Tomorrow. The Day.

Tomorrow it begins, people. The greatest time of year. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.

The renovations to the north end of Royal Memorial Stadium have been completed.

I have a new purse for game days.

And this year, glory of glories, I have a partner in crime. I have a true Texas fan to go with me to all the games. No more begging people to come to a game with me ("Come on! Just one game! I'll buy you a drink when we get there..."). No more selling tickets on eBay when I can't find anyone to go with me and I just can't face losing money on yet another ticket. No more squeezing in with my parents' seats so I don't have to sit alone in my own seats. This year: two tickets, two butts in seats.

Let the joy begin!!!

Rock me Sexy Jesus!

J and I celebrated our 10-month anniversary (aren't we cute?) last night by catching an actual first-run movie and dinner at an actual theater (as opposed to our usual stop at the Redbox on the way home to whatever I've got in the pantry). It was a mix of emotions.

On the upside, we are going strong at our 10-month mark, really happy together and making plans for the future, so we enjoy celebrating our monthly landmark and were, thus, in a good mood last night.

On the upside, we chose Alamo Drafthouse, which is always a little more fun than a regular theater, because you get to eat real food while you watch your movie. Just choosing this venue added to our good mood and feeling of celebration. Plus, we have good memories of this particular location of Alamo, since we saw a really funny Mr. Sinus Theater there of The Breakfast Club.

On the downside, with the potential to ruin our grand evening, was the service at Alamo. Usually, I have good luck there. I had a run of bad service at the Lakeline location and don't go there anymore, but I've never had a problem at the other locations until last night. When the waiter first came by, J and I were still trying to decide what food to order, so we just ordered our drinks (waters with lemon - not exactly difficult). By the time the waters arrived, we were still slow in writing up our order. We'd decided to split a steak sandwich accompanied by chili fries, and we were going to place a dessert order for chocolate molten cake a la mode when the sandwich arrived. Tasty, no?

So, we wrote up our order, stuck it on the table as we're supposed to, and we waited for our waiter to come get it. For a long time. Well into the movie. The people on either side of us had long since gotten their food (which was killing us with its fantastic aroma), and there our order sat - lonely and ineffectual in flagging down the waiter. J decided that perhaps he should place the dessert order with the food order, so he added that, with the notation that it should come later. Finally, the waiter came and got our order, and he verified that the dessert should come after the food.

The movie continued. Our neighbors got their dessert. I became distracted by my hunger, and still no food. I became agitated. I watched every single person who passed in the aisle, hoping it was our waiter bringing our food. Finally, after 40 minutes - let me repeat that: 40 minutes - our food arrived. All of our food. The main course AND the dessert. Way to follow directions. I thought the sandwich was great, but wasn't thrilled with the fries, which they'd added queso to (we only wanted chili - not queso AND chili). J didn't care for either. And we had to hurry so the ice cream with our cake wouldn't melt.

It really had the potential to ruin the evening except for one thing. The movie was phenomenal! We saw Hamlet 2, and it was absolutely hysterical!! Now, it won't be for everyone. It's an independent film, and it has that indie feel to it, like Napolean Dynamite. It's irreverant, and there's a lot of foul language, so if that bothers you, don't go. It's low budget, mostly with actors you don't know, but a few familiar faces pop up (such as Elizabeth Shue - here's her first scene - who knew she was still around???), and honestly, it was just the best thing J and I have seen in a long time! Not everyone will get the kick out of it we did, but we laughed the whole freakin' time and so did all the people in the theater with us, and we've been saying lines from it since we got up out of our chairs. We really loved it!

The ads focus on the presence of Amy Poehler, but she has a really small part. She's funny, but not even close to being the focus. The lead actor is a guy named Steve Coogan, and he is absolutely the reason the movie is so great. He totally commits to the role of this washed-up actor teacher who is about THIS close to going off the deep end and doesn't quite know it. He's really the key to the whole movie. And the play his character writes, Hamlet 2, is a Springtime with Hitler kind of delight. We just had a great time watching it.

If you watch it and hate it, then probably you won't ever listen to me recommend anything again, but I hope it gets a great following. For us, it snatched a sinking evening right out of the crapper.

"I work for gas money. That's why I skate everywhere. And a DUI."

Come on, now.

Yahoo news had the following headline, "U.S. makes history in table tennis."

Table tennis. I think you mean ping pong. I'll try to control my excitement about U.S. athletic excellence in ping pong.

I mean, seriously - ping pong as an Olympic sport? That's really stretching it, folks. What would the training diet for that be? What kind of endorsements do you think the gold medal winner will get? You think Nike and Reebok have been in talks behind the scenes with the front-runners?

Really, people, what's next? Hopscotch? Jumping rope? How about some nail-biting see-saw competition or paddle ball?


And don't ask me, "Well, could you do it?" No. I couldn't play ping pong better than anyone else in the world. I can't Riverdance either. Doesn't mean it should be an Olympic sport. (Though that would actually have more of a justification for it than ping pong. At least it requires actual athleticism.)

In my email...

123everythingabout.com says, "We don't care about your score.."

My first thought was, "Well, then why did I bother playing?"

My second thought was, "If scores don't matter, does that mean we all get gold medals?"

But then I realized that I had tied with the Chinese gymnast for the gold, so what they were telling me was that even though we had the exact same score, the Chinese gymnast would be getting the gold, and I was going to have to settle for silver.

Bastards.

I'm (still) way too plugged in.

Sheeeesh, I disappear from Blogger for...what's it been? A couple of months, maybe a year?...and when I log back it in looks all differnt! I'm not sure if whatever changes they've made will actually affect anything about how I go about my a-bloggin' but I guess I'll find out.

I barely know how to use have the sites and equipment I belong to/own anymore. And this week I added another one. I joined Facebook because my college choir got a group going on there, and I wanted to belong (the sad, sad story of my life). I've been on there for a couple of days now, and I swear I'm like an old lady trying to figure out what all the little bells and whistles do.

I've been on MySpace for quite a while, and that's pretty user friendly. I have certain friends that that's about the only way I keep up with them. It'll be interesting to see how I keep up with Facebook. I swear, I have WAY too many portals to me via the Internet. But wadda ya gonna do?

I'd ponder all this longer, but there's a huge storm rolling in outside my office window, and I'm gonna cut outta here a few minutes early to try and get in the car before the massive rain starts. Latuh! (See how young and hip I am?)

I'm an eeediot.

I was going to blog about the greatness that is Michael Phelps, with some possible mention of a few other things Olympic, but the morning threw me a curveball, and instead I have to send a public shout-out to my awesome boyfriend, J!

I stepped into my garage this morning to head to work, and the light was on inside my car. Hmmmm. I don't remember going out to my car for anything this morning...so...that means it's been on since last night. Oh. Crap.

Sure enough, I get in the car, and it won't start. Apparently, I'd only half shut the door last night when I last got out of the car, so the door sat ajar all night with the light on, and by this morning, the battery was drained. I'm a moron.

I stepped outside to see if my neighbors were around, since they'd give me a jump, no problem. But they work construction, so they leave earlier than I do and were long gone. I contemplated the neighbors on the other side, but they don't speak English, and I didn't see myself knocking on their door at 7:15 a.m. and trying to explain myself.

AAA? Well, I have AAA. And if it's 1:00 a.m., and you're leaving the clubs, and some a-hole has let the air out of all 4 of your tires because he doesn't like where you parked in the parking garage (true story), AAA is a godsend. But anyone who has AAA can attest that as a general rule, they take about 45 minutes to 2 hours to get to you, depending on where the tow-truck-contractor is located when they call him and traffic, so if you're trying to get to work and you don't really want to wait 2 hours if you can help it, and you have any other option of someone who can get to you quicker and actually solve your problem, it's best to go with the other option.

All I needed was a jump, and J is only 20 minutes away. The downside is that one of the reasons he's a musician for a living is so he doesn't have to be awake at 7:15 a.m. So, calling him at that hour and asking him to drive all the way over to help me in morning traffic is not something that wins you girlfriend points. But it was my best option.

To J's never-ending credit, as soon as I told him what was going on, he said (in his groggy morning voice), "I'll be right there" with no hesitation. Thirty minutes later, my car was started, and I was on my way to work, arriving there early enough that I can make up the lost time on my lunch hour and not even have to burn any vacation time.

So, J, you are a rock star not just on stage, but also as a boyfriend! Thanks for being so awesome and savin' my bacon without a word of complaint. :)

USA! USA!

Wow, do I love the Olympics! I was up last night until after 11:00 (late for me), because I could NOT turn off the men's gymnastics competition. It was just that compelling!

First there was the drama of losing our two top gymnasts, and the team not even really being set until last week. The only names I knew on this team were the Hamm brothers, so I was curious to see how these other young guns would do. The media kept saying they really didn't have a shot at a medal, so I wasn't expecting much, but as an absolute credit to the spirit of those young men, they didn't let the naysayers tell them what they were capable of!

They got out there and just starting nailing *everything*! Jonathan Horton was on FIRE, and Justin Spring was solid as a rock. And they weren't playing it safe doing easy routines. They were doing really stellar stuff and just pounding it! It was like they were feeding off of each other's success. When one would go out and kick butt on a routine, the next one would go out and be like, "Okay, so we're puttin' on a show, then," and he'd go out and just be amazing. It was so exciting!

We fell short on the last apparatus, the pommel horse, except for a beautiful performance by Alexander Artemev, and ended up with bronze instead of silver, but the fact that they medalled, and that they were SO fantastic in their routines leading up to the horse was a real joy to watch. It made me so proud for them and proud to be an American - the can-do spirit! And the makeup of the team is perfect, too - guys from different backgrounds and heritages, all committed to the same goal and working as a team, showing the greatness that is America when we use our diversity to focus on the same thing and make us stronger. I love it!

And to give the devil his due, the Chinese were simply amazing. They really are incredible. It was right that they got the gold because they're just phenomenal. Real perfection.

Well, guys I'm looking forward to individual competition - I expect to see more hardware now that we know what you can do! Tomorrow I'll probably go on and on about Michael Phelps, because, hello, he's freakin' awesome! But today, it's all you, men's gymastics! You ROCK!!

God wants me to sleep.

Why is it that even though I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night, I still feel like I could keel over asleep right now? I had coffee this morning, so that's not it. And I've been busy, but not slammed today.

I do have a little bit of congestion - probably mold allergy since it's very humid and overcast today (perfect mold-growing conditions). Maybe that's it. Maybe if I just explained to my boss that I need to sleep at my desk because it's overcast outside, they'd understand. It's an act of God, right?

In my email...

Angie says, "You will be approved."

That's awesome, Angie. I like approval. I really do. I suppose I should be one of those people who just knows my own greatness and doesn't need the approval of others to be validated, but the truth is, I get a lot out of a pat on the back from someone else.

It's true that I can hear 10 people say I'm fantastic, and if one says I suck, I'll obsess about the one who hates me. That's got to be a flaw of some kind, and I'm working on that, though I think most people are probably like that. We all want to be liked. We all want other people to say we're the stuff of genius and all of our decisions are exactly the right ones. It's a pretty common emotional need. Otherwise peer pressure and advertising probably wouldn't work.

So, thanks Angie. Thanks for letting me know that my future will be filled with approval. Makes me look forward to the days ahead.

Be still my nostalgic heart.

You will not believe what I found online. Okay, get your mind out of the gutter right now! It's nothing skeevy. It's quite the opposite. It's a big ole trip down memory lane - right back to my childhood and to every summer that I can remember with any kind of pleasure! Back to a time when summer actually meant a break, time off, freedom. It's time-travel to my Toni Tennille haircut, pom-pom socks and terry-cloth shorts.

I found...

Full episodes of "The Love Boat" available for viewing online!

I'm not kidding. I wouldn't do that to you. Just go to CBS.com and it's in the Video section under Classics. They don't have every episode ever, but they have a bunch, and they're full episodes, meaning a full-on serving of 70s guest stars. John Ritter when he was...well, still alive, Maureen McCormick (Marcia Brady for those who don't know her real name), Robert Hegyes (of Welcome Back Kotter semi-fame) - it's a freakin' Parade of Stars, people!

Honestly, it makes me happy just to see those old shows. It takes me back to the carefree days of my youth, wishing I, too, could someday go on a cruise - on Princess Cruise Line of course! Who else? I wonder what kind of marketing bang they got for their buck with that little venture. It must've been massive.

Back to the busy

Well, it's only Tuesday but this week is gearing right back up to my normal break-neck pace. I had all kinds of plans about all that I was going to get done between the time I got home from vacation and the time J would be returning today. I got some of it done. That's the positive way to phrase it. The negative way would be, "There was so much I didn't get done!" If I could just not work, I would have time to get all the things done in a day that I need to.

Speaking of J's return, Tropical Storm Edouardo (who comes up with these names?) threw a little kink into things. J's flight goes first into Houston and then on to Austin. Early this morning (like before the sun was up), the airline delayed his Houston to Austin leg. Then an hour or so before takeoff (still before the sun was up) to Houston, they cancelled that flight all together. Then they changed their mind and started boarding. Then they unboarded. Then they boarded again. They finally took off about 2 hours after the original takeoff time. If it lands without incident, he should have plenty of time to catch the delayed flight to Austin, and I'll have my J back this afternoon! I imagine he'll be pretty tired after all that, but it'll be nice to have him home.

Other than that, I'm kind of glad for the storm. We need the rain in a bad way, and it should give us a nice soaking over the next day or so. My lawn is already a little out of control because it's been too hot to mow since I got back. I'll have to suck it up and mow this weekend before I have the situation I had last year where I had to weed-whack everything before I could even mow! On top of more time, I guess I need yard people - no, not people who live in the tall grass growing in my lawn, but people who would actually keep my grass looking like a lawn instead of a horticultural experiment.

In my email... (back from vacation edition)

teacherthirdgrade@yahoo.com is offering me "Same quality medications but lower prices"

I think that, for one thing, this is an indication that we don't pay our teachers enough. This person clearly needs a second job selling quality medications at a discount in order to make ends meet, and I think that's just sad. When do they have time to grade papers if their off hours are spent marketing their sideline business? Oh wait - it's summer. This person has the summer off, which is way more than I get at my job. I've changed my mind. I don't feel bad for them at all.

On another note, though, the parents with kids in this person's class should think long and hard about whether or not they want this person teaching their children. What are the odds this teacher is selling quality medications at low prices without actually dipping into their stash occasionally? If they can afford to sell at lower prices, it probably doesn't hurt their bottom line to dip their toe in once in a while. A little Zoloft here, a little Prozac there. You don't know. You want your third grader in the care of someone all hopped up on Lipitor? Think about it.

Why, I ask you, why?

So, I'm in the beautiful Renaissance Worthington hotel here in fabulous Fort Worth, and I have only one question for you. Whose bright idea was it to replace toilet ROLLS with toilet paper SQUARES in the public bathrooms here? This place is *pricey* and they can't afford real rolls of paper? For what we're paying?

In my room there are rolls, as it should be, but in the bathrooms in the public spaces, near the meeting rooms and lobbies, they use individual squares. So, you have to pull out how much you want to use one square at a time.

Do they think this will encourage people to use less paper? Because it doesn't. It only annoys me, and then I think, "Don't try to manipulate me into using the amount of paper you want me to use rather than the amount I want to use." And then I use more. Just to prove a point. Immature? Maybe. But I'm just tellin' it like it is. And don't pretend you're Sheryl Crow, and you're better than me, and you'd just use one square. You know you'd load up in aggravation, too.

Oh, and there's one more consideration. Someone in the bathroom next to our meeting rooms had, let's say, a problem - a spectacularly bad accident that the cleaning people had to clean in stages because they were gagging as they tried to clean it up and they simply couldn't stand to be in the bathroom for an extended period of time (neither could I, in fact, and today is only marginally better in there). Now, I'm not saying that a roll of paper would have prevented the mess, but I have to think that if I'm the person whose insides have just exploded, and I reach for the toilet paper to try and control the carnage, and all I pull back is a square of thin paper...well, I wouldn't be happy. Let's leave it at that.

Bizness, bizness

I'm headed to Foat Wuth (that's Fort Worth for you non-Texans) this morning for work. I'll be curious to see how much fallout from Hurricane Dolly we see up there while I'm there. I'm sure Austin will get some rain in the next couple of days, which we desperately need.

The word is that it's currently a Category 1, but may make it up to Category 2 by the time it makes landfall today. It's throwing rain all the way up the Texas coast.

Oops - just got the word I've got to head out! Happy raining!

In my email

Opportunity Knocks says "Future Millionaires Wanted".

They're wanted? What did they do? Are we assuming they're going to make their millions doing something illegal, so The Law wants to just go ahead and arrest them now? Wasn't there a Tom Cruise movie like that, where you knew the future and punished criminals before they committed their bad acts?

Man. The scary Big Brother Tom Cruise future is now.

The joy of flying

I got this in my email from a friend. I'll be flying in about a week and a half, and I'm afraid I may find this to be true!

WELCOME TO THE FRIENDLY SKIES

Attendant: Welcome aboard Ala Carte Air, sir. May I see your ticket?
Passenger: Sure.
Attendant: You're in seat 12B. That will be $5, please!
Passenger: What for?
Attendant: For telling you where to sit.
Passenger: But I already knew where to sit.
Attendant: Nevertheless, we are now charging a seat locater fee of $5. It's the airline's new policy.
Passenger: That's the craziest thing I ever heard. I won't pay it.
Attendant: Sir, do you want a seat on this flight, or not?
Passenger: Yes, yes. All right, I'll pay. But the airline is going to hear about this.
Attendant: Thank you. My goodness, your carry on bag looks heavy. Would you like me to stow it in the overhead compartment for you?
Passenger: That would be swell, thanks.
Attendant: No problem. Up we go, and done! That will be $10, please.
Passenger: What?
Attendant: The airline now charges a $10 carry on assistance fee.*
Passenger: This is extortion. I won't stand for it.
Attendant: Actually, you're right, you can't stand. You need to sit, and fasten your seat belt. We're about to push back from the gate. But, first I need that $10.
Passenger: No way!
Attendant: Sir, if you don't comply, I will be forced to call the air marshal. And you really don't want me to do that.
Passenger: Why not? Is he going to shoot me?
Attendant: No, but there's a $50 air-marshal hailing fee.
Passenger: Oh, all right, here, take the $10. I can't believe this.
Attendant: Thank you for your cooperation, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?
Passenger: Yes. It's stuffy in here, and my overhead fan doesn't seem to work. Can you fix it?
Attendant: Your overhead fan is not broken, sir. Just insert two quarters into the overhead coin slot for the first five minutes.
Passenger: The airline is charging me for cabin air?
Attendant: Of course not, sir. Stagnant cabin air is provided free of charge. It's the circulating air that costs 50 cents.
Passenger: I don't have any quarters. Can you make change for a dollar?
Attendant: Certainly, sir! Here you go!
Passenger: But you've given me only three quarters for my dollar.
Attendant: Yes, there's a change-making fee of 25 cents.
Passenger: For crying' out loud. All I have left is a lousy quarter?
What the heck can I do with this?
Attendant: Hang onto it. You'll need it later for the lavatory.

My horoscope

My horoscope today: "Thanks to a recent accomplishment, you should be feeling much more confident today."

Well, I am feeling pretty good about a recent accomplishment, but being the type to be ever-reaching skyward, I'm already transitioning to, "Yeah, I did that, but what about the NEXT step???"

The project I've been working on has a bunch of different steps in it, and I've just gotten past the first few. The next one could be easy and quick or it could be long and tedious. Unfortunately, someone else is in control at this point, so I have to just wait patiently for them to decide what my next move is.

I can't decide if I want to know now or I want them to wait a few weeks to give me the verdict, though. I have a bunch of stuff to do in the next 3 weeks, including a vacation, and I'm not sure I want to know if the verdict is that I'll have a long and tedious process ahead of me. There won't be anything I can do on it until after these next few weeks, so I might prefer to just enjoy my vacation, then when I get back, I can find out that I've got a hassle ahead of me and get started on it. On the other hand, if the verdict is that it's easy and quick, then go ahead and tell me and I can enjoy that!

Audience poll: Would you rather know that you've got something big ahead of you, weeks before you can actually tackle it? Or would you rather just not now until you're actually in a position to do something about it?

I'm indoors too much, maybe.

So, it's going to get into the 100s again this week here in fabulous Austin, Texas. We're used to that, so we don't worry too much about it. But I have to say it creates a dilemma for me regarding clothes.

No, I'm not conflicted about whether to wear them. I just have trouble deciding if I should dress for the weather or the air conditioning. See, I'm cold by nature. If I have the a.c. set where I'm comfortable, everyone else is hot. The only exception is when I'm sleeping. To sleep, I have to have it really cold. But when I'm conscious, I like things kinda balmy. That means that whenever I'm at someone else's house, I'm cold.

That also means that I'm cold at the office. So, year-round, I have to have a space heater. Because if the a.c. is set where everyone else is comfortable, I'm freezing. So, the question becomes should I dress warmer to accommodate the a.c., which I'll be sitting in all day, or do I dress for the actual weather. Because if I'm dressed to keep warm and I have to leave the office for anything, I'll pass out from the heat.

I've ended up dressing for the weather and then futzing with the heater all day. If the air isn't blowing, I turn it off. If the air kicks on, then I turn the heater on and decide if I need it up on the desk, blowing on my arms, or on the floor blowing on my feet. I spend the whole day moving it around and turning it on and off. It's quite the pain the butt, if you must know. I used to have an office sweater, but I came to hate it, and I don't really want a caricature of myself someday wearing an awful sweater, so I did away with it.

So that's what I'm stuck with. Maybe I need my own climate-controlled bubble like The Boy in The Plastic Bubble. I want one that doesn't come with a John Travolta, though. I'm a Scientology-free zone.

Good food and good music. What else do you need?

Hoo-boy - still in the weeds around here! Sorry I'm still not posting regularly. Someday things will calm down...and then I'll go on vacation. ;)

Work is crazy busy, but I had a nice, relaxing evening last night. J and I went for 2-for-1 burgers at Hut's, then hit Blues on the Green. Our Hut's burger extravaganza this week was the Beach Boy Burger. It has swiss cheese, pineapple and green pepper. I know - it sounds hideous. But it's really good! It's J's favorite, and I'm always denying him on it because I just couldn't see how that combination belonged on a burger. But I gave in, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. Gotta keep an open mind, people! (No, J, that doesn't mean we'll be getting that everytime now.)

Blues on the Green was also very cool. We had perfect weather and last night Los Lonely Boys were headlining. There was an opening band, but I'm not sure of the name. I think they said "Tex Mix" but I think I might be off on that somehow. In any case, Los Lonely Boys were great. J went to check out the stage and got up there just as they were arriving. Ringo came out and mingled with fans, signing autographs and such, and he gave J "bones" - that means they bumped fists in greeting for those of you who don't know all the cool lingo. Cuz, you know, I knew...right after J told me.

We topped off the night with a visit to Sonic for one of their fantabulous new Banana Split blasts. It was taaaasty! Sonic has good fast food in my estimation. And I love their commercials, so that makes everything taste even better. Top fast food choices for me: Sonic, Wendy's, Arby's. If I'm jonesing for a fish sandwich, then McDonald's has the best, and Burger King makes a mighty fine chicken sandwich. But Sonic has tots. Tots, I say!! AND cherry limeade. Hello. How are you gonna beat tots and cherry limeade?

Your daily dose of cute

I'm finally starting to surface after finishing a long project! Sorry for the infrequent posts, but I'm going to start back strong with something today that's just too freakin' cute.

One of the blogs I like to stop by is The Daily Kitten. I noticed that a poster there kept referring to "munchkin" kittens, like it was the name of a breed. So, I investigated. And there is a such a thing!

Seems the breed originated from a genetic mutation (if Wikipedia is to be believed), and it's a breed of cats that have unusually short legs. Here's a YouTube video of a munchkin kitten: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBO2U7SZ5qs.

I hesitate to believe conclusively that this is a breed, rather than a deformity, since the little fella in the video appears to have a long-legged sibling, but tell me that's not the cutest thing ever!