Archive for June, 2007

Andy just showed me a nifty feature on google.com/analytics. One can see the percentage of people that view their blogs all around the world, how many times they come back, and how they reached your site. I am very proud to announce, that I am third in the whole wide internet for google searches regarding “navy blue mouthwash dispensers” and am also apparently fairly high on the list for “giada de laurentiis hairstyles”. I find this highly amusing, and though I have no advice for you on either subject, I wish you luck in finding what you’re looking for.

I was extremely happy to have this past weekend off from work. Andy and I had a delightful time hanging out with the neighbors Friday night for the weekly barbecue bash. Though I do feel slightly awkward when they start talking about their kids (2/3 of the women are pregnant again, and all three already have kids). I have very little to add to the conversation when they start discussing breast feeding versus bottle feeding, appropriate punishment for temper tantrums, pediatric appointments…etc. However, they are genuinely nice people that Andy and I enjoy being around.

Saturday was spent running errands, and sighing disgustedly at our mess of a house. Why don’t I suck it up and just clean it? Well…that’s a task that takes an enormous amount of energy! Once I start, I won’t be able to stop until everything is spotless! The vacuuming, dusting, sorting, organizing, shining, polishing, gardening, tucking, scrubbing, and throwing away of useless stuff that I forgot I had just sounds very…exhausting. Sighing at my failure seems to be much easier, most definitely lazier, but this weekend…easy won over productivity. I’ll try being useful again next week.

Saturday night, we met up with Ethan, David, and Annie at La Familia for dinner.  It’s a very tasty Mexican restaurant, famous for their flaming fajitas. The boys were enthralled by the random setting of things on fire. We were originally going to go to the Parthenon, but much to my dismay…they seem to be closed FOREVER. If anyone knows of a good Mediterranean restaurant in Ft Worth, please let me know. After dinner, Ethan left us for more fun (aka drunken) times in Dallas, while we proceeded to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens for their famous summer Concerts in the Garden. Ever since I’ve moved to DFW, I have wanted to go to this concert, but we’ve never seriously made any attempt to go. But when I looked at their schedule and saw that the Super Awesome Laser Adventure was playing during the weekend I had off, I knew the night had come for us to the enjoy this special event. Andy and I packed sodas and waters in our cooler, I lugged along the outdoor event blanket that folds into a purse that I bought at Target and have only used once (I’m not much of an outdoorsy type, if you haven’t noticed) and we headed into the gardens. It was absolutely beautiful, pretty flowers, gorgeous trees decorated in twinkle lights, and since we got there a little late…a teeny tiny orchestra only visible when standing on tippy toes and angling your head to the right. However, it’s an orchestra…not an old fashioned silent movie, where seeing is key. We were there solely for the music. The symphony did a beautiful job. They did such a good job that I’m not entirely sure they weren’t just playing the soundtracks through a very fancy boom box!

It was fabulous, the weather was perfect, and the orchestra was playing famous movie songs (i.e. Harry Potter, ET, Incredibles, and lots and lots of Star Wars). There was a brief incident when I thought Annie might seriously harm a small child that almost whacked her in the head with a toy light saber…but the evening went pretty smoothly. The entire second half was filled with memorable Star Wars music. (yes, we saw a few storm troopers and jedi masters dressed up in their galaxy saving finest) That was when the laser adventure part of the night began. Their idea of a super awesome laser adventure was to shine green lasers on the trees in time to the music. Not really that awesome, but a lot of fun nonetheless. I had a very brief encounter with a porta potty…and I have since vowed to myself, that never again will I use a porta potty. Blech! Then during the very last number, they set off fireworks at dramatic points of the song. I like fireworks, though my parents probably have horrifying stories to the contrary. It was a very enjoyable evening, though I’m not sure I can tolerate so many kids running a muck with light sabers and glow sticks for a very long time. Sigh…Sunday night is almost over, weekends always feel so short, and the weeks so long. Anybody want to support me in changing work days to 10 hour days, and in exchange getting 3 day weekends? Anybody?

Happy Father’s Day to dads all the world round! Thanks for all the sage advice (even when we don’t always seem to be paying attention), the laughter (cause come on, that’s what dads do best…make us giggle), the wisdom (staying up till midnight helping us study trigonometric functions), the comfort of home (knowing that there will always be a spare bed open for me), the necessary nourishment (both mental, telling an extra bedtime story, and edible, ice cream on a hot summer’s day), the tremendous adventures (whether hiking in the Rockies, roaming Amsterdam for the best french fries, climbing the Great Wall in China, or hugging an old tree in Seattle), and your wishes for the best…everything for us. Life is a little bit brighter and a little more sparkly knowing dads are always a constant in our lives. Wishing dads the best!

I know I promised to post weeks ago, but life has been unexpectedly busy, even with my days off of work. So to catch everyone up, a couple weekends ago, our dear friends Kat and Josh came to visit DFW. We had a marvelous time eating massive amounts of chips and dip at El Paseo (a friendly neighborhood Mexican restaurant), chatting, and playing a healthy amount of Guitar Hero 2. I don’t care what Andy says, I like the first Guitar Hero much better. The songs are much better, even if the graphics were way worse. Either way, it’s always nice to see friends. Alas, it was my weekend to work, so dinner was all my schedule could muster.

This previous weekend was my weekend off, thank goodness! Andy, Cathy, Griffin, and I all met up in Austin to visit Andy’s parents. We had a nice relaxing time, eating the best brisket you can possibly imagine (courtesy of the fabulous Mr. Rick Trommer), talking, making fun of really horrendous music videos on VH1, playing with the puppies, and really just enjoying the weekend. Take a look at the photos in my gallery. This is my favorite photo of my baby sister and our adorable puppy. Who doesn’t like pictures of puppies?

We also went to see the third and newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Despite warnings of the film being confusing and badly done, I found it rather enjoyable. Come on, it’s a Disney movie about undead pirates…how much sense and depth did you expect? As usual, the evening was continued with plenty of pirate jokes and enough arrrr’s to make even Kareem proud. (at last year’s viewing of the second Pirates movie, Kareem refused to speak a single sentence without using “arrr” somewhere in it, the most famous being “that girl is wearing a shaaaart skaaaart”. For those of you that aren’t well versed in pirate, that translates to “that girl is wearing a short skirt”)

We left the Trommer’s house after lunch on Sunday. Cathy made it back to Houston safe and sound, after much talk of I-35 being shut down in Austin. Andy and I got back to our comfy little house, and decided to start preparing for the new Harry Potter movie that opens in July. How does one prepare for such an occasion? We’ve decided to rent all the previous movies and watch them…just to refresh our memories. I had forgotten how little and cute all the actors were in the first couple of movies. Of course, we didn’t finish all four movies. We’re saving the last two for Friday night, a person has to have something to look forward to. (it was rather humorous that Jabber would only growl at Tom Riddle in the movie, nobody else) Okay, 10 minutes are up, I’m off to work!

I promise to post an actual blog later this week. I’m still in the middle of my crazy “on” work week (I worked from last Tuesday straight through tomorrow, then I finally get two days off). However, I wanted to share with you this awesome little video. The pika wins in my book for the cutest animal this month. (not including Jabber)