Happy Labor Day

(The Koozies are here! The Koozies are here!)
I googled "september in texas" for header images, and I got this. Looks like a trip to Lubbock is in order.

Happy Labor Day y'all. I'm celebrating by having cake for breakfast, then going to work.

This weekend we watched the first (of many) ass-kickings delivered by our beloved Longhorns, but I forgot to bring knitting. I did get some reading done during the commercials. I've read it before of course, but it reminded me of my all-consuming love for Carson. She's the greatest.

My mom's coming tomorrow, so I should be putting a smackdown on this apartment. Later!

(jennifer) Anne of Green (apartment complex)

Look! We got our first present. Owl salt and pepper shakers. (Thanks Michael!) Cute. Careful observers will notice that they're sitting on my Anne of Green Gables book. My dear friend Rachel (of paper doll fame) has decided to throw an A of GG tea/miniseries watching party, which has inspired me to read the book (again). We won't talk about how this party is scheduled during my "work" hours (depths of despair!) but I'm enjoying the book very much. I was able to read a good chunk of it yesterday when I had to go to the tire store (poor little Sentra was getting wobbly) and redirect a portion of my rent money to three (!) new tires. Yuck.

Maybe an easy, pleasurable book from my childhood will finally restart my interest in reading. I was trying very hard to read that dragon tattoo book, but to no avail. Snooze! Luckily the Starks shared my opinion and reminded me that massively popular bestsellers are not my bag. I'm counting on you, Anne! "The most beloved, beguiling and timeless heroine in all of fiction."

Look, I'm being productive!

See? I'm watching bad daytime TV and working on stuff for The Thing! (I just finished a summer of 10 hour days, so if I want to find out which one IS the father, I think it's o.k.) This particular mess is the invitation project, but in the background you can see supplies for some kind of centerpiece or something. Who knows. I also got this book, because $4 a slice for cake is just silly. Luckily I have several helpers for the cake testing process. I think everything is on track. Boy? Check. Dress? Check. Venue? Check. Koozies? Check.

I finished the hat for Amy, just in time for the cold front. Brrr! It's in the low 90's! It's quite cute and I think I might need one for myself.

I also had time to watch this video. It made me very very happy. What do you think?

Well, better get back to work. Unlike some other members of this family...

Two Month Warning

Hi y'all! We're at the two month mark till The Thing. I ordered the koozies, so now there's no turning back. Right now I should be working on invitations, but today is my first day back on regular school-year work schedule, so I'm enjoying my special a.m. alone time.

Oops, another month has flown by with no C&D to keep you company. Sorry. What's been happening? I've been working L O N G days, it's been HOT, but we've had some fun.

Friday we went to Rachel's (the genius behind the Jen paper dolls) apt. warming party. Look what I made for her:
A party tray of dishcloths! I didn't get a picture of the tray itself, but it has little Texases on it. Cute! I also finally finished the pillow and I'm quite pleased with it. Yesterday we went to a baseball game and I started a hat for my sis. Pretty soon it will be football season again, so the knitting will be in full swing.
Certainly I've done something besides knitting, right? Hmmm...last weekend we went to the Stark's for a Leo Birthday dinner (there's a ton of them in the family) and to see the Denton Community Theater's production of The Producers. It was great. We also got new pedis, but I'll spare you any more photos of my feet.

I finally got around to watching Greenberg. And you're right, it kind of sucked. It's sad because I love love Noah Baumbach, but I hate hate Ben Stiller. (Watch this. It's funny.)

Now that I'm back on my regular schedule, I'll try to update this more often. Like maybe twice a month.

Guess I should take a shower today. Later!

It's a yucky gray thundery day and I guess I should be knitting. I'm making this:which is going to be a throw pillow for my bed which is funny because I never never make the bed.

But first I'll tell y'all about my suicide prevention (birthday) weekend. It was spectacular. On Saturday everyone indulged me and spent $21 to go to this. It was gross, but not as amazing as I wanted it to be. Then we did a Burnet Rd. crawl: The Draughthouse, Billy's, Ginny's, The Poodle Dog, Lala's, Buddy's Place, Pluckers, and The Canary Hut Pub. Perfect perfect perfect.

Sunday we had a picnic at Pedernales Falls State Park, (if you're here in TX, they say "PERdenales"). My sweet JS made some badass T-Flo sides to go with the hot dogs, and we floated down the river. I know! A few photos exist but it's hard to remember the camera when you're having so much fun.

Monday night I finally went to "hip hop" night at Nasty's (a little bar that really lives up to its name) and while it was fun, Off the Wall is NOT hip hop, y'all. Come on. Not that I don't love Off the Wall. I do. RIP poor MJ.

Yesterday (my actual birthday) we went on a special birthday date to Uchi. Uchi is the "it" spot here in the atx so I was a teeny bit skeptical about it living up to the hype. It did. Everything about it was ridiculously fantastic. They bring you hot towels before you eat! The waiter was nice and explained everything to us without making us feel stupid, everything was cute in that Japanese way that I love, and the food! It is an injustice to even call it food. It's some kind of insanely pleasurable experience for your mouth. I can't even describe it. Save up. Go here. Plus I had the cutest date.

I received many thoughtful gifts and cards (thank you everyone!) but this one I've got to show you:

That's right, it's a paper doll ME! The accuracy of the drawing is upsettingly good:
Excellent work, Rachel!! You are incredible.

Know what else is incredible? The amount of time it takes to update this blog. Yikes, I have to get on with my day. Later!

Any excuse to make cupcakes...

So as you can see by the painfully self-indulgent header photo, it is my birthday week but these are not for me. K's coming home from her trip tonight and we're having a welcome home party (and by "we" I mean me and an apartmentload of teenagers...gulp...wanna come over? Please?) Luckily there will be cupcakes!!!I LOVE this funfetti frosting. A mix of big and small sprinkles. Cake makes me so happy.

I even got a special party treat for the cats:
Yes, I am THAT lady.

Yikes! Looks like a whole month has flown by. What's been happening? Well, aside from the upcoming world shatteringly exciting event, just the normal sweltering heat with occasional "movie rain", Fourth of JU-ly fun, working LONG (long) days, being eaten alive by mosquitoes,

you know. I took a little (working) trip to the coast, and last weekend we had a lovely (is there any other kind?) visit from the Starks. And...sit down for this one...I've been doing water activities. Yes you read that right. Going in the water for fun. Outdoors. I don't even know me anymore either.

Now that the details are nice and hazy...

I'll finally write something about our trip. (Special apologies go out to A.S. who I know has been waiting patiently for a blog update.) You can jump straight to the photos, or read my disjointed account. It's up to you. (And if you missed the rainforest pic email, those are here.)

We had a really nice time, even though the NW is cold and dreary and drizzly. Luckily we had a few days of sunny-ish weather and a good mix of family hangout time and vacationy activities. Most importantly, I got some yarn (thanks Mom!) at my favorite yarn store. I like it there because they don't find it weird at all when I say I'm in the store mostly to smell the yarn.
Other highlights of Seattle include the EMP, where JS had tons of fun remixing Jimi Hendrix songs or something- I don't quite understand, and Dick's, the only thing I really miss about living there. We rode the ferry, went to the library, watched the Mariners lose, and saw something I've never seen before: crazy soccer fans in Seattle. I guess the Sounders have replaced the Sonics. They were singing and marching and being all European (like Seattleites are known to do) and it wasn't even a playoff game. According to the guy we asked they're "not even very good."

Our second NW weekend we went to Portland, which is way way way (way) cooler than Seattle. We stayed at the Ace Hotel which just happened to be on Stark St. which just happened to (hee hee) be Portland's gayest street. (Think lots of rainbow balloon arches) From the hotel bar window we got to watch the participants of a fantastic drag show walk to and from the backstage which was apparently around the corner. I LOVE drag shows. Really.

We went to the Contemporary Museum of Craft, and I got a cup from this guy. He's got a cool little setup right in the museum and he gives away these cups.
I chose this one because it says "knight of cups":
John chose this one because, well you can see why he chose this one.
We did some NW versions of our favorite activities, like hiking and horse racing, but they are not quite as fun when you are shivering instead of sweating.

Something I do like about the NW is there are tons and tons of microbreweries. Everywhere. But the beer is really heavy and there's no sweating so by the end of the trip I was feeling a little puffy. Luckily back here in the ATX there has been nothing but sweating so I think I'm back to some kind of equilibrium.

We got to visit with some old friends and had plenty of quality family time but I have to say I feel pretty Texan and don't miss old WA at all. It's the sunlight.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a large portion of super fun activities, but you can check out the pictures and email me questions.