Anybody got a row boat I can borrow?

Tomorrow, I head off for a week long business trip to sunny Baltimore MD and from what I can tell I may need to pack my suit, my pearls, and my water-wings. Holy-apocalyptic-downpour batman- it is nasty over there right now. Oh well, I am a fair swimmer. Actually, I am looking forward to the trip. The client I am training is super nice, we always have a blast on the phone together- she definitely sounds like someone who knows how to have a good time. I can't wait to meet her in person. Also, as it always is with me when I travel, I am very excited to try the local delicacy. So I see a lot of butcher paper, hammers, and crab in my very near future. Plus who wouldn't find pounding their dinner with a hammer FUN and cathartic? Also, I am not flying out until Saturday evening and I plan to play all day in the Baltimore puddles. Edgar Allan Poe and the Bambino hung there hats in the downtown area, so I think I will check out there homes and if the biblical flood has subsided I may just wonder around the wharf till it is time to head back to the blazing Texas sun. Stay tuned for a lot of gray photos.

Sonic Youth

On Friday, CornyT and I saw Sonic Youth at Stubbs BBQ, a restaurant and outdoor amplitheatre. When I saw the tickets for such a reasonable price I was so excited and I didn't think about the show being at an outside stage mid-JUNE. OH boy was it hot. The music was great but I was so hot I barely felt like moving or yelling. And the heat really wouldn't have been that bad if you weren't elbow-to-elbow with a ton of other sweaty. squirmy people. Yuck. You could tell the heat was getting to both CornyT and I because we kept moving to different parts of the theatre to get away from annoying people. Our favorite was some guy who kept screaming "Chapel Hill!" For the rest of the night CT whispered Chapel Hill to me, cracking me up every time.

Kim Gordon however (one of the lead singers) didn't let the heat get here down. She danced and sang like crazy. She was a lot of fun to watch and really gave the show a lot of energy. I am glad I saw them live but I think I will wait until fall before I go to another outdoor show in Austin.

Whale Story

This posting is another of those "check-out-the-cool-stuff-I-found-on-the-internet" entries. Just be glad I am not clogging your email accounts with the sap I am about to share with you. My coworker sent this note to me after I told her a story I recently read about biologists who observed a small school of dolphin swimming in a fashion that can only be described as a procession, surrounding a mother dolphin caring a deceased calf on her back. The biologists were so moved they stopped following the dolphins out of respect. In response, my coworker sent the following story (I didn't write it) and she definitely wins the "cool-animal-story-of-the-day" award. The link takes you to the original article which is a more detailed account of the story below and well worth reading.

"If you read the front page story of the SF Chronicle on Thursday, Dec 14, 2005, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body-her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth. A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help.

Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her-a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around-she thanked them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same."

Vroom Vroom

This weekend CornyT and I capped off our fairly busy weekend by catching the lastest Pixar hit, Cars. Once again, Pixar has wowed me with their breathe taking animation and endearing characters. However, that being said I think this is not as good as the other Pixars and I was really disappointed that one of the voice actors was Larry the Cable Guy, I hate that guy. Paul Newman was fantastic as the wise and jaded old race car and the SUV boot camp and the "movies" is HIGH-larious. For the last few days we have been on a Pixar kick now and have re-watched a bunch of them including Finding Nemo, which by the way is a good movie. When I saw it the first time in the theatres I really wasn't all that taken with it. I thought it was kind of boring and over-hyped. All I can think is that because it followed Monster's Inc which I saw 3 times in the theatre I was expecting a lot from this movie. Anyway, I loved Finding Nemo this time around. I laughed, I worried about Dorie and the jellyfish and Nemo in the Dentist's net. Good times.

Maceo Parker Rocks

Friday CornyT and I had a nice date-night. We had vegetarian-fed burgers at Huts, went for a walk around down-town, had coffee at Halcyon, played connect four while sipping our coffee, and then headed to the Antone's to catch the Maceo Parker show. Such a nice, active night on the town. CornyT heard from an old friend that Maceo put on the best show ever and I love James Brown so when we heard he was coming into town we were very interested in seeing his famous saxophonist in person. And boy am I glad we did. What a show! What a performer! And "What about the band" you might ask. Well they were amazing.(when Maceo wanted the audience to "give it up" for the band he would say "What about the band..." with absolute authority and power and of course the audience would go crazy.) The music was fantastic but the showmanship and charisma of Maceo was equally entertaining. He is SO cool and so good looking too, especially for a 64 year-old man. Talk about aging well. He honestly looked no older than 40. His trombone player was also cool personified, handsome, and talented. The only drawback of the show was I found the audience really annoying. One psycho girl who confused shadow boxing with dancing smacked me in the stomach, some guy crushed my foot, and lots of people talked while Maceo sang slow Ray Charles songs jerks. We did have the pleasure of witnessing a lovers quarrel. A woman started slow dancing with this guy next to us and half way through the song some other guy grabs her around the waste and pulls her from her partner. Apparently, she came with the guy who pulled her away but just got caught up in the melodies of Maceo. Pretty funny. Anyway, I highly recommend seeing Maceo if you ever get a chance. He does put on a hell of a show and looks fantastic in a suit.

Our own rally

Now SD, you may feel pretty special with your internationaly known motorcycle rally but believe it or not we have our own rally here in Texas. The Republic of Texas (ROT) rally is not as big as the Sturgis rally but I heard it is competitive. Most of the rally takes place outside of Austin on a large private ranch but they do have a parade on Congress street on the opening night. CornyT of course were there in our leather chaps and vintage choppers admiring all the hogs.

Crafty Gals Night

On Wednesday, I had about 8 ladies over for an evening of crafts and chatting. A few months ago, I spent an evening making mosiac coasters at a girlfriend;s house and thought it was so fun I wanted to do it again. So, when I decided I wanted to have a little party to get to know some of my neighbors and other ladies I have meant recently I thought I would throw a mosaic making party as a way of breaking the ice. The one thing I didn't know when I sent out the invitations was that craft stores don't sell pre-made plaster coasters for mosaics. No, they sell the plaster and the molds of course but you have to make them yourself. Luckily, I realized this on Sunday and the party was on Wednesday so I had plenty of time to make the forms and let them dry. Also, this new-fangled plaster that dries in the microwave also saved time and I was able to get about 20 coasters done by WEd night. Overall, I think the night was a resounding success. Everyone seemed to have a nice little coaster to take home with them and the conversation was lively and constant. I think I am going to throw another of these craft parties but I will do a slightly tidier craft next time. There were a lot dirty hands and muck on the table (luckily I put down paper). The same friend who inspired the coaster making told me she has all the materials to make wine charms. Wouldn't that be fun? Cute, practical, quick and there probably won't be any lines to the sink to wash the gunk off your hands. Oh and I imagine craft stores sell wire and charms that I won't have to forge myself:).

Kay-yakity-yaking

Last Saturday, CornyT and I went kayaking with my Big Brothers Big Sisters networking and fundraising group, GAIN. The event was designed to give our members something fun to do together and to drum up more interest in the group. I think we achieved both goals and we definitely had a blast as a group. The only draw back was CornyT and I discovered we are terrible kayakers. WE spent a lot time knocking into the bank and trying to go into a straight line like everyone else in the group. The guide from the kayak rental dock was so nice and even hung around behind trying to help us. We actually had a great time chatting with her. She was a greek immigrant earning her PhD in microbiology at UT and really friendly. I was glad we were so bad because we got to get to know her better. She was even so nice as to tell us that the type of kayak we were in a sit-inside, two person were the hardest to steer. I am sure normal people have no problem with but CornyT are a little rowing challenged. Oh well it got us outside in the warm sun meeting people so I can't complain.

Give me my MTV

Or just all the 80s videos I could want, anytime I want them. That's right all of you children of the 80 who are jonesing to see Tawni Kitaen gyrate on a sports car, Donnie Wahlberg croon in a weird Cosby-esque sweater, or Jon Bon Jovi soulfully "Living on a Prayer" this is the website tailored made for you http://www.milinkito.com/los80.php
A word of warning though, this can be a major time suck. Oh Oh CornyT just put George Michael "I want your sex" on...ooh I haven't seen that video in ages.

Lostie Hotties

WARNING: My truly superficial nature is revealed in this post.
If you surf the web looking for info about the hit show Lost, you will find volumes of commentary regarding the "numbers", the "Others", the Hanso foundation, and many, many other little mysteries they have thrown in to tease viewers. I love all the mystery stuff and am always craving new clues. But I am not too proud to say that the hotties also do a lot to keep me tuned in every week. That Oceanic Airlines flight from Sydney to LA was packed full of pretty people. Have you ever been on a plane with that many gorgeous people?- that is the first clue that something supernatural was up with that plane:). Anyway, I was thinking that there is just not enough chit chat (at least that I have read) about how frickin cute those guys are.
So, please indulge me while I pollute our fine dsl lines with my girlish giggles about all those rippling muscles and charming smiles on ABC. First there are the Calvin Cline models turned castaways like Sawyer and Boone (sadly Boone does not grace the island with his exquisite cheek bones anymore). Boone didn't really do much for me- WAY too pretty- and Sawyer is also a little too traditionally handsome but there are moments when he's all cranky and rugged looking that I can really appreciate. This leads me to my FAVORITES. First, Ecko- holy moly (he he- he kind of plays a priest)that is a hell of a man and that accent- phew. I just love to listen to him talk. And up until this past finale Sayid was my HANDS-DOWN favorite. This actor first got my attention in the English Patient where he played the bomb difuser, Kip. Best part of the movie for me- yes he is a good actor too- I am not THAT shallow. Then I didn't see him for years until he showed up on Lost. And I just have to say he doesn't look arabic at all but that is ok he is still super, super hot. But as I mentioned his position as my fave has been usurped and the new champ is Desmond. Ah brother, that accent, that curly hair, that prominent nose. Oh I did love this finale with lots of Desmond. OK I better get back to work I just wanted to get all that girly gushing out for all the world to know how shallow I am.