s-a-t-u-r-d-a-y night!

dana and i braved the heat to go down to auditorium shores to see black joe lewis and the honey bears play the keep austin weird festival. they were dressed in their star trek shirts, which i totally predicted beforehand. they played a great show despite the heat and all those broken guitar strings. we really can't get enough of those guys. they're so good and so much fun!!

somehow after the show we ended up at jaime's. one day we'll learn that it's just not a good idea to go there before a night out.

but woohoo for the color accent feature on my powershot. creekside was fun and super crowded. the power went out on the patio for a few minutes, that was weird. and apparently drew berrymore was at beauty bar. i bet she was disappointed.

nightswimming deserves a quiet night

last night after we got back from bender rachel, josh, and casey decided they wanted to go swimming. the pool was locked so they had to "hop" the fence. i say "hop" because it was more of a climbing adventure. i took a few pictures because i did not feel like swimming. i was way more sober than they were and i decided i would keep an eye out in case one of them decided they wanted to drown. as usual, there are more pictures on my flickr.

a couple of quick things

i've been spreading this everywhere so why not put it on my blog as well? blue bell ice cream's new flavor, delta blues, is the best ice cream EVER. creamy ice cream with blueberries, pie crust pieces, and blueberry sauce. holy moly! i am sooooo in love.

speaking of love, shonequa really loves my dad. i stumbled upon this while dad was napping earlier:

i'm re-reading the bell jar right now. i think i'm likely going to end up staying home tonight to finish it. i'm going out tomorrow so i figured i'd stay in tonight anyway. i'm too old to go out 2 nights in a row.

i thought you might be worried about the security of your shit

the coen brothers have a new movie coming out and it looks freakin' AWESOME!!



my dad is hilarious. his cat, shonequa, has some sort of bladder infection. she just got over one. she will pretty much only drink out of the sink in my parents' bathroom so she got dehydrated while we were in kansas. when she has these infections, she pees all over the place. so here's the funny story...my dad couldn't find any of his bandannas this morning (he uses them when he works outside...he wraps them around his head to catch sweat. gross.) so he grabbed one out of my mom's gym bag. then all morning he was thinking, "what is that disgusting smell?" cat piss on the bandanna. so he called my mom and asked her if she was planning on going to the gym after work and she said no. he said, "good because the cat pissed in your gym bag and i've got it wrapped around my head." hahaha he has a way with words that really cracks me up sometimes.

-we played trivia at the pluckers in round rock last night because lakeline trivia is douchetastic right now. there was an entire sex and the city round! i got 9 out of 10 of them correct. the only one i missed was what day of the week does carrie's column run. i totally spaced and thought it was tuesday but it was wednesday. but i totally dorked out on one of them. the question was who did carrie dedicate her book to and i wrote "charlotte-the eternal optimist". i may or may not have too much time on my hands. we came in 4th. the sports round really killed us!

-girl talk has a new album out. you can name your price for a digital download of it. it's super fun. i think "still here" is my favorite track right now.

alright, i'm off to eat some lunch and then get my blood taken again. they found a high level of calcium in my blood last week so my doctor wants to check it again. apparently something like 98% of people with high calcium levels in their blood have hyperparathyroidism. some of the symptoms are dead on but i don't really think that means i have it.

some favorites

here are a few of my favorite pictures from kansas, in case you happen to care about which ones i really love!

awww

that's me and my uncle john at dinner the other night. he's my dad's little brother. he has always been one of my most favorite people in the universe. he was the first person i knew to buy a cd player and reebok pumps. he has a massive cd collection that he started back when the first cd was put on sale. i think i am where i am today, musically, because of him. he used to give me tapes and cds for christmas. he loved REM, therefore, i loved REM. they were my first favorite band. i wouldn't appreciate music nearly as much as i do if it weren't for my uncle.

there are so many things that i don't really know or understand about him though. he's kind of a mystery to me, just like the rest of my family. he lives in the farmhouse all alone with like 1 television channel. he may or may not have internet acess on his computer, i'm not sure. he just works around the farm and the house all day and i guess listens to music and reads at night. he wrote a book of poetry years ago and some other sci-fi novel that i haven't even attempted to read. i know that i should, but it looks fucking weird. i mean, john is fucking weird so...yeah.

kansas has amazing sunsets and john spent a loooooong time capturing those sunsets on film. i should scan some of his pictures in soon. they're really dramatic. so anyway, that's just a little about my uncle. i love him so much.

on the road again

we're in altus, oklahoma again on the way back to austin. kansas was nice and relaxing but i'll be really glad when we get home. i haven't missed the heat though. this is the grain elevator in brownell, kansas. my kansas set on flickr has been updated with lots more pictures. i'm currently watching look who's talking and am not tired at all. grrr.

i love my nephew

i do, but riding in the car with him for hours on end is not very much fun. however, i managed to capture this gem today. seriously, what are the odds that he would spit up right after i turned the camera to him?



we're in altus, oklahoma. we normally drive straight to my grandparents' house (about 12 hours) but with nels along for the ride, we knew it would take longer than usual. the trip to altus usually takes about 6 hours but today it took us 7.5. ugh. 6-8 more hours tomorrow and we'll finally be in ransom.

check out my photos thus far in this set. nothing too special yet as i was in the car pretty much all day. though i do like the veggie shots.

some baseball

1. i hate interleague games. i don't know why, but i just do not like them. i especially don't like that the yankees lost their "ace" running the bases in houston the other day. i call him the "ace" because that's what fox sports and espn keeps calling him. i don't really know what makes him more of an ace than mike mussina. he's 8-2 with an earned run average over 4. moose is 10-4 with an era of 3.87. so, all things considered, i'd say they're about even. wang has pitched more innings though. anyway, whatever. my point is that wang isn't THE ace.

2. when joe girardi became manager of the yankees he took away sweets from their clubhouse. they used to have ice cream coolers, donuts, candy, etc. mike mussina keeps a dry erase board near his locker in the clubhouse and writes sometimes random, and sometimes pertinent things on it. the other day the board read, "the ice cream is back." apparently he made a deal with girardi that when he got to 10 wins they would get the ice cream back. 12 wins will be the return of donuts and 15 wins might bring back candy. some players (bobby abreau i think) sneak candy bars into the clubhouse.

3. the yankees signed sidney ponson to a aaa deal. what. the. fuck?

4. matsui is getting fluid drained from his knee. i hope to god that he's not going to be out for any extended period. oy.

i suppose that's about it for now. nothing big. i'm just bored. off to kansas tomorrow. snore-fest.

i'm out of control today

i'm really blogtastic today. sorry dudes. don't worry, i'm going to be in kansas thursday-tuesday so i probably won't be bloggin' at all then.

anyway, my friend kim went to a couple of the yankees/astros games over the weekend. she said she was going to get there early because they were opening the park at 4:30 so everyone could watch bp. i told her i wanted a picture of jorge's back side. well, this evening i got an email that kim had tagged me in a photo on facebook. this is the photo:

yes, that is my jorge all stretched out. yummooooo!

in other baseball news, i am trying not to be too worried about wang being out until september. i'm going to wait a few weeks before i start to shovel water out of the canoe. we'll see what the kids can do when given a start in the bigs. i want to remain optimistic but i'm prettttty sure that it's going to be a disaster.

the mets are a classless organization. firing their manager in the middle of the night in anaheim? give me a break! willie definitely deserved better than that.

i have more baseball things that i'd like to discuss but my ambien is definitely beginning to kick in so i better wrap it up. i'll leave you with this great video of some of the texas rangers using the infield at shea stadium as a slip n slide. it looks like SO MUCH FUN!!

she was bruised like a cherry, ripe as a peach

this isn't a very good picture but it's the only one i took at the show last night. i was too busy dancing my ass off and singing loudly to be bothered with a camera. the show wasn't quite the same without lori, patti, or dana but i still had a fabulous time with kelley and michella. i don't remember the setlist exactly, but here's a guess:

close call
moneymaker
dreamworld
capturing moods
breakin' up
ripcord
the absence of god
it's a hit
a better son/daughter
silver lining
i never

pictures of success
15
portions for foxes>spectacular views

i was super stoked that they played a better son/daughter. and pictures of success was sooooo pretty. the crowd was very energetic and blake and jenny made some comments about how they wish they could play in austin every night. i've heard a few bands say that and i know that i'm biased because i live here, but i doubt that they say that in every city. i'm sure they say it in some other cities, but not everywhere. my only complaint is that i wish they had played longer.

oh well. we got there towards the end of the first opener, benji hughes, and i didn't really pay much attention to the set. we were getting drinks and gossping. thao with the get down stay down was pretty good. thao nguyen reminded us A LOT of chan marshall (cat power). but, once again, i wasn't paying that much attention to their set.

it was hotter than blazes earlier in the evening which isn't too surprising but it actually kind of cooled off. i think it got down to the mid 80s! haha that's still hot though. there was a slight breeze which was mighty enjoyable when it blew through the crowd. overall it was a very lovely evening.

oouch

i went back to my doctor today and got a referral for an orthopedist. the ortho can't see me until june 30. bleh! anyway, the real reason for this post is to complain about the phlebotomists at austin regional clinic anderson mill.

what the fucking shit??? yeah, that's my arm. they totally jacked me up. i'm not happy. the phlebs at texas oncology are the shit, i don't even get a bruise at all. but arc sucks ass.

rilo kiley was awesome. i'll write about that later.

omg is stupid

are you guys familiar with this omg! crap on yahoo? well i just ran across this picture of natalie portman and devendra banhart, however, omg spelled his last name barnhart. i'm sure that is a common mistake but um, check your fuckin' facts. i know i shouldn't have any sort of expectations from a gossip site but it's part of yahoo!

lakeway cops are awesome

katie and paul's engagement party was really fun. it wasn't cheesy at all. yay! after all the adults (not that we are "kids" anymore) left, things got kind of insane. forrest refereed (yelled a lot during) an intense game of flip cup.

the end result was lots of beer spillage on the table/patio and the cops showing up. yes, the cops. we're only 25+. apparently one of the neighbors called to complain about the noise. understandable, really. a couple of people were so fucking loud during the game that i wanted to rip my ears off my head because i still had a headache from my friday night escapades. oy.

on a serious note, i really like paul. i am so happy for katie! it's amazing to see her this happy. i can't wait until the wedding, it's going to be so much fun! and the bachelorette party in new orleans! woooo!

friday the 13th part 2

the second half of my day was a little more normal than the first. i went to see screamin' nels for a few hours. that poor kid literally screamed ALL day yesterday. the only time he was quiet was when he was eating. it was sad.

we all met at cuatro's and took a cab down to jaime's. ian had a chip on his shoulder and dana and i shared a margarita. it was hotter than hell. or so i thought.

emo's felt like it was 115 degrees. lordy! i sucked down the sparkleberries because a)they're delicious and b)because they were cold and i was hot. black joe lewis and the honey bears were fantastic, as usual. i always have a blast dancing around at their shows. i think we all had a really good time during their set. after they played we went outside to try to cool off. we hadn't really been planning on staying for ALL of mates of state but we pretty much did. i think i was the only one who had seen or really even heard them before but we had a blast. it was a hoot and a holler! they played their cover of these days, which i had been talking about between bands, and it was beautiful. they played it last time they were at emo's but last night they had a violinist which made a huge difference. it was seriously so beautiful and amazing.

friday the 13th

i sort of forgot that today was friday the 13th but it's been a weird day already. not bad weird, just weird.

1. these fliers have been up all over the neighborhood for the past couple of weeks.

i went outside this morning and franklin was in my front yard. so i called the numbers on the flier. the first one is the husband's cell phone. he didn't answer. so i called the wife's cell phone and she didn't answer either. her voicemail box is full so i couldn't leave a message. i called the husband again and left a message on his phone. he called back like 20 minutes later and said that he's in houston and his wife is "sick in bed". he wanted me to "detain" the turtle until this evening so he could come get it. except i have no way to detain the turtle. so i had to take it over to their house. i had to pick it up. i was scared out of my mind. the thought of touching a turtle has always nauseated me beyond belief. it took me a while to work up the nerve to do it, and i screamed the whole time. i dumped him in a laundry basket and took him to their house. yuck.

2. after that ordeal, i came home to regroup. i was sitting in the living room with a big t-shirt on and no pants. my cell phone rang (it was my dr's office) so i decided to run outside to answer it (i don't get good reception inside my house). i have no neighbors. i live in a cul de sac and the 2 other houses are empty, so going outside without pants shouldn't be a problem. except there was a meter reader walking up to the house next door! ahh! so i had to hide behind one of the columns in front of the house until he left. LOLOLOL!!

my sister and i were supposed to take nels to see the sex and the city movie at noon. the alamo drafthouse at the village has "baby day" on tuesdays and fridays. every movie on those days that starts before 2:05 is a baby friendly showing. they dim the lights but not all the way, and no one is going to freak out if there is a crying baby in the theater. anway, nels has been a crankpot for the past 2 days so i told her i didn't think today was a good day for a movie. i was so frazzled from the whole franklin incident that i didn't want to deal with a shitty baby for 2 hours. i think my sister wanted to back out on the movie as well but didn't want to disappoint me. i made it easy on her. hehe!

tonight dana is coming home!!!!! we're going out for dinner and drinks, then to emo's to see black joe lewis and mates of state. i'm SO excited to see danaaa. she's been in houston working for a few weeks. i can't remember when she comes back for good. just a couple more weeks i think. tonight should be interesting (not bad interesting) judging by the way my day started.

point. click. bang, motherfucker.

this is probably going to be a long blog because i have lots to go over. we'll start with things that have made me laugh this week:

1. the japanese office-i saw this when the episode originally aired and then forgot about it until i went to the snl website last night. hot damn, that's some funny shit.



2. the mellow show-more snl goodness. this one hit pretty close to home because i have so many friends that love dave matthews and the like. (thanks to dani for introducing me to this one)

3. i'm the denzel washingtonog in training day of booking plane tickets online. god bless the onion. that's all i need to say.

4. john mccain will veto every beer.

5. obama won't.

now onto things that made me laugh, tear up, and warm and fuzzy inside all at the same time (there's only 1):

1. the '08 primaries: a stroll down memory lane. it's 10 minutes long but it goes by super fast. and, dudes, pay close attention to the music in this video because it kicks ass.



i'll leave you with a couple of pictures from my new, wonderful, fantastic, beautiful camera:

ben kweller plays in texas for the first time since moving back

yep, on the 4th of july ben kweller is playing at stonewall music hall in greenville, tx. tickets are only $20! i really want to go to this show but i don't know if i can. bummer. i've been looking forward to seeing him this summer but i might have to wait until he tours. booo.

a few random pics

here are a few random, unedited pictures that i took earlier today. click on the picture to see it a little bigger. i don't know why they post in that size.

1. dean, the handsome kitty model. he seriously looks good in pretty much every picture.
2. otter, he's not very photogenic but i tried my best.
3. steve and nels before steve's softball game. nels is wearing his white sox onesie that i got him. it says, "rookie of the year" on it. hehee!
4. my weirdo sister. she wasn't posing for this, she's just a weirdo.

it's here and it works

yes, dear readers, my replacement camera came about an hour ago and it works perfectly. i'm charging up the battery right now and then i'm gonna go take a million pictures of nels. wooo!

my very own super tuesday

tomorrow is going to RULE. why?

-my camera is coming tomorrow. a new one. one that hopefully works!

-my boys season one comes out on dvd. i don't think i've written about that show here but i LOVE LOVE LOVE it so much! the new season starts on thursday. woo!

-another joseph arthur EP is being released. number 3 out of 4 for 2008. yippeeee!

eggs and corn

i saw this video several months ago and for some stupid reason i think it's absolutely hilarious.



well, a couple of days ago i saw this one on the yahoo most watched videos or some shit. i knew it had to be the same people! then i re-watched the egg one and realized that the same girl is in both of them. i think i still like the egg one better (just because of the line, "what's she doing?" which my sister and i say alllll the time) but this one is still pretty funny.

darvocet sucks

i went to see my regular doctor yesterday because texas oncology sucks. they don't care about me because i don't have cancer. they told me to take glucosamine chondroitin for the pain. that's mostly for joint pain and arthritis. yeah, not gonna help me. anyway, my doctor did an x-ray and gave me darvocet. darvocet isn't great. it provides about as much pain relief has aspirin. but i suppose it's better than an arthritis supplement.

i haven't heard back about the x-ray yet. i'm not really sure what it could possibly reveal anyway, other than a hole in my iliac crest. i have to go back to see my doctor in a week or 2 and then i'll probably go see the orthopedist. grrr.

i have a job interview on monday. yikes!

it never ends!

uuugggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. my oncologist's office told me that i have to go see an orthopedic doctor because they have NO idea why i'm still in pain. seriously? another fucking doctor? i am so annoyed, i can't even tell you. i have to go see another specialist because of problems from a procedure that a specialist made me have? i hated brackenridge hospital as soon as i walked in there and now i'm convinced that they botched the procedure. i was calling that place a chop shop as soon i was wheeled out of there. little did i know how right i was. i'm so bummed about all of this :(

tv appearance and bone holes

first things first, dan and i went to schulz beer garten for the last few minutes of the obama primary watching party and ended up being in a crowd shot on news 8 austin. awesome!

secondly, i believe i mentioned this last week but whatevs. i spoke with a nurse at my oncologist's office to find out if it is normal for my bone hole (the site of the bone marrow biopsy...cute nickname, huh?) to still hurt pretty badly. she nurse said it wasn't common but not completely abnormal. i spoke with a different nurse on the phone today and she said that i should not be experiencing this much pain this long after the biopsy. so she said she would talk to the doctor and then call me back. this was around 3:00 and she didn't get back to me. also, my white blood cell count is lower than last time i had labs done but still pretty elevated.

annnnnd i am SO DAMN EXCITED that obama clinched the nomination!!! i haven't seen the entire speech from earlier tonight but i heard it was really moving. i can't wait to watch it!

we are awesome

you can view the rest of nash's photos from last night here. pretty freakin' rad, huh?

get glowing

this group from here in austin, l.a.x., opened up for car stereo (wars) at beauty bar last night. i really dug their sound. i thought they were great. i will definitely be checking their myspace for more opportunities to see them again.

beauty bar was packed to the gills, as was expected, and hot hot hot. we stayed outside until chris went on even though i think it was more crowded outside than in. we're not very smart. while we were outside we had some fabulous pictures taken by the wonderful nash cook. doug did the glow in the dark backdrop, it was super cool! i can't wait until nash posts the pictures. they're seriously awesome!

car stereo (wars) was a freakin' blast. i we were dancing in front of a giant fan and i still felt like i was going to have a heat stroke though. and some lovely lady spilled lonestar ALL over my arm. it was neato. i thought, "neato, i'm not drunk but when i get pulled over later i'm going to stink of beer!" i didn't get pulled over, btw. anyway, back to the show...i think my favorite moment was the oc theme song with lil mama's "lipgloss". holy crap, it was AWESOME!!

on the way home we were behind an HEB 18-wheeler on 35. you know, the trucks that say, "follow me to freshness." yeah, except this guy was swervy mcswerverton so it was more like, "follow me to a fiery death." i was legitimately scared for a few minutes. i couldn't go around him because i didn't want him to swerve into my lane but i was scared to be behind him in case he got in an accident with someone else. at one point a fuel truck came up in the lane next to us and HEB guy was swervy towards him! i was scared shitless. those fuel trucks are just bombs waiting to explode. so the fuel truck guy honked his giant horn at the HEB guy. yikes.

alright, lunch time. as soon as nash posts the pics i'll put the ones of me and josh up here.