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Lunch. You. Me. A box of Franzia...

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10:21am Fri May26

its going to be an interesting day :)

the top 5 signs that i reeeally live in dallas now:

1. i am the proud owner of a tolltag
2. my morning commute ranges from 15-45 minutes depending on traffic
3. i get to watch mark cuban workout at the gym
4. i eat potbelly at least once a week
5. i haven't made a 6 hour round-trip weekend drive in over a month

moving up to dallas was one of the hardest (i might add 'gut-wrenching') decisions that kevin and i have ever made. certainly the hardest we've made together. nothing else even comes close!

there are so many things about day-to-day life that you cannot predict will change when you move to a new city or start a new job- but it changes the way you physically experience life. for the most part, my first month has been really nice. yes, there are about a million things that i miss on a daily basis about austin... but being in dallas has made me happy.

i was right to assume that for the most part, i wouldn't see most of my friends more often. (katy being the obvious exception to that statement.) once the 'newness' of moving wears off and people don't stop by to see your new house, they pretty much go back to their regularly scheduled programs... but i do get to see my family SO much more than before and i have gotten to get back in touch with a few friends from high school as well.

wow- that was a long post! now i must return to work for another hour before i make my 30 minute trek back to my neighborhood and go see if mark cuban is working out at the gym ; )

buying something as expensive as a rug that i will keep for a very long time (hopefully) is a gut wrenching decision for me. it takes hours and hours of deliberation, looking for something cheaper, creating photoshop versions of the living room with selected rugs, etc.

in short, it ain't pretty folks.

i really love the rug i chose for our livingroom... but today i'm even more tickled with my choice. oprah's designer, nate berkus, who i absolutely adore, redesigned a house for a nice couple on the show and he used my rug! i love nate AND west elm!

nate's livingroom



my livingroom!

there's nothing like a baby in a laundry basket
to cheer up a boring monday!
i swear, that lucy keeps getting cuter.

ooh... its gonna be good! i have wanted to read "fast food nation" for quite a while so it will be interesting to see how they fictionalized a non-fiction book into a movie.

once again, the clever folks at 'the daily show' made me laugh out loud.

go HERE for the full segment reviewing his speech this week addressing immigration.

its here! its here! the 2006 lineup for ACL is here!!

i am so excited- this is a great list!! i bought my tickets back in march and have been waiting for this list for months!

my favorites (other than the headliners listed above)...
damien rice, ray lamontagne, nickel creek, kings of leon, iron & wine, aimee mann, kt tunstall, alexi murdoch, & of course...g. love and the special sauce.

WOW. its going to be a great weekend and i have all summer to look forward to it!

to all music lovers out there, please join me in my latest obsession!

www.pandora.com

you enter an artist or song that you really like and they populate an entire 'radio station' for you of similar music! its a fun way to hear new music and artists.

the best part its free and it makes your day at work go by just a little bit faster : )

i had a craving for super bubble this morning but the gas station next door to my office was sadly in need of a better pre-teen candy section. the closest thing i could find was bubble tape. its supposed to be 6 feet of fun, right? more like 6 feet of gross.

when i got a piece out of the box, i have to admit there is something fun about the concept of a giant roll of gum, but immediately the powder-y texture reminded me of something...hmmm...big league chew?

a quick visit to the hubba bubba site confirmed my suspicians. they are made by the same manufacturer whose primary market strategy seems to be gum in strange forms covered in a strange powder.

now i am off to get a free diet dr pepper from the magic fountain in the kitchen to wash my mouth out. ick.

last night we attended our first session of the dallas museum of art's "jazz under the stars" series. it was a gorgeous night & we were excited about our newest exploration of all that dallas has to offer.

we picked up katy and went to the grocery store for food and beverages. kevin disappeared down some random aisle and met us in the beer section with a proud look on his face toting two new camping chairs he had found for the cheap price of only $7!

about 30 minutes later as we unpacked the chairs and began to settle in at the park to listen to jazz and enjoy a cold beverage... we realized why the chairs were so cheap.

kevin neglected to read the label on the bags that said "captain chair for junior. ages 5-12"

it was worth a pretty good laugh and lots of teasing directed at kevin all night. its hard to take someone seriously when they are sitting in a miniature chair.

is there anyone out there wants to admit to a little closeted "american idol" watching? anyone??

i am a faithful viewer on tuesdays, but when it comes down to the results show i can't bump lost for such silliness. of course this means that typically i am watching lost with my laptop open, checking to see who has been voted off. last night was completely unexpected. i was never a chris fan (singers that shout aren't my favorite) but i was just as surprised as everyone else!


so if you are a lost fan and missed the news... HERE YOU GO!

thank goodness for youtube. youtube rules for so many reasons- if you haven't checked it out yet you should!

did i miss something... is orange the new white?

the ladies at go fug yourself came up with a great song to accompany this remarkable picture if you're so inclined.

it seems the world is coming to its senses. it was announced on cnn this morning that bush's approval rating is down three more points to 31%. more interestingly his DISapproval rating is at 65%. that is only one point lower than richard nixon's when he left the whitehouse in the midst of the watergate scandal.

what surprised me almost more than that... among conservatives, his approval rating is only 49%. so even his core base of supporters are losing faith in him.

it will be interesting to see how all of this affects the elections in november.

for those of you bored to death by this post, i promise to return to celebrity gossip and other random acts of blogging soon.

i am smack dab in the middle of my first day at the new job. its going quite well so far- i just discovered a diet dr pepper fountain in the kitchen. i just might be home :)

for all of you out there who just don't get enough of your daily recommended burpo intake, you are in luck!

kevin has started his own blog! check him out...

amen & hallelujah!!

my favorite home goods retailler is coming to dallas!!

welcome, west elm. welcome.


post script: this fabulous news is courtesy of my newspaper-reading mom. she was a little hurt that i forgot to give her credit... so here's a shout out to vicki- the hippest mom in dallas...if not the world!

anyone who knows me knows i love a bargain. target is one of my favorite places to roam around in search of such bargains.

today i found another in a long string of shoe knock-off sightings. i had seen these flip flops from jcrew, but couldn't find it in me to splurge for the $50 price tag... but then i found the perfect substitute!

you be the judge: target vs. j crew

one big happy family!

bea is loving her new home! she is such a cutie pie- she can't wait to meet you!

and the winner is.......

after just a few quick moments with this sweet girl, we were sold! she is the mom of the puppy litter that originally stole our hearts. weighing in at a mere 30 pounds, she is tiny in boxer standards and is still a puppy herself.

the appeal of getting a gal who was already crate trained and housebroken was enough to sway our decision- and her incredibly sweet personality made it an easy choice!

we have tried out several names and so far i think the most fitting name is "bea". its a cute boxer pun (float like a butterfly, sting like a bee) and there is something about her face that makes her look like an old soul, so a granny name like "bea" just seems to fit. (who doesn't love bea arthur?!)

props to jaque on the name idea- love it!!

preface:
in order to understand the underlying humor of this story, you must know 3 facts.

1. kevin and i are obsessed with our dog
2. our dog's name is casey, but his nickname is bubba
3. kevin likes to somehow incorporate casey's name into song lyrics and sing to him

kevin went to the mavericks game with friends the other night- he was pretty excited to finally live in a city with professional sports! he came home late and a little bit drunk. he picked up the guitar and proceeded to drive me crazy by playing a version of "la bamba" ("la, la, la, la, la bam-ba") that went....

"c, c, c, ca-sey bub-ba! c, c, c, ca-sey bub-ba, he's casey bubba, c, ca-asey bub-ba!"

at least its a step up from the seemingly unending christmas season where "casey paws" replaced "santa claus" in just about every song and i was seranaded with "here comes casey paws, here comes, casey paws, right down casey paws lane!"

anyone want to vote on which puppy we should get?

puppy #1

puppy #2


puppy #3

we are really excited! we are adopting a girl from the local boxer rescue organization. we had our home visit/interview today and passed with flying colors! if everything works out, we should bring home our girl in just a few weeks!

i had a fantastic weekend. friday night kevin and i dorked it up at bed, bath & beyond like the boring married couple that we are. saturday started with a trip to the gym with katy followed by a yummy lunch and poolside lounging.

later saturday i drove out to ft. worth with the cotherns for the concert and had a blast. patty was phenomenal as usual! the miscellaneous fun included a yard of daquiri... which always spells out f-u-n!

a fuzzy picture of me enjoying my drink at the concert

well so far my dallas weekends have rocked! friday night we went to lee harvey's. i can tell that lee harvey's will be a favorite here in big D. it was such a cool place with a great group of people... and dogs! casey is really excited about going sometime soon.

saturday night katy, amanda, & meg hosted a 'welcome to dallas' party for us. we had such a good time! it was great to see everyone out and about to give us a warm welcome.

this weekend is going to be as "austin" as you can get... patty griffin concert saturday night and shawn colvin on sunday. now THAT sounds good!

come on over!

7043 bucknell, dallas, texas 75214

kevin and i took casey to the playground- one of his favorite places on earth. kevin was in true 5 year-old fashion, playing on a rocking horse and casey decided to attack!

if one more person makes 'the face' when we answer the question "where are you moving to?" and they hear "dallas".... i swear i'm going to scream.

you know...'the face'. its a mixture of disappointment/ disgust/ nausea/ disbelief/ confusion. it breaks your heart, thats what it does. it makes it feel like you are letting everyone down- its almost as if they thought you were cool, good people... but not if you're choosing to live in dallas!

i even got 'the face' yesterday morning at church. our sweet pastor even prayed for us by asking "Lord, when you are done with these two up in Dallas, please send them home to us right away."

i don't know when its going to hit me that i'm leaving. even my afternoon alone at barton springs yesterday didn't feel like a 'goodbye'. probably on sunday night this weekend when we don't pack up the car and head back to austin...

last night we had our going-away party and it was so much fun. its always interesting to be surrounded by a group of people that all hold the memories of a different part of my experience here - triathlon friends, team in training friends, work friends... it was great.

this afternoon my sweet husband is cleaning and packing our house while i am going swimming at barton springs- it is a gorgeous day and i am so happy i get to spend it there. i know i will make it a point to visit anytime i am in town- so its definitely not the last!

we have a LOT of packing to do still and its going to be a busy week!

let's hope his sense of balance is better than hers....

kevin and i are headed up to dallas tonight for a meeting first thing tomorrow at our title company. we are signing our lives away... i mean buying a house!

i keep looking at the pictures of the house that i have on my computer because i can't really believe that its going to be ours tomorrow! i am so excited!!

its weird, i'm exactly where i thought i would always be at 28... happily married, healthy, parenting a sweet dog, buying a house. its all so predictable. maybe i'll dye my hair pink or something...

eh, probably not.

dallas people suck at evites.

i have personally made this judgement call based on the fact that not one single friend of mine that katy invited to our "welcome to dallas" party has accepted the invite (other than family). there are a couple of yes's on there, but those are kevin's friends or people i've met through katy.

so, as you can see, its easier to tell myself that "dallas people suck at evites", than really think about the fact that so far my college friends aren't exactly wow-ing me with their warm welcome.

as much as it sucks, maybe its good to be reminded that a lot has changed in the past 6 years while i was enjoying life down here in austin. i know i have always had this utopian idea that everyone in dallas is still best friends and hangs out together all of the time... but its just not true. life happens, things change... i get that.

is it too much to ask for people to stop by and welcome us to town? i wish it wasn't... but in this case, it looks like it just might be.

i did something for the first time this weekend... i joined a group ride from a local bike shop all by my lonesome.

i have always been either too lazy or too insecure to join group rides because, well frankly they scare me a little bit! you just never know who is going to show up or if you are going to be the slowest person in the group.

i pulled up to jack & adam's on sunday morning and to my surprise- i held my own on the 35 mile ride! i actually hung with the lead group of all guys through the whole ride! now, these weren't hard-core cyclists, but they were cyclists! and they were guys!!

i have really enjoyed doing more cycling lately- i am really going to miss that in dallas. but at least now i know, i can join a group ride every once in a while : )

as an update on the knee situation... i am having an mri on thursday and it looks like i'll be holding out on surgery until i'm up in dallas in may. until then.... i'll be out on my bike!

kudos to two members of my tri team for making the news!!

check it out!

any takers?

its next door - you could come borrow sugar anytime! well, not THAT kind of sugar...

you'd think that having visitors calls for quite the party. kevin and i both had friends in town this weekend. my sister was here friday night and kevin's friend jake was here for a couple of days.

sadly, despite the guests, i was in bed friday night by 10 and on saturday night i was struggling to stay up until midnight in a bar on 6th street. i'm not sure how it is possible to be tired when sitting 15 feet from a live band... but i sure was.

i swear i don't know when i got so old. i haven't been out until closing time in years -these days i can barely keep my eyes open long enough to have any late night fun. getting up early for triathlon practice sure does put a kink in my social schedule... but for some reason, its worth it!

i've been a toot lately. really, i've been a pain in the butt to deal with. (i'd say 'ass', but i gave up swearing for lent)

i was humbled and slightly amused this morning when my bible study told me to look up proverbs 21:19. "better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife."

you know its not good when someone would be better off living in the desert than living with you...

in other news, we got the house!! the keys are ours on april 5th and on april 13th we will pull into town in a giant u-haul. get excited!

my heart swells with pride when i watch the one and only- john rosacker - in his winning performance at the semi-finals of the austin air guitar championships.


if you have a moment - check out his performance. its pure genius. i always knew i loved john... and now i understand that love just a little bit more.

my spring break experiences really peaked in highschool. isnt that sad? my senior year i went to mexico with all of my friends. it was the quintessential mexico trip complete with drunk girls, wet t-shirt contests, and lots of free shots.

since then, it has all been downhill. college spring breaks consisted of a ski trip, a missions trip, and my "aren't i so different" outward bound trip. what was i thinking? outward bound was amazing, but my friends were all drinking frozen margaritas by the yard while i was drinking water from a stream that was treated with iodine to kill off bacteria.

these days spring break is great for one reason- less traffic. living in a college town like austin is awesome, but when 40,000 college students all leave town its GREAT. my usual 20 minute drive to work suddenly only takes 10 minutes.

when did this happen? when did a shorter commute take the place of a sombrero and sunscreen? who knows, with any luck maybe i'll make it big on a video called "young professionals gone wild"

getting old sucks.

i had the distinct pleasure of babysitting my sweet niece, lucy, this weekend. i was really looking forward to it! i hardly ever see little luce because she lives up in dallas.

despite lots of threats of taking lucy around austin in a tie-dye onesie introducing her to travelling homeless musicians smoking pot, her dad and mom still let me take her off their hands.

we had a lot of fun! casey is a huge fan of babies- and probably anything in general that smells like a mixture of poo and baby powder. he loved licking her face and thankfully she thought it was pretty funny. note to self: teach casey boundaries before strangers bring children to my house.

the best part of the experience? besides really clinching my title as "coolest aunt ever"... on sunday for the first time in months i actually remembered to pick up my birthcontrol on time at the pharmacy. no matter how much i love that little bundle of spit up and giggles, it was a nice little reminder of how much i like my simple, uncomplicated life where my biggest responsibility is a needy dog.

anyone want to buy a house on nimrod trail?

seriously. who names these streets? please tell me that is the result of a lost bet.

i really don't know if i could buy a house on nimrod trail - even if i liked it! can you imagine? the burpos living on nimrod trail? how much worse could it get?!

as an addendum to my candy complaints, i would like to add another grocery store inspired post...

i was walking through the store yesterday and i saw a new velveeta package that reads "now easier to melt!". um... i'm sorry, but when was velveeta ever hard to melt? velveeta is a gooey brick of processed cheese whose one goal in life is to melt. so much so, that even in its solid form, it jiggles.

also, i noticed that whenever kevin is out of town i purchase all kinds of random things to "try" that i would usually never purchase. i had cap'n crunch for dinner. how out of character is that!?

austin is my adopted hometown. it was a slow and complicated process, but thankfully i didn't have to go with a small town in china, i hear thats popular with adoption these days : )

its interesting, the more i come to grips with leaving, the more i love about austin. its similar to the "you don't know what you've got till its gone" theory, but more of a preemptive approach.

i'm so sentimental these days for my sweet town, i just about get weepy thinking about something as crappy as 6th street. ah, the drunken days of dancing at 311 on friday nights after too many cheap drinks at saba... : )

i have started making a list of everything i want to do and see before i leave. anyone want to join me? lets grab dinner at whole foods and wander around book people. how about dinner at z tejas, walking down to amy's ice cream, and thumbing through records at waterloo?

i want to float in barton springs until i am chilled to the bone and then drink an even colder margarita at baby a's. i am going to jog around town lake and end up at maria's for migas so i can say goodbye to the best tacos on earth. i will ride my bike out to the lake and not let the dam hill get the best of me and then i will fly down 2222 at 45 miles per hour without cringing. i am going to enjoy sxsw this one last time and stay out much past my bedtime.

so much to do... let me know if you want in on some of this fun. its going to be good stuff.

this weekend i introduced casey to his version of heaven. we were invited out for a visit at the peavy ranch in blanco and we all had such a great time!

casey's mouth covered in mud from digging for rocks

it was really nice to have lots of down time to hang out with the peavy family. jill and gardner are raising the most precious 2 year old boy, kyle. he is such a doll! he has something to say about everything and he made the weekend really fun for all of us.

kyle and tucker playing with trucks

katy and jay drove all the way down from dallas and brought their two canine children with them. it was just really awesome to hang out with no distractions and enjoy being away from being busy.

the girls sometime after midnight...

casey barked to his heart's content at everything from llamas to donkeys. he dug around their fresh water springs in search of the perfect rock. he flopped around in mud and got as dirty as possible. he tested the limits of his new knee- and surprised us all with how much he can run and play so soon after surgery!

casey attacks a log

kevin was crazy enough to ride his bike back from the ranch- about a 75 mile trip down farm roads that is so beautiful, i couldn't help but be jealous! i drove home to the sounds of an exhuasted snoring dog, thinking about how thankful i was for the beauiful weather and for the friends i got to share it with.

whenever i hear a newscaster quote the total cost of the war in iraq, it's such a high number that it is somewhat impossible for me to even have a frame of reference for it. $243,930,497,980 is so unbelieveable that i don't really know what it means.

today i was watching jon stewart, who i am frequently secretly (fond of), and he gave me a number i could finally relate to.

$2300.

that is the amount of money that each individual tax payer has spent on the war so far. its almost 20% of the taxes that i paid in 2005. now THAT is unbelieveable.

i am not here to make a case against (or for) the war- it is just interesting to me how much more personal that number makes it seem. its not some crazy war that some crazy president started that i roll my eyes at- its something i am paying for. something i'm paying quite a lot for.

kudos also goes out to the one person out there that caught my willie nelson reference. at least something about this post is remotely amusing : )

casey is a working dog! he is our new part-time office assistant. he helped us out with a little light filing and organizing.

he was also helpful enough to sniff out everyone's trashcans just to make sure there wasn't anything fishy going on.




too bad he isnt full time. we could really use the health insurance.

i just ran across this side by side comparison of mega m&m's versus the standard size. i think you can see the source of my disappointment illustrated clearly here:

i had a blind date today. it was more of a set-up really. i was in the checkout aisle of the grocery store and the cashier asked if i would like to try the new reeses peanut butter cups with caramel.

would i?! yes i would!

the thoughts going through my mind - could you possibly combine better ingredients? chocolate and peanut butter are already heaven together - but throw caramel in the mix?! count me in!!

i barely made it to the car when i ripped open that little orange bag of treats. my initial reacton was "hmmm... i think i like where this is going, but i'm really not sure yet." so of course i had to eat the second cup just to be sure i liked it. in the end, i think this new snack answers the question, 'is too much of a good thing a bad thing?'

the caramel kinda just gets in the way of the peanutbuttery goodness. it takes away from that thick p.b. texture... its kind of an unwanted third-wheel on a great date.

i'm chalking this up to another in a series of recent candy disappointments. don't even ask about my "mega m&ms" experiement. mega, my ass. more like "slightly larger than usual m&ms" i guess the marketing department didn't think that was a compelling enough slogan.

i had a great weekend! despite the freezing cold temperatures, it was a whole lot of fun. saturday morning i had breakfast with friends and we went to visit murff and ryan. their new baby, taylor michelle, is such a cutie!

sunday i got to stand up with tim & michelle as they had lucy victoria baptised. her cuteness was confirmed by the loud "AWWW" that we heard from the congregation when the minister held her up for everyone to see.






i also got some rare quality time with my mom, dad, and sister! erin and i were without husbands this weekend, so we had a slumber party at mom & dad's complete with ice cream, chocolate, & popcorn. we also had a little too much fun with the silly settings on my cell phone...