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My backyard

Took a walk out on Town Lake today. It's a reminder of what I love about Austin. So pretty.

September 30 at 9:09 PM | Comments (0)

Dame!

I just bought tickets for Dame Edna! Love. Can't wait!

Here's some genius for you...Dame Edna singing "I'm every woman" with KD Lang. Srsly.

September 30 at 1:45 PM | Comments (0)

Lenny Bruce is not afraid

R.E.M. was on the brain today as I watched the stock market plunge and the House vote against an end to the free-market system of capitalism.

I was in Wachovia today and all the employees were a little nervous. When I asked about getting some cash out the teller asked me how much because they didn't have very much left. I don't think she was joking. She said people had been coming in a steady stream today taking their money out. I left and thought to myself...we're living in interesting times.
I don’t want to say what I’m about to say. I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel until about the year 2015.--Suze Orman on CNN.com

I'm sort of glad that I'm too ignorant to fully understand what cliff we are standing on the edge of right now.

I have some time alone...I have some time alone and I feel fine....

September 29 at 11:56 PM | Comments (2)

It's a brand new Monday!

Funny how they just keep coming no matter what! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I didn't unpack hardly at all and was so sick Sunday I thought i was dying, but thanks to CH I was brought back from the brink.

More budget bullshit this week so wish me luck!

Oh, and the Crimson Tide is back baby! Take that Georgia!!

September 29 at 7:49 AM | Comments (0)

Goodnight, Brick

I think Paul Newman was the sexiest man alive for many decades. If you fell in love with him after just one of his movies you were in love with him right up until the end.

September 28 at 9:08 AM | Comments (0)

19th floor, Pedi-egg and ACL

Well, the move was relatively smooth but I'm not unpacked at all. The place is not put together, but B will do that when he gets here. In a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up new pillows I also got a Pedi-egg. LOVE! My feet were getting ashy so it was a perfect impulse buy.

The 19th floor is spectacular. Great view, great building, great neighbors...More later on all that. The one thing that's annoying is ACL festival weekend has made the traffic a nightmare to get anywhere and people walking out in the middle of busy downtown roads are a hazard.

September 27 at 6:26 PM | Comments (5)

$700 Billion?!?!

The feds just seized WaMu...JPMorgan will buy them and expand their retail bank presence in the West. The congress doesn't seem like they have figured out a deal yet and all the while the folks keep telling all of us that we have to do all of this bailout stuff...RIGHT NOW.

I'm not so keen on on having to make such a big decision so quickly.

I'll keep watching the news and reading about how the U.S. Dollar is about to be worthless on a global scale.

September 25 at 8:32 PM | Comments (1)

Professional question

How many times do you say to yourself, "F this, I'm outta here" before you actually just do it? Probably for 60 years or so, right? Especially with an economy in the toilet, a spouse, and a mortgage? DAMMIT...I just realized the real American Dream...

September 24 at 6:01 PM | Comments (1)

Well...

No shit.

September 23 at 4:34 PM | Comments (1)

Economic freefall?

What's our opinion of these add-ons to the economic bailout by the feds?
* Give the government an equity stake in the companies it helps
* Change the bankruptcy law so that judges can modify the mortgages of filers' primary residence
* Curb executive compensation on the companies participating in the bailout
* Impose oversight of the Treasury program
* Require the government to promote sustainable homeownership through loan modifications and use of the new HOPE for Homeowners Program on the mortgages underlying the assets it buys in the bailout.

I have to say that I am fundamentally opposed to government intervention in the free market system. I am opposed to the government "bailing out" financial institutions. It's my fiscal conservatism root. If the economy is as close to collapse as we are being led to believe then I suppose we have to do something.

But, ugh...government ownership equity in private financial institutions? Sure...if we're going to bail them out, but YIKES...government owning banks?!?!

I am getting closer to stuffing money in a mattress every day.

September 23 at 1:21 PM | Comments (2)

Phobia!

I am afraid of commitment. I want a committed relationship and to have a partner and to be in love and to trust someone and now that I have that and we are moving in together and building a life together...I'm having a little bit of a freak out. I've lived alone for an awfully long time.

GULP! Here I go!!

September 23 at 8:41 AM | Comments (4)

Swag Bag

I put together a couple of swag bags for my cousins that are in town and after I went through them I wanted half of the stuff I put in them! They are coming for a tour this afternoon. That will be a nice break from the day.

What furniture isn't making the move is mostly sold and, thankfully, B is in charge of all that so I don't have to freak out about strangers being in my house taking my stuff. I've moved up the move in day so I'll only be homeless for three days. I'm ready for B to be back and all moved in so we can just be settled in our new place.

September 23 at 8:31 AM | Comments (0)

Monday? No way!

Monday is here entirely too early for my schedule! B is here and we've been craigslisting things that will not make the move into the new place and it turns out the my extended family is also in town and budgets are due at the office and, of course, there is some sort of work crisis and I need to reschedule the move from Saturday to Friday because Austin City Limits and the UT-Arkansas game are both this weekend and it'll be a nightmare trying to move through the city on Saturday and I haven't started to pack a single thing and for some reason the battery light is coming on in my car and I have four pair of pants that need to go to the tailor....

HELP!

September 22 at 7:45 AM | Comments (5)

Most Dangerous Words?

Gucci Outlet.

I received a hand addressed announcement that Gucci has opened a boutique at the Prime Outlets in San Marcos.

Dear Lord in Heaven..please give me the courage I need to resist the devil's temptation...

September 20 at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)

Mame!

I got to see my 80-something year old aunt tonight at dinner. I got to tell the stories about how she used to take me shopping and let me pick out what she would buy. She used to kidnap me and take me on trips and then make me call my parents collect and tell them where we were. She insisted I understand quality fabrics, good china and the finer things in life. She used to tell me that her tombstone should probably read, "Never found the perfect pair of black pumps."

I think we may have discovered my "root."

September 18 at 9:55 PM | Comments (1)

No need to let truth get in the way

Ah...how I don't miss politics.

September 18 at 9:31 PM | Comments (0)

What I am thankful for today...

A patient accountant. I ask questions even though I will never comprehend the answer. In my defense, I'd say that I take direction well.

September 18 at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)

I hate white people

And I guess they are really white in Ohio where this Church is. Watch this video and tell me you honestly believe Jesus isn't weeping. (via)

September 17 at 10:30 PM | Comments (1)

Everything's fine...

Not really, but I'm just going to keep whistling while I work. From the New York Times on Wednesday's sell-off:

Governments around the world stepped up their efforts to ease the strain on the global financial system. The Bank of England extended a special bank lending program for another three months, while central banks in Japan and Australia injected more money into their banking systems. Russia lowered reserve requirements to assist its banks.

September 17 at 9:21 PM | Comments (0)

Discombobulated

As a grown up, I often wish I could convince the world to just stop for a day. Just give me a break to catch my breath. Unfortunately, that isn't possible. I was talking with a friend and we were wondering why we were feeling out of sorts and a little tired. Then we rattled off all the things we were working on and what's going on in our lives right now and had our "A HA!" moment.

I keep waiting for November because by then I think things will slow down a bit.

September 17 at 8:36 PM | Comments (0)

How is FEMA doing this time?

The mayor of Houston has a wee bit of criticism that supplies are not coming in fast enough to the nation's fourth largest city.

Mayor Bill White also asked that a federal supervisor at a distribution center be fired for telling the drivers of two trucks — one filled with ice and other with food — to turn around. The supervisor thought the site was stocked, but it wasn't.

And one coastal resident said,

"You watch the TV and you listen to those guys getting mad up in Houston because they can't get water. Or they can't go to the grocery store shopping," he said. "They don't know what disaster is ... they ought to be here. They'd know what disaster is."

September 16 at 9:30 PM | Comments (4)

Helping out Ike evacuees

Tomorrow, I'll spend part of my day at the HEB on Parmer Lane. Helping to sort donated food items and giving my own food to the Capital Area Food Bank for a Food Drive.


If you have any extra food, or want to do a little food shopping and donate some then come on by! Or, just click the above and give a few bucks. It'll make you feel better!

September 16 at 8:53 PM | Comments (0)

Official Declaration: End of Summer Crankiness

I'm going to go ahead and call a preliminary end to the annual Summer Crankiness. Our high today was only 79 degrees...the coolest day in Austin since early May. I was able to wear a suit today and never once removed my jacket.

If you have been avoiding me or living in fear of my response to even the slightest provocation, I will now be much easier to approach.

On a related note: My boss told me today that I was insensitive but unpredictably sensitive. I agree. I can't believe it's taken him this long to figure that out!

September 15 at 10:17 PM | Comments (1)

There are no words

This NSFW (Not Safe For Work) video breaks my heart about the child abuse that I cannot do anything to fix, but share with you.

September 15 at 9:35 PM | Comments (0)

Little Britain coming to HBO!

Love it! This offensive show is so funny that I may have to consider getting HBO!

September 15 at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

We got crazy right here in river city!

This woman is going to live forever...in a stinking hellhole of sin that is Austin, Texas.

Enjoy.

September 14 at 5:16 PM | Comments (3)

Bringing the funny

Best political satire opening of SNL in years!

September 14 at 5:02 PM | Comments (2)

What happened to That guy?

In a fit of nostalgia, I downloaded Tracy Chapman's first album and remembered when I used to walk across the Quad at the University of Alabama and listen to it on my Sony Walkman...a cassette tape. I remember when the song "Why" with its lyrics, "Why are the missiles called peacekeepers when they're aimed to kill?"

My thoughts were...where did that guy go? The one that was moved by the lyrics, the one that volunteered on the weekends, the one that cared about helping people less fortunate? He's long gone and I miss that part of him.

I know what happened, that kid got lied to, he got burned, he discovered people are ungrateful and realized that he wasn't making the kind of difference he thought he would. So he gave up on all that altogether...and kind of became a selfish prick. I don't like that about him.

September 14 at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

iPhone: Massive FAIL?

I love/hate my iPhone. B and I both got them and we've had enormous troubles. The iPhone is a wonderful "gadget" and I do love all the things it can do. There's one problem. It's the worst "telephone" I've ever had. Hands down. No contest. Worst. Phone. Ever.

Oh, and for the Apple devotees...don't blame AT&T. I've had AT&T/Cingular for 7 years and had Motorola phones, Samsung phones, Blackberries, Nokia phones and they all provided exceptional coverage coast-to-coast on the AT&T/Cingular network. It's not them...it's you, Apple.

Bluetooth in my car with the iPhone..sucks. Signal strength in the same spots my Nokia had 5 bars? 1 bar with the iPhone. Plus it's dropped almost every single call I've had.

Yes, I ran the update. Reset. Saw a genius. Still sucks.

It's beautiful. Has some great features...but it's got to go.

OH..and the camera? While it's high-res is nice, I tried to take a picture of me today at Whole Foods and realized it's nearly impossible to take a picture of yourself with the phone. The touchscreen is too hard to use when you can't see it.

I'm a PC. And, I'm ok with that. Because it works better.

September 13 at 11:16 PM | Comments (2)

Plan your protests early

Saw this press release today:

AUSTIN, TX – The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) is literally driving home its pro-life message to Texans. Beginning Monday, September 15, CBR will cruise Austin streets with several box trucks displaying 22 feet by 7 feet images of aborted human beings. The moving billboards have already visited Houston and San Antonio and later this month will be driven through Dallas.

Full release and their planned locations after the jump.

Continue reading "Plan your protests early"

September 13 at 5:27 PM | Comments (3)

Did you watch the Palin interview?

The woman is not only ignorant on foreign affairs, I now believe she would be a threat to national security! (Video)

September 11 at 8:32 PM | Comments (4)

Notice to my dearest friends

Unlike three of the four besties of Sarah Palin...I expect you to say unequivocally before a national television audience that you would, indeed, vote for me for political office.

OUCH!

September 10 at 11:11 PM | Comments (7)

Hurricane!

Here we go again...another storm in the gulf and headed towards the coast. Like all hurricanes, it's unclear where it will hit land. But, one thing is for sure...it will hit somewhere. I used to think news people went overboard, but watching the constant inflow of information from the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, the numerous state agencies and FEMA creates a sense of urgency to get the word out.

I no longer think they go overboard. I think the rate of information coming in is so fast that getting it all out and going through it to determine what's important, what's urgent, what's potentially life-saving and what's bullshit is a very hard job.

I watched the newsroom today and you would not believe the amount of information coming in. Some of it conflicting. Meanwhile, there is other news happening. It's very difficult to "plan" for a news event that may or may not affect your local community, but will affect someone somewhere.

It is fascinating to be a part of and I hope I remind myself of that at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning when I'm making sure our livestream is working.

September 10 at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)

Airline Industry Doesn't Get It

These were the first three headlines I saw this morning. It brings to mind a lot of thoughts on marketing, reputation management and how customers now have a bigger voice in the brand message than ever before. I'll save those for a different space but that's a preview of what I'll be writing about next.

September 10 at 7:40 AM | Comments (1)

White screen of death

I got an iPhone this weekend. in 36 hours I also had the "white screen of death" on it and had to meet with a genius today at the Apple store. The genius took one look and whispered, "I'm going to replace your phone." That tells me that this is a known issue with the iPhone and the iPod. So much for the arrogance of the Mac folks about how the Apple is immune to such things.

When the genius gave me a new phone it had someone else's iTunes account on it. I emailed them and they have never returned an iPhone but did have one serviced at the same store I went to for my replacement. Another mystery.

I'm still going to give the iPhone a positive review. The Urban Spoon application is worth the price of the phone altogether. Love it! But, one thing about the iPhone is that you can't do anything else while using it. You cannot text from the feel of the keys or email or even scroll through an address book. That's an issue for me.

September 9 at 11:01 PM | Comments (2)

Palin, explain please

I hesitate to jump into the Palin feeding frenzy again, but here we go:
From Andrew Sullivan:

When Palin took over Wasilla, the town had no long-term debt. By the time she was done, debt service had increased by 69 percent, the town had close to $19 million in long-term debt, making the debt around $3000 per capita. And the Mccain campaign is asking us - seriously - to consider her a fiscal conservative.

She is a Bush-Cheney fiscal conservative: low taxes, unprecedented new spending, utter incompetence, endemic cronyism and massive debt.

The tone is all Andrew Sullivan. The questions I would want to know would be how a mayor of a city of 9,000 people could be responsible for such fiscal irresponsibility? Do they not have a city council or are they all suffering from snow blindness? Don't think you can blame all that mismanagement on Palin, but keep up the good work trying!

September 9 at 8:31 PM | Comments (5)

Aw, it's a crush

Cute little David Archuleta has a new video for his song, Crush. It's cute.

September 9 at 8:12 AM | Comments (0)

Another hurricane...

The past three weekends have been all about hurricanes so why should this one be any different? Hurricane Ike is on its way somewhere. Some forecasters are saying it could be a big one. I'm worried that if it is, people will be so bored of evacuating for storms they won't leave.

September 9 at 8:05 AM | Comments (2)

What a great weekend

B is here and we spent the weekend getting some very key pieces for the new place. A fabulous sectional sofa in charcoal wool twill from Crate and Barrel, a platform bed, nightstands and dresser and best of all...the Westin Heavenly Bed. The mattress is not as expensive as you think, so I highly recommend everyone buy one.

We also had a great brunch at Z Tejas and saw MKD and hung out with JM last night and watched a cute little gay movie about the whole coming of age story thing.

I'm off to the office for a bit, hope everyone had a great weekend!

September 8 at 8:13 AM | Comments (1)

Getting home is all I ever wanted

with apologies to the Go-Go's, my trip home was disgusting. The Providence, Rhode Island airport is the single most loudest airport I've ever been in. Loud music, shouting announcers, beeping carts. OMG. We were delayed getting out. Stuck on the runway for just over an hour in a plane that smelled like the exhaust of all the planes in front of us.

Chicago O'Hare was a relief except all those people yelled into the intercom. I don't know why I was so sensitive to noise yesterday. Once again, the flight was delayed and it was pouring rain. We finally did taxi to the runway only to have some drunk woman refuse to get off her cell phone. She sassed the flight attendant. Mistake! We turned around and security came and made that drunk bitch get off the plane. After she got off the flight attendant said, "We run a tight ship here at United. When we ask you politely to follow crewmember instructions, we are not kidding." BURN.

So, I finally arrived back in Austin just after 1:30 a.m. and have a 10:00 a.m. meeting this morning.

Other than that, how did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?

September 5 at 8:47 AM | Comments (0)

Did she really say that?

Did you watch Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC Convention last night? If you didn't you really missed her sarcastic and wrong statements of fact. It was a petty, small minded speech from a narrow minded small town mayor. I was flabbergasted.

I think the debate between her and Joe Biden will be riveting television. Riveting!

September 4 at 6:14 AM | Comments (9)

Providence is CUTE!

Ok, so I've wandered around Providence. Here's a video of my hotel room and my view of the capitol building. Don't worry, like in most of my videos, I don't forget to tell you I'm exhausted. I make that excuse to the camera for why I look like a hot mess, but really it's how I must look all the time. :(

I did get a chance to wander over to Brooks Brothers yesterday and take advantage of the fact that it's the wardrobe staple of the East Coast and found items that don't even require tailoring to fit. DANGER: Do not let me loose in Brooks Brothers!! Anyway, I'm going to look so cute today I'll take a picture and post it.

Oh, and the boys here are incredibly cute and handsome and sexy. If you are single, you should head to Providence.

September 3 at 5:53 AM | Comments (0)

Rhode Island!

Well, from North Carolina to Rhode Island and man oh man, what a difference. Being back in the bosom of the South thickened up my alleged accent and the good people of Providence are having a hard time understanding the words that are coming out of my mouth.

I had to change planes in Philadelphia to get here. Let me just say...Oh those East Coast boys! They wreck me. So handsome and the three sitting near me on the plane were reading...books! One was reading The Great Gatsby, so he was clearly my number 1 choice for best all around handsome man that I fell in love with right there, then the other was reading a biography of Alan Greenspan. So fiscal! I think that was very sexy. Then the third was reading a book about the American Revolution. I'm not kidding you. Where are these men and why aren't they all wanting to marry me?

It's ok. I have my own East Coast boyfriend and we'll see each other this weekend.

How was your weekend? Mine was great...read about it in the extended entry

Continue reading "Rhode Island!"

September 2 at 3:45 PM | Comments (0)