Just Another Day at the Old Job

Last Friday Ross had the biggest fire he's fought to date. And he was one of the guys with the hose and thus was responsible for putting out about a fourth of it. Even one of the veterans commented to him how well he did.

Here's one of the pics taken as part of their documentation.



I'm very proud of him for doing such great work and being so good at it.

#BenAnnaWedding

I thought this was so funny that yes, I am taking a second from work to blog about it.

Y'all Anna set up a Twitter hashtag for her wedding! Isn't that hilarious? I fully intend to use it...like during the ceremony. I'm envisioning a live Twitter feed of "Here comes the bride #benannawedding" and "Ben's on the spot! Will he say I do? #benannawedding"

Some things in life are just too funny. If you are traveling to #benannawedding this weekend, make sure you use the tag and follow it. Hehe, this weekend just got even better.

It's my birthday and I'm kinda a big deal

And no, I'm not really that cocky. I only say that because I wrote this little blog today about donating my birthday (the big 2-6 y'all) to the Breast Cancer Resource Center via Causes, a Facebook app for micro-giving and Causes actually picked it up and posted it on their website. And Causes is kinda a big deal so by proxy, I am also kinda a big deal. Sweet.

By the way, if you are wondering, my Birthday Wish for the BCRC has raised $336 so far. Woohoo! Thanks y'all!

PS I've been snacking at my desk while surfing the Internets and consequently, feeding Lexi little bites. She's become so spoiled that if I go too long between bites for her, she's started pawing at me as a reminder that she's here. As if the furry face and slobbery mouth weren't reminder enough.

Graphic V-Easter-Birthday Weekend Wrap Up

As you can see, it was a big weekend in Austin. Mom & Dad drove in Saturday to spend it with us. Here's what we did (pics to follow, Mom is emailing them to me).

• Bark Park: Took Lexi & Sweetie up to G-town to run out some of their energy. Very good idea.
• NxNW: The four of us went out for my birthday dinner to one of mine and Ross's favorite restaurants. The skillet grilled cornbread with goat cheese and mushrooms was outstanding. Right as we were finishing dinner the power went out. Very sad for the restaurant but really worked in our favor since they took 50% off the bill as their apology. Nicely done NxNW, nicely done.
• Graphic V: The Breast Cancer Resource Center fundraiser at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. It was great! One of the things I thought was really funny was pre-event when I asked about the attire it was described as "trendy." I didn't really know what to expect but they were spot on, trendy was the only way to describe the bunch. Loved it. Highlights from the night include a very successful live auction with a trip to Bali going for $11,000 (we'd been hoping for $8,000) and lots of other items going higher than we expected. The models were also beautiful and the video they showed was so touching it made me cry. And my personal highlight (other than being mentioned in the program twice for writing the script, a nice surprise recognition), winning my silent auction item which will be Grandma's Mother's Day present. But I won't tell you what it is. It's too good and I'm 100% convinced that in 85 years of life, nobody has ever given her this gift before.
• Easter: We packed up the puppies and all of us headed to Jack & Nancy's for the biggest Turner-Black-Colehower holiday on record. Lowes still hold the all-time record but this gave us a run for our money. We had 15 people, including 3 kiddos and you know, kiddos always make holidays more fun. And I really liked having a big Easter. Despite not being very religious and so in honesty, probably not appreciating the day fully for its real meaning, it is really nice to have a spring holiday. A good way to spice up the year instead of cramming all holidays into 4 weeks in fall/winter. It was also the Cheryl & Ryan birthday combo celebration complete with cake balls from Holy Cacao. I definitely ate more than my fair share.
• Travel: Well Mom & Dad traveled to us but we're also getting ready for a little travel of our own. Anna & Ben's wedding is Saturday! So we made Lexi arrangements with Nancy and Jack (they've had her so often this month it is practically a custody arrangement) and I looked at our plane tickets to know what airline we're on and when exactly Friday we leave. Now I'm going to look into our Charleston horse-drawn carriage tour a little more. And I'll probably also start day dreaming about our August trip to Canada since while visiting this weekend, Mom pointed out that Niagara Falls is right there so we can see that too. Score! I love to travel :)

Hippopotamus Monologue

This morning's husband monologue

"Honey, when you are in Minneapolis today, I'm gonna need you to pick up a hippopotamus hat. A pink hippopotamus hat. (I start to say "OK but why do we need...") You might ask why we need a pink hippo hat. I'll tell you why we need a pink hippo hat. We need a pink hippo hat so when one of us gets on the other's ass about something like...say...cleaning the kitchen (insert over-the-top arm motions indicating that he is in fact, cleaning the kitchen) that they themselves do not do...they can wear the HIPPO-CRYTE hat to announce that they themselves are being a bit of a hypocrite."

My husband has never made a point more cleverly.

Book-a-thon

I've really dropped the ball on my book reviews but that doesn't mean I've dropped the ball on my reading.

On the flight home from Atlanta last month I finished The Deep End of the Ocean. The basis of the book is a mother takes her three kids to her high school reunion. Her best friend is holding the baby and she tells the other two (3 and 5 years old) to stay put while she checks into the hotel. After check in she walks back and the three year old is missing. The rest of the story is told from the perspectives of the mother, the father and the five year old who was told to hold his brother's hand. EXCELLENT read. I can't imagine how much more I'd be able to relate if I had kids but the author does such a good job that my heart broke at all the right times, healed at the right times and smiled at the right times.

Mid-travels on the same trip I picked up The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown while in the NOLA airport. I figured Dan Brown is usually pretty interesting, a page turner if nothing else and heck, it was only $10. Big freakin flop. Last week - as in 3 full weeks later - I finally made it to page 120-something and after struggling through another chapter just decided I was done with it. So what, I essentially lost $10. I can deal with it. No go y'all, no go.

After giving up on that book I cracked open The Help which I'd heard nothing but good things about. It's been about a week (with the birthday party in the middle so kinda a slow week reading wise) and I'm on page 80ish. I love it. Fantastic. The book is told by three women: two black housemaids and a single white woman who despite being just all of 23 is practically considered an old maid since its 1962 and white women were supposed to go to college for their Mrs. (Imagine her parents' disappointment when she came home with a BA instead, about the same way my parents would have felt if I had forgone the BA for an Mrs. and the BU debt) Their common denominator is their frustration with the status quo. Now I'm not sure yet if its going to be the way things are regarding race exclusively or if there's going to be some girl power in here too. But dang, it's so good so far. One thing I really like is that it is written with each character's dialect. That is one of my favorite writing styles. If I ever write a novel, that'd be my stylistic aspiration.

Go forth and read (just not The Lost Symbol)!