‘Friends’ Category

  1. the weekend

    June 26, 2006 :: 8:57 pm

    Saturday I ran about 3 miles at the lake. I’m never quite sure how far I’m going because the mileage markers leave something to be desired. So I just run it by time, which isn’t of course as accurate. But then again, accuracy is not really my goal. It was very humid Saturday morning so I heated up really fast and had a tough time cooling down, and I had to walk some. Tonight I ran a very easy 3 miles (or so — we lost track and I think we probably went a few extra laps) at the gym. Man, I tell you, air conditioning makes all the difference.

    Saturday night we went to Yvonne’s birthday party at her house. She and Nate cooked dinner (grilled stuff and salads — she makes a mean peanut noodle salad) and made the most massive vat of sangria I’ve ever seen in my life. Seriously, there was probably 10 gallons of the stuff in a huge octagonal glass jar that sat on ice in their sink. It was Yvonne’s Magical Mystery Sangria. It sneaks up on you! I even ate sangria-soaked watermelon. It wasn’t bad! Walker was freaked out at the sight of me again, but I bribed him with a milk-bone and then we were best friends. I think he must have had a bad experience with a tall or curly-haired woman in his former life as a street puppy.

    Mom and Dad were in town Saturday night but left early Sunday morning, so we didn’t get to see much of them this time. We’re going to Lubbock in August to see Bob graduate and we might go to Houston for a couple of days afterwards just to spend some time with them. This is (knock on wood) their last summer in Houston.

    I feel really bloated and piggy lately. My eating habits have gotten shitty again. Let me rephrase that to take proper personal responsibility: I’ve been shoving lots of bad-for-me food into my cakehole, and I need to do something about it. All this running isn’t going to do me a bit of good if I don’t trim down so I’m not lugging around 30 extra pounds on the marathon.

    Yesterday I went through my desks and threw away a bunch of stuff that I didn’t need anymore. I’m trying to change my packrat tendencies (“but I might need that some day!”) and I tossed out/recycled stuff that I hadn’t used in a few years. I am having severe minimalistic urges lately that directly conflict with my need to save stuff. I’m not sure where this is going to take me.

    Last night was the season premiere of the Venture Brothers (season two). I was dreading that it wouldn’t hold up to the quality of the first season, but it’s looking good so far. Holy shit, it’s Dean Fucking Venture!

    Category Friends, Marathon, TV | Tags: | 2 Comments

  2. cyclist vs. auto: the auto will always win.

    June 18, 2006 :: 7:39 pm

    I just rode my bike from the house down to the lake, around, and back; probably about 15 miles total. It took me about an hour and a half. Not bad! Especially considering that for most of the 3 mile (each way) journey to the lake, I ride on the sidewalks because the streets are a little bit too busy/too major for me to feel comfortable riding a bike on. Proving that point, I had two separate people honk at me as they drove past. I cannot understand why people in cars feel the need to honk at cyclists. Assholes. Do they think it’s funny? It can startle us and can cause us to lose control of our bicycles. And if you ride on the street, drivers often don’t change lanes to pass you — they’ll drive by within a foot or two of you on your bike.

    The closer you get to the lake, the more understanding the drivers seem to be; I guess because it’s more common to see cyclists on the roads near the lake. Once I got to Northcliff I started riding on the street, both because it is a smaller quieter street, and it is closer to the lake and has more of the bicycle-friendly atmosphere.

    The other thing about riding on the sidewalks is that not all the curbs have ramps. I’m not the kind of gal who feels comfortable popping a wheelie to get up onto the sidewalk from the street, so I have to stop and manually do it. That is kind of a pain.

    I could probably have made better time if not for the lack of curb ramps. I don’t even know if that’s what they’re called but you know what I mean.

    I didn’t know this was going to become a rant about automobile/cyclist etiquette. I really was just going to say that I rode 15 miles today, and ran about 2.5 – 3 miles at the lake yesterday morning.

    Also, in case you were wondering, I’m not operating under any illusions that my mileage and workout results are of any interest to anyone but myself. I do want to keep track of it, though, so this is as good a place as any to write it down.

    Time to go make dinner. I made asiago cheese buns this afternoon, as well as some pasta salad to use up some leftover veggies and pasta. I think we’re having sloppy joes for dinner, and I’m taking pasta for lunch tomorrow.

    I think I’m going to run at lunch on Tuesday instead of after work, because I want to come straight home so I can start working on dinner. I’m cooking for Kathryn and Brett as a birthday gift to her.

    Tomorrow is Yvonne’s birthday. Her party is Saturday, but maybe she’ll want to celebrate one night this week at Times Ten Cellars — I have free drink tickets to use up!

    Category Exercise, Food, Friends | Tags: | No Comments

  3. ¡no puedo poner este libro abajo!

    :: 3:24 pm

    Yvonne’s book is really good. It’s a very compelling story and I’m having a hard time putting it down. I’m on page 226. I’ll probably get to 300 tonight before making myself go to bed.

    I don’t fully understand a lot of the Spanish, which she sprinkles throughout, but I’m not sure that I need to. I kind of get it through context alone.

    Usually I only read one book at a time, but I abandoned David Brin’s “Brightness Reef” right in the middle to read this one.

    Category Books, Friends, Writing | Tags: | No Comments

  4. new book!

    June 15, 2006 :: 8:16 pm

    I am so excited! I get to read a new book before it’s published!! Yvonne is letting me read her novel. Can’t type now, have to go get started on it!

    Category Books, Friends, Writing | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Who are you?

    April 18, 2006 :: 9:17 pm

    Who are you?

    I’m interested in knowing who reads my ramblings. Please post a comment and tell me your name, where you are located, and how you found my blog. You can also link back to your own website if you like. Feel free to leave any other comments, too!

    Thanks! :D

    Category Blog, Friends | Tags: | 24 Comments

  6. don hackett, 1942-2005

    December 20, 2005 :: 1:20 pm

    this has been a very sad couple of days. kathryn’s dad died suddenly last saturday morning, of a heart attack. he was such a nice man. it seems so unreal.

    i will never forget him and the barbershop quartet singing “sunrise, sunset” from fiddler on the roof, to kathryn and brett at their wedding last may. everyone in the room was in tears. it was fantastic.

    kathryn is doing way better than i probably would be in the same situation. she’s a tough cookie. it’s so hard, though. i’m glad she’s got a strong supportive husband and a good circle of friends.

    the memorial service is tomorrow afternoon at 4.

    HACKETT JR., , DONALD EDWARD
    Was born August 30, 1942 in Akron, Ohio to Donald Edward Sr. and Marie Mild Hackett. He passed away suddenly on December 17, 2005 in Richardson, Texas. Don was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, class of 1964 and served in Vietnam. He was also past president of the local Naval Academy Alumni Association. One of the great passions of his life was barbershop music. Don was an active member of the Town North Men of Note Chorus and a former member of the Vocal Majority. Don was preceded in death by his father, Donald Sr., and brother, Robert. He is survived by his loving wife of 14 years, Diane; daughter, Kathryn Hackett; Kathryn’s mother, Susan Hackett; mother, Marie Hackett; and other family and a host of cherished friends. A memorial service is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 21, 2005 at Restland Funeral Home, 13005 Greenville Ave. Dallas, Texas 75243. If you would like to make a donation in his honor, please consider: Southwestern District Youth in Harmony Fund c/o Richard Morrison, 4028 Eggenhufer, Plano, Texas 75023. 

    Category Friends | Tags: | 1 Comment

  7. christmas commercialism, take 2 (final)

    December 11, 2005 :: 11:11 pm

    today i had more success at finishing my shopping than yesterday. i located and purchased the one remaining xmas gift for doc — the one in whose pursuit i had the “bitch experience” at town east mall last night and i think that i also forgot to mention that the traffic was so terrible (like dorothy parker said “this was fancy terrible. this was terrible with raisins”) that it took me about 55 minutes to get out of the mall parking lot and home, which is only about six miles total — at the dallas galleria, and although i was dreading driving over there and trying to park and navigate through the hordes of rich folks, it was surprisingly calm for two weeks before christmas.

    (boy howdy, that was one hell of a run-on sentence!)

    the salesdrones at the galleria kiosks have apparently been instructed to snag passersby by any means necessary to bolster their holiday sales. they were very agressive, almost uniformly so. a woman at a skin care products kiosk stepped in front of me as i was walking past and said, “ma’am, can i ask you a question about your skin?” in a way that made it clear that my skin was dry, alligator-like, ugly, blemished, and in desperate need of the kind of help that only her $180 sea weasel placenta sugar scrub could rectify. a dude at a jewelry kiosk (ugly jewelry, at that) accosted me and tried to grab my upper arm while intoning in a low voice “i have something very special to show you, miss.” yeah, i bet you say that to all the girls.

    what do you say to these people? it’s not in my nature to be rude and ignore them. i think i usually say something like “no thanks” or “not today” while making eye contact, smiling briefly, and most importantly, walking on by without stopping. i’m not a fan of aggressive sales tactics. in fact, it generally has the opposite effect on me than what they intend — i resolve NOT to buy anything from a pushy salesperson.

    i learned my lesson last christmas when the guy at the cinnamon almond stand suckered me into buying some almonds. i mean, they were tasty, but not $25 per pound tasty. i was probably his first customer of the day, and i think i fell prey to his winning smile, cute foreign accent, metrosexual shoes, and the free samples. i know better now.

    i had a great lunch with kathryn, and spent some time catching up with her. it sucks that she lives in the far reaches of what might not even be considered “the metroplex” anymore… although i know she loves it out there. damn her and her ability to see stars at night!

    she and i went to another place where i thought there might be an off chance that i could find one other particular thing for doc for christmas, and surprisingly enough, i had some success there too. i didn’t find what i came in to get, but i found something else that i think he’ll like. and if not, it’s exchangeable. :)

    then we went over to the downtown neiman markus to look at their christmas window displays. their theme this year is, apparently, either Attack of the One Billion Killer Butterflies, or Holiday in the Trailer. they had these odd full-size representations of airstream and other style trailers throughout the store, made of plexiglass, with really expensive crap displayed inside. one of the mannekins inside a trailer had hair that looks like mine when i blow dry it.

    giant strands of gold and green butterflies hung down from the ceiling throughout most of the first floor. oh, also the elevator bank, which was probably thirty feet long and maybe twenty in height, was completely swathed in big gold sequins. you know how sometimes you’ll see a sparkletts water truck on the road, and it’s got that wacky thing on the back made of hundreds of silvery hanging tiles that flap around with the movement of the truck, which i guess is supposed to make it look like shimmering water? this is what the elevators looked like, except in gold.

    so all in all, totally ostentatious.

    maybe all i need to do is blow dry my hair and wear something with metallic sequins to make people think i’m fancy.

    i got some great laughs from looking at the price tags on things. i mean… shit, i could make two house payments or buy a ragged yellow and white tweed cardigan.

    oddly enough, i didn’t get the feeling from any of the salespeople that (like valerie said the other day) i clearly did not belong in their store. i had on levi’s 501s and a pink cardigan over a green “where the wild things are” tee shirt, and riverdancing shoes. in otherwords, they don’t sell anything i was wearing at neiman’s. yet i didn’t get “the look” from anyone. maybe they’re desperate for sales. who knows.

    Category Christmas, Friends, Shopping | Tags: | No Comments

  8. cock and bull

    December 10, 2005 :: 10:37 pm

    we had a great time out last night. first off, we went to a little early evening holiday party at my company’s VP’s house. it was funny how most people, rather than mingling, stood and talked to their immediate co-workers. me included, of course. i’m not that outgoing. i have to say that the mashed potato bar rocked. i’d never thought of serving mashed potatoes in martini glasses and letting people top them with things like pesto, mushrooms, cheese, sun dried tomatoes, etc. the VP’s house is quite nice. quite large. quite the cool wide-plank hardwood floors and all stainless viking appliances in the kitchen.

    after an hour or so, doc and i, brittney, yvonne and nate, and ben and his wife chelsea went over to the cock and bull pub in lakewood for a drink. i had SO much fun!! chelsea and brittney are both like four feet something tall and veeeeery outgoing. like two peas in a pod. she might even be perkier than brittney. ben is my supervisor but he’s a lot of fun to hang out with socially. he and chelsea left after a while but the rest of us stayed for a couple of hours. i like that place. not terribly loud, not smoky enough to make me want to immediately leave, nice colors on the walls, small, not full of college frat boys, and good happy hour prices. doc said that the hamburger he ordered was the best he’s had in recent memory. then he and nate started talking about all the good burger places in town. we resolved to try keller’s, if only for the cheezy drive-in classic car factor. i can’t even remember what all we talked about but after a while i started to get a headache — i blamed it on the smoke but what i didn’t want to admit (for whatever reason) was that the headache was from laughing so hard and my face constantly having a smile plastered on it. it started to hurt after a while! how dumbass is that!!

    doc’s two belhavens put him over the cluster edge; at the time he said it would be worth it to have a drink (24 hours later and the headache’s still going… now he’s rethinking the wisdom of that plan). we had talked about going back to yvonne and nate’s house to play board games and have more drinks and snacks, but we decided to go home instead. maybe next time.

    i really like yvonne and nate, and i’m glad to be making new friends. not that there’s anything wrong with my old friends!! i don’t see them nearly enough, and i miss them. but as i said before, i’m not very outgoing and don’t make friends easily. i also tend to assume that all strangers are completely unlike me and are not the type of people that i would want to be friends with. until, of course, i meet someone under circumstances where i am able to slowly get to know them (like work, say) and my preconceived notions unravel. maybe it’s from living in texas which is full of right wing religious republican SUV-driving gay-hating yokels (ranging in looks from cowboy to highland park mom), and me being a left wing atheist/agnostic liberal tree-hugging gay-loving person, i tend to assume that there are very few people like me, and what are the odds that i’ll meet another one.

    i oughta give strangers more credit, but somehow i just can’t. i guess it’s closed-minded of me to assume that. maybe i should work on it harder.

    so today i tried to bust a move and get all my holiday shopping done. i nearly succeeded; i just need to get one more item from doc and i have to go to another location of the store i was at to find it. i spent about seven and a half hours shopping today. it was kind of a nightmare. i hate crowds, traffic, shopping, and people. i hate malls especially. do not, under any circumstances, go near town east mall this time of year. i held the door open for a woman who was exiting dillards, and got called a bitch for my trouble. i was going in the same door she was coming out of, and i stepped back and caught the edge of the door for her. did she think i was in her face or something? whatever. even though she was mean to me, i decided to be extra nice to other people while i was at the mall instead of taking it out by being rude to other people. building up extra karma points or something.

    Category Christmas, Doc, Food, Friends, Shopping, Work | Tags: | No Comments

  9. happy hour and unhappy hour

    October 22, 2005 :: 11:58 pm

    i sure do like yvonne. she is a writer in my office. we had a happy hour after a very loooong week at work last night, with her and her husband nate. margaritas and half price appetizers at on the border. nate and doc seemed to hit it off — he seems to be kind of a scifi nerd too. doc said that he kind of looked like russell crowe, which i can definitely see — the eyes and possibly the beard. i can’t even remember everything we talked about but it’s been a while since i laughed that long and that hard. i don’t think it was just the tequila making me laugh, either. anyway, i want to do that again some time. they’re coming to our halloween party on friday, which makes me happy. i think they’ll get along with our friends quite easily.

    i was kind of nervous at first, because i’ve only known her a few months and then only through work, and as we all know, i’m kind of socially inept until i get to know someone really well. i had this huge fear that we’d have nothing to talk about or that she’d think i was a complete loser. but happily, it did not turn out that way.

    in unhappier news, doc’s definitely in a cluster headache cycle. he’s getting them daily, sometimes more than once a day. he’s had one as bad as an “8″ already. i hope this is a short cycle. i wonder if i started a cluster headache blog, which we could use to post the things that we write in the curious george journal, would anyone read it? i could advertise it in the cluster communities.

    the curious george journal is a little yellow book of sobbing, pain, screaming, unfairness, and angst. it’s a documentary.

    i feel good that i got a lot done today. a little bit of housecleaning in preparation for the party on friday; several errands including getting most of the equipment for doc’s halloween costume as well as some bits and pieces to finish mine off, a trip to the bank, and a trip to the grocery for party supplies and beer. i made the chex mix tonight. i hope we don’t eat it all by friday, but it is a legitimate concern, so i fear that precautions must be taken to assure that neither of us consumes our own body weight in salty cereal this week. it’ll either involve a lock or a solemn promise, neither of which is binding because i have zero willpower.

    my studio is all set up and ready to go, but i have yet to find the time and energy (those must occur at the same time for maximum effectiveness) to actually start a painting. I WILL DO IT THIS WEEK.

    Category Friends, Party | Tags: | No Comments

  10. state fair, new friends

    October 18, 2005 :: 10:07 pm

    i realized just now, reading over yesterday’s post, that i used to live across the street from picasso’s pizza, when i lived in that little apartment on adleta with ian. i don’t remember it being there. i wonder if it was and i just never knew it.

    we went to the state fair again tonight. it was “cheap” night (relatively speaking, of course), which meant that everyone and their grandmother were there. it wasn’t as crowded as when we went on cheap night last year, but it was still pretty packed. it was HOT too! today the temperature was 94, and it’s supposed to be 94 again tomorrow. we went with kim and brittney, and jim and bill. i hadn’t met bill before — what a nice guy!!

    i won a little rubber chicken keychain at the flip-a-chick game. i usually manage to get one chicken in the pot every time i go to the fair. doc took pictures of me flipping chickens into the pots. doc and jim went on a bunch of the throw-up rides while bill and i (and sometimes kim and brittney) watched from the safety and stability of the concrete below.

    once doc downloads his photos, i’ll see if i can post some here.

    tomorrow is day 3 (the last day) of final cut pro training. my head is even MORE full of keyboard shortcuts, and now i think that i understand a lot of the basics about editing. most of the rest is just artistic decisions. now to learn motion! i think doc bought it the other day with his birthday apple store gift card. not that my computer will run it, of course. stinky old g4-867!

    i woke up every few minutes, it seemed, as i was trying to get to sleep last night. i think i was having nightmares about having to learn all these keyboard shortcuts, and also being worried about neko scratching on the side of the bed to get my attention. i really think i woke up a dozen or more times in a panic. i hate that. and every time (except the first 2 or 3) neko was curled up at my feet, asleep. all that worrying for nothing.

    Category Friends, Technology | Tags: | No Comments

  11. fall, my ass

    October 17, 2005 :: 9:37 pm

    it’s 93 today. mid october. wtf???!

    i’ve only gotten to wear a jacket once this fall.

    i’m in a final cut pro training class this week. so far i’m learning that i don’t know jack shit. my half assed method of figuring out how to use it was, indeed, half assed. i learned so many basic things today that would have made my life so much easier had i known this stuff a couple of years ago. and it’s not just fcp stuff; it’s basic film editing terminology. it’s not like i’ve ever taken a class on film. my head is full of keyboard shortcuts.

    bonus: this will make it much easier to be the editor for “punchbuggy” when we film it. if, of course, we decide that it’s my turn on the editing side of things. nothing’s for sure yet. i’d definitely rather do that than direct, at this point, though.

    brittney, kirk, doc, and i went out for pizza and bowling on sunday night. quite a bit of fun, that was. my fingers still hurt from bowling, though. i wonder if professional bowlers get ball calluses. ew, that sounds dirty, doesn’t it?

    i like picasso’s pizza. it’s at skillman and audelia. kind of a nicer pizza parlor type place. they have a beer can room, and a nice patio. huge menu. tasty thin crust pizza. i need to go ba

    Category Friends, Technology | Tags: | Comments Off

  12. there is a first time for everything.

    October 15, 2005 :: 10:04 pm

    last night i got pulled over by a police officer. first time.

    the story: doc, brittney, and i had just finished having dinner at picasso’s pizza on audelia/skillman, and pulled onto northbound audelia and then left onto a side street to turn around so we could go south on audelia, and i saw lights behind me. the officer was quite friendly, asked for my license and insurance, and told me he’d stopped me because i didn’t put on my turn signal when turning onto the side street.

    which is unlike me, but ok, i do forget sometimes. and how lucky that there was a police car behind me when i did so. (or didn’t so, actually).

    he collected my licence, and doc’s license, and then asked me to roll down the back window so he could see inside. i told him they didn’t unroll, and i unlocked the door so he could open it. he shone his flashlight in and asked brittney how old she was. i think she was taken by surprise at that, because she paused before telling him “actually i’m 32.” she produced her driver’s license, and he took them back to his car to run them.

    in the meantime we saw another police car cruise by on this side street. doc said that he figured they were probably heavily patrolling that area for drunk drivers or outstanding warrants, and because we were in an older model car leaving a restaurant parking lot, we might have fit a particular profile. my failure to use my blinker gave him cause to stop me to check for open containers or minors under the influence or whatever they were looking for.

    a few minutes later he came back to the car, handed me the licenses, and told me to have a good evening and to remember to use my turn signals.

    apparently none of us had any warrants, haha. and lucky that he didn’t check my vehicle stickers, because i’m two months out of inspection!

    when we got back onto audelia, we saw another police car that had pulled someone over into a parking lot. seems like doc was right. he always is.

    Category Friends, My Boring Life | Tags: | No Comments

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