Misc Collection of Updates

Is it odd that despite blogging for something like 23 days of September, I still managed to feel like I missed somethings? Here's the updates in a nutshell.

• Last weekend when having dinner with my in-laws, we received the flag from Gramma's funeral. Its home is now a place of honor in our living room on the shelves that Spike built. It's really nice.
• Brittney's blog reminded me that I never told you which of the many avenues of involvement I had selected. Selection isn't complete but I did join the 2011 Cattle Baron's Ball committee (American Cancer Society fundraising gala). I'm helping with the Children's Art Project.
• Thank God that Anna peer pressured Emal into starting a blog. I basically consider that I have about six friends from college to whom I was fairly attached at the hip and still remain relatively attached...by some very long stretched out triangle shaped cord. Well Amanda, Val, Anna, Jane and Jess are all blogging but (Kristin) Emal was holding out. But haha! She succumbed to the peer pressure of Anna. Nicely done Anna, nicely done.
• Still on the same note of girlfriends and blogs, I really enjoy reading how we've all...I dunno, grown. For example, when we were roomies, I never knew Amanda to be religious. Since then she's converted (kinda) from Polish Catholic to Roman Catholic, married in the church with a full mass, goes with her family to church every Sunday and caters the annual church kick-off dinner. Or Val, she's gone mostly veggie and moved to the West Coast, a complimentary pair if I do say so myself. In about a year Jane will go from Ms. Harries to Dr. Theriault (I mean I guess, assuming she takes his name). Jess and Anna have both found themselves attached to the south and Emal has become the Jersey girl. Who woulda guessed it all!
• October is here! (OK you probably realized this already.) That means we're going to celebrate our first wedding anniversary this month. It also means the lovely weather that is Texas in the fall is very much present.
• Blog for your breasts! Yesterday as the beginning of breast cancer awareness month was the official "blog for your breasts" day. The day got away from me and I totally didn't do it. So I'm making up for it today by saying I SUPPORT THE FIGHT AGAINST BREAST CANCER and this YouTube video about research to do such is pretty cool too.

A New Round of Reviews

I meant to review these books for you as I finished them but alas, I failed at that. But a few reviews here and I'll be all caught up!

readinggroupguides.com

Bound South by Susan White is one that a southern gal can appreciate it. The story focuses on a mother-daughter pair from a wealthy, conservative Atlanta neighborhood and the trials of growing up and especially breaking away from your roots. There is a secondary mother-daughter pair with their own story line but for me, they were harder to relate to. While any mother or daughter can say "oh yeah been there," if you live in the South, you can say it that much more often and laugh that much louder. Verdict: Good, easy fluffy read. I think Anna and Jess should especially read it, given their new-found Southern roots.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory is a lot like most her other books, in that John Grisham can't-read-too-many-back-to-back-because-they-are-all-the-same way. So if you like royal European historical fiction, grab it! If you don't...eh. I would suggest reading this before reading books like The Other Boleyn Girl and the others about King Henry's court. This one is how his wife, Catherine of Aaragon, comes to the throne and is essentially the pre-quel to all the others. But if you read them out of order as I did, no harm done. Verdict: only if its your preferred genre.

Feast of Roses by Indu Sundurasen is the sequel to The Twentieth Wife and suffers the same shortcoming: too wordy. The story is good - how Empress Mehrunnisa rules India through her husband - but at some point there began to be too much description of the political climate and not enough action. Do I really care if the prince's elephant fell during his rebellion? No. I haven't quite finished the book yet, about 20 pages to go, so if things turn around and the end wows me, I'll let you know. Verdict: eh, pass.

I'm about to start Mockingjay, the third and final book from the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Cannot wait! Will let you know how it is, but "wonderful" "page-turner" and "thriller" are all words I expect to be using.

Side Note
Upon proofreading this I found many embarrassing typos. All communications professionals should be mildly ashamed of me.

If I ruled the world...

Brittney recently posted a letter to men re: elevator etiquette. It got me thinking of all the things that need correcting. And since at age 25, with less than a year of marriage under my belt and no kiddos, I am obviously the most qualified person to correct these, I thought I would start by writing them down. So...

When I am Queen of the Universe...

1. Men will hold doors. Forgive me if you have heard this story but it is quite possibly the most horrifying example of dead chivalry I ever saw. In Australia there were two young couples, both with babies in strollers, leaving the hostel I was at. Instead of the men opening the doors for their wives and babies, the women used the strollers to push open the doors and then held the doors for their husbands. OMG. ABSOLUTELY NOT. It's bad enough when a hubby doesn't hold the door for his wife but when he makes her open it using their child's stroller!?!?
2. Brittney's elevator etiquette will be observed.
3. Children will wear shoes in public places. I mean really, just gross to have your toddler running all over the grocery store barefoot. Children restrained by strollers are exempt.
4. People will not rubber-neck at car accidents. No reason to slow down the unaffected side of traffic. Tell me you disagree with this. I dare you.



my local traffic light,
every morning before work

5. Traffic lights will allow more than one car to pass through before turning red again.
6. The whole world will embrace one form of measurement. And I doubt it even matters which one. We could go back to measuring things in hands as long as we all did it the same.
7. People will say "thank you." Didn't we learn this in kindergarten? (Ladies, especially important to invoke when a man implements # 1 or any other similar act. It's only fair.)
8. We would all have our birthdays off of work. Thank you GSCTX for my million days of vaca that enable me to implement this one now.
9. Parents of young screaming children will be cut some slack. Trust me, they want their child to be quiet too. It isn't for a lack of trying that said child is screaming.
10. And finally, teleportation will replace driving, making numbers 4 and 5 irrelevant. I should have thought of this several rulings earlier.

Recommendations for things I missed?

PS Perhaps I shall tackle the more serious list of healthcare, early childhood education, student loan debt, bankruptcy laws, etc at a later date. I feel that might require additional research.

New 'Do

Have I told you about the new hair salon I go to now? It's a riot. It's called "Trashy Roots" and the primary decor is skeletons. And no, not skeletons because Halloween is somewhat close. This is just their thing. The walls are bright pink, which really highlights the black and white skulls. And most the stylists are exceptionally tattooed. Walking works of art they are.

Now please imagine me, preppy skirt or dress and a brightly colored Coach purse, walking in to get my cut. Talk about a fish outta water.

But they always do a great job so I just kinda giggle at how out of place I look and keep going back. Today, while surrounded by hot pink and skeletons, I had quite a lot of hair cut off. See?

It isn't the best picture but I am not having a very photogenic day (perhaps has something to do with not putting any make up on, taking self-portraits and solely using my iPhone. And yes, this was taken in a dressing room. I wanted to show my hubby but was out shopping and was too impatient to wait until I got home). But I think from the picture you can gleam that my hair is about chin length now.

Big thanks to Monique from the land of skeletons for hooking me up with this hot new 'do!

Bark Park, Georgetown

Yesterday we took Lexi to explore Bark Park in Georgetown. We went fairly early, around 2:30 so before most people were out of work. There was not a soul to be seen! (Ok well eventually one lady and her dog showed up. They were nice but not very playful.) We're hoping to go on a weekend sometime and hopefully find more puppies to play with.

As for a review, plenty of space, big oak trees, really pretty, water fountains, little kiddie pools for the puppies and a cool obstacle course. Though I can say, Ross and I definitely used the obstacle course more than Lexi. She was a very hard sell. Even with treats to entice her on the other end, she was just not into going through hoops or walking on ramps.

I really liked that it is part of this wonderful string of parks. There is a playground, baseball fields, dog park, jogging path and more all connected to each other. It's a wonderful big green space fairly close to the town center and right next to the Rec Center. I definitely think we need to return and hopefully find more pups there to play with.

Also I'm famous now. Wednesday Rosetta Thurman, a young NPO hotshot was in town from DC to speak at Greenlights' Texas Nonprofit Summit. Since she is active in YNPN, our local board took her out to dinner when she arrived. And she blogged about it - see it here. So like Haila said via Twitter today, I'm totally famous now.

Plan B

In the days BBI (Before Break In) I had all my lovely blogs saved in Explorer's RSS reader. It was lovely. Well of course when the jerks took my laptop they also took that lovely helpful list.


You may notice the "Blog-o-rific" list to the right becoming longer. It's my Plan B. As long as I'm using a loaner laptop, I need a virtual space to save my blog reading list. And this gets to be it. Maybe it is some kind of divine intervention so that I may share all the blogs I love with you. Maybe? I'm really reaching here, trying to find a silver lining to Shitstorm 2010.

Amanda and new baby Taygan



Oh yes, and to share with you, this became an increasing need this morning because Amanda, my college roommate who is a new mom and also the best chef I know, started a food blog! Yum! And I'm pleased to report it isn't exclusively food; she also promises baby inclusions. Food and babies! What's not to love!?

PS Omigod I blogged twice in less than 12 hours...most of which were sleeping hours. What is wrong with me!? The compulsive need to write is taking over!