wertz, kearney, and some other dude...

last nite was the matt wertz show. josh hoge...i think thats his name...and mat kearney opened for him. josh's style of music was....different...and by different i mean not really good. but he sure thought he was real good, if you know what i mean. a lot of his style is falsetto so all you really hear is loud high pitched singing. but anyways...im sure hes a real nice guy...

mat kearney was pretty good. his style is also different...he integrates a lot of spoken word/rap in his songs. yeah i dont know the right way to describe it but its pretty good and hes got a great voice.

then wertz came on. i saw wertz last year and it was alright. this show was definitely better. he jammed out pretty hard to some of the songs in the beginning and it was so loud that it was kinda hard to enjoy at times. man i sound old... anyways, there was some new stuff...one called firecracker maybe that almost sounds like a "footloose" cover. and of course he played all the favorites - counting to 100, marianne, everythings right, red meets blue etc... his friend justin rosolino, who i kindly refer to as "the hobbit" played with him most of the time. they took a break at one point and talked about something theyre a part of called "mocha club." the idea is basically donating money that you would normally spend on a couple cups of jo each month to this club to feed families and children in africa. pretty neat idea - check it out here.

heres some pics from the show...the guys all came out for the encore showin some antones love by sportin some complimentary tees. they also said they had decided that they would all move to austin. we'll see if that really happens...

TGIF

does anyone else associate TGIF with middle school and the friday nite lineup of tv shows, specifically full house and family matters? maybe its just me but starting at 7pm, 4 shows came on and i watched them religiously. i loved me some full house. those were good times.

anyways...its friday and i am so thankful for that. last nite i tried out a kickbox class at my gym. ive just been so daring lately...first hip hop and now kickbox. well, the lack of fancy footwork and choreography made kickboxing way more successful. and i am all sorts of sore. my only complaint is that our instructor was this tiny, yet buff girl who donned little spandex shorts and a sports bra. so not only was she half naked but we were all able to see that she had no body fat. even when she was kicking and your body has to bend and crease in places..hers didnt. it was like she was made of rubber...anyways...i think ill go back...back to rubber lady...

this weekend should be low key which is the great news to my ears. i feel like ive been all over the place the past month and i wouldnt mind just doing nothing for a change. tonite jo and i are seeing matt wertz at antones...should be good. one of my best friends is coming home from vail right now and ill either get to see her this weekend or next - very exciting...welcome back, kel!

thats about it. remember that website im working on for work thats been taking over my life? well, its finally reaching its end and we should be 'launching' it to the public on monday. so maybe then ill let you take a peek into whats been actually keeping me busy for the past month. but with that i gotta get inventory sorted out...boo...i hate counting...

have a great weekend!

good music

first off, country pickle went home last nite on idol. its about dang time....

so ive had the pleasure of hearing some good music lately and forgot to share. my friend jo has been introducing me to two of his favs lately, seth walker and gary clark jr. both predominately blues bands although gary and his band rocked out a little harder to some of their songs.

what was more entertaining when we heard seth was the dance class that was at the venue dancing to every song. i cant really describe a set genre of dancing...lets just say they busted out all the moves and it was people watching at its finest. however i cant go without commenting on a certain older man last nite at continental club who was gary's biggest fan. he was definitely rockin the old man dance moves - think clapping, weird swinging arm movements, and the occasional swing of the hips. im starting to think that i like watching people dance to music as much as i like to hear the music itself. well, that might not be true but it definitely adds to the experience.

so...check out those guys if you ever have a chance. they play in austin pretty regularly...maybe ill see ya there...

singin' and dancin'

classic love songs was the theme of the nite. a theme i enjoyed although half of the performances were booooring. the judges totally ripped on kt mcphee but i thought she was pretty great. sure, she's no whitney houston but who is? hot daught was my other fav of the nite. he can sing love songs to me anytime... country pickle was no good. elliott made paula cry because she was 'so moved' and im still trying to find the appeal in elliott. i mean he's alright but he is no taylor hicks. speaking of...his performance wasnt great but i still love the guy and i think america does too so im not worried about him going home anytime soon. oh and then paris...just ok.

in other news i went to a hip hop class last nite at my gym. i went to one of these back in college once and was real terrible but i was just hoping that i somehow would have gotten better over the years. i like to dance and i love hip hop so what can go wrong? well...my lack of coordination is amazing and my inability to follow choreography is astounding. asking me to do different things with my arms, legs, hips, and head all at the same time and for 8 different counts is like asking me to get to work on time - its just impossible! our instructor told us it was ok if we messed up and to just "do your own thing" when that happens. so needless to say, my hour in that class was spent "doing my own thing." imagine everyone in the class following the learned routine and one girl in the corner just freestyle dancing...yep, that was me. awesome. all to say i probably wont be making my return to hip hop class. ill just have to get my dancing fix in at other places...

i scream, u scream, we ALL scream for ICE CREAM!

get free ice cream today. hit up your local ben & jerry's today from 12-8 to get an ice cream cone on the house!!!

You can go here to make sure the ben & jerry's near you is participating. and shame on the places that aren't.

frisbee in your womb, what?

evidently my life isnt exciting enough to write about so i have to live vicariously thru everyone elses. that's ok as long as i produce entertaining stuff right? well i told you about my friends jen and matt finding out theyre gonna have a baby. well jen wrote me an email about the joys of pregnancy etc. and well, i just think she's real funny. here's an excerpt from her latest email...keep in mind that matt is like an avid ultimate frisbee fanatic..

"at my last dr. appt, 2 weeks ago, we got to see the baby (it actually looks like a baby instead of a piece of corn), and it was moving all over the place and doing somersaults and stuff. matt is convinced that maybe it has a tiny frisbee in there that it's playing with, and that's why it was so active. personally, i'd rather not think about there being a frisbee in my womb, that's gross."

you might have to know matt and jen to appreciate this or find it funny...or maybe im the only person that does. oh well. at least im entertained this tuesday morning...

the fort and big d

anyone else got a case of the mondays? it was a miracle that i made it out of bed this morning. i guess the weekend just wore me out! so about that weekend...

headed up to fort worth on friday. no rain - thank goodness but traffic was still "fun." got myself into a little bit of trouble at the outlets in hillsboro but we all know i can't pass up a good deal..or lots of them. got to ft. worth and stayed with rayshelle and jeremy in their super cute house. and isnt ray the cutest pregnant mom ever? yes, yes she is. went to the baby shower saturday, got to see the rest of the mullen fam which was fun times.

after the fun and festivities in ft. worth i headed over to dallas. got to hang out with jax, ck, patin, and rie. we ate at olive garden that nite - YUM. we saw jack bauers movie, the sentinel. he wasnt operating at his jack bauer capacity but it was still good. came back to ck's and jax made some monkey bread. if you dont know what monkey bread is then you need to find some and eat it - those crazy monkeys are delicious.

so we watched pirates of the caribbean. i havent seen the movie in its entirety ever. ive tried a couple of times but ended up asleep somewhere in the middle of it. not because i thought it was boring or bc i didnt like it, but because it was either real late or i was super tired. so everyone was appalled to find out i hadnt seen it completely and with the sequel coming out soon it was necessary for me to watch it. so...we started it...at like 12 or 1230 at nite...bad move. yeah, by around 115 i was out. i think with each try i see about 20 minutes farther in than the last time. so give me a few more trys and i might actually make it all the way through. needless to say, i gotta watch that dang movie again! ive never tried so hard to watch a movie....

so that was the weekend. lots of driving...anyone else wish that dallas and austin were closer? but a good time as expected and now i gotta try and get thru this day...

weekend happenins

im heading to ft. worth after work today. got a baby shower to go to tomorrow. got to go shopping at babies r us yesterday. kinda fun bc everything is miniaturized and pastel and cute. almost made me want to have a baby. wait. no, it really didnt.

after the shower i will be heading to big d to hang out with friends...pretty much all of my friends since they have all chosen to live in the booming metropolis of dallas. should be fun. always is.

hopefully it wont be raining as i head out otherwise i might be uttering an array of choice words as i stop-and-go on I35.

but anyways, thats my weekend. maybe ill have some good stories for ya upon my return.

i love me some gooood music

ok i know i talk about ACL a whole lot but just get over it bc im probably not going to let up for a while. ACL...austin city limits music festival...in case you're still trying to figure out what those letters stand for. anyways, its not until sept. 15-17 but tix are already on sale and acts are being confirmed and im already as excited as a giddy schoolgirl.

youll notice on my sidebar ive added a link to a blog all about ACL confirmed acts and rumored acts ("ACL Lineup"). so if youre on the fence about whether or not its worth the $100 bucks then maybe you should just check it out and let the names on that list cast out any doubts you may have.

i mean really...who can pass up tom petty & the heartbreakers, mayer, the shins, and iron & wine?! and i assure you, this is just the beginning. with that, 2nd tier tix are already sold out which means only the last, highest price batch are available until they are all sold out. so you know what to do...go get you some tix here.

americal idol recap

last nite was a great show. they all sang pretty classic songs and rod stewart was the guest "old famous singer/group" for the week. that means he'll be singing a ditty on tonites show - whoopee...

but anyways, i think all of the performances were pretty great except country pickle. and i really cannot stand her ditzyness...its not endearing to me in the least bit. i still love taylor hicks and he did great last nite as well. im not sure what was going on with ace's hair. at first glance i thought he had it in a bun and really thought he had gone off the deep end. not that the pony was much better. his style choices have been pretty terrible lately...slicked back pony...weird leather pants...what's next...if there even is a next.

paris, mcphee, elliott, chris - all about the same to me last nite, but all good. im honestly not sure who will go home tonite. and i like them all in a different way, minus pickle, so it will be sad to see any of them go.

first comes love, then comes marriage...

...then comes a baby in a baby carriage...

you are all familiar with this little rhyme...you would tell it to your friends in a sing-songy voice when he/she liked someone of the opposite sex making them utterly annoyed. well...as im quickly approaching the age of 25 (35 days...but who's counting?) this little rhyme is becoming the story of so many of my friends. i average anywhere between 4-7 weddings a year that im invited to...and with many of my close friends still single i know that number is far from slowing down. it was kinda weird at first thinking of my friends who were going to have permanent boy roommates that they were going to have to live with for the rest of their lives. weird to think that they were now wives and husbands. but...after a while you just get used to idea as more and more people around you are tying the knot. and its not like they were having kids or anything yet.

until now. babies, babies, babies. now that's weird. as you know, my friends kristen and jeff just had their first baby girl in february. some other friends, kyle and paige, are set to have their first later this year. other friends rayshelle and jeremy are expecting in a couple of months. and i found out yesterday that my best friend jen and her husband matt are gonna be parents the end of the year as well. 4 babies in one year. and i feel like this is just the beginning. so now my friends are not only wives and husbands, but also parents! dont get me wrong - i am more than happy for all of them...its just strange.

and this isnt a post about me being a bitter, single girl who feels way behind in life. i definitely dont. the thought of marriage kinda freaks me out right now to be quite honest. and i wont even tell you what having a child makes me feel like. so theres that...friends with babies...gotta love that. now my shopping trips will involve stops at babies r us and gymboree. at least buying baby clothes is more fun than buying pans and towels :)

trip to cs and easter!

thank goodness for short weeks at work and long weekends. my weekend vacation started on thursday as i made my way to college station to go to youth impact, the inner city ministry i was involved in while in college. jax came in from dallas to join me in the fun. it was GREAT to see all the kids, yet chaotic enough for me to not really wanna go back and do it again. the kids are still super cute though and i do miss them tons. thurs nite we went with ben to a party at his friends house who lived out in the middle of nowhere. literally nowhere. hours later we arrived but i guess it was all worth it. it was an experience, to say the least. jax and i couldnt leave cs without going to gumbys. and although there is one here in austin, i like to just think that the pizza rolls are better in cs b/c of all the good memories i have associated with them. so...jax and jaclyn and i went on friday and they were pretty dang amazing. another amazing thing were these ginormous gumballs. jax gave one a good try and after finally cracking what was anything but a 'thin candy shell' she decided to toss it. there was enough gum in that thing to feed a family of 8...im sure of it.

then happy easter day! i went up to georgetown to hang out with the fam. i got my first attempt at child photography using my neice and nephew as guinea pigs. in all of the 80 or so pics i took of them, in not one of them are both of them smiling at the same time. one or the other but never both - gotta love that. nevertheless, good experience. we watched the kids have an easter egg hunt and fight over easter candy. then easter lunch with easter ham. yum. the best part of the lunch was probably when my dad looked over at me and exclaimed, 'katie, you got all fat!' im sure the look on my face was priceless. the rest of the fam didnt know what was going on either and waited for an explanation. my dad quickly realized that his words came out completely wrong and explained that he was referring to my plate. the ham i had on my plate had a lot of fat on the outer edge so i had trimmed it off and put it in a nice little heap on the side of my plate. so no, my dad didnt think i had suddenly become a big fat cow. i mean i might not be model thin but working out 3-4 times a week has got to count for something, right? so yeah, that was easter with the fam.

church last nite was awesome. we had a guest gospel choir from Christ community church there...needless to say it was pretty great. and let's not forget the real reason for the celebration of Easter. Christ is Risen. He is Risen, indeed.

ACL tix on sale NOW

If you are planning on braving the heat, humidity, dust and really really great music of ACL you can buy tickets now. They went on sale this morning and are $90 each plus some ridiculous service and shipping fees. But for the bands you will get to see, it's more than worth it in my opinion. No, they haven't announced the lineup yet - it's expected to come out in May sometime I think. Some rumored groups however are: radiohead, sufjan stevens, iron and wine, beck, wilco, and bob dylan. Rumored i say, so don't get on me if none of those people end up being on the list. However, based on past years performers you are guaranteed to have big name acts there. So don't hesitate in getting tix just because you don't know who will be there. I assure you, you will be satisfied and the prices are just going to go up the longer you wait.

So...go HERE to buy tix now!

american idol schmidol

to start, a few matters of business to address. first off, if you visited my blog yesterday and noticed the 'breaking news' blurb posted 5 times in a row, i do apologize. i was having connection problems here at work and evidently my over zealousness of pushing the 'publish post' button over and over again caught up with me. i was not trying to over signify? the importance of jack bauer continuing his 24 trek, although it is pretty important.

second, it came to my attention that i did not give props to the person who brought it to everyone's attention that luke wilson and pete sampras were at gueros with us. so to the fabulous mike crain i give all the credit for spotting the celebs. next time you see mike, give him a pat on the back bc without him, we never would have had our celeb experience.

now onto american idol. if i came face to face with each idol after last nite, this is what i would tell them.
ace - you sucked it up again. dont try to be a rockstar. dont wear leather pants again. i think your time on idol has reached an end.
country pickle - i really think you're one of the dumbest human beings on the planet. please get smarter.
elliott - i really dont know how youve made it this far..i dont think youre that great.
buckaroo - same with you.
mcphee, paris, hot daught - yall were alright last nite.
old man river hicks - you are now my favorite and i hope you win. you are entertaining beyond words and a great singer as well.

breaking news!

if you dont watch 24, then the following will mean nothing to you...

jack bauer isnt going to die for another 3 years!! well..i guess he might since he actually already did once, but like last season, he will at least come back alive again! he's just amazing like that. he's signed a 3 year contract to stay with 24 and will also be promoted from co-exec producer to exec. producer. way to go, jack bauer...way to go. read more about it here.

and if that isnt exciting enough, he has a movie coming out in two weeks. i cant remember the name but it looks very jack bauer-esque and itll probably real great. now they just need to come out with a 24 movie - ah wouldnt that just be amazing?!

and yes, i know his real name is kiefer sutherland but he will always be jack bauer to me. just like the guy on the allstate commercials will always be president david palmer.

recap and stuff

first off, i realized i had a large influx of readers over the past few days and found out that my blog is linked to a wilson brothers fanpage. evidently im not the only one excited that i got to see him in austin! so thats fun. now if i can only spot owen some place too...

so that was obviously a highlight of the weekend and as for the rest...
hung out with old college friends - very fun
weather was fantastic - lots of time out in it
went to zilker botanical gardens - took lots of pics of pretty things
went downtown with yuna - ate a great dinner at jazz kitchen, lots of dancing at vicci with fun boys with accents
family time in gtown on sunday

random side note:
my favorite commercial for the time being is the sprint one advertising nites being free after 7pm...the guy cues leonard who sings '7pm' and then guy 1 gives leonard the thumbs up sign and says 'beautiful.' i laugh everytime.

tonite is idol and the final 8 are covering queen songs. ace is supposedly singing 'we will rock you' and pickler is singing 'bohemian rhapsody'....should be interesting.

celeb sighting

this is my boyfriend, luke wilson. we ate at guero's taco bar last nite...but he only let me take a pic of him thru the window...

im not sure who is sitting next to him but pete sampras was sitting across from him but that dang tree is blocking him. i really did eat at the restaurant and saw them from inside but thought it would be a bit tacky/paparazzi like to take a picture of him inside. thus..the blurry thru the window pics. but hey, you can still tell its him...

the freakin weekend

aaah...friday. nothing like wearing jeans to work. oh wait, i can wear jeans to work any day. hmm. well...nothing like knowing that i dont have to come back tomorrow. ah yes, much better.

i feel like the weeks are flying past with spring kinda here and almost gone and summer fast approaching. and i base that on the fact that its like 90 degrees outside.

as for this week:
the ACL ticket early bird ticket sale came and went..in 42 minutes. i was sadly not one of the lucky few to grab some tickets but no one i know was able to either so that makes me feel a little better. misery loves company right? anyways, i was told thru an inside source that regular tix will be going on sale next thurs, april 13th. and after that the prices will just get higher and higher so you might as well get them when they're the cheapest.

last nite was the first annual city-wide pillow fight in austin. held at auditorium shores and the basic concept was bring a pillow and go to town hitting strangers with it - check out video from the event here. i was not able to attend b/c i was busy decapitating crawfish at austin stone's 3rd annual crawfish boil. mmm..crawfish...

as for this weekend:
today my friends harm, sean, and mike are coming in town. we're gonna meet up with some other people for dinner etc. it will be the last time to see harm and sean before they leave the country...literally. after a few weeks in new zealand theyre gonna go to vietnam for a year...crazy kids.

this week is tx relays - a whole week of hs and college track and field competitions. yuna and i are gonna hit up downtown on sat. and meet some cute athletes. don't worry, we'll behave ourselves ;)

sunday is a bday celebration for my brother at my parents place in georgetown. id tell you how old he was turning but i honestly dont know...remember how i dont know the ages of any of my family members?

so...a busy weekend but it should be good times had by all around. next week will be even more busy but youll just have to wait to hear about what ill be up to then...

im a sucker for babies, puppies, and anything cute

remember when my friends kristen and jeff had a baby in college station? well, in case you were wondering, the baby is still cute. i couldnt pass up this picture - i thought everyone needed to see it. i get to see them in a week - cant wait!!

side note...mandisa went home tonite on idol. i was shocked. definitely not the right person to leave but i didnt vote so i guess i cant complain...

american idol recap

my general thoughts for the nite...not a huge fan of country music so the songs werent my favorite. but songs aside, the singing was pretty good. ace did really well which was refreshing since hes been crap recently. bucky was less than great which was surprising since he looks like he stepped out of a barn. and that song he sang, 'best i ever had' or whatever...all i know is that vertical horizon had that on one of their albums and they arent country. i guess maybe it was a cover of an older country song? anyways...seemed like he would have picked something a little more..twangy? anyways..here is opinion of best to worst:

paris
ace
mandisa
kt mcphee
country pickle
hot daught
old man river
elliott
buckaroo

vote to go home...please buck...go home..

my blog in spanish

this is awesome. or at least amusing to some degree to me. in the event that english isnt your first language and spanish is then click here to read my blog in spanish!

excelente!

some pictures

let me tell you the background story on this one. while ck and i were kayaking we ran into these guys. notice the guys actually in the raft are kickin back...relaxing. meanwhile, who we guessed to be a little brother, was outside of the raft, in the water, kicking in order to propel the raft forwards. and at one point, ck and i were so tired of kayaking in circles that we were tempted to ask him what his going rate was...

me and ck on town lake. kayaking is great. look how much fun we're having!
easter is approaching and peeps are out!!!! i love me some peeps. and what better than peeps than a peeps pen! yep, i paid money for that. its so cute though...makes my workday a little more enjoyable
here is my diploma. nicely framed and on my wall in my office. and although i am proud that i graduated from college...having this diploma on my wall in my office is somewhat a joke. most of the people i work with have like 12 initials that follow their name like PhD, MD, MPH...blah blah blah....theyre like real smart. me...i have a bachelor of arts in sociology which by the way, has absolutely NOTHING to do with my job. its on the same wall as my door so really the only person that sees it is me unless someone comes into my office. it rarely happens but when they leave and see it, its kinda amusing for all. so at least its not collecting dust on my bedroom floor anymore..
and this is my niece ellie. i feel like it's important that i remind everyone of her cuteness once in a while. easter is in a few weekends so be prepared for some super cute pics involving easter dresses, hats, bunnies, bows, and such.

highlights of the weekend

sunday morning was the capitol 10K. the highlight of the weekend probably wasnt even running the race but moreso when christian asked me what the 10,000 stood for in capitol 10,000. i gave her the appropriate and well deserved 'youre a moron' remark and laughed at her for a while. she really is a smart girl and in her defense its not really common to refer to running races by the number of actual meters. i guess being from austin, im just used to it being called the "capitol 10,000" so it never sounded weird to me. and im sure if she had really thought about it she would have figured it out..but i definitely didnt allow her that time before making fun of her.

so more about the race...as you can see from the pic (i didnt take it) many people ran the race...i think about 14,000. the winner crossed the line after 32 minutes of running. yeah..thats averaging 5 minute miles! ck and i were right on his heels with a time of an hour an 7 minutes. ok maybe not right on his heels. i was happy with our time considering it was the only time in my life that ive run 6 miles. the race itself is kinda difficult bc it is VERY hilly...and we're talking the type where you get halfway up and think its the top and then it keeps going. but at least for every uphill, there's a downhill right? at the beginning of the race i told ck that we should start a tradition and run it every year till we die. by about mile 4 i was like, i never wanna run this again. but now in retrospect, a whole day later, ive come around and have decided that yes, i do want to inflict pain upon myself and run it in '07. so we'll see... we didn't don any costumes in case you were wondering. probably a wise decision with as humid as it was...wearing more clothes than necessary would have probably made me real crabby.

other happenings of the weekend...on saturday i got a hair cut. you cant really tell a difference bc i didnt really get any length cut off. i did however get it thinned which may be a new concept to some people. but for me, i have super thick hair which doubles as a sauna on my head in the summer so getting it thinned is basically like lifting a huge weight off my head. so yeah...when the lady was done, there was probably enough hair on the ground to make a puppy. but better to have it on the ground than on my head.

the last highlight of the weekend was christian and me kayaking. ive only been once before but enjoyed it then and thought it would be fun. and that it was. i think we spent half the time laughing outta control...mostly at how terrible we were at making our kayak go straight. we perfected the 360 move and are willing to share if youre interested. but overall, a pretty great time and something i highly recommend if youve never done it. more pictures of the weekend to come...