Updates and Such

I feel a little tired to today.  I had a ¾ post written the other day and I lost it because I forgot to save.  I decided to put it off for another few days.  Then I just didn’t do it.  Sigh.    So what’s up?   Well…

1.       The Spurs lost the Finals but you know what?  I loved every single second of those games!  They were amazing!  Especially the last 2 games.  Love the Spurs J

2.       The dryer broke but it has been replaced.  Story of my life – broken appliances. 

3.       The yard is looking pretty nifty right now.  I am now sporting a farmer’s tan from being out in the yard so much but the plants and reemerging grass look GOOD.

4.       The nephew is still cute as a button.

5.       Work is going well despite some mishaps last week. 

6.       I am obsessed with The American Baking Competition. 

7.       What is this whole Georgia thing I see after certain programs?  Georgia is the new Hollywood?

8.       Still knitting and still crafting but now that summer is here – less cooking.  Cereal has become a dinner staple for me of late.

Yup that’s about the extent of excitement in my life.  I will be attempting a carrot cake this weekend.  Yeah.  Excitement. Oh yeah, also had my teeth cleaned this week.  The dentist is still quite good-looking.  Not helpful when you have to open your mouth so wide for him though, not a flattering position.

I guess I needed some slow and just relaxing time.  I have been busy travelling and going about life way too fast of late it seems.  Let’s slow things down a bit Mr. Calendar. 

Hope everyone has had a wonderful week and enjoy your forthcoming weekend!

Wind, Music, and Flushing Toilets

Life is good :)

I need to say that so that I can put things in perspective.  Some times, not all of the time but some times it is necessary.  Today I found myself thinking about a very nasty woman from my near past and I decided I need to focus on something better.  What's better in my present and my nearer past? Where to begin!?

Last Friday I received an email that changed my whole weekend!  I won tickets to the taping of an Austin City Limits show, the artist Juanes!  OK, so I'm not a huge fan of his but the show was quite good.  I got to see a really good friend of mine and she accompanied me to the concert.  Much love for her :)  Thus I worked through the weekend, had a lab meeting on Monday, and jumped in my car and drove 6 hrs to San Antonio! The concert was on Tuesday night and I drove back on Wednesday. It may seem silly to drive 6 hours for an artist who I like but would not actually spend my own money on a ticket to see.  However, I am a huge fan of the Austin City Limits Music Festival and Live Tapings, how could I pass up the opportunity?  Also there are moments in life when steady and solid are really important adjectives.  Then there are moments in life that need to be described by free and wild.  Although not a "wild" moment, the chance to just take off and do something like this made me feel free.  I have to say that it was exciting and it made me quite happy!  While there I got to listen to local stations that play way better music than what we have in LBB.  This is the Kopecky Family Band with Heartbeat, I really like this song :)

When you have moments when you're weighed down by the nasty people from your past or your own nasty behavior - hey it happens we've all been there - those free and wild moments make you feel slightly better.  It's the silver lining to your bad day, even though I'm not going to hold on to that moment as the gold standard it brings a smile to my face.  The drive down there was beautiful, rain in TX equals green every where.  The weather was great.  I spent time with one of my fave people.  If the last thing I do in life is spend time with a great friend/family member, listening to good music, and having fun -  I can say I would die happy.

Work is going quite well and there are lots of things to just be glad for, the dog is alive, the plants are surviving, the ac works, the toilets flush, the wind on Wednesday night didn't blow down my house.  Oh yeah, we had really bad weather on Wednesday night.  Check it out below:

Yes, life is good.  Hope your's has flushing toilets and still standing houses and music - smile :)

What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid? - LEAN IN

I don't know if you know who Sheryl Sandberg is but I discovered her on TED and we all know how much I love that site.  This is an awesome video and it makes me think.  What would I do if I weren't afraid?

I don't know.  I'm afraid of failure.  I'm afraid of the dark, no not the turn the lights back on fear, more like the tomorrow is dark and I have no idea what's there. Now what?  It's time to take on tomorrow with some f-ing powerful flashlights.  That's what.

What are you afraid of?  What are you going to do about it?

Weekend Update

Me enjoying a chicken shawarma.

I hope SNL doesn't own the phrase "weekend update".  Actually not much to update on, this weekend I have attempted to do as little as possible.  Usually I have all these grand plans and I feel the pressure to perform for myself (apparently I'm a pretty harsh critic).   This weekend my goal was to do the minimum, I mean the minimum.  On Sunday I sat around on my fat tush all day long, it hurts from how much I sat.  On Saturday, I had made plans with someone to exchange belated birthday gifts.  I'm not gonna lie, I was not too excited about that because my goal had been to spend as much time in my pj's as possible this weekend.  However, one should never look a gift horse in the mouth.  You'll be proud (although I shouldn't be proud either) that Sunday was definitely a pj day!  Woot!  Few of those have been had since childhood, although those days were also far and few.  We have parents that don't believe you should relax, there's always something to be done.  Though I've noticed they're more fond of naps these days :)

Monday?  Well I did do some gardening but only because my dog forced the issue; she knocked over some seedlings and I figured now was as good a time as any.  Lupine.  That's what was knocked over, I hope they take.  Especially as my dog recently decided to kill all of my sunflowers.  I had 1~2 of the sunflower seedlings that had taken but my dog felt otherwise.  She let me think that she would let them live for about 2 weeks and then she dug them out.  Other than that not much.  Yup.  Goal.  Met.  Win.  Maybe.  Maybe fail. As I did nothing.  Nah, going with Win.

Now why am I so blase about all of this?  Well, that's due to the air conditioning working.  Thankfully it was fixed last week and I have been able to sleep at night.  It also made lounging around in pj's much more comfortable and doable.  Well I hope that everyone has had a great weekend :)  Have a great week!  Here's a new pic also, as this is a weekend update!

Playing Catch-Up

Life is playing catch-up with me.  A few weeks ago one of the burners had gone out on my stove and had to replace that, which is done but still a pain in my tuckus.  On Tuesday I discovered that my AC was no longer operational.  You see most of May we had such crazy weather that I saw no need to use it because it was either cold or cool enough that I was OK without AC.  Therefore when I got back on Sunday night, it was OK so I didn't turn it on - then came Monday.  I go to turn it on and nothing.  I mean nothing.  No not nothing, hot air coming through the ducts was all I got.  I have no idea what is wrong with it and I just hope it's not too expensive to fix.

WHY?!  You know if it broke in August I would be OK because it starts cooling down here by mid- to late-August.  Honestly I'm good with temperatures up to 32C (90F), it sounds hot but the house stays pretty cool  and a ceiling fan is good at that temperature.  However, above that and you might as well just end it for me - please.

Honestly, this is not the worst thing that could happen, it's just not the best time for it to happen.  I know these things happen but it is truly frustrating.  Really makes me want to sell the house, although on a brighter note, I did get the property taxes down.  My property had been valued at $103K and most of the properties around were between $80K to $90K.  I sent in my protest form and the LBB CAD called me yesterday and offered $87K instead, so I agreed!  It was either agree or go to the
hearing and try and get something lower.  I probably could have gotten it lowered by $5K more but honestly I feel it's fair and I want it to reflect the neighborhood prices in case I do sell.  That way an agent won't check the property tax and try and lower the selling price.  Hopefully I get a little money back from my mortgage company due to lower property taxes.

Well have a good rest of the week peeps!

Sherpa Bikini

Hello!  Hi everyone, sorry for the absence but sometimes I'm busy - mostly I'm lazy.  Well not completely lazy.  These past few weeks have been busy, sometimes productive busy but mostly empty busy.  I have been having difficulty sleeping a bit and that tends to throw off my schedule (pronounce that with a British accent).  Although that's been going on for a while, partly because I have people coming and going and I seem to never have a set routine.  Work is a routine of fail and then surprising success, followed by epic failure but such is the life of a scientist.

Truthfully work has been pretty good, although I need to step it up and learn some new moves.  Currently I am procrastinating by writing this post because I am having difficulty understanding and processing the effect that the mutant I'm working with has on a potassium (K) channel.  Potassium currents - either you love them or you die.  A little nerd humor.  No?  OK, fine.

Haven't done much in my personal life but am currently trying to get back into the swing of gardening.  This year has been pretty weird for LBB, we actually had a frost during the first week of May and a few windstorms that would have given Dorothy flashbacks to her days in the tornado.  Seriously it was pretty bad.  I had already packed up all of my sweaters and all of a sudden I had to unpack sweaters again!  However, now we are truly entering summer and we will be a scorching 39C today.  Joy.  I all of a sudden miss my sweater weather.  No I will not complain about the scorching heat, instead I will remember that now I can hide from the heat inside and that I am no longer a Sherpa.  Although isn't that half the fun of having seasons, the complaining?

Have a happy weekend everyone!

P.S.  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!  I didn't forget but I did go home to see my Mom :)