Happy Thanksgiving

Image from ljc@flickr

Image from nutmegknitter

I'm a Winner!

Tonight I went to an IIDA fundraiser and participated in a silent auction where I won this fab painting:



It was a steal at only $65. Of course, the framing will cost way more than that.

My Wild Thursday Night

Watch out now. I lead a very exciting life. Tonight I spent my evening watching tv (the season 4 premiere of Project Runway from last night) and Grey's Anatomy while knitting on my scarf and then winding another ball of yarn.

Secret Admirer Update

The rose was from a coworker.... a female one even! Scandal! No, not really. She want to a Mexican food place on the East side that gives out roses to the ladies at lunch and she thought it would be funny to leave it on my car. She didn't realize that it might freak me out just a little bit.

Torture

This post is specifically just to torture Kristin. Her birthday is next Friday, the 23rd. She wrote a blog post last night about how her boyfriend, El Hombre, has presents for her sitting out in the open, just taunting her. Well lookee what came in the mail today kiddo.



That's right. You're getting a card board box. Sweet! Not really. There might also be some craftiness involved, if I can get off my lazy ass and get to it.

Why am I knitting?

Why am I knitting a scarf that is 75% wool and that will be warm and bulky when it was 85 degrees today? Why? Where is my fall weather? This is my latest project. It's another K2P2 scarf using Noro Iro. Like many other knitters out there I have a bit of an affinity for the Noro. It's just so yummy. There are several skeins in my stash. They are just so pretty to look at. Sometimes, I just pet them. Man, I'm so weird. Anyway, the scarf is half way done and I've been making pretty good time on it, doing a bit each night while I watch tv.

On books into movies

Another one of my favorite books is being turned into a movie. The book is P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern (who just happens to be the daugher of Ireland's primie minister). I loved this book. It made me laugh and it made me cry. Oh hell, what book involving love doesn't? I'm such a sap. Anyway, it's being made into a movie. Yay! Sort of. The female lead is being played by Hillary Swank. I'm sorry but she has a horse face. Not cute at all. Also, the book is set in Ireland. Are you telling me that Hollywood could not find enough actresses in all of Ireland to play the roles needed for this film? But the highlight and the reason why I will pay $7.50 or whatever it costs to see in the theatre is because Jeffrey Dean Morgan, aka Denny from Grey's Anatomy is in the film. *swoon* He's so hot. Seriously. And that's not just the fever from my cold talking.

You know it's time to go to the store....

When the only thing you have to eat for breakfast in your house is a Lean Cuisine pizza. I might have soldiered on and skipped the meal but reading the archived posts from The Pioneer Woman Cooks makes me super hungry. So instead I'm eating my pizza and making the worlds longest grocery list. So watch out, there might be actual cooking happening again soon!

Secret Admirer

This afternoon, even though I left the office early, I was the last one out the door. When I got to my car there was a rose on the windshield, tucked under the wiper blade. Do I have a stalker? A secret admirer? My office is in the middle of an industrial park so it's not like there is a florist on every corner. Very strange. And just a little creepy. I brought it home anyway because it seemed not right to just toss it on the ground.

Lulu says....

Aren't you glad it's almost the weekend?

I am not happy

Tonight I went to Target after a long, hard day at work. It seems like every day for the last couple of weeks has been long (hence the lack of blogging). I know it's only November but the Christmas candy is out. And that means Mint Hershey Kisses! Yay! Or so I thought. Until I went to the candy aisle. Oh sure, there were plenty of Kisses. Kisses as far as the eye could see. But not the kind I wanted. It seems my beloved Mint Kisses have been replaced by Mint Truffle kisses. They have a green center.

Now what am I supposed to do?!

And there was cooking!

Cold weather = chili time. And from the looks of the shelves at the ol' HEB last night it seems like every one had the same idea. There was not a single can of kidney beans to be found. I know, I know, putting beans in Texas chili is insane but I was making a Cooking Light recipe so pinto beans were substituted.



The recipe is beef and beer chili from the September 2007 issue of Cooking Light.






It was pretty good despite the pinto bean substitution, not having enough chili powder and using Miller Lite instead of the Budweiser called for. I'm not a beer drinker and had planned on buying a single bottle at the gas station but when I mentioned this to a coworker this morning she said she had plenty of beer at home and would bring me back some after lunch. She was also kind enough to provide me with the egg that I needed for my cornbread but had forgotten to buy at the store last night (do not shop hungry--I bought cheese, sour starbursts and Halloween oreos but forgot the eggs and probably something else more important that I'll remember tomorrow). The cornbread, not pictured, is really better left unmentioned.

Finally!

Today's weather forecast:

Showers and isolated thunderstorms in the morning...then a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Windy. Much cooler. Highs in the upper 50s. Northwest winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts to around 40 mph. Chance of rain 80 percent.

Finally it will feel like fall. Yesterday is was in the high 80s.

Random Thought

Don't those roasted chicken sausages and potatoes look
just a little bit like fingers to you? Just in time for Halloween!

It's been that kind of week

Even Lulu agrees

Lars and the Real Girl

Last night the boyfriend and I went to see Lars and the Real Girl as part of the Austin Film Festival. This movie is terrific. It's funny and touching. Click on my link and you can watch the trailer. I don't know if it will get wide release but if there is an theatre in your town that shows independent films keep your eye out for it. I highly recommend it.

Laughter is the best medicine

Also, modern pharmaceuticals.....

State Fair--A Photo Essay

Kristin really likes her corn...remember last year.....

Cupcake report

Last weekend I went to Dallas to visit Kristin so we made a little trip to Sprinkles, where I got a strawberry cupcake with strawberry icing. With a pink ribbon on top in support of breast cancer research. Honestly, I've had better. The cake was dry and flavorless and the icing was overly sweet. It was all just too much.



Kristin enjoyed her cupcake though.

Get your guns up

Look at me, showing my school spirit while at the State Fair this past weekend.

Gas Update

Just because I didn't mean to leave you all hanging....

The gas man came and shut off the gas and it's staying off until I can get a plumber out to replace some brass fittings that are leaking. But as I'm in Dallas this weekend that won't be happening until Monday. It was actually not bad timing, well other than the whole unplanned financial thing, since I'll be flying home Monday morning and the plumber is coming in the afternoon.

Why it's a miracle I'm still alive

On a near daily basis, I could be a Darwin Award winner. Here is today's reason why:

This morning I woke up around 5 am smelling gas. I checked the stove, found nothing out of the ordinary (although did find it funny to be sticking my head in the oven) so thought maybe instead of the visual aura many migraine sufferers get that I was getting a smelling one. So I took a pill and went back to bed. When I got home from work and the gym just a bit ago the place still reeked. So obviously, I wasn't imagining things. I opened all the windows and doors, shuffled through my papers to find the number for the gas company and now am waiting for them to come fix things. They told me not to turn on any electrical devices that were not already on--thank goodness I left the computer on when I went to work!

Here comes the Darwin part. In order to get into my home I used the garage door opener. I have a feeling that it's the hot water heater pilot light that is out since the smell is strongest in my bedroom which is closest to the heater. So that's miracle number one...that I didn't blow up when I opened the garage door. Or when I turned on the bedroom light. And it's a miracle that my place didn't blow up when the bedroom lamp that's on a timer turned on. See, every day I narrowly miss being on News of the Weird.

In the ghetto

Something's going down in the ghetto! After I got home from work and the gym tonight I could hear a helicopter while I was in the shower. I knew it was close by because it was vibrating the place. So of course, because I am a Nosey Nelly, I had to hurry up and investigate. From what I could tell from my vantage point of my front gate, there were several police cruisers in the elementary school parking lot across the street and the 'copter was doing circles above. There didn't seem to be any sort of ruckus though because there were plenty of kids playing soccer on the field as if nothing was amiss.

Just another day in the hood.

They say it's your birthday!

It's my birthday too!

Looky what my boyfriend sent me today. Aren't they pretty?
(I know it's hard to believe but I don't tell y'all everything.)



Last night my parents and gramma came into town and we went to dinner at McCormick & Schmick's. Unlike my sister and Pinknest, I was afraid to photograph our food. But it was delicious and if I ever go there again photos will be taken. I had swordfish on goat cheese mashed potatoes. Goat cheese is my favorite so really anything with that in it catches my attention. Unfortunately, I just wasn't all that hungry so I brought most of my meal home with me so I'll be having it for dinner again tonight.

On Saturday I did make it back to the Hey Cupcake Airstream and purchased 2 cupcakes. One red velvet and one carrot cake. Now I'm wishing I had either bought more or saved one because I could really go for some cake right about now. Oh wait! There's ice cream in the freezer. Sweeeeet! Literally.

Hey! Cupcakes!

So the other day, we're driving down South Congress and what do I spy but an Airstream trailer with a giant cupcake on its roof! I was so excited that I could not pull into the parking lot fast enough. How disappointed was I that the place wasn't open? Very.



In honor of my upcoming birthday (that's right, did you know I have a birthday coming up? No? Well let me tell you again) I think I will go back on Saturday and get myself one or 6.

LOLz

Two of my favorite blogs to read are PostSecret and icanhascheezburger.com, which is home of the LOLcats. Now the two are combined in the most awesomest site ever, lolscretz. Witness:

In 7 days....

I will be 34. This isn't really freaking me out but every day I see a few more white hairs and notice a few more wrinkles around the eyes (not even going to discuss the trench across my forhead because it's genetic and has been there since I was twelve). Typically I will spend a good 20 minutes at Target, trying to decide what eye cream to buy and then I cheap out and buy some $15 Neutrogena something. Not this time. It's time to throw down the big bucks. There are even more expensive things out there, but this is my gateway cream. I know this because I didn't even flinch when I picked up the very small little tube and walked to the cashier at Sephora and plunked down my credit card. Keep in mind that I'm the same woman that will dither about the price of a box of cereal or bag of string cheese.

Are you kidding me?!

Today at lunch I decided to run a quick errand to Target to pick up toilet paper and a light bulb for the kitchen sink (woooo, exciting, I know). Of course, as I'm toting my giant thing of tp across the store in search of the bulb and talking on my cell phone (can I not go to lunch in peace, people? it's just office furniture. We're not saving the world here! anyway, I digress) I am stopped in my tracks by a display of Christmas cards. It's bad enough that the Halloween candy is already out but Christmas cards?! It's not even October yet!

I only looked at them for a second and some of them were cute but since I have at least half a dozen boxes and supplies to make hundreds at home I do not need to buy any. My shopping finger was itchy though. Buying toilet paper and a light bulb is really no fun at all.

ACL wrap up

My ACL weekend didn't quite turn out as expected. It started out pretty good though. On Friday morning, Kristin, El Hombre and I headed out to Zilker park. We got a sweet (i.e. free and close in) parking spot. Once we got in the park, of course we had to eat.

Kristin and El Hombre each got a chopped BBQ beef sandwich and shared a side of fried zucchini sticks.





And I got a beef and lamb gyro (not shown) and a cherry limeade from the Sweet Leaf ice tea people. Good stuff.



As you can see, Kristin was happy.



It was hot. Damn hot. We wandered over to one of the stages, luckily it was near a small patch of shade, and settled in. Pete Yorn came on a started his set. I noticed some dark smoke on the other side of the park and thought to myself "hmmmm, that ain't right". It got darker. And darker. People started paying more attention to the smoke than to Pete. Then, there were flames. Finally, Pete stopped singing and the calmest, nicest announcement was made for everyone to "please move away from the fire. mmmmmkay? thanks". It was out a few minutes later. Turns out a propane tank (and propane accessories?) exploded and took out an rv and an 18 wheeler full of beer. Unfortunately, 4 beverage distribution employees were injured, but no festival attendees.



After that the day went on as normal. Kristin took a nap.



We took the obligatory self portrait photo (which never quite turns out right).



And we people watched, looking out for bad fashion choices everywhere.



Then came Saturday. It was not a good day for me. I woke up with some kind of gastrointestinal mess that is just better not talked about. Let's just say that whatever I had and porta-pottys...not a good combination. Most of Saturday I spent camped out at my aunt's house and the part I was there for, well I really don't remember it. By Sunday morning I couldn't even leave the house. Maybe next year will be better.

Coach, thy name is evil!

Why must you torture me so, Coach?

Tonight I had to return a dress I purchased at Dillards and as I normally do, I entered the store on the side with the make up and purses. This is where the Coach purses are. Being that Fall is about to arrive, all the new purses are out.

And what do I spy?



The new Coach Hamptons Stripe Hobo. Now, having never been to the Hamptons I don't know if they have hobos there but I'm guessing they don't. Martha would never allow it.

Please do not ask me what my deal is with Coach purses. They aren't all that exotic or fancy or fashionable or whatever. They are the epitome of consumerism. I know these things. Does this stop from me letting out a little gasp and then fondling the bag? No, it does not. What does stop me from having the saleswoman unlock the bag from the special little stand that lets you touch but not try on and wrap it up for me is the $298 price tag. For a bag that isn't even all leather!

When I win the lottery, I am so going on a Coach shopping spree. Watch out.

How I feel some mornings

So glad I have tomorrow off to attend ACL.

Pink Elephants!

Kristin's boyfriend, El Hombre, has a thing for pink elephants. I don't know why, he just does. So when I saw this on icanhascheezburger.com of course I thought of him right away.

Craving

Perhaps not such a good idea to run by Target when hungry and right after working out? Have now eaten 8 of these little donuts (thus undoing entire good of workout) and my mouth feels like I ate paste. Blech.

Damn you Little Debbie and your pastries too!

I do not have a shoe problem

The other night someone asked me how many shoes I had. So I stopped to think. Well yes, I have bought 5 or 6 pairs in the last month but I've also returned at least 2 of them....so I came up with between 20 and 30. He let out a whistle. Hey! I'm no Imelda Marcos! A girl can dream though, right?



That said, I did buy another pair of shoes today. A cute little pair of patent leather burgundy Nine West flats. On sale, with an additional $10 off coupon from DSW. Hmmmm now what outfit can I buy to go with them?

Schweeet!

My photo made the Schmap!!!

WANT

Coral and Apple Turquoise bracelet

Finally!

A cat I won't be allergic to!

Yume Neko Smile, the Creepy Cat Robot from Sega
Uploaded by AkihabaraNews

This just in....

Kristin just sent me a text message to tell me that the featured fried food at the State Fair of Texas 2007 will be.....drumroll please......

Fried Cookie Dough!!

Yum!

In My Bed

This morning, as I made the bed, I found this little thing. What is it? I don't know but of course I had to grab the camera and photograph it. Then I smushed it in a big wad of toilet paper and flushed it to a watery grave.

Cheater

Today I committed the sin of cheating on my hair stylist. I can only hope that by the time I'm ready for another cut my hair will have grown enough that she won't notice. But seriously, I'm trying to grow out this short hair and I've been having one bad hair day after another. A girl can only take so much. This morning was the last straw. My hair stylist, Amie, has been doing my hair for over 6 years and she always does an awesome job. She knows my hair. She knows how it used to be stick straight and then it was really wavy (but not quite curly) and now it's nearly straight with some wave and lots of frizz. Hopefully, she will forgive me since she only works Tues-Friday and I just had to have a trim TODAY. I'll have to tip really big next time and that should help.