Happy Birthday Mamie

Oooh la la

Well it certainly has been a while since I have written in here. EArlier this month I started teaching a business communication class at a local, private university, so it has been difficult to find time to write in here. Not only is the class and my day job keeping me busy, I also have a lot of Lost, Gilmore Girls, and Scrubs to watch every week. So, things like writing in the blog, yardwork, and shopping for a couch are on the proverbial back burner. However, I did make time last weekend to attend a Red Light Burlesque show with my sweetie and some of our friends. http://www.redlightburlesque.net/
Yeah I know it sounds raunchy but I was really intriqued. I don't think I had ever seen a pasty on anyone before and the whole twirling in opposite directions is absolutely inspiring. I don't know about you, but I can barely turn my hands in opposite directions at the same time, so the coordination involved in moving the girls in circles is frankly astonishing to me. Also, I have a fascination with vaudeville and burlesque show felt like a way to experience something from a by-gone era. Austin's ability to dig up these old forms of entertainment and infuse them with new hipness is something I really love about this place. The 1970's Rollerderby has found a very comfortable home here in Austin and created a whole bevy of buxom local celebs that even have their own reality show on UPN now. At least, I think it is UPN. I hear it is awful. Anyway, back to the burlesque. The show was a wholesome evening's entertainment with live music (a girl surf-rock band in pick teddies), stand-up comedy, and girls dressed as comic book heroines such as Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman, and Lady Death (yeah we hadn't heard of her either) doing cute little dances. My favorite was Poison Ivy who suggestively waved a pair of large paper fans around occasionally giving us a glimpse of her... well you know.
This weekend will just be a quiet one catching up on the ugh... yard work.

D'oh

Umm I have an embarrassing confession to make... I didn't really realize you could set comment properties on this blog and well I have had it set to "only registered users" can comment. So, now that is changed you canall comment with abandon.

Hope to hear from you all soon and yes you are free to remind me that I do work in software and it is my job to not only write instructions but to read them:).

The Austin Diaspora

As of last night, life is going to be a little different in Austin. Our friends Alex and Aimee are heading back to New Hampshire where Alex teaches English at the University of NH. I am very happy for them as they start this new life together but I am very sad to lose two great friends in Austin. We have had a lot of great times getting drinks at the San Jose, gorging on burritos at Chuys, strolling around town lake and just giggling a lot over wine. Things are not going to be the same without them. How much money do you think it would take to bribe a UT English professor to quit and then bribe the English dpt to hire Alex? I have a little money saved. It is very sad, this is the second time in the last six months a really close friend of ours has left Austin and another of our friends may be going abroad for six months. Blech it is hard enough to make friends without them running away all the time. Bye Bye guys, have fun in sunny New Hampshire (this time I am being sarcastic:).

Christmas in Sunny South Dakota

If you weren't in SD for Christmas this year, you would instinctively think the title of this post was very sarcastic. But you would be wrong. After weeks of sub-zero, bitterly cold weather Rapid City cleaned up its act for our visit and had record warm temperatures. Woo Hoo, it made the trip very comfortable and pleasant. The rest of the trip was as nice as the weather. We had a great time watching movies and hanging out with my family eating lots of grass-fed beef and taking in some of the local sites. The highlight of the trip was our ski trip to Deer Mountain. We had only skied twice before and didn't really improve but I am blaming it on the terrible condition of the snow. It was that very icy, wet snow and there wasn't a lot of it. By the end of the day you could see patches of brown on parts of the slope. So, my numerous tumbles down the hill had nothing to do with my inability to ski but with the poor conditions. This would be a solid argument if it wasn't for the ringer we had in the bunch who skiied like a pro. My sister claimed she had only been on the slopes once before but I think when she tells mom and dad she is "studying" she is really heading up to the slopes, practicing to be Rapid City's very own Peekaboo Street. I can't count the times she literally zoomed by me as I lay sprawled out on the bunny slope, desperately trying to become upright again- a position that people without wooded sticks strapped to their legs take for granted. Actually, everyone but us was pretty good at skiing. My Dad however didn't leave without a couple scratches. The most harrowing moment was when he took about 45 minutes to come down from the advanced run. We were all ready to send the ski patrol to look for him as he came down the hill with a scratched up nose. Turns out he took the wrong turn and ended up on the most advanced run, aptly named "Racer's Cliff". Geesh I think I inherited all the fear and lack of skiing ability in the family.

At the end of the week we went to famous Deadwood. We spent the afternoon seeing some of the sites (Hickock's grave, fancy victorian houses, etc.) and the evening gambling and eating a crab and prime rib buffett. We were also the big gambling losers- luckily my sister is still a little too young to gamble or she probably would have showed us up at that too:). Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the ski trip but I did get some of Deadwood and the culminating event of the xmas eve party at our house.