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...

Oh, that pesky sun...

“From an Antarctic research base to the Great Pyramids of Egypt and beyond, the world switched off the lights on Saturday for the second Earth Hour, dimming skyscrapers, city streets and some of the world's most recognizable monuments for 60 minutes to highlight the threat of climate change.”

Thus begins a Yahoo news story on “Earth Hour” – an hour of time (specifically, 8:30 to 9:30 tonight) when everyone dims their lights in an effort to save the planet.

Sigh.

Look, I don’t hate the planet. I don’t hate the environment. I don’t like seeing clouds of smog hanging over cities or cars burning oil and spewing black smoke. I love recycling. I love the IDEA of finding cleaner sources of fuel (whether or not it’s feasible is another story). I love organic foods and organic clothing and organic cosmetics. I HATE seeing someone throw trash or cigarette butts from a moving car. I love clean water and clean air and animals and national parks.

But here’s the deal – the climate is going to change. The climate IS going to change. We KNOW the climate on this planet changes, because it already HAS many times before. And long before human beings swooped in with their fossil fuels and chlorofluorocarbons. In fact, science has shown us that the planet tends to warm during periods of increased solar activity and it cools during periods of lesser solar activity. This last year or so we’ve been in one of those “lesser solar activity” periods, and as a result, we’ve had one of the COLDEST years on record. The evidence, again and again, seems to point to the SUN as the main culprit in our global warming/cooling cycles, and yet we’re constantly fed this alarmist propaganda about how the ice caps are melting and the sea is rising and the polar bears are dying and New York City is practically underwater and the only way we can stop it is by caving in to the demands of extreme environmentalists. And apparently, by turning off our lights for an hour tonight.

The ironic thing is that this global COOLING that we’re experiencing now is WORSE than global warming. This is what Daily Tech has to say about the recent lack of solar activity:

“Let's hope those factors stop fast. Cold is more damaging than heat. The mean temperature of the planet is about 54 degrees. Humans -- and most of the crops and animals we depend on -- prefer a temperature closer to 70.

Historically, the warm periods such as the Medieval Climate Optimum were beneficial for civilization. Corresponding cooling events such as the Little Ice Age, though, were uniformly bad news.”

So global warming has been good for our planet, whereas global cooling has been bad. And I always wonder, as I read and listen to the grim warnings about “climate change,” what makes anyone so certain that THIS climate we have now is the ONLY climate we should ever have? Who’s to say a climate change would ultimately be a BAD thing? The human race adapts and survives – life goes on. Perhaps even a BETTER life. The earth has been around for a long time – it has cycled through warm and cold many, many times, and it WILL in the future. Whether we try to stop it or not.

And to that end, I refuse to be a follower and jump on the bandwagon for “Earth Hour” tonight. I won’t be turning off any lights. In fact, I think I just might turn them ALL on…

The wisdom of coffee...

I’m drinking a cappuccino from Starbucks, and once again my coffee cup is trying to teach me a life lesson. Today it says, “people need to see that, far from being an obstacle, the world’s diversity of languages, religions and traditions is a great treasure, affording us precious opportunities to recognize ourselves in others.” That’s a quote from someone named Youssou N’Dour (someone I’ve never heard of – but a quick Google search reveals that he is, according to some, “the most famous African musician in the world.” Apparently I don’t know much about African musicians… :)).

It’s funny when your Starbucks cup makes you think – usually it’s nothing more than a cardboard receptacle to hold the necessity of daily coffee. But today I’ve been thinking about the quote my cup relayed to me, and I have to say I quite definitely agree with it. Sometimes I DISagree with my Starbucks cup (which, to be honest, is a rather strange reaction to have to a cup) – although so far, not so vehemently that I am forced to fling my offensive cup across the room and waste the delicious caffeine-laden nectar within. I should hope that my cup never becomes so controversial…

But like I said, I agree with today’s quote (lucky for my cup…). I DO believe the differences in the world are a “great treasure” to its inhabitants, but too often seen as reason for ridicule or misunderstanding or hatred. Traveling has been such a source of happiness in my life – and even more than that, it’s been an education. I thrive off the differences in the many corners of the world – the myriad languages, the colorful foods, the revered traditions, the unusual architecture, the natural and man-made wonders – it’s all part of a giant, intricate tapestry. You know those big pictures that are actually made up of scores of smaller pictures? That’s what the world is like – it’s just one planet from afar, but when you get closer to it and start to explore, you discover all the little parts that make up the whole. And if you lose one of those little pictures, or change it in some way, then the BIG picture no longer makes as much sense…

But the second part of the quote is what was really making me think today – if there are so many differences in the world, how do they “afford us precious opportunities to recognize ourselves in others”? It made me think of one of the cruises we went on in the Baltic Sea, when we stopped in Gdansk, Poland. I’m sure I’ve told this story before, but just in case someone hasn’t heard it yet, I’ll tell it again. :) We decided to grab a taxi out on the dock to take us into town so we could explore a little bit. But once we were in the taxi, we realized our driver spoke no English. And none of us spoke any Polish. The driver did, however, speak German, which happened to be my best subject in high school. (Of course, high school German and “real world” German are two different things…) So between me and my dad (who knows a bit of German because my grandmother used to speak it), we were not only able to get a ride into town, but we were also able to have entire (albeit stilted) conversations with our driver.

And the thing that really struck me after we returned to our cruise ship later that day was just HOW MUCH we were able to understand each other. Even when neither my dad nor I could figure out the German words for a certain question, or when the driver had no English words for an answer – we somehow managed to UNDERSTAND each other. And even when we got stuck with our communication, we were all able to laugh about it. So really, even though we were from totally different parts of the world, weren’t we all pretty much the same?

Of course, I find it a little funny that this quote was on a Starbucks cup – Starbucks, a bastion of consistency and sameness and mass production, using a quote about diversity and differences. One quick perusal of the Starbucks website and you can find dozens of stores in Paris – the French Paris, not Paris, Texas (which, interestingly, has ZERO Starbucks). Some of the best coffee I’ve ever had in my life was in Paris – local, Parisian-made coffee… and yet Starbucks has opened stores to serve “Starbucks” coffee, which is the same as all the other “Starbucks” coffee out there. What happened to diversity? If I’m ever in Paris again, you’d better believe I’ll be out looking for coffee – but at some random café somewhere… NOT Starbucks.

But Paris, Texas – now THEY could use a Starbucks…

Hey, I was trying to embrace the Dutch culture, okay?

Random stuff...

Another fantasy baseball draft completed! I’m actually rather happy with my team this year – at least happier than I was with my team last year after the draft. I of course did not end up with Sabathia (our friend Nick picked him up), but I got a couple good pitchers with Webb and Lackey. I also took Joba Chamberlain, who COULD have a really good year – if he stays healthy and isn’t thrown in jail for driving drunk. Here’s hoping. My one other Yankee is Arod – he had hip surgery a few weeks ago, so he’ll be out at the beginning of the season. But I figured it would be worth it to pick him up and use a mediocre third baseman in his absence, because HOPEFULLY when he’s back, he’ll make up the difference. Anyway, I’m SO looking forward to baseball season and can’t wait for opening day!

Our friends Jen and Jason and their kids are here visiting from Chicago. And Eric flew down for a few days, too. So mom, as per the rules of the “When Eric Comes to Visit” handbook, baked a couple pies. This has been a point of contention between Rick and my mom for years, as it seems she only bakes her yummy, perfect pies when Eric comes to visit. The few times she’s attempted to bake pies “for Rick,” Eric has just happened to be in town also. She even once tried to bake an apple pie with an “R” for “Rick” carved into the crust, but since Eric was here too, I think everyone assumed that the “E,” “I” and “C” were implied. Ah well, when you have pies as good as the ones mom bakes, who cares if they’re for Eric?? :)

So who watched Obama’s little address last night? We’ve figured out that there’s pretty much a pattern to everything he says. It’s something like, "blah blah blah unfair, blah blah blah bad selfish rich people, blah blah blah share the wealth, blah blah blah me myself and I, blah blah blah I will be the solution for all of mankind’s evils." The emphasis being placed on the “unfairness” of how some people earn more money than others is seriously disturbing to me. It reminds me of something I read the other day, about a crazy woman who was divorcing her multi-millionaire husband because he could only afford to give her 52K a week and that wasn’t “enough” for her. (She spent over four thousand dollars a WEEK just on clothing… what the heck??) Now, in this case, I believe the judge should award this woman NOTHING and tell her to go out and get a job and figure out how to pay for her OWN life. No one is under any obligation to give this woman four thousand dollars a week to waste on clothing. However, if it was the other way around, and SHE was the multi-millionaire, then that money would be HERS to spend as she saw fit. If she wanted to be stupid and wasteful and spend her money on frivolous things, that would be HER decision. As wasteful as it might be, NO ONE has the right to swoop in and say, “I’m sorry, we don’t like the way you’re spending your money – you’re being selfish, so we’re going to take most of it and give it to these people who are sitting around doing nothing.” The HOPE is that someone with that much money would, in fact, be generous and GIVE some of it away. (This is what CHARITIES are for…) Ugh… if I get started on this, it’ll take over my entire blog post… :)

Oh, it looks like Echo is doing MUCH better now! We were worried because she’d been eating again, and then she once again lost her appetite – it seemed for a while like it would come and go, and we weren’t sure she would ever feel better. But the second loss of appetite coincided with the beginning of a new antibiotic we were giving her – so we think it may have been a side effect of medication. But after a few days she was back to eating again, and once the antibiotic was finished, we took her back to the vet for a follow up – and all of her elevated enzymes were nearly back to normal, which was great news. Since she’s doing so well now, we’ve started giving her shots of something called Adequan – it’s a medication that’s supposed to help rebuild joint cartilage and has been shown to really help dogs with arthritis. And it could just be my imagination, but it seems like she’s already a bit more active than she was before (the vet said it would take about a month to tell if it was really having an effect). Now we’re just trying to fatten her up, because she lost quite a bit of weight when she wasn’t feeling well. I’m feeding everything she wants right now – pizza crusts, chicken, steak, extra dog treats, extra canned food for breakfast. She is getting seriously spoiled right now!

Okay, I believe it may be time for an impromptu cappuccino run, so I’m off to partake of a lovely caffeinated beverage…

Argh!! Draft day!!

Today is fantasy baseball draft day!! I have no idea who my first pick will be, and I’m a little upset that I don’t get to choose until eight other people have picked – because that guarantees that my favorite fantasy baseball pitcher, C.C. Sabathia (who also happens to be a Yankee this year!) will be long gone by the time I get to pick. But even if Sabathia isn’t on my fantasy team, I’m quite excited about Yankee baseball this year – we added Sabathia and Burnett, and if Wang and Joba can stay healthy, I think that’ll give us the best pitching we’ve had in a long time. This could be a really great year to be in the new stadium…

But right now, I'm trying to figure out who I should choose first. Do I want a pitcher? A great shortstop? A good second baseman (since there aren't too many out there and if I don't get one in the first or second round, I'll end up with a mediocre second baseman)?? Who should I pick? Who? WHO????

I guess I should remember that my best year in fantasy baseball so far has been my FIRST year -- the year that I really had no idea what I was doing. So perhaps I'll go with an "I have no idea what I'm doing" strategy. Seemed to work the first time...

So for now, I should go prepare for the draft, which starts in a couple hours (and by "prepare" I mean "move my computer from the couch over to the kitchen counter"). Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

A few pics...

Finally, some pictures of my new red wall:

The wall behind the eating area -- which took so much longer than such a small space should've taken. Mostly because I've had other things to do the last couple weeks -- but also because it took FOREVER to tape all the trim and the windows and the ceiling, and then it ended up needing three coats of paint. But I'm really happy with the outcome...



Accent wall above the cupboards -- the red kinda matches those red dish towels, which I've had since we moved in, and I always thought they looked great with the dark wood and counters. Now I'm just trying to decide if I want to attempt to paint the wall above those cabinets over the ovens -- actually, Rick would probably have to do it. I was barely tall enough to reach the other wall when I was standing on the counter -- and there's only a small counter on the opposite side. There's no way I could reach that wall over the ovens without a really tall ladder...


I just love my light fixture over the kitchen table... :)


Bonus picture! Echo being all cute and hiding behind Rick's legs... She seems to be doing better now -- she's eating regularly again, although she's being a bit more picky than she used to be. I have to mix her usual dry food with a little bit of canned food before she'll really start eating it. And she no longer likes the crunchy treats she used to eat -- but she loves the new soft treats we just bought her at Petsmart. And she's gotten WAY too clever at discovering pills hidden in various foods. I've pretty much given up trying to sneak her pills into any sort of food, because she's suspicious of EVERYTHING now. So I have to just throw them in her mouth and hold it closed until she swallows (or PRETENDS to swallow, which is often the case... and then she shakes her head until the pills fall on the floor, and I have to wipe them off and toss them in her mouth again. Poor puppy... :))


Bonus picture #2! (Piva wouldn't leave me alone when I was taking the pictures of the new paint, so I finally just took a picture of her... :))

Reporting for duty...

I’ve been wanting to post some pictures of my new kitchen color, but it’s been rather slow going this week. Just as I’d finally purchased all my paint, brushes, tape and protective plastic tarps, I got a call from my proofreading liaison at the bank where I used to work – time for annual report proofreading! Yippee! That was actually meant to be a sarcastic “yippee,” as I find proofreading 40-plus page annual reports rather boring. However, it IS extra money, and we can certainly use a little extra money right now…

For some reason, these annual reports get longer and longer every year. Perhaps because all the branch associations keep merging together – they’re creating larger and larger branches with more to report. Back when I worked at the bank, there were about 40 separate branch banks, which meant 40 separate reports. They were about 30 pages each, but they all had the same basic “template” – so I only had to proofread all 30 pages ONCE, and then as each annual report crossed my desk, I would proofread the “unique” parts of each one, and make sure the correct numbers had been plugged into the correct places. So I handled all 40 reports by myself – although sometimes I would take a few home with me and add a few extra hours to my timesheet for that week.

Now, though, even with half as many reports to proof, the current proofreader at the bank acquires outside help to finish all the reports. This is mainly because the powers that be (whoever they are) have decided that EVERY page of EVERY report needs to be proofed. And with all these mergers, those pages keep multiplying. After I left the bank, they started creeping up into the 38-, 39-page range… and then they reached 40 pages… the last few years they’ve mostly been between 40 and 45 pages… and then when I got my first report this year, I was rather startled to see that it was a full 55 pages. I figure eventually ALL the associations will merge into one giant bank, and when that happens, I’ll be looking at a 300-page annual report… it’ll be the annual report book…

What I find amusing is how many “financial” people think they know grammar and punctuation and style and sentence structure better than those of us who’ve actually been PAID for our knowledge of such things. It seems like every year there’s a CFO who doesn’t agree with some of the changes I’ve made on his or her report, and therefore decides it “should” stay as is. I remember one time when I noticed “affect” or “effect” (I can’t remember which one) switched for the other word – and granted, the affect/effect choice is a tricky one, and often sends me to the dictionary just to make SURE I’ve used the correct one. So I can definitely understand the confusion. But after I corrected the document to the proper word, the CFO called to say he was pretty sure he had it right the first time (he didn’t) and decided it should stay the way it was (which was the WRONG way). It’s rather aggravating when someone refuses to trust your decisions, especially when you know more about the subject than they do. I mean, I would never attempt to rework your financial statements – how about you quit trying to be an editor?? But hey, it’s not MY annual report… if you want to showcase your errors, that’s fine with me… :)

Anyway, it looks like the annual reports are over for another year, so I was able to start painting the kitchen the other day. Actually, I’m only doing the strip of bare wall over the cabinets in the kitchen, and then I’m painting one wall in the eating area – I picked out a pretty bright red color, so I don’t want it to be overwhelming. Too much of it might look a little crazy. But I think just a few accents will look awesome – it adds a little bit of character. Hopefully it’ll all be finished by tomorrow, so I’ll get some pictures up soon.

And speaking of the painting, I want to get one more coat on above the cabinets, so I’m off to paint… hope everyone has a good weekend!

Maybe I'll add some polkadots...

So I’m listening to someone drilling holes into my house… or at least that’s what it sounds like. Our house is now officially one year old, which means we had a warranty walk-through a couple weeks ago to find all the little problems in the house that are covered under the warranty. For the last two days, we’ve had painters, electricians, plumbers, and maybe a couple random guys off the street (I haven’t been able to keep track of everyone) working all over the house to touch-up paint, caulk cracks, add insulation, fix leaky faucets, and generally make the house a slightly better place to live. Which brings me to the drilling outside – what IS that guy doing, exactly? I think it has something to do with the weep holes in the brick, but honestly, he COULD just be drilling things for the fun of it…

And with the one-year anniversary of our move into this house (coupled with the fact that it’s no longer for sale and we’ll be STAYING here for a while now) I’ve started thinking about some decorating projects I might try to tackle. I haven’t done much with the house so far, mostly because we didn’t think we’d be here for very long. And there seem to be two schools of thought when it comes to selling a house – some people believe the more sparse and plain the house looks, the better. That way prospective buyers see an “empty canvas” and can imagine all of their OWN belongings in the house, and can think about what sort of decorating style they might bring to the house. But other people believe a house should be fully furnished, decorated, painted, etc., because it helps buyers form an “emotional connection” to the house.

Now, I happen to agree more with the “empty canvas” idea. But apparently there are quite a few people who go for the “emotional connection” idea, because an entire industry has been built around “staging” houses. People will actually come into your house and tell you what furniture you should keep out and what you should hide, what you should keep on the counter and what you should put away, how you should organize your closets… and then, for an extra fee, they will decorate your house in an (I suppose) “emotionally connective” style, with artwork and fancy vases and artificial flowers and tapestries and candles – all of which is supposed to invoke some sort of primal “must… have… house” response in the people who view it.

But I don’t really buy all that (thank goodness – because those house stagers are expensive…). I think someone who walks into a totally empty house and can’t picture where they might arrange their OWN furniture and their OWN artwork and their OWN small appliances in the kitchen is just sorely lacking in any imagination or creativity. So when we realized that we might be moving to Chicago, I decided to just leave the house as is – no painting, very few pictures on the walls (not as many nail holes that way – just nice, new, pristine walls for the next occupant), and generally not much clutter or color anywhere. An empty canvas…

But now that we’re staying here in Austin, I’m realizing that my nice “empty canvas” is quite lacking in personality. So I guess it’s about time to personalize it. I’m thinking of starting with a bit of paint in the kitchen… probably red, since I already have some red accents (a few dishtowels, a rug, an oven mitt) and red looks really good with the dark cabinets and countertops we have. Then once that’s done, we’ll have to tackle the media room – I am anticipating much purple (although I haven’t settled on a color yet, so I may go with something else…). Hopefully all of this will help me settle into this house – a house I don’t feel I’ve ever really settled into.

But it has been a whole year, so I guess it’s about time… :)