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.

Adios y'all!

We're heading out on a real live trip this afternoon. I bought a whole new memory card for the camera so watch out!

Sorry I've been out of touch y'all, but I've been pretty busy with something kind of exciting that involves knitting and mail and a major change in my worldview. But I have to take time out to show you my gum. I am such a sucker for cute packaging.

This is my favorite song in the whole world

Another Miniature Weekend bites the dust

Hi y'all! Look at this little guy. Isn't he sweet?Ok, that's my crazy cat lady moment for today. Time to get serious. There's a lot of stuff to tell y'all about.

Some of you may remember that May 15th was Miniature Showcase!! It's the very silly (I mean cool) event that my entire year revolves around. Really. You can see my pictures here. It was a tough decision, but this year I picked up (another) appetizer tray from Autumn Leaf Studios. It makes me very very happy.

We stayed (again) at The Belmont Hotel. It's great. They left us-ok, just John-a little handwritten note! Cute. If you're in the big D, please go there.

On Saturday night, we happened upon an Uncle Lucius show at Lee Harvey's. Remember? That's the place with all the wicked cool beer signs. You can see my pictures of them from last year's mw here.

On Sunday we met the Starks for a fancy brunch at the Modern in Fort Worth. Then we went to see Michelangelo's first painting at the Kimbell. It was fantastic! Demons and stuff. Cool. Plus there was a painting of John there!

In the car I tried to hunker down and knit for real, with mixed results. I got to the foldy part.
You probably don't remember what this might someday become. Here's a reminder.

In less happy news, our friend and half of our followers JDS and his wife Megan moved away to LA last week. The only bright spot in the darkness is that Megan is going to work for Marketplace!! (note to non-nerds: it's a radio show) And Marketplace is hosted by one of my (many) imaginary boyfriends, Kai Ryssdal! Maybe she can put in a good word for me...(joke! joke!)

Speaking of film (we were, kind of, because Jack makes movies, remember?) on Friday we got all brainy and watched 8 1/2. I LOVED it.

Oh yeah, did you know there's a Tom Landry freeway? The sign has a little hat on it. (I didn't get a picture and I can't find one on these dang internets!!) I love Texas.