what do you get when you take a little girl from korea, adopt her at 5 months, and raise her in a white family? me. here are my profound thoughts. enjoy them.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
brrrrr
well its officially cold so i feel like its ok to start talking about christmas. plus, its after thanksgiving and almost december. i love christmas time..ive expressed this before but here are some things that make it great (to me). *well obviously the "reason for the season" - good ole JC being born. and now for more surfacey level reasons: *christmas lights!!! specifically, christmas lights on congress ave. *hot drinks that actually serve a purpose (to keep you warm) *fireplaces *christmas decorations - i bought some for my high class trailer yesterday - it's quite festive now...the guys love it.. *winter hats
top christmas songs: *joy to the world, all i want for christmas is you - mariah carey *love has come - amy grant *track 12 of 2nd amy grant xmas album - all instrumental and i love it *drummer boy - jars of clay *oh holy nite - kelly clarkson
top christmas movies: *elf *love actually *serendipity *home alone *a christmas story *family stone
a little update on the restaurant endeavor. i think my list has grown to well over 25 restaurants by now that i'm wanting to try. i have so far only crossed 3 off the list. i already told you about hoover's and how great that was. since then i tried a place called baby greens which i think i like the concept of more than the actual place. it's a drive thru salad place that only sells salads, wraps, and soups. i love the idea - a healthier fast food option. i got the cobb salad and it was good, but nothing over the top. i can think of lots of other places that i would rather get a good salad from. however, when you're wanting something quick where you don't have to get out of your car, it's a good alternative. also, you can't judge a restaurant based on one experience b/c what if you just got something bad? so...i'm sure i will go back. plus it's super close to my house which helps.
last week my roomies and i tried another restaurant called blue star cafeteria. two thumbs way up. although it's called a cafeteria it nowhere resembles a "cafeteria" feel. it actually has a more upscale appeal with modern, sleek furniture. however, the prices are very affordable. each of us ordered different things and they were all liked. i got this delicious crispy chicken with mashed potatoes and spinach. next time (and there definitely will be a next time) i'll get what molly ordered - a very yummy creamy pasta dish. when she was done eating i finished off the rest for her :)
so there you go...2 more off the list. baby greens on s. 1st - B. blue star cafeteria on burnet - A+
with starbucks. i love starbucks chai lattes and iced chai lattes. no one (as of yet) makes as good of a chai drink as starbucks. and maybe this is because i don't actually like tea and sbucks makes theirs so scrumptiously delicious with no hint of tea taste. ive ordered chais at many a different coffee joints in hopes of finding a cheaper solution..but to no avail. i also love their vanilla bean frappucinos (no coffee...basically a real expensive vanilla milkshake).
i hate that it costs me over $3.50 for a small "tall" tasty treat. i hate that starbucks charges you to use their wifi. hello, you can get free wifi from dairy queen, schlotskys, saxon pub for goodness sakes. really starbucks, you are in such desperate need for money that you have to charge your customers to browse the net while drinking your already overpriced liquid concoctions? i hate that you have somehow gotten away with making chai with half a cup of hot water. i love that the guy at the drive thru let me in on this little secret so that i could make sure and ask for my tall chai latte with "NO WATER." granted, i can't taste a big difference but knowing that i didn't pay 350 cents for half a cup of hot water allows me to sleep better at nite.
so starbucks...i hate you. see you tomorrow morning...
however, i will give some props to the coffee shop inside of borders bookstores. next time you're in one, make sure and try one of their drinks. they have amazingly good stuff there. ive had both their vanilla chai freeze and a newer creme brulee freeze and both were exceptionally pleasing. plus, each time im there, there's about 5 other things i want to try. so, if you're anti starbucks (which i hear some people are) then try borders cafe. although i guess thats still kinda corporate america type...so then try dominican joe's. your money will go to helping communities in the DR.
goodbye to texas university...so long to the orange and the white...
good luck to dear ole texas AGGIES!! well unless you live in a cave and have absolutely no interaction with the outside world then you know that the aggies pulled off a beautiful win against those poor longhorns on friday. and sure, the game maybe had some bad calls and cheap shots...but at the end of the day...only one thing matters...and that is the sole fact that the ags won. and coming from an aggie living in a city where the pride of longhorn football is rampant, i sure don't mind anything that shuts up those longhorn fans. k state did a little bit of that and now the ags. it's just fantastic. ok enough of that. oh actually, one more thing. aggie basketball. we are currently ranked 10th. and the longhorns are ranked...oh wait...they aren't ranked. sorry bout ya.
in other thanksgiving news. turkey day was good for me and the fam. same ole, same ole...eat wayy too much food...take a nice afternoon nap...go home with lots of leftovers including an entire pumpkin pie. yes, mccoy family tradition...make 6 pumpkin pies...eat a couple day off and everyone gets one to go!! yum.
friday and saturday were BUSY. friday started out perfect with the game. oh, did i say i wasn't going to talk about that anymore? anyways...then it was all wedding, wedding, wedding. i won't bore you with details though. in summary - all in all a success. took over 900 pictures (have a lot of editing, sorting, etc. to do). don't know if i want to do any more weddings in the future (maybe a tad bit too stressful for my taste). wedding was beautiful and fun.
christmas lights are going up everywhere and i love, love, love it. and it's time to bust out your christmas cds! current favorite song - joy to the world, mariah carey. dont judge me. it's awesome. my roommates have had the "pleasure" of having me serenade them a couple of times. honestly, i think i sound just like mariah...
and now for a whole mess of completely unrelated info.
first off, happy early thanksgiving. i probably wont be blogging again until next week b/c this weekend is going to be super busy because of heather's wedding. yeah, it's finally here and i guess im near prepared? i have to still mess around with some lenses, test some settings, organize my thoughts and plan of action etc. luckily ill have friday to go out to the church and recep. to scope out the scene. im pretty nervous but just as much excited as well. it will be some great experience, im so happy to be able to do it for heather and steve, and it's something new to try and that's always fun, right? i will definitely let you know how it goes and will hopefully have some pics up by next week or so.
does anyone watch rob & big? it's on mtv and it's HILARIOUS. yeah i dont have cable but you can watch the entire eps on mtv.com. i laugh outloud..a lot...every episode. it's a reality show about a pro skateboarder (rob) and his bodyguard/best friend (big). rob is like 150 lbs...big is like 350 lbs. it's good times all around..i love it. they have a real cute bulldog named "meaty."
speaking of...yesterday jo and gave his dog, brutis, a bath. or rather, i was in the bathtub with brutis giving him a bath and jo was there for moral support. it too was good times. i realized the difference in trying to bathe a stocky bulldog vs. my little 12 lb. shih tzu. a bit trickier...
work is still good. made cookies for the boys today. i feel sorry for them bc they only get thurs. off and then have to be back to work on friday and saturday. that sucks. so i made them cookies as if that will somehow make up for it...
i guess that's about it. have yourself a fantastic thanksgiving holiday..be safe and all that jazz...
oh i put in mariah carey's christmas album in on my way to work today...how great is that? great.
i made it easy for you to subscribe to my blog thru bloglines if you want. just click the linky tab on the right and it will add it. if you don't know what bloglines is and are a daily reader of blogs then you should check it out b/c it makes life easier for ya.
you can also see the videos from my last post and some others by going here.
i updated my links on the right a bit. check em out.
sometimes you sacrifice something you really really enjoy and need in exchange for something that ends up being better than the aforementioned something. think im going somewhere deep with this? not really.
last nite i sacrificed a love of mine *sleep* for another love *music*. with these EARLY work hours (getting up at 545AM) im having to adjust to, my bedtime has changed a bit as well (need to be in bed by 10, but not ashamed to be in by 930). yeah, i have the bedtime of a 4th grader. and i eat lunches consisting of pb&j sandwiches..what is going on?
but last nite it was about sacrifice. i went to a show that didn't start till about 9 but it was worth it. opening act, ronnie day, was not too great. maybe great to some but not really my cup o tea. all of his songs started out the exact same way, his filler in b/w songs was awkward and not entertaining, and every song had to do with some girl named jamie that evidently broke his heart, kicked it around, and then stepped on it.
next guy, kyle riabko. pretty dang good. young kid. makes some crazy facial expressions. maybe has the skinniest arms ever for a guy his age. but give him a guitar and he tears it up.
final act. stephen kellogg and his band called the sixers. saw them early this year when they opened for pat mcgee. i knew their music before that show and was thoroughly entertained by the show then. wasn't let down this time either. they did a lot of the same stuff - a long yet humorous cover song medley, a couple songs acoustic style, some odd water bottle drink off, and yet again, the bass player (who is crazy) took his clothes off and danced in his boxer briefs. stephen is also a funny guy with dry humor and clever wit which fills in nicely between songs. and despite a lot of similarities to the last show i saw, it was still a really great show. so i guess that's just a reflection of their level of performance.
so all to say...im still a fan, if not even moreso now. was it worth only getting 5 hrs of sleep and being a wee bit tired today at work?
ellie said some funny stuff over the weekend. the first was when i showed up at her house and she looked at my sister, pointed at me and said "who's that?" my sister was like, you know who that is. and of course she said "katie" but evidently she had a memory lapse. then later her dad was asking her if she loved grandma and she said "yes." then he asked if she loved katie and she said "yes." then he asked if she loved uncle daniel and she said "no...but i like him.." poor uncle daniel..
im not allowed to eat out till thanksgiving. this is a rule i made myself. the first week and half that i was at work we didnt have a fridge so i went out to eat every single day. and i realize a lot of people do that every day but i just cant handle it. first of all it's not great on the wallet. second, i just feel like a hippo after a few days b/c i know what i'm eating is probably not the best for me. and sure i could make healthier choices but really how healthy can you go when you eat at freebirds? and then being in gtown all weekend just let to more eating out and cake and ice cream etc. therefore no going out to eat until after thanksgiving. and this is kinda rough bc if you remember, i just made that EXTENSIVE list of restaurants in austin i want to try. so now it just has to stay posted on my fridge for me to see everyday and tease me. i'm never going to get thru that list...
but we got a fridge last friday. actually, i got the fridge last friday. i took one of the guy's trucks, went to the fridge store, bought one, put it in the truck (well two guys did), and drove it back. a quite productive friday if you ask me. so im back to packing a sack lunch everyday. today is a gourmet spread of pb&j sandwich, cheetos, and a fruit cup. hello, am i 12? and i fully intend on replenishing my cheesy goldfish crackers when they go out and also getting some string cheese at heb today. hey...i gotta do something to stay young right?
my beloved sixers are now on a losing streak. yeah, sad but expected. hopefully they can turn that around on wednesday. however the ags have officially started basketball season with a win against prairie view last friday. im so excited about this season - we're gonna be awesome!!
that's all for now. it's so great to finally have a computer here at work...so that i can work super hard like i am now obviously...
my niece is still pretty dang cute. spent a majority of my weekend up in georgetown so i got some recent pics of the kiddos. i got my new camera lens that i love already so i got to try it out a bit.
saturday i got to market myself, or moreso my photography, at an open house my sister was hosting for her scrapbooking stuff she's a consultant for. im getting some more little photo jobs which is really exciting. i have a few fam portraits coming up and the possibility of doing some photography for another website. and i have another small job in two weeks - heather's wedding. please note the sarcasm in that. it's a huge job and i'd be lying if i said i wasn't scared, but luckily she's been great about it and assures me im not going to ruin her wedding. i hope i don't have prove her wrong. i'm sure ill write more about that in the next couple of weeks.
so that was basically the weekend. lots of fam time which was good b/c i hadn't seen them in a while. they all got to see the nose piercing for the first time and i got mixed reviews from "eww" (from the parents initially although they later took it back and admitted that it wasn't that bad) to "i like your new nose" (from ellie). gotta love that.
well it's 10:15 and past my bedtime. you think im joking? sadly i'm not...
well let's see...got myself a computer here and work so that's helped the boredom factor dramatically. i can now play on the internet, and we all know i got really good at that from my last job. so, i work in a trailer on a construction site...and i think i like it. yeah, maybe i've reached the bottom of the barrel...but i like to think of it differently. like, im a low maintenance gal who is ok with not dressing up for work and having a stress free, laid back job. so yeah, the attitude is definitely better - i think a lot of that had stemmed from having nothing to do. we're still in the beginning stages and things will definitely get busier for me, which im ok with, but for now im just going to enjoy the low key life.
not huge weekend plans. im going to be marketing my photography a bit in georgetown on saturday at some open house/convention my sister is hosting. not sure what it all entails but i got nothing to lose right? oh, i also just bought a new camera lens that ill get to try out this weekend which should be fun. it's probably time i get some updated pics of the rugrats, aka my niece and nephew.
big aggie game against nebraska on saturday. im going to stay positive and say we have a chance. sure, nebraska is playing well this year but we're at home and that usually helps us out quite a bit. keep your fingers crossed!
day five of work and everything is still being set up. i don't even have a computer yet so i can't mindlessly search the internet to pass the time. and ive learned that when you don't have that...it's REALLY hard to entertain yourself. i brought some sudoku puzzles but after about 5 of them i was bored and dizzy with numbers. from about 8-830 i fell asleep sitting up in my chair. not that it really mattered since no one else was there..but still...i would have rather had something to do than to be so utterly bored that i cant even keep my eyes open.
after a while i started reading things on the wall...i studied the year calendar for way longer than necessary. i stared at an office phone list looking at names of people whom i probably wont ever meet or need to call. then i came across a 'service guide' for the trailer. it had little random bits of "helpful" information on it. i will leave you with a point to remember that i couldn't help but be entertained by:
"Your lease does not include janitorial services; service changes to repair damages or failures caused by improper or inadequate electrical service, theft & vandalism, physical damage caused by accident, negligence, extreme weather or Acts of God."
anything in that stick out to you? maybe the "Acts of God" part? and yes, that's exactly how it's written. now..i don't know a lot of about trailer contracts or info sheets so maybe this is traditional verbiage...regardless...can someone tell me what qualifies as an "Act of God"??? at first i thought, oh it must be referring to a major tsunami or hurricane or something...however that would probably qualify as "extreme weather," yeah? so does "Act of God" mean like Jesus coming back or something? i don't feel like an everyday trailer service poster would include such references as the apocalypse but..whatever...maybe so?
so yeah, that's the most exciting thing that happened today at work...the most...
here's my friend eileen and me when i was in chicago this summer. as of sat. nite, eileen is engaged! it was a cute story and her now fiance planned all sorts of fun stuff all day long for them before proposing that nite. probably the best part of their story is the fact that his last name is "pankake." yes, pronounced like "pancake." did i mention that eileen is a teacher? yeah...that's great....she gets to hear "mrs. pankake" all day long. i can't help but smile everytime i run the scenario thru my head.
all to say...congrats eileen and david! i couldn't be happier for you guys. :)
well i started the new job last wednesday. and im not sure if it was necessary that i was even there those 3 days. the trailer is still in the midst of being set up and we just got office furniture on friday. therefore, for 2 days i just spun around on my swivel chair and stared into space. and the guys there were well aware that i didn't have anything to do yet i still had to be there. at one point i felt guilty that i was doing absolutely nothing and so i pretended to "work" by looking through the office depot catalog. not the weekly ad...the catalog...the 300 or so page catalog. i now know EVERYTHING that office depot sells.
all to say i dont feel like i can give an adequate summary of how work is seeing as how i haven't really done any of that yet. all i can say for now is that i work in a trailer on a construction site and haven't seen another woman for days... oh did i mention that i have to be at work at 7? which means that i have to leave by 630...which means that i have to awake in the 5 oclock hour. that's ROUGH. im getting up 2 1/2 hrs earlier than i did for my previous job...slight adjustment...
a couple of positive things though. the trailer has a bathroom which i didn't expect it to. i was fearing a 6 month future of portopotties. but dont you worry...these trailers are all fancy and stuff. well...maybe fancy is a huge overstatement but you know...
in other news...we all know, or at least you should, that i LOVE the nba and quite specifically the philadelphia 76ers. well the regular season started last week and as of today the sixers are undefeated 3-0. and no, the sixers aren't a super stellar team but my loyalty still remains with them and so just let me relish in this time of undefeatedness. and just so you know, the 3rd team they played was miami who was last years nba champs...so it's not like they just played crap teams. they're playing quite well and i have my hopes set high.
my hopes were crushed a bit last nite with the aggies loss to OU. SO SAD.
well that's about all. i haven't tried any new restaurants since hoover's. i have however added about 5 more to my list which i predicted to happen. so many dang places to eat in this city!
can we believe that it's already november?? when did that happen? christmas is coming! i love christmastime...
