School days, school days....

Oh my! Relief has finally come to Texas! Mike and I went running this morning and it was only 67 degrees! No humidity! I felt like a leaping gazelle. Our dog was running quietly at our side and life was good and my energy level was like 10 times what it has been lately. I want to go pick out a new holly hobby lunchbox! get some cozy fall turtlenecks! sharpen my pencils! take a leaf walk! But wait... just looked at the forecast and it's supposed to be 97 today. Wah.

We have no plans for this weekend. Can you believe it?

AC: Purification

HHH/the stupids go camping

this weekend we drove to "texoma." wichita falls, tx, that is and did the "hotter 'en hell" bike ride. it was, indeed, hotter than hell. drove the 4 hours up there friday night and found a campsite. took the tent out the bag and realized we forgot the poles. with 12,000 people invading WF for the ride, it wasn't like we could exactly get a hotel room, so we were screwed... until we found the REI folks, who gladly rented us a tent for $25. We made the end of the pasta dinner by minutes and were feeling quite good about ourselves and our luck, when we went back to the campsite and tried to assemble the tent in the dark... for 1 hour. Sadly, a nice British man took pity on us and we had our complicated spaceage tent up in no time. After a shower in the cattle stalls at the fairgrounds where we were staying, Mike plugged the a/c adapter into the car battery, hooked in our oscillating fan and we were set for the evening. hot hot hot, but slept well. so well, that i woke up at 4:45 in the morning, thinking it was 5:45 and had a long conversation about god knows what with said british man. it wasn't until about 20 minutes in that he mentioned it was only 5:15, so I went back to bed. :)

the ride was a blast, i thought. i did not train and decided early last week that after a 40 miler at the lake that i could handle 50, so I entered at 9pm the night before the ride. the road was so flat and smooth and i was averaging about 17-19 mph for the first 35 miles or so. saw lots of ragbraiers and it inspired me to gather a team for next year. anyone? after this point, they had us on a stretch of road along the highway, riding into the wind and it got hot. stopped at that rest stop for about 20 minutes, eating pickles (i guess pickle juice is the new energy drink?), peanuts, and cooling off with a cold rag around my neck. regained my strength and finished, in a sort of anticlimatic way. mike set out to do 100 miles, but it was too hot and they cut the riders off at 75 miles at 11:30, so he only got to do 75. whew! ran into his old boss and went to el chico for lunch.

after purchasing a new tent at target, we spent saturday night at a lovely campsite at cleburne state park. it was SO hot and the air was stagnant. my head was throbbing and i could not sleep. a family of raccoons woke us up in the wee hours. we had put all of our food in the car, but apparently their little paws can sure crack open a cooler, as they made a huge mess in our sealed cooler helping themselves to the following items: mike's water bottle from the race, a diet coke, a GU gel, an energy bar, and finally, a pudding cup. Mike went out to shoo them away, but they had no fear. A little baby one was eating the pudding cup under my car. Here are the remnants:









on the way back, we stopped in waco for some delicious pizza and then stopped at grandma h's. i became notorious with grandma h, because when we were dating, i washed her dog, myloh. now every time i see her, i wash the dog. yesterday, she made me put conditioner on myloh so that her fur would be extra soft. mike's grandma is adorable. she is one of the most active 90 year olds I've ever met.

Fried Okra

I've technically lived in the south (more or less) since I was 23, but it is only as of this weekend that I consider myself to be a true Southerner. This is because I made my own fried okra... and actually some fried squash, too. We stopped at a vegetable stand on our way to the lake and bought the fixins. Here is how you make it (muy facil y sabroso):

Fried Okra
Ingredients:
Fresh okra
Cornmeal
H20
Oil for frying



Slice okra horizontally so it's in little bits.
Dip the okra in some water.
Coat the okra in cornmeal.
Toss the okra in frying pan- Mrs. H says to heat the oil til it's hot and reduce to medium.
Cook evenly til brown. They don't take long.
Toss with salt and pepper and a sprinkle of season salt.
Serve with ranch dressing dip. Yum.


...to make fried squash, do the same thing, but instead of water, beat an egg and throw in a splash of milk. My MILsays it's a good year for squash and I agree.

Highlights:

• start phone interviews this Thursday. i've gotten a ton of resumes. weird to be on the other side of hiring process.
• saw little miss sunshine at alamo and got free ticket and free drink cause they put us in the wrong theater. and, LMS was funny.
• LOVE the Marshall Fields cookbook that my grandma sent me. made some 1-2-3 shrimp last night and it was delish. plus, cookbook is a collector's item (:()... lots of history and good recipes.
• hotter than hell 100 and camping is this weekend. gonna ride 50. mike is riding 100. hopefully, it won't be too hot.
• AC: birth

Tennis, anyone?

I will admit it. Once I get something into my mind, I will do anything to pursue it. Tuesday, I decided I wanted to join a tennis league for the fall and by last night, I was practicing with a group of other 20/30something ladies for our fall league. What I failed to consider prior to playing last night, is that I have not picked up a tennis racquet in 2 years and I haven't played competitively since high school. In my mind, I still think of myself as being about 23, but in reality, it's been like 12 YEARS!!! since I've played tennis consistently. The ladies I played with were competitive, and I picked it up pretty well, but I had some embarassingly bad shots. I need to work on control. It was really fun to be out there, again. I even wore a tennis skirt.

Oh, and can I mention that it was 104 degrees at 6pm when we started playing according to weather.com? I felt like I was being cooked in an oven. We had to stop a few times and stand in the shade. Sweltering. We also didn't play in conditions like those in Iowa. Not that I am making excuses...

The highlights:

• really enjoyed 'staircase b' and the air traffic controller stories from 9/11 last night on the history channel. yes, i could have been watching what i heard was a great episode of GA, but albeit disturbing, i am newly fascinated with the survivor stories.
• going out tonight for the first time in a while.
• tomorrow we are going to the lake.
• still up in the air about mike's party. praying for a perfect lake house situation.
• got some good candidates for my job. anxiety about what to delegate to them already, though. it will be challenging/cool being someone's boss.
• AC: delight. good one for a friday methinks....

How Virgo Are You?

You are 67% Virgo

Virgo Are You?

You are 80% Virgo

How Virgo Are You?

The Virgin-August 23 to September 23
Traditional Virgo Traits
Modest and shy

Meticulous and reliable

Practical and diligent

Intelligent and analytical

On the dark side....

Fussy and a worrier

Overcritical and harsh

Perfectionist and conservative

Brooke's Baptism

this is my niece. is she not the most adorable baby in the world?

she got baptized yesterday. welcomed in to the church. i am her godmother. my plan is to teach her how to be a "cool" Christian, which in my mind means being a good person and leading by example, but also enjoying the fruits of the drink.

we had a whirlwind weekend. friday night the man and i were both pooped, so we went for a soak in barton springs. it's been super hot, so it was quite refreshing. there are always so many interesting people there. next to us was a young family. the children's names, you ask? cosmo and nazerene. the father figure's name was ranger and the kids wanted to go see esmerelda on the other side of the pool. in the short time we were laying in the grass, we observed: a man doing a handstand, a man juggling, a woman with crystal gayle hair and gigantic flippers on a floatie cleaning the pool with a large net, an asian man in a small speedo, and a WOMAN standing right by the diving board with NO TOP ON. Yes, that's right folks, right by all the adolescent boys. I know people sunbathe topless up there, but it's supposed to be discreetly, not out there in the open. Jeez!

Saturday morning we drove 90 min to SA for John's dad's service. It was a beautiful remembrance, lots of friends, some laughs and a very nice testament to his life by a former preacher/family friend. They had a slide show, which always make me cry. JT was really teary and it made me sad. I've unfortunately had my heart broken that way and I hate to see it happen to my friends.

Saturday afternoon, we went back to Austin to hook up with the fam at the homewood suites pool for C&K's birthday party. Fun times. I brought Happy Summer mix CD and my nieces and nephews sure can booty shake. Little Avery is not even two and was dancing so cute to Nelly's "Must be the Money." Yesterday was Brooke's baptism. She sure looked cute and must have been very comfortable as she was grunting and tooted a few times during the ceremony and then loudly did her business right at the very end!

here is a rundown:

• World Trade Center: liked it and I wasn't too excited about it. Especially relevant as saw it Thursday, day of planned attacks.
• HR posted position for my Communications Assistant today and I'm getting all these weird candidates, cause they posted the title wrong.
• Gonna try to run 3 times this week and do BP twice. This means getting out of bed earlier, but I can do it.
• Tennis league/lessons for this fall?
• AC: creativity.... feeling really inspired about new title. going to promote the hell out of our agency, starting internally.

Celebratory People's Pharmacy Lunch

this morning i found out that i get to not only hire an assistant, but they are making me an assistant vice president for my company! this is crazy. i made an informal presentation for what i thought our department "could" be, saying i needed some extra help, but didn't ask for AVP by any means. if you know me, you know that during the past year and a half, i've been showered with an increasing amount of responsibility, much of which is high profile and revenue-generating. i've continued to do a lot of the "adminy" stuff on the side and I've felt that my being stretched thin has kept our agency marketing and communcations only on a "good" but not great level. i have a lot of ideas and am excited because the framework for our success is already pretty much in place. now, i just pray that i can find a likeminded, detail oriented person to help me get things going.

have you ever been to the people's pharmacy deli? they have the most delicious baked goods. i like their boxed sandwiches. here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/e5rfx today i had a veggie sandwich with cream cheese on wheat, zapp's jalapeno chips and a big oatmeal cookie. not very healthy, but i was "celebrating." justify, justify.

i shouldn't be updating the blog right now. my desk is covered with papers and i've gotten like a 100 emails this morning, making my list of things to do today currently with 18 things for today on it. a lot of people are requiring my approval or attention and it's exciting and overwhelming. it's making my head spin a little. if this is what being a grown up is like, wow.

i think i found a place on lake travis for mike's birthday this morning, too, so can't wait to get that going.

ac: light

My top 10 favorite sappy songs

My top 10 favorite Sappy Songs:

10. Til Kingdom Come- Coldplay




9. Conversation- Sara Groves




8. Word of God Speak- MercyMe


7. How Beautiful- Twila Paris






6. She is His Only Need- Wynonna



5. Father and Daughter- Paul Simon



4. Rainbow Connection- Kenny Loggins






3. Who am I? Watermark

2. How Can I Help You Say Goodbye? Patty Loveless




1. Cradle in Bethlehem (Christmas Song)- Nat King Cole

(Runners Up: Celebrate Me Home- Kenny Loggins, True Colors- Cyndi Lauper and Three Wooden Crosses- Randy Travis)
What are your favorite sappy songs?

La Boda de Karen en Milwaukee

We went to Karen's wedding this weekend in Milwaukee. Didn't she look stunning?
The weather in Milwaukee could only be described as "stinking hot"- the kind where your legs get sweaty and there is no breeze. Despite that, we enjoyed exploring out on the town on Friday night. The 3rd ward has really developed into a cool area and it was fun to see some folks from Marquette I haven't for awhile.

The bride and groom were very happy and excited. I would describe it as a JCrew type of wedding with the madras ties. The day went off without a hitch and the party was unreal.

My friends, husband and self were a bit out of control at the 7 hour!!! wedding reception. We had a ball, but 7 hours of drinking contributed to many interpretive dances ( I almost hyperventilated when they played "Like a Prayer"), someone actually going tinkle (I will not mention names) outside in her BM dress at the http://www.westernracquetclub.com/, a cousin's cartwheel in the middle of the floor that knocked over a BM, people jumping off the diving board in the nude (not us) and at then end of the evening, we serenaded the bride as the center of attention to "Here's to Karen, she's a horse's arse...a horse's arse..." twice!
We made the wise decision of staying with Katy and Meagen at Ang's. It was fun to be under the same roof again with some of the chicks. My husband was a trouper, getting very up close and personal with my girlfriends who held nothing back. There was lots of chatting over cups of coffee, munching on Angela's delightful spreads (hostess with the mostest) and discussion of prior evenings events. All in all, I'd say the weekend was a success!