazing knife set, a cute little timer (seen later in pics) fancy tiny measuring spoons from William Sonoma (again I say FANCY!), a nice bread cutting/presentation board, cook books and most cutestly (work with me), matching personalized aprons for me and my boo. See adorable picture below:

So with Mom's insight and our determination, we set out to the store to get a baster (one of the aforementioned utensils we lack and don't know we lack it until something calls for basting), chicken thighs and soy sauce (low sodium, what what!) in one of those cute little restaurant containers and we're back in the kitchen cooking.

Oven hot! Broil on hot oven, broil on!

Controversial Kevin, always stirring the pot:

And after a quick 20 minutes of ovening, basting, turning, ovening, we get this:

And with the side dish:

And finally.......PRESENTATION!

The food was AMAZING and Kevin and I both think it might be the best chicken we've ever had!! Let's just say we'll be buying more thighs reeeeeeals soon!

Thanks Mom!

p.s. thigh is a strange word.

henchman

2009-01-23T14:10:00.003-06:00

I found this job on craigslist and I'm thinking of taking it.

Despite a slight salary decrease, I think the cold air could be good for me.

Questions? Comments? Testimonials?

when brown can stick around...

2009-01-23T10:05:00.010-06:00

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen."

Perhaps my favorite quote of the inauguration by Joseph E. Lowery during the benediction. You can go here for an audio clip. Cute.

I've been perusing various photos online of the inauguration, and some of the best I've found come from The Boston Globe. Pictures like these make me wish I were a photographer.

Here are a few of my faves (click on them to make them super big):

We sure have a handsome administration.

inhuman nature

2009-01-15T23:22:00.002-06:00

I think we could all learn a lot from this:

I'm not gonna lie. I cried. But only because I have a soul.

more Sarah Jaffe

2008-12-03T14:58:00.004-06:00

My cute friend Christina shared this with me (and all her other blog readers) so I thought I'd pass it along. This was from the show we did at All Good a couple weeks ago.

"Black Hoax Lie":

"Perfect Plan" (one of my very favorite songs of hers):

All Good Cafe is just that. And no, Christina I didn't see her write up in Paste!! Very cool!

so THIS is where babies come from...

2008-11-27T01:10:00.003-06:00

The Lyndy Hop.

Makes me wanna dance. Can anyone second that emotion?

Sarah Jaffe

2008-11-24T18:28:00.003-06:00

This is a video of my friend (and foe....just kidding) Sarah Jaffe when we played at the Granada back in April of this year.

Here's another video of us playing at The Chat Room in Fort Worth (more like the smoke room, but who's coughing?) Note the guy who buys his own "cigs" to contribute to the smog about halfway or so through the video:

Here's the same song, better video, but maybe worse sound? You tell me:

Here's another video of her playing at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton.

Isn't she great? You all should like her, mmmkay?

Capucine

2008-11-15T23:44:00.002-06:00

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

So, I guess it's clear that when Kevin and I have wee ones, one will have to be a girl, and she will have to be an imaginative French girl at that. And her name will have to be Capucine.

Just so you know.

(p.s. Thanks to swiss miss for sharing)

runnin' from the law...

2008-11-13T11:44:00.003-06:00

I was walking to my car yesterday morning to go to work, like I do every week day, when what to my wondering eyes should appear? This citation from the city of Dallas, nestled into my driver's side window:

Is it wrong that I'm strangely attracted to the Mayor? Is it!?

p.s. Please note the insane cuteness of the Texas with the star where Dallas is. Please, please please note it.

monifa, good grief-a!

2008-11-07T14:55:00.005-06:00

I saw this story on the news today and it was CRAZY because just this past weekend Kevin and I were talking about pygmy animals! This is Monifa, a rare pygmy hippo found in Australia and she might just be the cutest creature I've ever seen!

Here's a picture of said cuteness:

and another:

And this is an article about the sweet hip.

Someone mentioned that she looks like a hairless shar pei puppy, but I prefer to think of her as a tiny land manatee with legs. Even the term "land manatee" made me giggle at work just now. It's Friday and the day is almost over and I can't concentrate at work because all I can think about are Monifa hugs!

Donald Miller and Voting, et al...

2008-11-04T10:35:00.007-06:00

This kind of sums up how I've been feeling this year personally regarding the election. I know that doesn't make me super popular with some peeps who read this blog, but it's how I feel.

And this is how I feel about how we should behave no matter who is elected into the presidency.

I pray that God will bless this nation through whoever is elected president and I will be praying just that for the next 4 years until the next election, and will continue doing so for each consecutive president.

Let it also be said that I do respect differing political opinions. :) I'm not against anyone who feels differently from me. I've read, researched, thought and prayed and I feel at peace with my decision. If I've made a mistake, then I'll realize when the time comes, but I'm not sure at this point that I have.

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
-Abraham Lincoln

Happy Voting!

Vote Wastin'! Wastin' the Vote Again!

2008-10-31T10:44:00.005-05:00

The title of my blog is to be sung to a tune that probably only Kevin knows (AND LOVES!!!! - right, sweet Hugsband?!), but I find amusement in it anyway. Having just found out about that Culture Feast blog, I was reading some of the other posts in my down time at work and came upon another entry that I really liked a lot. It won't apply to everyone, but I thought it was worth posting in any case.

Here is the article about voting for who you really want to win, whether they're on the ballot or not.

Take a gander. This is something I've wondered about before, so it was nice to see it presented so well.

HOLLER!

p.s. Happy Halloween!

Personal Responsibility

2008-10-31T10:02:00.003-05:00

A fellow blogger friend o' mine posted a link to an article about the elections (a bipartisan article for anyone who's worried) that I thought was so awesome that I had to link to it, too.

It's titled Elections Don't Alleviate Personal Responsibility by a blogger on Culture Feast, a blog about....well, culture. I've now added it to my Google RSS feed because I liked it so much.

Enjoy!

more things "i" like....

2008-10-28T09:25:00.002-05:00

They've done it again! Stepped on my white white toes!!

Let's just say I DO like hummus and my Brita filter is often almost empty!!

Hilarious!!! I particularly like the "scenario" provided about halfway down the article.

ere the beard is no more....

2008-10-27T22:38:00.007-05:00

In light of the fast approaching expiration date on Kevin's beard, I thought it appropriate to honor it in a blog post or two (depending on whether or not I actually write a second one). Many thanks to sweet hampton for pointing me in this website's direction.

Here is one of my faves:

Here are a couple pics of the beard almost a year strong from the Ben Folds concert last week (where we actually ran into said hampton):

Here's a more full shot of the beard (pardon Kevin's bedroom eyes):

Beards!!

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

2008-10-20T15:57:00.003-05:00

I read several blogs, some by my friends and some nationally renowned who I don't know at all. I love that blogs give each person a chance to be who they are without limits, but that isn't what this post is about so I'll cut to the chase.

In all my blog reading I've consistently noticed something that tickles the heck out of me. And this only goes for the nationally renowned type blogs. Blogs that have a serious fan base. "Famous" bloggers will naturally tend to have a particular writing style all their own, clever ways to phrase things, etc. What I always find hilarious is when people comment on their posts and write their comments in the writing style of the blog author. I don't know if it's a desire to relate or to stand out to the author, but I have always found it very endearing. When you really love a blogger and you like their style, if you're going to go so far as to leave a comment of *gasp*, your very own thoughts and feelings, you want to write it to catch their attention. See blogger I love? I write just like you!! Don't you feel like we could be kindred spirits? Want to be friends?

I think it's cute. How's that for a random thought for the day.

colin

2008-10-20T10:51:00.001-05:00

Very interesting.

bidding adieu in style

2008-10-07T16:53:00.006-05:00

This week marks the last few days of my sweet friends Brianne & Sarah as residents of Dallas, TX. They are moving in a southern direction to San Antonio to open and manage the Urban Outfitters store there.

Other wonderful friends of ours, Andrew & Doug, owners of the glorious House of Dang! hosted a little going away shindig after hours on the shop's back patio. We had fun dancing and mingling while some strange movie Mario picked out played on the projector up against the building. Here are a few pics of the evening:

Andrew, Sarah & Doug:

Andrew, Rhi, Me & Sarah and a girl I don't know but who I'm sure is lovely:

Dancing:

Mario, Me * Kevin:

The ladies of the hour, who we'll all miss, and for whom we'll all remember the Alamo:

Le sigh.

I've been tagged!

2008-10-06T10:41:00.004-05:00

Thank you E-Rock for "forcing" me to participate!

TAGGED: Have you done . . . ? Copy this list and bold the things YOU have done.

1. Started your own blog (Obvs)

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (though not at my current job!)

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (I wish I still did)

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check (here's to learning the hard way!)

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper (Mesquite AND Terrell!)

85. Read the entire Bible (I've read the entire new testament! old testament is slower going :))

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club (BOOKSTORM REPRESENT!)

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person (did you forget to 'member?)

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee (it flew into my flip flop as I was walking and stung the bottom of my toe as I stepped on it...blech)

If you feel like playing along, go for it!

toe steppin! steppin on toes again!

2008-10-02T13:38:00.005-05:00

It's happened. Stuff White People Like has done it again! Nailed me. I guess they really do know what I like.

While this is not a full front view, you can clearly see (and if you cannot, just take my white word for it) that I am in fact wearing a pea coat....a pea green pea coat no less. And while naturally very hip and stylish, it was not in fact warm enough for the blustery New York winter we had entered. Perhaps it's because that pea coat didn't cost me $1,000. Oh the things we will do for fashion:

Oh brother. Any suggestions about how I can be less obviously white? Other than getting a tan, as it's physically impossible and I've got blister scars to prove it.

kevin is cool vol. 2

2008-09-28T22:03:00.006-05:00

We were in the car the other night listening to Jeff Tweedy's "Simple Twist of Fate" (interesting that all my blogworthy Kevin moments occur whilst Jeff Tweedy croons through the car speakers, isn't it?) returning back after spending a day down south with Kevin's fam (and my fam, too now) for the infamously annual (wha?) Ledbetter Reunion.

I had been making my way through the tracks of Kevin's latest and greatest mix CD to find this particular Band of Horses track I've been obsessed with of late, and he had me stop on the aforementioned song. He said, "There's this great string part I want you to hear towards the end!" I told him that that's always what he tells me when he wants me to start loving a song he already loves. There's always some great string part that I'll just love at the end of a song that reminds him of me. You see since I plaaaaay (sic) a stringed instrument, naturally I will love every song that has strings in it, especially towards the end. Touche.

He replied saying, "It reminds me of our wedding."

I sit there for a sec trying to figure out why this song with the luscious strings at the end reminds him of our wedding day, he kind of leans over towards me in the car making direct eye contact and says this.

"That just melted your heart a little, didn't it?"

Yet another reminder of how he suckered me into falling in love with him with his ever so quick wit. Le sigh.

p.s. this is the song (Marry Song) by Band of Horses I've been lovin' on these days.