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, December 28, 2006
christmas etc.
it will be hard to tell this story as entertaining as it was in person but here's my best effort. both my niece and nephew are without a doubt, momma's kids. they looove their mommy. don't get me wrong..they love their daddy too, but his role is more of a play with you, tease you, fix your toy type of figure in the house. my sister is a stay at home mom so she's around the kids a lot more - seen more as the provider, comforter, meet my needs type of figure.
so christmas linner (lunch+dinner) comes around and my sister kuleen is up getting things on the table and tells eric, "honey your job is to make sure our daughter is fed." "ok," he says. he then proceeds to ask ellie what she wants... "ellie, want some ham?" "no" "ellie, want some potatoes?" "noo" "ellie, want some applesauce?" "nooo" "ellie, want some green beans?" "noooo." so eric proceeds to fill his own plate and takes a break in asking ellie if she wants anything. kuleen comes back to the table and starts to eat. about a minute into the meal and ellie rests her elbows up on the table with her head resting on top of them looking oh so pitiful yet adorable, empty plate in front of her, and goes, "momma?" "yes ellie?" "momma...im hungry..."
it was awesome. we couldn't help but all laugh. poor eric..it's not like he didn't try - his efforts just weren't appreciated by ellie so much.
christmas was good. same ole, same ole...kids open like 10 gazillion presents while us older "kids" get excited by household appliances and dvd sets. at least ellie made it thru her whole pile unlike last year where about 2 hours into it she refused to open another present bc she was too tired. rough life, kid.
tonite is the much anticipated holiday bowl with the ags looking to beat cal. hopefully it will be a good game and hopefully the ags will win.
AI has made himself comfortable in his nuggets jersey and led the team to their first win with him on tuesday. im going to see him play in person in february against the mavs and i cannot wait!!
let's get straight to business - yesterday afternoon AI officially became a denver nugget. in return philly gets 2 players and some first round picks. so that, along with another likely top pick they will hopefully have the ability to build themselves a good team in 07.
my thoughts? im excited and approve of the trade. my loyalty has always been with AI so yeah, i'll follow him to the nuggets. i think this will be great for that team. you have the top two leading scorers in the nba on one team. and for once, AI will have a good team to support him. it's evident that the sixers were built around AI seeing as how they've done nothing but lose since he's been gone...11 games to be exact. that's pretty sad.
but i've always liked underdog teams and have remained a sixers fan the last 4,5 years despite them generally being terrible. and even though they don't have my AI anymore, they have the other AI (iguoudala) whom i love, and some other players that i think one day might rise up to their potential. so yeah, i'll still follow them...maybe just not as enthusiastically. but ive never been a one team fan when it comes to the nba...there are lots of teams i like because of specific players - the rockets with tmac, nets with antoine wright, pacers with o'neal, heat with dwade, boston with pierce, bobcats with morrison, etc etc. i just love the nba.
so there you have it. im glad it finally happened - now i don't have to keep refreshing the espn.com webpage every 10 minutes to see if anything has happened.
some interesting facts: within 30 min. of the trade being announced 340 season tix had been sold in denver and while AI was waiting around to be traded he earned around $134K for each game. not bad...
weekend recap (most of which is extreme makeover details)
a great weekend. kinda busy but still a lot of time to rest which is just what i was wanting.
my chef roomie molly had a dinner party she was doing on sat. nite so i helped her set up on friday nite. the best part about these parties is that i take my seat at our bar with an open mouth while she's prepping and cooking and "test" everything she makes. somebody has to make sure the food is good! and believe me, it ALWAYS is. she made this absolutely fantastic mango pico and ended up having some extra which i eagerly devoured. i think i had like a quart of it... she loves having me and yuna around because we aren't picky eaters and will basically eat anything in front of us. i guess the downfall is that we aren't so much legit critics since our reply to everything is, "mmm...good...more please."
saturday i was super productive...and then super lazy. worked out, cleaned my car inside and out, cleaned the house, my room....and then watched 3 movies in a row. basically a perfect day if you ask me.
sunday case and i went out to the extreme makeover house b/c the family was set to arrive home anytime between 12-4. so we got there at about 12...the fam got home around 245. and it was HOT. it was quite confusing...middle of december and im wearing a tank top and sweating profusely. but anyways, it was crazy packed..i think they said there was about 3,000 people out there which is a lot to pack on two streets. luckily the house was on a corner lot though so you could either be in front of the house and actually see the house, or you could be on the side street and although you couldn't see the house, you could see the family facing the house when the bus moved. so case and i were on the side and even though we got there 3 hours before the family arrived, were still pretty far back. they lined up all the worker volunteers on the side so they actually kinda blocked our view as well but i guess that's ok since they did actually build the house.
being there you learn some of the ins and outs of the tv show making (that sounds like an official term yeah?). for one, we got there at about 1215 and got real excited bc right at that moment we saw the limo pull up and everyone is yelling and cheering like crazy. but then the limo keeps going and we realize that it's all fake. they just film all sorts of test shots and who knows if the one that is aired is the "real one." they did this for other parts such as the crowd getting hyped before the fam gets there, the bus taking off, etc. and then when the family actually gets there that's all real (there aren't multiple takes for that, thank goodness). so after ty does his sentimental schpiel with the fam, the crowd gets to start the famous "move that bus!!" chant which i won't lie, it's pretty exciting. however...then the camera crew has to move to get the perfect shot of the bus leaving (in case the fake ones don't end up being great, i guess) and that takes a while so eventually the chanting dies down (quite anticlimactic). but then, the cameras are ready and they have the crowd start chanting again (and even though it's round 2, it's still pretty exciting) and the bus actually moves, the family reacts, everyone cheers, etc etc. and if we had been closer and could actually see the family i'm sure it would have been more exciting. i did take video on my camera but we were so far away and all the workers were blocking so you can really only see the top of the dad's head. so, i'm hoping some videos will show up on youtube or something soon.
oh, another thing...we were on the side by the garage which, up until the moment the family arrived, still had a bunch of stuff in it. they were actually closing the garage doors when the limo pulled up. and we heard from a lady (who sounded like she knew what she was talking about) that the house wasn't actually completely finished and so they were going to bring the fam home and film all the outside stuff, then take them to a hotel that nite while they finish, and then bring them back the next day and film the inside tour parts. the family did actually go into the house on saturday so i imagine the house is still pretty much done but it might just be little things here and there that need to be done to make the tv show look the best. and that's understandable...they did build a 7 bedroom, 5.5 bath house in like 106 hrs or something - let em have an extra day.
like i said, i took some video and pictures but we were so far away that they weren't fantastic. but you can click on this link hereand there are some pretty good pictures there that will show the progress and the "finished house." oh, ps...the house is absolutely GINORMOUS. and what's funny is that i heard an interview with the show producer on the radio last week and they specifically asked her how they handle the issue of creating these huge houses in a neighborhood where the rest of the houses are quite the opposite. the producer even said that they ran into that problem in the past but since then they've really worked on making the houses fit in better and that this house would have a lot of additions and differences on the inside but the outside wouldn't stand out too dramatically. um...HUGE LIE. don't get me wrong, the house is absolutely beautiful and you can see that from the pictures, but there is absolutely no way that you could drive down that street and not see the mansion from a block away.
ok i guess that's all you could ever want to know about that and more. it was fun though, im glad i went. the show airs feb/march and it will be cool to watch it and think that it all took place in austin. plus, im dying to know what the inside looks like!!!
10 days till christmas, folks. so start the countdown, finish the shopping, etc etc. is it hard for anyone else to believe that it's the middle of december? oh..maybe because its EIGHTY degrees outside? yeah, ridiculous. not really uncommon though..i can remember back to numerous christmas' where there was the possibility of wearing shorts outside on christmas morning. gotta love that texas weather.
my weekend is looking to be pretty low key which i could not be any more excited about. the past 3 weeks and weekends have been go, go, go, and i think my body is saying, please stop!! so yeah, i might engage in some quality time on the couch in front of the tv and i have absolutely no shame in that whatsoever.
in case you were wondering, my job is still ultra challenging. yeah, im up to maybe a whole 45 minutes of work that i do per day. and that's on a good day. i generally am sooo bored and sooo tired each day that around 2, 2:30 i end up falling asleep in my chair for about 10 minutes. its pretty great. ive learned all sorts of new games on yahoo...i find myself checking espn.com about every 10 minutes to see if AI has been traded yet...i go to supertarget during my lunch break and browse the aisles - this is actually the highlight of my day.
yeah, that's what they pay me the big bucks to do...or maybe just bucks. i can't really complain though..i just need to find some new things to keep myself entertained..might start bringing movies in or something.
well, i would say i need to get back to work but we all know that's a lie...at least now you do. really, i just don't have anything else to share. have a great friday and weekend!
finally added some pics to my photo website, including some from the wedding i did a few weeks ago. also added some more to the other groups. check it out... www.katemccoy.net
after reading over my blog just now i realized that upon inserting the pics, some of the sentences were completely out of order and messed up. so if you happened to be reading and thinking i was a complete idiot then well..you were halfway right. but i fixed it so hopefully it reads correctly now.
two things though. first off, you know that great show, extreme home makeover with ty pennington from trading spaces? you know...the one where they bulldoze a house and build an absolutely huge and fantastic one in like 5 days for a well deserving family and they fill it with a bajillion flat screen tvs and beautiful hardwood floors? and if you're a girl, or a guy with any amount of feelings, you're usually crying your eyes out at the end b/c it's so emotional watching this family get a brand spankin awesome house? yeah..well theyre in austin up north right now building a house for a family that has 6 kids, 5 of which are autistic. and yes, all the kids are biological. crazy huh? evidently theyre packing up the house today...demolition is tomorrow and then building starts after that. neat huh? im going to try and find out more info....
second..if you know me at all you know i love me some allen iverson. well, evidently he's going to be traded as early as today or tomorrow! although i do love the sixers, they are really sucking it up this year so if AI can get himself to a better team then im all for it...within limits. i will NOT be happy if AI becomes a laker or a mav. so we'll see...something should happen quickly and it will be interesting to see what happens.
the dallas family, that is. i went up to big d for the weekend to hang out with everyone and it was some good times. friday nite was "family dinner," a term actually invented back in cs in youth impact with little littles. it was at arlene's and there was quite a nice group there with a handful of out of town arrivals such as myself, patin, and peeples. we had a delicious mexican fiesta complete with tacos, dip, chips, rice, etc. then it was time for the draft, the boy draft that is. the girls got to draft their partners for a game. however we didn't actually partner up with our draft picks later so essentially the draft was all for nothing..but fun nevertheless. parker served as a fantastic commissioner and joey earned the most prestigious first pick although there might have been some girlfriend favoritism in there. cam eagerly presented her draft pick, who ended up being the commish himself, his team "jersey." i eagerly presented my draft pick, patin, with a team sweatband which had somehow gotten real stretched out...so not only was he quite ungrateful but the running joke was then that i have a ginormous head. awesome. we played some games...the favorite easily being a fantastic pictionary type game where everyone writes a statement or name on a piece of paper and you then hand it off to the person to your right. then everyone has to draw a picture of whatever is on the piece of paper they have been handed. and then you pass it on again except now you have a picture you're looking at and you have to write what you think it is. you continue this switcheroo until you are back to your original. usually, and it's often better this way, the end result is miles away from what it started off to be. a guaranteed good time though for sure.
and all that was just friday nite...saturday was busy as well. jen and i had a great time doing some shopping...got some great stuff. then the big basketball game sat. afternoon where the ags lost again...but only by 3 points...and there were so many turnovers which made it even more frustrating but life will go on...i suppose. took some family pics on sunday for the cute married couples - the parkers and bakers. attempted yet failed completely at watching cam, ck, joey, and mike finish the white rock half marathon. yes, they definitely all finished with great times and yes, we definitely all missed them finishing...quite sad. but way to go guys...yall are amazing.
some highlights of the weekend: some great mexican food at family dinner, rie praying that "we would all get along," absolutely absurd statements and pictures drawn during pictionary, the first ever family dinner boy draft, cam joking about jax "sleeping her way to the top" of the draft pick order, jen and i spending a good 20 minutes picking out scarves at gap, honey almond shmear at einsteins, playing cards at the parkers despite never securing a medal, bfast with jax at cafe brazil, mike asking halfway thru the meal at olive garden if i was still in town when in fact i was sitting two seats down from him, driving home with NO traffic despite it being rainy (a christmas miracle in my mind).
and now im back at work *sigh* where i am bored out of my mind and EXHAUSTED. today might be rough..
Three little birds, sat on my window. And they told me I don't need to worry. Summer came like cinnamon So sweet, Little girls double-dutch on the concrete.
Maybe sometimes, we've got it wrong, but it's alright The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same Oh, don't you hesitate.
Girl, put your records on, tell me your favorite song You go ahead, let your hair down Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams, Just go ahead, let your hair down.
You're gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow.
Blue as the sky, sunburnt and lonely, Sipping tea in the bar by the roadside, (just relax, just relax) Don't you let those other boys fool you, Got to love that afro hairdo.
Maybe sometimes, we feel afraid, but it's alright The more you stay the same, the more they seem to change. Don't you think it's strange?
Girl, put your records on, tell me your favorite song You go ahead, let your hair down Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams, Just go ahead, let your hair down.
You're gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow.
'Twas more than I could take, pity for pity's sake Some nights kept me awake, I thought that I was stronger When you gonna realize, that you don't even have to try any longer? Do what you want to.
Girl, put your records on, tell me your favorite song You go ahead, let your hair down Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams, Just go ahead, let your hair down.
Girl, put your records on, tell me your favorite song You go ahead, let your hair down Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams, Just go ahead, let your hair down.
first lets talk basketball. some sad stuff goin on...the ags lost on tuesday against lsu...so disappointing. im hoping for a win on saturday against ucla. it'll be a great matchup and i still believe in our aggies!! then, in professional news we all know that im a big sixers fan. well the sixers basically have the worst record in the league right now...they've lost about 82 gazillion games in a row. ok not really, but they might has well have. SIGH. hey, if anything, they can only get better right??
im going to big d this weekend. pretty excited about that. 3rd monthly family dinner is taking place and patin is coming in all the way from VA. im coming from austin but i guess he'll win for a bigger effort. what im looking forward to the most is being able to relax and not have a million things scheduled to do...plus hanging out with all those people guarantees that there will be some good stories to tell - stay tuned.
and with that, i finally finished editing all the wedding pics from two weekends ago. FINALLY. so i should hopefully have some stuff up on my website soon - ill let you know.
why? because the aggies are ranked SIXTH in basketball. yes, that's right - it's the highest they have ever been ranked and they deserve it. we have a great team this year and they've been playing great. tonite is the biggest game of the season thus far against LSU who we suffered a devastating loss to last year. saturday is another big game against #1 UCLA. but no worries, we'll play great and hopefully come out a with a win. im hoping they'll both be reminiscent of the junior high game i watched last nite that my friend jo was coaching with a final score of 56-1. hey, anything can happen, right? so anyways, i'm pretty excited and if you're near a tv tonite you should watch the game on fox sports sw.
now i can breathe. as in, this weekend was so crazy busy that i don't think i had a chance to do that. the weekend was great, but just non stop.
saturday was ellie's 4th birthday party and the theme was princess everything. shocking, i know. she might just be the most vain little 4 year old but i guess that's ok for now...it's actually pretty funny that she'll stare at herself in a mirror for extended periods of time. but anyways, the party was complete with dress up princess dresses and tiaras for the girls and knight costumes and swords for the boys. and yeah, there were lots of boys. she's 4 and already has like 3 boyfriends. there was a princess cake, princess pinata, princess this and princess that. afterwards the fam got treated to the restaurant of the princess' choosing...mcdonalds. you know you're young when the best restaurant in your world is mickey d's.
the rest of the weekend was filled with this whole photography career im trying out. 3 family portraits and one mini session of my roommate and her brother and sister in law for their christmas card. it was quite packed to put those all within a 2 day time span but i guess i should expect that with everyone wanting to get pics done in time for the holidays. it was great experience though and they all turned out pretty well. ill try to get some on my website soon. oh, and im stillll working on heathers wedding pics. should have those done soon and on the site. ill keep you posted though.
so yeah...the weekend was insane but now im back at work wishing for a little of that busyness. im doing some paper grading for a friend and im actually pretty excited about that. anything to make the day go by faster and besides, reading papers written by 4th graders has got to be entertaining, right?
