Mr. Gomez has been following mommy around all day. I'm not sure where this new-found co-dependence has come from, but I have to say, its pretty cute. :)

T Minus 10 Days...

until the Danskin triathlon! Why do I do this to myself?

I have not been training. My bike is in the garage with 2 flat tires. It hasn't been ridden in the past 2 years, actually since the Danskin 2005. I'm freaking out a little. This is so typical...

Oh well.

Poker Night 3

No bounty picture this time around. The last winner was Lance's recently ex'ed girlfriend's friend. Needless to say, we will not be seeing her again...

I opted out tonight anyway. Instead I'm shopping for Greg's birthday present - new wheeley luggage for our up-coming vacations. I know its cheating because they're a present for me too. That's why I've also ordered him an extra-special bonus pressy on the sly.

*update*
Set of 3 black Samsonite Silhouette Spinners for half price at TJMaxx!

There are few pleasures in life as satisfying as scoring great deals on necessary stuff for which you were ready to shell out major bucks. Yay! :)

I'm keeping my eyes peeled

According to justjared.com, Ryan Reynolds is in town filming his new movie Fireflies in the Garden. A-dor-able!


And on a similar note...

My name is Larisa. And I am addicted to celebrity gossip.

Its true. I am a complete junky. I am entirely too familiar with the shenanigans of Paris, Britney, and Lindsay. On my downtime in lab, I'm surfing my fave sites for my daily fix:

popsugar.com for a very sunny-side-up version

perezhilton.com for a nastier version. Yeah, its kinda harsh and ridiculously catty but the biotch inside needs a bit of a chuckle from time to time.

justjared.com because they always have tons of pics.

I know. Its sad. This is my cry for help. I need an emergency intervention.

Celebrity Sighting!!

Greg and I were having lunch with our friends Bobbi, Matt, Nate and Linda at Guerro's on South Congress. Who should walk by but the highly adorable LUKE WILSON! I love him!


Bobbi spotted him first, but I didn't believe her. I refused to believe that my boyfriend Luke Wilson had walked right by us, and I hadn't even noticed him. And then I saw him sauntering through the restaurant kinda muttering to himself. Hmm? He walked out of the building as I quietly said an "I love you!" in his direction. I thought he had walked out of my life forever. But a few minutes later he came back in and joined an older-ish woman at a table directly opposite the one we were sitting while waiting.

I've been here for almost 6 years and this was my first celeb sighting. I've heard rumors of Sandra Bullock, Jake Gyllenhal, Sheryl Crow, Matthew McConaughey, etc, etc being spotted all over town. But personally, I think my boyfriend Luke Wilson blows them all out of the water.

Ah, cheap thrills. Made my day... :)

Hot Dog Adventures

So I've uploaded my first videos onto YouTube. The first little video is of Brianna, Greg & Alicia getting started on the hot dog. They were the pioneers so Mark was being really nice and started them out really slowly.



Then he got a little more ruthless so they were in for a bumpy ride and then a wipe out!



Greg ever-so-sweetly filmed Jeff, Dilek and I struggling to climb onto that damm dog. Hey, its harder than it looks!



I accidentally erased the best video (poo!), but here's some footage of the champions on their ride. We were unshakable, despite Brian's best attempts to throw us.



Ah, good times had by all. :)

Lake Buchanan "camping"

For Brianna's birthday, she and Mark organized a quote unquote camping trip to the lake with a bunch of friends. We roughed it in lit, air-conditioned cabins with a lake-front view.

It. Was. Tough.

Highlights:

• Brian scaring the bejezus out of Lance - hearing him scream 'Oh God' will live with me foreva
• Being an unshakable Hot Dog superstar - I accidentally erased a bit of film from our camera as proof of my superstardom. I am gutted. :(

• Mesmerizing campfires - thanks, Mark - with s'mores - thanks, Carina!
• All the amazing wildflowers in bloom!
  

I don't know if I can go back to work on Monday after suffering under such strenuous conditions.

p.s. Happy 1-year anniversary, Tim and Shelley! I miss you guys!

Concert at the Parrish

Under the Influence of Giants were coming to Austin. They were going to put on a show at the Parrish. Greg and I were super-excited about it. We even talked Kenan and Dilek into going with us. And then Greg got an email...

Apparently they cancelled at the last minute and will now be doing only local shows - 'local', as in L.A. Boo! But we already had the tickets and the show was going to include 3 other bands so we decided to give it a shot. First was a band called Liam and me. They were alright. Nothing special in my opinion, but nothing wrong with them either. Next came Play Radio Play, the solo project of a 17-year-old kid from Fort Worth, and this is what he has to say on his MySpace page:

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.
I dont drink, smoke, do drugs, or have sex, and I am proud to say I am still a virgin.

A little in-your-face with the goodie-goodie image for my tastes, but to each his own. Nothing wrong with that, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the music. Last was a band called Young Love. I'd never heard of these folks, but apparently they're alright by the 18-25 crowd in Austin. I can't remember the last time I was out and about with underaged minors, but they were abundant judging by all the big black X's marked on waving, gyrating hands. Band adoration is contagious, however, so we ended up having a blast, drinking entirely too much, and hopping over to Maggie Mae's, where we were surrounded by a huge graduation crowd and got to see an amazing bit of hip action from one of the dancing drunk girls. All in all, fab night. :)

Now I must go sleep it off and enroll in belly dancing classes tomorrow.

p.s. Hope you're having a great time in Mexico, Mom!

Poker Night 2

Brian won the last game so now he must suffer. Its only fair.

40 geeky grad students and 1 Nobel Laureate

We were asked by my friend Jamie Vernon to host a potluck dinner at our house in honor of the 4th speaker in the Gottlieb Lecture Series. This gives the grad students in UT's cell and molecular biology program and biochemistry program the chance to hang out with the speaker in a more intimate environ, whether it is to pick his brains or simply bask in his glory. We hosted about 40 grad students, who brought an impressive spread of alcohol, food and desserts, and Dr. Ferid Murad, the 1998 winner of the Nobel prize in medicine.

Dr. Murad is a red wine drinker, always a good sign in my book, and came across as a very personable guy, who I get the impression has his fingers in a lot of different pies. He's currently working with the Chinese government to help legitamize the herbal medicines that have been in use in the Far East for centuries. Basically, Dr. Murad is getting a crapload of money from them to figure out which ingredients are active and how they work. If he can do that, it will pave the way for these API's to be introduced to the west. By the sounds of things, he's pretty much cornering the market on this work and will no doubt profit greatly from any discoveries he makes. He also took the opportunity while at UT to apparently grill some of the professors here about their ideas concerning medicinal chemistry. From what I hear, he practically had to be pried out of Ben Lui's office with a crow bar. And he also said he uses these visitations and lectures to scout out potential post docs for his lab. Always thinking, these Nobel prize winners.

Kenan, Dr. Murad, Chad & Greg

So the last of them crawled home at about 11. An hour of cleaning and storing away tons of leftovers later, we were snug in bed and sleeping soundly knowing that we won't need to cook again for a week. Free food - the ultimate grad student prize...

Poker Night

We've started a recent tradition in our bi-weekly poker games. There is a bounty placed on the head of the most recent winner. Whoever knocks this person out of the game automatically gets 10 bucks, and the rest of us get to bask in the knowledge that justice still prevails in the world. (Monopoly money, of course, because gambling with real money is illegal, kids.) Lately it hasn't been working though. Lance, who when he first started playing was almost comically bad, has turned into a monster. An all-devouring, bully of a monster. Jeff is not much better to be quite honest. These two evil-doers must be taken down!

Meet the Players

Greg
a.k.a G-Ray, Shuma, Babe

Greg is the love of my life. We just celebrated our one year wedding anniversary on Sunday, but I've known him for far longer. Our relationship went from zero to 60 in November of 2002 after a wine & cheese party my ex-roomie Tricia and I were throwing.

In a bout of alcohol-induced courage and a slight misunderstanding, he pulled me outside away from the party and confessed his feelings for me. To be quite honest, I wasn't convinced. I actually tried talking him out of it. I told him he had too much wine. I reminded him about his girlfriend (yes, folks, that's right - girlfriend. Apparently the relationship had been running on fumes for a year but I didn't know that.). I reminded him that he actually knew very little about me or how much of a PITA I really am. But throughout my protests, he just kept insisting that he knew we had a lot to do together. And he was right. A few days later we were on our first date - Toni Price at the Continental Club. I guess it took me about 2 weeks to figure out that I was going to marry this man. I think he knew before we even started. :)

We've been attached at the hip ever since. We moved in together unofficially after only a few weeks and then officially about 3 months later. We've spent only a few nights apart in the 4.5 years we've been together and hope to keep it that way. Mutual co-dependence - its nice. You should try it sometime.

Greg is a fabulous cook, a neat freak, and is all about beating me (or trying to...) in whatever kind of competition we can devise. I used to skunk him at Scrabble and tennis every time. Then he decided to sneak in extra practice with colleagues and friends. Now he can give me a run for my money in Scrabble and demolishes me in tennis. We just ran a 10K together on Saturday, and he beat me by less than a minute. Man, I will never live that one down. But he's also the most caring, generous, kind-hearted person I've ever known. He's helped me become a better person, and I hope he can say the same of me.

Gomez
a.k.a Gomey, Gomes, Brat, Terror, Bully

We adopted Gomez and his sister in November from Luis and Kathy Ortiz, a couple here in Austin who do a lot of kitty rescue work. This picture was taken soon after we got them so they were about 3 months old. He's the one who will tolerate my special brand of torture. Secretly, I think he loves it (just like his daddy). His favorite position is lying cradled in my arms upside down with his head draped over my arm so he can see the world from a different perspective, something we should all try every once in a while. He's also the instigator and culprit in most kitty crimes at our house. He's a bit lazy, except when it comes to pouncing on his sister, and has a tendency to claw his way up denim jeans. He's also the most spoiled and vocal when it comes to complaining. There's nothing he likes better than a nice, long booty scratch.

Noelani
a.k.a Lani, Missy, Miss Thang, Spazz, Freak, E-wok, Squeaky

Lani was the runt of the litter. She needed a lot of extra TLC and now has a very strong aversion to any kind of pills. It is an epic battle to give her meds, but hopefully that won't be necessary too often. She has the highest purr volume to body mass ratio of any cat I've ever heard. Most of the time she's not too comfortable being picked up - she tends to freak out after a second and spring into some elaborate gymnastics to escape, hence the nicknames Spazz and Freak. But if she wants to be held, she'll let you know. She's also the first to curl up into an empty lap. Recently she's prone to plop herself in front of you, roll onto her back and stretch out to get a belly-rub. She makes funny little noises when she's playing or wants attention, hence the nicknames E-wok and Squeaky. Her favorite game of all time is flying through the air in death-defying leaps, chasing a feathered jingle bell on a string. Our little Michael Jordan. I have a sneaking suspicion she's just as naughty as Gomez, but like most women, has perfected the art of evading detection.

So that's the crew. More adventures of the Family K to come...