Troubles McSteans

Taste Test: J&D's Ultimate Bacon Lover's Gift Pack: Part 1: Bacon Salt

2010-08-12T22:32:00.003-05:00

Emerging from hiatus to share our latest adventure with food additives. A while back, Ryan found and ordered the J&D's Ultimate Bacon Lover's Gift Pack (how could he not??). A few weeks ago we cracked it open and performed our first taste test, starting with three of the ten varieties of Bacon flavored Salt.

Other items awaiting us in the Gift Pack:
Bacon flavored lip balm
Bacon flavored envelopes (or MMM-velopes)
Bacon flavored popcorn
Bacon flavored sunflower seeds
*Bacon flavored mayonnaise
Bacon flavored ranch dip mix

*Product most likely will not be sampled thanks to it's 2 day layover in our mailbox. Sorry folks, we'll eat a lot of gross things, but I draw the line at food poisoning.

USA v England with Legos

2010-06-16T10:15:00.002-05:00

Somehow one's failure is only magnified when recreated in slow motion with Legos.

Taste Test: Soda Marinade Series: Part 3

2010-05-15T14:08:00.004-05:00

We now conclude our tour of soda marinades. Last stop: A&W Sauce.

Part 1

Part 2

Surprisingly, I'd say the A&W was the least offensive of the three marinades. Not that it still wasn't bad. Thanks to my helper tasters Steanso, Paul, Erin, and especially Ryan for braving all three!

Ryan has ordered me a secret gift set that should provide an entire summer's worth of tasting adventures. You are in for a treat and I am....probably not.

Clean dog

2010-04-29T15:48:00.005-05:00

I got all gung ho this afternoon to bathe the dogs. Lucy in particular, considering every time I looked at her recently I could practically hear the flies buzzing, was in desperate need of a dip in the tub.

My plan was to get Scout in the bathroom first, because I wasn't sure if

1) She would actually go into the bathroom
2) She would actually get into the tub
3) She wouln't freak the hell out when I ran the water

As it turned out, we barely covered step 1. She was frightened of the towels I had placed on the floor, and when I tried to lead her in by her collar, her defense mechanism was to hit the deck.

Taking a different tactic, I went to get the mini-marshmallows to attempt to lure her into the bathroom. I didn't honestly think this was going to work, but it was worth a shot. After feeding her a couple of treats, I tossed one into the tub to see what would happen, but that only resulted in the sudden appearance of a black lab in the bath.

I gave up and washed Lucy.

So at least Lucy is clean. Right now she mostly smells like wet dog, which isn't the best odor, but at least the flies have disappeared. I haven't given up on Scout. I spent some time after Lucy was washed trying to just get her to come smell the wet towels and realize that I hadn't killed Lucy by hosing her down.

I think we'll eventually get there. I have faith that it can be done. I'm just glad it isn't Jeff the Cat.

10 Years

2010-04-27T17:57:00.009-05:00

Tomorrow, the 28th of April, is Ryan's and my 10th wedding anniversary.

Ryan and I met at a party my freshman year at Trinity University in San Antonio. I had been randomly placed with roommates (hi Shannon and Erica!) that had gone to high school with Ryan, who was attending the University of Texas here in Austin. Ryan was down in San Antonio for the weekend visiting his brother Jason, who was a fellow Trinity Tiger (rawr).

We only chatted for a bit that night, and while I thought he was super cute, I didn't quite know what to make of this tall, *cough* slightly inebriated friend of my roommates who needed a tree for support and seemed to be trying to focus through my head to a point about a foot behind me.

While subsequent meetings went much better than our first introduction, they were few and far between. I only saw him once more that year and twice our sophomore year, but he made an impression on me and I looked forward to our rare meetings.

The stars finally aligned our junior year when Shannon, Erica and I went up to Austin for fall break to visit Shannon's then boyfriend and now husband Josh and to celebrate Erica's birthday. We officially began dating October 28, 1995.

After dating semi-long distance (Austin is only an hour away from San Antonio, and I don't think we missed a single weekend visit) for 2 and a half years, I moved to Austin post graduation. For those of you doing the math, yes, we both are members of the Victory Lap Club and each did 5 years of college.

After 2 years of co-habitation, we decided to make it official. On April 28, 2000 we tied the knot.

This is the tough part. I have a difficult time putting into words what Ryan means to me. I am so thankful that he entered my life at such a young age and I'm even more thankful that he is still with me today. He got me through some really rough times. Hospital stays, trips to the ER, Arizona. Things that would have been unbearable without his company.

There have been wonderful times as well. Living in Austin, buying a house, raising three crazy dogs and a cantankerous cat, spending time with family and friends, and just spending time together. Ryan makes every day more enjoyable, no matter what is going on in our lives.

It's been a great 10 years - I love you, Ryan!

1996. Ryan is making the exact same face that his Wii Mii makes

Halloween 1997

Christmas 2000 - Our first as a married couple. Also: Jeff the Cat

March 2005 - My 30th birthday in San Diego

They are Watching

2010-04-18T22:51:00.002-05:00

Taste Test: Soda Marinade Series: Part 2

2010-04-16T10:46:00.002-05:00

What you've all been waiting for: Part 2 of our Soda Marinade Taste Test

Bon appetit

(Part 1 Here)

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

2010-04-12T10:41:00.003-05:00

A post which deserves to be much longer will unfortunately be abbreviated because I am typing with only my left hand. Troubles strikes again! The elephant table that used to live in the bedroom got banished to the hallway to make room for the new exercise bike. I took one look at it there and said, "I'm going to smack my leg on that".

Sure enough.

The elephant heads that make up the legs of the table are right at shin level. I am now using my right hand to apply ice pressure to the leg.

ANYWHOO

Today is Ryan's birthday! We had a fun party for him this weekend and will celebrate more this evening. I hope he enjoys the alpaca I got him, although I don't think Scout likes it too much.

Ryan, I hope you have a wonderful day. I love, love, love you and couldn't ask for a better partner in crime!

Here is a great post from Chronological Snobbery listing Ryan's best posts on his retired League of Melbotis blog.

Oh, the Carnage

2010-03-31T17:30:00.004-05:00

I haven't done a dialysis post in a while, and it's been a semi-interesting week at the clinic, so here goes. If you are at all squeamish about blood, I'd skip part 2 of this one. We'll catch you next time.

Part 1:
So, Monday morning I knew right off the bat was going to be troublesome. My alarm went off, I couldn't find my glasses, and I slipped my hoodie on backwards so that the hood was covering my face. These two events incidentally are independent of each other. It's always dark when I'm getting dressed so the glasses wouldn't have helped. I ended up having to put my contacts in which I don't like to do before dialysis because it wastes time when I'm getting ready and on the off chance I can actually sleep during treatment, they make my eyes feel funny.

Don't ask me what any of this has to do with how treatment goes and maybe I'm just superstitious, but it seems like something almost always goes wonky when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

Sure enough, there was a problem.

Dialysis does two major things, as do your kidneys. Firstly, it cleans your blood of things you don't want building up in there like potassium and phosphorus. As much as you hear about how good for you certain fruits and veggies are because potassium is good for you, if that potassium doesn't get filtered out it could build up in your system and kill you.

Not to get too technical, but by "filtered out" I mean "pee".

This is where we come to part 2 of the function of dialysis. Most people on dialysis have a significantly reduced ability to urinate. For some folks, like yours truly, it just doesn't happen at all.

I know, I know, "THANKS FOR SHARING, TROUBLES".

This is one of the most difficult adjustments people have to dialysis. You aren't allowed to drink very much fluid because you can't get rid of it and it seeps into your tissue which is really hard on your heart. Dialysis removes this fluid for you, but this removal in and of itself is hard on your body so you're not supposed to add very much between treatments.

The amount of fluid to be removed is entered into your dialysis machine prior to treatment and is determined by the amount of weight you have gained between sessions. Stay with me, this is going somewhere, I promise.

Monday after my treatment, I hopped on the scale to measure my post weight and document it on the clinic clipboard. I was a full kilogram (Dialysese is sophisticatedly metric) over where I should have been after dialyzing. One kilo may not sound like a big deal, but I regularly try to only consume 2 kilos worth of fluid between treatments. That means I had to cut in half the small amount I allow myself to drink already. I was not a happy camper.

It was a thirsty couple of days. I still don't know what went wrong. It probably wasn't anyone's fault as I may have just gotten a bad number from the scale on my pre treatment weigh in. However, I was still angry like the Hulk.

Troubles Smash.

Part 2:
*HERE IS WHERE THE SQUEAMISH WILL WANT TO TUNE OUT*

Today was a completely different story. Nothing was really any different than usual, but I came to the realization of how completely unfazed I have become upon seeing blood gushing from my arm.

The clinic was short staffed on dialysis techs this morning, so much so that the clinic manager was acting as shift nurse and my usual shift nurse, we'll call her, oh, Lucy, was having to do tech duties.

A dialysis tech is the individual that puts the needles in your arm, takes them out at the end of treatment, and basically monitors you throughout your stay. The nurses have other jobs like taking vitals and distributing medications and don't do any of this.

So, poor Lucy, who I absolutely adore - she's worked there the entire 3.5 years I've been at this clinic and is totally competent, funny, nice, etc - was completely thrown off her game. Enter Troubles to make her day even more fun!

The techs are used to me and my bleeding issues. I am on Coumadin, a blood thinner, and also take a baby aspirin once a day. This means when they remove the 14 gauge (just over 2 mm diameter to give you an idea. they're pretty big as needles go) needles from my arm, it's a little like the Shining.

So, yeah, Lucy was freaking out a bit. I came to the realization as I calmly assisted with the switching out of gauze pads that to new eyes, this was a horrific scene. To me, however, it was just the average Wednesday.

We did eventually get the gushing under control, but the scene was a bit grizzly and I kind of looked like I'd been in a bad accident.

I wished Lucy an uneventful rest of the day before I left. I hope that the clinic gets its s@#$ together and makes sure that enough techs are going to show up so that she doesn't have to do that again. Or at least doesn't have to work with me.

Nice day

2010-03-30T16:15:00.004-05:00

Hello. I feel like I should post something since I haven't created a substantial entry in a few weeks.

Not too much going on. We're almost to the end of Steans family birthday season. Karen, Jason, and I all have March birthdays and Ryan's is coming up in April.

I had a very nice birthday weekend. We went to Peter Pan mini golf Saturday, at which Ryan most assuredly kicked my ass. The weather was great and we had a good time. After the golfing, we headed to Trudy's where Heather and I proceeded to get shnookered on Mexican martinis. Those things are deadly.

Ryan and I are tentatively planning on executing Part 2 of the Marinade challenge Thursday night, so hopefully I'll have that ready to go sometime next week.

What else? Not a whole lot. I think Lucy is hungry. She's looking at me like Stains the Dog:

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Today is my Birthday

2010-03-25T18:32:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Nicole for the picture. I think it speaks for itself.

Thanks also for all the good birthday wishes on Facebook, e-mail, and by phone. Also to my parents who came to take me to lunch. The best present is getting to hear from/ being able to spend time with friends and family today. Here's to year 35!

Happy Friday

2010-03-19T16:29:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday to Jason

2010-03-17T10:52:00.004-05:00

Just a quick post to wish my brother-in-law, Jason, a Happy Birthday! I hope you finally figured out that people are not wearing green because they heard it was your favorite color.

This traumatized kitty would also like to wish you a Happy Birthday. And also desperately wishes to escape the Phantom Zone.

Taste Test: Soda Marinade Series: Part 1

2010-03-16T19:21:00.007-05:00

You may remember this picture from a thrilling post I did about a trip to the grocery store:

Well my friends, you are in in for a treat. Ryan and I recently purchased each and every one of the above mouthwatering soda marinades. They will be featured in our new taste test series.

First up: Dr Pepper Marinade (Thanks to Nathan for pointing out there is, in fact, no period in Dr Pepper)

Oscars

2010-03-07T17:13:00.008-06:00

I'm going to take another shot at this live blogging thing. I figure, if I'm going to already be watching the Oscars, I could at least be doing something moderately constructive.

A word of warning. I'm not planning on editing this bad boy before I publish it, just so you know. I want to get to bed at a decent hour.

The ceremony doesn't start for another 2 hours, but E Exclamation Point is covering the arrivals. It is apparently pouring rain so all red carpet activities are taking place under tents.

Ugh, the E! (EEEEE!!!!) crew is so annoying I refuse to write about it.

So the Oscars have a few changes this year. They are going with 2 hosts, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. This could go one of two ways: it could actually be funny because these are funny guys, or it could be a scripted banter/wild and crazy guys disaster. We shall see.

The other major alteration is the expansion of the Best Picture category to include 10 films. My reservations here. I'm not going to rehash this. What's done is done, but I will say I was delighted to see Up and District 9 get nods. If McSteans was running the show, one of these 2 would win, but we're not, so they won't. No one ever listens to me.

Of the nominations this year, I've seen:
Up
District 9
Avitar
The Hurt Locker
An Education
Something I can't remember so it must have been awesome

Didn't get around to seeing:
The Blind Side
Up in the Air
Precious

Was on Deck on my Netflix queue but I guess they ran out:
A Serious Man

Oh yeah! Inglorious Basterds was the one I forgot. It was good, I didn't mean to imply I didn't like it, it's just that that's what happens when you have 10 movies nominated.

So I haven't seen a lot of the acting nominations, actually. One from each category except for Supporting Actress, of which I haven't seen any of the performances. I hear everything but Best Actress is pretty much a done deal. Mo'Nique, Christoph Waltz, and Jeff Bridges should all have their speeches ready.

HOLY COW Ryan Seacrest is short. This is brand new information, I know.

Sorry, I said I wasn't going to acknowledge E!!!'s coverage, but I got distracted.

Ah geez, Peter Sarsgasrd shaved his head. Not a good look, buddy. (For him. There are many people who can work that look. He is not one of them) I hope it's for a movie.

AAAAARG, E. They are using football analysis style arrows to discuss the ladies' dresses. Classy.

Jake Gyllenhaal must be tiny - I had no idea. The Seacrest side by side comparison is giving him away.

UGH only in Hollywood. I just heard someone marvel that "At 45 Sandra Bullock is better than ever!". I very seldom play the sexism card, but you would never hear that comment made about a man. Fact.

Sarah Jessica Parker talking about her genealogy show "Who do You Think You Are", which is a total rip off of the great PBS series "Faces of America".

Ok, the drawn dress analysis arrows are hysterical because they are essentially pointing at the actresses boobs. Nice.

There's George Clooney. You know, I didn't see Up in the Air, so I could be totally wrong about this, but I really wish his Best Actor nomination had gone to Sharlto Copley from District 9 or Sam Rockwell from Moon (which was criminally ignored by the Academy). Nothing against Clooney, but it seems like he's played this part before.

What a strange combo of people: George Clooney, Queen Latifa, and Adam Shankman

Queen Latifa looks gorgeous btw.

Yep, there's the boob pointer again.

Jeff Bridges. I can't wait for The Dude to give his acceptance speech.

It's almost time to switch over to ABC for the pre-show. Not that it's going to be any better than Eee!

Ok, here we go!

Old Oscar arrival footage

Chick from the View; Kathy Ireland (??), some editor from Entertainment Weekly

Wow, Kathy is awkward

They have all the Supporting Actresses lined up. Wow they are really playing up the competition aspect. No one seems like they want to participate in this.

Clooney high fiving the mundanes.

Clooney with his flavor of the week who doesn't speak Engligh

Sandra Bullock's dress is awesome. She looks nervous

UUUUUGH Kathy Ireland -- I'm getting second hand embarassment. They couldn't have gotten anyone else for this?

Is Morgan Freeman eating something?

Recap of movies the last time 10 movies were nominated. I'm embarassed I haven't heard of most of these.

GEEZ I'm tired of seeing Jennifer Lopez. Maybe she was just the most willing to give interviews.

Sarah Jessica Parker looks like a walking spray tan accident.

It's hilarious to hear actors parroting the same answers on ABC that they gave to the E(eeeeee!)! correspondents.

I don't want to hear about Whoopi Goldberg's leakage. (That was a commercial, just so you know)

Oh GEEZ NO ONE CARES ABOUT MILEY CYRUS. Why is she there??? OH CRAP SHE"S PERFORMING??

Kate Winslet. I can't believe she's my age. Need more Oil of Olay.

I think ABC knows what they are dealing with. We haven't seen very much of Kathy "no I'm not reading from the monitors what would give you that impression?" Ireland.

Taylor Lautner is such a cheeseball. HAHAHAHA 10 second interview. Good call.

Chris March (Project Runway Season 5?) made Meryl Streep's dress. That is awesome.

I know this statement is a no brainer, but this new JLo movie looks horrible.

Show is starting now...

Oh, how embarassing, they have all the best actor and actress nominees on stage. Awk.....ward.

HAHAHAHA Neil Patrick Harris! YAY!! Good call.

I guess they wanted to recreate Wolverine's opening number from last year, but didn't think Baldwin or Martin could belt it out like Neil.

Here come the hosts.

I guess RDJ is taking over sunglasses duties from Jack Nicholson.

This double host thing is going ok, I suppose. I guess it's no less funny than a single host would be.

Wow.....George Clooney does not look like he wants to be there.

Sandra Bullock won a Razzie last night, ya'll. I'm just sayin'.

Geeeeez, Clooney looks pissed!! They need to stop cutting to him.

Best Supporting Actor

THANK YOU ACADEMY FOR GETTING RID OF THAT RIDICULOUS CRAP YOU DID LAST YEAR WITH ACTORS TALKING ABOUT THE NOMINEES INSTEAD OF SHOWING CLIPS FROM THE NOMINATED MOVIES

and because that means I get to see James McAvoy because he's in Christopher Plummer's clip. Ahem.

Wow, Stanley Tucci is a creeper in The Lovely Bones. Which I guess is the point.

Winner: Christoph Waltz (yay!)

Ryan Reynolds introducing The Blind Side

Best Animated Feature
Cameron Diaz, Steve Carell presenting

Dug!!! I hope Up wins! Tough category, though. Fantastic Mr. Fox was also fantastic.

Winner: Up!

Best Original Song
Amanda Seyfried, Miley Cyrus presenting

Guess they're not doing live performances this year. I guess if you want to cut down the length of the show, but I do miss hearing the songs.

I really need to see Princess and the Frog.

Nine looked so bad.

Ryan just said, "Ryan Bingham did that? I'm gonna go see that movie!" re: Crazy Heart

And Ryan Bingham wins!

Chris Fine...um I mean PINE to introduce District 9 (yay D9!!)

There's Sharlto! Shaaaaarrltoooooo

Ooh, I didn't think this dinner thing through very well. Ryan and I chose shrimp and I'm going to have shrimpy hands. Could make blogging difficult. Thanks to Ryan, btw for handling dinner!

Best Screenplay, Original
Robert Downey Jr., Tina Fey presenters

That is a gigantic bow, RDJ. Maybe he's going to use it for his getaway.

Winner: The Hurt Locker

I have instructed Ryan to bring lots of napkins along with the shrimpies.

Molly Ringwald, Matthew Broderick to give tribute to John Hughes, who passed away last year

John Hughes montage!

Awww that was sweet

Hey, it's all the John Hughes kid actors!

Samuel L. Jackson introducing Up

OMG just watching this is going to make me cry. That soundtrack....UGH.

Best Animated Short

Doesn't Pixar always win this?

Guess not! They're not even nominated this year

Wallace and Gromit!

Winner: Logorama

Best Documentary Short

The only Documentary I saw last year was Anvil: the story of Anvil and that wasn't even nominated.

Winner: Music by Prudence

WHAAAAAAT???? This woman totally just came up and Kanyed the director!! Who is this woman? Maybe she is involved in the movie somehow? Wow, they are playing her off. The funny thing is, Ryan just said before this, "This is invariably when something goes off the rails"

Best Live Action Short Subject

Winner: The New Tennants

Ben Stiller, dressed as a Na'vi: Best Makeup
Wow....this is going on WAY too long

Staaaarr Treeeeeeek

Never thought I'd say this, but it wasn't a big year for makeup

Winner: Star Trek

Ben Stiller is keeping his promise of standing far out of camera range so as not to demean the winner's acceptance speech.

Jeff Bridges to introduce A Serious Man, I'm guessing because of his work as The Dude

Best Adapted Screenplay
Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams presenting

Winner: Precious

Yuuuuuuuck my keyboard is getting shrimpy

Queen Latifa to introduce clips from the Governor's Awards........Bathroom Break!

Oh boy, it's Robin Williams. How long will we be here? Oh wow he's not adlibbing!
Best Supporting Actress

I think they just leave Penelope Cruz's name on the ballot every year.

Winner: Mo'Nique
Wow, her clip was amazing. I'll have to watch that when it comes on cable. Great speech, too.

Colin Firth to introduce An Education. Great movie!

I have no idea how we're doing on time. We're only half way through the allotted 3 hours, but it seems like there's a heck of a lot more show to get through.

HAHAHA they just caught some dude running across stage

Best Art Direction
Sigourney Weaver presenting

Winner: Avatar

Sorry I'm falling behind on the commentary, but Scout keeps having coughing fits. This may have to be cut short if she keeps this up.

Best Costumes
Tom Ford, Sarah Jessica Parker presenting

Oooooh, Bright Star! Good movie :) For the ladies that is. Dudes wouldn't like it.

Winner: The Young Victoria

Why do the costume designers always have the weirdest outfits on?

Charlize Theron presenting Precious

Tribute to horror movies

Hee - Steve and Alec recreating Paranormal Activity
Hahahaha that was awesome!

Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner to introduce the horror montage.
Oh geez, Kristen is so awkward

Some of this is entertaining, but if you're trying to cut down the show's running time, this is a good place to start.

Gah this is going on WAY too long.

Tarantino liked it, surprise surprise.

Best Sound Editing
Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick presenting; Morgan Freeman narrating a demonstration video using The Dark Knight

Oh, Zac, your hair is insane

Winner: The Hurt Locker

Oh holy cow, I take back what I said about Zac's hair. This guy wins.

Best Sound Mixing
Winner: The Hurt Locker

Geez, I'm eating a ton of Goldfish

Elizabeth Banks in the thankless job of discussing the Sci Tech awards. You know, the ones no one cares about! Which is why they don't televise it.

John Travolta presenting Inglorious Basterds

Killin' Natzees!

We've got an hour left before we're running overtime. Let's bring it home, Alan Shankman! (show producer)

Best Cinematographer
Sandra Bullock presenter. I love, LOVE, her dress

Winner: Giant Smurf movie

CCH Pounder!! She is awesome. She does great work as Amanda Waller in the animated DC stuff

Demi Moore introducing the In Memoriam

James Taylor is singing.

LOL love whoever put in the clip of Dom DeLuise from The Muppet Movie!

Awww, Natasha Richardson. Damn, that was sad.

Best Original Score!
JLo, Sam Worthington presenting

This is my favorite category. Up better win. Michael Giacchino's work on this movie AND on LOST often moved me to tears.

Cool! They're using dancers from So You Think You Can Dance! Nice tie in, Adam Shankman ;)

Ya'll, as much as I love dance...this is a little dorky. You just ruined the UP soundtrack with your popping and locking!

Winner: Michael Giacchino! YES!!!

**Ryan just had to take Scout to the emergency vet. She coughed up something that looked like it had blood in it. Ugh. Thank you to Ryan for taking her! I'm feeling guilty for not going with them. I really hope she's ok.

Best Giant Blue People, I mean, Best Special Effects
Bradley Cooper, Gerard Butler presenting

Winner: Blue Cat People

Jason Bateman introducing Up in the Air

Best Documentary Feature
Matt Damon presenting

I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't seen any of these. I'm also embarrassed to admit it took me 3 tries to spell embarrassed correctly.

Winner: The Cove Fisher.....Stevens? Weird. I didn't know he was involved in this.

Wow, they are really starting to play people off super fast.

Best Editing
Tyler Perry presenting

Hee, Steve and Alec backstage in the world's largest Snuggie

Winner: The Hurt Locker

I hope we're getting close to the end.

Keanu Reeves introducing The Hurt Locker

Eeesh, this is going to run over. Why are the commercials so long??

Best Foreign Language Film
Pedro Almodóvar and Quentin Tarantino

Haven't seen any of these, either

Winner: El Secreto de Sus Ojos; Argentina

Kathy Bates presenting Avatar

UUUUUUGH another commercial. Make. It. End.

Straight into Best Actor clips

OH....CRAP THEY'RE DOING THIS AGAIN. They're having a friend tell a story about each of the nominees. THIS IS SUCH A TIME WASTER. UGH NO ONE CARES.

I do like this friend thing better than random past winners. At least they're telling personal stories.

Kate Winslet, presenter

Winner: Jeff Bridges

I can't believe how many of these winners I've typed before the actual announcement. Ha, love Jeff Bridges. The Dude Abides!

Oh no....he's rambling. Maybe he had a few White Russians before the ceremony.

*Blah blah blah You're So Great Actor Tributes*

HA Michael Sheen, you are awesome (ETA - LOL I typed Martin Sheen last night. Hey, it was late)

WOW, Peter Sarsgaard just spoiled his own movie

Gabourey Sidibe is such a sweetheart

Best Actress
Sean Penn, presenter

Winner: Sandra Bullock
Wow, it's weird to see Jesse James at the Oscars

Classy speech, Sandy

Best Director
Barbara Streisand, presenter

Winner:Katheryn Bigelow

Guess we know what won Best Picture

Best Picture
Tom Hanks, presenter
Winner: The Hurt Locker
Yep!

Hahaha her soldier actors are freaking out. I was still sad Anthony Mackie didn't get a nomination. He was great.

We made it to the end! Wish I'd eaten something else besides shrimp and Goldfish for dinner. Goodnight everyone!

UPDATE: Scout is totally fine. She is home and sleeping.

Snow Day

2010-02-23T20:23:00.001-06:00

SNOW

2010-02-23T09:15:00.004-06:00

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG It's snowing!!!!!

It is snowing in Austin, TX. I can't believe it. All week, the forecast has said snow and I said "PEOPLE, it is NOT going to SNOW." It never snows here. Ever.

Not only is it snowing, it's snowing in FAR south Austin (we're almost to Slaughter), it's snowing big fat flakes and it's sticking. Somewhat.

Well, now it's back to raining. Or maybe that's ice. But I did get to see a small bit of snow while it lasted and that was fun.

Blizzard 2010

2010-02-19T18:27:00.000-06:00

Doug fixed my picture for me

Dogs

2010-02-18T19:00:00.010-06:00

My mom took me shopping today for my birthday (early shopping - it's more than a month away). In retrospect I'm really glad we decided to go to Barton Springs mall instead of the Arbor because of the plane crash situation. We were mainly looking for jeans, because my daily uniform consists of jeans and t-shirts and I don't know if I currently own any denim that's younger than 5 years.

There's a reason I don't have any newish jeans: I hate shopping for them. Maybe it's because I'm rocketing towards middle age, but all the jeans now are totally ugly. They're either too faded or look like they've been mauled by tigers. So no jeans for me today, but I did find some other stuff. Thanks, mom!

One of the shirts I tried on made me laugh. It was this t-shirt with a giant picture of a dog head. The only problem was that it looked a lot better as a flat picture and, well, I am not a flat surface.

Let's just say the dog's face became a little, um, distorted....when I tried it on. Ahem.

More dog pictures:

What Scout does when we're not looking...

...try to take over the world*

*This picture was NOT photoshopped

Plane Crash

2010-02-18T14:43:00.005-06:00

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo is currently giving a press conference on the Austin plane crash that occurred earlier today and is scolding the reporters for their irresponsible journalism. As is typical in situations like this, there has been a good amount of sensationalism on the part of the news. CNN (which is national, but is a good example) is running it's coverage under an "ATTACK ON AUSTIN" splash screen. Chief Acevedo was clearly irritated that it has been suggested that this was not an isolated incident. One of the journalists could be heard arguing with him with information from "numerous blogs" and demanding how he could be sure. Really, guy? You believe heresay from Joe Blogger and not the police department, who has been on the scene all morning? Anyway, it was nice to see Acevedo giving him the smack down after that.

After seeing footage of the site I honestly can't believe that only two people were injured. Eye witnesses are claiming there was quite the fireball. Hopefully the injuries are not too bad and I wish those individuals a speedy recovery. This is scary stuff that you don't expect to hear about happening in your hometown.

Turn on your Heart Light

2010-02-09T11:21:00.006-06:00

If you were reading Troubles back in 2008, you may remember that I had a procedure to determine whether or not I should get a defibrillator placed. The results indicated that they were able to get my heart out of rhythm and that a defibrillator was recommended. After about 3 months of mulling it over and not being able to decide, I realized my indecision was stemming from my resistance to the idea. I did not get the defibrillator.

The reason I had this test performed in the first place was that I had had a series of results from previous, less invasive studies which were troubling to my cardiologist. These studies included a stress test and multiple Echocardiograms.

An Echocardiogram is an ultrasound of the heart that helps determine your ejection fraction, which is basically a measure of heart function. More specifically:

ejection fraction (Ef) is the fraction of blood pumped out of a ventricle with each heart beat - Wikipedia

Healthy people generally have EFs of around 50-75% (this varies from source to source). My readings of 2 years ago were running a steady 35%. This is what concerned my doctors because I was right on the tipping point. If it had been reading below 35, they would have firmly recommended the defibrillator. As it was, they left the decision up to me, and I decided I was not ready for the lifestyle change and was willing to take the risk.

Last week I had a follow up Echo. The cardiologist's nurse called me the next day and informed me that my ejection fraction had read in the 55-60% range. My reaction to this news can be described as floored disbelief. Part of me was thrilled, but my more cautious side had a pile of questions for the doctor, the most important of which was - "did they make a mistake?".

I now have an appointment scheduled for this Friday so hopefully I can get at least some of my questions answered. I am slightly more hopeful after talking with my kidney doctor at dialysis yesterday. He had a run in with my cardiologist and it sounds like he believes the results. I'm not celebrating yet, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Groundhog Day, Lost, Radiohead

2010-02-02T11:55:00.010-06:00

This guy says winter's not over. No s@*#.

Has Punxsutawney Phil ever NOT seen his shadow? Wikipedia says he's only predicted an early spring 14 times in 113 years. I think it's a pretty safe assumption for 6 more weeks of winter the first week of February. Especially this year which has been so chilly.

The bright side of February is that it brings the start of another, but sadly last, season of Lost. I know there are a lot of people watching that are itching to get answers in this final season, but I'm just enjoying the ride. There is no possible way after this much build up that Lost can end with a satisfying conclusion. I've accepted that. But that's also not why I watch the show. It brings on a regular weekly basis better writing, acting, music and cinematography than you see in most movies. I will be sad to see it wrap up this year, but I also applaud the creators and ABC for knowing when to say when and wrapping it up before it gets tiresome.

The Interwebs are messing with my goal to remain spoiler free

I'm making Polynesian Chicken tonight in honor of the big premiere. If I were going for authenticity I would be grilling up some wild boar and mangos, but sadly HEB was fresh out of boar.

I'm not this ambitious. I'll stick to my chicken dish.

Radiohead did a fundraising concert for Haiti January 24. I don't get to go to a lot of live shows, but I did get to see them last year at the Woodlands and it was a fantastic performance. You can listen to the podcast of the Haiti concert here. There are links on the page to donation sites so if you haven't yet donated, this is a good opportunity. I've been listening during my post and the set list is impressive, especially since this event was thrown together. They sound incredible and Thom Yorke has a gorgeous voice.

Unfortunately the podcast provides no Thom Yorke Muppet dance

Evil is a Girl Scout Cookie

2010-01-26T10:50:00.004-06:00

Morning, Troublemakers. I seem to be on the upswing from whatever yuck I had last week. The last of my fever went away Friday and I only struggled with minor aches over the weekend. Now all that's left is lots and lots of kleenex and a dry, hacking cough that is making me quite popular. It doesn't matter how discreet you try to be, when you are making that sound, people will politely back out of your radius.

Sunday evening we were visited by one of Ryan's co-workers who brought over our yearly supply of Girl Scout cookies. I like that we're past the point of kidding ourselves. I know there were one or two years in there somewhere where we vowed to do good on our New Year's resolution of not eating junk and that included GS cookies, but we probably ended up getting at least one or two boxes anyway.

A number of years ago, the Girl Scouts wizened up and completely got rid of the order form, pretty much rendering their sales pitch unnecessary. Lets be honest here, somebody figured out those puppies sell themselves. I am way past convincing myself that I am being a do-gooder by helping ambitious young ladies with my donation.

It's about the cookies.

Thin mints. Samoas. Do-Si-Dos. Delicious.

The Samoa. Nature's most perfect cookie

Last year, after missing one girl at the door (I think I was on the phone or upstairs or something), I literally chased her and her mom down the street yelling, "Girl Scouts!". I am not making that up.

So after ordering way too many boxes this year, I am ashamed to admit I spent some time curled up in bed with a book and a box of peanut butter cookies yesterday. No, I did not eat the whole box, but I realize even that fact doesn't excuse my actions. The sad things is, writing about it has not even shamed me into not wanting to eat any more. In fact, it's making me want another right now. Help.

Pet Pictures

2010-01-24T17:12:00.002-06:00

The Dream Team

Why Scout so sad?

Evil kitty stole her new pillow.

Dear China,

2010-01-20T11:53:00.001-06:00

Thanks for clearing things up:

Sick

2010-01-19T09:34:00.005-06:00

Bleeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

I've got the crud. At first I thought it was allergies, but the allergy readings haven't been that bad and my fever hit 101 last night. I had to turn on the AC and the fan in the middle of January.

So, here's something Doug sent me. When I was a kid, we had an Atari 2600 and Colecovision. We thought Colecovision was the s#&*. The graphics were sooooo much better than Atari, because they probably added, like 10 pixels. My favorite game was the Smurf game. In my defense I was pretty young:

Stupid fences

We also had this game called Venture, which I would never play because I thought it was too hard and it scared me. No, I am not kidding:

Stupid goblins

I still liked the Atari, though, mainly because of Pitfall and Adventure:

I could never get past the alligator pit without a rope

You gotta love a video game where your character is a square

Sorry for the sad sack post, but that's all the energy I've got. I'm going to go curl up into a ball on the couch.

Catching up on Movies

2010-01-12T10:37:00.004-06:00

I've complained before about the dumping of quality movies around the end of the year for higher awards season visibility. My main beef is that the holidays are a horrible time for me to get to the theater. Since I seem to have very little pull with the film industry, I suppose I'll have to live with it. It is what it is, and I don't see them changing the system any time soon.

Now that January has rolled around and I have more free time, I'm trying to catch up on some of the films I missed. I saw An Education last Thursday, Inglorious Basterds at home Friday night and Avatar in 3D at Alamo Drafthouse Sunday.

Avatar is an amazingly gorgeous film. If you're going to see it, see it in the theater, and preferably in 3D. I'm kind of wishing now I'd gone the extra mile and seen it on IMAX. It's just all about the visuals, so I doubt watching it on DVD or Blue-Ray would do it justice. The story is fine, but nothing to write home about:

+

x

+

%

I also enjoyed both An Education and Inglorious Basterds, although I've heard so much about both for so long that I wish I'd seen them with no prior knowledge of plot or quality. That is the problem with movie catch-up. As good as a movie is, and these were both fine films, I think I would have liked them more if I'd seen them right out of the gate. I think that's part of why I loved Moon and District 9 from last summer: I had no expectations and knew little about either film.

I've resolved this year to actually make good use of my Netflix account. I have Let the Right One In sitting on my table and am expecting The Hurt Locker to show up this week. That's the good thing about having a decent TV and a Blue-Ray player - the movies still look really nice and while it doesn't quite live up to the theater experience (especially effects heavy flicks like Avatar), flopping on the couch with the dogs and some popcorn is still an enjoyable way to spend an evening.

Dentist

2010-01-05T10:10:00.004-06:00

I just got back from the dentist. The left side of my mouth is numb, but it's mainly in the back so I can still feel my lips and tongue for the most part. He had to replace a broken filling that I just had put in 4-5 years ago. I really like my current dentist. He's close to the house, the staff is super nice, and he seems totally competent, which is always a plus.

My dad just retired last year from his career as an Orthodontist. Prior to that, he was an army dentist. This meant that not only was I a guinea pig for my dad to straighten my effed up teeth, Doug and I had excellent dental care complete with yearly fluoride treatments. This was back in the days before they put fluoride right in your toothpaste so you had to swish it around in your mouth for a while. I believe it came in two flavors, Cat Pee and Battery Acid.

After Doug and I left the nest, I kind of let my attendance record at the dentist slip a bit. The first time I went to another dentist was in Arizona. I think Ryan and I just picked them randomly off of our insurance list.

The first time I went in, the doctor came back with the x-rays and informed me, "You have 5 cavities".

5. cavities.

I had never had a cavity in my life. The first thing that went through my head was not "Getting these filled is going to SUCK" but: "I have brought shame to my family".

When I went in 6 months later for another check up, I was told I had 3 more cavities that had been there a while. So, they pretty much just didn't catch them the last time. So now I had a total of 8. cavities.

At this point I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to show my face at home again. On top of that, WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THIS DENTIST that they missed 3 huge cavities the first time. Also, they obviously did something wrong now that one of these fragile fillings has already shattered.

Moral of the story: ask around about your dentist before making an appointment. And listen to Mr. Tooth:

Don't forget to brush and floss every day boys and girls! See you in your nightmares!

Bright, Sunshiny Day

2010-01-04T11:09:00.005-06:00

Good Monday, citizens! I don't know what to call my collective group of 3 or 4 readers. League of Melbotis had Leaguers and Adventures of Steanso has Adventurers. Troublemakers? McSteanies?

I admit, I am in a good mood today, primarily because I didn't have dialysis this morning. I'm coming off of a strange holiday dialysis schedule where everyone's days were shifted to give Christmas and New Years off to patients and staff. So this marks the first Monday in years that I haven't felt like crap. Hooray! Also? No dialysis tomorrow, either.

It is hella cold here this morning, which caught me off guard when I glanced outside at the sunshine and ventured to the grocery store sans coat. My car thermometer informed me it was not yet 40 degrees out and I regretted my clothing choice. I hope it gets a little warmer, or at least stays sunny, because I have to get the dogs out of the house for walkies today, lest they drive me bonkers.

Speaking of the grocery store, I picked up some shredded cheese (cool story, right?). I always get the HEB brand, because it tastes fine and is cheaper than Kraft. Anyhoo, I find it strange that HEB has made the decision to label some of their cheese "Fancy", even though it tastes exactly the same as the non-fancy cheese. What's fancy about it? Was it cut with diamonds?

Needs a top hat and a monacle

While we're talking about the Heeb, I saw these on the shelf there a while ago. Ryan wants me to buy all of them to try, but I don't think I have the stomach for it.

Bllllleeeeeaaaarrrrrgghhhh

One last pointless picture - I got a new toaster this weekend. It is already superior to my last 2 toasters in that it:

A) Doesn't have a "POEWR" button
B) Has a door that closes all the way
C) Has a timer that works

This is the best toaster, ever. There is none higher.

It Lives!

2010-01-02T09:54:00.008-06:00

Well, if you've been periodically checking Troubles the past couple of months and are shocked to see it open for business today, you can probably guess what my New Year's resolution is. I'm giving this blogging thing another go. Around October I kind of just ran out of ideas and went on a little hiatus. Hopefully I can get back in the swing of things, because I do honestly enjoy writing.

I'd like to start on a somber note, by honoring my big orange friend Melbotis, who passed away one year ago today. I still miss my buddy every day and that's all I'll say on the matter for fear of getting verklempt and upsetting Lucy.

I don't have any Earth shattering news, other than Scout thinks she's in the Great Escape and has run off into the wilds of Grand Oaks subdivision twice now. She returned to us relatively unharmed once by the kindness of strangers and once by the tenacity of my mother in the pouring rain.

Sometimes I think I hear her throwing a tennis ball against the inside of her crate

The Dug and Kristen have a runaway of their own. Dixie the cat escaped through an open window a couple of days ago, and Doug has been busy combing the streets of Berkeley trying to track her down. I hope they find her, soon.

**UPDATE - Dixie came home! Yay!

We had a quiet and lovely Christmas holiday. Ryan has been off work for nearly 2 weeks, and while I think he is frustrated with not being able to accomplish all he set out to do, it has been nice just being able to spend some time with him. In all honesty, he did manage to bag and board all of his comics from the past year, which is no small feat.

We spent Christmas with the Steanses out at Steans ranch and it was lovely. Thank you for the hospitality and good food and much too generous presents, Karen and Rick!

New Years was also nice. We went with Matt and Nicole to dinner and then made an attempt to spend the rest of the evening at Austin's First Night celebration downtown. After walking for half an hour to locate the main festivities (which was, by that point in the evening, a scattering of kettle corn stands and a mediocre band with a sad, tiny grouping of freezing people) we made the unanimous decision to make a U-turn and high tail it back to the car. We rang in the new year in the warmth of League HQ eating popcorn and playing Mario Kart. Good Times.

Happy New Year everyone! Have a great twenty ten! (Doesn't that sound awesome and futuristic?)

Muppets!

2009-12-12T10:26:00.002-06:00

And for my mom, who loves Beaker:

NTSB Discovers the Truth

2009-10-27T07:25:00.004-05:00

@NorthwestPilot#1 Look Ma, no hands! Hoping to hit the Mall of the Americas this evening. Minneapolis, bi@#&es! LOL. Should be landing soo...... OH SH*%

Weekend in L-Town

2009-10-13T13:52:00.004-05:00

Last Friday I travelled northward back to my hometown of Lawton, Oklahoma with my parents for a wedding. The daughter of my dad's assistant, Christy (from his Orthodontic practice), got married in a lovely ceremony on Saturday. Katie and her younger sister Annie are the sweetest girls. They both looked beautiful and elegant and having known both of them since they were born, it's still hard for me to believe they are old enough to get married (Katie) or even be in college (Annie is a sophomore at Oklahoma State). Kudos to Christy for handling all of the church and reception decorations and yummy food. Thanks for inviting me!

I didn't remember to bring my camera, but I had my Blackberry:

Breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, complete with real live fire

It does exist! After 20 years of rumors Lawton was getting an Olive Garden, it finally appeared.

This was my Junior High. Go Cougars!

My dad and I killed some time at Dillard's while my mom looked for shoes,

and a purse,

and some socks.

The beautiful bride

Bridge on 281

No trip down 281 can be complete without a trip to the Hamilton DQ

I'm a Bruiser, Baby...

2009-10-08T14:42:00.006-05:00

One of the perks of having Coronary Artery Disease is getting to take not one, but two different anticoagulant medications. Anticoagulants are taken to thin your blood and prevent clots from forming. This is handy if, like me, you have a problem with such things. I once had two large blood clots in my heart, but thanks to the magical world of anticoagulation, they are gone. My current regimen consists of the medication Coumadin topped off with one baby Asprin.

My Cardiologist wants my blood thin like water.

The flip side of anticoagulation therapy is that, well, sometimes blood clotting is a good thing. Like if you cut yourself. I knew I was in trouble the first time I went to the pharmacy counter to buy the Asprin along with the Coumadin:

"Does your doctor know you're taking Asprin?"

"Yes"

"Does he know you're taking Coumadin?"

"That's his name on the pill bottle. I certainly hope so."

*stare*

*return stare*

"Ok then" *rings me up*

So basically I have to be extremely careful around sharp objects. One enthusiastic welcome home from the dogs and I look like I've been in a fist fight. As a result of this and my lousy sense of balance, I am often covered with bruises.

Yesterday I received perhaps my most creative bruise to date. I was leaning over to give Scout a hug on the couch when Lucy decided she was ready to rumble. Upon Lucy's attack, Scout snapped her head back and cracked her skull against my forehead. Sigh. Now I have a nice goose egg to accessorize my dress for the wedding I'm attending on Saturday. Nice.

I'll leave you with a visual (slightly graphic, sorry). This is a picture of my arm upon returning home from one of my hospital stays in Arizona. Because I have a dialysis fistula in my left arm, that makes it off limits for any IVs or blood draws. This on top of dehydration and having weakened veins from hundreds (thousands? I've lost track) of prior needle sticks makes my right arm not the best target. I think they had tried 18 different IV sites here and a good 20 or so blood draws:

Wedding Pictures

2009-10-01T13:15:00.007-05:00

So we're back from the wedding, which was beautiful and sweet and a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, food was delicious, scenery was gorgeous, and most importantly, the bride was in attendance!

After 4 days in the hospital following her abdominal surgery, and a scare three days before the wedding with an incision site infection, Kristen managed to still hit every one of her planned wedding events. The day she was released from the hospital she was at the salon with the moms and Doug getting hair and nails done. On Friday she attended her bridesmaid luncheon, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner all without complaint and with a smile on her face, even though I'm sure she was in no small amount of discomfort. You're a trooper, K.

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures. I've spent most of this week in decompression mode and it took me a while to sort through all 1000 pictures. Doug and Kristen's friend Paige Morrison, who actually introduced them (thanks, Paige!) took these (except for the last one).

Doug and his kilttastic groomsmen

Kristen gets bonus points for letting us choose our own dresses

The families. K's family is awesome - I had a lot of fun talking with her parents and brother Andrew

Kristen looked gorgeous! Doug looked pretty sharp, too.

Doug and K were married by their friends (who are also married) MJ and Shannon, who did a great job with their first wedding ceremony. Not visible in this picture is the yellowjacket that had just flown up Doug's kilt. I am not making this up.

You can find just about anything on the Internet

My dad talking to my cousins Steve and Jeff. We figured out the only time we ever see the cousins is at weddings and now we're in trouble because there's no one left to get married.

Reception bacon: nature's most perfect food...

...except for maybe Reception Tower of Cupcakes. We were up until late in the evening snacking on all the leftover cupcakes

The newlyweds had some presents waiting for them when they got home. Doug may never make it out alive

Off to Doug and Kristen's Wedding

2009-09-24T07:30:00.004-05:00

Ryan and I leave this evening for California.

Yesterday I got a call from my mom (who is already out there) informing me that Kristen was back in the hospital from an infection at her surgery site.

Yeesh, the poor girl can't catch a break.

Anyway, she was supposed to just have to stay overnight and be released today, but who knows with these things. I'll be keeping my fingers tightly crossed. Hang in there, Kristen - we love you! See you soon!

Wigged and Thank You CBS

2009-09-20T22:02:00.004-05:00

My biggest phobia in the world is scorpions. I dislike spiders, but even a picture of a scorpion gives me the massive willies. About 15 minutes ago, I was minding my own business, watching the Emmys, surfing the Interwebs, petting a sleeping Scout, when I glanced up and saw a 3 inch prehistoric looking scorpion hanging out over the fireplace.

Without moving an inch I summoned Ryan from upstairs. While I cowered outside with the dogs, Ryan thankfully took care of the situation. I believe this involved flipping the scorpion onto the floor and smashing it to a pulp repeatedly with a shoe. I cannot thank him enough for this act of bravery.

Now I am looking up every 20 seconds or so to do a room check. I am so wigged out. I'm going to have nightmares and not be able to sleep. I don't even want to walk on the floor.

I know. I have issues.

In other news, I would like to send a huge, whopping THANK YOU to CBS for actually making the Emmy Awards show this year not only watchable, but pretty darn entertaining. It only ran 5 minutes long as well. Neil Patrick Harris did an excellent job as host, there were funny touches throughout the broadcast, and it was trimmed down to remove unnecessary speeches and montages. Bravo.

In Memorium: Digger the Cat

2009-09-19T10:15:00.005-05:00

My brother Doug is having a heck of a week. After returning home from the hospital with Kristen (who I hear is recovering and should be A-ok for the wedding, thankfully), he had to take his kitty Digger to the kitty ER in the middle of the night. He had a surgery consult the next morning to decide if they should attempt to remove a mass as well as part of some intestine (ironically, the same surgery Kristen had just undergone).

If Digger had been a younger cat, Doug would have without question done the surgery. But Dig was 14 and has had a number of other medical trials recently. Doug made the difficult decision to say goodbye to his friend.

Ryan said it better here, but Digger was a great kitty. I am sorry I didn't get to spend more time with him, because he was always super friendly and sweet when I went out to visit Doug. He had a good life and was even playing and frisky when we were in Berkeley this summer. I know Doug and Kristen will miss him tremendously, and my heart goes out to them.

Good-bye, DigPig, you were a good kitty.

The Crud

2009-09-17T08:46:00.004-05:00

I've been sick since Saturday and whatever I have is showing no signs of slowing down. I thought it was allergies until Monday, when I started feeling achy. What's worse, Ryan walked in the door yesterday at 4:00 announcing that he also had the crud. He stayed home from work today and is upstairs hibernating.

This is not good. We're supposed to be leaving for the Dug's wedding in exactly one week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this passes quickly.

The good news is, Kristen got out of the hospital yesterday and is resting at home. It looks like she'll be able to attend her own wedding. Hooray!

Kristen in the hospital

2009-09-13T07:43:00.004-05:00

So 2 weeks before the wedding, my brother's fiancé, Kristen, has landed herself in the hospital for a good spell. I guess she twisted part of her intestines and has to have some minor surgery to remove that part. When I last heard from Doug (last night), they still weren't sure if the surgery was going to be last night or this morning so I'm hoping the operation went/goes well.

As these things go, on the whole the hardest part is rarely the surgery itself. Apparently K will have to remain in the hospital for a number of days for recovery where she won't be able to eat or drink anything. Boredom and feeling helpless and trapped is often the worst part of any hospital stay.

What a thing to happen so close to the wedding. I'm sure she's already stressed enough. It's times like these I wish I could be there to help out, to do something. I do know that Kristen and Doug have a large network of great friends in the Bay area who I'm sure will be able to assist them this week, and that does make me feel better.

Kristen you are in my thoughts and we all (even Lucy, Jeff, and Scout) love you lots. Get better soon!

ETA: My mom just called - apparently Kristen had her surgery at midnight last night and it went well.

2009-09-11T15:07:00.003-05:00

Rain, Plumbing, and Tap Dancing

2009-09-10T13:35:00.005-05:00

Rain
I'm glad I went to the grocery store before the rain started. I kept eyeing the darkening clouds on the way to my car and luckily I got home just in time. We need rain so bad, though, so this is a good thing. The dogs disagree and Scout was forlornly staring out the window earlier. It was kind of sad. Thankfully Ryan got up this morning before work and took Lucy and Scout for a walk so they're tired enough for sleeping away the afternoon instead of letting the storm make them anxious.

Plumbing
So the plumber was supposed to stop by yesterday afternoon to fix our leaking sink. At noon he called to touch base. At 4 he called to let me know his current job was giving him more trouble than he had anticipated and he was running late. At 7 I tried calling him twice to see if he could just come this morning instead, but had to leave a message on his cell phone. Since I didn't have a sink, we had to go out for dinner, so Ryan and I left a note on the door saying for him to please call us today to reschedule.

I hadn't heard from him as of 10:00 this morning, so I called the main line.

"Yeah, your plumber never showed"

(Looks up file in computer) "Are you the people who left the note on the door saying you would call back to reschedule?"

(This is not at all what the note said, but whatever) "Yes"

"[whatshisname] is all booked up for today. Can we schedule you for another day?"

Yeah, no thanks, Helpy.

I called Clarke Kent plumbing and they had a guy here and gone in and hour and a half. Sheesh.

Tap Dancing
SYTYCD came back on the air last night (apparently Fox thinks reality television is more important than Obama's health care plan). Anyhoo, it came packaged in a much slimmer one hour format, which eliminated a lot of time wasting bad auditions. Evan Kasprzak's brother Ryan returned to audition and had a tap-off with repeat auditioner Bianca Revels. It was pretty slick (tap-off starts around -2:45):

tapduo @ Yahoo! Video

Maybe I can get Nicole to work with me on a tap routine for the Halloween party.

This and That

2009-09-08T09:28:00.003-05:00

One step forward, three steps back

So last week Scout learned to sit. I know I posted a picture of her sitting the previous week, but I think that was due more to coincidence than her comprehension. But now she's got it down. She'll do it mostly with the first request and even sans edible reward. We're also well on our way to "lie down" as she hears it all the time. She is picking up the art of fetching, although not so much with the "giving back" once she's returned to the porch. Then again Mel was never so good at that part, either.

She's been pretty good when we leave her alone, up until Sunday night. Scout had a major anxiety attack while we were out at Ryan's parents' house and took her frustration out on a number of Ryan's books. If you'd like details, you can read Ryan's account of the incident.

Scout is clearly not as comfortable here as we assumed, which is normal for an animal in a new environment, but nonetheless disappointing. We don't like crating her, but we'll have to do it at night and when we leave for the foreseeable future.

Sink troubles

Our house is about 5 years old (I think), but I'm sure was constructed with cost efficiency in mind. So I was unhappy but not entirely surprised to notice a puddle next to the kitchen sink last night. Apparently our sink sprayer hose has an enormous crack in it and has been leaking into the sink cabinet. Who knows how long this has been going on, because everything was sitting in a puddle of water and some items had begun to mold.

We've got a plumber coming to assess the situation tomorrow (we know the hose needs replacing, but it may be more than that) and in the meantime I can't use my sink. URG. A little problem in the whole scheme of things, but inconvenient nonetheless.

Pictures I found while cleaning my closet, or: Why Doug and I get along so well

2009-09-08T09:02:00.006-05:00

Doug visits a pet cemetery

These were taken completely independent of each other, years apart:

Where Jeff Spends his Afternoons

2009-09-03T17:24:00.003-05:00

DogWatch '09: Day....something. I don't even know anymore.

2009-09-01T16:14:00.004-05:00

Scout is fitting in with Steansclan nicely. For a while after she realized there was a cat, she spent all of Jeff's time downstairs attempting to alert us to his presence.

"Hey! Hey! Did you know you had a cat? Hey! It's a cat! It's a cat! It's a cat!"

We haven't had any major property damage aside from the power cable incidents, although she has a fondness for liberating shoelaces. We've had to relocate all shoes from the shoe caddy by the back door to the safety of the stairs behind the baby gate.

Scout and Lucy are getting along swimmingly. They go for walks together, play in the backyard, play inside, steal each others toys. I even caught them sleeping on the floor the other day with Lucy resting her head on Scout's stomach. It was painfully cute, but unfortunately I was cameraless.

Here's another instead:

Lucy and Scout lose consciousness after an epic nylon bone power struggle

In the process of dorking around with the camera on my new BlackBerry, I finally got Scout to "Sit" today, which we've been working on for weeks. The sad thing was, I was so busy trying to frame Lucy and Scout in my shot by tempting them with a treat, I didn't even realize Scout had her butt on the ground and was waiting paitiently until after I had snapped my picture.

Give me the damn treat already

Fall TV season

2009-08-27T13:51:00.007-05:00

I may actually have too many shows lined up to watch this fall. In addition to my regular fare, there are some new things I'd like to at least check out. Also: Fox threw a curve ball and added a fall season of So You Think You Can Dance which, airing 3 hours a week, is a major time sink. After last year's writers strike debacle and the usual summer tv wasteland, this scenario should make me happy. But too much tv is never a good thing, so I'll have to cut back somewhere.

Here's what I'm watching (In order of premiere date):

Mad Men (Premiered 2 weeks ago)

Glad I finally jumped on the Mad Men bandwagon. If you're watching, you already know how good it is. If you're not, you're probably sick of people telling you how good it is. I'll say no more.

Project Runway (Premiered last week)

Project Runway finally got it's legal mess straightened out with Lifetime emerging victorious over Bravo. I do feel the long break has been good for the show as last year I was growing a bit weary of the format with seasons 4 and 5 airing so close together.

So You Think You Can Dance (??? No one can give me a straight answer on when this thing premieres. I'll have to keep an eye on the Time Warner listings.)

Hopefully this season following so close on the heels of season 5 won't push me into So You Think You Can Dance overload. Who am I kidding? I can never get enough of this show. Sorry, Ryan.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (September 17)

Sunny! I'm glad this show never got picked up by a network. They'd never be able to get away with half of the stuff they do on FX.

The Office (September 17)

The Office hasn't been as good as it was in the beginning the past couple of seasons. But it's one of those shows like the Simpsons where the worst episode is 20x better than, say, According to Jim. Also, it picked up steam towards the end of last season with the Michael Scott Paper Company story arc so I have hope.

The Big Bang Theory (September 21)

Big Bang Theory is really hitting it's stride and I was thrilled to see Steans family friend Jim Parsons nominated for a Best Actor Emmy. Congratulations, Jim!

30 Rock (October 15)

30 Rock just keeps getting funnier, although I could do without the billions of guest stars. But do bring back Rachel Dratch!

New Shows that have caught my interest:

Glee (September 9)

Ah, I remember show choir being just like this. Seriously, though, I can't believe someone made a series about show choir. The pilot was pretty good so I'll give it some time.

Flash Forward (September 24)

I'm going to need something to replace Lost once it wraps next spring and this certainly has potential. Also: John Cho, Joseph Fiennes, and Penny and Charlie from Lost.

You're On Notice:

Parks And Recreation (September 17)

I love you Amy and Aziz, but: be more funny.*

We Are Done Profesionally:

Heroes
I gave Heroes 2 more seasons than I should have so we are finished.

Smallville
I haven't watched consistently since maybe season 4 or 5, but I did catch last season's finale. Wow, just...craptacular.

*Edited to add: I actually saw a repeat of Parks&Rec tonight and it was funnier than I remembered.

DogWatch '09: The First Casualties

2009-08-20T07:52:00.003-05:00

Scout has been doing unbelievably well for a youg pup with Labrador DNA and a mentor who took a year and a half to learn how to "shake". After about a week, she pretty much refused to go back in her crate and since it was there mainly for her to feel safe in our absence, she's had free reign of the downstairs ever since. She's also completely housebroken and plays really well with both Lucy and now Cassidy.

She had been doing so well that I just knew a slip up was coming.

Yesterday morning I was wary walking in the door from dialysis as I knew the dogs had not gotten their morning walkies. Ryan had left early to go to Waco for work and I don't walk them on the days I get my blood cleaned. On first glance everything looked in order. There were no sofa cushions on the floor, no area rug stains, no dead cat. I settled on the couch, grabbed my computer, went for the power cable and pulled back a mangled cord.

I sat staring at the cable for about 10 seconds and then looked at Scout.

"Scout, you are one lucky dog"

About 15 minutes later as I was quickly writing e-mail and scanning the news before my laptop died, I heard the scraping of doggy teeth. Scout was gnawing on the fireplace, which is made of this soft....stuff....look, I don't know what it is. Plaster? So yeah, she was in the process of sculpting a large hole in the base of the fireplace.

I thought all of this chewing was anxiety over not getting walked, so when we retired to bed last night, I made sure my computer (now being powered by Ryan's cord from work) was up on the kitchen counter and tucked Scout in with all of her stuffed toys.

This morning I awoke with Lucy making a flying leap onto my head and Ryan informing me: Scout chewed through the phone cord. And ate my shoelace.

I am on a mission to PetSmart today to locate that spray that supposedly deters animals and to buy the dogs some nylon bones. And off to the Apple store to procure a $70 power cord. I guess I need a new phone cord as well.

Venture Bros. Season 4 Trailer!!

2009-08-20T07:46:00.002-05:00

DogWatch '09: Day 6

2009-08-14T12:04:00.002-05:00

I think this is going to work out fine.

Lucy being tolerated

Lucy pushing her luck

Lucy having no concept of personal boundaries

5 seconds later

DogWatch '09: Day 3

2009-08-11T19:39:00.005-05:00

Things with Scout are progressing. On the plus side, the dogs haven't killed each other. Also: Scout seems to have little to no interest in Jeff the Cat. She ate a whole cup of food over the course of the day, which is more than she consumed the previous 2 days combined. Unlike a puppy, she has no aversion to her kennel and has been sleeping through the night.

Scout and Lucy are by no means the best of friends. They are still trying to figure out who is boss and there is mild growling and baring of teeth when one crosses the other's imaginary boundary line. I hope they can soon sort out their differences. Can't we all just get along?

Scout is very loving towards people and seems incredibly intelligent. She is already picking up commands and was fetching tennis balls in the backyard this evening. She's a good combination of sweet labridor and smart shepherd, which is one of the great things about mutts.

More updates to come...

Our Newest Family Member!

2009-08-09T16:59:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we ventured to the Austin ASPCA to do some dog shopping. Lucy has needed a companion for some time now and I finally felt like I was ready to welcome a new friend to the family. Ryan found a shy, one and a half year old, bat-eared yellow lab/shepherd mix (we think) named "Babette".

Hi! My name is Scout and I think "Babette" is a stupid name

We took Lucy up to the shelter today for a meet and greet to see how the dogs would get along. Lucy was more interested in the bountiful supply of tennis balls than in Scout, but there was little to no hostility so we declared the session a success, signed some paperwork and brought the dogs home.

Scout has yet to venture outside of the kitchen and has camped out next to the stove, but seems pretty comfortable. She growls quietly at Jeff every so often, but Jeff deserves it for being creepy so I'm not too worried. I also have yet to hear her bark, so I'm hoping she remains good tempered and is happy here.

Scout still doesn't know what to make of all this

Sunny Finally Coming Back!

2009-08-02T08:32:00.002-05:00

Day Man
Fighter of the Night Man
Champion of the Sun
You're a Master of Karate
And Friendship!
For Everyone

Happy Birthday Kristen!

2009-07-31T10:29:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to my soon to be sister-in-law, Kristen, whose birthday is today. Kristen is very cool and a real sweetheart and I couldn't be happier that Doug has invited her to join our family. I hope you have a great day, K, and Happy Birthday!

Kristen in her natural habitat

Blue Foods: Crime against Nature or Powerful Medicines?

2009-07-28T12:25:00.006-05:00

So, my mother has always had this weird thing against blue foods. Luckily there aren't that many edible items that come in blue, but it does mean she abstains from things like blueberry pancakes and blue M&Ms.

Yes, you heard me. Blue M&Ms. Don't ask, I don't even know.

This morning I tried out a new snack item. We generally don't keep a lot of sugary foods in the house, unlike a few years ago. I no longer have cookies stashed in the cupboard or bags of Skittles and Hot Tamales lying around. I very rarely even indulge in my nightly bowl of cereal anymore. What I do enjoy is a mid-morning or post dialysis snack of Eggos and Starbucks frappuccino. Don't judge! Hey, the Eggos are Nutri-Grain, that's kinda healthy, right?

Anyway, the last time I was at the store I thought I would branch out and try the blueberry flavor Eggos and this morning I cracked open the box for the first time. Immediately upon placing the Eggos on the plate I suspected there was something off.

Wafting up from the plate was, unfortunately, a sickly sweet smell similar to a McDonald's McGriddle.

I guess I should have known. Eggos don't really taste like waffles - they're fake food. They have their own distinct flavor, much like Taco Bell doesn't taste like Mexican food. So adding artificial blueberry flavor to the mix actually makes them taste worse. I didn't even make it to the second waffle and was beginning to suspect my mother was on to something.

Strangely, a little later I was checking the news online and stumbled upon this article that says they've been having success with research on spinal injuries using mice treated with the same blue dye found in M&Ms. The side effect, and there always is one it seems, is that it temporarily turns the mice blue. Somehow I think folks with spinal injuries could live with the Violet Beauregarde look if it helped them walk again. I think this is an incredible breakthrough and I couldn't wait to share it with my mom. I now have new evidence that proves the blue M&Ms are not as evil as she claims.

July 27 is a special day

2009-07-26T20:32:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow is the birthday of two of my favorite people, my mom and my good friend Nicole. Saturday night a group of us gathered at the Z Tejas to celebrate Nicole's birthday a wee bit early. We then ventured out to Donn's Depot for drinks.

Matt and Nicole enjoying the ambiance and fuzzy wallpaper of the Donn's.

Juan and his new friend who kept appearing to stand mute by our table. We chose to call him "Steve".

Tonight Ryan and I made our way south to San Marcos for some dinner and cake to celebrate my mom's birthday. My folks have just returned from their trek to Brazil and were sharing stories and some amazing pictures of their adventure.

My mom's favorite cake is called Helen Corbitt chocolate cake and has this caramel icing that is easy to royally screw up. I set out yesterday afternoon to attempt making this cake and decided, "Hey, if I'm already making one cake, I should just go ahead and make another for Nicole!"

Mom and cake

The cakes miraculously turned out ok, but I was definitely tired of cooking by the time I was finished. I honestly don't know how people who cook for a living manage. My guess is that our concrete floors that were installed last year that we love so much weren't doing my back any favors. Especially since I never wear shoes unless forced. I'm thinking some cushy carpeted runners for the kitchen would help.

Anyhoo, it's been a fun weekend but I'm kind of wiped today after hanging out with party animal Nicole last night so this is a shorter entry than it should be. My apologies to the birthday girls.

Happy Birthday, Mom!
Happy Birthday, Nicole!

2012: It's a Disaster!

2009-07-23T12:20:00.003-05:00

*Go here for video that doesn't get cut off on the side.

Thanks to the Dug for the link

The Bay Area in Pictures

2009-07-21T15:56:00.010-05:00

We're back! Here are some pictures of our trip in mostly chronological order:

This was our view of San Francisco across the Bay from our hotel room at the Doubletree Marina Hotel in Berkeley. Doug informed me that the clouds were haze, not smog. No, really.

Tilden Park Botanical Garden. Having just gotten off the plane from Austin, Ryan and I spent most of the time in awe that it was mid afternoon and we weren't dead from heat. I also managed to get caught in the sprinklers three times.

Window Lion at Mr. Mopps Toy Shop in Berkeley, where I purchased a kick ass clock. You should come see it sometime.

Fisherman's Wharf.

Fisherman's Wharf with Alcatraaaaaaaz! in the background. It was a clear day, but we still couldn't see the Golden Gate bridge. It was pretty much wearing a nice layer of clouds the entire time we were there. We did drive over it on Saturday, though.

Waiting for the cable car, being serenaded by a street trumpeter with the talent of a sixth grader. I believe at this point we were listening to "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". That line couldn't go fast enough.

Aaaaand here's our trumpeter. Yes, he is wearing a plush heart hat. Only in San Francisco, folks -- see if you can spot the following items: child with questionably shaped animal balloon, plastic dinosaur, live rabbit.

Samurai exhibit at the Asian Art Museum.

Doug's cat Digger enjoying the stuffing from a wedding present. Kitty Dixie predictably did not make an appearance.

de Young Fine Arts Museum. We spent about an hour walking around...

and then spent some time wandering around Golden Gate Park.

Isotope Comics in San Francisco. Ryan got to meet one of his favorite writers, Geoff Johns.

Leaving the de Young after we returned in the evening to view the King Tut exhibit, which was amazing.

Ryan was sad we had to come home.

We had a fantastic trip and I'd like to thank Doug and Kristen for showing us around. We'll be back in September for the big wedding!

Last Post Before Berkeley

2009-07-14T06:44:00.006-05:00

This is most likely the last you'll hear from me before next week, seeing as Ryan and I are off to the Bay Area tomorrow. We'll be taking some long overdue vacation (we haven't had a trip that didn't involve being frozen in horror in our hotel room by 9/11 coverage since our honeymoon in 2000) and visiting with Doug and Kristen. The weather looks to be perfect this week - 57°-80° every day and sunny so hopefully it will be a good trip.

I'm blogging at 6:30 in the morning because I got up early to shuttle my Brazil bound parents to the airport. My brain could not process the situation when my alarm went off at 5:30 and the room was pitch black. I love how the first conclusion I always make is that I must have made a mistake and set my alarm for midnight or something.

I am now attempting to gnaw my way through what tastes like a three day old sausage biscuit from McDonald's. Maybe not the best decision to consume fast food when we'll be eating out all week, but we have no food in the house. I suppose I could have lathered up a tortilla with some peanut butter, but it's too early to be that adventurous. We also have no milk, so I am making due with just sugar in my coffee, which may be a first for me. It's actually not too bad! My dad the coffee purist would be so proud.

Normally I would have immediately crawled back into bed at this hour, but I need to remain conscious until 8:30 so I can check in for our flight tomorrow. Now that Southwest has returned to assigning every passenger a number, most people check in online to assure the best possible position. This makes for a more pleasant experience at the airport, but that just means the cattle call has gone virtual. Everyone sits at home on their laptop watching the clock (you can check in exactly 24 hours in advance) waiting to click the check in button. I can't tell you how many times I've checked in a day early to the minute and still landed in the 'B' or even 'C' section. That's why I'm downing the coffee and keeping my fingers moving. Gotta stay frosty.

So yesterday as I was doing laundry and ironing some clothes for the trip, I happened upon the 1987 Michael J. Fox vehicle, "The Secret of my Success" on cable. This must have been one of those movies that was in constant rotation on HBO in the summer, because while I don't remember it being that great of a film, I've seen it an insane number of times. I find this movie fascinating for a couple of reasons:

1) They must have had a difficult time finding leading ladies for the vertically challenged MJ Fox. I think I've only seen one of his movies where he had any height at all on his love interest (Doc Hollywood comes to mind). Helen Slater towers over him and I don't think she even wears heels.

2) It's chock full of 80's montages:
--The opening arrival sequence of Kansas boy being weirded out by the wacky New Yorkers
--Wacky sneaking around/ changing clothes sequence*
--Romantic, gettin' to know you sequence, accompanied by 80's sax music
--Work retreat, makin' it happen, impressing the bigwigs sequence
--Wacky sneaking around the house at the work retreat sequence**

That's a lot of montage. Impressive, even for 80s standards.

*Set to 80's montage fave, "Walking on Sunshine"
**Set to 80's montage fave, "Oh Yeah" (mmm bow bow, chica chica)

This 24 year old is brilliant! His crazy new ideas will save the company!

Anyway, it was amusing to see again. It's a cute, nostalgia filled movie, even with the cringeworthy romantic scenes.

Hope everyone has a great week! Stay cool!

ETA: All checked in - 'A' 21 and 22, bi***es! Sorry, I'm a little punchy. Coffee is wearing off.

Eventful Free Day at Barton Springs

2009-07-11T14:53:00.004-05:00

Today was the first time we've been able to visit Barton Springs in about 3 weeks and it happened to be a free day. We'd already planned to head out early to try and beat the crowds, but then discovered by watching News 8 that there was no fee at the pool today, which meant to expect an absolute zoo. After swinging by the Hop-a-Long Lounge to collect Jason, we arrived poolside around 11:30.

I finally got the chance to use my new $.99* float, which was nice. Floats are perfect at Barton Springs. It's too cold to remain submerged for any length of time and it gets too hot sitting up on the hill. If you're camped up on a float you can splash yourself every so often to cool off.

Anyhoo, after we'd been in the water for about 10 minutes, Ryan spotted a man in distress being treated poolside. We couldn't figure out if he was having heart issues or couldn't breathe, or what, but EMS showed up and eventually carted him off. He appeared to be conscious and talking, though, so that's good.

About 10 minutes after that, we heard the lifeguard whistles go off, followed by repeated shouts of, "EVERYBODY OUT OF THE POOL!". Miraculously, the pool cleared in under 3 minutes, save one gentleman who was doing some laps.

Apparently (this heard fourth hand as passed through the crowd) someone thought they saw a child go under and never come back up. Then a lifeguard found a small life vest pinned under a rock. Scary stuff, so the pool was cleared and we got to witness the lifeguards executing their rescue training. This involved a line of swimmers as well as a couple of scuba dudes sweeping the pool twice.

In the end it was thankfully declared a false alarm, but it was nice to see the lifeguards on top of things. Hats off to them.

This whole process took upwards of 45 minutes. While we really had no idea when we'd be allowed back into the pool we were left baking on the hill and debating whether or not to take off. We took refuge under the shade of a tree after about 30 minutes. One clueless couple sauntered down the hill with their pool noodles, amazingly failed to notice no one else was in the pool, and jumped right in. Ryan, Jason, and I gave them the slow clap.

We did finally get to jump in one last time before leaving.

UPDATE: OK, this is where my broken telephone style reporting has failed me. Apparently people thought they saw a man wearing goggles who wasn't moving at the bottom of the pool.

*This isn't the first time I've noticed this, but when did keyboards lose the cent symbol? I'm sure there's some code to get it, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Team Swizzlebeef

2009-07-05T20:50:00.003-05:00

If you enjoyed Mystery Science Theater back in the day, you'll be happy to know that those same guys are still in business. They now have a website called Rifftrax (warning: site has autoplay) where you can download their commentary on a wide variety of popular films.

They've recently started allowing fans to create and sell their own spoofs. The Dug and his pals jumped at the opportunity and have mocked 2 short films. They operate under the name Team Swizzlebeef and their latest offering is in my totally unbiased opinion, hilarious. Seriously, though, it's really damn funny. You can find it here.

Also, here's why you will never catch me anywhere near a theater that's showing the new Transformers. Warning: massive spoilers, but does anyone care? Thanks to Doug for the link.

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T11:12:00.002-05:00

One Year Anniversary

2009-07-02T14:14:00.004-05:00

Today Troubles McSteans celebrates our one year anniversary. Hurrah! Thanks to all three of my readers!

My mom just left. We've been cleaning since 9 this morning for our 4th of July shindig on Saturday. The house is now 85% devoid of pet hair (that's really the best one can hope for) and smells of floor cleaner. If you're going to be in the area on Saturday, feel free to drop by the house for some burgers and dogs to celebrate the U.S. of A.

Now I'm camped out on the couch, pondering a nap and listening to Lucy snoring. The dogs had a big morning, what with fleeing the vacuum, various wrestling matches, and spending about an hour in the yard while we dealt with the floor.

Jason is back from his big trip to London and it sounds like he had a great time. He's on his way over to collect Miss Cassidy. Cassidy has had a good visit - she's been a great houseguest and fun playmate for Lucy. It's getting to be time for us to get another dog. Lucy really does do better with a friend around and I feel like it's been long enough since we lost Mel that the new dog won't feel like a replacement.

I'm flipping channels and they're showing the 1987 Dragnet movie with Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd. God I loved this movie when I was a kid. It was one of those we watched endlessly because it was on HBO all the time. Why doesn't Tom Hanks do comedies anymore? He was hilarious. It seems like once he gained credibility as a dramatic actor he abandoned comedic roles completely (save voice work on Toy Story). What a shame.

Look out. Muppets.

Loved SYTYCD last night. I thought most of the dances were terrific and finally 'got' the hype surrounding Kayla. I thought she and Kupono did a great job with Sonia's wonderfully strange choreography:

Have a great 4th of July everyone!

Rain Day at Puppy Summer Camp

2009-06-30T08:41:00.006-05:00

After finally getting to bed at a decent hour for the first night in about a week, I woke up this morning around 5 with a migraine. Luckily I had the senses to bypass the pills and go straight for my Imitrex shot, which gets the drug in your system about 10 times faster and saves me from the 2 hours of flopping around in bed waiting for the medicine to kick in. The headache quickly subsided and I was back asleep within 10 minutes. The downside of the shot is, it's a bit powerful if I haven't taken one in a while, so I was a bit groggy when I woke up again at 7:30. It's honestly a miracle I made it out of bed at all what with the drowsiness and the soft rolling thunder outside and the comfiness of the bed.

I'd been shirking my Lucy walking duties for about a week for one reason or another, so we both were in desperate need of getting out to stretch our legs. Keeping a watchful eye on the encroaching clouds we headed out.

The walk was bizarre. It was incredibly warm but not hot, the sun was reflecting off of clouds in a way that looked like 8 in the evening rather than 8 in the morning, and the neighborhood peacock was crying his otherworldly peacock song. The clouds were moving in as if the Nothing was bearing down on Grand Oaks subdivision.

It was comforting to know that we had a Luck Dragon waiting at home to rescue us if needed

We cut the walk short when the thunder increased in frequency and the sun vanished. Alternating jogging and speed walking, we made it in the door just before the downpour.

So now I'm parked on the couch with a terrified Jeff the Cat on my lap and dogs camped out on either side of me. Every 30 seconds or so a clap of thunder rattles the animals (and me, too). Lucy whines for a good 10 seconds, Cassidy leans over to sniff Jeff, and Jeff makes his creepy gutteral, "Back off, bitches!" noise. I hope the rain stops soon as I'm in desperate need of running errands.

SYTYCD

2009-06-25T16:08:00.004-05:00

This is a So You Think You Can Dance post. If you don't give a darn, you are dismissed. We'll catch you next time.

So...last night's show. I was thoroughly unimpressed. Toni Basil is one of their worst judges in my opinion and I'm really getting tired of Mary's screaming so I was fast forwarding through the judging portions for the most part. Here is my take on the dancing:

Karla and Jonathan: Hip Hop (Dave Scott)
I'm sad to say after last week's gorgeous routine that these two offered up the weakest dance of the night. I think Jonathan is cute as a button and impressed me last week, but with the hip hop...ai yai yai. That was....not good. Karla was okay, but I wasn't even invested enough in the choreography to sit still through the whole thing. I went to let Cassidy inside towards the end and didn't feel like I missed anything. I fear Jonathan may be leaving us this week.

Asuka and Vitolio: Jazz (Mandy Moore)
I just cannot get excited about these two. I haven't so far liked anything they've done and kind of can't stand Asuka. I know! I'm a terrible person! I'm sure she's a very sweet girl but she bugs. While she's not everyone's cup of tea, I usually really dig Mandy Moore routines but this one was for lack of a better word, boring. For starters, Pat Benatar is not the easiest music to dance to, and when you add uncharismatic dancing it makes for a forgettable routine.

Melissa and Ade: Rumba (Tony Meredith)
Finally, a good dance. I just love these two. I'll reserve judgement until I see them do hip hop, but I'm getting close to declaring they can do no wrong. They're both beautiful dancers and handled the rumba with maturity and strength. Bravo.

Janette and Brandon: Hip Hop (Dave Scott)
Nice! To be fair, I thought this was a better choreographed piece than the first one, but on top of that the dancing was terrific. I'm not sure I was totally on board with the whole 'rocker' thing Janette was instructed to do, but she danced well and Brandon really surprised me. I thought Phillip was the only one left on the show that could pull off hip hop but I'm happy to say I was wrong.

Kayla and Kupono: Viennese Waltz (Jean-Marc Genereux)
Technically proficient as far as I could tell. I like Kayla a whole lot better without Max and I like Kupono, I've just never been blown away by a Viennese Waltz on this show aside from Danny and Lacey in the season 3 final 4.

Randi and Evan: Contemporary (Mia Michaels)
As much as I dislike Mia as a judge for her rudeness, she's my favorite choreographer. She's been responsible for my favorite group routines from each of the past 3 seasons and has rarely misfired on the competition pieces. So add Randi and Evan to the mix, who are two of my favorites, and you've got a great routine. And anything that inspires Cat to exclaim: "Zoot Alors!" has to be the best of the night:

Yeah I thought the butt thing was weird, too

Caitlin and Jason: Paso Doble (Jean-Marc Genereux)
I do not understand the tongue bath given these two by the judges. I thought everything about this dance was too big. The music, the costumes, the choreography all seemed to overwhelm these dancers. Add their total lack of chemistry to the mix and I don't know how much longer we'll be seeing these two.

Jeanine and Phillip: Broadway (Tyce Diorio)
I've never been a fan of the broadway routines on this show. I have nothing against broadway style in general, but it never seems to come across as strongly on this small stage. This one was done to *"Moses Supposes" from Singing in the Rain (one of my all time favorite movies) and contained a couch as a prop in an homage to the film. Aside from the impressive stunt of Phillip clearing the couch lenghwise with a running jump, it was just cute and ok.

*I once did a tap dance to this song in 9th grade and hated this song with a passion until I saw it in the movie.

Should go home: Phillip and Asuka
Will go home: Jonathan and Asuka

Paul Blart: Best Picture?

2009-06-24T19:39:00.003-05:00

So I guess starting next year the Oscars are widening the Best Picture race to include 10 movies.

I have mixed feelings about this and will have to wait and see how it plays out. On one hand, it could make things more interesting. I did a post pre-Oscars this year about how annoyed I was that the nominees seemed to be limited to "awards bait" films released within a month of the end of the year cut off date, alienating anything premiering from January through November. I was especially irritated that The Dark Knight and WALL-E were overlooked. Having double the number of nominees could open the door for bigger movies that have increasingly been dismissed as summer fluff.

I'm wondering if this development also means they are considering UP for a Best Picture slot this year. The addition of the Best Animated Feature in 2002 gave the Academy an excuse to exclude any animated film from the Best Picture race, no matter how impressive the film. This particularly irked me last year when WALL-E was snubbed and I will be similarly peeved if UP is overlooked come January, especially with 10 available slots. UP is by far the best film I've seen so far this year, and I would even go as far as to say it was slightly better than WALL-E.

I would be happy if you nominated me. Squirrel!

I do have my reservations, however. It is curious that this change is being made in a year with so few great movies. We are finally feeling the effects from last year's writer's strike with a dearth of quality films. I wonder come awards season if the Academy will be scraping the bottom of the barrel for nominees.

It also makes me wonder, even if this was a year chock full of good flicks, if increasing the size of the playing field could dilute the award altogether. I've often felt the Golden Globes suffer from this problem even as they separate their top prize into "Best Drama" and "Best Musical or Comedy" categories. The Oscars have no such plan to split Best Picture into categories and I'm wondering how it will look to see something like "Schindler's List" up against something like "Mamma Mia!".

It's still too early for me to form an opinion on this development so I'll have to reserve judgement until next February after the big show. I just hope this doesn't mean I have to stay up for a 6 hour broadcast just to see clips from all the films.

Puppy Summer Camp

2009-06-23T08:32:00.005-05:00

Jason is off to London until the end of next week, so we're keeping Cassidy for a while. I'm trying to come up with some camp activities for the girls (Lucy and Cassidy) but it's a little hard to do archery or crafts when you lack opposable thumbs. Maybe we'll take them swimming this weekend.

We started off pretty well last night, with Miss Cassidy only waking me up once at 4 this morning for a bathroom break. That was fine other than I for some reason could not get back to sleep for a while afterwards. Maybe because I couldn't get Duran Duran's "Rio" out of my head, which is strange because I haven't heard that song in months.

I was a bit worried about how Cassidy and Jeff the Cat would get along for 10 days. I brought out the baby gate for the stairs last night to give Jeff a refuge, but he stupidly refuses to stay upstairs. Cat + curiosity = dead cat.

So far, so good, however. To my astonishment, Cassidy actually allowed Jeff to drink from the watering hole this morning:

Dogs and cats, living together!

Anyway, I hope Jason has a great time in Europe (he's spending a couple of days in Paris as well) and comes back sporting a monogrammed beret and/or a barrister's wig. It's going to be awfully quiet in the comments section for the next two weeks.

Happy Father's Day/ Happy Anniversary

2009-06-21T15:51:00.004-05:00

This morning I had my parents over for breakfast in honor of Father's Day and their 40th wedding anniversary, which is also today. I'm glad my parents live so close now so that we can do these things and not just send cards in the mail.

My dad is great and since everyone loves lists (you do, you love lists), here's a list of 10 reasons my dad is awesome.

1. He taught me to ride my little red Schwinn
2. He would take us on 'hippo rides' in the pool when we were little (this involved hopping on his back and getting submerged when we least suspected it)
3. He took us on lots of road trips
4. He taught me to canoe and fish and to appreciate the beauty and serenity of the outdoors
5. He taught me never to give up
6. He taught me to love to watch football
7. He taught me the art of the bad pun
8. He made sure my life was VERY WELL documented
9. He taught me bravery in the face of pain
10. He gave me a kidney

Dad, after discovering Ryan, Doug, and me in his cabin in Minnesota on his 60th birthday where he had no prior knowledge of our attendance and where we were hiding in a room pretending to be bears or really large racoons. Did I mention he's a good sport?

Happy Father's Day, Dad! Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Bug

2009-06-20T14:55:00.006-05:00

Ryan and I had dinner last night with our friend Erica (aka Tiny E, aka Bug) and her husband Scott. Ryan knew Erica from high school and Erica was my suitemate/roommate from Trinity depending on the year. Erica and Scott have an adorable little boy named Isaac who we got to meet before dinner.

Isaac, seen here taking downtown Houston by storm

Also before dinner we got to see Erica's mom Wanda, whom we hadn't seen in years. Wanda is awesome and it was great to see her, even if only for a few minutes. She also hasn't aged in 15 years - it's kind of amazing.

Erica and Wanda looking cute New Year's Eve 1995

We had a great time catching up, eating some good Mexican food at Vivo, reminiscing about high school and college, and debating the pros and cons of Facebook. Afterwards we partied it up by swinging by the HEB before calling it a night at 9:30 because we were all tired. We are getting old.

Here's one more because I can't resist:

Erica, Richard, and Shannon in Nuevo Laredo

Back in Business/ SYTYCD

2009-06-18T09:27:00.007-05:00

Well, after three years of service my MacBook finally died. More specifically, the screen died. It started fading to white every so often, kinda like the season finale of Lost except less entertaining, then I'd reboot it and it would be fine. Sunday night it did this and never came back. After rushing it to the "Genius Bar" (I will never get over how pretentious that is. They should call it the "iER" or something), I was told it would be $800 just to get a replacement screen. That's not including labor and fixing the DVD player which said adios a couple of months ago when I accidentally dropped the laptop on it's side. Ahem.

So after pulling my best Puss n' Boots on Ryan:

I went with his blessing back to the Apple store to hunt down an extremely early Christmas present.

I don't really need a fancy shmancy computer. I was planning on waltzing in there and picking up their cheapest laptop, but I kept gravitating towards the MacBook Pro. Of course that's what I talked myself into.

So shiny

Everybody dance!
So the new season of So You Think You Can Dance is in full swing. I love this show so much. It has a great host (Cat Deeley is awesome. She's not afraid to hug sweaty dancers, dance out in the cold with auditioners waiting in line, fix dancer's shoes, and she's also 8 feet tall), competent judges, and extremely talented choreographers and dancers. I haven't picked out a favorite this season yet, I kind of like everyone except the two that were ousted last week. Here is my favorite dance from last night's show:

(You can FF to the actual performance and skip the fluff at the beginning)

My friend Kristi and I did a dance for the school talent show in 5th grade to Howard Jones' Things Can Only Get Better. I'm thinking we should dust that puppy off and seriously consider auditioning for next season.

Random Items, Birthdays

2009-06-11T14:57:00.003-05:00

Short post today. Just got back from a cleaning at the dentist. Cleanings can be a bit pokey sometimes, but way gentler than a 14 gauge needle in your arm so I can't complain. Also your mouth feels groovy afterwards. I seriously don't want to eat or drink anything the rest of the day for fear I'll mess up the hygienist's work.

This morning my mom came 'round to help me with some cleaning and totally re-grouted our gross shower. She is my hero. What an awful job, but it looks 110% better now. Thanks, Mom!

Two of my friends had kiddies born this week.

Jen Shaw gave birth to a girl - Sloane Julianne - Sunday, June 7. My hat's off to the Shaws for going old school and giving the kid a rad name like Sloane. Yesterday was also Jen's birthday so Happy Birthday to Jen and Sloane!

Letty and Juan had a little boy named Noah yesterday afternoon. I'm sure Noah will in no time at all be making delicious deserts along side his talented mother.

Congratulations to the Shaws and Bertrand-Garcias!

Weight Training. Now with more cat

2009-06-10T10:58:00.004-05:00

So there was this article on CNN.com this morning about using your pet to help you exercise. I assumed this was a "yeah no kidding" piece on how walking your dog is good for you. A portion of the article did, in fact, discuss this revolutionary idea.

I have to admit, I'm currently getting more out of my Lucy walks than I'd ever imagined. We go for about 2 miles on this nice woodsy trail that circles the neighborhood, 4 times a week (dialysis days I don't make any promises). Walking Lucy is like trying to walk a steam train. For being such a runty little Lab, she's a little powerhouse. We gave up about a year ago trying to train her to walk properly so I'm using this to my advantage and getting great resistance training for my arms out of it. I know, I know, the Dog Whisperer would be appalled. Whatever, Cesar, it's great exercise.

The other half of the article was focused on using your cat in your workout. I'd definitely seen this before, mainly on YouTube, but didn't realize kitty weightlifting had taken off. If you're interested you can learn all about it at catworkout.com. Really. My hat's off to cat exercise pioneers for their creativity, but I'll have to wait until I get a more willing kitty friend before I'd even think about it.

The closest I've come to trying to exercise with Jeff the Cat was when I used to tie a long string to the back of my pants while doing housework. No kidding - he loved it. But attempting to use him as a feline barbell? Not a chance in hell.

If I tried pressing Jeff the Cat I'd be pulling back a stump

Brain hurts

2009-06-09T11:55:00.004-05:00

I got my first migraine when I was 18 right before heading off to Trinity U. It was triggered by what I considered a traumatic event, in this case a trip to the dermatologist's office. At the time I had these warts on my hand so the doctor advised a thorough spraying of liquid nitrogen.

I don't know if you've ever had cryotherapy, but for even a small area of skin it's not pleasant. This was the entire top of my hand. It took forever and hurt like a b@#%^. By the time he had finished I didn't know if I wanted to pass out or hurl. I went for option B. By the time I got home I was yacking about once every 20 minutes. About 10:00 that night we decided a trip to the ER was in order. I got a little morphine, a good night's rest, and problem solved. I had just survived my first migraine.

Over the next year I had maybe three or four more. By about the fifth one I had been prescribed what migraine sufferers consider a miracle drug - Imitrex. Imitrex was at the time only available in self injecting shot form, but if you're in that much pain, a shot is welcome if it provides relief.

The migraines gradually increased in frequency until I was getting them about once a month, then once a week, and then once a day. By that time a pill form of Imitrex had emerged on the market as well as another brand, Zomig. The good news was - the pill was effective, the flip side was - I was popping Zomigs like candy.

I hit rock bottom with my migraines the summer/fall of 2005. The Zomig pills and Imitrex shots had both stopped working for me and I was making ER visits 2-3 times a week. We were on a first name basis with a good portion of the staff at Chandler Regional Hospital. It was a bleak time for both Ryan and me. Because we were in Arizona with no family close and few friends nearby, I had to rely on Ryan to get me home from the hospital and he was missing massive amounts of work.

I finally broke the ER cycle when I got put on a tiny daily dose of morphine in pill form. I also went back on dialysis which I think shifted my body chemistry enough so that my Zomig started working again. These days I still get migraines about twice a week, but they're very manageable and I'm no longer on the morphine. I've had them long enough to associate that slightly "off" feeling with migraine onset and can usually cut them off at the pass.

Every so often, though, (like this morning but it's gone now) a bad one will sneak up on me and I'll have flashbacks to my ER days. There were times when I was horking in the ER waiting room every 15 minutes that I literally wanted to die. And if a magical fairy had flown in and given me the choice of:

A) working kidneys
B) no more migraines

I honestly don't now what my answer would have been.

Option Paralysis

2009-05-26T09:48:00.002-05:00

Anyone who knows me pretty well is aware of the fact that I sometimes have issues with making decisions. I say "sometimes" because there are miraculous occasions where a choice becomes very clear to me. Thankfully, these are usually decisions that carry some sort of importance, like choosing a house, car, or even my wedding dress.

My problem occurs when faced with an endless array of options and my ultimate decision matters zilch in the grand scheme of things. Examples include:

Choosing a paint colors for rooms, forcing the application of said paint to be pushed back months or even years.

Shopping for anything in a department store. The sensory overload makes me uncomfortable and panicky. This is also why I try to avoid malls at all possible.

Choosing a blog topic. Crikey is this a problem for me. I can't tell you how many different ideas I've discarded in just the past week. The most common advice of course is write what you know. Well, honestly my life just isn't that interesting. I read a lot and see a good number of movies but have always been horrible at reviews. Beyond telling you whether or not I liked a book or movie I can give you maybe a few comments to back up my opinion but three sentences does not a movie review make. Like if you asked me how I liked Wolverine I would say: "hilariously awful". Star Trek: "loads of fun, but made not a lick of sense". See?

Choosing a 'project'. There are many undesirable 'spring cleaning' type projects in my house that I keep managing to avoid. These include: cleaning out the many cabinets in the kitchen as to prevent objects from beaning you when opening the doors; going through my clothes and making a box for Goodwill; making sense of the piles of crap I've formed in my office. Any time I start thinking of any of these projects, I suddenly start thinking of ALL of them and then my brain freezes up and I go fold some clothes. I seriously need a personal project manager. I did much better when I was a peon at a company and someone was giving me instructions. I am a good worker bee.

Obviously I have issues, but A) don't we all and B) this is a blog - nature's virtual psychiatrist's couch. Hopefully, admitting I have a problem is a good step in the right direction.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2009-05-19T16:35:00.005-05:00

Today is my friend Nathan's birthday.

Nathan is a fellow Trinity Tiger alum (rawr) who also knows Ryan from high school. He still lives in the great city of San Antonio with his lovely wife Renata and their adorable kids Samantha and Maximilian. We don't get to see him very often these days but we still keep in touch and we hope to make a trip down I-35 soon to see the Cone clan and visit San Antonio.

Fun fact, apropo of nothing: Nathan was once a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and won a nice chunk of change. Sadly I don't think he and Renata danced in a train station afterwards, Bollywood style, but I could be wrong.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

CORN!

Congratulations to Wagner

2009-05-19T15:39:00.007-05:00

I've known the honorable Heather 'Daredevil' Wagner for over 10 years and for most of that, she's been pursuing some form of higher education. Heather and I met at Human Code where we both worked starting in 1998 and she's been one of my best friends ever since. She was nice enough to agree to be my maid of honor at my wedding in 2000 and has since gone above and beyond the friendship call of duty. When I was waiting in the hospital for my second kidney to arrive, she was there all afternoon and evening until someone finally made her go home around midnight. She also flew out to San Diego to help me celebrate my 30th birthday and made more than one trip to the desert wasteland of Chandler, AZ to visit (if that's not true friendship, I don't know what is). There was also the time she had to rush me to the hospital for a kidney biopsy and then sat with me all night while I rode the high of my vicodin/valium/morphine coctail and babbled incoherently.

Most valiant of all: she kittysat Jeff the Cat.

Heather has been on a quest for her occupational calling since we met. She was working as a producer at the time, but didn't see herself producing her whole life and so went back to school at UT to finish her degree. Shortly after that she decided she wanted to pursue speech pathology, but realized she lacked the undergraduate credits required for this path of study and once again headed to UT to get prepped for graduate school.

Exactly one month before Ryan and I made it back to Austin, Heather moved out to Lubbock, where she knew absolutely no one, to begin three years of graduate work at Texas Tech.

I am happy to report that last Saturday, May 16, Miss Heather is officially graduated and is coming home to Austin. She is now a real live Speech Pathologist. Congratulations, Heather - words aren't enough to say how proud I am of you and how much I admire you. You didn't give up, you accomplished what you set out to do in sometimes incredibly difficult circumstances. I love you to pieces and wish you the best of luck in your new career.

Hopefully she won't get all uppity on me and start telling me "you're not saying it right"

Kidney Now!

2009-05-15T20:01:00.001-05:00

Taste Test: Star Trek cereal

2009-05-12T21:42:00.019-05:00

Cereal: The Final Frontier.

"Enterprise to McSteans: delicious cereal detected in your area"

Captain's log: Early scans show zero signs of nutrition

First Officer Jeff the Cat attempts to make contact

I question my decision to purchase the promotional box of Star Trek cereal. Past experience with Superman movie cereal and Spiderman movie cereal leads me to believe I should put the box down and back away slowly.

But I don't.

Whoo-boy. This doesn't look good.

Let's take a closer look: from left to right: "Planet Earth", "Planet Vulcan", "Galaxy", and an assortment of "Delta Shields". Damn, those galaxies look like they have the potential to rip the roof of my mouth to shreds.

Better start with the marshmallows. Red ones first!

Lucy thinks I really need to get a life.

There's no going back now.

To boldly taste what no man in their right mind would want to taste.

Eeeeeeeuuuuuuuuunnnnnngggghhh. It doesn't taste BAD, per say, it's......just...not GOOD. Kind of like the leftover Lucky Charms that fell on the floor at the factory.

Aaaaaaand there goes the roof of my mouth. And not in a good way, like Cap'n Crunch.

OOOOOWWW IT"S HURTY

Setting phaser to "Vaporize"

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson with the movie tie-in cereal by now. They are NEVER good. NEVER. I think I'll let Ryan finish the box. Or maybe I'll just throw it away.

Wolverine in 30 Seconds

2009-05-11T10:32:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Doug for the link.

Happy Mother's Day/ Star Trekkin'

2009-05-09T10:39:00.004-05:00

Happy early Mother's Day to both my mom, Judy, and my mother-in-law, Karebear (and to any and all other mothers out there). I really couldn't be more blessed to have two moms who would do anything for me and who are both such fun to be around. I love you both very much! Unfortunately Karebear won't be in town this weekend, but I'm taking my mom (and dad) out in style tomorrow to go see Star Trek at the Alamo.

A very young League wants you to live long and prosper

dumb. dumb, dumb, dumb. And some 'Lost'.

2009-05-07T10:24:00.005-05:00

Well, I stepped on a rock this morning while walking Lucy and twisted my foot. Yay. I'm sure nothing's broken, but having learned my lesson last time*, I flopped on the couch with an ice pack as soon as we got home.

*Last time being when I kicked the wall while playing with Lucy indoors (we now have a ball outside only rule), then proceeded to spend all day walking around at Eeyore's Birthday making it 10 times worse and ending up in the ER that night.

So here I am, not doing all the things I need to get done on a dialysis-free day. Not mowing the yard. Not ironing clothes. Not helping my mom clean. (What? She wanted to come! Really!) I need to let it go. The world will not end.

Anyone catch Lost last night? As the season's penultimate episode, I thought it was pretty good, but inferior to last season's next to last episode masterpiece.

I'll have to watch it again, but it just seemed underwhelming to me - from the lack of epic musical themes to the hilariously bad CGI submarine. It just felt like a lot of people getting smacked around and little plot development.

This would have looked amazing in 1992.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

STOP READING NOW IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE EPISODE.

SERIOUSLY

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

SPOOOOOOIIILLLLLLERRS

Ok, that should be enough room. Soooo, I REALLY don't get Jack's plan and I'm not entirely sure Jack gets Jack's plan. They're going to make it so that the plane never crashed?

a) If this show ends up making it so that NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENED, I will be SERIOUSLY pissed. You and I will be done professionally, show. Well, I suppose we'd be done anyway since the show is almost over, but still.

b) I realize that many people died on the flight as well as many additional red shirts in their time on the island, but the show made a huge point of telling us how crappy most of the characters lives were before the crash.

c) Detonating a hydrogen bomb. What could go wrong?

d) Jack has never made a bad decision before, right? Right?

Here's to hoping Jack's plan goes as well as all his previous plans have.

I'm not one of those people who keep complaining about not getting answers fast enough - the show's got another whole season, they're not going to spill everything yet. Still, I felt like we learned very little this go around.

I don't mean to give the impression that I disliked the episode. It had a lot of good Losty stuff like Hurley being hilarious and Ben making great Ben faces, but Lost has set the bar so high for itself that I was expecting to be blown away. I'm just now expecting next week's finale to be even better. I honestly just feel unsatisfied, like I have absolutely no idea where this show is heading. But really, that's probably exactly where the producers want us to be. And if the payoff next week is worth all the confusion? I'll forgive them.

Happy Birthday, Rebecca!

2009-05-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to my awesome friend Rebecca, who turns 35 today! We have officially now known each other for 30 years, which means she has more embarrassing dirt on me than any other of my friends.

Exhibit A: Our band, 'Skunk Junk', circa 1982.

Rebecca was like a sister to me growing up and we still have a blast every time we're together. She's the most fun loving person I know and deserves a fantastic birthday. Love you, Rebecca!

Anniversary

2009-04-28T08:04:00.003-05:00

Today is Ryan's and my ninth anniversary. Nine years ago today we gathered our friends and family at Green Pastures in Austin and promised to love and try not to kill each other. So far so good! As told to me by Ryan and Jason, we very nearly had a couple of homeless kids in attendance that had hitch hiked with them earlier in the day and that Ryan (because of nerves, or just because he's Ryan, I don't know) invited last minute.

It's been an interesting nine years, with lots of job changes, residence changes, health changes, and changes in number of animals in our care. I most certainly couldn't have made it without Ryan. No matter what else is going on in my life, I know Ryan is going through it with me, because he wants to be there. And with that knowledge, I know I can get through anything.

I love you to pieces, Ryan. Happy Anniversary!

The Dug and Kristen are tying the knot!

2009-04-26T20:34:00.006-05:00

The gorilla approves

I would like to say congratulations to the Dug and my soon to be sister-in-law Kristen on their recent engagement! I couldn't be happier for them. Kristen is super awesome and a real sweetheart. We are looking forward to having her join the McBride clan, even though I'm not sure she knows what she's getting into.

And just because:

The BatDug and wee McSteans head out for a night of tomfoolery circa 1976

The League asks Important Questions, Vol. 2

2009-04-23T07:31:00.008-05:00

The League has provided another batch of questions to his loyal followers and since I often have difficulty coming up with material (I'm sure you haven't noticed, ahem), I'm going to jump on that like it was a delicious piece of chocolate pie.

1) What was your first car? And do you miss it?
Aaaaahh the Sundance. I had a 2 door 1991 Plymouth Sundance that was blue green and had a silver stripe down the side that said....Sundance. My parents (bless them) bought it for me for my 16th birthday and I was so excited. There was a lot of jumping up and down as I recall as it was a complete surprise - not many of my friends had cars until we were seniors. That little car went through a lot: it had a tree fall on it in a storm, someone (who shall remain nameless but was NOT me) backed it into a telephone pole, the back window was broken so someone could get to my radio, and (I am not making this up) it had a pumpkin thrown through the sunroof from a 7th story balcony. My little car knew how to take a hit. Much like me. Did I love it then? Yes. Do I miss it now? Not a chance.

2) Are you going on vacation this summer, and where?
Please Santa, make it happen. We have tentative plans to visit the Dug and Kristen in Berkeley, which would be nice in July when it's unbearable in Austin and breezy 70s there.

3) Who is a dame (or dude) in the media that you once dug?
I realized not too long after my Dudes in the Media post that I had neglected to include my very first Dude in the media. A very popular choice I realize, but it's Harrison Ford with the one two punch of Han Solo and Indiana Jones.

4) What was your favorite toy as a child, and do you know where it is now?
I think I would have to say our giant trashbag full of Legos that we'd pull down from the attic every so often. It kills me now that kids have all these prepackaged car and spaceship Legos to build that come with directions. How is that creative? I used to love designing my own little Lego houses, no matter how architecturally unstable or logistically impossible they were (so what if the garage is on the second floor?). And I loved how you'd have to barter for the precious commodity pieces like the clear single blocks.

**Let me just say before we enter this next segment that I'm going to interpret "the public" as "people I have met" and not "people on the Interwebs". I guarantee no matter how inane a book, movie, or tv show, you're going to find someone in cyberspace who will agree with you.

5) What movie do you believe is brilliant that you are aware is not well regarded by the public or critics? And do you publicly defend the movie or not? (I'm not referring so much to movies you find a guilty pleasure... more along the lines of "why doesn't everyone see the genius I see in this thing?)
A Life Less Ordinary. The only other person I've ever known that likes this movie is Ryan. It got slammed by critics (it has a 41 on Rotten Tomatoes, which is actually better than I expected) and given the finger by audiences, earning just over 4 million at the box office. I thought it was entertaining and original and enjoyed the heck out of it.

Ewan kind of has awful hair in this movie, but he's adorable so I'll let it pass

6) Album?
I'm going to say anything by XTC. Not so much because they are disliked by critics - their albums on the whole, Skylarking especially, have gotten very good reviews. I've just failed to find, outside of the Dug, anyone who really likes them. Ryan tolerates them to a point, but I've honestly given up and will just click to the next song should they come up in rotation on my iPod if he's around.

Please don't heed my shout, I'm relax in the undertow

7) Television show?
Wonderfalls got mixed reviews and was only allowed 4 episodes to grow an audience (thanks for your patience, Fox). I have since picked up the whole run on DVD and love it to pieces. Plus the theme song was done by Andy Partridge. Of XTC.

Have a pancake

8) And if I must... book.
I'm going to have to take a pass on this one. It's certainly not a secret that I've read all the Twilight books, and while they are entertaining in a "I kind of can't believe I'm reading this" sort of way, are certainly not "genius". This one's hard because I ordinarily choose my books because they've gotten good reviews or because someone has said "you HAVE to read this". So...pass.

Local chains

2009-04-19T08:17:00.004-05:00

So last night Ryan and I went to dinner at a popular local Austin restaurant (which in the interest of avoiding another Clambake Jake's incident we'll refer to as, let's say, "Luey's"). Recently this eatery opened a location just a hop skip and a jump from our house so we visited the new establishment to see if it would be less crowded than original recipe Luey's. It was....disappointing.

The wait wasn't too bad - 25 minutes, but for a Saturday night in Austin at a crowded eatery, that's not too shabby. If we'd gone to downtown Luey's on the weekend the wait would've been an hour or more, so...there's that. As it was a pleasant night out, we plopped ourselves on a bench in their cute garden waiting area and had margaritas.

Here's where the differences between original Luey's and suburban Luey's began making themselves clear. The drinks weren't BAD, per say, but just incredibly mediocre, tasting strongly of margarita mix. The food was similarly unremarkable. It was fresh and tasted ok, but I couldn't put my finger on why it wasn't as good as my usual plate of Luey's Special until Ryan made a good point.

"Well, their grill probably lacks the flavor layers of a 25 year old grill"

I think he hit it on the nose.

The decor had the basic Luey's elements, from the hubcaps on the ceiling to the funky paint on the walls, but was missing touches like the customer signed stickers covering the hubcaps and the fun randomness of the Elvis/fish theme.

It just seems like the more local chains expand and become a "brand" the more that brand is diluted. I think in the future we'll stick to visiting original Luey's on off hours and wait for the day when new Luey's has developed some personality and more flavor.

Ryan turns 34

2009-04-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today is Ryan's 34th birthday. Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Ryan enjoys a bowl of Superman cereal

And because everyone loves lists, I have composed a list of 34 things I love about Ryan:

1. Before we got dogs, anytime (and I mean ANYTIME) a canine would appear on TV, you could catch him with a huge grin on his face.
2. His high pitched 'Lucy' voice (what he thinks Lucy is thinking)
3. He's a fantastic artist and even his scribbles are inspired. I have a collection of them in my office that I'm not sure he's aware of.
4. He'd do anything for his friends
5. His strange yet touching relationship with Jeff the Cat
6. Everyone knows Ryan's a funny guy, but sometimes he makes me laugh more because he's just cracked himself up than because of what he's just said
7. His passion for comics
8. The way he'll fight for me when I'm too sick to do it for myself
9. His friendship when we were isolated in Arizona for 4 years
10. His encouragement for me to keep in touch with friends
11. He's 6'5'' but wouldn't hurt a flea
12. The way he knows and accepts that if I'm grumpy or quiet it probably means I'm tired or don't feel well
13. The way he has been 100% supportive of my early retirement
14. How he goes out of his way to help strangers
15. He'll find himself fascinated by some dumb movie late at night on cable, end up watching the entire thing, then recap it in a hilarious manner making it far more interesting than the actual movie
16. Is a great listener
17. Has a creepy good memory (though sometimes this quality does not always serve me well)
18. Knows exactly what I need when I'm in the hospital - from making me laugh when I'm nervous, to quietly holding my hand when I'm too tired or sick to make conversation
19. Has great taste in music which comes in handy on car trips
20. Shares my hatred of the demonic foods bleu cheese and brussels sprouts
21. Makes a mean pork chop
22. Made it to black belt in tae kwon do
23. Named the Chinese Elm he just planted in our backyard "Chairman Mao"
24. Wouldn't let me quit when the company I wanted to work for post college wouldn't call me back. I got the job.
25. Wants to star in a reality show with Jason similar to Ghosthunters except they would hunt ghosts in the daytime and run screaming from the building at the slightest noise
26. Keeps us all entertained with the League of Melbotis, now in its 6th year
27. The way he absolutely LOVES Halloween...
28. and a good turkey
29. Will dance at weddings with me
30. His love of all things Superman
31. Will spend Friday evenings with me eating take out and watching shows we've DVRed because I'm too tired to do anything else
32. That he brought me to Austin and introduced me to decent breakfast tacos and Barton Springs
33. His infectious laugh
34. He brought Mel into my life

I hope you have a wonderful birthday, Ryan. I love you lots!!

Edited to change date, thanks Jason

2009-04-02T07:58:00.001-05:00

Making your way in the world today, takes everything you've got

Feel better soon, Lauren!

2009-03-30T21:39:00.002-05:00

Just got back from visiting our friend Lauren in the hospital. Lauren had a scare over the weekend when a gradually increasing stomach pain concluded in an emergency appendectomy late Saturday night. She seemed in good spirits despite some post surgery discomfort and will hopefully be released tomorrow. I am also happy to report Nurse Steven seems to be taking excellent care of her. Hope you have a speedy recovery, Lauren!

Lazy Sunday

2009-03-29T15:13:00.004-05:00

I want to start by thanking everyone for the lovely birthday wishes! I was under the weather all week including on my birthday, so seeing all the messages from friends lifted my spirits. All in all with the party last weekend, Doug's surprise visit, and the multitude of birthday greetings it was a great 34th.

Yesterday Ryan and I ventured north to IKEA in Round Rock in search of a new armoire/TV cabinet for the bedroom. The IKEA experience is always a bit of a time sink as they cleverly route you through each and every section of the store on your way to checkout. This means a trip to pick up a single item of furniture almost certainly leads to:

"You know, we could really use a small table next to the stairs"

"We need to consider getting an island for the kitchen"

"If we get an island in the kitchen we'll have to get rid of the hutch"

"If we get rid of the hutch we'll need to get something to replace the hutch in the dining room to hold all the stemware"

...and so on and so forth.

Last night was spent assembling the giant cabinet. Ryan and I, having 13 years of Furio and IKEA history together, are pretty efficient with the put-it-together-yourself furniture. Even so, we greatly underestimated the amount of time this particular project required. It was 9:00 before Ryan looked up from behind his cabinet door and wisely suggested, "maybe we should eat dinner". We took an hour pizza break and finally finished up around 11. Hurrah!

Today we've been exponentially less ambitious. The day started with breakfast at Casa G's, continued with playing guitars and ball with the pups in Jason's backyard, and will (I believe) conclude with a trip to Alamo Drafthouse this evening. Which means I don't have to cook. Right. On.

Birthday

2009-03-24T11:20:00.006-05:00

So tomorrow is my birthday and this past weekend I had a little get together. I think I had my last birthday party when I was 10 and I'm happy to report this one had much less fighting and fewer rotations of "Material Girl".

While it wasn't a surprise party, I did get a huge shock when I opened the door for my first guests of the evening and saw the Dug, who flew in from Berkeley unbeknownsed to me or Ryan.

Unexpected Doug is unexpected

Also making an out of towner appearance was Heather, fresh from her last semester of her masters program at Texas Tech.

Nicole made a batch of 'Yoda Soda' (lime sherbert and ginger ale) which was well received, especially by those adding a touch of 'Dark Side' (Tito's Vodka).

All in all I think it was a successful shindig and I thank all who were able to make it.

Special shout out to mom and dad, who came in on pre-party Thursday for some spring house and yard cleaning. Thanks, guys! You are the best!

*More pictures at Steanso's blog

Happy Birthday, Jason!

2009-03-17T09:43:00.003-05:00

Today is St. Patty's day, a day for drinking green beer and forgetting to wear green. Incidentally, I dressed hurriedly this morning while rushing to get Lucy to her vet appt and temporarily forgot about the holiday. By chance, I selected my most green outfit, complete with a green sweater.

But MORE IMPORTANTLY, today is my brother-in-law Jason (Steanso) 's birthday. Happy Birthday, Steanso!! Jason is an awesome brother-in-law who fights for the betterment of mankind down at the Travis County courthouse. He also plays in 2 (maybe soon to be 3) bands and can cook up a mean bowl of chicken tortilla soup.

I hope you have a great birthday today, Jason!

(Oh, and just smile and nod while eating Cassidy's cake. Go easy on her - she's only got one paw to work with).

Rain and Taxes

2009-03-12T09:24:00.004-05:00

Taxes are DONE. Just printed them out and e-filed.

Hallelujah

Every year it seems tax time sneaks up on me, even though there is no excuse for my surprise. Every year I scramble around my office, collecting documents I have failed to file properly, even though every year I tell myself I will be more organized. Oh well. They are done. Hooray.

Rain has finally come to Central Texas along with a wicked cold front. This is a good thing as we needed the rain desperately. I'm not sure Lucy agrees with me.

Lucy spends her days attached to my shins. I've even been taking her down to my parents' house with me because she loves their half acre backyard (aka Happy Hills Puppy Farm). Usually by the drive back to Austin she has collapsed in a furry panting heap in the passenger seat. I've also been pretty good about taking her for walkies, so she's been getting lots of exercise, which is good for a hyper lab.

Today Lucy is performing a series of woe-is-me flops and pathetic whines as I go from room to room, but I refuse to take her out. It is freezing and rainy and I won't do it.

UP

2009-03-08T18:41:00.004-05:00

I was going to see this movie anyway considering Pixar's track record, but throw in a dog named 'Doug' who's basically an animated Mel?

I'm in.

(The clip above gets cut off a bit here's the full screen version if you're interested.

Happy Birthday KareBear!

2009-03-04T14:54:00.002-06:00

I was planning on a longer post today, but I had Cassidy (Steanso's dog) at the house last night and she likes to check in every hour on the hour. So I'm a bit loagy today.

I did want to give a shout out to my mother in law, Karen, as it is her birthday today. Happy Birthday, Karen! I am very lucky to have her as a mother in law. She's a real sweetheart and I love her lots and lots. Have a great day!

Oscars

2009-02-22T19:09:00.004-06:00

Much to Ryan's dismay and despite my recent rant, I'm once again going to watch the Oscars. Partially because I can't help myself and partially because I keep hearing things that lead me to believe this year could be a fantastic train wreck. Things like Hugh Jackman, who is not a comedian but who likes to sing and dance, will be hosting. Also there's supposed to be a 'storyline' to tie the award presentations together. Whooo boy.

I'm watching it on a slight time delay so I can fast forward through the commercials.

And away we go!

Red carpet

Angelina Jolie looks hilariously miserable

Tim Gunn is interviewing. Good call.

Kate Winslett. Her dress is gorgeous. Didn't see the Reader, but I did see her in Extras.

Josh Brolin is married to Diane Lane?

Amy Adams has an...interesting necklace

Sarah Jessica P and Matthew Broderick

Taraji P. Henson. She looks beautiful.

Frank Langella. He was amazing in Frost/Nixon, but I think there were better movies that could have been nominated

Ahahaha I think Brad and Angelina were trying to sneak in without being interviewed but got the Tim Gunn ambush at the last minute. Love him.

Miley Cyrus? Are you kidding me? Sheesh.

Valentino - zzzzzzzzzzzzz

OMG the entire cast of Slumdog. Need insulin. Kids. too. cute. Hee! one of the little boys wanted to meet Miley.

Oh crap, High School Musical cast members. Pandering to teens, much, ABC?

Robert Downey Jr. cleans up nice.

Viola Davis was apparently amazing in Doubt. That's nice. I have no interest.

Don't. Care. About. Miley. Cyrus, ABC. GAAAAAAAH

Anne Hathaway. Dress is stunning.

Jack Black - they had to catch him by the bar. Hee.

I have to say I haven't seen any horrendous dresses yet.

Wow, Seth Rogan looks nice. It's amazing what a haircut will do.

Interesting, Michael Giacchino is in charge of music for the evening. I love his work on Lost.

Preshow is over, time to switch DVR recordings.

Hugh looks nice, which is an understatement, but I'm a little disappointed he's not sporting his Wolverine claws.

Opening number. Pretty good! I like the 'downsized' set pieces.

Anne Hathaway has a nice voice

Hee Hugh started laughing during the song.

Good start - Hugh gets a standing O.

Oh, hello Daniel Craig.

Meryl Streep has been nominated 15 times.

Best Supporting Actress.
(They are having a group of past winners give the awards this year. This is rumored to be because last years winners are not recognizable enough. Nice. So.....they're talking about each nominee now? We don't get to see clips??? DO NOT WANT. This is STUPID. The clips are half of the fun!! )

OH MY GOD GET ON WITH IT THIS IS SO DUMB AND BORING!!!

It's. Still. Going. On.

GET ON WITH IT

Ok, Penelope Cruz. I didn't see any of these movies, so....yay?

I guess the storyline is the production process of a movie. Starting with screenplay. Bring out Tina Fey and Steve Martin for Best Original Screenplay. At least they're showing clips of these movies.

Milk! I liked that movie, although I would have been happy for WALL-E or In Bruges to win also.

Beautiful speech by Dustin Lance Black

Best Adapted Screenplay

Slumdog, yay!

Jennifer Aniston, Jack Black. Must be Best Animated Feature. Wait, they're doing a montge of animated features first. Maybe to emphasize what a joke this category is. If anything besides WALL-E wins I will eat my keys.

Oh good, I can lock the house tomorrow.

Best Animated Short - La Maison en Petits Cubes

BEST SPEECH EVER. Kunio Kata doesn't speak much English so he wrapped it up with "Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto". You win, sir.

Art Direction. SJParker and Daniel Craig.

Benjamin Button. Didn't see it.

Costume. I heard Austrailia was a real stinker. Guess it had pretty costumes?

The Duchess. Didn't see it but I hear Ralph Fiennes is in it. Maybe cable?

Makeup. If Benjamin Button doesn't win this I'll eat my keys.

Safe.

Romance montage.

Natalie Portman, Ben Stiller, disguised as an insanely distracted Joaxuin Phoenix.

Cinematography

Slumdog! It was a cool looking movie.

I may have to start FFing through the speeches, I'm a little behind and I don't know how much more of this I can take.

Scientific Technical Awards were given out at a different ceremony because no one cares.

Comedy montage. Seth Rogan and James Franco. Pointless, but the funniest thing I've seen all night.

Best Live Action Short. Has anyone seen these?

The winner is Spielzeugplwkalsnkeiland (sorry it wasn't up on screen long enough to copy)

Hugh is going to sing and dance again. Oh geez it's Beyonce. They're doing some sort of musical medley. Zzzzzzzzz. Ok EVERY year they go over on time and this is an easy solution. CUT THE DANCE NUMBERS.

We haven't even gotten to Best Supporting Actor yet. Just for the record I have recorded the next TWO blocks of shows on the DVR to cover my bases. Now I'm wondering if it'll be enough.

Best Supporting Joker Oh sweet, Christopher Walken and Kevin Kline. That still doesn't make up for you taking away the movie clips, Academy, in case you were wondering. I like to see some of the performances I haven't seen to see why they were nominated. SHOW DON"T TELL. This just screams of Hollywood patting itself on the back, this actor talking directly to actor here. I just heard someone use the phrase "we sing your praises". Ok, that's the last I'll say on this matter. HATE IT PRODUCERS.

Heath Ledger, duh. His family is accepting. Glad he won.

Best Documentary. Bill Maher. I still want to see Man on Wire. I heard an interview with that guy on NPR and they asked him if he was afraid of anything. He said spiders. Me too, dude, me too.

Man on Wire. Yay? Wire guy just balanced the Oscar on his chin.

Best Documentary About Important Stuff No One Will See

Smile Pinki

Action montage. Ok, that was actually pretty cool.

Will Smith. Outstanding Visual Effects for Brad Pitt's Face

Benjamin Button

Outstanding Sound Editing

Dark Knight

Sound Mixing

Slumdog. They keep showing Dev Patel whenever Slumdog wins anything. I wonder if those kids have fallen asleep yet.

Film Editing Will Smith is STILL out there.

Slumdog. Where's Dev? OH THERE HE IS. Thanks for not disappointing, show director.

Jean Hersholt Award. What the? Is this new? Eddie Murphy presenting to Jerry Lewis. Snack break!

Frank Langella not impressed with Jerry Lewis. Looks like he's ready to call it a night. Me too, Frank!

Best Score Montage. This is actually one of my favorite categories.

Slumdog. Hi Dev. Did love the music in that one.

Best Original Song
Think it's crappy they have a montage of musicals, but won't play the entire songs nominated for best song. DUMB, ACADEMY. I actually like the songs this year and have all of them on my iPod. I'll be happy with whoever wins.

O Saya. Very cool. I'm disappointed they couldn't get M.I.A., but she just had a baby, so what are you going to do.

Peter Gabriel protested the abreviated songs (understandably) so they got John Legend. Um....they kept the Indian dancers on stage....what? Ok this is what happens when you get 45 seconds per song. FAIL

THEY ARE COMBINING DOWN TO EARTH AND JAI HO. Oh hell no.

Jai Ho, from Slumdog wins. Where is he? Come on, you know you want to, show director. What? No Dev? Maybe he went to the bathroom.

Foreign Language Film. Frida Pinto and Liam Neeson. She is too pretty. I've only heard of Waltz With Bashir.

Departures, Japan. ? Never heard of it. Moving on.

Ah it's Queen Latifa. I think she's going to sing over the In Memoriam. Yep.

Geez are we even close? Oh good, Best Director That's a pretty big one, right? Right?? So tired.

Danny Boyle, Slumdog.

He's bouncing up and down (hee! he told his kids he would accept in the spirit of Tigger if he won)

Where's Dev? Did he leave?

OH THANK GOD ONLY 3 more awards. Don't tell me this is actually coming in on time?? Has that ever happened???

I actually caught up with the live broadcast so no more FFing for me. Stupid commercials. Now what am I supposed to do?

Soooooo.....How's everyone's day been going? Do anything exciting?

Oh we're back. Best Actress Ok, it really sounded like the announcer said "Harre Berry", but maybe I'm just hearing things. Oh geez, are these actors writing their own tributes? It sure sounds like it.

GET ON WITH IT. Sorry, I know I promised to shut up about this but this is seriously grating.

And we've come to the end of the scheduled broadcast on the DVR. Glad I recorded the 'news' so I could see the end of it.

Damn, these last 3 awards are going to take an hour.

FINALLY. Kate Winslet. I love you Kate, but you better not act surprised. This is only your 27th award for this movie.

No commercial break before Best Actor? Bless you, show director.

WHOA, DDLewis didn't show?? Interesting.

Sean Penn!! Yay! He was fantastic in Milk. Good movie.

Come on, Oscars, you can do it. Wrap it up before 11, please.

Whoa they're just gonna jump on in there - Best Picture. Steven Spielberg.

Slumdog Millionaire. Yays. Awwww, the kids!! Someone woke them up apparently. Dev is holding little Latika. So cute.

Thank you, Santa, we're done before 11!! Goodnight, everybody, I'm goin' to bed.

H.E.Buddy

2009-02-17T10:38:00.006-06:00

This morning I ventured over to the new **Sunflower Farmer's Market that's just up the street from our house. We've been super excited since construction began, not just for the access to cheap fresh produce, but also because that empty building has been something of an eyesore since we moved back to town. Granted, I think they could have tried harder choosing an exterior paint color but what are you going to do.

I waited until this morning as the opening week has seen cars in their parking lot spilling out onto Manchaca and pedestrians dangerously Froggering across the street in search of fresh produce. (Seriously, people? I commend your conservation efforts by walking, but I almost hit 2 people darting out from behind oncoming cars. The crosswalk is like, 50 feet away - use it.) I was shocked at how deserted the parking lot was today, though. Maybe it was because it was a rainy Tuesday morning, but there was NO one there.

So, the store's pitch is "Serious Food, Silly Prices". Now, agreed - their produce was super cheap and looked great. But I have other things on my grocery list that don't just include veggies and meat, so afterwards I had to make a side trip to HEB. That's not how I want to do my shopping. Also, when I got to the Heeb, I noticed their vegetables were exactly the same price.

I'm not saying I'll never go back to Sunflower. In fact, I think it would be a fun place to go if you didn't have a specific recipe in mind just to browse the produce that's in season. Maybe I'll take Ryan with me on the weekend sometime and we can buy some foods to throw on the grill. But for my weekday shopping I think I'm sticking with HEB.

Nightmare fuel, now conveniently in your grocer's check out line
So, this won't mean anything to those of you not living in the Texas area, but HEB has recently taken on a new mascot in the form of an anthropomorphic grocery bag. You may have seen it, it's kind of unimaginative and horrifying. If I saw my grocery bag suddenly start waving to me I would never go shopping again. Anyhoo, so I'm standing in line to check out, kind of spacing out and minding my own business when I see something huge and brown flailing out of the corner of my eye.

It's the HEBuddy mascot, lifesize.

Please don't follow me into my dreams, paper bag

Luckily I was able to avoid eye contact and escape with my groceries. Maybe I will stick to Sunflower after all.

**Ok, so Ryan tells me in the comments that the name is actually Newflower, and he is correct. I thought that (Sunflower) sounded wrong. However, upon further investigation, it is actually the same company and Sunflower is the name in other states. That is why their website says Sunflower. Why they changed the name here I don't know, perhaps there was a conflict with the other Sunflower.

Meep! Meep!

2009-02-10T15:40:00.004-06:00

The first time I saw a roadrunner in real life was in Arizona. I only ever saw them when I was driving because, well, they have a habit of quickly darting in front of your car. Thus the name I suppose. They are quite cute and extremely fast, clocking up to 17 mph. Though you may have been lead to believe otherwise, they are only about 10 inches tall and not the same size as, say, a coyote.

Would be terrifying if actually this size

Lucy and I, in the spirit of fulfilling our New Year's resolution, have been taking walks around our neighborhood on my non-dialysis days. I've given up trying to train her to walk by my side and instead use her steam train Labrador energy for resistance training by pulling back on the leash. We take a nice, woodsy path that circles our neighborhood that takes about a half hour to complete.

The past three times we've walked, without fail as we round a particular curve, we've seen a roadrunner cross the path. In exactly the same place every time. I'm starting to get suspicious of this bird. What is it up to? Does it suspect Lucy may some day strap on roller skates and a rocket?

On further investigation, it seems I have every right to fear the bird. According to this site:

Because of its lightening quickness, the roadrunner is one of the few animals that preys upon rattlesnakes. Using its wings like a matador's cape, it snaps up a coiled rattlesnake by the tail, cracks it like a whip and repeatedly slams its head against the ground till dead.

I.....don't even know what to say. Perhaps we'll start keeping to the neighborhood.

Big Decision

2009-02-04T16:16:00.003-06:00

Some of you may remember the series of tests I had done last year as part of my ongoing adventures in Coronary Artery Disease (which was brought on by my ongoing adventures in End Stage Renal Disease). To refresh your memory, my cardiologist felt it may be time to have a defibrillator placed on the off chance my heart should stop and I should not happen to be in the emergency room at that exact moment, though with me this scenario is not as unlikely as it sounds.

The test results were a mixed bag. The big test, the electrophysiology study where they tried to get my heart out of rhythm, didn't turn out so great. Not only were they successful in throwing off my groove, they had to shock me to get my heart back into rhythm. On the other hand, I keep getting echocardiograms where the results are borderline. My heart function is clearly less than that of a normal person, but not yet to a critical level.

So that's where I've been for the last few months. Data was collected, I was presented with the evidence, and then told "Hey, it's up to you now!"

I'm really not used to this. Though I've had difficult medical choices to make in the past, it's been more of "well, this is obviously what needs to happen right now even though I don't like it". With the defibrillator, things are not so clear cut. I've been told there's around a 99% chance my heart will not suddenly give out, but what happens to the other 1%? Are those good enough odds for me?

I've decided they are. Foolish as it may seem, I've decided to hold off on the defibrillator for a while. I've been putting off making this decision for so long that I think I figured out that means I'm not ready. It's a huge lifestyle change (or so I've been told), and since I've been feeling pretty good most days I'm not ready to change that. Right now I'm opting for quality of life, even if that means taking a risk.

So there.

2009-01-28T22:01:00.001-06:00