Sham Wow!

Jim Frinzi sent me this news article.

Moral of the story?
Prostitutes bite.

You + Me = Russ

Joe & Becky McColley invited us down to San Antonio for a Russ Barenberg house concert. It was more like a mansion concert...I'm pretty sure their kitchen was the size of our whole condo!

Russ was nominated for a Grammy in 2008 for his instrumental "Little Monk".




















I like boys with magic fingers. I also like to say suggestive things.













Carl & Russ got to play together afterwards...turns out Russ is in a band with a fiddle player that Carl grew up with in Oregon!

Copykittens?

I'm calling this new band "LITTLE Little Big Town". Don't they look like younger clones???

Gloriana:
























Little Big Town:

Go This Alone...

I wrote this chorus back in December after visiting my Mom & Step-Dad, Rick, in Missouri. Rick has some health problems and was laying in bed feeling really ill. I looked in at one point and my Mom was spooning him and telling him everything was going to be ok. It was one of those moments where you don't know if you should feel happy or sad. Maybe just thankful for unconditional love.

After I wrote the chorus, I started in on the verses after reading journal updates for Ty Dahlstrom. Ty is amazing. His family is amazing. What they are going through right now is life-altering, but they stay strong together.



Inspired by two precious boys, Rick Baldwin & Ty Dahlstrom, who are not going this alone.

HOW, HOW CAN I HELP YOU NOW
HOW DO I BREAK YOU
FREE FROM THIS BURDEN
FREE FROM YOUR HURTIN'
I'D DO ANYTHING AND I'M PROMISING

YOU WON'T GO THIS ALONE
NO YOU WON'T BE ON YOUR OWN
I'LL HOLD YOUR WEARY BONES
NO YOU WON'T GO THIS ALONE

SHAME, SHAME ON THIS ARMY OF PAIN
FOR HURTING MY DARLING
WELL NOTHING SHOULD MESS WITH
SOMEONE SO PRECIOUS
IF WE SOLDIER ON WE WILL OVERCOME

THERE WILL BE DAYS WHEN YOU ARE STRONG
BUT EVEN WHEN THE NIGHTS ARE LONG
I'LL BE HERE WITH YOU

Written by Beth Miner, Sweetestday Music Publishing (ASCAP)

Shower Power...

Our bathroom is a danger zone right now. It's almost like Kenny Loggins was here.

My worst fear is that someone will drop in unexpectedly for a visit and then ask to use our potty. I would have to tell them it's broken and point them to a tree outside. Maybe offer them a plastic container. Obviously they could keep it, like a to-go container of sorts.

You might be thinking that I could be cleaning it instead of blogging about it, but do you even know what I'd be getting rid of??? I'm considering leaving it this way and once it gets to its peak of perfection, start charging people for private viewings.

-I would estimate there is a full head of hair on the floor. If the hair were a representation of a Seinfeld character, it wouldn't be as thick as Elaine's and not as thin a George's. It would be Jerry. And since I use a little spritz to keep things in place sometimes, the head fur is plastered to the tile. Not something you could just "sweep" up like a good little housewife.

-My missing mane has also taken over the shower. I lose a lot of locks when I'm shampooing and have the nasty habit of sticking them to the walls in our bathing zone. Pretty much all sides are covered in a decorative array of tresses and I'm starting to see shapes in it now like you might in a creepy horror movie..."the answer is in the split ends, my indigo child." I found an abstract character taking shape the other day and pointed it out to Carl. Unfortunately, it wasn't Jesus or Mary, so my dreams of making millions on Ebay were dashed quickly.

-There's nothing particularly interesting about the grubby mirror or toilet. I'm just a messy toothbrusher...I get really into it, so it splatters sometimes. That's what she said. And the commode just needs an average fondling right now...

-But, then there's the shower curtain. Holy crap. It's taken on a life of its own. Is that brownish gunk that grows on it some sort of mold? Or mildew. I should Google the difference. This mystery substance is so raunchy!!!! And it's gotten so bad that there are only specific "safe zones" that I can touch. I honestly don't know what I would do if one of my appendages accidentally made contact with it. AAAAHHH!!! Gives me the eebie jeebies. Dear god, what if it touched my FACE?? I would certainly have to scrub with acetone and gasoline and horseradish. Maybe I'd get one of those full face transplants or lock myself in a room, grow my toenails, and pee in jars like Howard Hughes. You see how serious this is. Let's hope it never happens.

Anybody feel like stopping by for a visit?? No?

You are such a sweet little potato...

I have this bad habit of starting to cook something without having all of the necessary items. I get really excited about making something with a particular ingredient and then decide I can be creative and "improvise" the recipe. If I were a trained chef, this might not be a problem, but alas no. Poor Carl. :) He's smiled through many an experimental dish.

Tonight, I settled on sweet potatoes and surprisingly, it was quite delightful!

Sweet Potatoes
Earth Balance
Minced Garlic
Green Onions
Cajun Seasoning
Salt & Pepper




















I made a salad & toast to go with it!

My hippy name...

I just took the incredibly accurate "What is Your Hippy Name" quiz on Facebook. And the results are in...

FREEDOM DAISY SUNSHINE

I knew 3 sisters that went to my high school and their names were Freedom, Autumn, and Rainbow. I'm rather fond of odd/unique names, so this pleased me. :)

Thursday Treats...

This morning, Carl & I got up at 4:45am to be at the Four Seasons Hotel by 5:30am for a live SXSW radio broadcast. We watched Blues Mafia, North Mississippi Allstars, The Hours and Erin McCarley!

Then tonight, I took my Little Sister to Amy's Ice Cream. She ambitiously ordered a banana split with two kinds of vanilla ice cream, belgian chocolate ice cream, sprinkles, gummy bears, and hot fudge. Ugh. ;)

Isn't she cute?? (check out the arses framing her so perfectly)

The Mom Song...

Wow, this song works as birth control...

The Money Man...

This is Jim, the man responsible for our whole Eddie Money expose! He sent me this message last year that inspired us to start my photo series. He came by our office today and obviously had to pose:

Chotography...

We stopped by Freebirds tonight for a quick dinner and as we were parking, Carl said "is that Margaret Cho?". He clarified that he wasn't joking, since he might just say something like that about any Asian girl. Well sure enough, it was her! She's in town to host a SXSW show and I snagged a pic with her:

Nannerpuss...

I don't know why I love this commercial so much! That's a lie. Yes I do. It's a banana singing & dancing on top of pancakes. And its name is Nannerpuss. You'll probably need to watch it a few times and sing along to fully "appreciate" it:

Where lazy cookies go...

I read about this place called the Austin Cookie Lounge in Tribeza magazine and had to go check it out! They will bake you fresh, individual cookies, with your selected dough and add-ins.

I chose vegan vanilla dough with macadamias & blueberries.
Carl had the same dough, but with dark chocolate & cranberries.
They even had organic soy milk.

So tasty. Oh and they deliver. Pure danger!!!

Square & Spongey...

We went to Nicolas Schmidt's 2 year birthday extravaganza. It was a Spongebob theme, hence the headgear. Back in the day, before Carl was properly familiarized with who lives in a pineapple under the sea, he would call him "Squarebob Spongepants". :)














This was too good of a photo op to pass up:

When you're a jet...

Sometimes spontaneous knife fights break out in our office.

Spicy Salsa...

I caught part of Dancing with The Stars the other night and was enamored by the smokin' Melissa Rycroft...

I got you babe...

I attended lovely Lori's baby shower last weekend in Castroville, Texas (west of San Antonio). Baby Andrew will be arriving shortly. :)

They gave each guest a diaper pin and we played that game where if you catch someone saying the word "baby", you get to take their pin. Notice how I'm wearing quite a few of them in the photo below? I got creative to win the game...

Give that bear some ones!!

The marrying kind...

The office next door to us is a staffing firm owned by Jeff McAdams. He was recently nominated for an Austin Under 40 award and was so gentlemanly to invite Carl & myself to attend the festivities!

The event was pretty joyous. Mostly because we like to make fun of people who take themselves too seriously, and they were out in full force, schmoozing in style.

I bought myself a cute little dress to wear and had on my ass-kicking heels, so I was feeling pretty good, but then I sat next to Miss Austin 2007 at dinner (see photo below). She's totally hot. Nothing like sitting next to a beauty queen to have a quick blow to the ol' self-esteem!

Typically, I feel alright being out & about with a variety of pretty people. I mean, I'm not tops, but I kinda have my own thing going. A girl-next-door who's a little wacky. I'm ok with that.

I think there are two main categories for girls; the kind you want to date and the kind you want to marry. And I'm a good wife. :)

















JB, Clint, Allison, and Blake from www.higherout.com

Phonetastic...

Working for the weekend...

We had quite a fulfilling weekend! On Friday night, we went to the Austin Fiddle Olympics. Not quite as "thrilling" as it might sound, so we left in the middle and went to see some friends perform improv at Coldtowne Theater. That was good times.

On Saturday morning, we got up early and drove to New Braunfels to help with a service day for the Windham Family. I cleaned, organized, and scrubbed everything in their kitchen, while Carl helped redo their front walkway and move a storage shed. A white scorpion (TX is so racist) latched onto Carl at one point, so I'm glad he was wearing gloves! Here's the cute little reason for the day's events:















After much needed showers, we headed to Jamie's Birthday party in Kyle. We got him a pretty card that said something like "Happy Birthday...Let out your inner princess". It's just what we do.

I think Jamie was reaching for Carl's "moob" (man-boob), but missed the mark a bit:




















Obviously boobies were a strong theme at this party. Jamie's wife even had a cake made for him, modeled after sexy Adrianna Lima. Please make note of how cool I am...my shirt has built in thumb-holes.




















After that we went bowling and met radio DJ Bobby Bones there!




















This evening is a bit less exciting...I haven't done laundry for like a week and it's starting to win the battle. I must fight back.

Tiger balls...

The other night, we went to see our friend, Jamie, play a baseball game in Manor with his team, The Tigers. Rawrrr.

I always love to see people pursue something they're passionate about and baseball is just that for Jamie. He was a star playa in high-school, but ended up with an injury in college, so he hasn't played for years now. But he rounded up a bunch of teammates from back in the day and put together an adult team this year.

I told Carl I felt very American sitting there in a small town watching a baseball game. Neither of us know much about sports, but we always enjoy watching games. Except football...that just makes no sense to me and I'm always worried about injuries when they tackle each other. :(

You should all be very impressed by this photo. Not because it's of great quality, but because our camera is so ancient that it takes about 10 seconds to snap a pic, so I was surprised that I got an action shot out of it on my first try!

I heart art...

We went to an art show last week featuring our multi-talented friend, Terrence Moline. His "Patron Saints of Sound" paintings were being featured. There were many legendary artists to choose from, but when in Texas, you pose with Willie:

I'm in a big curry...

This post might be redundant. I would first like to recommend that you DON'T make this recipe! These are Cauliflower Pakoras, an Indian recipe from a vegan book that The Weber's gave us. HOWEVER, I don't think our condo will ever smell the same after cooking these. Seriously, I had two fans on, opened all the windows and doors, and lit a candle. Despite my best efforts, weeks later, we still come home and feel like we're walking into a cheap motel office.

But, I wanted to show Lynsey that I'm working on my "plating". Is it getting better??

What up, dog?

Thanks for sharing, Blake!

Is that a wallet in your pocket?

Carl's new wallet:




















These are handmade, locally in Austin by Ballistic Sweater Girl. This one says "broncho buster" and it's made out of recycled vinyl.

The breast dress...

I needed a dress the other night for the Austin Under 40 Awards, so I contacted Sunny Haralson of RubyPearl, who made my Stupid Cupid dress. She invited me over to try on a few things she just made:
















This one fit best, but it reminded Carl too much of a Renaissance dress, so we passed. I love her stuff, though! I intend to buy other dresses from her, they're so funky & different!

She left me for Jesus...