My Mom asked if we could do Thanks Giving at my place yesterday. I had been asking where we were planning to do it for two weeks. You see, I am messy and I need some notice.

I asked who would be coming and she said it would just be her, my Dad, and my brother. Well if that's all, they know me. No worries. Right...later last night she called and said our old neighbors have no place to go and can they come too...So I guess that would be fine. Panic is building.

Now she called to say that my Uncle is not well and he and his 3 kids and their friends might want to come too. Mother Effer! I know that's not in the spirit of the season, but I don't want strangers to have a crappy first impression of me. I have NO idea why I care. I just do, but not enough to keep the house clean all the time.

So the rest of the conversation was about what to make. She got a call and will call back later. Ugh! Not only do I need to clean, I need to figure out what to make and I have no real idea for how many people.

Where to start....

I've felt really out of shape for a while. The best shape I was ever in was back during the 1st two years Lance and I were married. We had both just gotten our first real jobs and felt uber wealthy. So I joined a nice gym and got a personal trainer...get this...TWICE A WEEK! No wonder I actually worked out. After a while I felt like it was gratuitous so I stopped paying for the trainer. Needless to say, my visits to the club trickled to once or twice a month (if that). The next revelation was the inevitable, "Why am I paying for a membership I don't really use." And I dropped the membership.

Other than that, the next best thing that worked was home exercise videos. There were a couple of years there when I did them 3-4 times a week (rotating through various 30 minute workouts). I was generally fit and felt good. I think I fell out of the habit when I started teaching and doing the AC certification and working on my masters degree. I was getting up at 5:50 and getting home around 7pm, sometimes 9pm.

I'm trying to do the video thing again. I did it yesterday and today. Fingers crossed that I do it 2 more times this week. I'm so tired of feeling so low energy and gross.

I worked most of the weekend, Saturday noon until 2am, and today 12:30 to 4. At least I knew it was coming and I get paid for all my time. In general things went well.

I did get to take Zira to the dog park today for about an hour. She's tired and happy right now:)

We may run up to Cosmo's in a few to get drinks and pizza. Those guys are so sweet. I take my GF pizza crust and they make yummy pizzas for me with that. So much better than the pre-made healthy GF pizzas you get in the frozen section!

What a change from the fist day!  It rained almost the entire second day.  If you saw photos of ACL, you have a pretty good idea of how messy things got.  I still had a good time and checked out some new bands I'd never heard before.  Some of the really dancy ones made me really wish the weather was better so I could have hooped to them.  

It was really nice getting to hang out with my little brother.  We almost never get to do that.  I have a day job and he's a complete night owl.  He's so much fun to go out with!

First off, we slept in really late (for us 11:00) and caught a yummy brunch.  It had a huge buffet that included bottomless mimosas and an ICE CREAM BAR!  That's right, I had ice cream with breakfast.  What?!!! I'm a grown up and I get to make those choices now!  While we were there, we saw a couple of people with artist wrist bands.  On the way out:

Me: "So are you guys playing in the festival?"
Them: "Yes, we are."
Me: "What band are you in?"
Them: "Of Montreal."
Me:  while trying not to look too excited or dork out "Oh!  You guys are the reason a lot of people came to the festival this year!"
Them: " Thanks a lot!"
Me:  "Well, it was nice meeting you guys.  I hop you're having a nice time.  Bye."

I probably should have asked their names and introduced myself.  But I figured that they were eating and probably just wanted to relax.  So I didn't linger.

On to the festival...

What I liked best on Sunday ( we missed a lot because we slept so late and went back to the hotel a few times to dry out.):

Fuck Buttons - I had seen these guys at Good Records and it was kinda blah.  I always like their songs when I hear them on the college stations.  They sound WAY better with a big PA.  Totally worth seeing live.

Alaska in Winter - I loved the synth sounds this one-man-band used, great dance beats, and the singer had a great voice

Broadcast - I love these guys and they sounded great!  I'm glad they got back together for this show.  So echo-y and pretty :)

D.R.I. - Listening to these guys made me feel like I was in Jr. High again watching the boys practice their skate tricks.  They really kicked ass!  Probably not something I'd listen to much now, but it was a great trip down memory lane.

Crystal Castles - This band was the highlight of the day for me.  They had so much energy an even though the place was a slippery mud pit, everyone in the crowd was dancing anyway.  I need to get their CD.

Josh Fadem - This guy was totally funny.  He wove several characters and stories into his bit.  I was kinda like a comedy mashup.  My favorites were the Harrison Ford movie quotes that always ended with "Chewy".  None were actually from Star Wars.  "I didn't kill my wife, Chewy!"  So simple but it really got me.  They said he's gonna be on 30 Rock this week. 

Brian Posehn - Just about peed my pants when he was going off on Danzig :) I wish he had gotten to perform longer.

Of Montreal - They had great costumes and sounded great.  They didn't have the same energy that Crystal Castles did, but they put on a really good show.

Whitest Kids You Know - These guys were real troopers.  They had audio and AV problems throughout the whole show.  I think they had to adjust things at the last minute to fill the time since the technical difficulties prevented them from doing everything they had planned.  I had hoped to see new material, but there was only one skit I hadn't seen before.   They get an A for effort.  I hope to catch them again to see some of the video pieces they had put together for the live performances.

After the festival, my brother got us in to see And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead at Mohawk.  The venu had an outdoor area  with multi-level patios so there were lots of places that had a good view of the stage.  We didn't go inside much, but there was also a small indoor stage.  I;m not sure what band was playing after Trail of Dead, but I liked it and wish I had asked.

We drove back this morning and now I'm a sleepy sleepy girl.  I'm not really ready to head back to work, but that's how we pay for the things we want to do, right?



 

Whew, I'm tired!

We headed out of town around 9am and made it to the festival around 1:45.  I took my hoops, but there weren't any other hoopers.  A couple of people borrowed one a time or two, but so far it's not the hoop party Pitchfork turned out to be.  I hooped some today, but took the hoops back to the hotel around 7pm.

Still it's been fun.  What I liked best today (in order of appearance):

Sugar and Gold - dancy and fun!
Shonen Knife - I have wanted to see them since the early 90's.  They were super rocking and completely adorable!
MC Chris - I caught this on accident.  OMG!  Hilarious!!!  It's the guy who is the voice of MC Pee Pants and Little Brittle on ATHF.  Great beats and I laughed my butt off:)
Dead Confederate - Very pretty and a wide range of dynamics and textures.  I want to check out more of their stuff.
Melt Banana - Great show as always
SSION - I didn't catch much of them but it made me want to grab my hoops and move!
Neon Indian - very pretty sounds.  It reminded both Lance and me of the new M83.
Yeasayer - I heard them at Pitchfork but they sounded a lot better to me tonight
Ratatat - This was the most fun show for me today.  There were a bunch of rave kids who made these amazing hats out of glow sticks.  The whole area around them turned into a big dance party.  I had the best time!

I love our hotel location.  We are two blocks from the park so we can go to the hotel room to use the bathroom!  Yeah!  It's so nice that the festival allows ins and outs.

Lance headed off with Jon and Ty (my brother) to see the Jazzus Lizard.  It's a band that does jazz interpretations of Jesus Lizard songs.  Rumor has it that some of the Jesus Lizard band members may be sitting in on a few songs.  My feet were just too tired and I knew I wouldn't enjoy it.  Plus my knee has been doing fine, but I could tell it was tired from all the standing.  I'm being a good girl and saving a little for tomorrow.

This is probably a pretty boring post.  Oh well...

Work has been steady, and generally life is good.  I'm not working Halloween weekend after all.  It would be fun to dress up.  I guess  should get my but in gear figure out a costume.  I think we may go to Cedar Springs to see the costumes there.

We've been having frustrations over some work we were having done to the house.  I guess it was time for me to learn a new lesson first hand.
The guy did 90% or the work we hired him to do and then leaned on us really hard to pay him before he finished because he had an emergency.  He's worked for 3 of our neighbors and they all recommended him, so I went against my gut and paid in full.  We did ask about paying for everything except the work that was outstanding, but he made us feel like jerks for questioning his integrity and got kinda angry.  He said is worker had just found out that hid pregnant wife was diabetic and really needed to get paid so he could take her to the doctor.  I am a sucker.

So 2 1/2 months later we still don't have the door hung, the cracked window, fixed, or the sheet rock in the ceiling repaired.  I told him I'm tired of waiting and being bumped later and later for customers that he just started working on.  I just want a refund.  I think that's fair.  He seems to be avoiding my calls now and only wants to communicate via text message.  It's gotten to be really frustrating.

The lesson?  Never, ever, ever, no matter what pay in full for work that wasn't finished.  So what if I look like a jerk to the person asking at the time, at least I won't be feeling indefinite frustration.

If he doesn't pay us back, I will file a complaint with the BBB.  But the contract said that payment in full indicated that the work was complete.  I'm SUCH a trusting softy.  He may win the dispute.  I'm just trying to decide how much more energy I want to waste feeling angry and frustrated.

I thought I was going to have to work all weekend, but I have the weekend off with late notice.  It's good though.  I have a birthday party I wanted to go to on Saturday, and I have things I wanted to do tonight, too.  So I'm getting to do some stuff I was wanting to do and thought I was going to miss out on.

However, I'm working through the majority of Halloween weekend.  It's ok.  I may still be able to hand out some candy.

The knee is feeling better than it has in a while today and I'm having to fight the temptation to go hoop in the sun.  Patience....

Man that pork roast is smelling good.  I think Lance is going to dig dinner:)

The last couple of weeks have been really mellow on most fronts.  Work's been a little nuts, but that's ok.  I don't feel as attached to work as I do other things.  I love having a paycheck don't get me wrong, but my efforts to keep work in perspective seem to be paying off.

The only things that's really been a drag has been my knee.  I don't know what I did.  Maybe it was hooping in heels?  I know, not the smartest thing to do.  I woke up in the middle of the night a couple of weeks ago with a sharp pain in my knee.  Somehow I had twisted it into a really painful position.  It really hurt to straighten it out.  It's had this clicking sensation and a dull ache ever since.

I like to think things are "nothing" so I went ahead and went to hoop night last week.  It hurt even worse the next day.  So the rest of the week I totally pampered it.  It was feeling pretty good, but I skipped hoop night this week to be careful.  Then I wore heels to work on Tuesday and BAM it's aching again.

I guess I need to avoid heels and really give this thing time to get better.  It if goes on much longer I'll probably go to the doctor to make sure I didn't tear anything.

Hey!  The sun just came out!!!

Well, back to work for me.

It was a really fun weekend.  I got to see lots of friends, help my parents at the State Fair, see a great band live, and check out the Bishop Arts craft fair.  I even made myself go to the Youth Orchestra rehearsal.  And kids showed up this time AND they had practiced! :)

I am still tired from last week.  I had to get up at 1:00am to restart some databases after some server maintenance.  It wasn't that late, I know, but I was planning to sleep until I naturally woke up today (justified by the late night work).  Well one of my clients needed to ask a question so she called at 8:30am.  Not super early, but man I was still sleeping really well.

I think it's too late to try and jump back in bed this morning since more clients may call for stuff.  Dang :(  I'm tired of feeling tired.  Maybe I'll crash super early tonight.

Well, we did have one kid show up for the group lesson today, but he forgot his cello at school.  So we went ahead and called it a day at 4:30. 

When I got home, I made some gluten free chocolate chip cookies!  I feel a little guilty because it was a mix and not from scratch.  I saw the GF mix in the regular section of Kroger, well actually I think Lance saw it and showed it to me.  Betty Crocker has  new line of GF mixes so I wanted to give them a try.  They turned out pretty tasty, but they are really crumbly so it can get a little messy.  I doubt they're organic, but they are a lot cheaper than the ones in the hippy section.  And Lance thought they tasted good too!

The other mixed I got was brownies, so maybe I'll give them a try next weekend:)

At the Deep Ellum Art Walk we stopped by to check out the work of the fabulous Mr. Leroy Roper.   It was at this dance club and I thought, "The lighting is pretty bad for art."  I love his stuff and you could barely see it.  Then........

I saw the dance floor!  OMG!!! It was fantastic!  They had disco balls and dozens, if not hundreds of  strings with tiny mirrors attached hanging from the ceiling.   It looked like a dance floor from party heaven:)  I think the place was called Extreme Cafe.  So anyway, I ran into my friend Randy and told her that when I saw the place I wanted to go and hoop dance there.  The dance floor is humongous!  

Then, Randy said, "I love to hula hoop, but I haven't done it in years.  I know the owner and she'd totally be into letting us hoop there.  And you can bring hoop friends!"

1,000 Yays!  So who's in?  I don't know when it will be yet.  It might need to be a week night like 8-10pm, or earlier on a weekend so we have plenty of room and don't whack the other patrons. 

This weekend a couple of my hubby's friends had their Big 4-0 celebration in the town where he grew up.  It's 30 minutes from Waco and has a population of oh, maybe 3500 people.  I must admit, this was a way more eventful shin dig than I had expected.

One guy there was recently divorced.  He's a nice guy, never struck me a super smart, but nice, and a BIG drinker.  I don't think I've ever seen him sober over the last 13 years I've known him.  Well it turns out that since his divorce he's become quite  the hot commodity.  He was all decked out in his best Outlaw Country attire (crisp jeans, black buttoned down cowboy shirt, and a black hat).  How about I nick name him Dwayne?

So the spouses of the birthday boys rented out the lodge run by Sons of Herman in the outskirts of the town, and hired a pretty good honky tonk band.  Everything was pretty much what I expected until Dwayne walks up to our cluster of people and says in his usual slow paced word production, "Man, it's gettin' kina awkward.  Yah see, 4 girls I been sleeping with are all at the party, and now my ex-wife just showed up with her new girlfriend."  I was amazed by how quick the gossip spread.  Those small towns have it going on when it comes to other people's business! 

So Dwayne spent an hour or so trying to juggle the ladies he's been entertaining before he heads out to the parking lot to MAKE OUT with one of them.  So a bunch of the folks were suddenly out on the lot trying to figure out who he's been doing and which one is in the car.  I can't remember this happening at my High School, but I did feel like I was back in 10th grade for a minute.

Then, Brad's girlfriend Tiffany came out of the dance hall totally confused.  She said she was going to go pee and there were like 20 guys all crowded into the ladies room.  She opted for the mens room since it was empty.  So what were all those guys doing in there you ask?

Some drunk chick who had just gotten her nipples pierced had invited them all in to see her boobies!  Yee effing Haw!!!!  Meanwhile her husband was carrying their baby around trying to figure out where she was.   Oh the drama....

This party well exceeded my expectations:)  I thought there would be drunken reminiscing, but it offered so much more.  Thanks for the invite!

Generally today was really nice.  We went to drop off some electronic recyclables, and stopped by Dallas North Aquariums, and the disk golf store in Carrollton. 

We stopped by Buzzbrew's for a late lunch.  The coffee smelled GREAT.  I stayed up late last night watching Coraline with Dinah and Lance.  We watched it TWICE!  Once in 3D and again in 2D.  The 3D effects were amazing, but it muted the colors.  The colors were much, much better in 2D. 

Anyway, once we ordered and got our coffee, some people sat at the table behind lance, facing me.  There was a loud squeaky voiced SMU freshman who just WOULDNT SHUT UP!  I can usually tune out people who bug me, but she was so loud, and ended every single phrase what a question mark.  "Oh my God?  Public schools are sooo bad?  Allll the BAD kids go there?"  Really she was going on and on about stuff like that.  And I doubt she had ever gone to public school, or had any idea of how much those kids have to over come to get to where she is right now.  It's not her fault that she has no clue.  But she was so dang loud and know-it-all-ish.

Brindle, I'm pretty sure she was one of the twats that was ruing the DM show for you.  She kinda ruined my lunch.

So the rest of the day was nice and chill and we headed off to the Kettle Gallery art auction.  We got some great stuff!  For some reason, most of it has devil horns.

My new belly dancing pants ( to be used for hooping)!!!



I need to practice posing.  I look a little goofy:)  This pair is black with gold sequins.  The other pair is jewel blue with dark blue sequins.  Fun!

So I want to make some little skits to wear over my workout shorts.  I'm thinking a wrap skirt would be the easiest option (especially after the last skirt adventure).

I figure I can get a cheep bolt of jersey to experiment with.  I want to have a couple of them ready for Fun Fun Fun Fest so I can wear something that's easy to hoop in without feeling self conscious.

So I tried to make this skirt.  It was my first thing ever with pleats.  The pattern said easy so I felt so optimistic that I went straight to the fabric I bought.  Well.....that was a mistake.

The problem wasn't that the pattern was all that hard, it was that I didn't really read the pattern envelope before I started cutting.  I thought, "Oh, I'm about a size 4 in store clothes. The smallest size on the pattern is 6.  Gawsh, I hope it's small enough to fit me..."

What I forgot was that every brand of pattern is sized a little differently, AND the sizes don't really match store sizes.  So, I make the skirt and it's pretty cute (still needs to be hemmed).  But.  It's WAAAAAAYY to small.  Like a size 0.  

I went back and looked at the pattern and realized that I'm really a size 12 in this brand.  Ok people, why make the size numbers so high?  It really messes my the female brain.

So now I'm pretty sure I'll remember to read the envelope and make a muslin test piece before cutting the real material.  At least it was super cheap on sale.

I'm hoping it will fit my insanely skinny sister.  Fingers crossed.

I feel sorta antsy and on edge today.   I'm not sure why.  Maybe I haven't gotten enough good sleep.  Zira has taken to barking at night when she hears cars drive by.  It's driving me crazy.

Tonight we're going to see the Lolli Bombs.  I'm going to try to get a good nap in this afternoon.  There should be plenty of time since doors don't open until 10:45pm.  Oh, and this weekend's shows benefit Susan G Komen.    Boobies for a good cause:)

I'm craving the King Spa.  I felt incredibly relaxed for days after going.  What is the King Spa?  Well, it's a family style spa  that's open 24 hours on Royal off of 35.  Sounds a little odd right?  24 hour spa off 35?  It's totally legit!

We went at 10:45 last Saturday night and there were loads of families there.  People of all ages.  In addition to the spa stuff, they have a lounge area with TVs, a movie theater (it was screening Death Race the night we went), a restaurant, wifi, and little satin mats you can sleep on if you get tired.

The spa treatment starts off with a trip to either the ladies or gents locker room/spa side (depending on your anatomy of course).  You'll get a club issued uniform to wear (pink for women, gray for men, and yellow for kids).  You get naked and put your stuff including the uniform in your assigned locker.  

One of the neatest things about this place to me, was seeing how unimportant it was to the little girls there that they were naked in front of other ladies.  This would have totally horrified me until I was well out of college.  To them it was just normal.  I think that's how it should be for all little girls.

So, then you go through this bathing series ( We had a little 10 year old show us the ropes by the way.  She loved showing us newbies where to go next!):

1) Shower/shampoo/exfoliate at the showers by the entrance to the hot tub area
2) Dip in 2 hot tubs - the first one for 10 mins it's about 100 degrees.  the second one for 5 mins it's 106 - 108 degrees.
3) Hang in the steam room for a few mins
4) Get in another hot tub that is about 101 degrees
5) Dip in a 60 degree pool - This feel REALLLLY cold after the other stuff.  If you feel brave, press the button on the wall and a powerful blast of water comes out of the ceiling and jest spray from the sides of the pool.  Believe it or not, this really did feel amazing!  It reminded me of the time I got to go swimming and play in a waterfall in the Puerto Rican jungle. 
6) Take another short shower
7) Put on you pajama-style uniform ( loose shorts and top)

Now you're ready to go to the saunas.  They have like 10 different ones with varied temperatures (one's even like 20 degrees), different shapes and materials, and different aroma treatments.

I think my favorite room was the hot rocks room.  You lay on this hot raised part of the floor, and you can stack the hot rock on yourself.  it was very nice!

I didn't get to do all the rooms since it would have taken all night.  We left around 1:30am and there were still families there.  It seemed like it was a big slumber party for parents and their kids. 

They also provide services such as body scrubs, and acupressure.  It runs about 1$/min and you pay for that stuff when you leave.

Without additional treatments it's $18.  You can stay 24 hours if you want to.  They have a sign at the register that says "If you stay more than 24 hours, you will be charged $2 for each additional hour".  I guess this really does happen.

If you decided to go, take your own towel and loofah.  They only have hand towels so it can be a pain to use those to dry off.

Anniversary that is.  We're cooking in.  I got supplies at Jimmy's and I'm really looking forward to that  parmegianne cheese infused sausage!  We're also doing garlic roasted new potatoes.  I'm going to do a salad, and maybe make a side of baby bellas too.  I'm sooo hungry all of a sudden:)

Meanwhile, here's a pic from the Korean spa outing with my sis and her boyfriend.  I'll try to post more on this later.  It was loads of fun:

I went to a lunch event yesterday called "Take Your Brain to Lunch".  It was designed for women in the workplace, but men were also welcome, and a man presented some of the information.  My friend Stasia was one of the moderators so I figured I'd go. 

They presented summaries of two business book, Women Don't Ask,  and Play Like a Man Win Like a Woman.  The basic focus was on things women do that hold them back in the working world.

When negotiating, the biggest mistake we make is never asking directly for what we want.  Guys put it right out there, but we try to be polite and usually just hint.  I was a little embarrassed when I thought about it.  I have a REALLY hard time asking for what I want.   I do a lot of wishing a nudging:)

Another topic was how women try to treat work like a sorority.  We like to make friends and bond, in general.  Guys just want to get work done, have a couple of laughs, and get home.  Being too social (or as we look at it, friendly), apparently, can hold back your career.  Especially, if you work in a male dominated industry.

They also said women tend to share the credit rather than pointing out where they played a key role in making things happen.  Guys get promoted more often because they let people know where they did a good job.  I am always afraid of seeming pushy or cocky, but I hear the guys I work with beat their chests like King Kong every time they finish a project.  I really need to work on my self confidence and communication.  I always assume the guys know more than I do, and I'm not really sure why.  I am good at what I do.

It left we with stuff to think about and work on and I'm really glad I went.  I think it's possible to be more confident, and straight forward.  It will just take some practice.

I kick ass ya'll.  I really do!  How was that?

My good friend Jennifer drove off this morning to move to Berkeley.  She's going away to get her doctorate.  I'm am excited for her, but I totally miss her already.

Last week and weekend was pretty much dedicated to farewell parties.  The last Bunko, the last night out at Lee Harvey's, the last Sunday at the FOE pool, and the last Sunday night Cosmo's ritual.  All I can say is this week will feel different without her sunny sweet self.