Kokiri Forest

suckers!

2012-01-22T18:10:00.000-06:00

Matt and I are such suckers. If you're high school age or younger (none of this $40 magazines to help some twenty-year-old "underprivileged youth" earn points to go on a trip), we will buy something from you. Popcorn, cookie dough, cookies...we're so easy.

So let's just ignore my blog radio silence of half a year and proceed, shall we?

horseback riding to (well, from - that's why we're wet) a waterfall

This summer we went to Costa Rica with Mom and Dad after having the winning bid on the trip at BBQ with the Band. It was pretty freaking awesome. I'd love to go back sometime, sooner rather than later. It's the kind of place (especially where we were) that makes you want to come back and bring along someone who hasn't been there before to show it off. And the Costa Rican people are so incredibly nice! We are really thankful to the Lundbergs (the villa owners) for putting together such an amazing package to donate to the band auction and being so helpful with planning our trip.

I zipline upside down

Matt on the Tarzan swing after ziplining

my first time surfing!

boogie boarding

I love this picture of Matt

being tourists at Manuel Antonio

Mom being fabulous at the villa plunge pool (don't shoot me Mom)

Matt and I show off our "war paint" on our rafting trip down the Savegre River

More pictures at roberts.overt.org.

In July Emily and Rick gave us all the gift of Liam Wallace Roberts. Matt and I are loving being an uncle and aunt. Liam is such a cool little dude. He is sitting up now and just had his six month check up. He's 28 inches long and over 17 pounds. And I have SO much respect and admiration for Emily - she delivered all 9 pounds of baby naturally, in labor for almost an entire day.

At the end of September Matt and I went to Telluride, Colorado and stayed at Uncle Charlie's place. The cast of characters included John and Susie, and for week two, Luke, Aunt Shell and Uncle Mark (and minus Matt - he had to go back to work). We got to watch the colors change, and right at the end of the trip, we had six inches of snow!


John and I took a hike through the snow. There was a snowball fight.

Before we actually got to Telluride, we stopped in Durango. While Susie cruised the town, John and Matt took me on my first backpacking trip. We spent two nights in Chicago Basin, accessed by the Durango/Silverton railroad. They basically stop the train in the middle of nowhere, throw you your gear, and wave goodbye. You hike up to the basin and camp, then when you're done, you hike back down and catch the train back to Durango.

view from camp

I was happy I lugged my hammock along

It was a lot of fun, but I got SO cold at night. Also, we (I) had this ridiculous hope that we could climb a 14er on the trip, but having no time to acclimate to the altitude made that not happen. We were all sucking wind on our day hike and had to accept it wasn't possible. Later we heard that the way up was pretty much impassible anyway, so we would've nearly killed ourselves trying to summit and been foiled near the top anyway. We met a couple that intended on marrying each other at the top and they couldn't do it (apparently you can self-marry in Colorado with the proper procedure).

Our time in Telluride was very fun, full of hiking and fishing, enjoying the beautiful weather, playing games at night, and eating good food (everything tastes better after a hike!). I'm so thankful for getting to go. Colorado = happiness.

Let's see, what else...

My one-year anniversary of my brain surgery was October 20. I celebrated by getting my DBS unit turned up to 6. It's nice to have hair again, although I am enjoying keeping it short.

Thanksgiving was a festive affair. Emily, Rick, and Liam hosted us at their place and Rick's smoked turkey was fabulous.

And in the blink of an eye it was Christmas. We celebrated with all the usual suspects. My big presents were a Kindle Fire and a portable cross-stitching frame, and Matt got an ASUS Transformer Prime tablet, which is really fun to play with.

And then it was 2012. At which point I started feeling guilty about my poor neglected blog. So three weeks later I'm doing something about it. Hi people! Pene and Piper say hi too.

Maybe I'll write more now that Matt's starting to become the invisible husband thanks to tax season...

6 years! part II

2011-06-19T22:57:00.001-05:00

Carrying on the Hall family tradition (okay, we aren't at 100% perfection like Mom and Dad or Leslie and Bryan) of anniversary pictures with numbers.

Wearing our A&M jerseys sadly did not help A&M win their first game in the College World Series. :(

My present!

Our washing machine broke and the deal was that when it no longer functioned, I would get a new, nice washing machine (same deal applies to dryer...now it needs to wait a while longer to die) since I am the laundry mistress of the household. So here I am with my new LG washer. Yay! (I know it's not that romantic, but it makes me happy and it gets Matt's laundry clean, so booyah). It works awesome.

Oh, and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to Mr Marc Hall, climber of mountains and installer of bath fans. I can't wait to spend time with you in Costa Rica*!

*yeah, Costa Rica. Wahoo!

6 years!

2011-06-17T19:46:00.000-05:00

Six years ago it was a hot Friday night in June, and Matt and I were getting hitched at the Dallas Arboretum!

The wedding party: Mary Stimson, Leslie Hall, Brittany Hendricks, Emily (Roberts) Rhodes, Amanda (Higginbotham) Duque, me, Matt, Graham Haverfield, Scott McClelland, Luke Roberts, John Roberts

Whoop!

RIP Story

2011-06-17T19:32:00.000-05:00

Mom on Story, Dad on Montana

Docs Story Time was born in Missouri on March 30, 1982; a bay mare registered American Quarter Horse, sired by Whoa Jack out of Mountain Kitten. Better known as Story to her close friends, she was laid to rest Thursday, June 16, 2011. There to see her off were constant companion Montana Tim, farrier and friend John King, gentle veterinarian Dr. Robert Garcia, and loving owners Susan and Marc. Known for her shy yet appealing personality and her delightful appreciation of meals, evidenced by a grateful snuffle through flared nostrils and a front leg cocked and quivering in anticipation of the feast to come, she will be sorely missed by all who enjoyed her companionship. She lived a full life capped by seven peaceful and pleasant years of retirement at the Hall ranch.

California!

2011-05-01T19:45:00.000-05:00

Matt and I returned Tuesday from a well-deserved (well, by Matt anyway) vacation to California. More to follow later (pictures sans captions are up on our photo site), but here I give you a treat - Matt was so tired and footsore after walking from L&B's house->BART->Coit Tower->Pier 33->around Alcatraz that he paid $20 for a bicycle rickshaw to take us back to the Embarcadero BART station. Here's the video.

New design

2011-04-17T15:46:00.000-05:00

Inspired by my recent return to blogging, I decided to update the look of my blog. Thanks for the help, Blogger! I like the new (new? to me anyway) template designer. Some of the stuff formerly located on the right side of the page is now found at the bottom. A few things are gone. Anyway, enjoy!

And to add a little content to this post, I'd like to present below a recent cross stitch of mine, given to cousin Lisa (which she had framed really nicely). I like it!

stained glass rose counted cross stitch (Janlynn)

My fingernails are bright yellow right now. Stephanie got some really fun nail polish called "mellow yellow" and I was jealous so she let me borrow it. We spent a good chunk of Friday hanging out and eating Dutch Babies (no we aren't cannibals, you should really visit the Original Pancake House).

Friday night was a fun evening at the Roberts with John, Susie, Emily, Rick, Luke, and Matt. Even though the deadline is technically April 18, Matt is pretty much done with busy season. He has spent the weekend sleeping and doing yard work. (It's amazing to me how much energy he has in such a short period of time once taxes are done). So he should be good to go to enjoy the end-of-busy-season orgy of drunkenness tomorrow night. Last night we hung out with Luke at our house. I shouldn't have been surprised that while I did something in the kitchen, they put in a Phish DVD.

I'm co-hosting the Roberts/Stimson family baby shower for Emily next month. The theme is the Very Hungry Caterpillar, inspired by a really amazing quilt that Susie made. We'll be having it at Amore and I'm thrilled to have cousin Lisa and five aunts as my co-hosts. It's my first time doing something like this so it's been a stretch for me. Fun, though! It's going to be awesome.

The end! For now!

Travel and stuff

2011-04-10T20:38:00.000-05:00

Springtime is a time for travel for me because Matt is so busy with tax season. I've had some fun trips - California twice and Austin twice. Some other stuff has happened too.

Mom, Dad, Leslie, and me skiing at Northstar at Tahoe, 1/27/11

Cam and Dad, ski bums!

Lisa and Emily hanging out on the porch at Lisa and Eric's new house in Bastrop (Eric was trying to remove a stump), 2/20/11

Miles took my picture as I pushed the stroller at Babies R Us

Emily and me at Hula Hut

Emily, Baby Rhodes, and me with the amazing dinner we made for the Drehers (thanks for the mac & cheese recipe, Les!)

Sous, Bryan, and Leslie as we prepare to hike part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, 3/13/11

me on the hike

trying sushi at L&B's favorite restaurant

I had enough hair that I got a haircut! 3/24/11

riding the Tour of Dallas with Dad, Steff, John, Charlie, and Meredith, 4/2/11

getting new ink at Tiger Moon tattoo from Stephanie's brother Bryan, 4/5/11

new: the sun/clouds above the tree of life

Uncle Michael, as captured by Miles

playing Legos with Miles

Lisa and Lyla, 4/9/11

quickie update...oh wait, it's been a while. Not that quick then.

2010-12-09T17:26:00.000-06:00

stitch-free!

I got my stitches out on 11/29. I can sleep on my right side and stomach now and being able to shift into any position at will has done wonders for my sleeping. Yay!

Tuesday marked three weeks since my second surgery. As I wrote that last sentence, I realized that my last blog update was before surgery #2. I guess I'll need to backtrack...

My chest incision was not healing well, this much I knew. And I knew that my head incisions were a little suspicious and weren't cleaning up like I'd hoped after I got my staples out on November 1. On November 4, I was in meeting with the study people and I asked Dr Enisa (who can do anything) if she could get me in to see the neurosurgery people to have them check me out. They put me on antibiotics (Levaquin) and scheduled me to come back in a week. Flash forward to 11/11 - Matt and I are in meeting with my neurosurgeon and he says all three of my sites are infected and I need surgery. The next day. Uh...

surprise! another surgery!

...so, on November 12 I went in for surgery #2, to debride the areas, treat the infection, stitch me back up, etc. And I was just starting to grow back my hair! I was supposed to be in the hospital for a night; instead I was there for four. At some point in there I turned 28, too. I still mess up my age sometimes because I was pretty high on pain meds on my actual birthday (the nurses sang me Happy Birthday, which was pretty dang nice of them). They even put in a PIC line to send me home with six weeks of IV antibiotics. Getting the PICC hurt (it took the person multiple tries and she kept bumping into the sides of my veins). My right arm was sore and bruised for weeks. But just when I thought I was going to be hosting home health aides and spending about six hours a day hooked up to an IV, the neurosurgeon's PA discovered that the study would pay for me to get Zyvox instead, a freakishly expensive and effective oral antibiotic ($90 per pill, two pills a day). They were able to take out the PICC and I got to go home. It was like surgery #1 all over again except the pain pills I went home with weren't as strong. I was as helpless and weak as a newborn kitten and my amazing family again swooped in to took care of me (I am very lucky to have them!).

I've had two post-op meetings with the neurosurgeons, and they are very pleased with my healing this time around. I'm just over halfway through my antibiotics course. My stitches came out on 11/29 and I am relieved to have those spiky things out of my head and chest!

Now, the obligatory gory pictures will follow... :)

INFECTION! (chest incision, three week post-surgery #1)

chest incision, four weeks post-surgery #2

PICC

Post-surgery #2 (I like taking pictures. They are going in my brain surgery scrapbook.)

And he can sing, too!

2010-11-03T14:44:00.000-05:00

My father-in-law is a man of many talents, like being able to bike a hundred miles in August, catch big fish, and finish the New York Times crossword puzzle. But did you know he sings, too? =P

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T21:37:00.000-05:00

great "get well soon" card

2010-10-28T16:54:00.000-05:00

Emily gave me a hilarious "get well soon" card, so great I had to share. I went through a lot of bendy straws in the last week.

Naptime invaded

2010-10-28T13:35:00.000-05:00

Piper did not respect my need for sleep or gentleness.

Pink!

2010-10-13T13:40:00.000-05:00

I've been up to things lately. First there was a super fun trip with Emily to visit Lisa, Eric, and the kids in Bastrop. This was followed up by some family time, cat sitting, and experiments in hair color.

Emily and I stayed at a lovely B&B in Bastrop (the Pecan Street Inn) - here she is testing out our king-sized bed.

We helped Miles pick out his Halloween costume. It's a dinosaur. We promise.

Emily and I took Grandma Phyllis out to lunch at La Duni (la yummy!)

I watched the cats Petey and Nellie while John and Susie were in Telluride (so jealous!)

before

Beautician Matt

right after (looks darker than it is)

hair this morning ... it's like ... bubblegum color maybe?

Carolyn

2010-08-27T15:36:00.000-05:00

Carolyn, 1942

Ann Carolyn Short Hall, age 83, died August 15, 2010. Funeral services are set for 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18, in the Wildwood Chapel at Restland. Interment is to be at 11 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 19, in Evergreen Cemetery in Paris. Born in Paris, Texas on November 23, 1926, Carolyn was the first of two lovely daughters to delight Lydia Aden and Raleigh Ernest Short. After an idyllic childhood in Paris, she found her calling as a Registered Nurse after training in pediatrics at Bradford Memorial and obstetrics at Baylor Hospital, both in Dallas. In 1947 she married a handsome young surgeon, Dr. William Lloyd Hall. Their exciting early married life found them stationed in Washington D.C., Chicago, China Lake in California's Mojave Desert and in the Panama Canal Zone as Bill served in the U. S. Navy. Over the years Carolyn turned her attention to their growing family, which by 1958 would include four children: Marc, Mike, Lisa and Jay. The Oak Cliff area of Dallas became home. Family and friends will always remember Carolyn's ever-youthful personality; the interest in others that made her such a wonderful listener and charming conversationalist; that feisty nature and the sparkle in her eye; her love of all dogs, especially miniature schnauzers; and the fierce, loving loyalty she had for those close to her. She will be missed and remembered by her special friends on Averill Way, by the Oak Cliff doctors and wives she regularly lunched with, by her Paris classmates and by all who ever ate her coconut amaretto or buttermilk pies. Preceded in death by her daughter Lisa, she is survived by sister Nancy Cannada, son Marc and his wife Susan, son Mike and his wife Eve, son Jay and his wife Stephanie, grandchildren Lisa, Michael, Leslie, Cameron, Morgan and Hunter, great grandchildren Miles and Lyla, and by a wonderful extended family of cousins, nieces and nephews. (link)

Carolyn was one of my best friends and had my vote for world's greatest grandmother. For now, I'll just leave things at that.

Big Bend Videos

2010-07-13T09:31:00.006-05:00

Emily and Rick brought their Flip along on our camping trip and captured a few fun videos.

Big Bend Wind Experience
Campsite and shower discussion
Rick tests the waters

Big Bend!

2010-07-09T09:18:00.012-05:00

In late May, we (Rick, Emily, Luke, Matt, me) piled into Olive (my dad's Expedition) and drove to Big Bend for a much needed vacation. Emily has posted many pictures of the trip on Facebook, so I'll just highlight a few that make me smile.

Initially we were going to camp down by the river near the Rio Grande Village because they had showers. The weather reports indicated highs near 100 but lows in the 60s, so we thought that sounded fine. Once we arrived though, we found out that by the river the 100-degree heat stuck around until past 9pm and the lows weren't arriving until 3-4am. So...first big decision of the trip - showers or comfortable temperatures? Easy call. We decided to camp at the Chisos Basin campground, located at about 5000' elevation. Cooler weather >>>>>> showers. Plus we got a prime spot right at the edge of the campground that afforded us over 180 degrees of unspoiled view. This picture is us at the campsite. It had a great picnic table with shade - very important! Em and Rick (our camp cooks) made us fajitas that night and we settled in for an early bedtime. The wind was ridiculous! Our tents were battered and shuddered and popped all night (we lost both our rain fly poles at one point).

On Monday morning we set out for a hike on the Lost Mines trail. It was a short drive from our campsite and the trail led us up into the mountains. There was this great rock with a huge drop off that the less-vertigo-affected of us enjoyed being photographed on. The hike was about 5 miles round trip. It had some great views and nice people took our picture at the top. We made it down and back to camp in time for lunch.

at the top of the Lost Mines trail

The afternoons in Big Bend in the summertime were made for lounging! We set up the hammocks hanging from our shade and put up our tarp to expand the shaded area. We read books, played DS, napped. In the shade the heat was completely manageable. We had a plan for the evening (another hike!) so we had an early dinner of burgers and sausage (thanks again, Em and Rick!) and headed out just after 6 for hike #2, "The Window." We didn't even have to drive to get to this trailhead; it left directly from the campground. Nice! The hike was a fun contrast to the morning's hike. We headed in the opposite direction and down into a canyon. Rick was hoping there would be water but the most we got were a few stagnant pools. Just as well, though, because the dryness enabled us to get right to the edge of the Window without slipping over the edge - that rock was smoothed down to a glossy finish. We lingered for a while, enjoying lounging on the cool rock in the shade.

On Tuesday we did a mostly driving tour, heading west. Our first destination was Santa Elena Canyon, along the Rio Grande. It had a really high cliff on the Mexican side. We did a quick trot along the trail into the canyon but didn't go too far - it was getting hot! Back at the car, we ate lunch and then the boys got in their swimsuits and "swam" (waded) in the Rio Grande over to the Mexican side.

After the swim, we drove to Terlingua to see the ghost town. We met some interesting locals...

Back at camp, we did some serious lounging and I once again got comfy in our hammock. Grilled chicken and mac and cheese was the menu for dinner (yum), and then Emily and I retreated to the bathrooms to try and clean up and avoid the never-ending discussion the boys were having about immigration issues. That night we got a real treat - there was a huge storm over the mountains with amazing lightning to watch. (Unfortunately the storm eventually got to us and Matt and I worried about our substandard rain fly poles). Luckily we didn't wash away.

On Wednesday we paid a trip to the hot springs. I thought it was warm enough that the 100-degree water wouldn't feel good, but it was nice!
Once back at camp we packed up and got ready for our stay at the Chisos Mountain Lodge. The rooms were clean but very no-frills - much like a dorm room. But whatever! They had electricity and running water and showers, so it was like heaven. Luke stayed with Matt and me in our room so that Rick and Emily, definitely the two people without whom the trip could not have happened, could bunk on their own. (Incidentally they were also celebrating their 2-year wedding anniversary).

Thursday was our last full day at the park and we took advantage of being well-rested and clean to undertake our most ambitious hike, up the highest mountain in the park, Emory Peak. We got a really early start and the weather was overcast, so it was quite pleasant. The last bit of elevation to the peak was a rock scramble, which suited me just fine. I love scrambling. We ate an extremely early lunch up on the peak next to the radio equipment. The hike down was harder since it was starting to get hot. But we made it!

Big Bend was really amazing. I would love to go back and experience it again during another time of the year. The five of us had a great time.

...

Okay, continue watching this space for more updates. For now my fingers are tired of typing =P

watch this space

2010-07-01T17:24:00.001-05:00

coming soon - belated Big Bend post, summer-time happenings

in the meantime, enjoy this picture of Piper grooming Pene's head (this happens a lot)

the California post

2010-04-12T18:01:00.006-05:00

I've been back for a week now and am fully prepared to write an extensive and overly-long post about my trip to California. It was a lot of fun! Very relaxing but full of activities.

Wednesday, March 31: My afternoon flight on Southwest was relatively uneventful. There were 20-month-old triplets on our flight with their two stressed-out looking parents but there was no crying or any acting out. Amazing! Les picked up up from the Oakland airport (so nice) and we had the obligatory super-condensed catching up session in the car before arriving at their house. Once there, I got an enthusiastic greeting from Sous and Bryan (one was wigglier than the other) and we had a glass of wine and engaged in a great deal more catching up. Dinner was some amazing homemade cheeseburgers (I ate well on this trip!), and then I made up my little nest on the couch and crashed.

Thursday, April 1: Awoke to a really bizarre sound that I couldn't place. Maybe Bryan doing some sort of crazy exercise, I thought? It was Sous eating her breakfast out of some rubber and plastic contraption that has to be manipulated just right to get a single pellet of food out. It involves a lot of dropping on the floor. She's a smart dog. After a fortifying breakfast taco, Leslie and I took Sous on a hike at Redwood.Leslie indulged me and accompanied me to the crepe place for lunch. Embracing the state of vacationer, I got a sweet crepe, with cherries, ricotta and mascarpone with apple sauce and sour cream (it maybe have come with ice cream...just maybe). When we came home, we had a surprise! Sous had found my plane snacks within a plastic bag within my backpack, and we found wrappers to the following: 2 Fiber One granola bars, chocolate-covered raisins, lemon Girl Scout cookies, a Twix bar, and a bag of almonds. The Gummi Lifesavers were not acknowledged as food and therefore rejected. So remember kids - put food away and off the ground when you have smart doggies around!

After a relaxing afternoon (a nap might have been involved), Leslie and I rode BART/Muni into San Francisco to attend the NightLife event at the California Academy of Sciences. On Thursdays from 6-10pm, they open the museum to 21+ year-olds, have a DJ, and sell alcohol. It was great! No kids! No strollers! Actually good music! We took a quick spin through the rainforest, visited the living roof (picture at left), reclined in the planetarium (one of the big dome kinds that makes you feel like you're moving), then explored the aquarium. Some personal favorites: the little frogs that looked like moss, sea horses that looked like kelp, and big-ass jellyfish. After a while, we met up with three of Leslie's friends, Debbie, Bianca, and Laurel, and we all ate at the cafeteria (I had mac & cheese, yum!). And Bianca and Debbie gave us a ride home (in their Prius, which might have been my first time in one), which was super-nice and much appreciated. I enjoyed the adventure of riding public transportation, but an hour+ ride back in the dark of night did not sound like fun.

Winner of the best April Fools Day joke: Kristina (aka cousin Michael's girlfriend) with her post on Facebook about moving to Germany. I totally bought it and had to text Lisa to check the veracity.

Friday, April 2: Happy start to the morning with a trip to the dog park with Sous. She's such a fun dog to be around. It's nice to be with a dog that likes other dogs, too. Not just gets along with them, but likes them. After some mid-day quiet time, Leslie and I went to see "How to Train Your Dragon," which I really liked. It wasn't quite Pixar, but it was close. And Toothless the dragon was awesome! I thought the quality of the animation was also really good. After that, we stopped by H&M and got me a silly $13 dress to wear for Easter (picture down below).

Leslie and I met Bryan for dinner at Yoshi's Jazz Club and Japanese Restaurant. I was adventurous and had a shrimp tempura dish (‘Kakiage’ Fritter: black tiger shrimp, onion, carrots, enoki mushrooms, kaiware radish lightly battered and deep-fried). After dinner we took in the show - the Brad Mehldau Trio. They were good! My favorite piece was an uptempo Portuguese number, and my second favorite was an improvisation on The Sound of Music's "Something Good." We sat with the two biggest fans in the room, a couple who had even seen the trio perform in other countries. They were very nice and we had fun talking with them. They struck up a conversation after Bryan and I were playing the "stereotype personalities of musical instrument players in high school band." It was my clarinet player description that did it ("slightly anal but dedicated" was as far as I got... (I tried to get out of the hole I dug by saying I married one). Turns out the woman was a clarinet performance major before switching to musicology. Oops.

Saturday, April 3: Dog park in the morning with Leslie and Bryan and Sous. Sous pulled a good trick by going under a bridge and emerging on the outside of the dog park fence. Luckily the fence wasn't too high and I just popped over and put her back on the right side. We ate brunch at a favorite restaurant of all three of us: Citron. Three words: lemon ricotta pancakes. Then I did some shopping around the neighborhood while Les and Bryan went back to the house. The afternoon they spent getting ready for their Easter BBQ while Sous and I stayed out of the way. Oh, and Bryan showed me Final Fantasy XIII, which I now really want (no surprise, I've been dedicated since FFX). We stopped by Debbie and Bianca's place for Bianca's going-away party for an hour or so before heading back to the house for more prep and relaxing.

Sunday, April 4: I made buttermilk pies for the party. Trader Joe's pie crust does not get my endorsement. If you do use it, thaw it for twice as long as they say and roll it out a bit before using. I should've known better than to use an unknown product.

Easter "Southern/Kentucky Derby"-themed finery

You can't tell, but my headband has a flower on it. I went all out.

Leslie and Bryan's Easter BBQ party started at 2. There were people I knew (Doug, George, Clare, etc) and people new to me. Luckily Leslie and Bryan have amazingly nice, friendly friends so all was well :) Leslie and Bryan had made some great food (homemade cheese sticks, BBQ pork to name a couple) but the winner of the best food had to be the peep sushi brought by guests. I mean, look at this:

The party was really the culmination of the trip. I headed back to Dallas the next morning, very uneventfully. I had a great time!

good book

2010-03-28T18:21:00.002-05:00

I finished a good book last night - The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose.

Also - Central Market's tagine chicken dinner for two is really good!

spring

2010-03-20T19:05:00.002-05:00

Well, I think it's fitting to post for the first time in a while on the first day of spring. I have to say, it doesn't feel like spring outside! Right now it's 36 degrees. Brr! Makes me feel better about being lazy and not working on my yard yet.

Pene had her last day of dog training class last week. She did really well overall. She's better behaved and calmer than when she started, and she had the opportunity to be sort of near other dogs. She still has a long way to go in getting over her dog aggression and in obedience, but we've made a good start. Eventually we'd like to do more classes with her trainer (agility has been suggested).

Matt is a little less swamped with work than previous weeks. I saw him almost every day this week and he worked from home last Sunday. That enabled us to have brunch and visit the Arboretum on a beautiful day. It was Matt's first time back since our wedding and we had a good time revisiting the place.

Cousin Lisa visited with Miles and Lyla recently. We had a great time. Piper was the star of the show again - Lyla thinks Piper is hilarious and awesome, and Miles loves chasing her around. And luckily Lisa's nightmare of Piper scratching Miles' face did NOT come true. =P Pene wasn't quite ready to be loose with the small children, but I think soon with them getting older and Pene getting mellower we might be able to try it.

I'm gearing up for a trip to visit Leslie and Bryan in California soon. I can't wait!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-04T17:46:00.004-06:00

I haven't yet had to remember to write "2010" or "10" for the date yet. I'm sure I'll screw it up the first few times. Speaking of the new year, poor Dick Clark. He really needs to retire.

I had a very exciting Christmas holiday. It was full of family, which is just how I like it. Leslie and Bryan were in town for the week leading up to Christmas. So that, of course, was great. We started their visit by celebrating my parents' 39th wedding anniversary (by having a fancypants dinner). Later that week we all went to the ranch and split logs. For whatever reason, I find that very fun. I know I already posted the picture on Facebook, but it's just too impressive to not put on the official blog.

Matt and I had our usual intricate dance of family events - Christmas Eve dinner with my family, a visit after with Matt's, presents Christmas morning with my family, then presents with Matt's, followed by the Stimson family gathering on Christmas night. Oh right, and then the Roberts extended family Christmas on January 1. Whew. A good time was had by all, except that I had a cold most of Christmas week. We had our first white Christmas in 80-something years here in Dallas, which was very cool except for the havoc it caused to my extended family trying to join us for Christmas Eve dinner. When Matt and I drove home that night, we actually slid backwards a bit while stopped at a traffic light near our house (and when the light turned green, we didn't actually manage to go anywhere and had to sit through another light cycle and try again). Oh, and I hosted cousin Lisa and Lyla the Monday after Christmas, which always makes me happy. :)

Christmas present breakdown:

Most fun: bowling ball (Matt and I both got one from my dad. Matt has owned one before - it broke - but this was my first ball. I've used it twice so far...maybe I'll finally get better at bowling)
Most practical: emergency car kit (I asked for it...I decided maybe it's a good idea to have jumper cables in one's car)
Pleasant surprise: Anise wall decals (I had asked for this, but didn't think we'd get it, and then I forgot it was on my wishlist)
Favorite present given by me: poppy stained glass needlepoint (see what it looked like here) that I worked on for about 6 months, given to Leslie and Bryan. I thought it would look great in their house as a pillow or framed.

Matt's back to work now after a nice break. It's officially busy season, so we're both mentally preparing for long hours and lots of time apart. One of my activities planned to keep me busy is taking another class through DCCCD - astronomy! I hope it is neat.

I'm excited about my friend Brian visiting on Friday. He's moving to Austin, so he's stopping by here on his way through. It's going to be really fun to have him living only a few hours away!

Christmas time is here

2009-12-13T16:52:00.002-06:00

Stream of consciousness post in 3...2...1...

I am a fan of the Christmas season. Especially now that my shopping is more than 75% done!
I think I'm done buying music games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, etc. Unless they release Rock Band: Nine Inch Nails or Rock Band: Phish or something like that. Also, no buying any more plastic instruments.
I beat Super Mario 64 for the first time ever today. I never really liked it when I tried to play it on my N64 - I think I missed the side-scrolling world that I knew and thought the camera/controls were stinky. But I bought it for the Wii Virtual Console over a year ago and I was inspired to give it a try after beating New Super Mario Bros Wii. And you know - it was pretty good. I guess I didn't give it a fair shake back in the day.
Speaking of New Super Mario Bros Wii, I loved that game. I'd recommend it to any fan of the old-school Mario games or the DS version. Nintendo could pump out a new side-scrolling Mario game every year and I would buy and enjoy every single one. Playing with friends is definitely challenging, though. I've only been brave enough to try two people and that's chaotic enough. Having four people running around, bumping each other off platforms and stealing power-ups...would be hilarious and frustrating in equal measures, I think.
Next on the gaming agenda: Super Mario Sunshine. Never played that either. Then I'll probably play through Super Mario Galaxy again unless I get something more exciting for Christmas :)
Our house's Christmas lights look fabulous. And by fabulous, I mean slightly over the top (I'm looking at you, red LED sign proclaiming "Merry Christmas" in the window that Matt picked out). LED lights are so freakin' bright! The lights on our tree (real tree, of course) are old-school standard lights, though. So we have a little of both.
Piper has puked up fake greenery from garlands a LOT. At least it isn't balling up in her intestines.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T10:09:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

The smells here at the mini-ranch are getting really good!

They say it's my birthday...

2009-11-14T08:53:00.003-06:00

Happy birthday to me!

Quick life updates in celebration...

Pene got a clean bill of health last week. Her kidney values were SO good that she doesn't have to continue with fluids, special food, or anything, and she doesn't need rechecking for 6 months. So although we'll never know what caused her problems in the first place, it was something like an acute illness or her eating something bad, and NOT chronic kidney problems. Yay!
Cousin Lisa and Lyla came to visit last weekend. I even did a good 4 hour stretch of babysitting all by myself. I was way too proud of that accomplishment, but hey, it was my first real time taking care of such a little one (or just about any kid, actually). And Lisa is coming back next weekend with the whole family in tow for Carolyn's 83rd birthday celebration., so this all makes me very happy.
Dragon Age: Origins is a good video game. Not as amazingly awesome as I'd hoped (my expectations were way too high) but very enjoyable and I look forward to playing through it multiple times. Also video game-related - I am quite excited about the New Super Mario Bros Wii game that comes out tomorrow. I might actually be able to get Matt to play with me!

Well, I should go. Pene is going crazy because we've taken out her ranch bag and put on her collar, which means she is ready to go to the mini-ranch RIGHT NOW. =D

Pene's friend

2009-10-10T11:03:00.004-05:00

The last thing Pene deserved was to be sick again, but sometimes life isn't fair for dogs either. She went in for her annual check-up on September 26, and the routine blood work showed that her kidneys were having some serious issues. Her BUN and creatinine were really high. So last week she spent two days at Metro Paws getting IV fluids and was started on antibiotics and special food (low in protein). At no point did she ever seem sick. We didn't discover any particular reason (like toxin exposure or infection) for her kidneys to be not working correctly. It could be that they were damaged during her awful bout with distemper and might be permanently damaged :( What we're doing now, along with her special diet and antibiotics, is administering subcutaneous fluids twice a week at home. I stick her with a big needle under the skin of her back and Matt squeezes in a liter of saline. It makes her look like she has a camel hump, or like Murphy when he had his "sidecar"/"friend"/tumor.

She is SO good when we give her the fluids. We think she might honestly not even notice what we're doing, aside from that we're keeping her in one place. We do it at night when she's calm and sleepy, and that helps a lot.

What the plan is now is for her to get the fluid treatment twice a week for a month. Then we'll recheck the blood work. Then we'll do a month without fluids, followed by blood work again. At that point we should know more about the nature of her kidney problems.

2009-10-10T10:01:00.000-05:00

two words

2009-09-23T11:25:00.002-05:00

Two words: honeycrisp apples. That's right - the best apples ever are back in time for fall. If you even remotely like apples, then you should try a nice red honeycrisp apple (not too ripe, now). Bliss!

Things have been fun in the Hall-Roberts household recently. We went down to College Station last weekend to watch the Aggies beat the hell outta Utah State. We were actually pretty worried at the beginning but then A&M hit their stride. And we didn't have to watch the scary close call when Utah State surged back to within 8 points at the end of the game because we're 2%-er Old Ags who had to drive back to Dallas that night who left early. We sat in the student section (thanks Luke!) and I think I may be getting too old to keep that up for long. That is a lot of standing! Luckily it wasn't a sold out game so we weren't packing in 5 extra people on our already crowded row like the popular games. We book-ended the A&M game with time with Mom (and Pene) at the mini-ranch. Mom was a hunting widow that weekend (dove), so we enjoyed keeping her company. Pene spent FIVE hours on Saturday hanging out under a cluster of trees with squirrels keeping her attention up above. Mom would look out to check on her - yep, still watching the squirrels.

The weekend before the A&M game, I had a last minute opportunity to see Leslie in Austin while she was there for a 24-hour business trip. We got to have dinner and coffee and we actually watched the bats fly out from the Congress Avenue bridge. It was an awesome visit and really nice to catch up with her. Then on Monday and Tuesday I hung out with cousin Lisa, Miles, and Lyla. Miles is talking SO much now, and he finally has my name down (I'm [Aunt] "Camei"). I think he enjoyed knowing how to get my attention. We took the kiddos to Zilker Park to ride the little train and then I played on the playground with Miles. He rode a big-boy swing for the first time (Lisa was white-knuckled the whole time that was going on =P). On Tuesday we went to an indoor bouncy house place (why did these not exist when I was little?). Miles loved it. He also wanted me to do everything with him. (Aunt Camei is a little bit of a pushover). So we went down the slide a billion times and rolled around in the Finding Nemo bounce house and I helped him do somersaults and all sorts of things. It was great fun and I was exhausted!

Other news...Matt and I go on a little trip to Colorado next month, so we're getting excited about that. His September deadline at work was very easy and I enjoyed having him around more than last year. In August I switched gyms from the Lake Highlands YMCA to LA Fitness and I've been working out a lot. I really like my new gym. Also, I got a personal trainer through them, and I see her (Casey) once a week. It's been pretty rewarding and I've learned a lot so far.

O Dear

2009-09-05T21:29:00.002-05:00

OU, my deepest sympathies.

The Aggies won, thank goodness. (Whoop!) At least we'll have one win this season. Of course, now Matt's convinced (he says) that we'll win the national championship...he was pretty adorable today flipping between all the football games. It was like Christmas morning for him.

lovely weather

2009-09-02T09:57:00.003-05:00

I rode my bike around the lake a couple times yesterday evening and it was incredibly nice. I hope all of September is as nice or better than the end of August!

Is anyone else excited about Dragon Age: Origins?

Oh oh, but I am much more excited about what comes out next week - The Beatles: Rock Band!!

(who can guess what Matt is most looking forward to that starts this weekend?)

Downtown

2009-08-25T08:46:00.003-05:00

I'm sitting here at AT&T plaza downtown, and it is really nice. Cool breeze, shade, fountains. And it makes me think about how there are actually nice parts of downtown Dallas. It is a shame we get to experience them so little.

I am downtown this morning for school. My A&P class is using a new edition of the textbook, and of course with this being the second half of the course, I already had the book in the now one-edition-outdated form. So I rode the train with Matt this morning to visit the El Centro library and compare the new edition (12) with my edition (11). Shockingly, little is different other than fonts and the cover picture. Now I'm armed with translated page numbers and can use my 11th edition book worry-free. Textbooks are such a scam.

And now I'm going to visit the big branch of the Dallas library just for fun. Yay for downtown adventures!

---------------------
update 12:30pm

I had a good time at the downtown library overall. Matt and I are planning a trip back to Colorado in October (because we just can't get enough), so I found five Colorado travel books to check out. Also, I got ahead in my A&P class by reading half of the chapter on the digestive system. It was hard to concentrate though, because some guy was carrying on an entire texting conversation on his non-qwerty cell phone with the keypad volume cranked up. Beep beep beepbeepbeep beepbeep beep...good lord, put it on silent! Unfortunately, a lot of the patrons at the central library scare me, so I did not have the courage to ask him to be quiet. After library time was over, I met Matt for lunch at Subway. Then I rode the train back home and here I am. I liked my downtown adventure.

hey there

2009-08-24T09:49:00.003-05:00

Hey there, blog. It's been a while, I know.

School time is here again. For me too, actually - I'm taking the second half of the anatomy & physiology class that I took in the spring from DCCCD. So that got started today.

We went and saw District 9 yesterday. Movies are only $5 before noon at North Park! It was pretty good. Considering the story of the making of the movie, though, it was amazing.

Matt is getting busy at work again. Nothing crazy, but he'll be working extended hours until October 15.

Pene just vomited a gallon of liquid onto our bed. It was pretty disgusting. She has an unfortunate habit of throwing up on our bed, but I guess I should be glad that our bedding is much more easily washed than carpet and our mattress pad is water resistant.

Mt. Democrat

2009-08-03T11:36:00.001-05:00

So I've been on vacation in Breckenridge the last couple weeks with the Roberts family. Matt and I ended the trip with a bang by hiking a 14er - Mt. Democrat. It was short but very steep. A nice lady took our picture on the summit. (yes, those are socks on my hands...it was cold)

new Simon's Cat!

2009-08-02T08:42:00.003-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1qHVVbYG8Y

puzzles and birthday wishes

2009-07-16T17:07:00.002-05:00

Also, I submit to you, lovely readers: what better way to use a table for the first time than to do a puzzle on it? (especially a Colorado puzzle!!)

And finally, happy birthday to my friend Brian!

evidence

2009-07-16T17:03:00.002-05:00

Pene has been a bit of a handful lately. Example: I left my 4th of July parade candy on the desk. Later, I come back and it is gone. Matt? Did you eat the candy? No? On the floor...wrappers. Pene is very good at unwrapping candy.

Maybe she'll learn at charm school (which starts tomorrow) that dum dums like her aren't allowed to eat Dum Dums.

Is my air cleaner?

2009-07-15T14:48:00.004-05:00

I replaced the air filter on our A/C unit today and I really hope I did it correctly. Everything seems to be working just fine. It's no wimpy air filter either - it is a 20"x25"x4" behemoth that claims to be super snazzy. Me, I'm just glad Home Depot had them in the store. Changing the air filter is something that Matt and I were aware of intellectually, but really hadn't given enough thought to ever replacing the one that came with the house. Over two years ago. Yeah, whoops. I'm putting today's date on my Google calendar and next year I'll be on time.

I just thought to add this little tidbit: Infinite Undiscovery the game is about as lame as its name. I'm not really enjoying it much, and for once I'm happy that an RPG is described as short in length. I can't not finish RPGs.

was it only one day?

2009-07-12T12:19:00.008-05:00

This weekend has me completely confused as to what day it is. Yesterday Matt and I did more than we usually do in a couple weekends' time, and today he's at work, so I was pretty convinced it was Monday just now. Like I said, yesterday was busy. I got up early and washed my car. Then we went to White Rock Lake to do some clean-up with the Sierra Club and KayakPower. Matt and I shared a double kayak and we fished out all manner of nasty things from the lake with our little grabby sticks. On our way back home, we stopped by the White Rock Lake farmers market. So all of this before lunch...quite different than our usual routine. Later on there was a nap for me and a viewing of "The Departed" for Matt. I played some Sim City 4 and Matt "accidentally" watched another movie. I made some dinner for us, we played some Guitar Hero, took a walk, and made it to bed at a reasonable hour. Nice!

furniture

2009-07-06T16:23:00.005-05:00

Here are pictures of our new tables. Matt was really cute getting them set up just so.

Matt and I are big fans of mission-style furniture.

life is hard for Pene

2009-07-05T08:49:00.003-05:00

Pene looks so world-weary in this picture.

We had a good 4th of July. We walked about a mile down Church Rd to watch the Lake Highlands parade and then wandered around the carnival-type thing at the end. We got free t-shirts, an "I Love Lake Highlands" button, and snow cones! Then we trekked back to the house (it was much hotter by then) and relaxed. Emily and Rick invited us over to hang out with them and their friends at the new house. It was the first time for Matt to see the inside and my first time to see it with furniture. It looks great! They have done a TON of painting and stuff to get it where they want it. Rick grilled us burgers and afterwards we played lots of pool volleyball. Matt and I didn't have a chance to come back from our two losses when he scraped all the skin off his pinky toe. Ouch.

On our drive home, we had left right before 9:30 and we saw no fewer than 8 separate professional fireworks displays from 635. It was a little scary knowing we were sharing the road with possibly drunk and distracted people.

The Dump

2009-07-03T13:23:00.002-05:00

The Dump is a dangerous place! We went there to check out their rug sale because we needed one for our main living area. We left having purchased a rug, dining room table and chairs, and kitchen table and chairs, and wishing it was in our budget to get a chair and chest of drawers that we liked!

I'll post some pictures when things are delivered.

adorable

2009-07-02T13:50:00.002-05:00

Sometimes the in-laws can be pretty darn cute - next week John is going away to band camp and Susie is hosting a sleep-over for friends. Adorable!

The new computer is coming along. I got one of the old hard drives hooked up and transferred the important files to the new computer. Unfortunately the other old hard drive (known as "the old old hard drive" as opposed to "the new old hard drive") needs an IDE connection, so I'll have to figure something out.

They released a triple pack of Phish songs for Guitar Hero and they rock. Especially Down with Disease...amazing! Fun to play guitar, sing, bass...haven't tried on drums yet, but how could Fishman's part disappoint?

finally!

2009-07-02T00:39:00.000-05:00

The new computer came this evening and after a great ordeal, it is online and ready to go. Well, ready except that I haven't transferred my old stuff onto it yet. But it checks my e-mail and displays web pages bigger than my iPhone, so huzzah! That, and it looks badass.

Piper thinks we bought her the most expensive cardboard box collection ever. She'll be sad when they are gone.

Infinite what now?

2009-06-26T21:16:00.004-05:00

I started playing the inexplicably named game Infinite Undiscovery yesterday. Maybe making up the word "undiscovery" sounded cooler to a non-native English speaker. It's alright so far...not great but I'm not far enough along to say for sure how much I like it.

Speaking of games, Rock Band made a Phish song available for download and play (Wilson from A Live One). Needless to say, there was much rejoicing at our house. Not nearly as much joy as when Matt discovered that Luke got them tickets for the opening night of Phish at Red Rocks in Colorado next month, though.

Next time you talk to Emily and Rick, congratulate them on the house they bought yesterday! :)

(posting from Matt's work laptop is much nicer than from my iPhone!)

RPGs

2009-06-25T16:27:00.001-05:00

I am sitting in front of the TV ignoring the credits to "The Last Remnant" video game. I was struck again at how much better Final Fantasy games are compared to everything else (to me). I came late to Final Fantasy, not until FF X. But I quickly fell in love. In my Xbox 360 phase I have played a fair amount of RPGs (off the top of my head: Eternal Sonata, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, The Last Remnant) and none of them come close to FF. I haven't felt super compelled to replay any 360 RPGs yet, but I have played FF X to 100% three times, FF X-2 twice and FF XII twice). That is how much I like those games. I can't wait until FFXIII!

I'm typing this on my iPhone because the power supply blew on our computer. Although the other components appeared to survive, the computer had been going downhill and worrying me for a while. I hardly needed an excuse anyway, and so a new computer has been ordered. :) I hope it comes soon!

happy anniversary

2009-06-18T18:32:00.003-05:00

That's our dessert from our 4th anniversary dinner at Stephan Pyles. We got the "banana tasting" dessert, which was a banana bread topped with cream and caramelized banana, banana parfait, and an ice cream sandwich. Before that, we stated with a shared salad - Farmstead Cheese Salad with Jamon Serrano, Granny Smith apples and Walnut Brittle. For our entrees, I had the USDA Prime Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Chilaquiles and Pineapple Mole, and Matt got the Coriander-Cured Rack of Lamb with Ecuadorian Potato Cake (with green beans). Mine was really great; Matt's was okay. I loved the pineapple mole on top of the beef, and the sweet potato side was good too. Overall it was a very nice fancypants dinner.

I thought the card I gave to Matt was pretty amusing: The inside says "Congrats on another year of overlooking the small stuff"

busy times

2009-06-16T12:53:00.003-05:00

Matt and I have been pretty busy this month. My adventures started with a trip to the ranch with Mom, Emily, and Susie (aka the crafting group). We had a very fun and relaxing time. The first weekend in June we drove down to Fredericksburg with Rick and Emily to attend Taylor and Alice's wedding. It was at a really neat little winery outside of town. Alice looked amazing in her dress (and the groom looked nervous =P). The winery (Becker Vineyards) is also a lavender farm. The lavender lemonade was very surprising and tasty. Matt and I went straight from Fredericksburg to the ranch to spend Sunday night. Leslie was in Dallas for the weekend for a friend's wedding and so we got to see her at the ranch, which was awesome. The weddings continued the next weekend, this time in College Station for Matt's cousin Danny. To fill out our full June dance card, we have a gathering of the Halls at the ranch this weekend. Aside from Leslie and Bryan (sad face), I think everyone will be there - it should be lots of fun!

Oh yeah, another thing this week that I almost forgot...tomorrow is our four year anniversary. We're having dinner at Stephan Pyles to celebrate.

that is one fuzzy bug

2009-05-27T12:22:00.002-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJnn-wMPU9w

good idea Nintendo

2009-05-26T10:04:00.003-05:00

So Nintendo has been "updating" Gamecube games for the Wii by adding motion controls. Then they roll out that version for $50, despite the fact that the graphics are still last-gen, in some cases using the Wii-version motion controls is worse than the original controls, and hey - Gamecube discs are playable on the Wii already! So yeah, I'm less than impressed with the whole idea.

But then Nintendo whips this out and it is GREAT! It is exactly what one would hope for when hearing that they are re-releasing GC games for the Wii. They have reworked the first two Metroid Prime games (originally released for GC) and are bundling them with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (a Wii title) for only $50 total. This is particularly exciting for me, since I never bought my own copy of #3.

They’ll be packaged together with the 2007 Wii sequel on a single disc called Metroid Prime Trilogy.
Although we’ll have to wait longer than Japanese consumers for the game, which will be available on August 24, the price tag of only $50 for all three critically-acclaimed sci-fi adventures is a much better deal.

I played the Japanese version of Metroid Prime when it shipped earlier this year, and played Metroid Prime 2 later at Nintendo’s offices. The games have been fully upgraded with all of the bells and whistles that the Wii brings — full motion control and 16:9 widescreen display being the most obvious enhancements.

But there are also some smaller upgrades. The “ball hop” — the ability to make Samus Aran’s Morph Ball form jump in the air with a quick flick of the Wiimote — has been retrofitted into both of the earlier games.

Nintendo said the games also have shorter loading times, and some mildly updated graphical effects like bloom lighting.

Badges — achievements for completing certain game objectives — have also been added in to the GameCube titles. The badges for all three games are combined in one overarching bonus menu, instead of being split up per title. This means that you can unlock the same set of bonus materials (artwork galleries, etc.) no matter which game you play.

The Metroid Prime 3 control scheme is fully replicated in each of the classic games — you can adjust the sensitivity of the cursor and turn on “Lock-On Free Aim” if you want more control over your aiming.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/05/hands-on-metroid-prime-trilogy-brings-entire-series-to-wii/

camping

2009-05-19T10:35:00.006-05:00

Matt and I went camping with Emily, Rick, and Luke last weekend at Cleburne State Park. Aside from some major rain, it was lots of fun. Emily and Rick are great camp cooks - they made us some kickass fajitas on Friday night. Matt and I made hot dogs on Saturday...not quite in the same league.

Our major activity on Saturday was a visit to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. It was very cool. The best part was hand-feeding the giraffes.

In the gift shop, Emily and I staged a dramatic recreation of the experience.

It was extremely cold for May on Saturday. We were huddled around our fire. The intermittent rain through the afternoon didn't help things either. It got down into the 50s that night! But we had a great time and it was an excellent kick-off to the summer.

Advanced Cat Yodeling

2009-05-18T09:58:00.004-05:00

This IS Matt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxLG2wtE7TM

the great game

2009-05-14T16:51:00.003-05:00

Matt and I are going to try and go to 1310 The Ticket's "Great Game" tonight in Frisco.

Have I ever mentioned how much Piper loves bed-making? As soon as she hears me shaking out some sheets, she runs in and jumps onto the bed so that I can make her up in it. So cute.

schooool's out for summer

2009-05-13T09:32:00.002-05:00

It was weird being a student again this spring, but overall it was a really good thing. It gave me something to do while Matt was at work all the time, and I learned some things too. Plus, it makes me appreciate summer again in the school sense, because I'm taking a break from classes. I do think I'd like to take the other semester of Anatomy & Physiology next fall. Yesterday I went in to take my last test for A&P, got my usual 96%, and closed the book on that class. I also tried to take my psychology final but the testing center was experiencing problems. There was an awesome resolution to that - my teacher e-mailed me and said that since I had done so well all semester, she was just exempting me from the final, so now that class is over too!

I've had some and exciting things going on lately, in addition to wrapping up school. Cousin Lisa took her first trip to Dallas with Miles and Lyla the first week of May. We had a great time for the three days she was here. Piper and Miles became best friends.

He called her "meow meow" and she was the first thing he looked for whenever we walked in the door. On Monday night she'd had enough for a while and hid under furniture and hissed, but the rest of the time she was remarkably calm and collected, and let him chase her around, pet her, and try and catch her tail. Pene showed some maturity too and was allowed around the children with supervision.

Last Wednesday I entertained Emily while Rick was on a work trip to New Mexico. We went indoor rock climbing at Stoneworks in Carrollton. It was a lot of fun. We almost made it to the top of the 100' climb but we both got stalled at the same point maybe ten feet from the top. If we hadn't already climbed that high, we might have had the ability to power through it, but by then our arms were ready to fall off. We each had a fantastic and dramatic fall, which meant the other person got a fantastic and dramatic catch. Another highlight of that day with Em was playing some Castle Crashers on the 360.

Happy birthday, Pene!

2009-05-08T22:08:00.004-05:00

Today Miss Pen is two years old. For her birthday, she got a supposedly sturdy red bone squeaky toy (already ripped) and two bones. In the joyous couple hours before she tore up the toy, I got a quick video of her enjoying herself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YYuHzqzbrQ

great name

2009-05-01T09:11:00.002-05:00

I had no idea that the president of the senate of Nigeria's name is Mr Jimmy Bones! Surely I can trust that man with my financial information in order to receive my USD 1.8 MILLION!

35%

2009-04-30T14:40:00.002-05:00

I figured out today that if I make my usual 100% on my last chapter test for A&P, I will only need a 35% on the last proctored exam to make an A. It's nice to know that some things never change...my inability to do anything but overachieve in classes continues even in community college classes I'm taking for no reason.

Today was my ESL co-teacher and mentor Satoshi's last day. He's working hard to finish his masters thesis for next month and has a summer job lined up that will most likely keep him away from teaching. I brought donuts and juice to class and was anticipating having a nice laid-back party with the students to celebrate. Well, if I've learned anything these last few months teaching ESL, it's that you can never predict what will happen. I don't know if it was the rain this morning or what, but we had 1 - ONE - student come to class. He said that he thought a lot of the clients had to go to the Catholic Charities (or their refugee service) offices to take care of end of month things, like renewing their food stamps, but for whatever reason...one student. And trust me, this guy was not going to eat 18 donuts. So we shared with the other class and had a really productive day working intensively with our one student, who honestly needed the attention, but again...not what I had in mind. I should know better by now! It's only the days where I've made less than ten copies of class materials that we're overflowing with students!

The donuts were good though. Mmmm, blueberry.

How not to take a sick day

2009-04-28T16:27:00.003-05:00

This makes me laugh.

ending Saturday on a good note

2009-04-25T23:00:00.002-05:00

Today was a very school-y day for me. I had a project to finish for psychology (about the book Dibs in Search of Self) and a chapter to read, lab to do, and quiz to take in my anatomy & physiology class (covering the special senses). I think I'm about ready for the end of the semester! Luckily that's coming up in a couple weeks.

But at least Matt had a great day - sleeping in and watching the pre-draft coverage, then the NFL draft (yay Matt Stafford, we are so proud!) and the Mavs. Also his parents came by in the afternoon to say hello and drop off a birthday present. Pene couldn't stop licking John's feet.

The end of the day was nice, though, for both of us. We had dinner at the Purple Cow (so great...it reminds us of the Swensons in CS which is no longer there) and watched The Italian Job for the first time. We both really enjoyed it, although we never realized until now how accurate Andy Samberg's SNL impression of Mark Wahlberg really is.

Happy birthday, Matty

2009-04-24T18:54:00.001-05:00

Mr. Matt is 27 today. Man we're getting old.

ahhhhh

2009-04-19T20:30:00.002-05:00

So nice to have April 15 over with! Matt and I have done some serious relaxing since then and it's been awesome. We did yard work today (good lord was Matt a snotty, sniffling man...ridiculous allergies attacking him).

He actually has to go to work tomorrow, which will hopefully be nice and relaxing. He's thinking about taking every Friday off this summer. Wouldn't that be neat?

next week!

2009-04-07T20:33:00.003-05:00

Do you know what starts up again next week? One of the greatest shows ever - Deadliest Catch!

(Also next week that's kind of a big deal - the end of busy season! Huzzah!)

psycho!

2009-04-04T19:56:00.002-05:00

I just finished watching the documentary Grizzly Man, and man, Timothy Treadwell was insane. I mean, literally, something was really wrong with that guy.

I <3 April Fools

2009-04-01T22:39:00.001-05:00

Oh Trent, you had me at Head Like a Hole...but this...words cannot describe: http://www.nin.com/strobelight/

(placeholder)

2009-03-31T19:27:00.004-05:00

Now that my A&P test is over with, I plan on posting about my trip to California. But not now...now I intend to celebrate another 96% with some serious gaming (The Last Remnant).

Oh, and just to explain my previous post (in case you don't regularly visiting my book sidebar), I read Watchmen. It was my first experience with a graphic novel - took me a while to get used to that kind of format. Very different than regular books!

2009-03-26T15:37:00.000-05:00

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

travel

2009-03-18T18:26:00.005-05:00

I'm quite the traveler this month, compared to my norm...I spent the latter half of last week in Austin, playing with Lisa, Miles, and Lyla and tomorrow I'm off to California!

Aside from the weather, Austin was great. Lisa and I had both had visions of walks, trips to the playground, and things like that, but it was cold and raining the whole time I was there. Sheesh. So we watched lots of TV and movies. I held baby Lyla a lot. It was pretty great. She enjoyed laying on my chest as I reclined, and we spent a lot of time in that position.

I helped give Lyla her first bottle!

Book

2009-03-09T16:50:00.005-05:00

(Penny Arcade)

So true...
I have been enjoying many Book lately. I was working my way through a variety of fantasy and non-fiction and got majorly sucked into Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I'd read Into the Wild (and watched the movie) and so I thought I'd give the other book a try. That set off a cascade of Mt. Everest-related books and DVDs in rapid succession. I watched season one (and I am 6/8 through season 2) of Everest: Beyond the Limit by the Discovery Channel, the Everest IMAX movie, and read another couple Everest books. Very quickly. If you need a reason to not climb Mt. Everest, read High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed. Another book that I thought was great was The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks. It will make you VERY glad that you do not have schizophrenia! It is amazing what she has accomplished in her life despite intense psychotic episodes (example: while having an episode, she thinks she can and has killed thousands of people with her thoughts). It was well-written and very interesting.

I'm going to Austin on Wednesday to spend time with Cousin Lisa and the kiddos - yay!

Correlation

2009-03-06T10:17:00.004-06:00

Today's xkcd tickled me.

On mouse-over: Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'.

Rosemary

2009-02-26T21:04:00.002-06:00

I have decided that Pene's middle name is Rosemary. That is what she always smells like when she spends an evening outside in the backyard. So if Pene does something bad to you and you must chastise her, use her full name: Penelope Rosemary Hall-Roberts.

One of these days I'll tell you about the ESL class for refugees that I'm teaching. One day...(not today, sorry). I blame my infected eyeball (it's on the mend, don't worry. It's just a convenient excuse). Now I'm off to watch another episode of 30 Rock (I'm 2/3 through season 2 and now I get why people love this show).

(don't you love parentheses?)

Astor's Birthday Party

2009-02-16T09:53:00.004-06:00

I saw this on Katie's Facebook page, and it was amusing, so I gave it a go...the ones with my favorite answers are highlighted.

1. Put your ipod/zune/mp3 player on shuffle.
2. Answer the questions with whatever song comes up

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Embrace (Korn)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Super Mario Bros. Underworld Rock (OverClocked Remix)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Army of One (Phish)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Carnival (Tori Amos)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Underwater Secrets (Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Chattanooga Choo Choo (Barry Manilow)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
We Will Rock You (Queen)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Rococo (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Silent in the Morning (Phish)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Wicked Garden (Stone Temple Pilots)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
The Summer (Garth Brooks)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Parachutes (Coldplay)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Nausea (Beck)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
I Threw a Brick Through a Window (U2)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Freedom (Blues Traveler)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Marrakesh Express (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Billy the Kid (Aaron Copland)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
These Photographs (Joshua Radin)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET
Ghost (Trey Anastasio & Tom Marshall)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Sally's Song (Amy Lee)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Bicycle Race (Queen)

WHERE WILL YOU GET MARRIED?
American Bad Ass (Kick Rock)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
User Friendly (Marylin Manson)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Darts of Pleasure (Franz Ferdinand)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Take Me in Your Arms (The Doobie Brothers)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
When the Water Falls (Collective Soul)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Astor's Birthday Party (from the TV show Dexter)

This is good?

2009-02-11T21:15:00.003-06:00

So my A&P instructor was pleased with this breakdown of grades on the test I took yesterday.

The grades were pretty good for the first test.
A - 12%
B - 26%
C - 18%
D - 18%
F - 26%

...seriously?

I didn't do a very good job of studying for psychology today. I blame Mercedes Lackey.

96%

2009-02-10T19:15:00.002-06:00

I overestimated the difficulty of my test. But I still got that warm, fuzzy post-test relief. I'd forgotten how nice it feels to get a test done with a good grade. Ahhhh...

Too bad tomorrow my nose goes back to the grindstone to study for my psychology test on Thursday.

Stafford

2009-02-10T15:55:00.001-06:00

It's pretty cool to see big-time ESPN front page coverage about how high in the draft Matthew Stafford will go... Like #1!!

iPhone

2009-02-10T09:57:00.002-06:00

I got myself an iPhone yesterday. If anyone has recommendations for applications that they like, I'm all ears!

So I'm taking a couple classes online through the Dallas Community Colleges - psychology and human anatomy/physiology. They've been okay so far...mostly review in the A&P class. I kind of forgot that some people were coming in with just high school science, and here I am with full semesters of anatomy, genetics, microbiology, and physiology under my belt, as well as a year of biochemistry, so that gives me a leg up. I think it'll get interesting once we get to human things that I've never learned before, what with the anatomy I took being canine and all... As for psychology, the last chapter I did was about states of consciousness, and so things are looking up for that class as far as being interesting (the intro chapters were pretty dull). Anyway, I have my first proctored test today in A&P. I have to go down to El Centro's testing center to take it, but that gives me a good excuse to have dinner with Matt near downtown.

Yesterday I got myself plane tickets to visit Leslie in California near the end of March - yay!

Okay, I have to stop playing with my iPhone (this morning's project was making custom ringtones, because I need Matt's ring to be something Phish-related, usually My Sweet One) and get to studying for that pesky test thing!

The Price is Right

2009-02-09T08:50:00.001-06:00

If you like The Price is Right, then you should watch this video - if you start 12 minutes in, you'll see my friend Laura from A&M win a car! Congrats Laura!

http://www.cbs.com/daytime/the_price_is_right/video/video.php?cid=559221502&pid=sCBfXvX0KUUBJfZR2OxZBUryyOssvIXN&play=true&cc=0

I'd forgotten...

2009-02-04T21:02:00.004-06:00

I'd forgotten how absolutely awful Jake Lloyd is as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I. I decided to throw the DVD in this afternoon, inspired by my recent playthrough of Lego Star Wars. That game got me really hankering for some Star Wars, and it hasn't been so long since my last viewing of the original trilogy, so I figured I'd start at Episode I. Luckily I had my needlepointing to save me from the awfulness of that whole movie (yeah, I remembered the fact that the overall movie sucked, but I'd forgotten how horrible, absolutely bad that kid actor was. No. Redeeming. Qualities. Except maybe the chili bowl haircut)

The movie did make me appreciate the level design of Lego Star Wars, though. They had some great recreations of scenes from the movies, and the music and sound effects really were pulled straight from the movie.

Speaking of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, when last it was mentioned in my comments section, I was having problems with it freezing up. Like total lockdown, get up and press the power button freezing. It started happening consistently with a certain level, and every time I tried to go through it, the problem happened earlier and earlier. I e-mailed the game tech support about it, thinking there was no way they would actually solve my problem. Yeah, they would tell me to make sure my disc wasn't scratched (uh, the answer to that would be no, it's a brand new game that has only been taken out of its case once) and I'd be screwed. Not so! Down into the meat of the reply, they said I should "try clearing the cache. Reset your Xbox, and hold down the A button as the game is booting up. If any button is held while the game is loading, it will clear its hard drive cache, and create a new one. Once you see the game logo, the game is already loaded, and the cache should have been cleared. Note, this does not effect your game in any way other than loading. You will not lose any saved data." So - if you are having this problem with the game on the 360, try that! It worked like a charm! (Although I still think it's pretty crappy programming that causes the problem in the first place, but still...)

I love the Consumerist

2009-02-04T09:05:00.004-06:00

I am a huge fan of The Consumerist website. A daily reader. Today this one story really got me laughing...here's a link to the original story cited by consumerist:

When Your Credit Card Signature Fun Backfires
Drunk Republic - Wednesday, 04 February 2009

Hitler's Aggie Football Rant

2009-01-21T21:21:00.001-06:00

This got passed around Matt's work today and it is freaking hilarious. And sadly true.

so......

2009-01-15T10:38:00.002-06:00

What's new, really? Um...

Christmas was great. Leslie and Bryan were around for a good chunk of time - Christmas Eve until the 28th, and we got to see lots of them, including a ranch visit on Christmas day. We had our traditional duck dinner with my family on Christmas Eve and then hung out afterwards with the Roberts (we showed embarrassing home videos to Rick of his lovely wife in her adorable years). Christmas morning we opened presents first with my family, then with Matt's (and then we roped John into making yummy grilled cheese sandwiches for all of us). Some of my favorite presents were my hanging bike rack and Guitar Hero World Tour and just about everything from Leslie. My favorite present that I gave was a multi-photo frame with a handpicked selection of Murphy pictures spanning his life (including some I found in Mom and Dad's picture stash that I'd never seen before) to Mom and Dad. They hung it in the hallway of their Dallas house with all the other family pictures. :)

Cousin Katie visited for a couple nights starting the day Les and Bryan returned to Cali. We baked some goodies, watched movies and ate pizza, went bowling, and played lots of Guitar Hero. On that Monday night (Dec 29), we went to Sambuca and met Matt's family. His uncle Mark was playing drums with one of his musical groups, so we went and hung out with the extended Roberts clan and had good food and listented to good music. John threatened to make Katie go borrow a saxophone and perform a solo. =P Good that they accepted her as one of their own so quickly with the teasing! Katie got picked up on Tuesday afternoon and that evening Matt and I went over to his parents house for dinner with all the Roberts again. It was the traditional hosting of Aunt Trish and Uncle Neville, in from Denver, so we were spending lots of time assembled together. That culminated with the final Christmas of the season on New Years Eve at Grandma Phyllis' house, where there was loudness and presents and intimate seating arrangements of all the cousins and their significant others on the couch. It was fun.

Matt and I spent a lot of time vegging out after that and recovering from all the events and family. Plus he was savoring the last of his free time, because once he got back to work on the 5th, it was - poof - busy season. We watched plenty of college football and NFL and Netflix galor.

~~~~

So there's phase one of Operation: Update Blog. More to follow.

hey look...

2009-01-14T21:09:00.003-06:00

...in my blogging absence I had a baby! Just kidding, this is me holding my brand new cousin Hunter. Awwwww...my family makes cute babies!

Real update soon...or not...maybe tomorrow?

Have I mentioned Lego Star Wars is addictive?

wave to 2009

2009-01-05T09:27:00.003-06:00

Hello 2009!

A more detailed post is upcoming, but I just wanted to say happy new year to everyone! Matt and I had an awesome holiday and I hope everyone else did too!

One of the highlights was a visit from cousin Katie (here at the bowling alley, where we both did some ... er ... fantastic bowling)

new pictures

2008-12-27T20:12:00.005-06:00

Between my Christmas project for Mom and Leslie's sifting through some of her old pictures, I've accumulated some great new pictures of Murphy. This is one from the day we brought him home from my grandparents' farm in 1995. How could we have said no to this dog? You can find the pictures in the Murphy album, as well as some seriously interesting fashion statements by Leslie and me, located here.

I hope everyone had a terrific Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve :)

2008-12-24T12:01:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone is having a fun and happy holiday with friends and family!

The creator of Simon's Cat has been busy, this time for the benefit of the RSPCA. This video reminds me of someone who will be very missed at tonight's duck dinner at the Halls.

snow!

2008-12-16T18:13:00.003-06:00

We got about an inch of snow today. Pene isn't too experienced with ice and snow.

Something new Pene started doing while we were in Hawaii was jumping up on the area around the grill (and looking over the fence to say hi to the neighbors). When she tried to jump up this time though, she slid into the fence thanks to the ice.

I had an amazing 2.5 hour lunch today at Amore with Robert Chambers, one of my best friends from the middle school era. New friends are lovely, but reconnecting with old ones is even sweeter, I think.

underwater pictures

2008-12-15T17:06:00.005-06:00

I got the film developed from the disposable underwater camera we took to Hawaii. The pictures turned our surprisingly well for the semi-murky water and disposable nature of the camera. We had a hard time looking through the viewfinder though (goggles don't help), so the framing isn't the best. =P Check them out here: http://roberts.overt.org/main.php?g2_itemId=9125

Also, since Emily doesn't believe in blogging any more, I thought I should share this cake she made for a bachelorette party last week. Yep, she does special orders! Get one today!

true

2008-12-14T13:27:00.002-06:00

more animals

did I mention...

2008-12-10T14:28:00.005-06:00

...how awesome the Rock Band birthday cake was that Emily made for me? I just remembered to upload the pics to our website, so I thought I'd give the cake a shout-out.

Hawaii pictures

2008-12-07T22:06:00.003-06:00

Officially announcing the arrival of all the Hawaii pictures (and 4 movies), mostly captioned, at http://roberts.overt.org/

12 Days of Christmas

2008-12-07T21:27:00.002-06:00

We heard this version of the 12 Days of Christmas quite a few times while in Kauai - enjoy!

Numbah One Day of Christmas
(The 12 Days of Christmas local style)
by Eaton B. Magoon Jr., Edward Kenny, Gordon N. Phelps

Numbah One day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
One mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Two day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Two coconut, an' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Tree day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Foah day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Foah flowah lei, tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Five day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Five beeg fat peeg... foah flowah lei, tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Seex day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Seex hula lesson, five beeg fat peeg (that make TEN!),
Foah flowah lei, tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Seven day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Seven shrimp a-swimmin', seex hula lesson,
Five beeg fat peeg, foah flowah lei, tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Eight day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Eight ukulele, seven shrimp a-swimmin', seex hula lesson,
Five beeg fat peeg (that make TWENNY!), foah flowah lei, tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Nine day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Nine pound of poi, eight ukulele, seven shrimp a-swimmin',
Seex hula lesson, five beeg fat peeg, foah flowah let, tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Ten day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Ten can of beer, nine pound of poi, eight ukuklele, seven shrimp a-swimmin'
Seex hula lesson, five beeg fat peeg,
Foah flowah lei, tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

Numbah Eleven day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Eleven missionary, ten can of beer, nine pound of poi,
Eight ukulele, seven shrimp a-swimmin', seex hula lesson,
Five beeg fat peeg, foah flowah lei, tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree.

(Numbah Twelve day of Christmas the bes', and the bes' stuff always come las'...)

Numbah Twelve day of Christmas, my tutu give to me
Twelve TELEVISION, eleven missionary, ten can of beer,
Nine pound of poi, eight ukulele, seven shrimp a-swimmin',
Seex hula lesson, FORTY steenkin' peeg,
Foah flowah lei, tree dry squid, two coconut,
An' one mynah bird in one papaya tree!

Music and lyrics published by Hawaiian Recording and Publishing Company, Inc., and copyrighted in 1959.

Home

2008-12-03T22:27:00.003-06:00

We got home this morning. I haven't slept since Monday night. I think I might go to bed now!

Double mahalos to Mom and Dad for picking us up from the airport during morning rush hour.

I'm working on editing the full set of pictures from our trip and hope to get them all up on our picture website within the next few days.

Piper spent all day in one of our two laps. Pene is punishing us by pretending she didn't know we were gone for eight days.

Is it really December 3?

Aloha from Princeville

2008-11-29T22:39:00.012-06:00

We're at our second location - a condo in Princeville on the north coast. It's no resort, but we love the extra space and the full kitchen. We enjoyed a very yummy and very cheap dinner of mac & cheese tonight. We've been watching the OU-OSU game too, while appreciating our absolutely amazing view of the ocean. It was rainy and windy today (we did as the locals do and ignored the rain) but it is hard to ignore ocean swells of greater than 25 feet! Hopefully we can find some calm spots to take our snorkel gear and places to swim without major risk of drowning.

Please to enjoy ... more pictures!

Yesterday's hike along the southeastern coast...we saw these crazy eroded limestone cliffs.

Glass Beach- a century-old dumping ground with all sorts of metal junk melded into the lava rocks. There is also glass all over that has been worn down by the ocean into smooth pebbles. The sand is sparkly and colorful.

Friday night was our luau - "the only beachside luau in Kauai!" ... well, it was raining, so it got moved to a ballroom. There are two things to explain about this picture: 1) that's poi I'm tasting, and it is nasty; 2) open bar. Matt and I had more than a few blue Hawaiians and mai tais.

Matt and his drink. We finally wised up and asked for the big cups (as one of our table mates said "you got a big boy drink!" ... although how "big boy" a bright blue beverage is, I don't know)

Today's hike in the rain. It is much more lush and jungle-like on the north/east side than it was in the south and west. There were vines and exotic plants everywhere. On our way back down, we found an avocado and guava on the ground that had fallen from their trees. There are some huge waterfalls in the background of this picture.

The view from our condo. It is cloudy and very windy. The wind and high surf aren't going away tomorrow, but it is supposed to be sunnier.

a few pictures to make you jealous

2008-11-27T13:26:00.008-06:00

We're here having a lazy turkey day at the hotel so I thought I'd post a few pictures we've taken so far. The Cowboy game is an hour and a half away and we're eating Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel at 3pm our time (7pm to you Texans).

I'm exploring the rocks just outside our hotel.

Stopping for lunch at the Spouting Horn, the chickens were hungry. First the mama hen jumped onto the bench, and then one by one the chicks hopped on the table. We were surrounded.

Matt and his skydiving instructor Pete. That's our plane in the background. My tandem guy was much less of a dude than Pete so he didn't make the blog.

Matt looks out on Weimea Canyon. He looked like Moses with his stick.

We had amazing views of the canyon on our hike.

Greetings from Kauai

2008-11-25T23:34:00.000-06:00

Hello from Hawaii! Or should I say Aloha?

It's really cool here. We got in last night - our flights were insanely easy. We didn't have a third person on our flight from LA to Kauai so we were able to spread out. Also, Venus Williams was on our plane (sitting in first class, of course). We had to drive in the pitch black to get to our hotel (the Sheraton resort on the south side) but only got lost once. The room is unremarkable (we didn't spring for an ocean view) but the resort is on an amazing stretch of beach. This morning we were able to see where the heck we were! We did some exploring, napped, and then spent the afternoon playing in the ocean. It's the perfect temperature and were surprised we didn't get chilled at all.

Tomorrow - skydiving!

roomba

2008-11-20T10:25:00.001-06:00

I could see Piper doing this.

truckin' along on my way to 30

2008-11-14T09:22:00.003-06:00

Happy birthday to me, the big 2-6. 30 will be here before I know it.

We had a fun time last night at Cisco with Mom and Dad, Mike and Eve, Jay and Stephanie, and Carolyn. It's pretty rare when we can all get together like that. This afternoon we're heading to the ranch for a fun weekend of birthday celebration. Mom is making a couple of her traditional Thanksgiving dishes at my request since we'll be missing her cooking on the holiday. In this case, she's doing her sweet potato casserole and green jello salad. Yum! And tomorrow, Rick, Emily, Taylor, and Alice are coming down and we'll have a great cold fall day at the ranch, no doubt ending in karaoke and a bonfire :)

Kingdom Hearts

2008-11-12T16:01:00.003-06:00

I just beat the game Kingdom Hearts (released 2002) on the PS2. I'd had it for a long time and had made an attempt to play it several years ago but never finished it, so a couple weeks ago I pulled it out and started a new game. It's an action role-playing game that features Final Fantasy and Disney characters - you get to play in the worlds of Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Nightmare Before Christmas, Hercules, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, etc. It ended up being pretty cool, actually. I picked up the sequel for $10 used (there's something to be said for playing older games) and I'll definitely be starting it soon.

It has been two weeks since Piper's disappearing act and I think we've all finally recovered. She got of the house out that Wednesday evening and we didn't find her until Thursday afternoon. Matt and I searched that night and the next morning, handed out flyers to our neighbors, everything we could think of. Susie came by Thursday afternoon to help me look and as we were in the backyard on our way to the alley, Piper responded to our voices with some plaintive meows - she was up at the TOP of our next-door neighbors' live oak tree. Their dog had chased her up there. We had quite a time getting her down and more than once we thought I might break my neck plummeting down to the Forbes' concrete deck. Susie was a superstar, climbing up the ladder after me, getting the cat hand-off from me, and going back down the ladder with Piper in her arms. Piper spent the next 24 hours hiding in Matt's closet and it took her a good week before forgetting the evils of outside and wanted to go into the backyard again. Her little paws were scraped raw from her adventure and she was very stiff from clinging to the swaying branches of the tree. Come to think of it, I was pretty dang stiff after the rescue too.

12 days until Hawaii!!

passport and things

2008-11-08T22:56:00.005-06:00

I thought passports were taking freakishly long to get nowadays...and I just got mine in the mail ten days after my non-expedited application. Crazy. Maybe the flurry of activity that began when they started requiring them for travel to Mexico and Canada has passed.

I feel bad that I'm relieved the Aggies only lost 66-28 at home today. Sad times in A&M football.

Matt and I met Oscar and George the birds tonight during a very enjoyable evening hanging out with Rick and Emily at their apartment. I got to play some Little Big Planet and it was very cool. And we had Double Daves pizza rolls - friends, food, and video games - can life get any better?

Get Smart

2008-11-07T20:30:00.002-06:00

Why didn't people like this movie? Matt and I just watched it and enjoyed it...maybe my expectations had been sufficiently lowered.

Solid as Barack-ack-ack-ack

2008-11-04T22:24:00.003-06:00

Wee!

Our favorite election coverage on TV tonight: BBC America

What we were watching when they called it: Comedy Central Indecision 2008

Most ridiculous status update by a "friend" on Facebook: "[ ] doesn't see how people willingly vote for a socialist who wants to grant freedom to kill babies who survive failed abortions"

Texas/Texas Tech

2008-11-01T22:54:00.002-05:00

For the first time ever, I was a Texas Tech football fan. What a game!

I'm also reminded of how stupid certain football fans can be.

Hawaii

2008-10-26T11:13:00.002-05:00

The Hawaii trip is official - Matt's booking it right now. I can't believe we'll be there in just over four weeks! More details later...