Can someone please check the temperature in Hell?

The unthinkable has happened. My dear, sweet mom has finally succumbed and bought a cell phone. I've been trying to break her down for years since she takes so many road trips to out-of-the-way places all by herself. I know she can be one tough cookie when she needs to be and can topple a building with one withering glare, but its good to know she now has the option to call for help just in case one of her adventures gets out of hand.

Congrats, Mom, for finally crawling into the 21st century. You'll love it here. :)

Shoe Whore

So my self-imposed shoe-buying moratorium. It lasted all of... um.... ...well, nevermind.

But come on! 80% off at DSW! How do you expect me to pass that up? A person can only be so strong! So, babe, if you're reading this...

...the devil made me do it.

Honest!



***UPDATE***

Greg won poker Thursday night! So he got home last night - I had been home for hours because I lost early - and informed me that his winnings financed my new shoes. What a good husband. :)

A big congratulations goes out to Brianna, who from this day forward shall be known as Dr. White.

And while she logged in a solid 5 hours at Trudy's for the after-celebration and consumed more than her legally allowed two Mexican martinis, she still managed to fall well short of being sloppy drunk - disappointing, Brianna, very disappointing... :)

We just got word from our friends Fred and Kristie. They're flying from England to meet us in Lisbon for a long week-end during our Portugal trip. Yay!

Another (Less Thrilling) Celeb Sighting

Between sucking up the courts of sand volleyball in Zilker Park and a refreshing (yeah, that's the word!) dip in Barton Springs, we stopped for lunch at The Shady Grove where we saw:


Know who she is? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

I didn't either, but then again, I'm not up on my daytime soap stars. Michelle Stafford from The Young and the Restless was just a few tables over from us. Well spotted, Alicia.

I liked Luke Wilson better.

Oh! And someone stole my sunglasses! I can't believe it. If you can't trust the hippies at Barton Springs, who can you trust? Honestly!

Kittens in a Tub

This is quite possibly the kids' favorite spot in the whole house.

Gomez is obsessed with my hair bands. He hunts and steals them from me, never to be seen again. He will even go so far as to try to pull them out of my hair while I'm sleeping.

Lani, on the other hand, has a fetish for my metal clips.

Each will bring their bounty to the tub, jump in, and go all Mad Max (a la Beyond Thunderdome) in there, pouncing, charging and flipping as they bat the bands and clips around the tub, providing hours of entertainment for mommy and daddy.

If you have the means, I highly recommend catching the show.

"Welcome to the United States"

Its finally official! Greg is a full-fledged card-carrying resident alien of the U.S. of A.


We received his green card (with correct information this time) in the mail today - it only took us 2.5 months to get it... But at least they didn't charge us the threatened $260 fee for changing his birthday. Yay!

So Excited!!

I just bought our one-day tickets for the Saturday of ACL fest! Yay! I'm so excited! Check out the lineup!

Here's our plan of attack so far:

Raul Malo
Paolo Nutini
Andrew Bird (saw him open for Ani Difranco - he was awesome!)
Damien Rice
Amy Winehouse
Muse
Arcade Fire (saw them at ACL 2005 - amazing!)
White Stripes

Yeah baby!

Detox Saturday

After a hard night celebrating Suzanne's (our wedding bartender) half-birthday on Friday, we decided to give the liver and ears a break. We headed to Lake Travis and Carlos n' Charlies for Aussie Mark's 33rd birthday. We skipped the waverunners earlier in the day but were in great need of the fat (for Greg) and greens (for me) provided for lunch. Good times.

Then later that day we met up downtown with Katie, Derek and their puppy Chamois to run the Keep Austin Wierd 5K. I truly love this race. Its one where you can run as slowly as you'd like and not feel guilty because you're too busy checking out everyone's costumes. Among the crowd of runners were:

• two guys in a thong and a diaper,
• the knights from Monty Python's Holy Grail, complete with clapping coconut sound effects and one killer bunny,

• super-heroes, including Wonderwoman and Duff Man,
• several bats, one with a wingspan of six feet,
• a group of armadillo girls,
• some guy running the whole thing on springy stilts,
• lots of Hawaiians with coconut bras and grass skirts,
• and my personal favorite, the cutest little girl with a live chicken on a leash.

At the finish-line we were rewarded with popsicles. Greg's blue one gave him a nice Smurfy look, which fit in well with the theme of the evening. Our forgetful leg muscles were reminded of what it feels like to experience exertion, so we're officially on the lookout for our next race.


Interesting aside: So during the 5K, we also learned that after buying Greg sly mojito doubles Friday evening, it was poor Derek who ended up sleeping on the floor by the bathroom door because he "just needed to be near the toilet". Hee hee hee. That's kharma for you, baby! :)

Rock On!

I love it when a relatively tame night of celebrating 1/2-birthdays and happy hour martinis at 219 West turns into an '80's hair band tribute and rockin' out to the forgotten tunes of Headbanger's Ball. Don't you?

Metal Shop at Cedar Street.
Don't forget your sparkly pants and Aquanet.