moooooooooooo

Calf count: 6

Austin was great fun. I had coffee with Lisa and her friend Christina and learned about natural childbirth. Lisa and I watched movies and TV, went on a walk with the puppies, hung out with Eric, and just spent time together. I also got to see their land east of Austin where they will eventually be building a house. It was gorgeous and wildflowers are everywhere.

I got back to CS in the early evening and met Mike Shannon and his son and friends at the theater to see TMNT. Any ninja turtle fan will enjoy the movie. Then we headed back to Whalen's apartment and played Pass the Pigs to kill time. I'd never played before, but it was really fun (winning both games helped I'm sure). The only thing you need to play is people, two rubber pig dice with a dot on one of their sides, and something to keep score with. I liked it so much I ordered Matt and I a set =D

It was just the three of us - Mike, Whalen, and me - for Rocky Horror and we got there sometime past eleven. They were running behind so we didn't get into the "theatre" (a conference room at the MSC) until after midnight. There we were forced to sit around for a while longer while they tried to get organized. We were able to do plenty of people watching - lots of people were dressed up, though it was more goth/freak/bizarre and less RHPS costumes (other than the cast, I didn't see any). Mike remarked that had he come dressed up, he would've been the best looking person there. (He used to dress up as Dr. Frank-N-Furter with regularity). The cast was quite good acting out the movie in front of the screen, but the crowd announcers (yelling all the lines at the movie, like calling Janet "slut" for example) talked way too much, which resulted in not being able to understand half of what he was saying. That kind of detracted from the experience, just because it would've been funnier if he'd limited his lines to the truly funny. But we had a blast regardless, and it was great fun seeing something so crazy performed at a conservative campus like A&M (the guy playing Rocky was even in the Corps!).

I got home insanely late and slept until 11:30 on Saturday. After puttering around for a while, I decided to head back to Dallas later that evening. I got to hang out with Matt on Sunday, which was great. This week he's been very busy though, and I haven't seen much of him.

On Tuesday I went to the ranch with Mom to check on the cows. Peanut had her twins, and Domino and JoBob had their boys, but no one else had popped yet. Pictures are on our web site. Dad called me today and let me know that Mamacita had a boy calf and Zelda had a little girl (wahoo). I was happy because I'd called Zelda baby naming rights a long time ago (and for perpetuity), so I got to name the baby "Zora." Mamacita's and Domino's babies still need names, if anyone has some good ideas.

Exciting plans!

I have all these plans, it's terribly exciting.

Tomorrow - Austin to visit extremely pregnant cousin Lisa.
Friday - Mike Shannon rolls into College Station for Rocky Horror goodness. I am invited to join in on dinner, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie action, and a midnight Rocky Horror Picture Show movie and live performance at the MSC.
Saturday or Sunday - return to Dallas
Sunday night - Planet Earth on Discovery HD. We are stoked!

New Pictures!

I've finally put up some more pictures on our photo web site http://roberts.overt.org/). Nothing too exciting, but at least they are new! :)

A couple examples:

Emily and Piper nap on my bed. This is an example of Emily randomly falling asleep while participating in some relaxing activity like watching me play video games. What's worse is I usually end up talking to her for another 5 minutes or so before I realize she's unconscious.

Nellie and Piper do their best impressions of apostrophes.

My EEG went well today. It was the same person who did it last time, and she's very nice and good at her job. I was a good eye-opener, eye-closer, deep breather, and sitting-stiller. It really isn't too hard to lay in a recliner and doze, even with 27 electrodes stuck to one's head.

inked

The inside of my left leg is sporting a new look.

That's a Celtic tree of life and a lotus blossom, on a stylized water background. The symbolism of the two really spoke to me, long before I thought about getting a tattoo. The meaning of them in my life just got made a little clearer today.

The work was done by Shawn at Ink Dreams in College Station. It took about three and a half hours. Yes, it hurt.

and weeeeeeeeEEG !

(title inspired by the classic Weeeeeeeee! (Gonads & Strife))

I had my follow-up neurology appointment today. Just to be sure my brain isn't secretly conspiring against me, my neurologist wants me to have another EEG, so I get to get all gooey-headed in the name of science on Wednesday. And weeeeeeee!

Gig 'em Aggies!

For once Matt's prediction that the Aggies are going to win the National Championship won't be far from the truth. Analysts predict we'll make it to the Final Four. Excitement!

I'm back in College Station, briefly. I have the follow-up visit with my neurologist tomorrow. When we scheduled it back in October it seemed so far away... I'm guessing it'll be really quick, since I haven't had any indications that my brain isn't working recently. So that's good :)

This is great: All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway - Harry S Truman

I became a card-carrying member of the UP Library this week, which was really exciting. Not only do they have a surprising number of books for a library that has only existed for a few years and occupies a corner of a bank building, but they have books on tape (mostly, really on tape - I knew my tape player would come in handy some day!). So I now have alternatives to music CDs when I'm driving for long distances. The one I got for this round of driving is excerpts from American humorists (including the always fun Art Buchwald, a man I used to do impressions of when I was eight).

Peanut the cow had twins last week. FYI: twins are very rare in cattle. They are both boys, which is good, because a male twin's hormones will sterilize his sister in utero (see freemartin). More cows are set to burst at any moment. I'm sure I will have pictures soon.

Matt has passed the always important March 15 deadline. Now he can breath a little easier. We were able to spend time together on Friday night, and he only worked a half day yesterday. Only one more month of work at the office for him, and then he'll probably come to his peaceful College Station retreat and live the easy life for a while, possibly through the summer. When exactly we will return to Dallas is not yet determined, depending on variables including the duplex/tenents, houses, how long Matt needs to decompress, etc.

bawk!

(this title brought to you by the Robot Chicken end credits theme song)

I think you can tell something about a person by what movies they watch when they are all alone. I'm back at the duplex in College Station and Emily is with Rick at his cousin's ranch in South Texas (her name is Gussy, isn't that fabulous?). So what do I pop into the DVD player? Bambi =D Actually I hadn't seen it since I was under 10 years old, and aside from knowing the mom dies and there's an obnoxious rabbit involved, I didn't remember much. The movie is gorgeous restored (makes me cry at the relative death of hand-drawn animation) but the writing is atrocious. A 30-second summary of the plot could be capable of leaving no details out. But anyway, it was a pleasant 70 minutes spent. Did you know Bambi's mother actually doesn't kick it until the second half of the film?

Speaking of movies, Matt is in Dallas seeing The 300 with his brother right now. He's been working very hard this week (he stayed past midnight one night) but they are nice about giving them Friday nights off, even if everyone is coming back for full days on the weekend.

I'll be back in Dallas at the beginning of the week. Emily and Luke both have their spring breaks. Emily is coming to hang out in Dallas and Luke is skiing with his cousins. He has good reason to celebrate - he was awarded a Lechner Scholarship from A&M! In addition to money, that gives him a good chance of being a fellow 'Nerd and living in the honors dorm like his big sis (in-law). So proud. =D

Mom is healing up from her (un)Lucky injury. She's getting around a lot better than she was when I was tending to her. Poor Lucky got shipped back to her original owner though...as someone said to me "she sure messed up a good thing for herself." But the good news on the animal front is that the cows should start calving soon. Yay!

Brian, my friend I met playing WoW over a year ago, is coming to Texas next month for a visit. He's never even flown before, so he's pretty excited. I can't wait to show him the Lone Star State. I hope the weather is nice to us and holds off on any major April showers while he's here.

I finished my A&M scrapbook today. I started it in December of 2004 and almost finished it but I got burned out before it was quite done. And then I didn't want to whip out all of my scrapbooking stuff to get the last few pages completed, so it has been sitting in a box forever. I think it was the combination of Matt's big empty desk and inspiration because of Luke's impending A&M journey that made me want to finish it today. I am pretty proud of it, even if it isn't all professional-looking like the scrapbooks churned out by certain of my in-laws. :) Just ask me if you want to see it sometime!