Sunrise Saturday

I'm UP at 5:15 a.m. on Saturday. (Gah. Really?) So I'm watching Nate Berkus, and this amusing exchange just happened... 23-year-old Kathy is moving back home after college and her childhood bedroom needs a makeover. Nate wants to replace the flooring and asked what her parents are going to do with the room when she eventually moves out.

Kathy: I don't know. They haven't done anything with my brother's room and he moved out a few years ago.
Nate: What are their names?
Kathy: Jim and Brian.
Nate: Jim and Brian?
Kathy: Yes.
Nate (to the camera): Well, Jim and Brian, when you eventually redo this room...
Kathy: No, those are my BROTHERS.
Nate (as the audience is laughing): Hey, this is a judgement free zone. That's why I asked twice! And I'm the last person who should be questioning! What are your PARENTS' names?
Kathy (blushing): Chuck and Sally.

Too funny!

Speaking of moving out, Lauren is moving up north (to north Austin, not Montana) in a few weeks. Today we're hitting IKEA for her living room furniture. Why is it so much fun to walk around there?! The only thing that makes me crazy is when people are walking the wrong direction. If you need to go back to see something, just finish the path, exit the store and come back into the entrance again. It sounds like a pain, but returning backwards down the IKEA path is like fighting a salmon run.

When I have some time to get bedroom furniture and decor, I'll set up her empty bedroom as her "bedroom at home." (For now, we have a guest bedroom for her to stay when she's here.) And I'll just continue to use the "video game room" as a workout space, I think. She's taking back her desk, which I've been using as my desk, so I'll need to do a little rearranging in the office space upstairs.

We gave her some money to decorate her living room and kitchen, so she's enjoying picking out colors, etc. IKEA is a great place to get that sort of stuff, too. Especially large art for a college student budget!

Saturday 9: Walk This Way
If you're not familiar with today's song, you can hear it here.

1) This song is about a young man who takes advantage of his "big chance at a high school dance." Share a memory from your high school years.
Interesting- I think I went to every single high school dance we had while I was there, but I remember very little about the details of any of them! A high school memory- the day Grant and I recorded a song we wrote in his home studio. I had written the lyrics and he had composed the music. He played keyboards and I did the vocal track. The whole process was too cool! I still need to figure out how to get that recording from cassette to MP3.

2) Lead singer Steven Tyler is the son of a working mother (mom Susan was a secretary). Did your mother work outside the home?
My mom didn't work until I was in 6th grade. Then she got a part-time job at a print shop. When I was in high school, she took a position at IBM in their mapping division and worked there the rest of her career. She was also the accountant for our neighborhood homeowners association for many, many years.

3) Onstage, Tyler takes colorful scarves from around his neck and drapes them over the microphone. Do you accessorize your outfits with scarves and belts? Or do you prefer to keep things simple?
I keep things simple, typically, although this winter I wore some scarves.

4) Tyler confessed to having a massive crush on Jennifer Lopez, his fellow judge on American Idol. Do you think a coworker has ever had a crush on you?
Well, C called me her "girl crush" yesterday! Bwahaha!

5) Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry says seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 inspired him to go into music. How did you end up in your chosen profession?
Completely by accident. I took a job in clinical research to just give me something to do while I wrote my engineering Master's thesis. I loved the job so much and felt such a sense of accomplishment in contributing to the improvement of people's health and well-being, that I ditched the thesis and stuck with pharmaceuticals.

6) Perry's hobby, breeding horses, is very lucrative. What are your hobbies?
I like hiking and writing. I've also run my own website for 14 years.

7) Aerosmith performed before their biggest-ever TV audience when they played the Super Bowl halftime show in 2001. Are you a football fan? If so, do you prefer college football or the NFL? What teams do you root for?
I was a crazy Houston Oilers fan as a kid. Once I hit college, I became a college football fan and lost touch with pro football. I enjoy watching an NFL game, but I don't keep up with what's going on. I watch a lot of college football and we have Texas A&M season tickets!

8) Now that we're into summer, the days are longer. When is the last time you watched the sun set?
It's been a while!

9) What time did you go to sleep last night? 
11:00