Lippy Stuff

About two months ago I started experiencing pain in my right knee during my runs. Like any good runner I ignored it until my body would no longer let me...2.5 miles into a 5 mile loop along Venice Beach. That was a long walk back.

As soon as I got back home to Austin I sought out a physical therapist, vowing to nip this in the bud and get back out on the road ASAP. Except that hasn't happened. I haven't been able to run more than a mile since that last run in early December, and 3 weeks ago I stopped running all together after my physical therapist gave me the stink eye and told me to CUT IT OUT. "Fine", I said. "But I can ride my bike, right?" "Sure", he said. "That's excellent. Except no hills. Stay in your saddle, nothing too crazy." Roger.

I have been obeying orders like I'm in the military. No running, riding flats when the weather is nice. Matt even found me a trainer on Craigslist so I can ride inside during crappy weather. But there is nothing like being outside on the road on a beautiful day, and I have found that I like riding on the trainer about as much as I like running on a treadmill. It is le boring.

Yesterday I met up with a riding buddy and we had an excellent ride. It was a beautiful day, not too windy, and god did it feel good to get outside and soak up the sun. I maaaaay have done some small hills, but nothing that required me to get out of the saddle (see, still obeying orders). I will admit that after the ride my knee felt weird (weak, like it was going to give out). No pain, no swelling, just weird. But I pushed it out of my mind because I NEED this one thing to be OK for me to do.

Today, as I confessed my ride and shared how my knee was feeling, my physical therapist uttered the horrible O word again...orthopedist. As in a surgeon, for evaluation. No. No no no no no. I've done this before. I have literally been in this exact same place before. And not literally in the non-literal way people use the word. I have LITERALLY lived out these same events before. I have taken physical therapy for knee issues. I have had the therapist tell me it's not working. I have been referred to an orthopedist. And I have had knee surgery (last time on both knees). I don't want to do it again. There is no guarantee I will have to have surgery again, but based on my latest MRI and my current symptoms it is clear my current issues are related to my previous issues (medial meniscus problems for you medical types). BLARG. That's all I have to say to that.

I am discouraged, defeated. I know there are way more horrible things happening to people out there, but this is happening to me now and it sucks. I've honestly been putting off his referral to the orthopedist for a couple of weeks. I finally took the time to sit down with my MRI results and the computer to decipher it into words that make sense to me and I could no longer deny the fact that this is real. I'm not making this up, not being a wuss. There is really something wrong with my knee and I'm going to have to address it if I want to get back out there.

When I had surgery in high school it was the cool thing to do; everybody was doing it. You were like, a hard core athlete, dude. Now the thought of it just makes me feel old. With any luck I'll be able to avoid going under the knife. Either way I know it's going to mean down time from any kind of hard core exercise for a while. Anyone who knows me knows that's not going to be an easy thing for me to do. If you're looking for me, you'll find me on my trainer while I watch episodes of Firefly to keep me entertained.

This is my favorite picture of our entire wedding because, even though we're looking right at the camera, neither of us have any memory of it being taken and it completely captures us in this moment. We're married! I can honestly say I am just as happy to be married to this man as I was in that moment. Maybe even more so.

Happy Anniversary, Husband. I love you!

This is where we kissed, shortly after one of the groomsmen paused the ceremony and pulled out that stool for me to stand on. I have to confess the stool was designed to serve two purposes: 1) to add a little bit of humor, something very 'us' to the ceremony, and 2) to prevent our wedding kiss pictures from looking like something resembling a giraffe bending down to consume its dinner. Clearly, by the look on the pastor's face, we achieved #1, and no giraffes here, so mission accomplished!

The pictures I posted yesterday were taken about 1.5 hours before the ceremony started. We did not do the preview meeting before the ceremony. Under no circumstances was Matt to see me before the wedding. Period. So, after we took our bridal party pictures (separately, of course) I went back to the bridal sweet and changed back out of my dress for the long, LONG wait until the ceremony started.

That's when I started to freak out, because I realized that I was going to have to walk out there in front of all those people. And all of those people were going to stand up, turn around and look at me. ALL AT ONCE. The more I thought about this the more freaked out I became, which apparently became pretty evident on my face because at one point my mom looked at me, very concerned, and asked if I needed a glass of wine.

YES.

Finally the terrifying moment came, the doors opened and I stared down what seemed like a mile long walk to the altar, filled with the curious eyes of friends, family and strangers. Whoa. Like, Keanu Reeves WHOA. It was just a bit overwhelming. But as soon as I got to the front and stood there with Matt, everyone else faded away. I knew it was all going to be OK, and not just the ceremony, but everything. This is that moment:

The pictures I posted yesterday were taken about 1.5 hours before the ceremony started. We did not do the preview meeting before the ceremony. Under no circumstances was Matt to see me before the wedding. Period. So, after we took our bridal party pictures (separately, of course) I went back to the bridal sweet and changed back out of my dress for the long, LONG wait until the ceremony started.

That's when I started to freak out, because I realized that I was going to have to walk out there in front of all those people. And all of those people were going to stand up, turn around and look at me. ALL AT ONCE. The more I thought about this the more freaked out I became, which apparently became pretty evident on my face because at one point my mom looked at me, very concerned, and asked if I needed a glass of wine.

YES.

Finally the terrifying moment came, the doors opened and I stared down what seemed like a mile long walk to the altar, filled with the curious eyes of friends, family and strangers. Whoa. It was just a bit overwhelming. But as soon as I got to the front and stood there with Matt, everyone else faded away. I knew it was all going to be OK, and not just the ceremony, but everything. This is that moment:

Friday marks 5 years of marriage to that tall dude mentioned to the right. I love him. Oh, do I love him. To mark this impending milestone I'm posting a picture a day leading up to us being married and my favorite of all our wedding pics. Today it will actually be two pictures...one of each of us looking our best, waiting for the ceremony to start so we can be married already!

Before you read this story it's important to note that my friend, Elana, is completely responsible for all of it. It is all her fault. She recently introduced me to Sass Calamata Feta salad dressing. It was so delicious I immediately ran to the store and bought myself a bottle. I have since been unable to stop eating it. I think I've eaten a salad every day since then, not so much because I'm trying to be healthy but more because it serves as a conduit through which to consume copious amounts of this dressing. I may or may not have considered drinking it.

Last week, through a series of events that are too ridiculous to bother explaining, I left my bottle of salad dressing at her house. I stopped by to pick it up a couple of days later, happy to be reunited with my precious, er, the salad dressing. Last night Elana and her husband came over for dinner, and for part of that dinner we served salad. Except when I opened the refrigerator to pull out the dressing, it wasn't there. Both Elana and I scoured the fridge for the bottle, but it was nowhere to be found. And it is still missing. I have turned the kitchen upside down looking for it, but alas it has disappeared.

I finally gave up the search and decided to buy a new bottle so I could resume my salad binge. I happily trotted over to the produce section to grab my bottle of deliciousness only to find that they were out. Completely out. Oh sure, they had plenty of Blue Cheese and Creamy Ceasar, but no Calamata Feta. GAAAAAHHHHH!!!

I pretty much felt like this guy:

Excuse me for a minute, but may I just say I am SO OVER design blogs, specifically design blogs from California where all they do is whine about how HARD it was for them to go pick up this amazing AND cheap furniture from LA, blah blah blah. So sad. I'm so sorry you have such a plethora of EFFING AWESOME furniture at rock bottom prices that you just don't know what to do with it all. The pretentiousness is like, totally gagging me with a spoon.

UGH.

But also, I feel like design blogs are just getting ridiculous. For example:



Did you catch that? "Simply glue to a wall and arrange your things!" Let's just hope those "things" aren't too heavy. Or that you ever plan on moving out and getting your security deposit back. Seriously...NEVER glue anything to your walls. The one thing I've learned about home decor is it is an ever evolving thing, and today those Scrabble racks might be cute, but one day you're going to wake up and realize you glued Scrabble racks to your wall. Permanently. Right where you wanted to hang that new three wolf moon poster you picked up at the thrift store.


Also, I just noticed this on the PoppyTalk header (via Design Sponge):



The decayed? I don't think I want to buy anything that can be described as "decayed". Bleck.

I leave you with the one design blog feature that makes me want to gouge my eyes out every time I see it. It's just so...Stepford. Who says things like this?




That's great for you. And so kind to the environment! Well, except for those heating and cooling bills you must have since you have so many windows in your house. HA! Living in a cave has its payoffs!

Here's another gem, and my personal favorite:



Ah yes, the calm haven of my home. Wait...the laundry needs to be done? Oh, and the kitchen is a wreck? And the dog has tracked mud across the freshly mopped floor? I'd consider crawling into a closet to find calm but they're all filled to the brim with things we actually need because we have about 5 sq ft of closet space. All I can figure is this person must have a contractor to do their remodeling, a maid to do their cleaning and a decorator to pick up those awesome furnishings, because I have no idea how anyone works a full time job and manages to have such a fabulously decorated AND clean home that also isn't in disarray from the latest remodeling project.

I think I might need a vacation. (Also, I give up on figuring out these formatting issues tonight. Another day).

One of my favorite ways to cook is to gather whatever I have in the fridge and pantry I think I might be able to make a decent meal out of and give it a shot. I'm pretty sure I  like this method because I am either lazy or I hate grocery shopping. Or both. Either way, it sometimes ends in a pretty fantastic creation that becomes a part of my regular meal rotation. I think tonight's concoction is just that.

Last night we had some friends over for giant salads with grilled chicken and a variety of veggies (squash, zucchini, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, etc). We ended up having a lot of leftover cut up veggies, so tonight in my post 10k hunger, I decided to make a warm pasta salad.

First, I cooked the pasta to almost al dente, then drained and rinsed (it was gluten-free pasta...gf pasta should always be rinsed after cooking). I let that sit while I sauteed up the veggies in some olive oil, along with some sea salt, fresh ground pepper and freshly pressed garlic. When the veggies were about half way cooked I added in the pasta to finish cooking along with the veggies. I used the squash/zucchini to determine when the veggies were done...when they start to look more clear than white you know they are done. I added the tomatoes in at the very end, since you really don't want them to get over cooked an mushy, just warm. Finally, I poured everything into a bowl and sprinkled feta cheese on top. So yummy! Also very light but filling. This will definitely become a part of our summer menu.

My friend, E, created a Polyvore for our bedroom makeover.

We're making over our bedroom, furniture, bedding, decor and all. I've been planning this makeover for quite a while and I'm very excited to finally see it come together. We'll be painting the walls Behr Dark Granite (sorry, I can't link to the color because their entire site is flash - annoying) and the trim Behr Ultra White.

I purchased this duvet cover from West Elm after picking the pieces of my design soul off the floor when CB2 discontinued their Djerba line without notice and I had to revamp my entire design plan.


Currently our furniture consists of a mish-mash of cheap Ikea items, some my parents bought me when I moved to Austin ages ago and some we bought after we got married and realized that one dresser wouldn't cut it. We are replacing all of our furniture as part of this makeover, and I have challenged myself to find both a chest and 6-9 drawer mid century dresser for under $500. It's proving to be much harder than I thought, mostly because all the cheap awesome pieces are taken by people who apparently have nothing better to do but sit around all day and snipe beautiful furniture off Craigslist. There is a special place in hell for those people. Also, I might be a little bitter.

Any-who, I did find a sweet Danish mid century chest thanks to my friend, E, who graciously sacrificed her own desires to own this piece so I could have it. I am eternally grateful. It has so much storage capacity I was able to fit all of my non-work clothes into it so Matt could move his hanging clothes from the office/guest closet to the closet in our room. We are really learning how to live in a house with tiny closets, and high storage capacity furniture is the key. I promise to post a picture of it when our bedroom isn't in shambles.

We will be replacing our current bed with this Ikea Mandal bed and painting it entirely white:

This will add even more storage to the room. Yay! Matt will also be building a box (I'm pretty sure I told him this) like the one in this picture to go over the bed since we can't do bedside tables with the storage bed, also painted white.


And the sunburst beauty pictured at the top will be above the bed. I'm really stoked to get all of this going, and I'll post pictures as changes start happening. In the mean time, what would your dream bedroom makeover consist of?

I'm not going to lie...I'm glad 2010 is over. Could it have been worse? Yes. Could it have been better? Definitely.

The most significant challenge of 2010 was Abi. First, dealing with her illness; then having to decide her departure; and finally, mourning the loss of one of my best friends and the close of a season of my life. I hope to not have to endure one of those challenges again for a very long time.

2010 definitely had its highlights. Notably 1) Muse at ACL Fest:



2) our trip to New England in the fall:



and finally, 3) we welcomed Bosco into our lives:



I'm looking forward to 2011 with a few goals:

1. Get involved with Urban Roots.

2. Start & finish our bedroom remodel, the only room in our house that hasn't been touched since we moved in over 2 years ago.

3. Visit a continent and/or country neither Matt nor myself have visited (likely South America or Costa Rica).

4. Travel with friends (I think I'm going to need more vacation time).

5. Complete a 50 mile ride on my bike.

6. Run a half marathon.

7. A super secret goal that can't be shared here ;)

I hope to look back on this year with a sense of accomplishment. Happy New Year to you and yours, and may you achieve more than you ever imagined this year.

Dear Bosco,

You are now 11-weeks old. I wish I could add the word 'months' onto the end of that 11 because I am oh-so-tired and you are oh-so-full of energy. You are just a bit more than either of us bargained for. Don't get me wrong...you're adorable as all get out, but you can also be as ornery as a tired toddler hopped up on sugar.

We've started referring to you as our baby barracuda. Can you guess why?



You really like to chomp on things with those teeth. We try to keep them occupied with toys and bones, but you quickly lose interest and turn your attention to more interesting things to destroy like couches and rugs.

When you're not busy chewing on things we are doing our best to teach you important dog things like sit and down and how to walk on a leash. You're almost too smart for your own good and picking up on things faster than we can teach you. Yesterday you went for your first walk around the neighborhood and you seemed to have a pretty good time, except for when those big trucks would roar by or those scary dogs barked at you. You've already learned which one is your house, and it's really cute how excited you get when you realize we're close to home.

Clearly you are becoming more comfortable with us as your "pack" because you are starting to let loose more of your attitude. Information we read on your breed indicated you might be a strong willed dog and that we would need to be experienced dog owners and confident leaders. I think they should have used stronger adjectives to describe your potential personality. At this young age you are already trying to assert your dominance in our pack and we are having to learn a whole new definition of "firm" with you.

This doesn't mean you aren't a good dog. You are a wonderful dog...you're just stubborn as hell. But you're also sweet and cuddly and love to give puppy kisses in the morning. I love your puppy kisses. You're also really cute when you come bounding across the yard at me, your ears flopping every which way and your too-big-for-you legs going in every direction. When you run you look like your back end is out of alignment.

Neither one of us has ever had a puppy this young, so please forgive us if we aren't doing this right. We're trying our best to be patient with you and understand your little puppy brain can only do so much. And even though sometimes we wonder what the heck we got ourselves into, we really love you and have lots of hopes for your future doggy life.

Love,
Your pack leaders

We survived the first night with Bosco much better than I expected. He slept through the night in his crate (in our room). Matt took him out around 6am to potty and then we got to cuddle in bed with him for a couple of hours. OMG! Every day should start with puppy cuddles!



He is quite the sleeper. Seriously, this little dude can sleep through anything. I, on the other hand, did not sleep so great, mostly because I like to worry. I spent the night worrying if he was going to sleep through the night and is he healthy and what about that little ball of sleep I wiped from his eye. Oh my. It's going to take some time to get used to having a healthy dog. I think I'll feel much better once he gets his last round of shots and gets the all clear from our vet.



We are starting to see bits of his personality already. He's one determined little guy. Once he found the handle to the hose reeler in the backyard there was no keeping him away from it. Even physically removing him from the area proved pointless. He'd play for a minute and then run right back to it. And whoo boy! He does not like it when you stop him from doing something he wants to do. I'm definitely going to need human training for this dog.



Stubbornness aside, I think he's going to be a really great dog. He's super sweet, likes to cuddle and give kisses and is unbearably adorable when he pounces on his toys. He also seems to pick things up pretty quickly. He's starting to respond to his name and has already figured out the back stairs, which means potty training is in full swing.



Right now he's zonked out by the couch. Which is the only reason I can actually type this right now. Keeping up with him is definitely going to keep us on our toes. But come on...look at that face. He's totally worth it.

So, life's been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. We spent a week in Boston/New England, came back and then 3 days later rocked until we dropped at ACL Fest. So yeah, busy. I have a TON of pictures to share with you and can't wait to get them posted, but that's going to have to wait because right now I have to share THIS with you!



This is Bosco, our new Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy. He's 10 weeks old today and quite the bouncy little fellow. We've been searching for just the right puppy to add to our family and I think he's going to be the perfect fit. Just look at those paws. That's going to be a Matt sized dog right there.

Rest assured there will be many more Bosco pictures to come.

We're hoping to have something fun and exciting to share with you this weekend, but until then, enjoy the cuteness.

Day 3 down, and ACL 2010 is over. Well, technically The Eagles are still playing, but three days in the sun, heat and ragweed and a lackluster lineup for this evening had us heading out the gates around 7:30pm. Oh, and I'm old. If you've paid attention to my previous posts you may be noticing a theme.

True confessions? Today was not awesome. The fact that my allergies were in overdrive certainly didn't help, but the lineup was disappointing. There were, however, a couple of surprises. We caught the last half of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Wow, talk about energy. That guy can PLAY the trombone. We also caught Portugal: The Man, which was pretty darn good. Oh, and by caught I mean we laid down in the shade near the stage and snoozed a bit. Seriously, three days of this is exhausting. Not to mention the fact that we biked there and back each day.

My favorite show of the day was the White Rabbits. I picked up their latest album earlier this year and it quickly became one of my favorites. I was super stoked to see them on the ACL lineup, and they did not disappoint live. The only disappointment was the crowd's lack of enthusiasm, but I'll cut them some slack since it was Day 3 and an early show.

I'll be uploading pics this week (not tonight...tonight I drink a cocktail or two) and will share them once I have them up. And until next year, rock on!

Day 2 is over. Whew. I think I'm getting to old for this. Today's favs were Broken Bells, LCD Soundsystem, Temper Trap and MUSE. Matt and I saw Muse at ACL back in 2006 when they were lesser known and played a much smaller stage, and a thousand OMG's, it was the best show I've ever seen. Hands down. All I can say is if you ever get the chance to see them live DO IT. And while I know I said I would wait until after the weekend to post pics, I had to share one from the MUSE show because it was just that awesome.



I had to sacrifice the Deadmau5 show to get close for MUSE, and I have to say I think I missed a freaking awesome show. Sadness. And while I got some sweet shots of MUSE being so close (thank you, Mr. Stool), it was packed so tight I could hardly move. That kind of killed my MUSE buzz, because for me MUSE = DANCE!!! Such are the first world dilemmas of ACL.

And finally, weird incident of the day. I got hit on at the LCD Soundsystem show, and I'm pretty sure he was under 18. It's getting harder to tell these days. And that's the second reference to me being old. Anyhow, this dude's gaze was super intense. I felt like he was trying to bore a hole through my face with his laser stare, and at one point it kind of looked like he was leaning in to kiss me. Dude seriously needs to learn the difference between "sorry I bumped into you" and "I want to randomly hook up with you". It reminded me why I had to perfect the "back the hell up off me" vibe, or as my dad liked to say during my single days, I "intimidate men".

Being a woman at any festival type event is extra special when nature calls. Unless you can hold it all day (and if you can may I please have your super power?), you're going to have to break down and use one of those disgusting port-o-potties at some point. Here are a few things I've learned to help make that "experience" more bearable, as well as some other general festival going tips:

1. Take disinfecting wipes to clean off the toilet seat in the port-o-potties. Even if you don't sit, it will help you feel like you're picking up fewer cooties. You can also use them to clean off your hands. If you can't find a travel pack of them, take a few out of the big cannister, fold them up and put in a plastic baggie.

2. Toilet paper. Take it. You are almost certain to pick the port-o-pottie that has no toilet paper because pretty much none of them do.

3. Hand sanitizer. Need I say more?

4. If you wear contacts, take your glasses, a lenses case and solution. You never know when your eyes are going to crap out and reject your contact lenses, and you don't want to have to be led around by a seeing eye person the rest of the day.

5. Water bottle. Hydration is key to surviving any day out in the sun, so take a water bottle and refill often. It also saves you money on buying water every time you need a refill. Also, YAY! Save the planet!

6. Last, but certainly not least, SUNSCREEN. If you're going to be out in the sun all day it should go without saying that you need to put on sunscreen. Apply 30 minutes before going out in the sun, and reapply every couple of hours. Use SPF 30 or higher on your body, and I recommend Neutrogena Age Shield Face sunblock for the face.

Hope these tips help you like they've helped me. Have fun out there!

Well, day 1 of ACL Fest is over, and I decided that tomorrow I will be bringing a stool for me to stand on so I can actually see the stage. What stool, you may ask? Why this one:

Let me tell you, being short sucks, and being short at a concert kind of makes you wonder why the heck you forked over so much money to stare at the back of people's heads. Hopefully this should help me get my money's worth.

My favs of the day were Spoon (AWESOME!), The Black Keys, and Miike Snow. I could have used a dance partner for the Miike Snow show (Andrea T???). I'll post pictures at the end of the weekend. Although Matt had to take most of the pics today since, as previously mentioned, I couldn't see squat.