So freeing to have a blog no one reads!

I'm pretty much updating my blog because my dad gave me a hard time.

Hi, Daddy!

So... I got a new tabletop game on Tuesday, and we played it (briefly) for the first time yesterday. It's called "Geek Out!" I'm loving it for several reasons:

• You can play it with only two people -- a rarity in the board game world.
• It will change completely based on who is playing.
• All players participate in every turn, so there's not a lot of boring downtime.

You're given a category (games, comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, and misc) based on the roll of a six-colored die. I was going to write a card, but instead I'll show you the back of the box.

It's hard to read the card, but the blue category question (comic books) is "Four Batman Enemies." The player whose turn it is must say four or more. Other players can pass or bid higher. Bids continue around the table until everyone passes. Then the highest bid names as many Batman enemies as he said he would. If he succeeds, he gets the card and a point. If he fails, he gets a penalty chip and -2 points. First one to five points wins!

Who wants to play?

Thoughts on the new year, when it's no longer new

When you're dismissed from a job -- a job you're really excited about, that you're ready to pour yourself into -- it hurts.

When you're envisioning yourself in one place -- that one RIGHT place, FINALLY -- and then it's yanked out from under you, you feel betrayed. Shocked. Saddened.

Having spent 2014 on personal and professional growth, through selling my event business and reading every business and personal development book I could get my hands on, I was ready for a new challenge. A big, bold new thing where I could bring all my skills, talents, and the new confidence I'd found to tasks each day. I was looking forward to a challenging role working with people I liked and respected. Then, about a month in, it all shuddered to a halt in a four minute conversation that brought far more questions than answers.

I can't do anything about those unanswered questions, but now I have others.

What do I do now? How does this play out? How do I find the silver lining in this disappointing series of events? Who am I really, and what do I have to offer?

I don't have any answers yet, but I'm wrestling with the questions and hoping to find the next awesome thing. Whatever that turns out to be.

A Love Letter to My Younger Son on His 18th Birthday

My sweet Son the Younger (as I've always called you here),

You have always been the life of the party, quick with a joke, the one with unstoppable energy, and the boy with no nerve endings. When you were three, you broke your foot. You didn't cry, but you crawled home. The next day, you were running on it -- no pain evident on your smiling face.

Now, you enjoy a wide circle of friends. I know a lot of parents complain about their kid's friends, but I like your friends. They're intelligent, ambitious, opinionated, and fun. I enjoy your friends, and I love to see how happy you are with them. Does your choice of friends say a lot about you? I like to think you've chosen wisely, that a few of these are people you'll keep with you for a lifetime.

Soon you'll leave for college. I joke about the party I'll have when you move out, but you're my baby. We're close, and I'll miss you, even if you go somewhere close by. We won't have late night talks (about important stuff, or about nothing at all), we won't have TV-thons, we won't fight when I want to hug you and you pretend not to let me. Texting really isn't quite the same thing. I've always loved you, but I like you too, and I'll miss you.

Today you're legally a man. I've told you that you'll always be my baby -- and you will -- but I'm so proud of the man you're growing into.

I love you, son. Go out into the world and give 'em hell.

Tell me a random funny or weird fact about you.

I have certain odd OCD tendencies (some of my family members are diagnosed or undiagnosed OCD, so I come by it honestly). For example, when I make a sandwich, the filling must go between the parts of the bread that touched (clearly that's how it fits together best), and any spreads (jelly, PB, mayo, etc.) must extend all the way to the crust, which is obviously the driest part of the bread.

I didn't realize this was odd until several years ago when a co-worker watched me make a sandwich. He said that he'd never seen a PBJ so perfectly made. I'm pretty sure the subtext was "I could make three of those in the time it took you to make one."

Ask me anything

Fave & least fave word?

Hmmm, tough question! Been thinking about it all day.
Favorite: Love. All the different kinds. I'm really grateful to have so much of it in my life, from so many different sources.
Least favorite: Worry. Because of what it is, and because of a personal history with the word itself.

Ask me anything

Austin City Limits Festival, Day 2

We learned some things on Day 1 that were helpful on Day 2. For example, there are free water stations onsite and you can bring your own water bottle. Sweet! Big money savings for day 2.

Unfortunately, our sweet free parking garage was charging $10. At least we got one day free.

I discovered about a block from the car that I didn't have my phone with me. We went back to the car, only to discover that I'd left my phone at Cindy's house. D'oh! She had spent Day 1 concerned about her fun new phone (we both just got the new G2), so she grabbed her crappy old phone for day 2. I went without once I discovered we'd have to drive back to her place to get mine.

Here's what we saw yesterday (after arriving later than we wanted to and completely missing Silversun Pickups):

• Broken Bells. Yes, they were on at the same time as Silversun Pickups, but closer to the gate and at the other end of the park. The guitar player also played keys. Pretty complex sound. They had a trumpet player too. We liked them reasonably well.
• Kinky. We caught quite a bit of their set inadvertently as we stood in line for food and ate. I don't remember much about them other than they were a dance band, so they weren't really attention grabbing. Or I was hungry and P. Terry's distracted me.
• Gogol Bordello. My son described them as "gypsy rock," but their first song was definitely reggae influenced. I initially thought the boy didn't know his genres, but as they continued I agreed with his labeling (and he later told me he'd read the description). Pretty frenetic rhythms at times, lots of people up and dancing around. Fun stuff.
• Monsters of Folk. We walked by on our way from Gogol Bordello to LCD Soundsystem. We didn't stay; they were way too mellow (i.e., sleep inducing). Pretty big crowd there, though, and this was the only band given a two-hour set on Saturday, maybe due to this being a Conor Oberst band.
• LCD Soundsystem. Dance. Good beat, not too cookie cutter or samey-samey from song to song. They did go a little screamo one song, but only one.
•  Deadmau5. Holy cow, the BASS. We were a long way back, and it was hitting us pretty hard. Awesome dance groove, great light show (I took several short videos). All the freaks came out to play for this one. It got really samey after 20-30 minutes, and lots of people left to get a spot for 
• Muse. According to the numbers on the web site, this was the most popular show of the fest. My sister previously told me she liked them better than U2 when she saw them together. I haven't seen U2 live, and this was my first Muse show, but they were amazing. I only own their newest album, but I need to correct that. For the most part Cindy has been really laid-back during the fest. This has been the one time she's put her foot down and said, "Let's move forward," and "We're staying to the end of this set!" Not that I wanted to leave, but it was great to hear that she was really enjoying the set. The lights were fantastic. The sound, honestly, could have been louder. We started out pretty far back, but we were getting some bleed through from M.I.A. clear across the park. Once we got closer it was louder, of course, but we could still talk pretty comfortably. Muse was definitely the best of day 2 by a wide margin, no contest.

Austin City Limits Festival, Day 1

I have a friend who won a pair of tickets to ACL (I love a friend who calls you at times like these!), so we have thrown ourselves into the chaos. And chaos it is! I haven't seen attendance numbers, but it has to be in the tens of thousands.

The bands I've heard of are all playing today and tomorrow, so Cindy and I just wandered around and sampled things yesterday. Don't yell at me about "You haven't heard ?" Now I have. I listen to a LOT of music, but I hadn't gotten around to these before yesterday.  =)

Here's what we heard:

• Pat Green. Your basic Austin country. He busted out a little U2 at one point ("With or Without You"). Pretty good, but I don't listen to a lot of country.
• Qbeta. They were on a stage that was shaded -- a naturally attractive prospect in the heat of the day. We only caught their last tune, which was kind of a dance-raggae thing and a lot of fun. I was sad I couldn't hear more.
• The Band of Heathens. These tied for the best of the day for me. They were a mix of several genres, funky and rocky with great harmonies. As we were walking by, the singer said, "We're gonna have a little church now. Y'all need to have some church, I think!" or something like that. In that crowd, it was pretty funny. Then they broke into a funky praise thing. Lots of people were dancing around with hands in the air. They were fun. But we were actually on our way to
• Beach House. We listened to them for half a song and decided The Band of Heathens was more fun, so we went back. Still only caught like 3 songs though. Curse the hour-long sets!
• Slightly Stoopid. Several people said this was a fun band, and they were. Good groove, sort of a rock/reggae vibe.
• Vampire Weekend. Holy cow, what a huge crowd, and a lot of pot in the crowd.  We were a LONG way back and were still packed in. They were OK, would probably have been better if I owned any of the music (I'd considered buying it but hadn't gotten around to it).
• Sonic Youth. One friend asked me how I was going to decide between Vampire Weekend and Sonic Youth, so I went to both. We found chairs by SY, which was nice. They were highly sonic, but no longer young, and Cindy and I laughed about the 3 minute outros on several songs. In a one-hour set, that adds up. We kind of wished we'd stayed at Vampire Weekend, but it was really nice to sit down, too.
• The Strokes. We both loved The Strokes, who I probably should have heard before now. I'm not sure how to categorize their music -- it's rock, but with elements of other stuff thrown in. Their singer had some interesting stage banter. The first thing he said to the crowd was, "If all y'all would come out of the woodwork, maybe we wouldn't be so broke!" I hope he gets his wish. I'll probably buy some stuff.

So that's Day 1. I'll try to keep taking notes and posting so all two of my readers can have some new music to try out on youtube.  My dad will hate all of it (except maybe Pat Green).

Oh, a couple of other comments on the fest: with so many people temporarily in one place, there is no way to use your phone in any real way. I'd love to twitter or facebook updates (and I really tried yesterday), but the network just won't handle that many people. There is no twitter, no facebook, no texting. Calls will usually go, but you can forget about data.

And those porta potties? With that many people onsite (all eating, drinking and what-have-you), those need to be cleaned more than once a day, y'all. For real. Yick.

Stories from Reunion Weekend: Leaving Town

There are so many stories from this past weekend. One of the best happened before I was even completely out of the Austin area.

I was behind a big vehicle (truck or SUV) in my little 350Z. I decided I wanted to pass him, because hello? Sports car! So I pulled into the left lane...

Or at least I started to. That's when I saw the boulder sitting on the stripe.

Maybe it wasn't a boulder by your definition. But when it exceeds the clearance of my car, it's a boulder to me! It was probably ten or twelve inches in diameter. The clearance of my car is eight inches, max. And it was too late to swerve. I straddled it to avoid blowing out a tire. The rock was big enough that my car lifted off the ground as I went over it. I watched it crumble and roll from beneath my car in the rear view mirror. I may have said an unprintable word; I honestly don't remember.

I pulled over at the next service station -- a Shell at the corner of 183 and 29. I pulled into a parking space well away from the building and tried to look under my car. Now understand, I'm dressed to go straight to my high school reunion. In no way am I lying on the ground peering under my car. I'm more bent at the waist looking to see if anything is leaking.

A woman walked out of the Shell and asked me what I'm doing. I related the tale of the boulder. She gestured at a large tent off to the side, where chocolate Labrador puppies were being sold. "See that man in the work shirt? That's my husband. He used to own an auto shop. Pull your car over there, and he can take a look for you." Breathing a quick prayer of thanks to God for taking such good care of me, I moved my car. Meanwhile, she walked over and told her mechanically inclined husband what was going on.

I pulled up and barely had time to register the name embroidered on his denim work shirt before Elvis was on the ground halfway under my car. "I've always wanted to meet Elvis!" I chirped. Yeah, I'm sure he's never heard that one. He offered me a quick handshake from his prone position and went back to looking around under my car.

He hopped up a few minutes later, telling me he didn't see any leaks or anything seriously wrong from his quick exam. I thanked them both profusely, complimented them on their very cute puppies, and went on my merry way.

It's not every day that Elvis works on your car.

The Dads in My Life

First, a confession: I didn't realize it was Father's Day until church (online, of course, since what could be better than going to church in your pajamas?).

But to my point, today is Father's Day. And I have two really awesome examples of dads: my own dad, and my husband.

First, my dad. One of my earliest memories is of a game my dad used to play when he came home from work. He would hide behind a wall by the front door, and I would go find him, delighted that my daddy was home. We both loved our little game.

My parents divorced when I was ten, but both my parents worked very hard to minimize the impact on my sister and me. For several years, my dad stayed in the same town, but even when he moved away, he called every Saturday morning at 10am. We could always count on hearing our Daddy's voice every week.

Now that I'm all grown up (Snort! Does that ever really happen?), my dad and I are still close. We live in different cities, but we like to stay close by phone and email often. His social life is as busy as mine, which keeps him young. Many of my friends have met him, and they all love him. I'm proud to call him my Daddy, and I love him.

When I married, I was too young to know what I was doing, but somehow (and I'm gonna have to go with "grace of God" here) I ended up with a man who loves me and our two sons madly. I can hear the snorts of derision from our younger son now, but it's true. He's not as good at showing his love verbally as I am, but he serves us with his actions every day. Right now, he's downstairs doing laundry. He's stuck with us, doing his best with the crazy in our world, for over 20 years, and I love him.

Happy Father's Day to my favorite dads -- and to my brother-in-law too, who is an awesome husband to my sister and an amazing dad to my nephew and niece. You men are the best!

About Those April Showers

I've taken a record number of flower photos this spring, so I thought I'd share a few with you. I actually took these in March and April, so it's winter showers that produced them, not April showers. Still, it's been a record year for wildflowers in Texas, and I think everyone in the area has enjoyed the season.

If you hate wildflowers, especially bluebonnets, you should look away now.

Oh, and there are some trees, cacti, barbed wire, cows, and other Texas type stuff too. I like to mix it up. If you want to see a bigger version, click on it, or right click to open in a new tab or new window.

This first one was titled "The Tree of Good and Evil" by my friend Karen. Now I can't think of it any other way. I love pictures of trees and find dead trees fascinating. I think this one may be my all time favorite tree.

I took this photo both ways: with the trees in focus and with the post in focus. More people like the post in focus. I don't know what it is about pictures of posts and barbed wire, but people love them.

Speaking of Texas style pictures, it doesn't get much more Texan than this: a windmill, barbed wire, and bluebonnets all in one picture. We had this printed in an 8x10. It was one of my favorites from this spring. I think it was this picture that caused my husband to mutter about how he's been taking pictures for over 30 years but my eye is better than his. And yet I want Lisa Hackbarth's eye. Go figure.

Field of showy primrose. How I love those cheery pink flowers. It's hard to believe these only last a day, innit?

These people have a lovely plot of land right on Highway 290 with a lot of bluebonnets that are probably hard to see at this resolution. I'm sure they work hard on their land, but it looks so very peaceful right here. I haven't yet made it a desktop, but I might because it's so very relaxing to me.

Again with the Texas things in pictures. I really wanted a shot of a cow with bluebonnets, and this cow obliged me by checking me out closely as I took a few shots of the field of flowers near where he (she?) is grazing. I got three shots of the alert cow look you see here before it went back to munching.

Another amazing piece of land right on 290. The huge field leading up to the house is actually very manicured, but this wilder field is on a hill farther back. I'm crouched down so that it looks like it's all flat to the house, but there's a huge dip and then a long hill up to the house. There is a white plank fence and a barbed wire fence with "no trespassing" signs to keep the camera people off their property -- and rightly so. Beautiful house though.

This is the far end of someone's front yard. I just loved the flowers and the intersection of all the fences. This was my desktop for a while.

This is the part of the day when I started to run out of light. The sky was really dramatic, but I could either get great shots of the sky or of the flowers -- not both. This was the best shot of both that I got.

I think there's a trick in which you can combine two or three shots taken at different light levels to get one fantastic shot. If anyone knows how to do that, please let me know. I have some amazing shots from that day that I'd like to fiddle with.

Again, I had a really tough time with lighting on this one. I have another shot of this in which you can see the bluebonnets clearly but the sky is blown out and another in which the sky is really dramatic but the bluebonnets are impossible to see. This is the (more or less) happy medium. Love the farmhouse, windmill and big tree on the left though.

I decided I wanted a shot of a single tree in silhouette at sundown. Since I parked my car by it, I got a bonus shot of my car, which I also like in silhouette for a completely different reason.

This is from the last batch of photos I took this season. I hadn't gotten any good cactus pics, and this is my prize. It's my current desktop, and I'm really enjoying it, especially with the orange-red and yellow flowers (whose name is currently escaping me).

Anyone else get any good spring shots this year? Share your link in the comments!

One of Those Days

I try not to be a complainer -- I prefer to look at the sunny side of life -- but today was just "one of those days"...

I drove to Houston for a business lunch and a demo of one of our products. I arrived safely and early -- a good start! I took my sports car to lunch so our customer could have a ride; we'd previously talked about our shared love for cars and manual transmissions. I let him drive to the place the three of us (including my Houston co-worker) usually go: a place that serves crawfish by the pound. The three of us polished off our 10 lb of crawfish, and Mr. Customer broke a landspeed record or two in my car on the way back to the campus for the demo. Again: so far, so good.

The demo did not go as planned. My co-worker had prepared extensively, but something went wrong, and nothing went as we'd planned. Mr. Customer wasn't upset; the two of them have a good friendship since they used to work together. Still, not ideal. Mr. Co-worker promised to get to the bottom of the issue, and we all parted ways. I started the drive back to Austin.

I stopped several times to take photos of wildflowers (I'll post pics or a link later, but there are over 100, and I'm too cross-eyed to sort them out now). It had been raining, so I soaked my shoes and the bottom of my jeans, as well as attracting a cloud of insects every time I left the car. No biggie; I'm the one who wanted the photos -- I can pay the price.

Around the halfway point, I noticed (via my car's computer system) that one of my tires was really low -- 9psi, to be exact (35psi is recommended for my tires). I pulled over and looked, but the offending tire didn't look flat. I reached into the car to grab my tire gauge. As I pulled it out, I heard a small "tink tink tink" noise. It was the business end of the gauge bouncing across the parking lot. It broke as I pulled it out of the car, I guess. Niiiiice.

I called my husband, who quickly determined that there was a Discount Tire in Brenham, the town I was just entering. That's where my tires were purchased, and they offer free tire repair. He called them, and although it was 10 minutes past their closing time, they agreed to stay and fix my tire. Hot dog! By the time my honey called me back, I could see the store front from the road. They were friendly, professional and fast and they stayed late to fix my tire for free. Is there any more I need to say to recommend them?

As I drove through a town a few miles down the road, it was sunset, and it was simply impossible to see anything -- not stop lights, not road signs, nothin'. I was mentally rehearsing my conversation with the imaginary police officer ("but officer, really, I couldn't see the sign!") and peering carefully at everything. As I was on my way out of town, a police car turned around behind me. I wasn't speeding, and I made sure not to speed, but he turned his lights on anyway. These guys hate sports cars, I was thinking.

"Ma'am, are you aware you don't have a front license plate?" he asks me.

For the love of Pete, can't you come up with anything better than that? "Yes sir, but I wasn't aware I had to have a front plate," I said, feeling my roots grow blonder by the second. I all but batted my eyelashes.

"Yes ma'am, Texas is a two-plate state." Heh, that rhymes, Officer. "I see your car is a 2005 model; have you owned it since it was new?"

"Yes sir." And it's never had a plate. It doesn't have a place for one, dude. Whaddya want me to do, superglue it onto my bumper?

"All right, let me prepare your paperwork and I'll get you right back on the road."

5 minutes later:

"Here you are, ma'am. This is a warning, as it says here. You can keep this and show it if you're pulled over again." Really? How long will that fly? Another five years, y'think? "Have a good evening, and drive safely back to Austin."

So while I could dwell on the negatives from today:

• The demo, for which I drove 5+ hours, didn't go well.
• I got a flat.
• I got pulled over in Podunksville, Texas.
• My brand-new shoes are soaked and covered with mud.

I prefer to look at the bright side:

• Mr. Co-worker has already figured out the problem and is ready to demo again.
• My tire was fixed and I didn't have to drive home on the spare.
• I didn't get a ticket.
• I got some great shots of flowers, fences, cows, trees, and the sunset.

When was the last time you had "one of those days"? Do you turn it around at the end of the day or grumble about it?

Some Days, It All Just Works

[I edited this post; initially I posted a photo that didn't include the pig. I reposted the picture with the pig and added the paragraph about the pig.]

There are some days when I can't make a decent bead to save my life.

And then there are days like yesterday, when all is right with the world, birds are singing, not a cloud in the sky, and my output looks like this:

Now, I recognize I'm my own worst critic. I can tell you where the flaws are in each of these beads (although I find most people don't want to listen). But I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with this batch.

The top, darkest bead is one I've made several times before -- and sold each time. I made this one too big (forgot how much glass is added in the process), but I like it and hope to keep it this time.

The white bead on the left was made for a friend to match her new skirt. Hope she likes it! She's helped to bead a bunch of stuff for the women's retreat silent auction coming up in 2.5 weeks, so I'll pretty much make her anything she wants.

The two beads with orange in them (not a favorite color of mine) were made for another friend. She gets her choice, and I'll probably make the other into a pendant for the silent auction. Confession: I didn't make the clear one last night -- it's a couple of days older, but it's the only one -- and when I took it to the retreat meeting at church on Saturday, several people offered to take it off my hands. Maybe I should work with orange more often...

The pig at the top was made for a kid named Dylan. You can read his story here. I'll warn you that Dylan's story may make you cry. You have been warned. (I don't know Dylan personally, only through this link.)

The two pairs of smaller beads will be made into earrings for an "earring wardrobe" for the silent auction. The idea is that if you buy these 3-5 pairs of earrings, you should have a pair to match virtually anything.

The gray and blue bead on the upper right is the retreat logo. I'm frankly sick of making that bead, but I suspect I'll make a half dozen more in the next couple of weeks. That particular bead proved difficult -- it broke loose and was moving around as I was trying to finish it -- but I'm just that good. Snort.

The pastel-swirly-organic bead just right of center was an experiment with a new color of glass. Y'all can Indian leg wrestle me for that one; it's MINE.

Popinjay: PERFECT

My bloggy friend Michelle issued a photography / blogging challenge last week... the fact that I didn't see it until today is irrelevant, right?

Her challenge? Post a picture that shows the word PERFECT. (Click on the pic for a bigger version.)

This photo, taken from the top of Mount Haleakala in Hawaii, is one of my favorite photos I've ever taken. The feeling of being above the clouds, and the play of the light on the clouds, was just surreal. I got several amazing photos, but this was my favorite. I don't know if angels hang out on clouds with harps, but I could almost picture it up there! Plus, the trip -- and this side trip -- was made with friends whose company I enjoy, plus my sweet husband, and it's hard to get more perfect than that.

Go to Michelle's entry on PERFECT and you can read what everyone else has to say!

Since you asked

I'll admit it, I talk a lot. On twitter, on Facebook, in person.

Yeah, not so much on the blog lately. Weird how I don't seem to have much to say.

One thing I've talked a lot about lately is this funky 12-day weight loss thing I found. I got it free on Kindle right after the first of the year, but right now the bargain paperback is a sweet $6.

I downloaded two or three diet and weight loss type books, and for some reason, this is the one I ended up reading. I never got around to reading the other two. I looked at the reviews on this one, and they all said you'd lose between five and ten pounds in 12 days. Which is great if it's true, but really? There's gotta be something wrong with that. So I put on my hip waders and prepared to slog through some major, er, stuff I didn't believe.

Oddly enough, I not only believed it, but I tried it... and it worked!

He starts by saying you should read the whole book before you do anything, which I recommend. I bookmarked a lot of pages I came back to later.

At the beginning of the book, you take a quiz to determine your body type. Everything else (diet and exercise) is determined by what body type you are. There are three basic body types -- endomorph, ectomorph, and mesomorph -- but he says most people are a mix of two types. So far so good. I'm a meso-endo, which both shocked me and made me really happy. It means I make new muscle easily and burn fat readily. Not the way I would have bet, but I'll take it!

You eat 5-6 small meals a day -- again, what you eat depends on what body type you are. Here's what I eat for 12 days at a time:

Breakfast: oatmeal, medium fruit, 2 egg whites

Morning snack: 2 oz protein, 1-2 cups greens

Lunch: 2 oz protein, 1/2 cup brown or long-grain rice, 1-2 cups veggies

Afternoon snack: same as morning

Dinner: same as lunch

Evening snack (optional, but I always eat it): medium piece of fruit

He gives you a long list of fruits and veggies that are good (no high-sugar fruits), and protein refers to chicken or fish unless you're an ecto, in which case you can occasionally eat beef.

Now, exercise? This is where it gets "fun."

4-6 times a week I do cardio. 45-60 minutes of it. Now, it's easy cardio -- walking on a treadmill or pedaling a recumbent bike usually -- he specifically forbids anything that gets your heart rate up too high. Ellipticals? Not on this plan! Stair climbers? Not on your life! Apparently you don't burn fat until you've been working for 20-30 minutes, so once I hit the 25 minute mark I'm pretty motivated to stay put because I'M BURNING FAT, BABY! Just try to get me off that bike!

In addition to burning fat though, you have to make new muscle. That means you do muscle building exercise 2/3 of the days. On days 1,4,7, and 10 you do lower and midbody workout; days 2, 5, 8, and 11 are for upper body; and the other days are rest days. Days 3 and 9 are do-nothing rest days; on days 6 and 12 you can do optional cardio (*ahem*fat-burn*ahem*).

You weigh yourself on days 1, 6, and 12. Since your weight can fluctuate from day to day, it's a bad idea to weigh yourself every day. I would think it would be better to weigh yourself on day 13, but what do I know?

I'm now on day 4 of my third iteration through the 12-day plan. The first time I lost 7 pounds, and the second time I lost 8 pounds. Each time, I took some time off in between before starting again, but I've maintained an 11 pound weight loss overall before starting on this round. I'm at a lower weight than I've been for a while, and I hope to eventually get to a much lower weight and lower size, although it's more of a look than a particular number I'm going for.

What's interesting to me is how fast everything changes. Within a few days, I can see a difference in how my clothes fit, and how almost every part of my body looks (lifted, toned, tighter, less cellulite). I've never been motivated to stay on a diet and exercise plan before because I'm impatient and things simply take too long, but that's not the case here.

What about you? Do you have a goal in mind for yourself? Would this be helpful for you? I'm not being paid for my endorsement or anything -- just talking about what's worked best for me.

Going Old School

I'm gonna go ahead and steal a blogging idea from my friend Becky. Lent isn't a super popular idea in our culture, or in most of the circles I run in, but I think it's helpful to focus on spiritual things in the season just before Easter.

Incidentally, I have a good reason for stealing. It's because Vista sucks.

I suppose you want an explanation? I'll try, even though I'm a little grumpy.

I went snuffling around in my photo files today, looking for my pictures from my latest trip to Taiwan. I went the last week in January, so I'm way overdue to blog it, but I figured I could do one giant post and maybe y'all (all 2 of you still reading -- pretty sure that's my dad and my sister) would forgive me.

So I head off to my monster D: drive, and I look in the "Taiwan" folder, inside the "Photos" folder, which is clearly where the Taiwan photos go, since I'm an organized sorta gal, and I find... all the photos from the other trips to Taiwan, but not this one.

You might not think that's odd, but I do. I only started using my monster D: drive recently. Previously, everything went on the much-smaller C: drive. Then it filled up, and I started putting stuff on the D: drive.

Then C: REALLY filled up, and I had to move some stuff from C: to D:... and apparently, that's what made me take the name of a large Washington software company in vain. Loudly. When I moved my "Personal" folder, which included a folder called "Taiwan," chock full of photos from previous trips, it moved to D: just fine.

And then it also overwrote my other Taiwan folder with the same, older photos.

Now, I don't need two copies of the same photos. I want the copies of the newer photos, including the company Chinese New Year party and the pictures we took of us with my boss, who left the company (that was his last day).

Therefore, today's post won't feature a bunch of fun Taiwan pictures. Instead, I'll piggyback Becky's latest post and talk about what I'd like to do for Lent.

Becky is going to do a two-week -- or maybe even a 40-day -- water fast, meaning that she will drink nothing other than tap water. In at least one of the challenges she cites, you can donate the savings from the coffee, sodas, etc. that you don't drink to provide clean water to those who don't have it. It's a great idea, and I'd encourage anyone interested to do so.

However, I'm currently halfway through the second cycle of a 12-day diet plan that's fairly restrictive in terms of what I can eat and drink. (I've lost 7 lb in the first half of the second cycle; thanks for asking!) For that reason, I think I'll take one of Becky's other Lenten suggestions and do some Scripture memorization.

Memorizing one verse a week seems sort of lame, so I am going to try for her larger challenge and attempt to memorize an entire chapter, something I've always wanted to do anyway.

Becky's favorite chapter is Isaiah 6, which admittedly is pretty awesome. Since I just read her blog post a few minutes ago, I haven't decided what to read. Any suggestions? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter!

Flubbed Texts

I got permission to use this, although I won't identify the participants.

A friend was out to dinner recently. He was at an Italian place. His wife thought he was at Chuy's, since that was his original plan. She has a new cell phone and was having a little trouble with the texting feature. She couldn't call him since he was in the middle of a business dinner. He got these texts in quick succession:

"Your mom"

"Called and I talked to her"

"Hate"

"Should just give up texting, but maybe you could bring creamy?"

Of course, "hate" has become our new in-joke. She intended to say that she hates texting on the new phone, but "hate" was all she got out before accidentally hitting send. It came out sounding like a slam on her mother-in-law -- definitely not intended.

The last text, for those familiar with Chuy's, is a reference to the magical creamy jalapeño dipping sauce for chips. She was requesting that he bring some home because YUM. Out of context it sounds a little, um, strange.

So there's your Monday giggle. What else has made you smile today?

Sunday Strollin' in Chicago

This is my third visit to the Windy City, but it's really my first chance to explore the place. I'm enjoying it a lot.

We got here on Saturday, collapsed in our hotel for a two-hour nap, and took a train ride to Wheaton to visit friends that evening. I failed to take any pictures, but I'm kicking myself now. Their girls are adorable, and we had a great time hanging out with them. It was also my first time on a "real" train, as opposed to a subway. It took two subways and a commuter train to get us there.

On Sunday, we took the advice of my friend Heather, a Chicago native, and went for some real Chicago stuffed pizza.

This location was only one stop away on the El. Unfortunately, our El stop isn't exactly conveniently located. You get used to the cold and the long walk though. I bet I wouldn't have a gym membership if I lived here. Not a lot of really overweight people here, I'm finding. Even though they eat this.

This is quite possibly the best garlic cheese toast I've ever put in my mouth. Flaky bread, melted cheese, perfect marinara... my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

And that was just the prelude to this.

Yeah. They have to cut around the edge of your plate to separate the cheese from the rest of the pizza. This is my kind of meal.

This was when I started to understand what my Chicago friends mean when they tell me the Austin-located "Chicago style pizza" places aren't the real thing, that they're pale imitations. I din't want to believe them, but I have to say they're right. The flaky crust, the sauce... Giordano's is the place. Yum.

After we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, we headed to the Belmont subway station to find this funky little tile mural. I had to capture it since it was so fun.

We headed to the State Street shopping district. Macy's here, like in NYC, takes up an entire city block. Also like in NYC, they take their window decorations seriously. I won't bore you with all of them, but there were several places where the scene was reminiscent of "A Christmas Story" with the kids pressed against the glass.

There was also a group of several guys playing percussion on five-gallon drums that were very talented. My new camera takes video and I captured it, but I am having technical difficulties getting it onto youtube. I'll leave that on the to-do list and hope I can manage it soon.

We headed inside Macy's -- the biggest department store I've ever seen. If you're an escalator fan, this is the place for you! I really just liked the lines of this shot.

Once we got near the top, we looked out a window and saw this. The architecture was really beautiful throughout the store.

On the 7th and 8th floors was the Great Tree. You can tell how tiny the people are in this shot; the tree is just enormous.

Once outside, the city was dressed in its Christmas best, breathtaking in the twilight.

This was taken near where we ate dinner. I don't know the name of the building, but I loved looking up through the Christmas-lit branches.

We passed a plaza where there were dozens of trees lit up in front of a Christmas tree.

This is the same plaza, shot from the side.

We walked down Michigan Avenue across the Chicago River, to get to a reputed John Cusack hangout. Sadly, there was no Cusack joy to be found. On the bright side, we met a fascinating lawyer from Houston, a fellow who played football for Texas in the Earl Campbell days. I think I may have had a better time talking to him than I would have to Johnny himself!

Nahhhhh.

Anyway, on the way to the hangout we passed the Wrigley building, which is beautiful at night.

These are their Christmas trees, above the main entrance.

And back at our hotel that night, these are the decorations there. Home sweet home-away-from-home!

I've loved exploring a new place this December. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? What is your favorite new thing this year?

Got My P-Dub On Last Night

Don't be afraid; this is still a family blog.

For the uninitiated, P-Dub is one of the many nicknames for The Pioneer Woman, a popular multi-blog covering life, love, cooking, photography, homeschooling, cattle... I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Ree, a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman, published a cookbook. I can hear my friends laughing that I would buy (or use) a cookbook, but stick with me here. I've been reading PW for a while and love her sense of humor and her "keep it real" tenet. She's now criss-crossing the country on what must be an exhausting book tour, in December no less. So last night, I headed down to Book People, a great independent Austin book store.

I got there later than I wanted (6:30 for the 7pm event) and found a couple hundred people waiting -- and no chairs. Now, I have plenty of padding, but I really don't enjoy sitting on the floor for long periods of time. Call me a grump. But I found a friend and settled in.

Marlboro Man (the widely accepted name for Mr. PW) and all four of the pioneer kids (called "punks" on the blog) appeared around 7, and Ree made her appearance at 7:15. Unfortunately, my video didn't work out sound-wise, but here are my first glimpses of MM and PW:

You may be able to tell in MM's pic that he's signing a cookbook; he had his very own line. He's such a quiet man. I'm sure he's ready to head back to the ranch and leave the hundreds of women behind. Or maybe he enjoys the attention just a little. After all, PW's adoring posts have caused women all over the country to swoon when MM walks in the room.

For anyone who may be curious, I took notes on the Q&A. Here is what I wrote down, with quotes for what she actually said and no quotes when I wasn't fast enough to keep up with it.

• Q: Will you publish "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" (the love story of PW and MM)? PW: Yes, she's working on part 2, and it's due to be published on Valentines Day 2011.
• PW on Bonnie Hunt (PW was recently on her talk show): "She has cute hair. I'm shallow."
• PW accidentally bought Spanx in a size too small for her: "I'm finding it hard to breathe. If I turn blue, call 911."
• Q: Does she like photography or cooking more? PW: They're so intertwined now it's hard to know, but probably cooking since it's done to please others.
• Q: How does she get everything done? PW: "I don't get everything done. I do what's fun for me." She went on to talk about how she doesn't have to start school at 8:30 and how her closet is a mess.
• Q: Where do you go for groceries? For other stuff? PW: Ponca City for groceries, milk and butter. Tulsa for a serious run into town or "to see the picture show."
• Q: Do you read all your comments? PW: Yes, all of them. Well, not the contest ones. Then her closet would be an even bigger mess!
• Q: Is Ree your real name? PW: "My name is Anne Marie. Mike called me Wee Wee." It was later shortened to Ree, and she was thankful.
• Q: Why do you pots always look so clean in the pictures? Do you buy new ones for shoots? PW: laughed, said they're just scrubbed. She does not photoshop her pots.
• Q: Who would you cast as yourself in the movie of your life? PW: Elle Macpherson. Q: What about MM? PW: "Let me think about that..." (never answered)
• Q: Do you have new [photoshop] actions planned? PW: Yes, in about 6 weeks.
• Q: How much butter do you use? PW: "That's a personal question. I don't have to answer that!" [pause] "Pounds and pounds."
• Q: How is your family handling being on the road? PW: "I'm in denial; we all agreed to meet here."
• Q: Has Oprah called? PW: "No, but Bonnie called!"

How much fun is she? The rest of her family is probably ready to get back to the quiet of the ranch (and she may be too, for all I know), but she handled the crowd with grace and humor.

She called an end to the questions so the line for signing could begin. We were all given colored bracelets, and the line was in rainbow order -- ROYGBIV. Red and orange bracelets could get in line first. Since I was so late, my bracelet was blue.

While I was waiting, I got in the shorter line to have MM sign my book. Here is his signature:

There is also a picture of his famous Wranglers on the last page of the cookbook, with the notation, "The End." When people asked him to sign, MM would inquire, "front or back?" Ha!

I told him I'd like to give his lovely wife a gift and asked what colors she likes and/or wears a lot. He said bright colors, especially red and turquoise. Hmmmm, didn't have anything that color with me. But since I had so long to wait, I whipped up a selection of single beads on cords for her to choose from:

At the insistence of the women behind me in line, I gave her a business card as well. She chose the purple-red heart on the right and asked if I have an Etsy store. (I didn't then, but now I do.) She said I really should. I then gave Betsy, PW's sister, her choice of the remaining beads. She chose the next one on the right, the one with multi-colored stripes.

Here are the lovely ladies behind me in the line, who really wanted to be on PW's blog and who graciously let me do bead market research on them:

And this is the biggest reason I'm still cursing myself for forgetting my new camera last night. The BookPeople folks were taking photos of people with Ree as the line moved along... but my camera phone did not cooperate on the most important pic of the night. Here is my very blurry photo with the Pioneer Woman:

Still, a great night and some fun memories. Thanks, Ree!

I failed to blog seeing Don Miller on his book tour (I didn't wait around to meet him), but that was a great night as well. His partner in crime did a monologue, and he talked about a mishmash of his books.

If you've hung in this far, a few questions: have you ever been to a book signing / reading? Did you hang out to meet the author? Was it worth it?

Beadin' It Up!

Glass fans, today is for you! Bead haters, click away now. You have been warned.

I have been busy on my torch, including a really great class this past weekend, so I thought I'd share the fun with you. I'm doing something else fun tonight, so maybe I'll have TWO things to talk about in ONE week.

Nah, never happen.

I had a friend who ordered two frogs and a ladybug for his young daughter. I haven't made a satisfactory ladybug yet (although the teacher of the class chose my first effort bead to go on a necklace for her stuffed animal), but here are the two frogs, one blue and one green. I hope she likes them. Need to get crankin' on that ladybug!

The glass shop where I buy most of my glass has a great necklace made out of all red, white and black beads. I was inspired by this to rip it off shamelessly. Here's what I have so far. The pendant (front left) was actually going to go to my beloved doctor, but I don't like it, so I'll be making her another one.

These beads are all made with silvered glass, that crazy expensive stuff that I love so much. On the left is a pendant that's decorated all in silvered glass except for the pink swirl. Silvered glass fumes the underlying glass, so you can only see the true color of the base bead under the pink.

The four beads on the right were all made with Triton and light purple transparent. I simply have not figured out how to tame Triton under a layer of clear glass, although other people have no problem with it. I keep getting a weird orange color. I described it to someone this weekend, and she made a really funny face at me and said, "Orange? Really?" Yes, I'm a freak.

The four in the middle worked out more or less as planned; I may make earrings out of the matching ones.

The beads in the picture below are my recent experiments with color reactions, which is another particular passion of mine. The three on the left use turquoise, purple (called EDP or evil devitrifying purple because of the difficulty people have in working with it) and copper green, all of which are highly reactive. Until recently, I was skeered of EDP because I've ruined beads with it. Now? What the heck, it's just glass, right? Every bead is a learning experience. And I managed not to ruin those three, or the one on the right, or the one on the bottom left, all of which used EDP.

The one on top is powder pink with rubino decoration, really nice looking. I'll have to pick up some more of those colors to play with them. On the bottom left is copper green and silver pink. I'd like to try copper green and silver blue and am requesting that my handy dandy glass shop stock some so I can try it.

The bead set below is the original one I made for a co-worker. After talking further, we ended up with a different design for her, so I still have these, looking for a happy home. The base bead is blue (messy glass), with a twisty of yellow and silver pink.

The necklace below is one I made for myself in a bunch of different colors I liked together: turquoise, pea green, violet, cobalt, pink... just all sorts of stuff I wear. I made it long so I can loop it around twice.

These are a bunch of black beads. On the left, a spare of a cross I made for a friend. On the right, a suggestion from a friend (he has the one that's not etched), and I kept this one. Then he and another friend asked if I could make a cross like that bead, so I did (sorry for the knot on the bottom of the bead, can't be helped). On the bottom is a black and yellow bead requested by a friend who rode in a LiveStrong challenge.

Next up is my new favorite bead. I got some new silvered glass this weekend called Aurae. I lovelovelove it, and here is why. This is a white bead with Aurae decoration.

Another view of the same bead. I only hope I can replicate it, because this one will probably leave me very soon, and I want my own.

Here are the beads I made in class this weekend. The instructor, Andrea Guarino, was amazing. She was personable, such a great beadmaker, and so generous to share the techniques that are the backbone of her business (not that any of my beads look like hers, so she's in no danger from me). These are Saturday's beads. The two to the left of the hearts are ones I made at home on Saturday night -- I was that fired up.

And these are Sunday's beads. Notice how many fewer there are on Sunday. These are a lot more complex. The one on the upper left (which, again, looks nothing like one of Andrea's) takes her an hour to create. It's called a Sea Garden. The two in the middle are called Galaxy beads, and the one on the right is an Ammonite.

Same beads, flipped over so you can see the other sides.

If you really like the bead pictures, make sure you're checking out my twitter feed; I post pics there whenever I make a new batch of beads, and lots of those pics never make it to the blog.