Medical Bills...Done and Done! (#67)

It's true. Thanks to a sweet deal Alex worked out with his company, all of my medical bills are officially paid off! I can't believe it!! Just one more reason to add to the million why we love love love Alex's job.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

We are World Record Holders!! (twice!!)

The Thrill the World event was yesterday. Officially, 881 Austinites danced the Thriller dance together, the single largest group to ever dance Thriller (previous record was 147)!! That's world record #1. We also broke the previous record for most people at multiple locations dancing Thriller at the same time; previous record was 1,722, and yesterday we had 3,960 zombies in 65 different cities in 9 countries around the world!!

Here is a shot of our breathtaking dance venue--as you can see, the day was beautiful!
Since this was all for the Guinness Book, they were very strict on the rules. No non-dancers could be in the camera shot, so our videographer (Alex's brother) couldn't stand near us to capture us on film. Sorry!! The video of me learning the dance will have to suffice, along with this one of that gives you a feel for the whole crowd and dance!


Thrill the World Austin from Blueberry on Vimeo.

Here's the official website for the Austin group if you're interested in more videos, pictures, new stories, stats, etc.

And, at the end of the day, here are two zombies who left their zombie garb at home but had a great time breaking two world records!

Backyard Beautification, Dancing, and Thrilling the World!

For my birthday this year, (that's right...in March) Alex got me a tree. Well, he got me the promise of a tree. By the time we looked into getting one, hot Texas weather had set in and we were advised to wait until Fall and cooler temperatures. All summer I looked at our empty backyard and dreamed of shade from the afternoon sun. Cooler temperatures finally crept back, and our Oktoberfest party was as good an excuse as any, so when my parents were in town visiting us, we went and bought a tree! It's a Bradford Pear, and we are so excited to see fall colors and tiny white spring-time blossoms. This officially crosses #31 off the list. It's not a lot, but we figure baby steps are the best way to go with our first attempts at lawn/yard beautification. (Unfortunately (and FORTUNATELY), we paid to have the professionals plant it, so I can't yet check off #30...)

Here's Alex grilling us dinner!Last Sunday we went to see the So You Think You Can Dance tour at the Frank Erwin Center. What a show! It was about 3 hours long and soo worth the price of the tickets. We followed this show all summer long (I even voted one night for my favorite dancer), and the performance was even more fun than the series. The best dances from the entire season were performed, along with solos by each dancer. There was interaction with the audience, dancer trivia, and a cute, crazy Russian who finally won "his girl" over (I have a soft spot in my heart for cute, crazy Russians). Here are a couple of "stolen" video clips from the show...the quality isn't too hot b/c the camera had a hard time focusing with all the flashing lights, but hopefully you'll get the idea!

Finally, next Saturday Alex and I will be participating in a Guinness Book record-breaking attempt of the most people doing the Thriller dance! Austin will be one city participating in Thrill the World, and we spent almost three hours yesterday learning the Thriller dance (which, had I been thinking correctly, most certainly would have been on my list!). We had a GREAT, hilarious time learning it, and are so excited to take part in the dance with hundreds of others next Saturday. We'll be sure to get video of the performance, but for now, here's me learning the dance:

As you can see, we've been staying busy being goofy and having a great time! Hope this finds you all well!

Chicago! (and #81)

I flew into Chicago Midway thanks to my dad giving me a free ticket on SWA. I was nervous about leaving that weekend because of the likelihood of bad "Ike" weather, but we took off Friday afternoon just as the winds were starting to pick up. Upon landing, I let Alex know I had arrived and he told me he was making loops and to come outside. 20 minutes later, and still no Alex, I called again. He told me he had just driven by and where was I? I told him I was patiently waiting under the sign that said Southwest Airlines. I read other signs around me. Delta...Midway...wait, did you just say Midway?? Apparently there are TWO major airports in Chicago, and one of us was at the wrong one. It is debatable exactly who. So 1 hour and 45 minutes later, Alex makes it to the airport where I am and we are off!

It is raining. It is dark. I am STARVING. Alex is relying wholly on the Garmin GPS navigator. Note to readers: to effectively use a GPS navigator while driving, you must be good at following directions. Let's just say if there was a U-turn to be made in that city (and most of its suburbs), we made it. What was helpful about the Garmin was that we searched for local pizza places (when in Chicago, eat as Chicago-ans (Chicag-ites? Chicans?) do, right?), and soon we were on our way for dinner! Only we got there and it was closed. But right next door is Mama Thai, so we settle for Thai food and head inside. We were tired, hungry, wet, hungry, tired, did I mention hungry and tired? The table tent is advertising Thai beer--Phuket--so our waiter arrives and Alex blurts out "We'll have two f*ck-its and some pot stickers!" The waiter didn't find it nearly as funny as we did. The meal turned out to be the best thai food we've ever had! So if you're ever lost in a suburb of Chicago in the dark while it's raining and you stumble across a thai restaurant next to a closed pizza place, it's definitely worth it.

The next morning dawned to a whole lot more rain. Apparently Ike had decided to spare Austin and follow me up to Chicago, dumping more rain on the windy city than they've seen in 137 years. So glad I was there to witness that. Our original plans of the architectural boat tour were scrapped (all tours canceled for the whole weekend), so we decided to brave the rain and check out Millenium Park and the Mag Mile. (Sorry for the picture quality--these are taken with a throw-away as our digital camera battery charger was left in Texas.)




At one point we were so wet from having just one small umbrella between the two of us we stopped into a souvenir store and bought new T-shirts. I opted for my first-ever political shirt. While I haven't worn it around my friends here yet (we don't talk politics much), I'm hoping my candidate wins so that I can wear it for four more years!


Here I am walking on water!

We had a delicious lunch at Pizzeria Due. All the Chicago natives I've spoken with recommended Due over Pizzeria Uno. Apparently, the owner first opened Pizzeria Uno, and it was so successful he opened a second location (Due) across the street. So it's the same menu, same food, etc...just less crowded. Interestingly, he was from Texas and missed Tex-Mex food so much in Chicago that he opened a Tex-Mex restaurant right next to Pizzeria Due!


We then spent the afternoon in the Museum of Science and Industry. While it was interesting (especially the robotics exhibit!), it was geared a little more towards kids. We also discovered that Alex would be able to milk a cow faster than I would. It was an exhibit. Seriously. So while it was geared a little more towards kids, we are geared a little more towards kid-like-entertainment, so it was still a good visit.

Saturday night we had a delicious, fancy-schmancy dinner at the Palms restaurant and wondered how to go about getting our pictures up on the wall. We then went to see Wicked at the Oriental Theater! The show was amazing (and totally counts for #81 on my list). I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance to see it. I will never look at the Wizard of Oz in the same way again!

Here we are inside the Oriental Theater lobby:

And here we are on our way back to the car. Gotta love iconic signs!

Sunday brought more rain, and lots and lots of wind! I saw more umbrellas broken in the span of 10 minutes than I have in my whole previous life combined. We stayed inside most of the day, taking a scenic drive along Lakeshore Dr. and staring at the waves crashing against the rock walls and the inordinate number of people out running. People, look around you! It's raining AND windy! What are you thinking??

We went up in the John Hancock tower and were able to enjoy two cups of hot chocolate, some chocolate mousse, and the view through breaks in the clouds.


We finished off the afternoon at the Chicago Aquarium (which had a monkey in one of its exhibits...hmm....) before Alex dropped me off at the (right) airport for my evening flight back home. Here we are emerging from the Aquarium, headed for the airport, just when the rains come to an end. Of course.


It was the perfect quick trip despite the weather! Chicago is a very cool town. It reminded me of New York City and Austin getting married and having a baby...that baby would be Chicago. It was a the perfect mixture of each and I loved it!

PS--could it be?? Does Route 66 really end in Chicago?? (It's hard to see, but it says END Historic Route 66)

Rules for Living in Austin

If you're from Austin, chances are you've seen this, but it's always good for a laugh. The trip to Chicago was AMAZING, even though Ike followed me up there and dumped more rain on Chicago in one day than they've had in 137 years. Will post pictures soon!

1. First, it's pronounced AWS-TUN. It doesn't matter how they say it in other places.

2. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Austin has it's own set of traffic rules. There's no book about them. All you can do is get in your car and hope you survive to learn them.

3. All directions start with " Go down Mopac...'cause you don't want to get on 35."

4. Burnet, Braker, and Lamar have no beginning and no end.

5. It's impossible to go around a block and wind up on the same street that you started on. The Chamber of Commerce calls this a "scenic drive"

6. The 8:00 am rush hour is from 6:30am to 9:30am. The 5:00pm rush hour is from 3:30pm to 7:15pm. Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

7. If you actually stop at a yellow light, then you cannot be from Austin. You may only apply your brakes when the end of a yellow light and the beginning of the red light create a "burnt-orange" hue.

8. If you like being an individual, don't even think of working for Dell. You'll be branded like cattle and made to walk all over town with your "Dell tag" around your neck or clipped on to your belt loop. 98% of the people within a 200 mile radius work for Dell. When someone says "Michael Dell", Dell employees are trained to face Round Rock, hit their knees, put their face to the ground, weep, and rock back and forth.

9. Just remember that Mopac IS Loop 1, Capital of Texas Hwy IS 360, and 183 IS Research, Anderson, Ed Bluestein, Old Bastrop Hwy. 2222 IS Northland or Allendale or Koenig. Ben White IS 290 AND 71. Don't try to figure it out. Just accept it. If you question the intelligence behind this naming convention, people will simply tilt their heads to the right and stare at you.

10. If moisture is determined to be rain, not sweat, all traffic must immediately cease. Ditto for daylight savings time, girl applying eye-shadow across the street, or a flat tire 3 lanes over. Do not attempt to access any road after an apocalyptic event like snow or South X Southwest.

11. Construction on I-35 is a way of life, and a permanent form of entertainment. Get used to it!

12. Keep in mind that the sloppily dressed "hippie" in sandals and earrings is probably the latest IPO millionaire around here.

13. Stay away from the Congress bridge at sundown if you do not like the thought of being in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

14. And, yes, we all know that's a man in a teddy and a tiara on Congress. It's Leslie, and he probably makes more money than you do.

Labor Day fun and Chicago!

Happy Labor Day weekend!

We had a fantastic weekend!! I spent Friday night at a friend's house for game night and ended up staying out until 1 a.m. (For those of you who know me, you know that is HIGHLY unusual, but I was having so much fun I didn't even realize what time it had gotten to be!)

Also, one of Alex's best friends came into town for the weekend. He makes it in to visit about once a year--he is in the Air Force and is back stateside after being recently stationed in Qatar. He is a huge Longhorn fan (I mean, really, who isn't?), so we got tickets to the home opener Sat. night. We were only about 20 rows up from the field in the newly renovated stadium (with the new seats just completed, there were over 98,000 people at the game!). Tim LOVED all the girls walking around in short skirts/shorts and cowboy boots. I don't remember so many risque outfits at football games when we were in school...I guess times have changed. That makes me feel old. The other thing that made me feel old was realizing that we were 11 YEARS older than the freshman. Yikes! Anyway, the game was awesome and we had tons of fun--and we ended up eating at an all-night joint on the Drag at 1 a.m. Two nights out past midnight and you know we're really living it up.

We spent Sunday recuperating and had dinner and a sizzling scrabble game with our good friends and their adorable daughter. (For all of you scrabble fans out there, don't challenge "AE"--it is a word and you'll lose your turn.) Monday was spent getting in some quality solo time with Alex, which was better than all the excitement of the previous days combined.

In other good news, Alex's next business trip is a 10-day-er to Chicago. We had discussed me flying out over the weekend but decided to keep the miles in the off chance he will have another exiting international work trip in the not-too-distant future (think South America!). Last night, my world's-most-kick-ass dad gave me HIS free airline ticket so that I can do it all!! So it looks like a weekend getaway to Chicago is in the near future. I've never been, and I'm so excited!

Hope all your lives are as charmed as ours!

Just to share...

The English teacher in me has to share this! This is a poem I would have taught (back when I was teaching). I came across it today in search of something for work, and I can't believe I've never read it, much less had it taught to me in school. It has been added to my (long) list of favorite poems. I hope you enjoy your daily dose of poetry!

If—

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run--
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

—Rudyard Kipling