my annual guinness

Today really creeped up on me - I've been so wrapped up in work and other things that need to be posted about, that what would've been my dad's 64th birthday is suddenly here. I'm giving this year's gift to the Hill Country Aeromodelers, which is a conspicuous way of saying Big Kids Group. These guys operate out of south Austin and meet every few weeks to fly their homemade radio controlled planes, which is so my dad.

I loved this club because it reminded me of my dad when we lived in our house in Austin (until I was 7). We had a second story to the house that was just one unairconditioned, light-filled, treehouse of a room that he used exclusively to build model things....planes, trains, cars, whatever. He painted them too, so the room always smelled of a really intense lacquer. I loved it. When I was older, he took me several times to the Fry's parking lot (you heard me) because they held weekly remote-control car races. And he always loved all things aviation, from his real plane to flying kites in Zilker Park. Actually I just found this email he sent a few years ago:

I'm scanning in family pics and found this one of your great granddaddy
(and your grandaddy) and his airplane from 1967 probably taken by me.
Thanks to the registration number visible and Google - I just got off the
phone with the 73 year old man in Peoria Illinois who now owns it and he is
very interested in getting scans of the pics I have of it and your great
granddaddy's pilot's license, etc.  He is going to send me current pictures
of it.  He's very active in aviation and edits the newsletter for his local
airplane club.  I'll show you the other pics when you are here.
-Genealogy Pops

P.S. That means I now live near this plane, which basically makes me want to buy it.

Then my dad and the guy who owns the plane had a super nerd-out exchange that ended up in the local aviation newsletter - what what!

Pretty cute, right? So anyway, it's safe to say he would dig this club.

Sip a Guinness today for Ed!

the joy of skiing 2

Snowstar
Last month while Brian was working, I went to Kim's hometown in Western Illinois with some of our friends to visit the local ski hill. And let's be clear that when I say hill, I actually mean hill. It was great for me though because every time I ski with Brian...God bless him but he pushes me pretty hard...so this time I could ski on my own terms! Since there was really anything to "push" toward (the steepest run was like 200 feet of what would equate to a Colorado blue), I spent a lot of time just working on my skillz. That's right. The kind with a Z.

Kim, Mark, Jackson, Abbey, Jay & me

matching $3 walmart hats - there was no saying no

Kim's family farm (rather, corn field)...so pretty

She and Mark get married here in September!

check out that gnarly run in the background

this was Jay's first time snowboarding but he'd already bought a matching jacket & pants, boots, and a snowboard. good thing he liked it.

Notably, we also went tubing, which was my first time! Tubing is I guess like sledding, but since I haven't really done that either, I can't be sure. They had a huge hill with four lanes, and you could innertube down by yourself or tie your tube together with a few others. Holy crap. This was reminiscent of my ridiculous happiness on the slip 'n slide, just with more screams and a side of tears (from laughing so hard). Actually I caused some 8-year-old to ask one of my friends "What's wrong with that girl?" to which they naturally answered "Oh, she's from Texas." Cool.

the joy of skiing 1

After going through a skiing dry spell, we got to do a ton of it this year, and I loved it! Back in the fall we planned a trip to Tahoe for March, and after that, two other impromptu opportunities presented themselves...when it rains it pours (when it snows it storms?)! I've split them into 3 posts because they each obviously deserve their own.

Breckenridge
I found out in early December that I'd have some downtime work and also that I'd lose my vacation days at the end of the month. While talking to Amy about my new conundrum (all this time, what to do?!), she said we should jump in on her and Matt's trip to Breckenridge! Since we already had bought tickets to go to Texas on Southwest, it was super easy and cheap to change our return flight to go through Colorado. Bada bing, bada boom!

Brian and I flew out the day after Christmas and stayed two nights in a mountain lodge just outside of town. (Sidenote: The lodge was paid for by a "ham check" that our company gives every employee at Christmas, which is to be used to do something nice for/with your family. Pretty awesome, right?). When Amy arrived a few days later, we moved our stuff to Matt's family's ski-in / ski-out condo, where we had a full house of FUN: us, Amy & Matt, another great couple, and Matt's sister.

The snow situation was just short of awful, BUT the general awesomeness of being in the mountains and having our group gel together so well made up for it. We skiied for three days, played games, showed the hot tub who was boss, went out at night, and most notably took over a karaoke bar (with Matt's mom in tow). Such a great trip, and totally unplanned!!!

cute lodge lobby

we all got reindeer names too, obvi

I think I've given Brian is my love for karaoke

the whole group!

The trip also led to a few conversations about what it'd be like if we lived in Colorado. I think Denver would be pretty sweet - still urban, but close enough to ski frequently. Brian is a major proponent of the mountain towns though, because he knows the reality of living 1.5 hours from the slopes (in Denver) is juuuuust far enough to make it a chore to go skiing often. So if the ultimate purpose is to have our kids growing up in the outdoors and enjoying what the mountains really have to offer, maybe the best way to do that is probably by living at the foot of an actual slope. We will continue to disagree on this.

a real, live show

For anyone who doesn't know Brian, he's an "ideas man." As in, has multiple composition notebooks full of story plots, commercial ideas, jokes, inventions, etc. I'm more of an execution kind of person, so the only thing I ever "jot down" is a grocery list. The whole thing totally baffles me, but it's awesome to witness.

So anyway, over a year ago, he came up with the idea of doing a live performance in the style of a late-night talk show. Think Conan O'Brien for a live audience (no TV). He had a certain person in mind to host, a guy named Kevin who is an amazing musician (drummed on all of Andrew Bird's albums) but is also a really witty, endearing, interesting person in general. They decided the guests would be really fascinating—not necessarily well-known—people who can teach the audience something new or just straight up entertain them.

Brian and Kevin worked out the vision, format, content ideas, and were both super enthusiastic but after a while, life sort of got in the way and the project lost momentum. (This is the only problem with being an ideas person). Fast forward to a few months ago when a girl in the theater circle caught wind of the concept. She loved it and sensed that they needed a project manager to get on board and make it happen, so she did. She started spreading the word, booked a space, started talking to potential guests, and assembled an arsenal of writers to work on Kevin's monologues. This girl is my hero!!!!

So with an official team in place, we officially have the show up and running! (I deleted the name because it was showing up in Google searches and I didn't want people to land on my blog accidentally). The first show was 3 weeks ago, and it will be performed once a month until "people stop having fun" (solid long-term vision, ha). I didn't like the title at first but it's really grown on me...mostly since Brian told me they wouldn't be making any overt references to periods. They've also secured a great loft space for performances that happens to be sponsored by Hendrick's Gin, so admission and drinks are both free. You heard me!

There are so many talented people on the roster, it's incredible. We have professionals all pitching in pro bono to handle their area of expertise, including everything from lighting to video to design to a band to writers who all graduated from Second City, whaaaaat. I feel un-funny just standing near them. The only reason I get to play in the sandbox with them is because I'm handling the social media side of things...but I'll take it!

It's hard to believe that we're already gearing up for our second show (March 19). The first one was a huge success! There were definitely kinks in the armor, but we walked away with some great learnings to help make changes next time. The guests were really fun too - I just edited together some footage for our Facebook page (which you can find through mine), so check it out, and "like" the page if you want to follow along as the show evolves!

prepping the audio

the house band

guest / comedian

more guests, who host their own game show. cool, right?

It's been super exciting to be involved with a production like this, but even more so, it's so gratifying to see one of Brian's ideas come to fruition. He's put in so much work, not only on the ideas side, but on the production side too. I'm like a proud mama bear! I also love that the intention isn't to necessarily grow the show into something specific, which will allow it to develop out of the talent and inspiration that all the different people involved will bring to the table. Now I just need to update my artsy-hipster wardrobe looks like so I won't stand out like a sore thumb around all these cool people :)

opening day

Yesterday was Opening Day on the tennis courts for me & Brian! The weather is going crazy around here in the best way. Not that it's anything big compared to places further south, but the fact that it's in the 60s and 70s this week is too good to be true! (Seriously, is it true...). Normally it'd be highs in the 30s and 40s, which means last year we abandoned tennis from November to late May. But not this (freak) year!

For the record, Brian won 9 games to 7 (didn't play a full match). I'm only writing that here so that I'll have full permission to report on my own wins later! I never should've taught him how to play...

one year wiser

It's birthday season in our household! Within 2 weeks we have had both Brian & I, both of his parents, and my grandmother. Phone calls abound!

I'm happy to say I had an absolutely lovely birthday. This was a welcome juxtaposition to last year's, which went a little something like this: bad weather, lots of people out of town, no pre-planning, friends bailing at the last minute, a few tears, cancelling the plans, then finding out 2 people didn't get the memo so I had to pull it together and go out anyway. It was a perfect storm of bad timing. As someone who really loves birthdays, this was one for the books...the Can We Pretend This Never Happened books.

This year, I was determined to make up for it! It fell on a Sunday so naturally I converted the one-day affair into a whole weekend of whatever I wanted to do. Brian was working most of the time unfortunately, but I still got to see him after his shows and Sunday morning.

Highlights included -

*Friday: killing a few bottles of wine at Kim's. Yes please!

*Saturday: working out, followed by 2 Lifetime movies...haven't done that since about 2006

*Saturday night: BYOB sushi dinner, which was so freaking delicious! Then off to a hole in the wall (code: my new favorite place) called Danny's, which had an awesome dance floor and the cheapest drinks I've seen in Chicago! A lot of people came out - apparently timing was right, this year. After waiting in line in the freezing cold for half an hour to get in the bar, Brian got in JUST in time for me to demand going to a new bar and then immediately demanding to leave for some late-night Chicago's Pizza...for the third weekend in a row. He's so lucky!

Kim, me, Jess, and Shay

best late night addition to the party!

*Sunday: sleeping late and presents in bed are the BEST!!!!!! I opened a couple of cards from friends, which I loved, and opened some presents from Brian's parents. Sidestory - if you recall, Brian's mom is a notoriously erratic gift giver. Sometimes she nails it (silver necklace!) and sometimes she doesn't (giant poster of my face). This year I got two hits and one miss. I'm sure you can figure out which categories these fall into:

That's right. Stallion rain boots.

I got a Clarisonic from Brian, which is the greatest invention since the iPhone (surely will get its own post), and a SW gift card from my Austin girls, which I want to use ASAP! A very special present also came at 7:30 am in the form of Jackie's new baby!!!!! What a happy text to wake up to! I was so hoping he would arrive on time so we could share our birthdays :) As a sidenote, she had her baby sans drugs, which is just shy of a miracle in this day and age where the drugs are the norm, not the exception. So proud of her!

presents are fun for everyone

Brian and I went to brunch at our local favorite, Marmalade, and then he headed to the theater while I went to Paper Source and got myself a calendar. Being 29 is crazzzzzy!

*Monday: this was possibly my favorite part of the weekend. Jessica & Ryan had a $350 gift certificate to Fleming's and were sweet enough to share it with us. We had a wonderful, loooong dinner filled with delicious food, some nice treats (champagne and wine glasses to take home!), and great conversation. For a little background, Ryan was an usher in our wedding but I didn't get to know Jess until I moved here. This past fall, they moved a block away from us and it's been fantastic having them so close! Jess is now one of my closest friends - having a good couple friend is awesome!

All in all, it was a great weekend and thank you for your birthday wishes! I plan to live up the last year of my 20s....eeeek!

can you hear me

I don't know how I've kept this blog for four years and never dedicated a full post to the white fluffball that occupies so much of our attention at home, but due to a recent occurrence, I think it's finally time.

We just realized that our 14-year-old cat is deaf.

Actually the more precise statement would be: I just realized that our 14-year-old cat seems to be almost (or maybe totally?) deaf.

Apparently Brian thought this might be the case for a while and seemed completely baffled when I said he was insane. Then I shared my back-pocket stat that 8 out of 10 blue-eyed, white cats are deaf and he nearly died. As if that proved his point!

Then he launched into an unofficial hearing test, which consisted of making a series ridiculous sounds, snapping behind her ears, banging on the floor, etc. The only thing she responded to in the whole mix was a very specific clucking-tsssk noise, which is what is keeping me from proclaiming her 100% deaf. But maybe it was just a vibration that the sound makes...? AH!

It had never crossed my mind at all that Powder might be deaf. I have now embarrassingly many times proclaimed that she was one of the 10 that wasn't deaf, how special was she?!?!

So naturally you're probably wondering how the F could I miss something like this, well don't you worry I've been asking myself that too. And every time I come up with a good explanation, then I think of an equally compelling counterargument.

No way: She meows all the time.

Well maybe: She wanders through the house meowing and only stops if we're in the same room as her.

No way: We talk back and forth all the time! Except sometimes she ignores me.

Well maybe: Sometime she "ignores" me.

No way: That seems like the kind of thing her previous owner would've told me, since she raised her for 8 years before I got her.

Well maybe: On the other hand, that same woman told me she had to get rid of her two old cats because her new fiance was allergic and she was afraid they'd get put down if no one took them. About six months later, the fiance-now-husband told Jackie that he just hated cats. So I'm guessing deafness might've slipped her mind.

Well maybe: She loves going outside but she's SUPER skittish, which would make sense if she can't hear anything approaching.

Well maybe: She isn't bothered by really scary thunder.

Well maybe: She sleeps through parties at home, including a lot of sporadic yelling during games.

Well maybe: She meows every time I walk by her in the morning when I'm getting ready and she's dozing...I'm pretty sure I startle her and that's why.

Well maybe: She's equally scared of a broom and a vacuum cleaner.

Well maybe: She won't come when called unless I pat the chair or stare at her (don't ask).

Well maybe: I read from a website, "Deaf cats are more people-loving cats than those who can hear. However, these cats may have louder voices, presumably because they can't hear how loudly they meow!" Powder loves me and Brian HARD, and she is one loud m-f-er.

Now, a few years ago she seemed to really hate guys just from hearing their voices (cue Brian London), so it's quite possible that if she IS deaf, it's sort of come on in the past few years. But then again, as I re-think everything, maybe there's a good explanation for why she was reacting that way back then. Who knows. But the whole white-cat-deafness-thing is genetic so that would mean she was one of the lucky ones and has since gone deaf with old age...and that doesn't seem very likely now does it.

The one thing that's a little funny is how I've started accommodating her "disability" (if it exists). She'll be meowing in the hall and I'll move to where she can see me, when who knows if she was even crying for me in the first place. I've been petting her extra so she knows I love her LOTS since she can't hear the tone of my voice that means I LOVE YOU LOTS. And I think I gave her extra food. Because she's deaf okay! It's the least I can do!

Maybe we should just have the vet put an end to our wondering? If they can even test that sort of thing?

sleeping soundly...shocker