what's up stefanie?

yeah, i'm sure the stephanie "character" in this is spelled with a "ph" instead of an "f". anyway, what i'm really posting about is how in the hell do they know that her name is stephanie?!? i don't understand that! i'm so tired of seeing this commercial too. i really wish that my name wasn't in it. haha!

some tv stuff

dudes, i watched a lot of the national spelling bee yesterday and i completely fell in love with this kid, sameer. he was the only contestant that showed any signs of having a real personality. he was really funny! when it got down between him and siddharth (he has a creepy mustache but his voice hasn't changed yet?!) i got really nervous. i was super excited when sameer won! he's so cute.

best sameer moment of the bee:

dr. bailly: the word is numnah
:audience cracks up:
sameer: numnut?
:more laughter:
dr. bailly: numnah (then gives the definition or something)
sameer: ooohhh numNAH!

another great moment of television last night came after rasheed wallace obtained his 5th foul. he sat down on the bench and there was immediately a camera in his face. he said, "i can't take this anymore! get that fucking camera out of my face!" then threw a towel at it. whyyy they would ever play audio from 'sheed is beyond me. but they did and it provided a good laugh. also, one of the announcers used the word "ballistical" to describe someone. pretty sure that's not a word! of course, after having watched all of that spelling bee, my sister and i were like, "ballistcal? language of origin? are there any alternate pronunciations?" haha!

another

here's another quick post.

i love this:

you, too, can own this shirt!

indexed

indexed is kind of a silly blog but sometimes it's reallllly funny. like today!

camera woes

my new camera doesn't work. whenever i try to format the memory card (which has to be done with a brand new memory card in order to use it) i get an error message. i've tried all sorts of things to get this error message to go away and it just won't. soooo i have to send the camera back so they can send me a new one. it's probably going to be 2-4 weeks until i get the new camera. i am so frustrated! grrrr!!

bone marrow update

well, today's appointment was just for labs so i didn't actually see the doctor. so, i asked to speak with her nurse to ask her about the pain i've been having in the biopsy location. she said that experiencing pain 3.5 months after the biopsy isn't common but it's not completely unusual. however, it is a possibility that there is a little bit of nerve damage but i don't think that's the case. it feels like bone pain most of the time. since the hole isn't healed (filled back in) yet, it would appear that i am making red blood cells at a slower pace than "normal". they're supposed to call me to let me know if my cell counts are any different (higher or lower) than last time.

saturday night

let's go! i may or may not have some glow in the dark ideas up my own sleeve. we shall see! it's probably gonna be a $3ish cover to get in. totally doable! and we looooove car stereo (wars)!

bloooood

i have to go to my oncologist tomorrow to get lab work done again. she wants to check me out every 3 months. i really, really hate getting my blood taken. and i still get really freaked out when i go see that doctor even though my bone marrow came back normal. i just hope my white cell count isn't higher than last time because then i'll probably have to, like, go see dr. house because he's the only person that would actually be able to find something wrong with me. argh.

hotel motel holiday inn

i just made this mix. i don't really remember what inspired it.

white stripes-hotel yorba
death cab for cutie-brothers on a hotel bed
wilco-hotel arizona
elton john-holiday inn
rufus wainwright-chelsea hotel no.2
modest mouse-little motel
ryan adams-blue hotel
gypsy kings-hotel california
broken social scene-hotel
billy bragg and wilco-hot rod hotel
loudon wainwright-motel blues
son volt-bicycle hotel
elvis presley-heartbreak hotel

now i need to summon the energy to go to ian's bbq. i'm tired and my head hurts :(

yipeeee!

it's here! it's here! my camera has arrived! right now the battery is charging so i haven't actually been able to play with it quite yet but i will soooooon. expect many, many pictures in the near future.

3 awful movies

here are trailers for 3 movies that look absolutely terrible:



you don't mess with the zohan



the love guru



tropic thunder

OMG. awful, awful, awful! why anyone would want to see any of those movies is baffling to me. it's pretty sad, actually...adam sandler, mike myers, and ben stiller? they're better than this crap! what is happening?!?

my darling

i'm a huge fan of gilmore girls. i've seen every episode at least two times. abc family airs gilmore girls every day and i happen to be watching the fourth episode in the series, the deer hunters. about halfway through i hear the opening of what sounds like "my darling" by wilco. and sure enough, it was. how in the heck have i missed that the other times i've watched this episode?? gilmore girls isn't like grey's anatomy or the oc where they rely on (soon to be) popular music to create a "moment". it's actually rather unusual to hear a real song on gilmore girls, usually it's just their original score. so, yeah, i'm pretty discontent that i'm just now learning that a song from my favorite band was on my one of my favorite tv shows. i feel like a failure.

bubble bath+gold thong

so i just took a bubble bath for the first time in probably 10 years. it was awful. do you people like bubble baths? i guess i remembered why i stopped taking them 10 years ago. they're...weird. first of all, i'm not really a fan of the bath in general because i think it's sort of counter-productive. and all the bubbles? bubbles everywhere! yeah, everywhere. weird. hopefully i'll remember this experience 10 years down the road when i think, "oh i should take a bubble bath!"

this cannot be true. i can accept that giambi might wear a gold thong for some sort of superstition but i do not believe that any other players have worn the same thong, under or over their shorts. that is disgusting. wayyy more disgusting than a bubble bath.

nicknames

my dad and i were just going over all the nicknames we have for the red sox:

kevin youkilis=kevin pukeilis
manny ramirez=aunt jemima rameriz (or mammy ramirez)
clay buchholz=clay buttholes
josh beckett=josh bucket
julio lugo=julio lugey
jd drew=nancy drew
dustin pedroia=dustin pedophilia
jason veritek=jason veridick
curt schilling=38pitches.com
jacoby ellsbury=jacoby elderberry

some of those nicknames are courtesy of peter abraham (nancy drew and 38pitches.com) but i can definitely take full credit for pukeilis which cracks me up every time.

random friday night

el chile opened a new location a couple of weeks ago. they don't have their liquor license yet, meaning, they can't sell booze. but they can give it away! so they're giving away 2 margaritas for each entree ordered. dana, alison and i went last night. i ordered the flautas, saying, "flautas are always a safe bet...you can't fuck up flautas." i was wrong. they were realllllly bland. i like bland food because i have sensitive taste buds, but these flautas literally tasted like nothing. our waiter asked how everything was so i told him, nicely, that my meal was not great. he ended up comping my entree so i didn't have to pay for anything. i really wasn't anticipating getting a free meal out of it, i just thought they should know (since they just opened) that my dish was not worth $11 or whatever it cost.

after dinner we went to alison's and drank some more and watched how i met your mother on dvd. then we went to creekside where i ran into a really old friend that i hadn't seen in years. the funny thing is that yesterday morning i found a bunch of old yearbooks and i was looking through my kindergarten yearbook. this friend and i were right next to each other in our kindergarten pictures. so it was really random to run into him later that day. we've known each other for almost 20 years. that is insane!

we also went to a party where i ran into some other old friends. i guess i might use the word "friend" loosely in that situation. it was weird. but overall it was a super fun night. too bad dana left for houston today for 6 weeks. LAME.

let's talk weather

i prefer funnel cakes to funnel clouds. last night when we were at pluckers for trivia the tornado siren started going off. um, i've never heard a tornado siren. apparently, neither had the reeds because carol and i were asking each other, "what is that sound??" and i finally heard someone at a nearby table say that it was the tornado siren. they turned the weather on one of the tvs (the tv that had been playing the yankees game!). i'm not very good at reading those maps and figuring out exactly where i am on said map so i thought it was already too late to try to go home. an hour or so later, i actually did head home. haha! and apparently, about 2 minutes after i left pluckers there was a funnel cloud spotted and 1/4 mile away.

the other people on the road were driving like complete fucktards. i was convinced that i was either going to die by being sucked into a tornado or a car accident. when i was about a mile away from my house i got stuck in ROAD CONSTRUCTION. why the fuck were they doing road construction when a huge storm was heading our way, to be followed by another AND another before morning? so i was stopped on 620 with no idea if there was a tornado close by or not. i kept imagining that i would have to run out of my car and take cover in the ditch next to me. it was terrifying.

i made it home unscathed but shortly after i did, the weather man was predicting "tornadic activity" righy by my sister's house. of course i started to panic and then i got really sad, thinking about how much my sister must have been panicking trying to protect her 7 day old son. thankfully the storm shifted paths and they were fine.

things got even crazier around town throughout the night. trees down, broken windows...quite a mess. i took an ambien around 1:00 am so i could sleep through the rest of it. that's probably nice the wisest move but i was suuuuper anxious and really wanted some damn sleep.

appropriate displays of emotion

sports media has been buzzing about yankees' relief pitcher joba chamberlain's fist pumps upon getting a strike out in a tough situation.

for weeks now, yankee manager joe girardi has said that he's not worried about joba's fist pump. he doesn't see it as a problem. some players do, and some players don't. goose gossage said that there is no room in baseball for "joba's antics". but while all these people are ripping poor joba apart, has anyone stopped to consider the way manny ramirez acts every single time he hits a home run?

believe me, do a google image search for "manny ramirez home run" and you'll see that it is a reoccurring event. he throws his arms up in the air and casually jogs around the bases, letting his battlefield earth dreds blow in the wind. so, how is that not a problem?

or how about how every time someone hits a walk-off home run, the team celebrates like they've won the fucking world series? i don't think there's anything wrong with celebrating a win, especially in extra innings, but what makes that better than an innocent fist pump?

omf wtf???

i am icing my lower back right now. the spot where i had the bone marrow biopsy hurts SO BAD. whaaaat is going on? that was 3 months ago. i haven't had to ice it since, like, 2 weeks after the procedure. i would kill someone for a couple of vicodin right now. oooooouuuchie :(

non-wilco related blog

i do have other things going on in my life other than wilco, i promise.

such as...I FINALLY ORDERED MY DIGITAL SLR! i ended up going with the black canon rebel xti. i have no idea when it is going to arrive but i sure do hope it is soon. i can't wait to take pictures of wittle nels with it! i'm going to turn him into a baby model.

a while back i wrote about how i was going to buy the indiana jones box set but it was full screen so didn't. really all i wanted was indiana jones and the last crusade anyway. i mean, the other ones are good but the last crusade is my faaaavorite. my sister and i used to watch it all the time when we were little. so today i hauled my ass to target and bought it! they just released all 3 of them individually as "special edition" dvds in conjunction with the theatrical release of the new indiana jones movie. i'm going to watch it right after the law and order: svu season finale.

while i was at target i also bought a pack of topps baseball cards for the 2008 season. i'm starting a baseball card collection for nels. how cute is that? yeah, i think it's adorable. i already decided if he doesn't get taller than 6 feet he can be a catcher because he'll probably have sturdy hips and thighs. otherwise, he might have to be a pitcher. either way he's going to switch hit so he'll be more valuable to whatever team he is on. yeah, he's only like 5 days old but it's never too early to plan for the future :)

speaking of baseball, i haven't been. i've been pretty busy so i haven't been able to pay a whole lot of attention to what has been happening in america's favorite past time. but i do know that the yankees kind of blow right now. i'm so not worried about it though. it's only may 13 and they're still not very far behind the red sox who are leading the al east. however, they do need a-rod and jorge back as soon as possible. a-rod could be back in about a week. jorge still has another month probably before they'll think about activating him off the DL. i miss my jorgie!

carelessness is what i miss and that's how i think of you

okay, let's get down to business. first thing's first:

i finally met jeff tweedy. i've met a lot of musicians that i love and respect but no one compares to jeff tweedy for me. no one. he was in a bit of a hurry to get the hell out of stubb's but he still made time to talk to a few people and pose for a couple of pictures. here's is a transcript of our brief conversation:

stefanie: great show! thanks so much for coming back to austin.
jeff: thank you for having us. we love it here.
stefanie: we love you here! and thank you for playing cars can't escape. holy crap!
jeff: you're welcome. have a good night.

yes, i actually said, "holy crap!" to jeff tweedy. what?? i dunno. i was kind of a geeky mess so i'm really surprised that it wasn't worse than that.

now onto the show! another incredible, incredible night. last night's "omg are you fucking kidding me?" moment (sunday's was "it's just that simple") was "cars can't escape". i lost my shit! i did not expect to hear that one. it was so interesting to hear it with nels on guitar. i loved it. other notable songs were theologians and kingpin. before the second encore i told rachel and david, "heads will roll if they don't play kingpin." and i meant it. that one is one of my favorites to see live because there's so much interaction; substituting "austin" for "pekin", the handclaps during the "dimatapp, and spinal tap, city maps, and hand claps" part and the crowd "woooos" after jeff says, "how can i?" it's just so much fun!!

the setlists on this tour are all based on fan requests via this form. every song that was played was requested by at least one person. i am shocked that "i am trying to break your heart" wasn't played at either show. i don't mind, though. i've seen it live so many times and it's nice to get it out of the way to make room for other songs that aren't played as often. jeff was explaining that process to the crowd and he said, "you can go to our website and vote for songs. so if you didn't vote you can't complain!"

i just realized that i didn't post the setlist from sunday's show. oops. well, here's last night's list:

Via Chicago
Hummingbird
Ashes of American Flags
Airline to Heaven
You Are My Face
Box Full of Letters
A Shot in the Arm
Side With the Seeds
War on War
Handshake Drugs
Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again)
Jesus, Etc.
Impossible Germany
Shouldn't Be Ashamed
Passenger Side
Theologians
I'm The Man Who Loves You

Encore 1
Cars Can't Escape
Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Encore 2
California Stars
Hate It Here
Heavy Metal Drummer
Walken
Kingpin
Red-Eyed and Blue
I Got You (At The End of The Century)
Monday

and here's sunday's:

Sunken Treasure (acoustic)
You Are My Face
Remember the Mountain Bed
Company in my Back
Handshake Drugs
Pick Up the Change
Hummingbird
On and On and On
Pot Kettle Black
A Shot in the Arm
Summerteeth
Jesus, etc.
Impossible Germany
It's Just that Simple
That's Not the Issue
Walken
I'm the Man Who Loves You

Encore 1
Misunderstood
Poor Places
Reservations
Spiders

Encore 2
Hate it Here
Heavy Metal Drummer
Casino Queen
Hoodoo Voodoo
Outtasite (Outta Mind)

i haven't counted but apparently they played 43 different songs over both nights. that's amazing! and in true jeff tweedy fashion, he "yelled" at someone for talking during the show. all i heard was, "what? you flew here from ohio? then you should be quiet! you spent all that money..." also, jeff told us that karl rove was staying at the same hotel as them on sunday night. then glenn did this creepy rumbling drum thing and jeff said that's what evil sounds like and that if you hear that sound, you know jenna bush is getting married somewhere near by.

i know i probably have more details i could write about but i want to go eat lunch. haha!

it wasn't even like we made a ripple

okay guys, i really don't think i even have the words to describe the euphoria that i experienced during tonight's wilco show. i've seen them around 10 times and (as i always say) they keep getting better and better.

last fall they played in dallas the night before ACL fest started. normally, if they're playing in the state of texas, i make it a point to be there but the timing just wasn't right. i had quite a few friends come to town for the festival and i just couldn't justify spending the time or money to go up to dallas for the show. after the show i found out that they played "it's just that simple" for the first time in 10 something years. i was beside myself. i've loved that song for a long, long time. something about john's vocals reminds me of neil young and therefore comforts me because, to me, neil young=comfort. i spent a lot of time being bitter about missing that song. i know that sounds stupid or silly but it's the truth.

when i saw wilco back in march in houston i hoped and hoped that they would play it and they didn't. it was definitely in the back of my mind tonight but i didn't want to obsess over it. but when i heard the opening notes of that song, i thought i was going to cry. i've had a really long, rough week and that song made all of it disappear. i was able to smile and really feel happy without thinking of all the other shit that's been going on in my brain for the past few days. i can say with a great amount of certainty that it was one of the best concert experiences i have ever had.

the rest of the show was completely mind-blowing as well. during the first encore i was talking to one of the bartenders and he mentioned "casino queen" and i kept thinking, "if he believes they'll play it then they will..." that's a philosophy i've had since i saw wilco at stubb's in 2005 when i really needed to hear "i shall be released". at rilo kiley back in october lori really wanted to hear 2 specific songs and i just kept thinking and saying, "just believe that they'll play them!" and they played both of them! if there's ONE song that i need to hear at a show, i almost always get to hear it. but it can only be one song. i can't get greedy with my needs.

anyway, it is later than late and i need to get some sleep so i can go hang out with my glow worm nephew in the morning. and be prepared for another "OMG I LOVE WILCO" blog tomorrow because they're playing a second show here in austin. gawd i loves me some wilco.

back to normal

i'm slowly getting back to normal...catching up on sleep, the internets and whatnot. and now i finally have some time to get SUPER excited about seeing wilco sunday AND monday! things have been so crazy that i had almost forgotten that it's almost wilco time. holy crap, i can't wait! seeing wilco at stubb's is pretty much as good as it gets, aside from the show in berkely last august. and they haven't played stubb's since 2005.

i finally downloaded the new death cab. i'm listening to it now for the first time. like i've said before, i have such a love/hate relationship with that band. so far i'm not super impressed with narrow stairs but we'll see if that changes. it's more upbeat than plans, which i like. i can only handle so many sloooow, sad, whiny songs at a time. but i still stand by my original statement that i will possess your heart is sucky and creepy. and way too fucking long. and some of these song titles...really? your new twin sized bed? hahaha! you can do better than me (but i can't do better than you). hahahaha again!

i still haven't ordered my camera. it's funny, it was ALL i could think about for a couple of weeks and now i keep forgetting about it. i'm still not 100% sure which "package" i'm going to order so i need more time to research and find the best deal for what i want. who knows when i'll really have time to sit down and do that. i'm staying at my sister's right now and i've been pretty busy straightening up the house, doing laundry, etc before they bring little nels home tomorrow. i'm the best aunt/sister ever. haha!

introducing nels henry

9lbs 6oz of fun! he was born on may 7 at 10:29pm. and he's absolutely perfect. i am so excited to be his aunt! my sister is a trooper. he did not want to come out!

oh hai free money!

i got my stimulus money! this website said i would have it by may 7 but to be concerned (paraphrasing here) if i didn't get it by may 12. a friend of mine hasn't received hers yet and it was supposed to come last week so i started getting nervous. i just checked my account and there it was. i'm still at the birthing center waiting for my niece/nephew to be born so i'm not quite ready to order my camera yet but it should happen in the next 18 hours, hopefully. i'm so excited!

yeah, so, baby update. there is no update. haha! we got here at 8:00 pm and it's now 2:30 am. i'm about to fall over in my chair but i'm trying to force myself to stay awake. there isn't really a good place for me to sleep anyway. i drank an energy drink about 2 hours ago and i can confidently say that it didn't do a damn thing. c'est la vie.

scar jo and ry rey

wow, those are awful "nicknames".

anywho, scarlett johansson and ryan reynolds are engaged. now, i loves me some alanis morissette but i would say that ryan definitely upgraded here.

in other, completely random, news...my dad did something hilarious today. apparently someone dumped 4 big bags of trash in the ditch down the street from our house. dad opened up one of them and found a bunch of mail so he brought the mail in the house, google-mapped the address, and took the 4 bags of trash back to the people that dumped them. now, i'm not saying that i wouldn't consider doing the same thing but i still think it's hilarious.

interesting...

man asks court to change his name to "in god we trust"

wow. that might be worse than the couple who wanted to name their baby "4 real".

also, this happened at the lake that's about a mile from my house. i've been on board a boat that got pulled over for a random inspection and it was scarrrry.

it was a minor game

last night i went to a round rock express game with my sister and steve. the express are the triple a affiliates for the houston astros. this weekend they are playing the las vegas 51s, the triple a affiliate to the dodgers. and their logo is hilarious!


anyway, it was a really pleasant evening. i believe it was in the high 70s when we got there and it got down to right at 70 by the time we left. and it wasn't even humid! it's almost always humid here. our seats were about 1/4 of the way from home to first, 14 rows back. only one scary foul ball came our way. we thought maybe if cecily got hit by a foul ball it would send her into labor. haha!

got to see my boy, humberto quintero, catching for round rock. the back story is that i have a friend who's middle name is humberto (which i think is hilarious) so when i heard about quintero, i knew i had to love him. he was called up to houston for a while last year but he's back in round rock now. and the foxy reggie abercrombie! also, the 51s have andy laroche (adam laroche's brother) and angel chavez (he used to be in the yankees minor league system). the game was really good too. both teams were great offensively and defensively. the express ended up losing 5-3.

here is a picture that i took of humberto using the color accent feature on my ca-ca-camera:

more pictures can be found here.

we're obviously still waiting for my sister to have her baby. it's getting really old!!

no baby yet

my sister was due on wednesday and here we are, midnight on friday and still no baby. that's not surprising at all but it's still annoying. i'm ready to be an aunt! and i'm ready to find out if i have a niece or nephew. earlier today i told my sister that i think it'll happen on sunday. i hope i'm right!