Quick update...

This week has been crazy! The first few days of work were really difficult... actually, that's not true -- the FIRST day was easy, because I didn't have to show up until 1:30 and it was all orientation stuff. So I slept in, went out for my usual morning cappuccino with mom, took my time getting ready for work, and then spent most of the day in HR signing forms and listening to explanations of benefits, etc. By the time the HR orientation woman gave me a tour of the various things to see on the first floor (fitness center, conference rooms, training center, break room, outside patio where it would nice to eat lunch when it's not 100 degrees...), and I was delivered to my department on the third floor (where more tours and introductions ensued), it was already 4 o'clock and time for me to head home.

But that night, I had some panicky moments where I realized I had to figure out an entirely new routine, and I had to get up at 5:30 every day, and I had to wade through the dictionary-sized "New Hire Manual" I was given that morning, and I had to figure out where I could eat lunch, and I had to find the time to work out and make dinner and do laundry and take care of my pets... and needless to say, I only got about four hours of sleep before my alarm went off. And I know there are people out there who can get by on less-than-adequate amounts of sleep every night -- but I am NOT one of those people.

But I managed to get more sleep the next few nights, although the whole week felt sort of "off" -- like normal people are not meant to wake in the dark and sit in an office with no windows for hours on end. But I'm hoping that after another week or two (and after I get my first paycheck), I will feel more in sync with my new schedule.

One thing I'm still trying to work out is our dinner menu -- I didn't really "cook" anything last week. Although I did discover an awesome, low-cal, healthy dinner option -- I have some whole wheat wraps that I spread with a thin layer of hummus, and then added spinach and sliced veggies. Then I roll the whole thing up, and viola -- instant dinner. And it only takes about ten minutes to assemble.

I have, however, missed my daily "green monster" smoothies -- I finally made one for lunch today. Check out how green this one ended up!


Now THAT is a green smoothie. :) And it was quite yummy -- we bought some clementine oranges at the grocery store today, so I threw in a couple of those, plus some frozen bananas and frozen nectarines. My cousin-in-law Jess has been making smoothies, too, so we've swapped a few recipes -- she sent me one the other day for a chocolate-coconut smoothie, with chocolate almond milk and coconut extract. YUM! That one sounds awesome, so I can't wait to try it (as soon as I remember to buy chocolate almond milk!!).

And I have to give an extra-special-super-awesome shout out to Eric and his girlfriend Rachel, who both ran a half marathon today -- wow! I am seriously impressed. And Eric so rarely impresses me... (heehee... just kidding, Eric! I was really impressed that day you learned how to tie your shoes -- when was that? Like three or four weeks ago? Yeah... that was impressive... ;)) Seriously -- I get so inspired when I hear about stuff like this, so Rick and I will definitely be doing our four-mile run/walk tonight. (Which, sadly, sounds rather paltry after "half marathon." But you've gotta start somewhere... :))

Okay, I still have a bunch of things to do this afternoon, so that's all for now... hope everyone had a great weekend!

Does this mean I have to start getting up early??

Well, these last couple of weeks have been interesting. First, we received all our cruise documents in the mail – and even though we’ve been planning this trip since last November, it hasn’t really felt “real” until now. Now that I can actually SEE all the paperwork and realize it’s only ONE month away, it’s really apparent how quickly this trip is going to sneak up on me. I should probably start packing now. Otherwise I’m apt to forget something important…

Second, Rick and I managed to shave 12 minutes off our four-mile neighborhood walk – of course, in order to do that, we had to run parts of it. We walked on the uphill parts, and jogged on the downhill parts. I’m used to walking/running three or four miles at a time, but I usually do my workouts on a treadmill, which helps to absorb shock. Running on a concrete sidewalk is quite different – and my shins paid for it the next day. After a quick Google search on “shin splints,” I was confident that what I had was merely some serious muscle soreness. Apparently shin splints occur when the tendons in the leg actually begin to separate from the bone. (Ouch!) But, after a couple days of rest and light walking, my legs seem to be feeling just about normal again – so I’m almost ready to go run out on the sidewalk again… maybe just not quite as far this time. :)

Third, I turned 24 years old on Monday (at least according to Eric… and yes, Eric, that DOES mean you’re 21… normally I would stick to my assertion that you’re older than I am, but since you backed off the first age you mentioned – which I believe was 50 – I’ll let it slide… :)). I had a great birthday, ate some chocolate cake, and tried not to think about how every birthday moves me closer and closer to 40…

But the MOST interesting thing occurred Wednesday evening, when I finally (after two months of waiting) heard from the place I interviewed for a job back in May. It’s actually the same place I USED to work years ago, before Rick and I moved to New Jersey in 2000. So I was already familiar with parts of the job, although over the years it has morphed from a part-time proofreading job into a full-time job, with more writing and editing responsibilities. And I was beginning to think that either a) they were planning to hire someone else and were never going to tell me, or b) they’d decided not to hire ANYONE and hoped that I would forget that I’d ever interviewed for the job. But just when I’d resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t know anything for ANOTHER two months, I got a call from the recruiter offering me the job! And since the call came at almost 7 o’clock at night (a rather strange time to extend a job offer, if you ask me), I can honestly say I was NOT expecting that…

So I am about to rejoin the daily grind of the working world… and while I am excited, I’m also quite nervous and apprehensive, because I haven’t worked full time in about ten years. I’m already worrying about how I’m going to balance my new job with all the other things I need to do on a regular basis. Of course, this DOES give me a great excuse for a shopping spree – I’m heading out to buy some work-appropriate attire this weekend. Fortunately, Rick and I BOTH have jobs now, so I should be able to afford it… (or at least I WILL be able to afford it when we actually have paychecks rolling in a couple times a month… :))

I’m starting on Monday, so needless to say, this should be another interesting week for me! Hopefully I’ll have good things to report soon… Hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

On this day...

...in 1969, we landed on the moon. (At least that's what THEY want you to believe. Oh, they're sneaky, those Theys...) I'm just kidding... :) I'm not one of those weird "the moon landing was staged on a movie set" conspiracy theorists. Can you imagine the unbelievably complicated plot that would've been required to pull off such a feat? It would be not unlike the unbelievably complicated plot that would've been required for "our government" to pull off 9/11 (which is another rant for another time... in fact, I think I may have already ranted about it somewhere on this blog... ah, yes -- here it is).

Anyway, July 20, 1969 was, no doubt, an awe-inspiring day. But I wouldn't know, because I didn't show up until a few years later... which, of course, cemented July 20th as one of the most historically-significant dates EVER.

Okay, maybe not. But I did get a cool dessert at dinner tonight:

You didn't think I'd have a nice, healthy smoothie for my birthday, did you? :)

Another day, another smoothie...

Forgive me if this has turned into some sort of “fitness blog” lately – I’ve been reading a lot of blogs solely devoted to fitness and nutrition, so it’s a subject that has been on my mind. But I promise I’ll continue to talk about various random topics at random times for random reasons. (But not today… :))

I was thinking yesterday about how far I’ve come in my journey toward living a healthy lifestyle. When I was younger, I was never one of those really athletic kids… I was never fat, but I was never in shape, either. And gym class is probably the WORST motivator for setting up a lifetime of routine exercise. At least it was for me – when you’re the shy kid, and you’re constantly picked last for every team, and you’re constantly ridiculed for your less-than-stellar volleyball technique, all you want is to get away from that atmosphere and NEVER revisit it again.

But a few years after I graduated from high school, I realized that I could work out by MYSELF – no teams to choose, no humiliating attempts to hit a wayward volleyball, no one to laugh or point or whisper… it was just ME. So I started exercising – walking around my apartment complex, or doing Tae-Bo in my living room. I remember when I first started out, I didn’t even own any kind of “real” workout attire – I would just throw on a pair of cutoff shorts and an old t-shirt. Eventually, when it became enough of a habit that I knew I’d be exercising on a regular basis, I invested in some workout-appropriate clothing. And believe me, it’s much easier to go on a long walk in some nice, stretchy spandex pants than in a pair of old jeans…

But even with my decent exercise habits, my EATING habits were horrible. I think sometimes there’s an unconscious tendency to think, “if I work out, I can eat whatever I want.” And once you start getting into an exercise routine, you allow your eating routine to slip into “anything goes” territory. The truth (which took me years to figure out) is that exercise is GREAT – but it doesn’t burn a huge amount of calories, unless you’re training for an Ironman triathlon or something. It burns extra calories, yes – but not enough to eat a bag of cookies when you’re done and still expect to lose weight. And that was where I made my mistake – even though I exercised on a regular basis, I managed to gain about 30 pounds over a six or seven year period. I was eating too much “processed” food, going out to eat too often, and drinking too much soda and juice. I also had the horrible habit of snacking when I got up in the middle of the night to let Echo out – while she was outside, I would have a couple spoonfuls of ice cream, or pull a cookie out of the pantry. In the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. How horrible is that??

It was when we were living in New Jersey, around 2001, that I realized my size 12 jeans were starting to get tight. Size 12 is like the last “regular” size you can buy – after that, you get into “plus size.” There were a few moments of panic as I came to this realization, but then I made up my mind: there was NO WAY I was going to move up to a “plus size.” After a lot of reading and research, it became clear that the only way to drop pounds and KEEP them off was to PERMANENTLY change my lifestyle. All the myriad of “diets” out there don’t work, because people will only stick with them until they see some weight loss, at which point they go back to eating the way they USED to eat. And that’s the key – obviously if you weighed X-amount of pounds when you were eating the way you used to eat, you’ll go right BACK to weighing X-amount of pounds when you eat that way again. It’s really so simple, and yet we have an entire “diet” industry that has made it seem so complicated…

So, knowing that it would be much too difficult to drastically change my diet overnight, I started very simply – I began ordering water when I went out to eat instead of soda, and drank mostly water at home instead of soda or juice. I also stopped my ridiculous middle-of-the-night snacking. And that was it. Those two small changes resulted in a ten pound loss almost immediately. So by the time Rick and I moved back to Austin in 2002, I had thrown away all my size 12s and hoped to never see them again.

Over the next few years, I kept making small tweaks like that – nothing too radical, so it was never a chore to maintain my routine. Switching to 1 percent milk instead of 2 percent… using less butter or oil when I cooked… keeping ice cream and cookies out of the house to remove the temptation entirely… making an effort to eat more fruits and veggies… And eventually, I lost those 30 pounds I’d gained.

Lately, even though I’ve managed to keep that weight off, I’ve been making an effort to get into better shape – hence my smoothie obsession and newly-challenging workouts. That’s one thing I’ve noticed – even though exercise alone doesn’t necessarily help you lose weight, it DOES seem to encourage better eating. If I get through an hour-long treadmill workout, I usually find that I’m less likely to WANT an entire tub of ice cream or a bag of cookies – because why would I want to completely negate all of my hard work?

Well, speaking of smoothies, I need to go make one for lunch... which will hopefully will give me energy for this afternoon's workout. And you know what? I'm actually looking forward to it... :)

Mmmmm... muddy puddle sludge...

Okay, I am officially addicted to so-called “Green Monster” smoothies (so-named because the addition of spinach or other greens gives these smoothies a lovely earthy hue :)). We’ve had a few “smoothie dinners” this past week, and I had just enough fruit and almond milk left for one more smoothie, so I had one for lunch today. Actually, today’s concoction resembled something akin to muddy puddle sludge, thanks to the handful of blueberries I added.

But I swear, these things taste GOOD! For today’s smoothie, I used a cup of almond milk, about half a tablespoon each of almond butter and flax powder, a tablespoon or so of nonfat plain Greek yogurt, a cup of raw spinach, half a frozen banana, half a cup of frozen pineapple, and a handful of frozen blueberries. YUM!!

I’m also totally addicted to Greek yogurt right now. I’ve never been a huge yogurt fan – not only do I not like the texture of some yogurts, but a lot of them are full of added sugar. And I don’t know how they make Greek yogurt – I guess they strain out all the liquid or something like that – but the end product is so good. I get the plain, fat-free variety, and I’d swear it was made with whole milk. Or at least two percent. And all it needs is a little honey and a spoonful of granola or fresh fruit, and it’s a hundred times better than Yoplait… (well, I think it is, anyway… :))

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned yet that we’ll be going on a Mediterranean cruise in August… so if I haven’t – we’re going on a Mediterranean cruise in August! My parents, Rick’s parents, my aunt and a good friend are all coming with us. And we’re especially excited because we coerced our very good friends Nick and Cindy into traveling with us, too – they have four kids, so it’s not exactly easy to drop everything and run off to Europe, even with several months’ notice. But they managed to work it out… they’ll be leaving the kids at a kennel or something, with big bowls of food and water (right? That’s what you do with kids, right?). Kidding! Just kidding! :)

Anyway… so we’re hoping that our “getting into shape” strategy will pay off enough that we won’t feel guilty about eating with reckless abandon once we get to our cruise ship. Well, okay, maybe not “reckless” abandon. Maybe just controlled abandon. Slightly irresponsible but not too crazy abandon. I mean, there WILL definitely be SOME sort of abandonment… but we’ll be sure to work out in the fitness center, too…

And now I’m off to add to the 5,493 steps on my pedometer…

July 4th pictures...

I'm a few days late getting these pictures up, but hope everyone had a happy 4th of July!! For the second year in a row, Rick and I watched a great fireworks display from our driveway. This is one advantage of living so close to the golf course -- sure, we have to deal with golf balls constantly hitting our house and collecting in our yard, but at least we're right across from the 4th of July fireworks display. And judging from the cars that start lining every street in the neighborhood before the sun goes down, I'm glad we don't have to find a parking place and hang out in the heat for an hour before the show. We can just relax in our air conditioned house, and then run out to the driveway as soon as we hear a "boom" outside. :)

And oh yeah, we bought new running shoes, too...

Rick and I had a nice day yesterday – one of the last weekdays to get out and about before he starts his new job on Monday. So we started our day by heading toward downtown to try a new coffee place. (Well, not “new,” technically – just new to us.) It’s called Caffe Teo, and according to the sign hanging outside on the patio, it’s been voted one of the top ten coffee establishments in the country. They also serve some very yummy-looking gelato, which I have not had the opportunity to taste. Yet. (That’ll be a priority the next time I’m in Caffe Teo…) And I have to agree with the reviews – they DO have an excellent cup of coffee. Rick was disappointed that our “slightly dry” cappuccinos were actually heading straight into latte territory, but the TASTE of the coffee was quite good. That’s one of Rick’s pet peeves – when people make cappuccinos (which are supposed to be equal parts steamed milk and foam) more like lattes (which are just steamed milk and no foam). I’m not quite as picky, myself – I love a good cappuccino OR a good latte… but cappuccinos ARE fewer calories… when they’re made correctly.

So we got our cappulattes and sat out on the wooden patio, where small speakers mounted above the shop played selections from what sounded like a Bollywood movie soundtrack. Italian cappuccino enjoyed with Indian music – is there anything better?? (Well, perhaps Indian food enjoyed with some Italian opera… that would be good, too… :))

After coffee, it was time for lunch – so we headed down to Guadalupe and checked out Terra Burger. We’ve been wanting to try this place ever since we saw they were opening one up north, closer to where we live – we actually tried to stop about a week ago, but it still wasn’t open. So we went to the original, instead, which has been open for a year or so near the UT campus. It’s an all-organic burger place, where, I was quite happy to see, they also serve veggie burgers. I love a burger place that serves vegetarian alternatives. And I’m not even a vegetarian. But I do, as I’ve mentioned before, have a problem eating any kind of meat that has been ground up and smushed back together. And Terra Burger had quite a delicious veggie burger – I will definitely want to head back to this place again. Hopefully the new one is open by now…

Once coffee and lunch were out of the way, we went to the Central Market grocery store to pick up a few things. The last couple months we’ve really been making an effort to eat better and work out more, and I ran across an interesting tidbit of information the other day as I was perusing some diet/exercise blogs. According to many random bloggers, raw spinach makes a great smoothie additive – you can toss a couple handfuls of spinach in your blender along with other ingredients, and once it’s all blended together, you don’t even TASTE the spinach. But it DOES add lots of vitamins (and barely any calories – did you know a cup of raw spinach is only 7 calories??). So last night, instead of a usual dinner, I made smoothies – I have to admit I was a little apprehensive. I wasn’t sure if The Great Smoothie Experiment would work very well. But I brought out my blender, and then I added:

1 cup almond milk

1 tablespoon almond butter

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

1 cup spinach

1 frozen banana

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup frozen peaches

Then I hit “blend” and hoped for the best. When it was done, the concoction was a rather unappealing muddy blue color, flecked with dark specks of who-knows-what. But I poured it into two glasses, pulled a couple straws out of the cupboard (because smoothies just seem like the sort of thing you have to drink with a straw), and tried it. To my surprise, my muddy blue smoothie was really GOOD. Even Rick liked it…

And it was the perfect fuel for our nightly four-mile walk, which we’ve just started to do. I was already working out every day, usually walking/jogging between three and four miles on the treadmill. But Rick doesn’t like the treadmill – he prefers to walk on pavement. And for some reason, I’ve decided to go with him every night, even though I’ve pretty much been doubling my daily workout. And I don’t know if it’s the distance, or the fact that I’m not used to walking that far on a sidewalk, but I have actually been SORE the last few days. I think a little less so today than yesterday, so hopefully I’m getting used to all those extra steps…

And speaking of steps, I only have about 1000 today, so I’d better get moving…

Hey look! It's a bunch of random thoughts!

It has been much too long since my last post! And yet strangely, I can’t seem to think of anything terribly interesting to write about, so of course that means that this will be a World Famous Random Thought Post. Yay! :)

Random thought #1: What’s up with North Korea? I wonder if the general population really hates us that much, or if they’ve just been so shielded from information about the outside world that they don’t know WHAT to think. And then, of course, you have the crazy government that can drag you off to a “work” camp any time they feel like it, which no doubt creates a constant atmosphere of fear and apprehension. No one wants to do anything that might upset the Dear Leader – so no one expresses an independent thought or opinion. Basically, the government’s opinion IS your opinion. Or else. I genuinely feel sorry for the citizens of that country…

Random thought #2: So last night I was making baked potatoes… and I usually just put potatoes directly on the oven rack to bake, so that’s what I did. And then I just left them and sort of forgot about them for 45 minutes or so, as I started grilling some steaks. Eventually, I became aware of a burning smell, which at first I attributed to the sizzling steaks on my cooktop grill pan. But then I realized it was, in fact, coming from the oven. And when I opened the door to check on the potatoes, I was met with that most bizarre of food disasters – the detonated spud. Now, for some reason I was under the impression that potatoes only explode in the microwave – but no, apparently they can also burst open in a regular oven, as well. One potato was fine, but the other had sort of shed its skin and was lying in a semi-burnt lump on the rack. I managed to salvage half of it, so it wasn’t a total loss… but I still have crusty burnt potato lying on my oven floor…

Random thought #3: It was 107 degrees here today… possibly 109, depending on which weather forecast you listened to. I think I saw Al Gore on I-35 driving a Hummer that was pulling a trailer full of coal and Styrofoam and plastic bottles, and he was smoking cigarettes and tossing them out the window…

Random thought #4: I miss Chicago… I haven’t been up there since Rick and I had to fly up and drive our car back down after he was laid off. And that was a rather sad trip… I miss Argo Tea and the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Basil Leaf Café and the Sofitel Hotel… and I haven’t been to Ghirardelli in soooooo long. I’m going through hot fudge sundae withdrawal… Oh, and I miss Eric, too. Yeah. Eric. Miss him. (Heehee… love you, Eric!! :))

Random thought #5: Since I started writing this earlier this morning, the news has been abuzz with the deaths of Farrah Fawcett AND Michael Jackson. I can’t say that I was surprised about Farrah Fawcett – she’d been so sick for a long time, and the news reports weren’t sounding very optimistic about her fate. What’s weird is that I’m honestly not THAT surprised about Michael Jackson, either. I mean, yes, it was unexpected, but doesn’t it seem like every time a picture or video of Michael Jackson was in the media over the last five years or so, he looked horrible? All of the botched plastic surgeries, the bony thin frame, the strange face mask worn in public, the sun-shielding umbrellas, the pajamas… I never looked at him and thought, “now THERE’S a guy who’s gonna live to be 90…” I might think that about, oh, say, Matthew McConaughey… I could see HIM living to be 90… because that would really annoy Eric… :)

Well, I guess that’s about it for today. Hopefully I’ll get over my blogger’s block and have something more interesting to say very soon…

A capitol idea...

Yes, that is "capitol" with an "o." Capital spelled with an "a" refers to the actual seat of government in a country, state, etc. -- whereas capitol with an "o" refers to the BUILDING in which all the government drones reside and mill about aimlessly and typically do absolutely nothing of use to any of us. And this is where Rick and I went today -- to the capitol building here in the capital of Texas. We've been partaking in quite a bit of Austin culture lately, since the art class Rick is taking requires him to get out and observe said culture. As I posted a couple weeks ago, we visited the Ransom Center so he could write a paper on a photography exhibit... and now he has to write a paper on architecture. And one of the more architecturally interesting buildings in Austin is the state capitol building.

I've probably been to the capitol building at least a dozen times, but I always find it interesting. It's quite an historical building, and it IS rather full of architectural detail. But one of the things I've always found the most interesting about it is its size -- it is the largest state capitol building in the country (not, as some believe, the TALLEST -- but rather the largest in square footage). It was, however, required for years to be the tallest building in the city -- none of the buildings downtown were supposed to be higher than the capitol. Which made for a rather boring, sprawling downtown area. That law was finally changed, though, and recently there has been a building boom in Austin -- we're finally starting to get some decent high-rises, and eventually the skyline will have even more character than it already has.

A few pictures from today, in no particular order:


The seals of the six flags over Texas (yes, that's where the amusement park got its name) -- Spain, France, Mexico, Texas, the Confederate States, and the United States...


Outside on the capitol grounds at the Texas Peace Officers Memorial...


Standing beneath the rotunda looking up at the Texas star...


Chandelier in the House of Representatives -- the lights spell out "TEXAS"...


Another view of the rotunda...


The view from the entrance gate...


Closeup of the Goddess of Liberty at the top of the dome... she's looking a little grimy... I think someone needs to get up there with some steel wool or some Oxyclean or something...


House of Representatives...


Senate...


The door hinges won't let you forget where you are...


The view from the capitol steps down Congress Avenue (the view from Congress Ave to the capitol is much better... :))

This just in...

Rick is once again employed!!!!! :)

And not a moment too soon -- the severance money was starting to wear a bit thin. Amazingly, he was hired right back on with the Company Which Must Not Be Named (well, I shouldn't say "amazingly" -- he pretty much proved over and over what an asset he was to that company... the fact that he was laid off in the first place is what's amazing...). This actually works out really well, because if you're hired back within a year of being laid off, you retain all your benefits. So since, after thirteen years of employment, Rick was allotted four weeks of vacation, he will once again have four weeks of vacation every year...

I know there were a lot of people out there praying and sending good thoughts and wishes and sticking pins in voodoo dolls (Eric -- and the Yankee voodoo has been working pretty well this year, too... :)) -- it's been a really stressful few months, and all the prayers and thoughts have been very much appreciated!! Thanks, you guys!!! :)

'Tis the season... of graduations...

So on Friday, Rick and I drove up to Abilene to attend our niece's high school graduation. There were 475 kids in the graduating class, and to accommodate all the relatives and friends, the graduation was held in the Abilene Civic Center, which was a big concrete building with stadium seating and no exits near the higher rows. (I was seriously wondering what would happen if someone yelled "fire" in that building... the people up top would have nowhere to run... that building has "makings of a stampede" written all over it...) We were a little worried at the beginning of the graduation -- all 475 kids filed in two by two to the incessantly-repetitious band rendition of "Pomp and Circumstance." And it took eons... 475 kids... slowly walking into the arena... gradually filling up the rows and rows of folding chairs set up on the floor. About halfway through, I felt like running down to the band and pushing the conductor aside so I could speed up the tempo. (C'mon, everyone -- double time! Let's make these kids RUN!) I mean, if it took that long for all of them to walk into the arena, how long would it take for every single name to be called out as the diplomas were awarded?

But surprisingly, the reading of those 475 names went much more quickly than we had anticipated. Although I still felt sorry for the kids with the "Z" names -- they had to wait until everyone else had a diploma before they could finally pick up theirs. I remember how hard it was to wait for everyone to file across the stage at graduation before I finally had my chance -- and my name was only a "W." And I had fewer than 200 kids in my class... But the day I graduated from high school was still one of the happiest days of my life... the fact that I knew I'd NEVER have to go back to that place was a source of much joy... :)

Our trip was quick, but it was great to see our nieces, and Rick's parents, and his sister Donna and her husband Dean... we also got to meet Dean's sister and mom, who were so sweet. On Friday night, the graduation girl Katie serenaded us with a little concert -- she is like crazy, scary talented. She got a guitar for Christmas (THIS past Christmas), and after about six months of playing, the girl sounds like she's been playing her whole life. She's also written a couple dozen songs (the ones she sang for us were AWESOME), and has an amazing voice. She definitely has a future in music, if she chooses to go that route.

A few pictures from this weekend:

Ah, the small towns of West Texas... we drove through about ten towns just like this one on the way up -- how do little towns like this survive? Hmmm...


Checking the program to see how many of those 475 names were left... (and yes, we were sitting up near the top, in the "nowhere to go if there's a fire" rows...)


Donna, Katie and Dean...


Cute picture of Mindy and Katie -- aren't they pretty? :)


Me and Katie... this picture makes me wonder -- could I BE any whiter?? I mean, seriously, is there a shade of white that is whiter than I am in this picture? Somebody hand me the spray-on tan...


Donna's new puppy... soooooo cute...

A day at the museum...

This morning Rick and I fueled up with a great breakfast at Trudy's -- which is a little Tex-Mex place near downtown -- and then headed over to the University of Texas campus to visit the Harry Ransom Center. Rick is taking two classes this semester -- one is a geography class, and the other is "appreciating the arts." (And since Rick has never been one to appreciate the arts all that much, he REALLY needs that class... :)) One of their assignments is to write a paper on any art exhibit in any art museum anywhere -- I was really hoping to visit one in Chicago, but since our schedules are very up-in-the-air right now (we both have job interviews this week, and then who knows what else after that...), we had to stick close to home. And while Rick isn't all that crazy about "art" in general, he DOES love photography -- and lucky for him, a photography exhibit is an acceptable subject for his paper. So we visited the Harry Ransom Center to see some photos by Fritz Henle.

Fritz Henle was born in Germany in 1909, and then decided to move to the U.S. as an adult. He became an American citizen in 1942 -- as World War II was in full swing. I thought it was interesting that a German man became an American citizen right in the middle of WWII. So I took a picture of his naturalization certificate:

Here are some of the pictures I liked (the pictures of the pictures didn't all come out very well because of the glare off the glass...):


A mother and child in India...


A Chevrolet in front of the RCA building in NYC...


Frida Kahlo...


This was probably my favorite photograph in the exhibit... it was titled "Gala Evening at the Met, New York City," and it was taken in 1950. I couldn't get a good picture of it without reflections in the glass, but I thought it was a really interesting photo. The man and woman (husband and wife?) are in the balcony, and while the man seems to be appreciatively applauding the ballerina, the woman looks as if she's had enough and wants to leave... possibly because her husband keeps gawking at the ballerina... :)

In addition to the photos, the Harry Ransom Center had an exhibition on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Omar Khayyam was a medieval Persian astronomer who was also quite the poet. In the 1800's, English translations of his poems became extremely popular -- between 1859 and 1945, there was a strange fad-like fascination with the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.


And finally -- the Harry Ransom Center also has one of only five Gutenberg Bibles on display in the United States... pretty cool stuff...

A few random odds and ends...

Happy Friday, everyone! It’s been another exciting, fun-filled week of mountain climbing and spelunking and scuba diving and sky diving and bungee jumping and pogo stick racing… um, okay, I’ve actually never done any of those things… and honestly, I don’t think I WANT to do any of them. (Well, maybe the pogo stick racing… I mean, I totally made that up, but I’m betting that SOMEone, SOMEwhere, has challenged a friend to a pogo stick race once or twice…)

So in reality, it was a rather non-eventful week. Although Rick did have a job interview this morning, which lately is kind of a big deal around here. It’s something he feels pretty hopeful about, so we’ll see what happens with that…

What’s funny is that if you go to Yahoo.com today (go ahead, I’ll wait…) there’s a story about “America’s best cities for jobs.” And the little picture over to the left is the 360 bridge here in Austin. Austin is number 8 on the list – apparently we’ve ADDED 3,300 jobs in the last year, while most other cities in the country have lost jobs. But that doesn’t make much sense to me, since I know of at least ONE company, in particular, that probably single-handedly laid off a few thousand people. (I suppose said company should remain nameless for the time being…) So does that mean Austin actually added somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 jobs?? Because if 3,000 people were laid off, but we added 3,000 jobs, then that just means we broke even…

Interestingly, the best city in the country for jobs right now is Huntsville, Alabama – the city where Rick was born. (The city where I was born – Buffalo, New York – is nowhere to be seen… hmmm… :))

So yesterday I was trying to think of something to write for my Facebook “status update.” In case anyone doesn’t use Facebook (Faisal, I’m looking your way – get with the times already… everybody’s doing it… are you susceptible to peer pressure?? :)), a status update is just a little blurb you can write at the top of your page so people know what you’re doing or how you’re feeling or what you’re thinking at any given time – and you can write them in the third person, which is just loads of fun. (And I’m being totally serious here – I love talking about myself in the third person… Lisa thinks it’s fun… Lisa likes to talk about herself as if she’s a spectator observing from a balcony…) And sometimes you update your status with whatever you are literally doing at that moment (Lisa is doing the laundry… Lisa is cooking dinner… Lisa is heading out to see a movie…). But other times you simply make random observations about your life (Lisa is quite wary of the germ-laden tables at fast food restaurants… Lisa would like to eat infinite amounts of chocolate and never gain a pound… Lisa is terrified of strawberry seeds…).

You see how it works, right? So as I was saying, I was trying to think of something to write yesterday, and my mind was totally blank. I had no idea what to write in my “status update” box. So that’s what I wrote – “Lisa wants to update her status, but can’t think of anything interesting to say.” My Aunt Carol commented that it was interesting that I had nothing to say – which, actually, IS rather interesting, considering that I was just now able to come up with half a dozen decent status updates in the last couple paragraphs. I may have to update my Facebook page again and use one of them…

But that comment made me think about how even though I’m one of the LEAST talkative people I know (yes, Lisa knows Lisa quite well), I’m also one of the MOST talkative people I know. It’s this funny sort of paradox – I don’t talk much when I talk, but I definitely talk a lot when I write. I don’t SAY much, but I have a lot to say. I may get tongue-tied now and then, but I never seem to get… uh… finger-tied?? And it all goes back to my assertion that writing is just as valid a form of communication as talking – although some people seem to have a different opinion about that…

Now if you’ll excuse her, Lisa is off to update her Facebook status…

Happy birthday, Eric!!!!

It's Eric's birthday! He's soooooo much older than I am (although we're not sure HOW much older, of course, because the gypsies who dropped him off on our doorstep didn't tell us...). Just kidding, Eric! Maybe... :)

Here's a picture of me and dad and Eric from way back when... I know it looks like I'm older than Eric here, but we all know THAT can't be possible, right? :) I just love my face in this picture -- I seem to be rather suspicious of the new kid... and for some reason, even though we were in Buffalo, NY, I'm flashing a Longhorn sign with my right hand. Apparently even at this young age, I knew I'd eventually be a UT fan...


And here's Eric today, seemingly quite suspicious of the girl behind the camera... probably because she keeps insisting that she's younger than he is...


So happy birthday, Crazy Eric!! Wish I was up there in Chicago so we could hang out and you could buy me dinner... because that's the birthday tradition... when it's your birthday, you buy stuff for your sister. Dontcha just love tradition?? :)

Put... the cookie... down...

The other day I read an interesting little article about how our food portion sizes have changed over the last 20 years or so. While the number of calories we SHOULD be eating every day of course has remained constant, the amount of food prepared for us has grown much larger. So while we may think we’re doing okay by eating one solitary bagel, the SIZE of that bagel has increased from a small 140-calorie ring to a 300-plus-calorie, CD-sized treat. Add a couple ounces of cream cheese and you’re pushing the 500-calorie range.

Pasta dishes in restaurants have doubled in size, going from a reasonable-for-dinner 500 calories per plate to over one thousand calories – depending on the sauce, I imagine that calorie count could go much higher (have you SEEN a recipe for Alfredo sauce???). French fry portions have doubled or even tripled, depending on what size you order with your fast food meal. And even “healthy” choices like turkey sandwiches can be 800-calories-worth-of-huge in this day and age.

And then today I read about an Australian study that concluded the weight problem in America is due to overeating. Wow – thanks Australia. We never would’ve figured that one out on our own. Of COURSE the “obesity epidemic” in America is caused by too much food. But at this point, everyone should be AWARE of the fact that restaurants serve ridiculously huge portions – it's not exactly a secret. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Gigantohumungous Meal on Random Fast Food Restaurant’s menu contains more calories than a single person should be eating in an entire DAY – let alone a single meal. And yet people will STILL order an extra large container of fries and a triple cheeseburger and an extra large milkshake… and a Diet Coke, of course. Don’t want to go overboard…

And then we actually wonder WHY we can’t lose weight. It annoys me to no end when I hear someone who is significantly overweight claiming, “I don’t eat any more than anyone else… I just have a slow metabolism.” Um, nope. Sorry. While some people ARE blessed with ridiculously fast metabolisms (Eric, I’m looking at you – you annoyingly thin person who can eat whatever you want… heehee… :)), the fact of the matter is, metabolic differences are pretty minor. You’re not going to gain a hundred pounds because you have a “slow metabolism.” It is physically IMPOSSIBLE to maintain a weight that high WITHOUT consuming enough calories to maintain it. Oh, there ARE occasional medical exceptions – Cushing’s disease comes to mind – but those are very few and far between. The way most people talk, you’d think our country was overrun with medical maladies that directly result in fat gain. In reality, it’s all the FOOD that results in fat gain…

The other thing that annoys me is HOW people attempt to lose weight. Because everyone seems to be operating under this delusion that there’s more to it than simple “calories in versus calories burned,” we’ve been bombarded with a plethora of “diet strategies”: no carbs, no fat, don’t eat fruit, only drink cold water, corn syrup is evil, cut out all dairy, cut out all white foods altogether, don’t eat after 6pm, etc., etc., etc… People try to make it SO complicated, when in fact, it’s very easy – burn more calories than you eat. Period. They can be ANY calories from ANY food eaten at ANY time – but if the total calories you burn off during any given time is MORE than the total calories you’ve eaten during that time, you WILL lose weight.

And I know what I’m talking about – I lost about thirty pounds a couple years ago, and have (give or take 5 or 7 pounds) kept it off. And I did it by gradually making SMALL changes that really started to add up after a while – drinking water instead of soda, keeping ice cream and cookies out of the house altogether, paying attention to portion size, scouring the internet for healthy recipes – and supplementing it all with a lot more activity. My pedometer is one of the best purchases I’ve made in recent memory. I have NOT, however, cut anything completely out of my life… I’ve just changed the way I eat and/or drink. Take coffee for instance – no way am I ever giving up coffee… it’s one of the small joys in my life. But I DID change my caramel latte habit to a cappuccino habit – which shaves off about 200 calories a day. And the cookies and ice cream that I’ve banned from my house? I make sure to go OUT somewhere and have a seriously decadent dessert once a week – otherwise I’ll feel like I’m totally deprived of chocolate and end up making AND devouring an entire batch of cookies in one sitting. And carbs? I’m actually thinking about making lasagna for dinner tonight (with lots of veggies and less cheese)…

The final key, of course, is to make sure you’re eating properly for the REST of your life. That’s the major reason “diets” fail. Because if you feel like you’re “on a diet,” then at some point you think you can come OFF that diet. But once you start eating the way you used to eat, all the weight comes right back on. The smaller you are, the less food you need. Again, it’s a simple equation.

So now I’m off to eat my 60-calorie per serving soup (Progresso Light – it’s actually pretty good stuff… although not quite as good as Amy’s Organic, which is my favorite soup ever – and everything on the list of ingredients is totally pronounceable). And afterwards I shall attempt to add more steps to my pedometer. Because, as I have learned, my weight really is MY responsibility – it is NOT the responsibility of the government, or Dr. Atkins, or McDonald’s, or my “slow metabolism.”

Although seriously, Eric – so unfair… ;)

Multiple madness...

So I had a fairly uneventful weekend… I think… I mean, I can’t really remember anything interesting happening, so yeah – I’m gonna go with “uneventful.” Saturday was ridiculously rainy and unseasonably cool – which meant that I discovered I had (inadvertently) dressed inappropriately for the weather as soon as I stepped outside. I turned around and went back into the house for a long-sleeved t-shirt before Rick and I ventured out to the mall. And I suppose THAT was the highlight of my weekend – my trip to the mall, where I finally made use of some gift cards I received for Christmas. I bought lots of girly, perfumed lotions and sprays. (I just love Bath and Bodyworks… :))

Oh, in other “what happened over the weekend” news: I have finally climbed out of the fantasy baseball basement, and am now on the fantasy baseball, oh, let’s call it the second floor – I can see the sunlight through the windows, but I’m definitely not in the penthouse suite yet. (In other words, I’m in sixth place. I could’ve just said, “I’m in sixth place,” but I so enjoy my Fantasy Baseball Hotel analogy…) My offense had an extremely productive weekend – my guys were hitting home runs and stealing bases left and right. Let’s hope they can all keep this up for the rest of the season. Even my up-until-now abysmal pitching is starting to show signs of life, so I am cautiously optimistic about the next few months…

So does anyone else wonder when the TLC channel (and yes, I realize TLC stands for “the learning channel” so I basically just said “the the learning channel channel”) turned into the “families with a gazillion children” channel (which would be “TFWAGCC”)?? It seems like every other show on TLC has something to do with gigantic families. First there’s the Duggar family – a family of about thirty-nine children (okay, I think it’s actually “only” eighteen or nineteen…) who annoy me to no end. I don’t even know why, exactly – I’m sure the Duggars are perfectly nice people. And I give them credit for actually taking responsibility for their insanely huge family – somehow, they manage to afford all those kids and their need for food and shelter. But it always makes me bristle to hear someone say they’re leaving the size of their family “up to God.” As if we’re all a bunch of mindless marionettes who can’t make decisions and must simply sit around until the strings are pulled. That’s why God gave us a BRAIN – so we could at least ATTEMPT to use it once in a while. And besides – why on earth would you pop out baby after baby after baby when there are SO MANY children out there who need homes? If you want a gigantic family, fine – but at some point, can’t you put your own selfishness aside and make room for a family member who does NOT share in your gene pool??? Grrrrrr... (can you tell this a pet peeve of mine? :))

And now there’s a new show called “Table for Twelve,” or something like that. This is a family with a measly ten kids (the Duggars must laugh at the quaintness of it all…), who, apparently, sit around a great big table together. Okay, I haven’t actually SEEN the show, because, as may be obvious, I really don’t like shows about tons of kids. But the MOST annoying show of them all – and I’ve held this opinion since I first saw a five or ten minute clip a couple years ago – is Jon and Kate Plus 8. The first time I saw part of that show, I had to turn it off – I could not STAND to watch Kate and her sanctimonious attitude and her nitpicky nagging and her obvious, belittling dislike of her husband. Even those small clips I saw made me think, “why on earth are these two together?” I could never bring myself to watch an entire episode, for fear I would type off some kind of hate mail to TLC and demand they bring back the interesting shows they USED to air...

And what a shock – now all the tabloids are abuzz with gossip over Jon’s affair and Kate’s affair and the probable end of their marriage. And I have to admit, my first thought was, “Jon had an affair? Huh… I don’t blame him…” It reminded me of one of Rick’s and my favorite shows, The Soup – every Friday night, The Soup recaps the most ridiculous clips from talk shows and reality shows from the previous week. Every now and then, they’ll have a clip from Jon and Kate Plus 8 – usually one where Kate is trying her best to make Jon look like an idiot. They’ll then cut back to the host of The Soup, who advertises a fictional upcoming show on TLC – Jon Minus 9. And it looks like that might not be so far off now…

Can it possibly be worth it? If you have a gigantic family, is it honestly worth the exploitation to gain fame and fortune? I mean, I have a feeling Jon and Kate would’ve had problems even WITHOUT all the cameras… but then again, maybe the Duggars and any other huge TLC families should get out NOW while their families are still happy and intact.

And don’t even get me STARTED on Octomom…

Green with envy...

So I was told that my Saudi Arabia post had a “Jon Stewart” quality to it – which I’ve decided to take as a compliment, since Jon Stewart can be a funny guy when he wants to be. And just to clarify – I make no claims to know all the answers to all the problems in the world. And I would never want to berate people who are genuinely HAPPY with the lives they’ve chosen for themselves – although I think a certain freedom of choice should be offered. But there are a lot of complex issues out there… child marriages excluded, in my opinion. That’s not a complex issue at all. Quite simple, actually. Just protect those who are unable to protect themselves, that’s all I’m saying…

I saw a quote from Aldous Huxley the other day that seemed to resonate with me: “to travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” This is usually the attitude I try to embrace when I visit a new place – never assume that everything you’ve heard is correct. Wait until you experience it for yourself. And like I said in that previous post, I TRY to give Saudi Arabia the benefit of the doubt, since I never HAVE been there. But there are some things I don’t have to “experience” to know they’re wrong…

But that same quote can apply to places much closer to home, too. After we moved to Texas from Buffalo, New York when I was nine years old, we went back up north for a visit one year and someone asked my mom if we lived in a desert and saw a lot of tumbleweeds. I suppose she must’ve been surprised to learn that Austin is full of lakes and rivers and hills and greenery, with nary a desert in sight. And I think the only time I’ve ever seen a tumbleweed was out near Yuma, Arizona, as we drove past sand dunes on our way to San Diego…

Similarly, when I found out we were moving to New Jersey when I was 13, I had visions of living amongst concrete and oil refineries. So imagine my surprise when we drove a few miles away from Newark Airport (which, admittedly, IS surrounded by concrete and oil refineries) and we found ourselves in a hilly, vibrantly green locale. In fact, I don’t hesitate to say that New Jersey is (and probably will always be) the prettiest, greenest place I’ve ever lived. I miss the green of New Jersey – Austin, of course, has plenty of green as well… it’s just a “different” sort of green. The trees in New Jersey are vivid green – like the sort of green color you would’ve pulled out of a crayon box to draw trees when you were a kid. The trees in Texas are more of a “washed out” green. Like they USED to be bright green, and then someone washed them in a tumbling machine full of harsh detergent. They’re still green… they’re just not quite as green as the day you bought them…

So as I’ve grown older, I’ve learned that those preconceived notions about states and countries and people aren’t always accurate, so there’s really no point in discussing them. I prefer to form opinions AFTER I’ve visited a state or a country or become acquainted with people. Of course, there’s a difference between “notions” and “documented fact.” There’s also a difference between respect for a country’s cultural differences and actually UNDERSTANDING the reasoning behind those differences. And I suppose that’s where Saudi Arabia and I have a little bit of a problem. I may strive to respect (most) of its culture, but that’s not to say I understand it…

I DO, however, understand that the trees outside my window aren’t quite as green as the ones in New Jersey… sigh... :)

Happy Mom's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day, Leilani! Er, I mean, mom!! :) Yes, my mom's name is Leilani, but no, she's not Hawaiian. My grandfather played steel guitar, and he and my grandmother looooved Hawaiian music. Their favorite song was "Sweet Leilani." So when my mom was born -- even though she's not the least bit Hawaiian -- she was bestowed with that moniker. And ever since, she's been constantly correcting the spelling and pronunciation of people unfamiliar with the name. :) (Except, of course, when we go to Hawaii, where it's used for everything from bakeries to hotels to streets to Hawaiian residents... it's kind of like the name "Jennifer" here on the mainland...) I have to give my grandparents credit, though, for choosing a name that was not only unusual (for most of the country), but also NOT "trendy." Trendy names tend to start out as "unusual" -- until everyone else in the world catches on to the trend...

So happy Mom's Day to my mom -- whose name is never written correctly on Starbucks cups, but who is always so generous when I need a cup of coffee. :) Love you, mom!!!

Dear Saudi Arabia,

How are you? I am fine.

Okay, now that the pleasantries are out of the way – I think we need to have a little talk. I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve had some problems with your image lately. All these stories in the news about little girls married off to men old enough to be their grandfathers are REALLY not helping. And now it has come to my attention that you are “mulling over” a ban on marriages to children. Um, seriously, Saudi Arbaia? You’re MULLING IT OVER?? What, exactly, is there to mull? Call me crazy, but I don’t think forcing eight-year-old children to marry disgusting 50-year-old pedophiles is a practice that warrants a lot of “mulling over.” It’s WRONG. End of story.

Look, Saudi Arabia – I like you. I really do. You can be quite mysterious and beautiful when you want to be. You probably haven’t heard a lot of terms of endearment lately, and that’s a shame. But let’s be honest – isn’t it kind of your own fault? You can’t expect people to be showering you with accolades when you’re advocating this sort of child abuse… especially if you have to “mull over” the criminalization of said abuse. Get with it, Saudi Arabia – just because something has been mired in outdated “tradition” doesn’t mean it should be embraced.

And don’t get me wrong – I’m fine with many of your traditions. Your cultural practices aren’t for everyone, to be certain – but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re outright wrong. Hey, I can respect the call for modesty… I would have no problem covering head to toe and maneuvering incognito amongst the population – a population that would, no doubt, deem me invisible or at least inconsequential. But I hate being the center of attention anyway – so invisibility holds a certain appeal for me. I’ll even give you a free pass for the driving thing – I don’t much like to drive, either, so if I was required to be carted around by a man, I suppose I could get used to it…

I have a little less tolerance for your apparent assumption that women are perpetually children, however. I AM perfectly capable of leaving my house without a male relative to accompany me. I AM perfectly capable of traveling by myself. I AM an adult, believe it or not. What I can’t help but wonder is, if all these rules and regulations are in place to prevent inciting the insatiable desires of men (what kind of men do you HAVE over there, exactly??), why is it always the WOMEN who are punished for indiscretions? Why not require that all MEN are accompanied by a gaggle of FEMALE relatives every time THEY leave the house, so their sisters and aunts can keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t do anything stupid??? I’m just sayin’…

But even this practice (although slightly insulting to my intelligence) is one I would respect, if I happened to be within your borders and found myself in need of a trip to the grocery store or a Starbucks (because yes, Saudi Arabia – even YOU have Starbucks…). But this child marriage thing – c’mon, SA, use your brain… er, or whatever passes for a “brain” when you’re talking about a country. I want to love you Saudi Arabia, but sometimes you make it so difficult. It pains me that we’ll probably never meet face-to-face, and yet I wish you could be more welcoming and protective of your current residents – especially the children.

Think about it, Saudi Arabia…

Love and very chaste little air kisses, Lisa

Discombobulation...

What a great word... and I don't get a chance to use it very often. But what better title for a post full of random thoughts??

Random thought #1: I am still in the fantasy baseball basement, although within the next couple weeks I have a few (hopefully) very good players coming off the DL. I have dreams of a meteoric rise from the basement to the penthouse suite. But I'd be happy to just have a nice, clean room with a king sized bed, flat-screen TV, and a view of the city...

Random thought #2: It has been raining in Austin for what seems like a very long time. Although in reality, it's probably only been a few days. Every time we get rain like this, people say, "oh, we need the rain so bad!" because Austin is apparently constantly in the throes of a drought emergency and we're thisclose to running out of water completely, resulting in the ongoing threat that Austin will one day evolve into a desolate, dusty ghost town where nothing green will ever,ever grow again. (Seriously, I'm so tired of hearing about the "drought" when I feel like if I step outside I may just fall knee-deep into a puddle...)

Random thought #3: Rick and I drove past a street today called "Toro Grande." We then had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: What does "toro" mean? Is it "bull"?

Rick: Yep.

Me: So "Toro Grande" means "large bull"?

Rick: Yep, something like that.

(A few moments of silence...)

Me: So do you suppose that somewhere in Mexico, there's a street called "Large Bull"?

Rick: Yeah... and there's probably a couple people driving past it right now having this same conversation in Spanish.

Whoa. That'd be weird...

Random thought #4: Does anyone think the swine flu panic is a little TOO panicky at the moment? I mean, yes, the number of people infected continues to climb... but a couple thousand cases in a world of almost 7 BILLION people doesn't really seem to be worth the panic just yet. I just saw a picture of someone wearing a surgical mask in Times Square... c'mon -- New York City ALONE has about 8 million people. So even if EVERY case of swine flu reported so far was in NYC, the percentage of people infected JUST in the city would be around a quarter of a tenth of one percent. And I'm not even gonna TRY to do the math for 7 billion people...

But just so everyone knows, the original culprit HAS been found, and we now know the origin of this insidious flu (I have to apologize for the language, but I seriously laughed so hard when I saw this):

Happy birthday, Rick!!

It's Rick's birthday! Wooohoooo! I'd be afraid to post this picture, except for the fact that I HAVE already... and as a consequence it has, many a time, been cut and pasted by some of our photoshop-crazy friends. (I should mention that all content on my blog is copyrighted, and may not be used or disseminated without express WRITTEN consent from the MLB -- that would be the Master of Lisa's Blog, a.k.a. me... :))


Yeah, that's right. We're crazy. As if you didn't already know...

It's so quiet...

So today begins the post-visitor slump – people from the north have been flocking to Texas this last month, presumably in an effort to escape some of the cold weather. Some were successful (sunny, 75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky…) and others not so successful (cloudy, rainy, thunderstorms…) – although I suspect it was still warmer here in the south than it was up north. But spring weather in Austin is frustratingly unpredictable – there have been many times when I’ve gotten up in the morning and thrown on a sweater, only to walk outside and realize a t-shirt would’ve been much more appropriate. And vice versa. And sometimes it changes in the middle of the day… I can’t always be walking around with a change of clothing, you know?

Now that everyone is gone, it’s time to get back into a decent routine. I’ve eaten out so much the last few weeks that it’s been a major effort to NOT gain any weight… and losing weight has been, well, a losing battle. But this afternoon we will be making a trip to Whole Foods to stock up on fruits and veggies and whatever else I need to create some healthy (yet yummy – because let’s face it, if it doesn’t TASTE good, you’re not gonna eat it…) dinners. I actually really LIKE cooking and trying new recipes from Fitness or Shape (the two magazines I subscribe to), and trying new things tends to make the whole “eating healthy” thing more fun. I think that’s the main reason that “diets” never work – because why should you have to limit yourself to no-carb-no-fat-carrot-sticks-tofu-skinny-latte-no-chocolate for the rest of your life? If you don’t allow yourself a lot of variety, you’re not going to want to stick to it. I am a big proponent of the “everything in moderation” school of thought. I eat whatever I want, but I don’t always eat it ALL at one time… Unfortunately, it’s harder to control portions and ingredients at a restaurant. And when faced with a dessert menu, chances are I’m going to order something off of it.

But I don’t have a dessert menu in my house… so that’s a good start, at least… :)

Slacking off...

Our friends Eric and Debbie (and our little friends Patrick and Matt! :)) are here from New Jersey this week, continuing the “people from the north traveling down to Texas to get away from the cold” trend we’ve seen the last month or so. It’s funny, because to ME, it feels a little too cool right now to want to swim in mom and dad’s pool, but all the “northern” kids who’ve been here have jumped right in and spent hours and hours playing in the water. And of course when I was a kid in Buffalo, I LIVED in the pool during the summer – even though Buffalo is decidedly cooler than Austin. Even in August. I guess it just depends on what you get used to…

So my friend Eric has informed me that I’ve been quite the blog slacker lately. And he’s right – I haven’t been updating as much as I should. It’s partly because things have been busy around here, and it’s partly because of what’s been going on in our lives – the loss of the Chicago job was really difficult. Well, the loss of ANY job is difficult, but the Chicago move was something I’d been hoping for for YEARS. And when it was finally a reality, I STILL made sure I was careful about not getting too excited… because for some reason, it never quite felt like an absolute certainty. So while it would be easy for me to go on and on about how sad I am that our move to Chicago is off the table, I’m not going to bore everyone with those details…

And the other reason I’ve been slacking with the blog lately is simply this: writing can be really difficult sometimes. I mean, there are definitely days when an idea pops into my mind, and the words arrange themselves almost effortlessly – so all I have to do is sit down and start typing. But there are also days when the ideas are jumbled or nonexistent, when words have to be pulled out of hiding like Saddam Hussein from his dirty little cave in the ground. And then, of course, they have to be cleaned up, have a good hot shower, maybe a shave, don some fresh clothes – otherwise they look dazed and insane and nonsensical. And who would want to read something like that??

It also doesn’t help that my computer has been acting nutty lately – connecting and disconnecting to the internet at will, so I never know how long I’ll have to hop on and post something. Right now, for instance, it is completely disconnected, so I’m typing this in Word and will cut and paste later on. Sigh… stupid computer (what did people way-back-when DO without computers? :)).

So I’m off to figure out this computer problem (well, okay, I’ll probably ask RICK to figure out this computer problem), so I can finally post something new…

Another day, another post with random thoughts...

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Everybody got that? It’s a secret message from Piva. (This is what she does when I have a Word document open and I step away from the computer for a few minutes… she also put my laptop into “sleep” mode, so I had to hit the power button and wait for it to warm up again…) It’s funny that Piva walks right onto my computer keyboard whenever she feels like it, but Allegro has always made the effort to leap OVER it, so as not to disturb the keys… (or so as not to disturb her paws…)

Anyway… baseball season has started! And with it, fantasy baseball… I have to say, these first few days have NOT been good to my team. I’m feeling a bit like the 0 and 2 Yankees right now. My top two draft picks – Webb and Sizemore – have been extremely disappointing so far, leaving me stranded down in the fantasy baseball basement once more. This is exactly where I started last year – actually, last year, I started with a NEGATIVE point count, which required several days of games to return to zero. By the time I'd made it back to where I’d started, everyone else was well into the several-hundred point range. So I am looking on THAT bright side, at least – I have a positive number of points. It’s just a lot less than everyone ELSE’S positive number of points. But I am vowing to be patient, seeing as we’re not even a full week into the very long baseball season, and I have several players on the DL right now. Sometime around May, I should have a few really decent people back on my roster – and then everyone else had better watch out. Because I’m going to sneak my way out of the basement when no one is looking…

So last night I had the news on for a few minutes, before I’d found something else to watch (I really don’t like watching the news – because it seems like most of the news is bad…). And I thought I heard one of the reporters say something strange as she was talking about the parishioners in a Catholic church. So I rewound my Tivo (isn’t Tivo great?) and played it back – sure enough, the reporter said that many of the church-goers were “clutching rosemary beads.” Rosemary beads??? Rosemary? Like the herb that tastes so good with chicken? Are rosemary beads similar to basil beads? Or are they more like oregano beads? Personally, I prefer lavender beads, because they smell so nice… I mean, c’mon – shouldn’t a reporter know that she’s talking about ROSARY beads?? I’m not even Catholic and I know they’re rosary beads…

Speaking of religion – today is Passover, and this weekend is Easter. I always find it interesting that Easter is really the holiest of Christian holidays – the foundation of the whole religion – and yet Christmas gets so much more air time. Although I suppose it’s more the secular world that has decided Christmas should be such a big deal (I have to admit, though, that I really love all the Christmas-season pomp and circumstance… :)). Maybe the simplicity of Easter makes it more meaningful. Once you’re past childhood, and no longer receiving baskets of candy from a scary giant bunny (seriously – does no one else find it extremely terrifying to think of how BIG the Easter Bunny would have to be to jump from house to house with those baskets?? It would be like some kind of nuclear accident freak bunny…) – once you’re no longer waking up to baskets of candy and egg hunts, you’re simply left with the story of Easter. And it’s much easier to reflect on the meaning when you haven’t overindulged in chocolate and jelly beans…

And I definitely need to get away from overindulging. We’ve had so many guests in town the last few weeks, so there have been many dinners out and many desserts at mom and dad’s house, and many trips to Freddy’s Frozen Custard (which recently opened a few miles down the road so it’s a bit of a novelty right now…). But I’ve also been doing REALLY well with my workouts – I had sort of plateaued with the effort I was putting forth, walking an easy two or two and half miles most days. Which is great for general fitness, but not great for seeing changes in how your jeans fit. So I started adding on to my mileage, and I’m up to walking/jogging about four and half miles at a time. Working my way toward five… (But I still need to lay off the frozen custard… :))

Okay, I’m off to watch the final inning of the Yankee game. They’re finally winning a game, so I need to concentrate on Yankee voodoo to make sure the Orioles don’t stage a comeback… :)

I drink it because it's good for me...

So I read this great article on Yahoo the other day. It was about how coffee can actually lessen the pain of a strenuous workout. Now, I’ve known for a couple years that drinking coffee before a workout can provide just a little extra boost to keep going – and now it even helps with the pain that comes from pushing yourself that extra mile (the extra mile you could only tackle with the help of coffee). It’s also been shown to reduce the risks of Parkinson’s, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, and certain types of cancer.

In short, it is a miracle beverage.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit too dramatic. But there’s no doubt that coffee is one of those simple things in life that provide small moments of joy. It’s so silly – it’s just a beverage… and yet we’ve pretty much developed an entire culture around it. When I was growing up, my dad was the big coffee drinker – I always liked the smell of freshly brewed coffee, but any time I tried to take a sip of the stuff, I was repelled by the bitterness. It wasn’t until I met my friend Cindy – also a big coffee drinker – that I gave the stuff more of a chance. We would meet at a little place called Carlo for Coffee, where they served something that was half hot chocolate, half cappuccino. So the actual coffee content was quite negligible. And once I was used to that, I moved on to café mochas – still a bit of a chocolate taste, but a lot more coffee, too. And then once I was used to the mochas, it was pretty easy to order the occasional latte – nothing but coffee and milk.

By this time, I had a job that required me to be awake and on the road by 6:30 in the morning. I decided it was time to ransack my kitchen cupboards and find the coffeemaker that someone had given us as a wedding gift. When I opened it, I remember thinking, “a coffeemaker? What am I gonna do with THIS??” – but once I started waking up at 5:30 every morning, I decided it couldn’t hurt to give the thing a test run. I bought a little thermos at Starbucks and began to brew coffee every morning – when I would sit at my desk at 7 am (sometimes before anyone else had even arrived), my little thermos of coffee was the highlight of my morning. Every so often, I would run out of milk or creamer… and since I hated the thought of sitting at my desk with bleary eyes and a foggy mind, I would bring a thermos of BLACK coffee with me. I was quite surprised by how much I could drink without being overcome with the bitter flavor… I’d come a long way from half hot chocolate/half cappuccino.

So I’m convinced that all it really takes to eventually succumb to the call of the coffee siren is a love of the coffee aroma. Some people – like my strictly tea- and hot chocolate-drinking friend Faisal – don’t even like the SMELL of coffee. I pretty much consider them lost to the coffee cause… if you don’t even like the way coffee smells, there’s no way you’ll ever get used to the way it TASTES. But if you, like me, enjoy walking into a Barnes and Noble and breathing in the heavenly book/coffee scent – earthy paper and dust from the rows of bookshelves mixing with richly-scented ground coffee from the in-store Starbucks – then you might be capable of growing to love a good cup of coffee. As well you should – after all, it’s practically a health drink!

And if you REALLY want to love coffee, get up at 5:30 every morning…


Mmmm... cappuccino in Italy... good stuff...