Angry Cheerleaders

The kids had an early release day on Wednesday, so I picked them up at 12:30. We spent some time at home, and towards the end of the day I took them back to my work for about a half hour to wrap up a few things. While they were there, Kenneth played with Legos (which I keep in a drawer for those sort of moments) and Evelyn wanted to draw on my white board. She did a really good job on 2 cheerleaders. The problem came up when she decided to add teeth. All of a sudden the cheerleaders became angry-looking. The picture cracks me up every time I look at it. I erased it today because you never know who might walk by your cubicle and think you were spending time drawing people on your board. :)

You Should Tell People When They Have a Sticker on Their Face

I was at Evelyn's soccer scrimmage game tonight when I noticed that a couple of the parents were looking at me in a funny way. Evelyn had given me a sticker before the scrimmage and I put it on my shirt. Apparently my shirt didn't hold the sticker that well and I must have dipped my chin into my shirt and gotten it stuck onto my chin. LOL. It took me actually touching it to realize it was there. On that note: always tell people when they have something enormous on their face when you know if shouldn't be there.

Later in the evening, Evelyn pointed out a large freckle on her neck and said "an angel must have given me a really big kiss [insert prolonged pucker sound]". We call freckles "angel kisses."

Of Course Your AC is Connected to Your Sink Pipes!

Our upstairs air conditioner has been out for 4 days, and was finally fixed today. I will spare the details of why it took that long to fix it, but believe me, there were reasons. We had been sleeping with the upstairs windows down, and then shutting them during the day, which led to a very stuffy house by the time we got home each day. At least the downstairs AC was working.

The final "fix" was conducted by Rod and I, not the folks who installed our $2000 investment into a new outside unit. They had left and I noticed that cold air was still not blowing; Rod investigated and found that a float switch had been tripped, which could mean a couple of things, but in this case, it meant a somewhat rare event that was brought on by a clogged drain pipe that pooled into one of the piping structures under a sink in the kids' bathroom. The evening was spent with my thumb stuck up into a disgusting pipe against something that looked and smelled like sh*t so that I could create "pressure" so that when Rod yelled "OK!" and subsequently blew into the other end of the pipe (which was in the attic) I could count to three and remove my thumb from the sludge as the air forced the sh*t into the bucket below my hand. Of course this involved very awkward positions and a lot of cursing. We finished the job with our Wet/Dry shop vac (which has been way more useful than any appliance we have ever owned). Once that pipe was clear, the air conditioner blew cool air and has been working properly ever since. I would say that we're pretty good problem solvers.

The Tooth Fairy Has to Go to HEB

Evelyn lost her tooth yesterday! She is so proud. She told her teachers, her YMCA counselors, her Nana, her soccer coach, and our neighbor. I had to make a run to HEB to get some cash for the first lost tooth (we give $5 for the first tooth). When we were at a scrimmage game for Evelyn, I ran into another Mom that we know from Kenneth's grade, who was there with her children while waiting for her daughter's soccer practice to finish. When I told her that 'the tooth fairy has to go to HEB to get some cash' I got the withering look that basically indicated that I was not following the scripted Tooth Fairy Rulebook and that around her children, the tooth fairy does not need to go to HEB to get cash. LOL

Loose Tooth Update

Evelyn's first loose tooth is now almost out. It is bending forward all the way. The school nurse gave her a tooth-sized treasure box that she has been faithfully carrying--it has even made it next to her pillow in case it falls out during the night. If the tooth actually fell out in the middle of the night, the reality is that she would come crying into my room because her mouth was bleeding. We'll see if we make it to the weekend with this tooth.

Back in Texas!

Our last couple of days in New York were great. It was the perfect amount of time there to really enjoy ourselves without spending too much money. We slept in on Friday and had a bagel brunch at a deli around the corner once we got up. There is definitely not a shortage of delis and pizza shops in New York. We visited the Empire State building on the way to an unusual museum: The Museum of Sex. This is the place that has hosted the statue of Britney Spears giving birth on all fours and currently has a Hilary Clinton bust next to an exhibit about females and politics and sexuality and the fact that the interaction exists. I'll spare my reader guests any additional details about the museum, because it truly is something you have to experience for yourself. Thursday night we saw Mamma Mia! on Broadway. It was terrific as well, but in a completely different way from Rent.

Saturday was our last day in NY. We took the subway down to the former World Trade Center site and it is astounding in person. You can still see the destruction via the gaping holes in the ground. There are pictures that are representative of the events of 9/11 all around the gates of the area. So sad. Even several of the buildings around the area have a level of dirt on the outside that could not be normal wear and tear--it has to be from the effects of that day. After a brief time there, we walked a few blocks to South Street Seaport, from which you can see the Brooklyn Bridge and shop for hours (if you wanted to). We went to a museum down there that had the "Bodies" exhibit which has been in several large cities in the US and other countries. That was amazing. I don't think I could really describe it well in words.

After that, we took another subway to JFK Airport but got off too late and had to take a bus in Queens (I think) to complete our journey to the airport. I have no regrets about the trip. I think we got a lot done in the time we were there. I am happy to be home though. Kenneth woke up to say hello and he gave me the best hug. I tried to wake Evelyn up but she was sacked out.

Hey Man, Can I Piss in Your Ear?

Rod and I are having a blast in Manhattan. We landed in JFK Airport around lunchtime Wednesday and jumped on the subway from the airport, which took us staight into Manhattan. Once we reached our stop (the 42nd St. A-Train), it was only about a 3-block walk with our luggage to our hotel. The hotel QT is right off of Broadway and within walking distance to just about anything you'd want to do. It is an extremely modern hotel and the room basically is about the size of the queen bed that's in it. The first floor has a pool with a unique design, complete with movie theater seating around it and clear acrylic form-over-function chairs.

We had to head over to the Late Show theater to pick up our tickets for the Wednesday show between 3-4 PM, then back again at 4:45 to file into the theater for the actual taping. "The Rock" and Norm MacDonald were the guests. It was really, really neat to see that live. Rod and I have been Letterman fans for awhile. The theater is MUCH smaller than you would think from watching the show. It is also incredibly structured (the process of taping the show and bringing on guests, etc.) He didn't do any audience participation stunts, so there was no opportunity for 5 minutes of fame. Directly after the taping, we walked 3 blocks to Caroline's Comedy Club, where we met Kristin and Brian (my cousins) and Kristin's husband Chris. It was the first time we had met Chris, so that was great! I would say that the comics that performed at the 7 PM show were about half and half (half pretty funny, half not so funny). Regardless, we had a great time talking with Kristin, Brian, and Chris. One more note about Caroline's: we saw one of the finalists from Last Comic Standing sitting at the bar on our way out of the show! Too cool. While we were talking outside after Caroline's, believe it or not, I saw someone I know from Dell! One of my mentors is here on business with some other Dell VIPs and we happened to be on 45th and Broadway at the same time! Truly amazing how small the world is.

This morning Rod and I spent some time shopping. It is truly a fabulous place to shop. I spent a good hour and a half in H&M. If you are a female you have probably heard of H&M. Great prices on trendy stuff... The quality is clearly not the best, but most of it is not bad and you can really get some amazing deals. After that we went to one of the New York Public Libraries, which may sound boring, but this particular one was apparently a very old one and the building was architecturally amazing. It looked like a combination of a castle and a historic church, including an area on one part of the ceiling that was painted intricately with figures and other images. We made our way down toward Rockefeller Center and the Musuem of Modern Art as well. After that we rested in the room for about 30 minutes and got ready for our Thursday night Broadway show, Rent. Can I say that Rent was INCREDIBLE. We had amazing seats, about 15 rows back from the stage and centrallly located. The cast was fabulous and it reminded me again why I like that show so much. After the show we stopped by Connolly's, an Irish pub and restaurant. Rod had Irish beer and we both opted for traditional Irish food. Rod had Shephard's Pie, and I had Irish Beef Stew. YUM.

When we got back to the hotel, Rod decided he wanted to go swimming, so he went out to buy a pair of swim trunks at 11:30 at night. Of course, so many stores stay open late, so that is not as odd as it sounds. He came back with a pair of trunks with I-Heart-NY printed about 800 times on them. haha. On his way back from buying trunks, he said a guy stopped him on the street and said "Hey man, can I piss in your ear?" ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I still am laughing at that. What in the world would possess someone to say that?

Tomorrow is another busy day!

Paper Taste Good!

We had a pretty busy weekend. On Saturday, the kids had their first soccer games of the season. Both games were at 8:45 AM on Saturday, so Rod and I switched fields at halftime to be able to watch both kids. Evelyn is much more engaged than last season. She has always really liked soccer, but now she is running after the ball rather than running behind the other players. Kenneth is doing really well, too. His coach has been great this year and is teaching the players strategic moves. After attending our friend Gabi's 4th birthday at Pump It Up Inflatable Play Zone (the name suffciently describes the concurrent fun and chaos), we returned home and played a few games of Bingo. Evelyn got to practice her double digits by being the caller.

Today, Elena and Justin (our neighbors) came over. Justin, Kenneth, and Rod played the game "Risk" while Evelyn and Elena colored at the kitchen table. (Evelyn played Risk for awhile, but she got tired of it and Justin took over her slot). Before Elena came over, I was coloring with Evelyn. Evelyn looked at some of my work and pointed out that I had colored outside the lines a little bit. "But that's OK Mom, you tried your best." I overheard a very funny conversation between Elena and Evelyn:

Elena: (in a loud voice) "Have you ever ate paper?"
Evelyn: (in a serious voice) "I haven't ever tried paper."
Elena: (in a loud voice) "Paper taste good!"

It was cute enough to make note of it.

Evelyn Has a Loose Tooth

Evelyn was so excited because this week she had a verifiable loose tooth! She keeps wiggling it and announcing things like "I can't eat crunchy things on the left side of my mouth because of my loose tooth" and "My tooth almost got stuck forward!".

We went to a restaurant called Cafe Java tonight. There is one that I go to fairly regularly on my lunch break near work, but one recently opened up near our house. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is owned by the same folks and the menu is the same. Everything is so fresh -- I don't usually gush about restaurants, but this one's worth it. My favorite is the avocado grilled cheese with sprouts on whole grain bread. YUM.

Rod and I are making final plans for our trip to New York next Wednesday - Saturday. We had emailed The Late Show (Letterman) to be put in the queue for tickets, but they don't guarantee anything until the week prior. They call you with a trivia question and if you answer it correctly you get tickets reserved for you. I answered the question right so we're set up for the Wednesday taping. Look for me and Rod--maybe we'll get called for an audience participation segment! After that taping (which is actually from 5:30 - 6:30 PM the day it shows), we'll meet Kristin and Chris (my cousin and her husband) at Caroline's Comedy Club for a show. Thursday and Friday nights are reserved for the Broadway shows "Rent" and "Mamma Mia." We are very much looking forward to this trip. Nana will be staying with the kids while we're gone.

Steps 4 & 8 are "Silent"

On Brian's last night here (Saturday) we went with the whole family to County Line BBQ, which is an Austin favorite. Even my Dad ate his meal without wiping his mouth! Ribs, pork, smoked chicken, etc. You cannot purchase a single 'green' item from the menu. (Seriously.) They also make delicious homemade wheat and white bread. After dinner, Rod and I took Brian out downtown so he could experience a little bit of Austin's famous Sixth St. We started with salsa dance lessons at Copa from 9-10 PM. You get to rotate dance partners pretty regularly, but Brian and I ended up as partners during the merengue (SP?). Salsa was a little trickier than merengue. As the instructors kept reminding us, salsa is an 8-count dance, which gets confusing because steps 4 & 8 are "silent." Once you realize that it gets easier. After lessons and a little bit of dancing at the club, we walked around Sixth St, heading home around midnight.

Brian Visits Us in Austin

My cousin Brian flew down from New Jersey to visit us in Austin. I have not seen him since he was 10 and I was 16. For those of you who don't feel like doing the math, that is 15 years since we've seen each other! He is staying with my parents, but we will see him a lot this weekend. Dad was out of town till sometime late tonight, but we met up with Brian and my Mom at Central Market. Elizabeth, Josh, Caleb, and Kyle also drove up for the day to hang out with them. I got off work around 3 PM because of the holiday weekend, picked up the kids from YMCA, and headed down to meet everybody. On Friday and Saturday nights, for most of the year, Central Market has live local bands that play adjacent to the deck and playground area. Tonight there was a really great band so it made the visit really pleasant.


Tonight, Rod and Brian went out to an Irish pub (OK, it's Austin, and there's not a lot of folks of Irish descent, but we try). Rod had a couple of friends join them.

I think Austin is winning over Brian already!