Just Friday

I'm so saddened to hear of ABC's Robin Roberts' mother's death last night. Robin is about to go through a bone marrow transplant, and had to leave GMA a day early yesterday to go home to see her sick mom. She has dealt with her cancers and now this with incredible grace and strength, coming to work every morning with a beautiful smile on her face and a positivity that is unshakable. She's an inspiration for cancer patients and a role model for all of us. Millions of us are thinking of her as she begins her transplant process next week.

~

Well, the RNC is over and I managed to successfully avoid almost every second of coverage. I did see an Entertainment Tonight interview with the five Romney sons. The interviewer said she knew that Ann Romney's favorite TV show is Modern Family. She told them the co-creator of the show said he would offer her a cameo role as the officiant at Cam and Mitchell's wedding, should it become legal. She asked what they thought of that.

It totally went over their heads. They all laughed. One said Mom would love it, that she just loves that show. Another said she would like to, but she's incredibly busy with the campaign, so maybe later.

Mmmkay. Perhaps the interviewer should have been a little less perky and smiley when she asked the question, and a little more "...BAZINGA!"

~

I looked myself up on Spokeo and found a couple of interesting things. One- I was difficult to find. That's good! I had to put in my city, and still I was pretty far down the list. Two- There was this:

Um... wait. My family economic health is on the low side?! It took me a minute to notice the word "sample" in the diagram. Whew! Nothing like a creepy stalker site informing you and the free world that you're broke.

See, now you're all wondering why I was on Spokeo in the first place. It came up on my Google search yesterday to see if Olga and Gloria Campos were related. Really!

(Cathy, you really should take care of that overdue library book from 1998. Just saying.)

Happy three-day weekend, all! Hug your mamas!

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Spanglish

I tease my Hispanic friends about speaking English with a completely legit, lifelong Texas accent, until they hit a remotely Spanish word. Then it's a momentary blip of authentic español, at a speed twenty times the rest of the sentence. "Hey y'all! Let's go to Maxine's for lunch. They've got the best ¡chorizoempanadas! in town!"

"Whatever happened to ¡OlgaCampos! on KVUE news? Is ¡GloriaCampos! on WFAA in Dallas her sister?"

(Olga retired last year and Google isn't telling me that the two are related.)

Well, I don't do it often, but it turns out there are some words of German origin, which I say with an accent. The town of Niederwald is south of Austin. It is not "Needer-walled" (and definitely not "Nider-walled" *cringe*). It's "Need-a-valt." 

So... y'all! Let's go to the outlet mall on Saturday and have lunch in Niederwald!

Yep. I see how it's the same.


Don't get excited- it's only Thursday. But here's last week's Friday Five...

Friday Five: Strawberries

1. What’s your favorite way to eat strawberries?
rinsed and hulled, straight up

2. What’s your favorite strawberry-flavored food or beverage?
Ooooh. Strawberry Fanta. I hardly ever drink it because of the calories and the fact that it makes your mouth an obnoxious shade of red.

3. What object in your line of sight is strawberry-colored?
"Pierre the Canadian Bear" Beanie Baby that my Toronto friend, Cindy, gave me. Aww!

4. What geographic location near you could be much cooler if its name were modified to contain the word strawberry, and what would this new name be?
Buda. Then it would be Strawberry Buda. Nice, right? Or as Mom would have called it, Strawberry Buddha.

5. Here are 500 Wikipedia articles with the world strawberry in their titles. What’s something interesting you learned from one of them?
From the "Strawberry Fields Forever" entry: Lennon said, "I was different all my life. The second verse goes, 'No one, I think, is in my tree.' Well, I was too shy and self-doubting. 'Nobody seems to be as hip as me,' is what I was saying. Therefore, I must be crazy or a genius..."

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Funny, Random Wednesday

...Now separated by tildes, for your reading pleasure!

TMZ made me laugh so hard last night I almost choked on a drink. The story- The Winklevoss twins bought a house in LA for $18 million (it's GORGEOUS). The voice over guy talks about it for a minute and then... BREAKING NEWS! Mark Zuckerberg just stole the Winklevosses' house!

And now it's worth $180,000.

Ahahaa!!! Boo-yah, TMZ. You rock, as usual.

~

This Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority full-page ad from USA Today, is priceless. In response to the Prince Harry photos... (Thanks, AdWeek!)

 

http://www.visitlasvegas.com/knowthecode/

On a related note, I am enjoying the naked photos of soldiers (originally the British Army, now all over the world) in support of the Prince. Thanks, Harry! And thanks Sue, for bringing them to my attention. I salute you both.

~

Jeff and I made the enormous mistake of going to Staples last night. The line to check out was all the way across the store, because of grade school parents and kids shopping for school supplies. Oy. Too bad they didn't have a special line for regular people just buying one item. The cashier just laughed when we made it to the register. So, fair warning. Don't go near Target or any office supply stores in the evenings this week, if you can avoid it.

~

I talked about stock photography sources yesterday. You can also find royalty-free images via this search page at Creative Commons that offers access to search engines at sites that designate CC licenses.

http://search.creativecommons.org/

And this is a great article that summarizes using Creative Commons images. It refers to Flickr, but it applies to all CC licenses. It also describes how to find and use images from Flickr.

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Adventures in Stock Photo Search

Most of you have never had the thrill of perusing stock photography. I occasionally use stock photos and graphics on my hobby website, and I've been redesigning my home page this week.

When you visit the stock image websites, you do a keyword search. The entertaining part of the process is seeing what shows up. I searched for "women at a table," and one of my results was "woman with cell phone and potatoes." Why is she all dressed up to cut potatoes? The pearls, Mildred. Really?

I searched for "large table and chair" and got "woman in her bra with a glass of whiskey." I see neither a large table nor a chair in that photo. Very amusing to see it among a thousand otherwise mundane results though.

I don't pay more than $10 for stock images. There are sites that charge anywhere from nothing to thousands of dollars. My best tip is to stick with the completely free sites like morguefile and stock.xchg. They may not have exactly what you want, and frequently the visual impact isn't great, but you can crop many of those images to make something really nice. Select a table and chairs photo, but crop in close to one chair and the corner of the table for a simpler look. Or use a photo of a person whose expression may not be right for your project, but crop in very close to part of their face. Cropping is your friend.

There are also inexpensive options like CanStockPhoto or dreamstime, where fabulous images can start at less than a dollar each, for a small version.

Whatever you do, don't search Google for an image or graphic and just copy it for your website, brochure, etc. That would be illegal and people do come after you, as they should. Having designed several logos and graphics, even as the hack that I am in that area, I would be all over someone who was using them as part of their own website. Check licenses to see what you can legally do with any image you obtain, even ones you purchase. There are rules that dictate whether or not you can edit an image, if you must credit the artist/photographer or the website where you found the image, etc.

If you're a hobby photographer, check out the stock photo sites for information on how to sell your photos. If your photos are good, you can make some easy money!

The "elated squirrel with bread" wishes you all a happy Tuesday.

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The 88 Meme

Sunday Stealing: The 88 Meme

1. What type questions do you hate on a meme?
Deep-thinking ones that require long answers, like "How do your religious beliefs affect your morals?" 

2. If you married the last person you texted, what would your last name be?
Latham

3. Were you happy when you woke up today?
yes!

4. When were you on the phone last? And with who?
Yesterday afternoon with Lauren, while each of us were in different places in College Station.

5. Who are you excited for?
Lolo! First day of school tomorrow. 

7. Honestly, who was the last person to tell you they love you?
Jeff

8. What's the last thing you put in your mouth?
last night-- chocolate pudding

9. Have a best friend?
Laura and Cathy

10. Were you ever or are you scared to fall in love?
Only when I thought the other person wasn't in love with me. Not like it's possible to stop it, but I tried. Otherwise, I welcomed it wholeheartedly!

11. Do you think teenagers can be in love?
Of course!

12. Last person you wanted to punch in the face?
Mitt Romney

13. What time is it right this second?
9:53 a.m. CST

14. What do you want right now?
raisin bran

15. Who was the last person you took a picture with?
the extended family on the back porch of the beach house at the family reunion in July

16. Are you single/taken/heartbroken/or confused?
taken

17. When was the last time you cried?
This morning, watching an Olympics thing. This is to show Laura how easily I'm in tears:



18. Do you have a good relationship with your parents?
I did. :)

19. Do you find it hard to trust others?
No, I trust pretty much everyone implicitly, unless they have broken that trust at some point.

20. How fast does your mind change?
Not fast, but it can change.

21. I bet you miss somebody right now. Who is it?
Lauren

22. Can you honestly say you're okay right now?
Yes :)

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Friday

I'm really missing my mom these days, with all these big life changes going on. I thought of her this morning when I was editing this post.

In the first weeks after her stroke, when Mom would start to say something and it wasn't at all what she meant to say, she would laugh and say, "Erase... erase... erase," and then start over. We all continued to say it for years afterward, with a smile and a nod to how remarkable her complete mental recovery was.

I've had a long political entry written up here in draft form for several days. I kept putting off publishing it, because it just sounded very pessimistic, which isn't my nature. So I deleted all of it.

Erase... erase... erase. :)

I'll just report that Jeff and I tried to figure out the answer to partisan lemmingism and endless governmental bickering the other day and... well, we couldn't.

We examined all sorts of options, from having more political parties to eliminating the concept of parties altogether. All things considered, I think the only hope is that eventually someone as President (obviously not in the next four years with the candidates we have to choose from) or in Congress can be a uniting force to motivate and bring lawmakers together to make logical and reasonable compromises on both sides, so something is accomplished. Now THAT would be an opportunity to leave a legacy for one's family and one's country. I am keeping my eyes open for that person.


Patrick's Saturday Six

1. Which do you have more of: scars or birthmarks?
scars

2. Other than inside your own home or workplace, where are you likely to use mobile technology to check your email?
in a parking lot, either having just arrived somewhere early or about to leave somewhere

3. What percentage of appliances and electronics could you find the receipt for quickly if something went wrong and you needed to prove a date of purchase?
30%. We don't keep receipts long term for small appliances, which we would probably just replace if they broke. We have all receipts for large appliances and more expensive electronics. I do have all the manuals for everything we buy though. :)

4. When taking a flight, do you prefer a window seat, an aisle seat or a seat in the middle?
aisle

5. How do you order your eggs at a restaurant?
The only eggs I order at restaurants are Eggs Benedict. So... poached.

6. What kind of animal (include the breed if possible) was your first pet?
an orange tabby cat named Mickey I got as a kitten when I was 8

Mickey's favorite hangout- my bathroom sink

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Wednesday Videos

Cadbury had some beautiful sponsorship stings that aired in Ireland during the Olympics. See how cool they were...

Cadbury - Olympic Sponsorship Stings from Piranha Bar on Vimeo

I had no idea Bad Lip Reading did music vids! They are even better than the political ones. Just so impressive!

My absolute fave- "Russian Unicorn," for the video of "Just Haven't Met You Yet" by Michael Buble.



...We'll probably do it on the couch while my roomie's out hiking...

Check out Buble's comments. He's a great sport.

Here's "Yeti," for Coldplay's "In My Place."



...I love you, but you're wet and you're furry... and funky...

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Xanadu: The Musical

Kathy and I saw Xanadu yesterday at Zach Scott. Hilarious!! It's a parody of the 1980 film. It's funnier if you saw the movie and/or have some familiarity with 80's pop culture, but definitely not a requirement. My favorite line was a reference to the hunky Parker Stevenson. Blast from the past!

I don't prefer him that "surprised," but look at the gorgeous hair.

Jeff and I saw The Dark Knight Rises. It was good, but I could easily hack 45 minutes out of it. It does get bonus points for Anne Hathaway not annoying the crap out of me. B+


Sunday Stealing: Our Players' Meme

1. You have been awarded the time off from work and an all-expenses paid week anywhere in the United States. The catch is that it must be somewhere you have not been before. Where do you choose to visit?
Los Angeles

2. Name three of your guilty pleasures.
watching The Bachelor, singing along with Katy Perry songs, taking long showers

3. The best kind of Girl Scout Cookie is:
Thin Mints

4. What do you value most in other people?
sense of humor

5. Be honest. Do you sneak some raw cookie dough when you’re baking cookies?
of course

6. Have you ever looked back at your life and realized that something you thought was a bad thing was actually a blessing in disguise?!
Many times.

7. What is the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited?
Schönau am Königsee, near Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps.

8. Are you more of a thinker or a feeler?
I try to use my head, but my heart is all too frequently in the way.

9. Name three things you are thankful for right now.
Lauren happy with her move to college, having career options, football season

10. Have you ever participated in a three-legged race? 
Many times, when I was a kid.

11. When you are at an event that plays the National Anthem, do you place your hand over your heart?
Yep.

12. What kind of work do you do?
I'm the webmaster for a charitable foundation. I also run a website of my own.

13. During the course of your lifetime, which job or career has been your favorite or most fulfilling?
pharmaceutical research data management

14. Do you think it’s necessary in your life to have a day-to-day “career” that is meaningful and service-oriented or do you function better in “just a job” with a steady paycheck?
Definitely something that is meaningful and service-oriented.

15. Was there ever a time in your life when you wanted to stay home with your children instead of working, even if it meant less money in the household?
It was important to me to do that, and I'm thankful we were able to make it work.

16. Tell us your worst boss story.
I actually have no bad boss stories! So weird. I've worked at 5 places, and had only great bosses.

17. Have your ever been the boss?
I managed two employees during my CRO days. One of them was awesome and required no special attention whatsoever. The other was a pain in the rear.

18. What is your dream occupation? 
Broadway singer, George Clooney's wardrobe assistant, or working in the office with the hilarious folks at TMZ. My realistic dream job- Texas A&M University administration. Maybe someday. I'm working on a connection at a local college at the moment. We'll see what happens there.

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Officially Empty-Nesters

The girlie is moved into her house with her roommates! Mariel is a junior and Kim, Lauren's longtime friend, is a sophomore. They have one extra bedroom, so they'll probably get another roommate, but unlikely before next year or at least January.

It's such a beautiful house. Huge bedrooms. Our house has tiny bedrooms, so it's quite a change for her. I wish I had her ginormous closet.

(I see Google isn't flagging ginormous as a misspelling. Did Webster's decide enough of us are using it that it's a real word now? Well that's no fun!)

Lauren's room is gorgeous! She decorated it herself from floor to ceiling. It turned out really lovely with the IKEA decor she chose.

She's got over a week before school starts. Her football player friends have been there since the beginning of summer. Kim moved in yesterday with Lauren. Shannon moves into her apartment today. Justin will be moving into his dorm on Tuesday. Then it's a steady stream of people over the next several days. It's nice that they'll be able to hang out and settle in before the first day of classes. So exciting!

For lovers of music and movies, like me...

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Olive Oil Lubricant

The adorable Kelly Pickler was the guest on The Chew Thursday. She made pizza with Chef Batali. Mario said olive oil is "...good for your heart, good for your health, and *big smile* a nice little lubricant... for pizza." Kelly and Michael's reactions were priceless. Chef Symon turned ten shades of red.

The whole segment was entertaining. Lubricant at 3:38...



Man, I love that show. But I hate zucchini. So I'm totally making the pizza with wide ribbons of raw cucumber. Mmm!

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Are You Ready for Some Football?

Last day with the kiddo at home. We're packing up a truck tonight and heading out in the morning. It's exciting and very weird at the same time. I'll just keep focusing on football to keep from lingering too long on the whole thing.

Our A&M season tix arrived yesterday! I think we're going to sell our extra two for both the Florida and LSU games, to make back a significant portion, if not all, of our expenditure this year.

Chad went to Tech and is a football fan. When I was at the office yesterday, I asked if he ever goes to games. He said that they haven't been in a while, because his little ones are too little and also that in Lubbock the hotel rooms fill up about a year ahead. (I'm very familiar with the hotel issue.) He asked me if we were going to the Tech/A&M game this year. "OH WAIT. That's right. You left your Big 12 family." We had a discussion about all this in spring. The sniping continues. :)

This year at A&M- new coach, new quarterback, new conference! It may not be the best season ever, but it sure will be fun to watch!

*Speaking of "football," a shout out to the US Men's Soccer Team, for successfully defeating Mexico for the first time in forever, the first time ever in Mexico. Woohoo!

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She's So Mean

Matchbox Twenty is back! YAAAY!!!!!

Wait. This is the first single from North?



It's so blah. Too "pop" for even me. Let's hear a little ROCK, boys! I do think the video is very cute though. Need to listen to the rest of the album.

Had a weekly conference call this afternoon. Forty people or so. I'm that girl who is always checking the phone to make sure it is muted, so no one hears commentary in our conference room or, as is frequently the case, family noise at my house. (Me laughing as Kiptyn claws at the phone every time Gene speaks.) At the end of today's meeting, we were running over a bit when one of the attendees accidentally left her phone unmuted and started having a very animated discussion with someone in the office. "I guess that's a hint that this meeting is running too long!" our host nervously chuckled/shouted over her. "We'll see you all next week! Bye!"

Nice save!

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:(

Tragedy in College Station yesterday. Over an eviction? Really? It's insanity. So sad. It's always impossible to wrap your head around this sort of thing. My heart goes out to the victims, especially Constable Bachmann's family.

I spent all day yesterday functioning on 2.5 hours of sleep. You know, how it feels like having a hangover, but you didn't get to enjoy any drinks the night before. I thought I would help Laura set up her classroom after I wasn't able to go back to sleep, but I just sat in a comfy chair all day while she worked. Ha! She was nice and said she just wanted me to chat, but I know she was thinking I wasn't really capable of much more at that point.

This morning I'm feeling better after a more reasonable night. It's going continue to be a very busy week around here. I've got Foundation stuff out the yang at the same time as we're packing Lauren up to go to school. Three more days of getting everything ready! I think it's time for a family movie break. Maybe The Campaign tonight!


Curious as a Cat

1) Describe your "good china," whether you actually own any or not.
Noritake Southern Lace. How I remember these minutiae of twenty-something years ago, but can't remember what I had for lunch, remains a mystery.

No, I didn't dig it out of the top shelf, finely packed away china bags it's been in since 1992. This is a web photo I found. Pretty stuff. Too bad I've only used it twice. Eight full sets, plus Gorham King Edward crystal glassware. (Mind like a rusty trap, I tell ya'.) I'm a casual entertainer, so we should have registered for Fiestaware.

2) When are you happiest?
When Jeff, Lauren and I are laughing together about something.

3) If you could turn into two people right now, what are the first two things you'd want to do?
a. start taping boxes together and helping Lauren pack her things
b. head straight to the beach

4) Show and Tell. What comes to mind first when you see this picture? Or, tell a story if it reminds you of one.

This reminds me of several weeks ago when the guy was flying around our neighborhood with his powered parachute.

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Cheerio, London!

Wow, what an awesome Olympics closing ceremony!! So much great music and legendary talent on stage. Bravo! (George Michael! Eeeeee!)

I miss the Olympics every time it's over. You spend so much time and emotion on it, and then it's suddenly back to your regularly scheduled life. I had to bust out the tissues again last night, just watching the video montage of everything that's happened the past two weeks! It'll take me a couple of days to get used to not watching.

I was driving this morning at 4 a.m. Dance/party music was still playing on the radio. Yeesh, people. Turn off the disco ball and get ready for work.

By the way, Starbucks doesn't open until 5 a.m., in case you were wondering.

Time for a nap! Happy Monday, peeps!

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Practical Romance

Congratulations Mexico!!!! Gold medal in Olympics soccer! Way to GOLD! (Aww, man. The days of my Olympic puns are coming to a close tonight.) It was a very exciting game.

Fun at Scott-n-Julie's last night! Scott made freaking amazing carne asada. We had a discussion of the highly practical nature of both our marriage proposals and the girls picking out our own rings. Julie is the practical one in their world, and Jeff is the practical one in mine. Well, Scott and I are practical, too, just more romantic than pragmatic.

Scott and Julie had been talking about getting married, and thought about getting engaged in France, while they were visiting. Julie was picking out an engagement ring there, and she got worried about there being a problem with it and not being able to return to the shop for repairs or a replacement. (Scott was rolling his eyes in the background as that point.) So they didn't get engaged there.

Jeff and I talked for a while about getting married as well. It was graduation, and the typical "get married or break up" end-of-school choice many couples have to make. There were weeks of discussion, and a well-expected proposal, followed by our going to the jewelry store so I could pick out a ring. Jeff said he "didn't want to spend a lot of money on something Kathy didn't like." Just so you know, guys, we would love any engagement ring you choose. Seriously. Just get one.

20-something years later, both couples are hanging out, having wine and reminiscing over their engagements, happily married with some great kids. So I suppose a practical approach to marriage can get you to the same place as an impetuous approach. (I'm telling you though... Just get the ring, boys.)


Sunday Stealing: The Authentic Meme

1. How long have you been blogging?
Since April 11, 2003

2. Did you go to college?
Texas A&M University

3. Where have you traveled?
Vegas, Phoenix, NYC, Charleston, Kansas, Wisconsin, Texas, San Diego, Tijuana, San Juan, San Francisco, Wyoming, Yellowstone, Cancun, Jamaica, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Halifax, Toronto, Binghamton, Niagara Falls, Hawaii (big island), Oahu, Boston, Bar Harbor, Colorado, Grand Canyon, Nashville, Alabama, New Orleans, Little Rock, Tulsa, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Germany, England

4. Which celebrity do you get mistaken for?
If I were twenty years younger-- Ellie Kemper

5. What are your three biggest pet peeves?
dangerous/stupid drivers, people parking their cart in the middle of the grocery store aisle, when my Time Warner POS DVR doesn't record a show

6. What is your favorite movie?
Love Actually

7. What is your drink of choice; wine, beer, or liquor. Or Water, Soda, Tea?
tea

8. What is something you enjoy to do when you have "me" time?
play video games

9. What is your biggest phobia?
I never like to be in a space where I can't get out without someone having to let me out, like being on the inside of a booth at a restaurant, or the middle or window seat on a plane, or the back seat of a two-door car. I have no idea what that is. Perhaps a type of claustrophobia.

10. Share with us an embarrassing moment of your past.
The very first time I met my in-laws, we were having dinner at their house. I had just put a whole grape in my mouth and Liz asked me a question. When I started talking, the grape popped out and rolled across the table.

11. What day would you love to relive again? Why?
My wedding day. I'd like to go through it again without all that adrenaline pumping, so I could really pay very close attention to every minute. I was so incredibly excited about marrying Jeff and mindful of  the details of the ceremony and reception, that much of it was a blur.

12. If your life was turned into a movie… what actor would your best friend think should play you?
She would say Charlize Theron, because she's nice like that.

13. What are the jobs you had in high school/college/the early years?
telephone solicitor, restaurant hostess, shoe store sales clerk, babysitter

14. Show us a picture from high school or college.

My infamous deer in the windshield. That's Bob and I in the background.

15. If you could travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, where would you go?
I would travel all of Italy.

16. Where do you see your life 6 and 1/2 years from now?
Maybe we'll be ready to move to another house then. I'll be working and well into the career thing.

17. If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, what age would it be and why?
32. Old enough to really know myself and how to get what I want in life, and young enough to do anything without any age-related limitations.

18. What 5 songs are included on the soundtrack to your life? (You can pick "Middle School", "High School", "College", "Post College" or any format you like.)
I'll go Post-College Soundtrack...

1)  "Don't Know Much" Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, our first dance at our wedding reception


2)"Isn't She Lovely" Stevie Wonder, Lauren was born


3) "I Want You Back (Blues Version)" NSYNC, fansite years


4) "All Star" Smash Mouth, Lauren's all-star cheer years


5) "Unwritten" Natasha Bedingfield, big life changes ahead!


19. Romney picked Paul Ryan to run as his veep. Any thoughts?
Who?

20. Your chance: Pick a meme you've done for us to steal. Bud and Judd will visit EVERY post today. Feel free to say, "Bugger off", or anything like that.
Wedding Meme

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BMX Rocks

I found a new sport for me. BMX! The US team's extensive injuries notwithstanding, it looks superfun! Arielle Martin is still in the hospital after suffering a lacerated liver and a collapsed lung when her bike chain broke in training. Brooke Crain, who replaced her in Olympic competition, was injured in an accident in the seeding race. Alise Post had a scary faceplant in semifinals and had to be helped to walk across the finish line.

From the Daily Mail:
I'd rather hug a pit bull than try BMX...

But ohmigosh... it looks like a thrill-and-a-half to ride those hills and curves!


Saturday 9: If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Right)

1. Has you ever done something that you knew was wrong, but because of love or lust, did it anyway?
Once or twice I may have found myself in a situation where I was doing a wrongish sort of thing. For love. Not trying to justify it. Just saying. 

1) I'm fairly sure Evans had a girlfriend for at least a portion of the year we were still seeing each other whenever I was home from school on weekends. We had mutually decided up front that wouldn't ask each other about our love lives outside our relationship. Intuition told me he was seeing someone, but I never asked directly.

2) JohnN and I were together for about three months, but we were never "officially" boyfriend and girlfriend. During summer, when John was out of town at home one weekend, I went out with Jeff (my ex at the time). I don't think it was wrong for me to go out with Jeff, but at the same time, I didn't tell John, because I knew he would have been hurt by it.

2. Do you take longer to dress for a special event?
Of course. How could one not?

3. Do you consider yourself a good driver?
Very much so.

4. If you won Powerball, what would be the first thing you spent it on?
A trip to Italy

5. How much of the Olympics have you watched? Why?
A medium amount, I think. I watch the big events of the sports I like. There's just too much of even the sports I like to see all of them.

6. Have you ever changed your appearance because of a random happenstance?
Like I just robbed a bank and I need to change my hair color? Or I just saw my ex and I need to don sunglasses and a hat? Hmm. I don't think so.

7. Do you consider yourself attractive?
Averagely attractive

8. If you started your own religion, what would it be like?
There are plenty of great religions out there already. I don't think I need to start another one.

9. Have you ever given up too easily in the game of love?
Yes. If a guy I was into wasn't obviously into me right off the bat, I assumed he wasn't interested. Then I was on to the next one.

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USA USA USA

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!! Way to play, USA!!!!!! What a great women's soccer match against Japan. The respect between the players of both teams was very obvious. Japan played so well. It was really fun to watch.

I took a break from Olympics viewing last night, as I'm not a huge fan of the track and field events. It was funny to see Chef Symon's FB status: "is without a trace good?...need a olympics break." Glad to know I wasn't the only one.

Lauren bought a few photo collage frames for her room at school. She and I spent a few hours scanning and printing photos, old ones from albums and newer ones from digital copies. So fun!

I haven't printed many photos from my Canon iP4700 printer in the past, but I am now aware that it doesn't print accurate colors. Grr! Many people report a magenta cast. These have an orange cast. And nothing I do in Paint Shop Pro or in my printer settings helps. The contrast is way off as well.

It reminded me of the time I spent hours blindly correcting colors for a magazine ad I did for the Foundation. That was a whole lesson in color science I wish I never needed. The ad was perfect in the end, at a cost of tons of time and frustration for me. We started hiring out our print items after that. Our new graphics designer told me I need a Mac to do that stuff. Via certain publishing programs, the Mac can display CMYK colors on the screen, which is RGB... Oy, now I'm going all "Bill Nye," and dragging you all along with me. Let's Friday Five instead!


Friday Five: Movie Questions

This week, please answer these questions that are also titles of films I’ve seen. Some of them may not make any sense, but do the best you can!

1. Shall We Dance?
Yes, please! Anytime.

2. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
My brother lives in Gummersbach, Germany, near Cologne. And now I've got Clooney on the brain. Thanksalot.

3. What’s Up, Doc?
Not much. I can't work on the website today because the CMS is being updated. Lauren and I have about nine more photos to find and print. It's like a treasure hunt... "Remember this one where you're wearing this and so-and-so is in the background?... Yes! Which album is that in... It's around 1998..." We'll probably go out to lunch. I may get a haircut. I would love to take my hair just above my shoulders, and let it be curly, but I've done that in the past with dreadful results, so... probably not.

4. What’s Your Number?
3. There are a lot of wonderful threes in my life, so I consider it to be my favorite number, lucky number, etc.

5. Casual Sex?
No thanks. I have friends who do it, and that's totally cool for them. I just couldn't do it myself. If I didn't have an emotional connection with the person, I think I would feel very disconnected and lonely afterwards. But you do your thing, "One-Night-Stand" Lochte! ;)

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Getting Ready for "The Move"

Aww. Heartbreak song 1988...



...Brush yourself off and say ok
Then start yourself off and say 'which way?'
And brush yourself off and say yeah yeah
 
I'm never gonna fall that way again
My feet never touched the ground
I'm never gonna sit & count to ten
I'll always remember
Some people would've called this Heaven-sent
If only they'd known better...

"If Only" When In Rome


One more week until the kiddo's move to College Station. Lauren is a very organized young lady, so she has everything running smoothly with her lists.

*Proud Mom*  :-D

Our front room looks like a Storage Wars fantasy locker. Yeeeeeeuuuuuuup. There's a whole shiny, new bedroom in there, along with all the furniture that lives there every day.

Lauren's new mattress has a low-profile box spring, so the bedskirt will have to be shortened a bit. Next week, I'll take photos and show you my duct tape solution to adjusting the length of a bedskirt. It's all a highly mathematical, return-to-high-school-geometry theory at the moment, but I'm anticipating success. It all depends on if duct tape sticks to that weirdish material that goes across the top of the box spring. Duct tape sticks to anything, yes?

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Well, Farkle.

There are few worse emails to get than the dreaded notice from IT that the website database was corrupted, so they had to revert to a backup that was made just before you started working on it yesterday. For hours.

In other news, a convo with Lolo the other day...

Me: Caleb's status is "Early weekend. F**k the world."
Lauren: *confused look*
Me: Well, it actually says, "Early weekend. FTW."
Lauren: That's "for the win."
Me: Ahh. That makes more sense.

Lauren taught us to play the dice game Farkle. It's really fun and only slightly more complicated than Bunco. So you can add it to the list of games you can play well while drinking heavily! Or while watching the Olympics! Or both!

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Cycling "Sprint"?

After the brief roundup of Olympic news for the day, NBC launched into the first primetime event of the evening last night... Indoor Cycling Men's Sprint. I know from previous velodrome events, that the cyclists' feet are locked into the pedals, so they have to be held up by people until the race starts. It looks so silly. There could easily be a contraption that hooks into the front wheel and opens up to let them take off at the start... but eh. It's funnier and far more awkward to have people wheel them around like parents teaching a five-year-old how to ride.

Anyhoo... the race begins. It's a three-lap deal. They start around the track at a pace so slow, they can barely stay upright.

I am not kidding.

The guy in front is constantly looking behind him. I'm thinking, GO! What the...?!!

Jeff explains to me that he's watching the guy in back, because that guy is going to "make his move" at any moment.

... time passes...

They make it all the way around the loop and the guy in back still hasn't done a darn thing. They move from the inside of the track up to the outside. Oooh. *fingers drumming*

Still going incredibly slow. Front guy is still looking back. Now I'm just getting annoyed. I'm guessing no one in the sprint cares about their time. Wondering if there is a medal for longest time. Imagining that if they go any slower, one of them is bound to fall over. Feeling like I should switch the channel to Real Housewives of NYC.

After I whip up some light snacks and beverages, lap three starts. Finally the guy in back makes that move Jeff was talking about. They are actually racing! I totally miss that they crossed the finish line, because they continue riding around the track at top speed. So they inch around the track for two laps, then take off and never ever stop? You've got to be kidding me.

Ahh. Evidently they are going to start again. It's best two out of three. Kill. Me. Now.

Thank goodness they switched to diving coverage then.

For the Olympic suggestion box: Make the cycling sprint one balls-to-the-wall lap. No pointless lollygagging.

Speaking of sprint... Congrats to Bolt the other night on the 100m! What a race!

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Nobody's on Nobody's Side

Me too, Maxine.  Me too.

Oh, and this is hi-freaking-larious:

OK. I feel bad about panning Chess, so I want to share with you the one song I do remember. This is "Nobody's Side," beautifully sung by Idina Menzel at a program called Chess in Concert at Royal Albert Hall in London in 2008. Josh Groban sang Anatoly's part, and I see that Adam Pascal sang Frederick's part. Brilliant casting!



...Never take a stranger's advice
Never let a friend fool you twice
Nobody's on nobody's side.
Never be the first to believe
Never be the last to deceive
Nobody's on nobody's side...

"Nobody's Side" Florence, in the musical Chess

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Chess

Kathy and I saw Chess last night at the Long Center. It's a 1986 musical about the Cold War, told through the story of the 1972 chess "Match of the Century" between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. It is written by the incomparable Tim Rice and the very talented guys of ABBA. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? It ran three years back in the day in London. It didn't do as well on Broadway.

Kathy and I didn't like it much. It's been a long time since I saw a show I didn't like. The performers were great, especially the two female leads. Gorgeous voices. The cast gave me chills with their bold and perfect ABBA-esque harmony. The problem is the musical itself. The story just doesn't flow well and the songs weren't memorable. Well, there was one you all know. "One Night in Bangkok" is from this musical! Seriously! We had no idea. First song, second act. That one was fun to watch.

I read a little about the musical afterwards.

In 2001, in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle Tim Rice admitted that after the "comparative failure of Chess, his all-time favourite, he became disillusioned with theatre." He commented, "It may sound arrogant, but Chess is as good as anything I've ever done. And maybe it costs too much brainpower for the average person to follow it".

Ouch. No, I followed it. I just don't believe that a man can fall madly in love with and leave his wife and children for a woman with whom he's sung about half a song verse. I think there are so many plot points that the character development is very thin. The audience gets neither the backstory nor the time to get too involved. I didn't really care about any of the characters because there were so few scenes that showed any depth to these people.

Most importantly, I just didn't like the majority of the music. Other than "One Night in Bangkok," which I know from 80's pop radio, there wasn't a single song that I remembered afterwards. You see Rice's Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat or Jesus Christ Superstar, and the songs stay in your head.


Sunday Stealing: The Useless Questions Meme

Have you ever written a song? 
Several. I usually write the lyrics and a partner writes the music. I can't even come up with an original tune in my head. I'm more a words girl. And still a HUGE Tim Rice fan, despite last night's disappointment. :)

Have you ever been in the opposite sex's public toilet?
When I was in fifth grade, we got a brand new elementary school. It was open concept, with each grade in one large room, divided with tall closets and other rolling furniture. During open house night, GayLynn Borski and I were in the 5th grade pod with our parents, and no one else happened to be there at the moment. She and I went into the boys' bathroom, giggling and screaming the whole time.

Are you superstitious? 
Nope

What's the most daring thing you've done? 
I used to single-handedly monitor 60 middle-schoolers in the library every morning before school.

Did you have a baby blanket? Do you still sleep with it?
Yes I did. No I don't.

Have you ever tried to cut your own hair? If yes, how’d it work out?
I cut my own bangs all the time. I've never tried to cut my own hair.

Have you ever sleepwalked? 
no

If you could be any age, what age would you be? 
32

What is your dream car? 
BMW Z4

What is your favorite cartoon of all time? 
Bugs Bunny

If you were in a car sinking in a lake, what would you do first? 
Roll down the window

Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? 
Yep. When I fainted at Walmart.

How many foreign countries have you visited?
11: Mexico, Jamaica, Cayman Islands (Great Britain), Bahamas, Netherlands Antilles, St. Martin (part of France- oui), Dominican Republic, Haiti, Canada, Germany, England

If you fell into quicksand, would you try to swim or try to float?
Doesn't moving make it worse? I would try to float.

Do you talk in your sleep? 
Occasionally

Have you ever slipped in the bathtub? 
Yep. I've never injured myself.

If you could invite any movie star to your home for dinner, who would it be? 
George Clooney

Have you ever re-gifted? 
No

If you could attend an Olympic Event, what would it be?
Summer- women's gymnastics. Winter-  men's figure skating.

If you could participate in an Olympic Event, what would it be? 
Summer- badminton. Winter- snowboard halfpipe.

If you won a $5,000 shopping spree to any store, which store would you pick? 
The Container Store 

If you were to win an Oscar, what kind of movie would it be for?
romantic comedy

Which of the five senses is most important to you? 
hearing

Would you be a more successful painter or singer? 
singer

How many years will/did you end up going to college? 
five

Have you ever had surgery? 
several times

What do you like to collect? 
music

How many collectibles do you have?
2089 well-chosen songs in iTunes at the moment

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Olympic Observations

When the US women's gymnastic team talks to the press, they speak in motivational clichés and fortune cookie quotes. They're young, and lovely girls, so it's okay with me. It's just so funny!

Why do the female swimmers hug and kiss and congratulate each other after a race, while the guys don't even look at each other? The girls are always so supportive of one another afterwards, even swimming across lanes to tell someone "That was amazing!" Finally, for the first time, after yesterday's Phelps win in the 100m butterfly, he collected hugs from silver medalist Chad le Clos of South Africa on one side and the guy on the other as well. Way to go, men! Hug it out!

Chad and Michael. Photo from ESPN

Saturday 9: Meme 250 - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

1. Do you ever feel like you are nowhere?
Whenever I drive through Buda.

2. Do you keep your cool no matter what is going on around you?
To an extent. If it's a medical emergency and there's blood involved, I usually have to leave the area at some point. If it's something where people around me are freaking out or pissed off, I outwardly appear to be keeping my cool, but Jeff will hear all the mumbling under my breath and know that I'm not cool at all.

3. Do you feel that career should be more important than your love life?
I moved to Austin to marry my college sweetheart, completely forgoing a big nuclear engineering career. So no.

4. In what way do you feel that you are unique?
As the US women's gymnastics team would say: I am unique in every way... and in no way at all.

5. Do you feel that there is a part of you that you need to hide from most people?
The part that sings show tunes at the top of my lungs while I'm doing the dishes and no one's home.

6. Have you ever held on to a relationship even though you truly knew it was already over?
No. None of my serious relationships had that sort of path, where you know it should end, but it hasn't yet.

7. Would you say that you are a winner in this game of life?
I've survived two types of cancer and ended up with a wonderful family. If that isn't winning, I don't know what is.

8. Can you tell us about a time when you were broke and yet still happy?
College! I've never been completely broke, but I lived on a very minimal amount of money then. I'm actually very good at it, and could go back in a second if I had to. College is a good time to be broke, because everyone is broke right along with you.

9. Do you think staying celibate between relationships important?
What degree of celibacy are we talking about? When I was dating, I didn't get super-intimate with anyone unless we were in a relationship. It was important to me to never have regrets in that arena. Did I make out with guys I went out with once or twice? Sometimes. But nothing where I would have been embarrassed to have seen them the next day at the mall.

Can you tell I was 22 the last time I dated? :)

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Allergy

For a few weeks, my lips have been somewhat swollen. I finally got concerned enough to go to our family doc (well, the PA), who had absolutely no idea what it was, but told me that she used to work in a med spa and I look like I have lip injections gone wrong.

So now I have swollen lips and a complex.

I went to my dermatologist the next day (well, his sub because he's on vacation), and she said I am allergic to something I've been putting in my mouth or on my lips. I haven't been using new lipstick or anything, so she thinks it's something I've been using for years, to which I've developed an allergy. That sort of complicates figuring out what it is.

Possibilities:

toothpaste- either the mint flavor, tartar control ingredient or whitening ingredient
gum- mint flavor
mouthwash- mint flavor or any number of other ingredients
lip balm (Burt's Bees)- beeswax, mint or eucalyptus
lip balms (others) or lipsticks- sunscreen

We've removed all those things from my life for the moment, plus anything with mint flavoring. Then we add things back one at a time to identify the culprit. I'm also applying a steroid cream to my lips twice a day, in hopes the whole "bad lip job" thing will resolve within two weeks.

I'm brushing my teeth with baking soda. It makes me want to hurl, but I only have to put up with it for three weeks. I am newly thankful for toothpaste.

I wonder if I can have a piece of cinnamon gum.

*sigh*

Huge day for our US Olympians yesterday! My favorite medal ceremony reaction so far- Kayla Harrison who won gold in Judo. Bust out the tissues....

Watch the ceremony here

She sang AND cried. Love it!!

You've come all that way, done all that work, dedicated your life to something and you've won. Feel it! We at home have just jumped around our living rooms for five minutes, high-fiving each other. It's then sort of deflating to watch the medal-winner(s) stand emotionless on the podium.

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LOL Internet

So happy to see the Nathon Fillion/ Anne (and Wil) Wheaton photo on The Bloggess. Yeah, I saw it two weeks ago, but for some reason, it just popped into my head to share with you. If you know the whole story behind that photo, you will LOVE it! If you don't know the whole hilarious history, click all the handy links she's added and catch up.

And this is for... well... anyone who "gets" this:

*dies*

Between Jenna and Jenny, the internet is a pretty darn entertaining place.


Patrick's Saturday Six

1. What do you like most about your blog?
It's usually a place I can say whatever I'm thinking. Now and then, what I'm thinking shouldn't be written down, but most of the time, yes.

2. What do you like least about your blog?
Dealing with spammers.

3. What do you think is the most intimidating part about writing a blog?
Feeling pressure to keep it current. If you don't write regularly, no one reads. Although, I recommend using an RSS reader to keep up, especially with people who blog infrequently, so you don't have to go there all the time to see if they've updated.

4. How long does it take you to compose a typical post?
I probably average 20 minutes. Anywhere from 2 minutes to 45 minutes.

5. How often do you experience writer’s block on your blog?
Once a week.

6. What’s the easiest improvement that you want to make on your blog?
The easiest is a change I just made yesterday. Recently, YouTube changed their TOS to only allow embedding of players at least 200 pixels in width and height. My sidebar only allows 280 pixel width, which results in a 158 pixel height, so my Favorite Song of the Moment hasn't played directly in a while. You get an error message that says, "The player is too small." You can always click on the YouTube logo and watch there, but it's a pet peeve of mine to have something on a site that doesn't work the way it should. So I have decided to always find a copy of the video somewhere that allows direct play from the sidebar from now on. For the main post area, I still post You Tube vids, because they can easily meet the minimum embedded player size requirements.

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Back to the Future Olympics

Dear NBC,

If you're going to tape delay the Olympics, at least don't be "that guy" who's seen the movie, who sits next to you and tells you EVERYTHING THAT IS COMING UP.

Commentator, during the vault- "The Romanians do better next, on the beam."

As someone is about to begin an awesome floor exercise- "Watch as so-and-so completely forgets her poor performance on beam."

Seriously? I wish I could have left you at home. Just eat your popcorn and watch it along with everyone else.

No love,
Me

I love badminton. I enjoy playing and although I haven't seen it yet during this Olympics, I have really enjoyed watching Olympic badminton in past games. You laugh, but they really get in there and kick some ass! Bet you didn't think there would be badminton hijinks, now did you?! Grittier sport than you thought, eh? Don't make fun.

Huge congrats to the Fab Five in gymnastics yesterday!! Way to gold!! Also happy for Phelps and his new medal record. And did the guys kick butt and take names on the 4x200m freestyle or WHAT? Woooohooo!

Yay! (From the Denver Post)

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