a tease of good weather

this past weekend was full of blue skies and perfect weather. sunday was a bit colder but still nice and sunny. i hung out at town lake on saturday taking advantage of it all. i love going to auditorium shores, aka dog city, because you'll find no less than 50 dogs running from their owners, jumping in the water etc...it's great..i love it.

recently austin got involved in a project called guitar town. basically local artists have created these amazing 10 ft "gibson" guitars that are displayed all over the downtown area. so far i have found about 9...there are 35 total. 4 of them were at town lake so that's what the pics are. maybe i'll try to find them all...we'll see. anyways, they're pretty cool and some of them have even been signed by local bands, celebrities etc. check out more about it here.

ABCs of music

i was trying to find something remotely interesting to blog about today on this wonderful day known as friday. i found this and thought it could be fun for anyone who has an inkling of interest in music...

favorite bands from A-Z: (and just to make it exciting ill add a good song, but not necessarily my favorite one)
Amos Lee - Southern Girl
Broussard, Marc - Home
Counting Crows - Murder of One
David Gray - Now & Always
Eric Clapton - I'm Going Left
Fray, The - Look After You
Gomez - See the World
Harcourt, Ed - The Storm is Coming
Iron & Wine - Radio War
Jamie Cullum - I Could Have Danced All Nite
KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See
Lamontagne, Ray - Forever My Friend
Mayer, John - Stop this Train
Nutini, Paolo - Loving You
Outkast? - Rosa Parks
Patty Griffin - Rain
Quiet Company - Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History
Ryan Adams - Dance All Nite
Schneider, Bob - World Goes Round
Taylor Hicks - The Runaround
U2 - Walk On
Votolato, Rocky - White Daisy Passing
Will Hoge - Woman Be Strong
Xscape - Just Kickin' It
Yorn, Pete - Sleep Better
Zeppelin, Led - D'yer Mak'er

this is obviously not a completely true list because some of my fav artists had the same initial so i was torn and forced to choose...but i felt like i would be cheating if i put more than one...

have a GREAT friday and an even better weekend!

something awesome

so you might already know about this, but in case you don't then you'll want to. ever need a phone number for a restaurant or something but don't have a phone book? well, of course you can call information, 411 or whatever. but..did you know you can also just text google and it will text you back?!

for example, this past weekend i wanted to call hula hut (my favorite restaurant) to see what the wait was like. so i texted "hula hut austin tx" to google (466453). within about 2 seconds i received a text that read" local listings: chuy's hula hut 3825 lake austin blvd. austin 78703 512-476-4852"

is that not awesome?? but there's more. it's not just an interactive yellow pages. you can text in a number of random queries and get such information as: weather, language translations, movie times, sports scores, currency conversion, etc, etc. learn more about it here

google, you're neat. no wonder you're the number one place to work for..

ps...i cannot take credit for knowing this was all possible. my good friend ck enlightened me and to her i am forever grateful.

sigh

the ags lost last nite...to tech...dirty, stupid tech. quite a tragedy.

so, on a lighter note...here's a work story for ya.

one of our workers here needed a letter of recommendation from one of the foremen. so he said, sure, we'll write you up one. so him and another guy here whipped up a nice little letter for the guy. but not without creating a fake one first. the fake one wasn't quite as positive as the first one. in fact it was quite the opposite and about 3 paragraphs in length of all the reasons why this guy was an absolute terrible excuse for a worker. my "favorite" sentence of the letter started off something like, (and excuse me for taking my blog to an inappropriate for children level) "i would rather slam my nuts in a drawer than [recommend you for this apprenticeship or something like that]" and apart from that sentence i must say it was very eloquently written and remained on a somewhat professional sounding level but just said incredibly terrible things about poor jose. terrible...yet hilarious.

and who got to be the one to hand the letter to the guy when he came? yep, me. he came in, asked for it, i gave it to him, buried my face in my hands because i couldn't look at him while he read it, he read it and quickly realized that it surely wasn't the right letter, started laughing, i gave him the correct letter, he decided he liked that one a little better.

and that is why i love working with all men. never a dull moment.

suck it up, UT

how ridiculous is this...UT is suing an aggie business owner over their "saw em off" logo which is basically a longhorn with the horns broken or "sawed" off (see pic). if you've attended a&m within the past 12 years then you are familiar with it. and if you've lived in texas or even been around other aggies within the last 12 years then you've probably seen it. why? because it's been around since 1995!!!! but for some reason, they decide now, 12 years later, to sue.

give me a flippin break. are you still bitter that we beat your overrated team this year or what? can't you just let us have that? or are you bitter that our basketball team is WAY better than yours this year? so now you have to suddenly act like this is the first time you've seen it and are suddenly so upset that you feel the need to sue?

GET OVER IT. whatever happened to a little normal school rivalry?

a fabulous weekend

some pics and a video from the will hoge show!
the girls
the bandkel & me
"kelly"group at hula hut - it was sunny!!!!

home & abroad

you might remember me talking about taking pics of austin a while back for a travel website. well the pics are finally up and you can check out the site now. it's pretty cool - you can put together travel itineraries based on what city you're traveling to and it recommends attractions of similar interest etc. anyways, just check it out for yourself if you feel like it. i took most of the pics for austin, but not all. my name is on the ones i took though so you should be able to tell.

choose austin as your destination

my profile

thought i should give the real world a try again..

im back at work. first time since about 11AM on monday. and i never thought i would say this, but it's GOOD TO BE BACK. moreso, it's good to not be in my house anymore. in the last 72 hrs or so i have watched about 10 movies and probably the time equivalent of tv shows. but alas, the ice is melting, stores are open, roads are safe, the world is good again.

the one redeeming part of ice storm '07 was that it snowed on tuesday!!! how fantastic was that? i didn't manage to get any pics which is kinda a bummer since it only snows in texas once every 8 years or so. however, i definitely made sure to go out and frolic in it for a bit. did anyone else suddenly feel like they were a giddy 8 year old once they saw that it was snowing outside?? yeah that was pretty great.

so, the new season of 24 started on sunday/monday and it was pretty great. honestly i don't know if it was the strongest premiere out of all the seasons but still good. i can definitely say that jack bauer has raised the bar on methods of killing people though. i won't go into details but if you watched it then you know what i'm talking about.

i didn't watch american idol however. i think im going to try and postpone getting involved in that for as long as i can. though i did find out today that chris daughtry is playing at stubbs here in austin in a month or so. id be lying if i said i wasnt kinda excited...

well that's all i got for now.

habla espanol?

these past two days have been the most challenging at work. we got two new workers in - brothers, and they both speak spanish. and ONLY spanish. do any of the guys here in the office speak spanish? absolutely not. leaving me. and although i should be fluent with the mass amount of spanish i took in hs and through college, i quickly learned that when you don't use it - you lose it. so here was the challenge laid before me - get both of them thru 4 pages of paperwork, explain to them how their time keys work, explain how payroll works, and get them their equipment.

so it's been good and bad. good bc i love spanish - probably why i took so much of it in school. the ability to speak a different language is so cool to me and spanish was fairly easy for me to pick up for some reason so i really enjoyed it. so it's definitely been fun to try and communicate with them. the bad part is realizing how rusty my spanish is and thinking of how much of those classes i took was not retained. i can't imagine what some of the sentences i said actually translated as...and who knows how many times i was making up words by just "spanish-izing" them. adding "el" in front or adding random letters to the end and making it sound spanishy. doesn't really work. i got lots of confused looks but they were both pretty good sports and found it quite entertaining to say the least.

and in the end, everything got done to a somewhat successful degree and it was more than anyone else could have done. so maybe that's what i can do with all my spare time...take some online spanish courses.

but for now...im going to watch grey's anatomy from last nite. finally a new episode!

have a great weekend everyone. looks like its going to be rainy, gross, and cold. be safe!

one more

ok so i must direct you to cute overload. today there is some exceptionally cute/funny stuff. im still laughing about the pic of the snowy dog. you'll understand when you get there.

random tidbits

this morning i went to heb to pick up some celebratory bday cupcakes for an alleged birthday for one of the guys here. i have since found out that the bday was a lie and he has been banned from the bday cupcakes. not like it was a big deal that i spent $2.50 on heb cupcakes but im learning to not believe a word that comes out of these guys mouths. but anyways, when i walked into heb i was greeted by a larger than life display of those crappy chalky conversation hearts reminding me of the glorious holiday known as valentines day that is about a month away. really? we're going to start reminding us single people of our singlehood already? faaaantastic... (im not really one of those super bitter women disgusted by valentines day...but i am disgusted by those convo hearts...does anyone really think they taste good??)

the annual list of 100 best companies to work for just came out. since i will inevitably be unemployed in 4 months or so i think im going to make it a goal to get in with one of these companies. there's obviously reasons they're good and who doesn't want to like or even better, love where they work?

3 days...3 days till the premiere of 24. i am SOOO excited. you should be too.

i found this link on a friends blog. you put in text from a blog or book you've written if you are that talented and it predicts your gender. well...i did my last 7 blog posts and luckily 4 out of the 7 predicted i was a girl. however, when i was predicted to be a boy it was by a landslide (and when it said girl, it wasn't by a lot). i don't know how i feel about this. i'll be the first to say im not a girly girl...but i am a girl...hmmm. maybe i need to start incorporating more "like, oh my gosh" and "makeup" and "ponytails" and "bunnies."

pondering...

every so often my thoughts will wander from the topics of tv shows and food to more serious topics such as faith and purpose in life. i always feel like i need to throw out a disclaimer first b/c i know you might not expect it. maybe this year i'll try to incorporate more so that you do actually believe i am a person of more depth than say, tv shows and food...and honestly it's all kinda therapeutic for me so maybe im just writing for my own benefit but hey, if somewhere along the line it helps you too and makes you think, then i guess it's all worth it.

so here are my thoughts of late. i suck at reading my Bible. my prayer life is weak. my faith is at times wavering. and it's not like this is a newfound struggle...pretty much been a lifelong thing. on a regular basis i'll get motivated/convicted at church but somehow in that 10 minute drive home i've already lost the motivation.

now, maybe your first response is, "it's ok kate, i'm the same way!!" and i don't doubt that there are a lot of people that are. i bet that if i stood up in an environment of believers at any given time that a handful would say, "yeah, i don't have the desire to read," or "i fall asleep at nite when i pray," or "where's my Bible??"

but that doesn't make it ok. and that's the point i'm getting to. i think there might be a fine line between empathy/encouragement and cutting each other too much slack. it's good to know that i'm not the ONLY person with this "problem," however, i already know that. hearing everyone agree with me doesn't necessarily make me feel better but it does allow me to justify it. see God, i'm not the only one...

so i was talking to a close friend about this the other nite and her response was the one of empathy/encouragement. HOWEVER, it went a step further and i think this is the difference. she said, "well, what are we gonna do about it?" "let's fix it."

so, we're taking some active steps to remedy the situation and it may not be a blast, we might not be able to immediately put 'reading the Bible and praying" under our list of most fun hobbies, but i do trust that God will bless our efforts. and in my opinion, we've already taken the hardest step.

all to say, i guess my point is this: stop making excuses for yourself. it gets you nowhere. find someone that you trust that will give you a kick in the pants when you need it. and after all, it's a new year right? here's your opportunity to start off on the right foot.

ponder that.

tour de office

i know you were all (and by all i mean the 4 people that read my blog) dying to know what my fancy office looked like. well you can put those inquiring minds at ease b/c here is your official tour.

my fancy throne fully equipped with my own portable heater and luxurious throw rug. i must admit though, my chair is pretty sweet - great for naps.

the rest of the office where actual work is done
my drawer where the necessities are kept - snacks, books, magazines, air freshenersthe "breakroom" (aka rest of trailer) the plans...pretty important stuff so i keep my distance. sometimes i insert new drawings and that's generally the highlight of the week
the beverage station although ive never touched the
coffee maker bc i dont know how to actually make coffee...hand sanitizer. my best friend. notice the alligator
label with my name. sometimes i get carried away with the label maker...my nextel phone. rarely use it thus explaining
why the # is taped to the outside. the walkie talkie function is a blast though.. last but not least - my badge. can't be
caught without it. don't look closely..it was early...

i liked the 4 day weeks...

no christmas...no new years...back to 5 whole days at work. bah.

the weekend was pretty good. can't complain. actually worked out friday, sat, and sunday. can't remember the last weekend i did that. don't know where the motivation came from either - wish it was a little more consistent.

saw the movie freedom writers on sat. didn't have the highest expectations b/c it was supposed to kinda be a dangerous minds rip-off so i thought it would really have to be good to win me over. well, it did. it was great. i cried like 4 times! not that that is necessarily the deciding factor for the quality of a movie...but it doesn't hurt. kinda heavy at times but overall a pretty good flick - i recommend it.

went to dinner last nite with my old community group - so fun. went to trudys - not my favorite and i dont understand why the wait is always forever long...must be those mexican martinis they're famous for. but conversation was great - we had a good time.

some random stuff...been listening to a new cd lately - the man who killed love by will hoge. getting ready for his show in a couple of weeks. the cd is quite good. my favorite song by far - woman be strong. you can check it out in my sidebar --->

cinnamon dolce latte is back at starbucks. get one. you will love it.

hey...have a great monday.

it's friday...i'm in love...

(that's a song lyric...i'm not in love, unless you count being in love with the fact that it's friday)

it's seems like it was just yesterday that i was obsessed with american idol, following it week by week, stressing out about the results show, etc. however, it was a year ago and the season ended the end of may. but anyways, new season is starting in a couple of weeks and i am filled with an equal amount of excitement and dread. excitement b/c as much as i don't want to, im going to become obsessed. dread b/c it is quite the time consumer. 2 hours one nite for performances and 1 hour the next nite for the results (which really could be condensed in 15 minutes). i did learn a trick last season though - record the show and watch it right after. you can fast forward through boring performances and commercials and still vote before the time deadline expires for the nite (yes...i did vote). but back to what i was saying...it's a commitment. but...well...i'm committed.

more importantly though, 24 is starting soon. and that premiere is 4 glorious hours spread over two nites and somehow that huge block of time only excites me more! shoot...i'd take 6 hours if they'd give it to me. cannot wait. jack bauer is my hero.

so i guess 2007 will start off alright. besides some good tv, my calendar is filling up with all sorts of wonderful things. going to see the broadway production of the lion king with the roommates, going to the a&m/ut basketball game here in the atx (where we will undoubtedly beat them), going to see my new nugget AI play in dallas against the mavs, and of course a handful of good concerts already on the radar.

happy friday!

well hello 07

a new year is here and i dont have too much to show for it so far. monday, the first, was spent in my pjs until about 6PM, watching 3 bowl games, and even managing to squeeze a nap in there somewhere because evidently my body thought i was just working way too hard. a bit embarrassing, but kinda awesome all at the same time. here in my work trailer there is me, the aggie, kevin the sooner fan, and denny the die hard notre dame fan. all of our teams lost our bowl games - but i guess it's better that we all either win or lose in order to keep the trash talking to a mininum.

i started a new book yesterday which is a phrase that unfortunately is rarely matched with "i finished a book today." maybe '07 will prove to be different. anyways, it's called the know it all and it's all about this guy who reads the entire encyclopedia brittanica set. and as much as it sounds lame, it's actually really funny. the chapters are the letters of the alphabet with each containing random tidbits of info. from the corresponding letter as well as incorporating stories from his own life. ill tell you what i think at the end...if i finish.

last week i tried a sandwich place called which wich. really good. it's a chain so there's probably one near you somewhere. you get this little brown bag where you kinda create your sandwich with the help of some already pre-selected options...all of the sandwiches are toasted and they're only $4 each! plus they have (at least the one i went to) sonic ice! and if you don't know what i mean by that then shame on you. and speaking of eating out establishments - i haven't made a huge dent in my list o austin restaurants i want to try which is kinda sad. it gets pricey...but as long as i continue to reside here and don't die anytime soon then i guess i still have time.

this is quite fascinating to me

read this article

YEAR IN REVIEW!

'06 is done with and '07 is here. therefore it's time for your year in review. with the aid of blogging archives i will go over the highs, lows, and favorite memories of 2006. ENJOY!

2006 was busy...this is what happened...give or take lots of things:
*the longhorns became national champions and everyone, and i mean everyone in austin suddenly became a longhorn fan (except for loyal aggies, that is).
*jan 6th i had an epiphany that i might want to do wedding photography. sept. 25th i shot my first wedding. also related in photography - i started taking this hobby a bit more serious and got a good camera, some great lenses, did a handful of portraits, got a "real" website up and running, and did a contract job for a travel website.
*a bunch more people got married, a few had babies, and some more got engaged
*i went to vail, chicago, and disneyworld!
*GREAT MUSIC - besides the obvious weekend of ACL filled with numerous good shows, some other favorites of the year include, but are not limited to: stephen kellogg (2x), pat mcgee, david gray, jamie cullum, robert randolph, jonny lang, pete yorn (2x), and amos lee
*taylor hicks won american idol on my birthday and i fell in love with the show - so you think you can dance
*my pup of 12 years, mollie, went to doggie heaven
*my family entertained the idea of moving VA, decided against it, my parents bought a house across the street from my sister and decided to basically tear the whole thing down and make a new one
*i moved...AGAIN...4th residence in 20 months - should be a crime
*i decided i really hated my job...lost it..."enjoyed" the life of the unemployed for a while...got a new temporary job that's super boring but about 100x more enjoyable
*got my nose pierced and am still loving that!
*the ags proved themselves in basketball in the 05-06 season by beating 5th seeded syracuse in the first round and barely lost by a point to LSU in the 2nd round. they've continued to play well this season to assure ags that they aren't going anywhere
*my dear AI finished his days as a sixer and donned a new uniform as a nugget
*the popular extreme home makeover show came to austin and i went to the house to welcome the family home (with 3,000 other austinites..)

there you have it - 06 in a nutshell. here's to '07. cheers.