Quick post...

Obviously I need to get writing if I'm hoping to hit my "8 posts in one month" goal... I'm such a blog slacker...

So it was about 68 degrees this morning when I left for work, which is ALMOST cool enough to convince me that tomorrow is the first day of autumn. It's funny -- when I was a kid, I definitely would've said summer was my favorite season. (I suppose EVERY kid's favorite season is summer, though. How can you not love having three whole months to sleep in, hang out with friends and forget about responsibilities??) But now, I think I actually like fall/winter more (down here they kind of meld together into one season... finter... or wall...). The oppressively hot days are finally over, television starts to get interesting again after months of reruns (although I have to admit -- I hate the end of baseball season... :)), and, perhaps most importantly, Starbucks begins rolling out its seasonal drinks -- first pumpkin lattes and cinnamon-laced ciders, and then, after an entire spring, summer and fall of waiting, the WINTER drinks. (Oh, peppermint mocha, how I love thee!!) Served, of course, in festive holiday-themed paper cups... even cappuccino tastes better when it's in a festive holiday-themed paper cup...

The danger with all these cooler-weather-inspired seasonal ingredients is that they put all sorts of baking and food ideas in my head. I'd stay in my kitchen baking frosted sugar cookies all winter if I could... but then I would emerge from my kitchen some time in the spring, looking very much like a polar bear waking from hibernation: covered in white powdered sugar and weighing 300 pounds.

No, as always, I shall do my best to attempt indulgence in moderation. I mean, it certainly wouldn't be any fun to let finter/wall pass without so much as a sip of a gingerbread latte, or a few cookies here or there. But hopefully I can balance that out with some healthy food choices and sticking with my workouts...

SOME of us, however, don't worry about what we eat... we just jump right in:

By the way, the freezer is on the bottom -- so he JUMPED up into the fridge. He's been thinking about it for weeks now, stretching as faaaaaaaar as he can, and meowing pitifully every time I open the door. And he finally went for it... I guess he doesn't care about the cold air...

And of course once you're finished eating, you want to wash it all down with some bottled water:

Ah, cats are fun... :)

More randomness...

Argh!! I logged into Blogger to begin writing my 5th post of the month (since we are now more than halfway through September and I am only halfway to my goal of 8 posts...) and I discovered that I have a total of exactly 666 posts on my blog. Evil blog... eeeeeeeviiiiil blog... I must perform a blog exorcism -- which involves writing another post so the total will be 667. It's an intricate process, but I think I can handle it...

Actually, I'm at a loss for words tonight (or maybe I'm just tired), so perhaps a few random photos? Sure, why not! :)

By the way, I have no idea who this baby is -- just a random baby on a Hawaiian beach. But it's one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken (and this baby is probably seven or eight years old by now... :)).

Five posts down, three to go!

Random randomness...

Why, oh why, does the weekend always escape my vice-like grip without so much as a struggle? It doesn't even have to try... one moment I have it, held securely between arms that have been toned and strengthened by months of P90X... and the next, it slips away like water -- as if all the power in the world means nothing to that weekend. Insolent weekend -- one day I shall capture you.

I have nothing of substance today, and you know what THAT means: random thoughts!!! :)

1) The rain has stopped and the floods are receding, and we escaped with nothing more than a small leak through one of the vents in our roof. I was slightly panicked when I saw water dripping onto the upstairs hallway floor, but after Rick intrepidly explored the attic to find the source of the leak, it was discovered that the water was NOT coming in through the roof (which was our fear), but rather through a vent, where it dripped down a metal pipe and ended up collecting by the air filter vent in our ceiling. It was probably just so much rain and wind that the vent didn't stand a chance...

2) Also, speaking of the rain... there's a park across the street with a bunch of baseball fields where little league teams play, and the entire park is underwater. It's become something of a tourist attraction, with people turning into the park entrance just to gawk at the brand-new lake. What's more upsetting than the water, though, is the trash that keeps emerging as the water recedes. Cans, bottles, boxes, random paper -- I HOPE that all of that was in garbage cans in the park and it all spilled out when it flooded... however, I know how people are, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was all tossed out by motorists in passing cars... For some reason, some people find it extremely difficult to wait five or ten minutes to get to a destination where they can throw their trash away. (And this seems to be especially true for cigarette butts...)

3) A co-worker was talking about her bad eyesight today, and it made me wonder -- how did I end up with such bad eyesight? My mom is a bit nearsighted (her eyesight has never been anywhere near as bad as mine), and my dad is farsighted. Eric has perfect eyesight, and Bob (who is eight years older than I am) has only RECENTLY needed glasses. I've needed glasses since I was 11. How did this happen?? Thank goodness for contact lenses... (and yes, Rick, I know your eyes are great since you got Lasik... I'm just not quite ready to stick my eyeball under a laser yet... :))

4) Riff was "fixed" on Friday (although how could such adorable cuteness ever be "broken"?? :)). I've read that once male cats are neutered, they calm down a little bit and act less aggressive. No more kitty testosterone to feed the craziness. Riff, however, seems to be acting the same as always -- still jumping onto Piva's back when she least suspects it, still pawing at the blinds in the bedroom when we're trying to sleep, still (sometimes literally) bouncing off the walls with energy. Sigh... maybe he'll calm down once he's older... which I hope happens soon -- we need a good night's sleep. :)

5) I made "African sweet potato soup" for dinner -- a recipe out of Shape magazine (or was it Fitness??). It was nice and simple -- garlic and onion, cubed potato and sweet potato, some chicken broth, some canned diced tomatoes, cinnamon, cumin, curry, salt, and... the secret ingredient (okay, it wasn't literally "secret" since it was listed in the recipe -- but it's one of those things you wouldn't think of adding), a dollop of chunky peanut butter. It was soooooo good. I love recipes that call for throwing everything into a single pot and just simmering until done. Another recipe to add to my repertoire...

I guess that's about it for now -- it's almost 8 o'clock... my brain is about to shut down for the night. :) Hope everyone is having a good week!

Building an ark...

So we've had a deluge of rain over the last couple days, thanks to tropical storm Hermine (Hermine?? What kind of a name is that? I actually thought it was "Hermione" at first, and was chuckling at the thought of a Harry Potter-reading meteorology nerd gleefully naming all the storms -- did I miss tropical storm Dumbledore?? -- but then I realized there was no "o" in the name. Hermine. Her. Mine. Ooookay, whatever...)

Anyway, my morning commute has taken me twice as long as usual, and I've felt quite unsafe on the roads more than once. I couldn't even SEE the road half of the time I was on it yesterday -- it was raining so hard that all I could make out were other cars' taillights. The only way I was able to drive was by following them... and I could only hope that none of THEM drove off the road, because I probably would've just lemming'd my car right along with them. (Ha! Like my made-up word? Lemming'd... I tried out "lemminged" first, but the "e" was bothering me... plus, "lemming'd" looks more street wise and tough -- "yo, dude, you just got lemming'd!" I should probably mention that I'm tired... :))

The crazy amount of rain has caused all kinds of flooding (I even heard that a school district north of here actually had a "rain day" today, as opposed to the snow days we used to have in New Jersey...). This is Brushy Creek right outside our neighborhood, which usually really IS just a creek:

If you've never seen it before, it's hard to understand just how high this water is. So, with the magic of Photoshop, I shall attempt to manipulate this photo so that it looks exactly as it might look on a clear, sunny day:

Okay, I may not actually have Photoshop... but that's pretty accurate. Really.

Hopefully the rest of the week will be sunnier -- my ark-building skills are about as good as my drawing skills... ;)

Raise a pint (of ice cream)...

I was looking at my perpetual calendar today (a gift from Rick's mom to help us remember birthdays and anniversaries... and yet somehow we STILL manage to forget far too often... :)) and I realized that today would've been Aimee's 41st birthday. There've been many times over the last eight years when I've wished for a big sister's advice or listening ear (although I have to admit, little brothers are pretty freaking awesome, too... and I don't throw the word "freaking" around in a casual manner, so you know I'm serious... :)). It does make me sad to think of how things COULD have been, if only we'd had more time with her...

In case you've just joined me here in Blogland, the super-short truncated version of Aimee's story is this: she was my half-sister, who, as a result of some horrible, unfortunate circumstances, was not in our lives until she was 29 years old. We all knew she was out there, we just didn't know WHERE. And happily, SHE managed to find US. We had three years to get to know her, and she immediately became a part of the family (the picture above is Aimee and her husband Allan, when we were on a family cruise in Alaska).

But UNhappily, Aimee suffered from a seizure disorder, the cause of which was never found. She had a seizure one night and fell down a flight of stairs, and no one was able to revive her. The rest of us were on another cruise in the Mediterranean -- I still remember when Eric knocked on my cabin door, and when I opened it he said, "Aimee died." And my first thought was, "Aimee who? The only Aimee I know is..." and then it hit me that he WAS talking about our sister.

We went from Mediterranean cruise to burial service in New Orleans -- it was a very surreal week. But I've always maintained the belief that it was better to have had three years to get to know Aimee than to have never met her. What if she had never managed to find us? We never would've known that she was an artist and she loved to read and liked watching soccer and spent time living in Austria and looked EXACTLY like my grandmother's 19-year-old self. And she never would've sent me the little curled-up wooden cat that sits in front of my fireplace, a constant reminder of the thoughtful sender. If she was here, I would pull out a pint of Moose Tracks ice cream (her favorite) and offer a frozen toast to her 41st year...

Actually, I should've done that anyway. I'm sure Aimee would've approved. :)

8 in the 9th...

I was looking at my post counts for each month this year, and I noticed that I haven't posted more than seven times in one month. And since I really miss blogging more often, I've decided to make it a goal to post at least EIGHT times in September. (And then perhaps NINE times in October?? No, no... I shouldn't get ahead of myself... :))

I must point out one very important fact: THREE DAY WEEKEND!!!! Wait, I'm going to try something...


THREE DAY WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There we go. Much more festive.

My plans for this weekend include sleeping, watching UT football, sleeping, watching Yankee baseball, sleeping, and maybe watching a movie or two. (Wow... I sound really lazy all of a sudden... I'd better throw in a couple workouts...) You will notice that "sleeping" is high on my priority list -- I don't think I've had one good night's sleep this week, so I'm really hoping to remedy that...

And speaking of sleep, I'm already tired, so a short post will have to do tonight. But I'll leave you with this:

"Heeeeeey... how you doin'?" (is what I imagine he's thinking in this picture...) He can be so cute when he's not attacking my head in the middle of the night... :)

Sometimes...

You've just gotta make cookies...

I haven't made cookies in a looooooong time. I think that's mostly because I tend to eat way too many of them at one time...

This was a new recipe I just found -- it calls for browning the butter before mixing the ingredients together. You melt the butter in a skillet first, and then swirl it around in the pan (so it doesn't burn) until it turns golden and smells like caramel. The process was a bit more complicated than my usual "throw all the ingredients into a bowl" recipe, and it remains to be seen (or tasted) whether the extra effort was worth it. I mean, my own cookie recipe (which I've perfected after years of trial and error and taste-testings) is pretty darn good, so these will have to be something rather special in order for me to make them more often than my usual recipe.

At the moment, however, the last thing I want is a cookie -- we just got back from dinner at Jasper's, where they had a new molten chocolate cake on the dessert menu. It had to be sampled, of course. I believe it's a law that any new chocolate item on a restaurant menu must be consumed immediately. Hey, I don't make the rules...

Cookies will have to wait until tomorrow...

Yeah, sometimes I take pictures of myself in the bathroom mirror, too... don't we all? (Oh, no? Just me? Ah, well... I had to do SOMEthing while I was waiting for the cookies to bake... :))

Scary science...

So today was the first day of school here in Austin. I'm trying to think of a good "back to school" memory I can write about, but they seem to all be along the lines of, "it's the first day of school? Already?? Noooooooo... NOOOOOOOOOO!!" (Which, incidentally, is almost exactly what I'm thinking every Monday morning: "It's Monday morning? Already?? Nooooooooo... NOOOOOOOOO!!") Schools in the south start and end earlier than schools in the north... I'm not sure why that is, exactly. I could theorize it's because it gets so much warmer so much earlier down here, but it also STAYS warm longer... but maybe going back to school -- even in "swimming weather" -- after a nice long break isn't as difficult as trying to concentrate after being IN school for nine months, and knowing that awesome swimming weather is lurking just beyond the brick walls.

But the weather can't be the only issue -- after all, I went to high school every year until June, in a school with NO air conditioning and precious few windows. That school was such a fire hazard. Who builds a school with no windows??? Oh, there were a few panes of glass here and there -- in the cafeteria, in the library, probably in the principal's office (I wouldn't know because I was never sent there... yes, I was one of THOSE kids -- the kind who actually do everything by the rules and get as many A's as possible to ruin the curve... mwahahahaha... actually, I rather enjoyed ruining curves... Hey, it's not MY fault if no one else bothered to read the biology textbook or memorized their German vocabulary...). And there were windows in the science classrooms, but I think that was a legal issue -- you can't hole kids up in a windowless room and set 'em loose with dangerous chemicals and their toxic fumes.

And hey, that DOES remind me of a "first day of school" memory -- my first day in high school chemistry class. The teacher was talking about our once-a-week lab requirements, and giving us stern, dire warnings about playing with chemicals. She pointed to the shower (which was situated right next to the door to the classroom) and announced that if any of us ever spilled anything on ourselves, she'd shove us right into that shower, rip our clothes off, and scrub us down. Nervous giggles ensued, and our teacher assured us that she was quite serious. (The word "pervert" may have been thrown out at that point...) Honestly, as if high school isn't awkward enough without the threat of public nakedness...

She also demanded that anyone who wore contact lenses should wear their glasses on lab days, because if any of us ever got chemicals in our eyes, she would have to rip those contacts right out of our eyes. (This was when I decided to never, ever mention to the teacher that I wore contacts... I mean, the threat of being naked was bad enough... but naked AND blind?? No thank you...) Needless to say, chemistry lab was basically a terrifying experience every week... NO ONE handled those chemicals as carefully as I did... and yet I STILL left every lab feeling as if I MUST have spilled something somewhere. I'd spend my entire history class (my class after chemistry) waiting for signs of an accidental flesh-eating chemical spill... or I'd wonder if I was feeling slightly nauseous because I inhaled dangerous fumes, or simply because I was worrying about inhaling dangerous fumes? I seem to have survived completely intact, so apparently all those fears were unfounded... I think there's a fine line between convincing your students they need to be cautious, and just downright freaking them out. My chemistry teacher jumped right over that line on day one...

But back to the school with no windows -- even though we were up in the north, it was MUCH too hot toward the end of May and early June in that stifling building with no air circulation... so allowing us to be on a "southern" schedule would've been nice. (And installing an A/C over the summer would've been a really nice touch, too... I wonder if that school has A/C yet??) My point is, I have no idea why schools in the south start and end earlier than schools in the north.

But thank goodness I don't have to go BACK to one... :)

Randomy randomness...

Okay, I have to put up SOMEthing else on this page, because I'm sure no one appreciates coming to my blog and immediately seeing a giant spider. I don't even appreciate that, and I'm the one who put it there... :)

So how about some random thoughts?? Yay!

Riff is driving us insane. That cat is crazy. I'm assuming it's because he's still in "kitten" stage, but lately he has taken to running around our bedroom and bathroom at night when we're trying to sleep, knocking over toothpaste tubes and shampoo bottles and bars of soap and whatever else he can get his paws on in the bathroom. And then, once he settles down, he curls up on my pillow and sleeps for a while (which means less and less room for me as he gets bigger and bigger -- he used to occupy one tiny corner... now he takes up half the pillow...). But then, usually sometime between 4:30 and 5:00, he wakes up and decides it's time to play again -- but, being slightly groggy I suppose, he decides to go after whatever is closest to him. And that would happen to be my head. He pounces on top of my head, grabs my hair, and pulls it with his teeth. If I'm lucky, he doesn't dig his claws into my scalp when I reach up to grab him and toss him to the end of the bed. (This, of course, serves only to assure him that I DO, in fact, want to play, and he runs right back up to my head and pounces again...)

I'm getting a little tired of the bizarre Chinese comments that keep popping up under my posts. I suppose they're some kind of automatically generated spam, which has somehow found a way to get past the word verification feature for comments. (Rick has actually managed to translate them a couple times using an online language translation site, and they always say things like, "beauty lies in sunshine happiness of mountain shadow for wise man.")

Only one more day until the weekend!! Wait, let me say that the way it sounds in my head: ONLY ONE MORE DAY UNTIL THE WEEKEND!!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEKEEEEEEEEEND!!!!!

My legs and back are a little sore from yesterday's P90X workout. I'm doing pretty well with it, although I have, on occasion, skipped a workout here or there (it's really hard to maintain hour-long workouts six days a week... I can usually manage at least five, but sometimes I just need a rest day, you know?). I also refuse to do the yoga DVD, because I've decided that I really hate yoga. I know some people LOVE it, but I just can't get into it. I don't feel like I'm DOING much when I'm attempting to maintain some awkward pose... I just feel like a silly person trying to maintain an awkward pose. For me, a workout has to FEEL like a workout -- how am I supposed to pound out all my stress and aggression in "tree pose," while calmly breathing in and out through my nose?? So on yoga days, I just do a few miles on the treadmill instead... And I'm excited, because yesterday, I got as close as I've ever gotten in my life to doing an actual pull-up. I'm still not quite there yet, but I'm no longer assuming it's an impossible task. It just MIGHT be possible, after all...

Have I mentioned the cool new movie theater that opened up a few miles from here? It costs $22 for a movie... yes, it's a lot of money for a movie. BUT, every theater is assigned seating, there isn't a bad seat in the entire place, AND the seats themselves are huge, cushy, and recline like first class airline seats. They even have blankets in case you get cold. They also serve REAL food and drinks -- you can get everything from pizza and blue cheese potato chips to farfalle pasta and steak... plus desserts, coffee, martinis, you name it. (Ironically, I'm not sure they actually serve popcorn...) If you need anything during the movie, you just push a button and someone comes to take your order. It's like my new favorite movie theater. I'm not sure I can ever go back to a regular, wait-in-long-lines, end-up-craning-your-neck-in-the-front-row, walk-on-sticky-floors, popcorn-and-milk-duds theater. (Although I do like popcorn and milk duds... :))

Well, that's about all I can manage to find wandering around in my brain right now... hope everyone is having a good week -- everyone say it with me now: WEEEEEEEEKEEEEEEND!!!! 

Ew, aw and yum...

The ew:

This guy was hanging out next to the back porch... he was huge... bigger than this picture can convey... like as big as my hand. Or a small SUV... Feel free to shudder and bang your computer screen with a shoe. (What's weird is that I can only make out six legs... where are his other two legs?? Actually, I'm not THAT curious... if he promises to go away and never come back, I won't ask questions about missing appendages...)

And after seeing that, I had to come back inside and surround myself with cute cats... I mean, really, that's the best way to recover from such an assault on the eyeballs. Balance out the "eeeeewwww" with the "aawww":

Ha! I made my own lolcat picture... I am easily amused... :) This is actually what Riff does when you shine a laser pointer onto the wall -- he tries to climb the wall. I'm pretty impressed with how high he can get, considering it's not possible to literally climb a wall (well, save for our arachnid-type visitors, who obviously think they're really super special and want to show off their abilities on the back porch...)

And finally, the yum:

Summer squash and corn chowder, courtesy of Cooking Light magazine. (I didn't have any green onion like in the picture in the magazine, so I just used some white onion -- it tasted great, but was slightly less photogenic...). This stuff was so good!! What's funny is that a few years ago, neither Rick nor I would've been interested in anything with the word "squash" in it... but over the last few years, I've tried to add a bit more variety to my fruits/veggies repertoire, and surprise surprise -- squash is actually extremely versatile. And since it has such a mild flavor, you can add it to just about everything and it tastes good. I will definitely be making this recipe again...

I'll also definitely be making rum-spiked grilled pineapple with vanilla ice cream again, which is another Cooking Light recipe that I tried for dessert last night. YUUUUUUUM!! It was so good, I think even my alcohol-hating mom would love it (I couldn't taste the rum at all... :)).

And now I'm off to savor the last hours of the weekend...

A little tour...

Two days down, three to go (until the weekend!!). Yep, as usual, I am quite looking forward to a weekend of sleeping in and trying to play catch-up with some of my magazines (I must have eight Fitness and Shape magazines on my coffee table... I really have to work my way through those...).

But in the meantime, I thought I'd give you all a little tour of where I spend my time when I'm NOT sleeping or trying to fit in some reading time. I can't take credit for this idea, by the way -- that goes to my friend George over at Cedar's Mountain, who has, in the past, posted pictorial tours of his neighborhood and workplace. I always thought that was a cool idea, but I kept forgetting to bring a camera to work with me. Well, I finally remembered, so now you can awe at the splendor that is my office... enjoy!

Actually, let's start on highway 360, which I think is one of the prettiest highways in Austin -- this is where our "hill country" designation really starts to become apparent. Much of Austin is rather flat, but certain parts of the city, like 360, have these great rolling hills -- this makes 360 a very popular road for hard core cyclists (think Lance Armstrong). Seriously, the people who bike on 360 are insane... Fortunately, I just have to work in an office building on 360 and I get to leave my bike at home.

UNfortunately, however, I really didn't get any good shots of the highway, as I never seemed to encounter a red light (sure, the ONE day I bring a camera, every light is green -- that never happens), so I hastily snapped a picture while I was driving:

I also hastily snapped a picture of the 360 bridge as I was crossing:

Um, I think I'll call this one "Rear View Mirror and Toll Tag with Slight Suggestion of Bridge." (I wish I could've gotten a better picture of the bridge -- it's a cool bridge...)

And right after the bridge, I end up here:

And here is my first view when I arrive -- the parking garage. (Yes, I get to work early, hence the lack of cars -- but that means I pretty much get my pick of spaces...)

The long climb up the slightly blurry stairs (okay, the climb isn't THAT long... just four floors from the garage... and the stairs aren't blurry in person...)

And here it is -- my own little space for a third of the day. This is my new office -- in the old one, the desk was facing the door, but in this office, the cords on the computer wouldn't quite reach far enough for me to position my desk that way. And I HATE sitting with my back to the door, so I decided to improvise, and voila -- desk on the diagonal. I kinda like it, actually. When I'm sitting at the desk, I sort of feel cocooned into the corner between the desk and the shelves behind me...

Remember when I was talking about all the binders I had to move? Well, here are a few...

And a few more...

And some empty binders... (Why do I have so many binders in my office???)

The most important part of my day...

What I wish I was doing at 7 in the morning...

The two books I refer to most frequently (for some reason I decided to go all film noir with this one and take it in black and white)...

And, I have to show you the amazing view outside my door, because it is just so awe-inspiring:

Wow. There are no words.


So that's about it -- I hope everyone is having a good week! :)

Random thoughts!

As is often the case nowadays, I feel compelled to post something to my blog, yet my remaining, functioning brain cells are ill equipped for anything other than random thoughts. To that end -- random thoughts!!!

We were planning to stay home tonight and eat good things like veggies and fruit, and then my parents conspired against us and invited us to Freddy's... I did, however, have a veggie BURGER -- does that count? (Don't worry about the frozen custard... we'll just pretend like that never happened...)

Our five-month old kitten, Riff, figured out earlier tonight how to jump from the end table next to the couch onto the kitchen counter. Up until now I've been able to keep him off the counter, mainly because he's been too small to jump that far... but now I'll have to deal with brushing him away every ten seconds when I'm trying to make dinner. I'm not a fan of cat hair in my food...

My department at work played musical offices on Friday -- we all moved into new offices, which involved lots of packing, furniture location confusion, and disconnection/reconnection of computers. I learned that my office is the home to an inordinate amount of binders filled with years-old documents, which not only took up far too much room in the packing crates, but also take up most of the cabinet space in my new office...

There seems to be some kind of allergen floating around in the air in Austin... I've been waking up with an itchy throat, which is really annoying. Even Rick has been having sneezing problems, and he's hardly ever allergic to anything... (That reminds me, I really should take some Benadryl before bed...)

I can't believe it's August already... how did THAT happen??

Okay, I need to go shine the laser pointer on the floor so Riff will chase it for a while and hopefully tire himself out before I try to sleep... Otherwise, he'll no doubt wake me up at 3 in the morning by running around in circles on the bed... 

Good night!! :)

Weekend recap... (Or: The One Where Lisa is Caught in the Rain, Squished Into a Too-Small Cab and Forgets to Buy Tea)

I'm back from Chicago -- actually, I've been back since Monday, but I'm just now finding some time to write something down. (And I'm still not entirely unpacked... in fact, have I unpacked ANYTHING?? Wait, yes -- yes, I'm fairly certain I've unpacked a couple pairs of shoes, because I wore them this week...)

Chicago was great, as usual... our plane leaving Austin was a bit late Thursday night, so by the time we landed, took a cab to the hotel, and (in my case, at least) changed out of wrinkly, tired travel clothes and into something more presentable, it was way past my usual bedtime. But Eric had his heart set on some cajun ribeye at Morton's, so we walked over to the restaurant at around 10 o'clock and ate to our heart's content, until we were the only table our waiter had to worry about. In fact, by the time we left, there was only one other party in the entire restaurant...

Friday began with breakfast at the Pancake House, where I debated whether to finally try something new, or to stick with my "usual" (well, it IS my usual when I happen to be at the Pancake House) -- the vegetarian skillet. After considering several different types of pancakes, waffles and crepes, I went with the "completely devoid of creativity" choice and got my usual...

Our friends Eric and Debbie joined us (after a much-too-long travel day that included an unscheduled pit stop in the middle of nowhere to refuel their unable-to-land-in-the-midst-of-thunderstorms plane), and we once again headed out to a very late dinner at Wildfire. I love their big skillet chocolate chip cookie for dessert... I'd fly all the way to Chicago just to get a big ol' Wildfire skillet chocolate chip cookie... (And all of a sudden I'm realizing that both the first AND last things I ate on Friday were cooked in skillets... weird...)

And in the interest of time, here's some more super quick recapping:

It POURED on Friday night as we were leaving Wildfire, and I somehow ended up being the last person to have the chance to get in our cab. Rick, mom and dad all managed to find shelter inside before I was finally able to get my soaked self into the car. (If you ask me, mom and dad really took their time scooting over the back seat to give me room... in fact, "slowly inching sideways" describes it more properly than "scooting"... ;))

Eric painted his whole condo and it looks really good! He also had some of Kiko's long hair shaved off and she looks... uh... like a partially shaved cat! (Awww... poor Kiko... :))

We found out a really cool fact about Chicago when we went to Stanley's (Home of Life-Changing Fried Chicken) one night -- they had Texas Longhorn flags hanging at the front door, and all kinds of Longhorn stuff inside. As Longhorn fans, we found it really cool... but as Longhorn fans in Chicago, we were confused. And then Eric explained that the bars in Chicago all choose college teams to support -- apparently they realize that people from all over the country end up in Chicago, and they try to avoid sports-induced bar fights by providing a designated bar/restaurant for various schools. And Stanley's is the Longhorn bar! We thought that was awesome, since we not only love Stanley's, but we love the Longhorns...

On our way to Eric's place after dinner one night, me, Rick, Eric, Eric and Debbie all wound up in a single cab, which, from the outside, looked like a roomy SUV of some sort... but inside was no bigger than a regular car. Eric (my bro) sat up front, and the rest of us squished into the back, which meant I was draped over laps and had a great view of the windshield I would be thrown through in the event of a sudden stop. But we were all laughing so hard about it that the poor cab driver probably thought we were drunk... (we weren't... :))

Eric and Rachel are awesome and I can't wait for the wedding!

And I forgot to buy tea at Argo, which was one thing I REALLY wanted to do while I was in Chicago. Oh well. Next time. I mean it. (I think I said the same thing LAST time... :))

Okay, I'm off to get dinner started... Have a great weekend, everyone!!

Some random Chicago pictures...

It's already over, but this is how I felt on Saturday...

IT'S THE WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WEEEEEEEEEKEEEEEEEEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoa... sorry... didn't mean to shout like that. I get a little bit excited about weekends... That doesn't, however, mean I'm not still a bit tired from the previous week. For instance, I was just flipping through my latest issue of Cooking Light, and misread a recipe for Eggplant Crostini as "Elegant Crostini." ("What makes it elegant?" I thought to myself. "Is it the vibrant colors? The multigrain baguette? The fresh mint leaves? Perhaps it's the eggplant... Oh, wait... EGGPLANT...")

And unfortunately, the weekend is almost over... sigh... why do they go by so quickly?? (UPDATE: The weekend is now officially over. Yes, I started writing this post two days ago and only succeeded in finishing seven lines. All hail Lisa, Queen of the Unfinished Blog Posts...)

Anyway... busy week ahead. Someone's birthday is coming up (okay, it's MINE), and Rick and I went by Whole Foods on Saturday so I could pick up some baking supplies -- I love to bake, but I don't do it very often because I have a hard time moderating my cake and cookie intake. (One of the best pieces of advice I can give to someone who has a problem with binging on junk food: DO NOT keep it in the house! Just don't. Save the calories for a night out or a special occasion -- like a birthday... :)) My department at work has a simple solution for the "what do we do for everyone's birthday?" question -- when it's YOUR birthday, you just do whatever you want. If you want a catered affair complete with two-tier cake, a bouncy house and a guy who makes balloon animals, go for it (as long as you're paying for it...). If you want to stop by Wal-Mart on the way to work and pick up a box of Chips Ahoy, you can do that, too. If you want to be weird and set out a platter of celery and carrot sticks, fine by me.

I decided to take the "bake something with Oreos" route. Okay, that's not actually true -- since we went to Whole Foods, we couldn't pick up Oreos. Whole Foods does not condone the consumption of Oreos. They DO, however, condone the consumption of "Newman-Os," which is the Paul Newman-endorsed version of an Oreo. And can I just say -- YUUUUM!!!! Those Newman-Os are GOOD... in fact, Rick and I think they might even be SLIGHTLY better than good ol' Oreos. Maybe it's the lack of high fructose corn syrup, or the fact that there's no artificial flavor... but whatever the reason, those things are seriously addicting. Good thing I'm using most of them for baking...

I'm also busy this week because Thursday evening we're taking a weekend trip up to Chicago!! Sooooooo excited about that -- we haven't been to Chicago since Christmas. I'm looking forward to walking down the street and arriving at my destination with an unfrozen face. I'm also looking forward to Ghirardelli. And Argo tea. And walking around downtown. And maybe checking out the Lincoln Park Zoo. Oh, and I suppose seeing Eric and Rachel would be nice, too... you know, sort of. (I can't wait to see Eric and Rachel!!!!! :))

So I have a million things to do in the next few days -- most of which revolve around laundry and packing. In fact, I should probably make a list, lest I forget to pack something. (Yes, it's a lest list...)

Maybe, if you're really, really lucky, I'll get a chance to blog while I'm in Chicago and post a picture of two. We shall see. In the meantime, I'm off to keep myself busy with my millions of tasks and my lest list...

Have a good week!

Poor Rick...

Not only is he having wisdom teeth removed tomorrow, but he's also been working on a "group" paper for his class, and just realized one of his group partners plagiarized nearly the entire section of the paper she wrote. He showed it to me earlier, and I seriously couldn't believe anyone could be that stupid -- I mean, the idea of NOT plagiarizing is something that is drilled into your head the second you step onto a college campus. I think there's an entire class freshman year entitled "How to NOT Plagiarize." And the language in this paper wasn't that gray-in-between-sort-of-paraphrased-but-kind-of-different-I-should-probably-still-site-it kind of language. It was WORD FOR WORD from a publication, without so much as a fleeting mention of said publication. And since everyone writing for the "group" paper is getting a collective group grade, if Rick hadn't noticed the plagiarized sections (and, subsequently, rewritten them), there's a good chance they would've received an F. (Personally, I don't think it's fair to grade everyone in the group exactly the same -- you should be graded on whichever section of the paper is YOUR work.)

Seriously, I'm kind of amazed that anyone had the, uh -- chutzpah? Unmitigated gall? Audacity? -- to obviously copy someone else's work and assume no one would notice. Especially in a college class full of "adults." (Or, you know, MORE adult than the adults in most college classes...)

Anyway, like I said, Rick is having his wisdom teeth removed tomorrow morning. And, of course, as is wont to happen in situations like this, people have been eager to offer their assurances in the form of their own wisdom-teeth-removal horror stories. I don't know WHY people always feel it's necessary to tell you about all the terrible things they went through in the particular situation that YOU, yourself, are about to go through. It's like going to a baby shower and hearing all the "I was in labor for fifteen days!!" stories...

And actually, in MY experience, having my wisdom teeth removed wasn't anywhere NEAR as bad as I thought it would be (of course, all I had to go by was the horror stories...). Other than the first few hours after I got home (when the anesthesia was wearing off and I felt nauseous and light-headed), it wasn't bad at all. After the first day, I didn't even need the prescription painkillers anymore -- advil and tylenol worked just fine.

The worst part of the whole thing was having to eat mushy food for a couple weeks -- a person can only eat so much pudding and applesauce and ice cream and macaroni and cheese before getting tired of it all. I can still remember the day I was finally able to eat solid food again, and Rick and I went to Denny's. I ordered a veggie omelet with hash browns and a biscuit, hoping the waitress wasn't looking at the huge bruise on my left cheek and wondering if she should contact family services. When the food came, I ate EVERY single bite. And I never eat that much food. But I was starving... for some reason, mushy, liquidy food -- even high calorie food like ice cream -- doesn't feel like "real" food. It never seems to fill up your stomach like solid food...

I should probably head to bed, even though I'm taking Rick to the oral surgeon in the morning so I can "sleep in" tomorrow (until about 6 or 6:15... :)). But hey, look -- two posts in one week!! I am on a roll...       

Randomy stuff

What's that you say? "Randomy" isn't a word? You're right... what I meant to say was "randomish"...

So did everyone have a good 4th of July? We did our usual "stand in the driveway and watch the fireworks" thing. I love living so close to the golf course on July 4th. Of course, the rest of the year it can be sort of annoying, what with all the stray golf balls hitting the house and landing in our yard. There are some REALLY bad golfers around here, apparently... What I DON'T like on the 4th of July is the people who think it's perfectly fine to set off crazy loud firecrackers (not to mention shoot fireworks directly over your house) well past a "considerate" hour. It's already rather inconsiderate to aim your incendiary devices in such a way as to guarantee they land in your neighbor's yard and driveway... it's even worse to keep setting them off when half the neighborhood is trying to sleep...

I've been realizing lately that I really miss blogging... this "once a week if I'm lucky" schedule is really sad. And I've actually had a few things to talk about lately. For instance -- we just added a new member to our family. Check him out: 

Arrrggh! The carnage!! The stuffed mouse carnage!!

Okay, here's a better one:

His name is Riff -- we wanted to stick with the "music" theme we've used to name our pets. Riff sort of has a double meaning -- it can be a repetitive phrase in a piece of music, or a kind of musical "tangent" (as in a guitar riff or a jazz riff)... and Riff is also the name of Tony's best friend in West Side Story. And look at this little guy -- you can tell he's totally ready for a rumble with the Sharks...

Piva has gotten more used to him, but still isn't quite sure whether we made the right decision when we brought the new little thing into the house:

And in other pet news -- when we took Riff to the vet for the first time, the vet tech came into the room and handed us something in a plastic bag. It was a little round plaster impression of Echo's paw print. How sweet is that? I thought it was such a thoughtful gesture:

Well, I guess that's it for now... I need to go make something for a light dinner and then get ready for another work week. Have a good week, everyone!