Troubles McSteans

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 ...

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...

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. Congratula...

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,...

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 t...

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...

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!