see ya north austin, im goin' south!

well my weekend was pretty dang productive. i got to play supernanny with my neice and nephew and affirmed the fact that i don't want to be a mother of two anytime soon. it wasn't too bad most of the time - they're quite entertained by videos, toys, and computer games. however by hour 28 when ellie decides to pee on the couch - that's about when im done. so, needless to say, im not dying to do that again.

but on to more exciting news. my new roommates and i found a house, looked at it, decided we wanted it, and got it! all in about 24 hrs. the house is so cute it's ridiculous. first let me set up the neighborhood. the location is fantastic - central south austin...off lamar about 5 streets past barton springs. so, great access to downtown, soco, town lake, church, etc. our house is located on a court/loop which, when you turn onto it, it's seriously like you're in pleasantville meets desperate housewives/wisteria ln. imagine all new cute houses, white picket fences, the whole shebang. the inside of the house is equally great. hardwood floors, new appliances, colorfully painted walls, lots of space. i tried to post some pics but now my piece of a computer doesn't want to cooperate. pics to come later.

so needless to say we're pretty excited. move in is the end of august which is real soon. that means the infamous chore of packing and moving will be here before i know it. it's going to be a little different living farther south because im not familiar with it at all. however im excited that ill get to know my way around downtown and its periphery a bit better. and i think i'll feel like im really living in the "real" part of austin and it's about time i learn this city, right? so that's that. ill go ahead and apologize in advance for the complaining and whining i will probably do as i start to pack and move. i do it so often that you'd think i would be used to it by now. and although that might be true, it doesn't make it any more enjoyable, right?

so stay tuned for the first kinney oaks ct. housewarming party in sept. - you won't wanna miss it!

jamie cullum fans

for you jamie cullum fans out there, he will be in austin at stubbs on oct. 14th. tix went on sale today and josh ritter will be accompanying him. get tix here.

friday gooblygop

a few matters of business first. ACL artists are dropping like flies and i don't like it one bit. so far damien rice, donavon frankenreiter, alexi murdoch, and feist have all pulled out for one reason or another. makes me sad. they will, of course, be replaced. however, there's that fear that it won't be people of the same caliber or interest to me. i will let you know.

along the lines of ACL, i have a 3 day ticket for sale. i need to check with some friends first but then it's up for public buying. i'll let you know when it's on the market. price will probably be in the $125-$150 market.

i'm moving again in a month. this will be my FOURTH residence in less than TWO years. is it just me or is there something terribly wrong with that. i might just be better off buying an RV at this point. i could park it by matty mcconaughey's behind shady grove...that could be fun.

my boss and i are both going on vacation and will be getting back to the office the same day in august. she will be coming back from her wedding in breck, CO and a honeymoon in maui...i will be coming back from family bonding at disneyworld in orlando, FL. jealous? yeah i didn't think so. i might actually come back to austin and be relieved with how cool it is, temperature wise.

tv updates: this week on project runway katherine went home. their challenge involved pups which was super cute. and although kat's design was a little boring, i think angela's looked like it came out of a bad 80s video. plus i just don't really like her at all so i'm ready for her to leave. next week looks super good and dramatic - someone is going home for breaking some rules! i just hope it's not a designer i like. last nite on so you think you can dance, allison went home. i was shocked and i think the judges were too. she's quite amazing and although not my favorite, i think she's better than natalie and heidi. but it's up to america's votes and at this point it's just down to favorites. im hoping the top 3 will be benji, donyelle, and travis and im going to go ahead and predict benji as the winner. yeah, i said it.

alright...that's it for friday fun. i hope everyone has a great weekend!

what's in a name?

a while ago i was at dinner and we started talking about nicknames. i learned that it's not really normal to have as many as i do. i think it's more common for people to call me something that's not actually my real name though. the most well-known one currently is probably asian kate. however, i've answered to many, many other things over time. my full name is katherine marie mccoy but i have only been called that in its entire length by my parents when im in real big trouble. but from that name has come many other variations. throw in the fact that im asian and you got yourself endless possibilities. let's see how many i can remember...
katie - my name up until about 7th/8th grade..then came the inevitable switch to kate
katiebird, sissy, punkin, babe - the family nicknames
kt(2), goody good, flea, mccoy - nicknames thru highschool
and then the college nicknames. this is where it gets a little outta control.
asian kate, asian, kath, kathy, kather, katums, katorade, best friend katie, kate katie, katie marie, button.

thats all i can think of now...i probably left out a couple here and there but that gives you a good idea. can anyone top that?

being asian 101

so i could talk about being asian for days. benefits, disadvantages, pros, cons, etc. in college i even came up with a whole monologue about it...it was intended to be humorous but i could see it coming off as halfway offensive in writing. and not like i totally rip on asians...i mean i kinda do, but i am asian myself so that makes it ok right? yeah...well...maybe save that for a rainy day...ill have to ponder how well received that would be.

but anyways, on to what i actually meant to talk about. everyone likes being remembered, yes? it's great when someone is like "i was at that restaurant you love and thought about you" or "i saw the cutest dress and it looked just like you." well, i get statements like these all the time. except they're more like, "i ate chinese food and thought of you" or "i saw this asian kid on the street and thought of you" or "i saw memoirs of a geisha and thought of you." what prompted me to discuss this was a text message i got today from my good friend jax. it went a little like this: "just saw an asian monkey and thought about you." and although i hope it wasn't a physical resemblance that made her think of me, it still made me laugh. and i guess in my mind it's better to be remembered for things that have absolutely nothing to do with me than to not be remembered at all, right?

so next time you're eating at zen, watching rush hour, or playing badminton, i hope you think of me. and then tell me because that's half the fun.

something to make you smile

well if you're a loyal reader then you know about my friends kristen and jeff and their real cute baby, avery. she was born back in feb. and is still cute. periodically kristen emails out pics and when i came across this one i let out an utterance close to a shriek/laugh/scream combination. have you ever seen anything cuter? fat babies are cute. making babies look fat might be even funnier. hello, it's a life jacket with a head. oh and they were in alaska in case you were wondering why they are dressed for winter since its like 100 degrees here in the great state of tx. so yeah, the pic was too great not to share.

here and there...but not as much here

sorry ive been a slacker blogger lately. sometimes i have little motivation to write because i dont have anything blog worthy. plus i sometimes feel like no one really reads my blog. and although i know that's not the case, i tend to feel like my blogging is me having a conversation with myself. and i think some of that has to do with the lack of comments i receive. and that could be bc my posts leave nothing to motivate a person to respond to. which i accept as true...but then again, my life isnt all parties, excitment, and overflowing hysteria everyday and im not going to try and deceive you into thinking so.

or this comment lacking could be what i like to think of as "comment fear." i think a lot of people suffer from this and i dont really get it. i think i can say on behalf of a lot of bloggers in the world that comments make us feel good. not like we need it to exist, or that we determine our self worth from the number of comments we have....however its fun to know who is reading your blog and at least feel like we're not writing into thin air for nothing. and ill even have people tell me they were thinking of leaving a comment, or even tried to but then ended up erasing it or something. things like this result in blank stares mixed with puzzlement from me.

what is this "comment fear?" are you afraid of what other people will think when they read your comment- like it's not comment worthy? im pretty sure i write about stuff that is plenty stupid so you shouldnt have to worry about any judgement thrown your way. so with that, dont be afraid of the commenting, people. its good for you...it's freeing...it will change your life (ok, honestly it probably won't however your writer will appreciate it, i promise). and now since ive upped the pressure i know for a fact that i will not receive any more comments...

ps...i do know the purpose of paragraphs and i realize that my paragraph breaks werent really necessary since all three paragraphs were a continuing story. however i also know that its annoying when a post is just one huge ginormous paragraph bc its harder to read. thus, the reason for odd breaks.

post script script....i made some changes to my sidebar action. changed up the pics in the slideshow. so if you have an extra minute or two, kick back, relax and take a look. and i changed my perusing list. if you were on my list of blogs but hadnt updated since the year of big foot then you got the boot. plus i added some other links to things i waste my time looking at.

post script script script. ive seriously edited this blog 4 times. can you tell i had a SUPER productive day? well, i added a little grey's anatomy love as well. you might have seen this litle video/promo/whatever on tv lately. its kinda a 2 season recap in 4 minutes and it makes me remember why i became addicted to the show. oh and in case youre wondering, new season starts end of sept. GET EXCITED.

things i want and like

i want one of THESE. they are so sweet. i see them all over westlake, the area where i work, these days. but then again people in westlake buy new cars like women buy shoes - often, impulsively, and a lot of time with little rational thought. but nonetheless i think they're so cool looking and wouldn't mind owning one. if only they had existed when i got my cr-v....dont worry little honda, i still love you.

one of my fav tv shows, project runway has begun season 3! i havent yet picked out a favorite although there is a black guy that seems pretty cool and we all know im partial to black men ;) but seriously, this show is awesome and you will be blown away at what these designers can concoct in such a short amount of time. and heidi klum is pretty darn cute...i might just have a girl crush on her.

here's a cool idea i heard about from my friend TSH's blog. its this idea to have 2,996 bloggers each dedicate a post to one of the 2,996 victims from the 9/11 tragedy. go to this site, sign up and you'll be randomly assigned a person. you can then google search them and read about them on various memorial sites. then on 9/11/06 you post your own memorial of them. it's pretty powerful and kinda heart-wrenching to read about these people that are truly missed by friends, family, co-workers etc. even if you don't have a blog i encourage you to check out the site.

aaahhhhhh...

well i should be back in the mix now. last week was crazy. i put in about 60 hours of work..not something im too terribly fond of. but it all paid off - i got all my orders processed, shipped out over half of them, and now i can breathe. im such a super worker ;) and it would have been pretty great to have a nice relaxing, do absolutely nothing weekend. not so lucky on that one. the weekend was pretty non stop but still great.

friday nite us girls went out to dinner at z tejas for casey's birthday. YUM. went and saw you, me and dupree - the new owen wilson flick where he's the 3rd wheel housemate. i thought it was pretty great - love owen wilson.

sat. morning i went to my beloved kickboxing class. um..kinda rough bc i hadnt worked out for like a year and a half. slight exaggeration but you know. went to lydia and wes' wedding in round rock. theyre just so cute. got to see a bunch of friends from college and thats always fun. went downtown sat nite which leads me to another discussion. whys it gotta be so flippin hot in texas? and at 11 at nite when there's no sun out even? we hit triple digits yesterday and are supposed to hit 102 today. fantastic. sunday i went to gtown to do a little house demolition with the family. if you ever need someone to pull off wallpaper in your house, im your girl. actually...dont call me bc i dont really enjoy it.

so theres the weekend for ya. hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

MUST...TAKE...A....BREAK

yeah its 1 in the morning but really this is the only time i have to post. well, i technically don't really have time but i'm allowing myself to take a break from working so that my brain doesn't explode. and yes, thats what i said...break from working. i wasnt kidding when i said it was going to take me forever to process all the orders taken at our conference last week. i have taken them home the past 3 nites to work on and have spent anywhere from 5-8 hours each nite on them. and they still aren't finished!! i think they reproduce when im sleeping. jerks. but all to say...its gonna make for some SWEET comp time in the coming weeks. im already thinking of what im going to do on my days off.
but onto bigger and better things...my trip to chicago! heres the best way i can think to summarize the trip:
10 THINGS THAT MADE CHICAGO GREAT: (in no particular order).
*chicago is very much like NYC. very metropolitan, big city feel BUT super clean, less crowded, and the people are so friendly
*the weather was AMAZING. we're talking mid 70s during the day...low 60s at nite. i came back to austin and felt like i was suffocating..
*got to see my wonderful friends alison, eileen, and meet eileen's bf david
*the food!! chicago style pizza...yum
*magnificent mile/michigan ave. - the best shopping you can find..for blocks...and blocks....and blocks..
*staying at the westin hotel...having my OWN hotel room...having CABLE...having a corner room with a great view of the chicago river and downtown (ive decided that hotel living is the best - your room is cleaned everyday for you, your bed is made, you get a replenished supply of cute mini soaps, shampoos, etc. everyday...)
*can i say weather again? it really is worth mentioning again. weather definitely has an effect on my mood and walking outside and being met by little humidity and 75 degree weather in the middle of summer is quite possibly the best thing since sliced bread
*the BEAN! also known as the big giant bean shaped mirror in millenium park. check out my pics if you wanna see more of that..
*the taste of chicago. i only experienced a quick walk thru but i want to go back again sometime to fully experience it. imagine booths and booths of great chicago food, live music, and thousands and thousands of people
*last but not least...the medical institute's sixth national meeting- the whole reason i got an all expense paid trip to the windy city. this trip was definitely more work than play although it may seem like all i did was sightsee. i actually only was able to play on the 4th when i got there plus an hour or so each of the other days. we (the staff) endured 12-16 hour days going nonstop wed-sat. however, it all paid off. our conference was indeed a success and we made over 30K in sales!! (last year we made 4K, so either we were really good this year or really bad last year!) so yeah, the company is quite pleased with the sales/mktg team right now :)

id love to tell you more but the stack of orders is eyeing me and i really dont want to be doing this during the weekend...

oh and completely unrelated but info you might be interested to know. ACL single day tix go on sale today (thurs.) and the schedule grid is out so you can see who is playing when. it's only about 2 months away!!!

and im back!!

hello hello! yes, i am back in the great state of texas although i miss chicago a lot! it was fantastic and i promise i'll write ALL about it soon. however, right now i have about 200+ orders to process from the meeting and so i really must tackle that task first. i have put my chicago pics up though so you can check them out while you patiently await my return :)

CHICAGO PICS!

a few things

im going to chicago TOMORROW!! will be back saturday so you will probably be left blogless for about 5 days unless i have the time and desire to blog on some computer there. the time apart will be rough, i know...but you'll make it.

did i mention that im going to the american idol concert in september here in austin? yeah, a little embarrassing to admit however i actually am pretty excited. ill get to see my boy taylor hicks in person!

there is talk that my man AI is gonna be traded. im not sure how i feel about this. i love my sixers despite their inconsistency but also wouldnt mind seeing AI on a good team where he could make the playoffs and even win a championsip. after ten years in the nba i feel he deserves it. so we'll see...the highest likelihood at this point is that he'll go to boston...i could be ok with that.

so lets have a little chat about sunday afternoon naps. i think they are almost necessary in everyone's life. my love for them started in college i think. i was already sleep deprived 98% of the time and then getting up early for church on sunday just sealed the deal. after a big lunch after church my body was always looking forward to and ready for a nice sunday afternoon nap. well yesterday was sunday. and i was REAL tired. i had started losing sleep on wednesday nite and never really caught up. plus i met some people for breakfast at 9...not my meal date of choice but sometimes you make that sacrifice for friends. so around 1220 i went down for a nap. i woke up around....530. yep, thats right. 5 HOURS LATER. its really unbelievable if you ask me. does 5 hours even qualify as a nap? i dont know what i would call it instead but i dont think naps should ever be much over 2 hrs. so yeah, i woke up and after figuring out where i was and what day it was i immediately went to work out to try and redeem myself. i think it helped a little bit but man, 5 hours...

alright well thats about all i have. need to pretend to work for a bit and then go home and pack for my trip. everyone have a fun and safe 4th!! ill be back on sat with pics and hopefully some good stories.