Troubles McSteans

I hope everyone is keeping warm. Winter came early to Central Texas this year and showered us with a small ice/snow storm last night. While I did not enjoy emerging from my warm cocoon of blankets at 6:30 this morning to drag myself to dialysis, I was thankful the streets were not frozen and I did not have to scrape ice off of my car. I enjoyed my trip home much more, admiring the Christmassy look of the snow dusted houses with a hot cup of Starbucks in hand. The League has made a call for 2008 Top Ten lists and since I've been less than inspired of late in regards to blogging (you may have noticed, ahem) I will oblige. Since this year has been relatively kind (knock on wood - don't take that as a challenge, 2008), I will be taking a glass half full approach and reflect upon the Awesome of 2008. And so, in no particular order: McSteans' 2008 Top Ten 1. New floors and new TV Thanks to both sets of parents, Christmas came early this year to League HQ. Ryan's folks ...

Thanks to Nathan for the link. Quantum of Wallace Thanks to Doug for this one (don't try this at home, kids): Extreme Gymnastic Bullfighting . You just really don't want to get the timing wrong on that one.

Tuesday morning I piled the dogs in the car to take them down to Happy Hills Puppy Farm (aka, my parents' half acre of backyard in San Marcos). The dogs love it there and it was great to see Lucy leaping over their decorative wall in pursuit of tennis balls and random woodland creatures. Tuesday was a lovely 72°, so Mel spent some time flipping around on his back, attempting to maximize sun exposure to his tummy. I'll have to start taking them down there more often. My mom and I had plans to see the 12:00 show of "The Secret Life of Bees" since we both liked the book and were curious, despite mediocre reviews, about the movie. I was slightly shocked to see my dad heading to the car with us for such a girly movie, but then realized that's just how bored he is already. He's only been retired since September. This is not a good sign. Someone made a crack about there not being any tickets available as we turned into the deserted theater parking lot, but we ...

My friend Rebecca made a return appearance in Austin this week, changing her travel plans to spend the last three days of her trip here instead of in Houston. I was thrilled she decided to come back as I rarely get to see her. She was the closest thing I had to a sister growing up (I have one brother and she has three) and it was wonderful to get reacquainted. Rebecca's mom, Dr. Kinslow, drove down from Oklahoma and the three of us, plus my mom, went shopping at the San Marcos outlet mall on Thursday. The trip harkened back to our annual back to school outings when the four of us would pile in the Kinslow's van and venture north to the malls of Oklahoma City to buy Guess overalls and Outback Red shirts. We were stylin'. Thursday we failed to purchase any Guess gear, but Rebecca and I did duck into the Converse store. Good times. Anyway, it was great having Rebecca and her mom here and I hope we can continue doing a better job of keeping in touch. Yesterday we had som...

I'm not sure why this is bothering me so much this year, but I can't seem to get used to the time change that's been with us for over a week now. As soon as it hits 8:00 at night I start dragging, but if I go to bed early I wake up early, so I've been TRYING to stay up until my normal bedtime. As much as we complained about Arizona, they had the smarts to do away with daylight savings. There is was more a matter of wanting the sun to go down as soon as it came up during the summer months, but really in this day and age is it necessary? Daylight savings was initially instituted for farmers who now make up how much of the population? Isn't it less than 1%?* Last night I didn't make it and turned in before 10:00, so here I sit at 6:25 in the morning, it's pitch black outside and I can't go back to sleep. * farmers please don't send me hate mail. It's too early for fact checking, and I haven't had my Starbucks yet.

Sorry for the lack of posting. It's been a good week, what with shopping with my mom on Tuesday and a visit from my childhood best friend, Rebecca, Thursday. Rebecca is in town for a conference. It's amazing how easy it is to regress back to your childhood self with someone who's known you forever. We laugh a lot at dumb things we did as kids, and dumb things we do as adults. I wish she lived in Austin so we could hang out more. That was my not so subtle plea to get her to move here. Rebecca and Juan, you need to move to Austin! It seems like something else good happened this week, but I'm having trouble remembering..... Shoot, what was that....... Oh. That's right. Ya'll, I seriously cried during his speech on Tuesday. It's like I've been repressing my feelings about the downward spiral we've been in for so long and that all finally came out. For the first time in 8 years I felt hopeful. The polls kept saying Obama was probably going to ...