I keep forgetting that I have a blog.  I just don’t really think about it anymore….sorry.

Here’s what’s going on:

Thanksgiving is coming up, and I have this crazy idea in my head that I’m going to make a pumpkin pie from scratch.  I’m going to turn to Mark Bittman for help, because that is what I always do.  And he always pulls through.  He’s such a superhero.  At the grocery store yesterday, I saw that they had “pie pumpkins” for sale.  I guess I’ll have to get one or two of those, huh?

I recently returned from a trip to Las Vegas for the DevConnections conference.  It was mostly business and not a lot of fun for me.   The sessions I attended were good, but my evenings consisted of me sitting in my hotel room – sometimes knitting, sometimes watching a netflix, and sometimes being bored.  The people I traveled with like to gamble. They REALLY like to gamble.  So that’s what they did.   I did make it to a local yarn shop – and that was a little bit of an oasis for me in a city full of lights and people that throw naked lady cards at you on the streets.  Also, on the flight back to Austin we sat next to a homicide detective who had some pretty interesting/sick/sad stories.  He talked a lot.

The Mountain Goats are playing in Austin on Wednesday – should I go see them for a second time?  I just might.  But it would be by myself, and that would be kind of sad.

Oh – speaking of pumpkin pie, have you guys seen all those annoying facebook game requests? Like farmville, mafia-something-or-other, etc.?  Well – I didn’t plan on accepting any of these requests to play – but somehow I “accidentally” ended up starting Cafe World.  And I’m totally addicted   I wonder if my real pumpkin pie will turn out as pretty as my fake Cafe World pumpkin pie?  And will it emit pretty little sparkles when it finishes baking? I sure hope so.

And, ummm…guys?  Have you SEEN these?

Michelle said I never udpate my blog anymore.  So this post is for Michelle.  Hi, Michelle!  I like this picture of you.

I don’t know why I haven’t updated in so long.  I’ve tried, actually.  I have around 9 drafts that I never finished.  I guess I have a thing with starting things, but not finishing things.   I could summarize what I would have talked about had I actually finished them?  Yeah?

1.  There was one post where I talked about how I hated all of our furniture because nothing went with anything.  We still kind of have that issue, but it’s not as bad.  We moved into a new apartment 5-plex this summer, and as soon as our place looks presentable, I’ll post some pictures, and you can see what I’m talking about.  I guess we’re lucky to even have furniture, right?

2. There was another post where I talked about how one of our neighbors (at our old apartment) sang Opera every morning.   It was really weird.

4. In another post, I talked more about our furniture.  Boring, right?

5. I wrote more about running, because I’m still doing that (couch to 5K, week 7, and going strong).  I described what it was like to go to an actual running store and get fitted for running shoes.  And how the guy there had me do all these weird things with my feet, and didn’t explain any of it.

6. We had some visitors over the summer…

No, not those guys.   These guys:

(they’re about to pop out a baby BOYd in a few weeks!)

What else….

7.  I think I updated that 101 in 1001 list that I started a while ago (and will probably never finish).  Maybe I’ll make that my next blog post project.

8.  I’m going to Las Vegas again in November for a conference.  Anyone want to go with me?

I spent a long weekend in Minnesota for a good friend’s wedding this past week, but now I’m back among the heat & humidity, bad drivers, and Tex-Mex.  The four days I was there went by way too quickly, and I totally cried when I left.  The weather was super, the wedding was absolutely beautiful, I got to see family and a couple of good friends, and meet some amazing new ones too.  There was a tiny bit of drama/tension during the wedding events, which is unfortunate, but whatever – it didn’t stop us all from dancing our butts right off at the reception.  I’m a little disappointed in myself for not taking many pictures, but I noticed everyone else taking bunches of them, so, hopefully I will get to see them sometime.  Look how pretty Jessie is…

Having been around all of these people this last week has made me feel a little gross, because they all have such great style and dress really well.  Not that it matters, but I kind of wish I had that.  Just sayin’….

We’ve got a few more things to look forward to this summer too.  Our Boyd friends are coming to visit at the end of the month, there are tenative plans for camping (which I have yet to tell Erik about), and I’m hoping, hoping, and hoping that Kevin and Mark will come visit us as well – it was mentioned as a possibility.  Oh, and we’re moving into a smaller, more expensive (bleh) and downtown-ish apartment at the end of July!

I’m a fan of doing stuff.  But I don’t really do a whole lot of stuff.  Well, I make a lot of plans to do stuff, but then I never follow through with the stuff I was going to do.  For instance: when the creators of Ravlery.com came to a local yarn store – I was like “okay, I’m going to go this”.  Guess what?  I didn’t.  And when I found out there was a Danish Club in Austin – I  was so excited to get my invitation to their first event of the year, Fastelavn (a sort of Halloween-like holiday, in February).  I RSVP’d ‘Yes’,  but then changed it to ‘No’ at the last minute.

So, it’s SXSW week, and I’m making more plans to do things.  There are a number of Free, Wristband-not-required events on Friday and Saturday (I think I mentioned some already in my last post).  But I took a half day off of work tomorrow so that I could actually do these things!  So I tell you – I actually AM going to do some stuff.  I’m not going to just  say I’m going to go, and then not go.

Speaking of doing things, here are some things that I have done recently:

• Last night I had an amazing dinner at one of the many fine dining establishments in Austin: Z Tejas.  I still feel full from that meal.
• On Sunday, we got an awesome new bed.  It was a craigslist find – and a lot of people seem to give me  a look like “Ew”, when I tell them that.  But it’s nice, I swear, you guys.  It’s Teak, and it has built in tables & drawers!  We got it from a nice Indian family who had bought it at a Danish furniture store in Canada.
  
• This is more of something that I’m “doing” rather than “have done”.  I have a reading problem: I start books and then never finish them.  I started Sophie’s World some months back, and never finished it – but I’m really motivated to finally finish it finally.  So I’ve been reading it – that’s something that I’ve been doing.
• I knit a sweater! I think that was one of my 101 in 1001 things, so I’ll probably have to update that now.

…Let me pick out your airline ticket!

Husband flew to Minnesota today, and I drove him to the airport this morning before I left on my 2 hour drive to BCS.  Normally I leave Austin at 6am, and the ticket that I picked out for him departs at 5:45am.  “Perfect”, I thought – I could drop him off and then head on out, and the ticket was relatively cheap.  First, me thinking we could pull this off was a mistake.   Second, me thinking he only needed to be there a half hour early was a mistake.  You’d think I’ve never flown before – I don’t know what I was thinking.  We pulled up to the airport with about 25 minutes to spare before his flight was scheduled to depart.   Unbeknownst to us, the airline he was flying has a rule that says they won’t let you in if you arrive with less than a half hour before take off.  So, he missed his flight.  FAIL.  Luckily he was able to fly standby on another flight, but this involved about a 7-8 hour layover in Houston.  We’re both tired from waking up at 4:30am, and he’s finally on a plane to MSP after a 4 hour travel day turned into a 13 hour travel day.  What a crappy day.

Next week is South By Southwest here in Austin, and this is the first time in the two and a half years that I’ve lived in Texas that I will actually be in Austin during this week-long party-time.  And though I didn’t purchase a badge, which can run from $550 to $695 (for the music badge only! holy crap!), I’m still hoping I can see and do some sxsw-related activities.  There are tons of free events going on during the week – and a lot of them sound pretty cool!  I’m greatly looking forward to seeing fellow Twin Citian, Haley Bonar perform at a free Craftster party!  (She’s playing two shows tonight in Minneapolis – so go see her if you live there!) I love that they put two awesome things together: crafts & HB.   And looky here: a whole sxsw party devoted to Minnesota Bands!  It’s Ca$h Moneyapolis.  I don’t really get the name, but if it’s Minnesota-related it’s likely that I’ll support it, at least in spirit.   There’s also a free show on the 19th with M. Ward and Cold War Kids.  I might go to that – I haven’t heard much of M. Ward’s old stuff which is supposedly pretty different from his new stuff, which I kind of like.   The whole point of sxsw is to discover new bands that are relatively unknown – since there are a whole fricking ton of them, from all over the world, and I feel kind of lame for not researching more of the bands that I’ve never heard of to find their free shows :-/    And “free shows” only, of course, because we’re rockin’ a budget right now.

Erik’s gone next week – he’s going to spend some time with his bros in our beloved homestate.  I actually have a lot of things planned for the time he’s away (remember all the sxsw stuff I just talked about?), and I don’t think I’ll be that bored.   I have dinner plans, walking plans, and tenative haircut plans.  I’m set.

I got news from the orthopedic doc today that I can slowly migrate away from wearing that gigantic boot that I was assigned to keep on.  My ankle is healing – and I’m thinking I will be able to walk the 5k that I’m signed up for.   I realize that you may not want to hear about my medical problems, so I won’t go on about it, but x-rays are just cool – so here:

I got this random text message today just after lunch time.

guy: Why didn’t u come in yesterday.  Phillipians 4:13.

I didn’t recognize the #, but thought, “hmm…maybe this actually is meant for me.  Was I supposed to go somewhere yesterday and forgot to go wherever it was I was supposed to go?  But what about that Bible verse? Is that supposed to mean something?”  

Philipians 4:13 says “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” 

“Okay, so…I was supposed to go somewhere, and I might have had some reservations about going there,  but the Lord would give me strength to go there, where ever it was”  ?  I couldn’t think of anywhere I was supposed to be.

me: Who is this?
guy: Cj dummy.  Phillipians 4:13.

I don’t know a Cj, unless you count the one I went to high school with, who I didn’t even really know at all, and that was years ago.  So, you’re just a wrong # guy who appends a bible verse to the end of every single text message you send.  Okay then.

me: I don’t think I know a cj, sorry.  Wrong #?
guy: Cj in ur history class look up idiot.  Phillipians 4:13.
guy: Cj in ur history class look up idiot.  Phillipians 4:13.

And, a guy that sends text messages twice in a row, with insults.

me: Dude, trust me, you have the wrong #.  My last history class was 6 years ago.
guy: Sorry I do have the wrong #.  Phillipians 4:13.

This week was my birthday – and I just wanted to say how grateful I am for everyone that called, texted, messaged, etc. me with a greeting! It’s been a good week.   See?

The Good

• Three delicious meals paid for by friends
• Ice cream cake at work
• Cookie cake with my name misspelled
• New Bittman Cookbook and lovely kitchen bowls! Thanks Rebecca & Matt!
• New phone – the G1   Thanks Erik!
• 36 Facebook happy birthdays
• A picnic with Erik planned for Saturday
• A lovely bottle of red wine

The Bad

• Now I am closer to 30 than I am to 20
• My ankle still hurts

EDITED to add the wine

So, it sounds like I might have a stress fracture – thank you, running.   It happend almost 2 weeks ago, and it still hurts to walk on.  I’m supposed to stay off it as much as possible for another week, so that means no training for my 5k for a while.  If it doesn’t heal soon, I may have to get a big, ugly boot put on it.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.   This is such a bummer I tell you!  During the last week I’ve actually been wanting to run – especially on the beautiful days like we’re having today:  73° and sunny.   And to add to that, I can feel my jeans becoming tighter….  ugh…

With all this sittin’ I’ve been doing, I have been getting more knitting done.  After xmas, I sort of took a knit-break – I think my fingers were tired.  But I’ve got  about 4 projects going right now, including a sweater – finally!

I don’t really know what else to blog about right now – but it had been a while, so I thought I’d write something.  Have a lovely day!

The following blog post may come off as some sort of New Year’s resolution, but it’s not, I tell you.  It just happens to coincide with the new year.  So there.

At the beginning of this month, my friend Rebecca and I signed up for a 5k to take place on April 4th.  Do I run?  No.  Am I even in good shape?  Not really.   Never having run a race before, I’m not really sure what to expect.  But, according to their website, here’s what I should expect: “Fabulous post-race party with mini spa treatments, catered brunch, live music, shopping and more!”   Yippee!  I can do that.  Absolutely I can.

But I mustn’t forget about the whole “race” part of this 5K RACE.    So, I’ve started this Couch to 5K plan to help me ease my way into running, since until recently, running a mile for me would probably consist of me walking the entire way, and maybe even stopping at a Starbucks for a grande skinny vanilla latte half way through.  The best part about this c25k program, as they call it, is that random people on the interwebs have made podcasts to listen to while you’re doing it, different files that go along with each week of the program – they tell you when to run and when to walk, so you don’t even have to think about it, or time yourself with a stopwatch or something.  In the podcast I chose, a masculine robotic voice counts down from 5 to 0, letting me know it’s time to switch it up from a walk to a run, or vise versa.  Unfortunately the music in a lot of the podcasts available out there isn’t that great – and I’d eventually like to make my own indie rock n’ roll couch-t0-5k podcast, but I will save that for another time.   Until then, I’m using this one.  It’s a pretty good mix of a few different genre’s, and it’s the closest I can find to my taste in music.  

And to make this whole debacle even more exciting, my friend, Mel, let me buy her Nike+ from her (thanks dude!).  I’ve used it twice already, and it’s super neat-o.  A sensor attaches to your shoe, and the receiver attaches to your iPod.  The sensor talks to the receiver during your workout, keeping tabs on your pace, distance, speed, etc., and keeps the data for uploading later.  See my pretty, pretty graphs?

I must’ve walked faster during my second workout, because there’s less variation in speed between my walking and running.  But I suppose that’s possible.  I had the dog with me too, so maybe a few of the pee-stops contributed to the dips in the first graph.  Or maybe it’s just not very accurate.  I don’t know.  But it’s pretty fun, and I like to see data, you know?  So I think I’ll keep using it.  I can’t even believe I didn’t know about this Nike+ thing before!  I might’ve started using it long ago so I could be all technologically advanced or whatever.  Imagine how skinny I could’ve been like months ago?!  I must say though, I’m feeling good because of all this.  

I guess that’s good for now.  I have a wishful-thinking-sxsw blog post in the making, so you should see that sometime soon.  Happy New Year!