Big exciting weekend

This weekend my friends Jen and Aaron are getting married! We're flying to El Paso, Texas to go to the wedding. There isn't much to do in El Paso, but that's ok because most of our time will be spent on wedding stuff anyway. Being a bridesmaid makes things really easy because I didn't have to frantically search for an outfit to wear :-)

In other news, this week has been a bit hectic, especially for Brian who put in several very long days in a row due to work commitments. But the end of the tunnel is approaching.

A quick update on the lawn: it's green (Yay!) but we're not exactly sure what the green stuff is. It's not St. Augustine, and it's not Bermuda. It must be a weed, but whatever. It's green so we'll keep it. It looks nice when mowed.

Last night we went to the Clay Pit for dinner with Amy and Gary. We ordered three wonderful dishes: Lamb Vindaloo, Karoos-e-tursh, and Seafood in Garlic and Wine sauce. All were REALLY good, though we all agreed that next time we'd kick it up a notch on the spices. After dinner we headed to Donn's Depot where we met up with Barbie, Michelle, and Brian. Our friends Michael and Craig (Murphy's Inlaws) were playing and previously they had given me much crap about them not meeting Brian yet. So last nighth I satisfied the requirement that my "uncles" meet him before we marry. They liked him, but then who doesn't?

oh, and yesterday I had a mini freak out because upon a little investigation, it turns out we didn't have a flight back from the Dominican Republic. Due to some rescheduling by the airline the DR -> miami portion of our trip was dropped!! it's all sorted now. On the bright side of that, if we had to be stuck some place with no flight, the Dominican Republic is not too shabby.

"All's well that ends well, that's what I say" ~ Wallace.

Geeky Big News!

Brian has become the newest developer to receive commit rights to Eclipse's PDE component. I know it means absolutely nothing to most of you unless you're completely nerdy... But rest assured that this is quite a very nice achievement!

Thanks to our wonderful friend, Wassim, Brian's picture and announcement of his achievement is front page of Planet Eclipse: http://planet.eclipse.org/planet/

Congratulations, Brian!!!

Oh My!

I woke up VERY early this morning, all things considered. 8am. Couldn't sleep anymore. Surprisingly I didn't have a major hang over from last night's activities. I can probably thank Michelle for the bright idea of a 3am breakfast. Just a bit of a funny stomach for most of the day. Nothing helps a weird hangover stomach like a trip to the local chinese buffet, though. Mmmmmm.
God Damn we had so much fun last night. I was a total ROCK STAR!

Brian had a fun night as well, though he's not giving up any details and Kev's lips are sealed. As with all good bachellor and bachellorette parties, details should never be divulged to the significant other.

A big thank you to my best friend, Barbie, for not putting me in a condom adorned veil and "suck for a buck" t-shirt. And a big thank you to all the girls that made the night so FRICKING FUN!

I am a lucky girl indeed :-)

Fitness update

well it's been about 9 months since I joined the gym. I've been going consistently 3 or 4 times a week as well as mixing in some runs and dance classes, and the scale was showing a mere 4lb difference. I moved the scale into the other bathroom because I wouldn't be tempted to weigh every day, and I've stayed off it for a while now. Over the last several weeks I've made some minor changes to my eating habits, too.

Today I got on the scale and of course the weight hasn't changed much, but something did. My body fat percentage. It's dropped by 6% since the last time I checked it, which was about 6 months ago. I'm doing a litte happy dance in my "doesn't my ass look tiny" jeans right now.
YAY!

Yard Work

These three day weekends seem to go by in a blur! Yesterday we spent most of the day doing yard work... Brian and Nick rented an airator from Home Depot and airated the lawns. Following the advice from the True Green guy, we re-seeded the lawn with Bermuda Grass and fertilized. Now we have to water for 14 days to get the seeds to start. Hopefully this will give us a green lawn to work with, and the St. Augustine from patches that are alive might eventually take over the lawn, but the True Green guy said that a mixture was probably the best way to go. Bermuda is also less of a water hog and does well in direct sun. So we'll see.
I spent my sunday morning running on Town Lake, followed by mowing the lawns and removing that cheesy little flower bed the previous home owners put in. It was hard work but I have a nice tan on my back (of course I used SPF 50 on my rosey English skin).
On Saturday we spent a little time at the mall picking out clothes for Brian to wear on vacation. The hotel is very European, and that means that people dress for dinner. I'm so looking forward to that. Living in a very casual city like Austin, you don't get a chance to dress up much.

Good Friday Indeed....

I remember once my mum asking me on the phone what I was doing for easter. After composing myself from the hilarious laughter that broke out I informed her that I didn't celebrate easter, and that I also didn't belive in god. It was then that she (I hope) jokingly informed me that I'd go to hell. And of course my response to that was that I'm looking forward to the family reunion when I get there, then ;-)

Anyway this easter is being spent in the usual heathen manner. We got Friday off, which was a nice surprise. We spent the day doing yard work. Brian trimmed the tree in the back yard and I went at the bushes outside with the electric trimmer. The True Green lawn guy came by and basically told us we'd have to start over on the lawn. It's awful. Mostly weeds and bald spots.

For dinner we headed to Sushi Sake with Jay & Erin, Tiff, Nick, & Andy. After dinner we went to Shooters to see Brian and Andi play and meet up with Michelle and Barbie. We stopped in on our friend Eric on the way. His bike store is opening next week and he and his partner were working late to build all the bikes. The shop looks awesome! I'm so proud of him.

Dear Daz....

Now that you've had a few days to adjust to your new age. I'd like to take this opportunity to say:

Welcome
to
Middle Age, Old Man!

I'm writing in this large font because it's easier for OLDER people to read. That's just how considerate of a friend I am.

Pooh patrol!

Not the cute and cuddle bear kind of pooh...
We babysat Ethan on Thursday, and had a great time as always. We took him for a run in his jogger and had such a great time out in the beautiful weather.
When Ethan's nappy needed changing, I made an attempt. This was my first time to change a poopy baby. I got as far as taking of the nappy and a couple of wipes and then the gag-reflex kicked in. Brian came to the rescue like my knight in shining armour. He took care of the rest of the poop and we put on a clean nappy. Poor Ethan must have thought we were such ameteurs.
He's such an awesome kid. He never throws fits when he's around us, and does everything he's told, and he's SO polite. He accidentally hit my hand with his toy Spiderman, and of course it didn't hurt and was NO big deal... but he came to me and said "Auntie... I'm sorry I hit your hand with spiderman! I'm sorry auntie." It was SO frickin' cute! Brian and I were SO impressed with his manners.

Smelling the roses for a moment...

I LOVE LIFE!
I'm usually so busy living life that I don't always spend the time to stop and appreciate just how great my life really is. When spring comes and I find myself spending time outside with friends, the sun shining on us and a cool breeze blowing, it really makes me take stock of my life. There are 2 sides to every life, the things you sacrifice and the things you pursue.... I've sacrificed living in my home country near my family, which sometimes takes its toll on me, to pursue a life in America. I miss them dearly. I overcome my homesickness by focusing on the great things in my life. I have the most wonderful friends. A core group of girls who I can truly be myself with. Andi and I were talking about that today. We're all like sisters and we can really just be our goofy selves, no pretenses, around each other. I miss my "real" sisters so very much, and I'm sometimes envious of their friendship, but I chose this life and I chose all the girls who I now call my sisters here. As if that wasn't enough, I have Brian. Truly the most wonderful, sweet, caring man I've ever met. Funny, gorgeous, romantic, silly... The list goes on. In 41 short days Brian will be my husband! it just sounds so funny to say it. And as the day approaches, people ask me if I'm nervous. The answer is no I'm not nervous. There's no doubt in my mind at all that Brian is the one want to be with forever. I'm excited and optimistic about the future. I'm looking forward to marrying him on the beach surrounded by everyone we love. I'm looking forward to being his wife. I'm looking forward to being a parent. I'm even looking forward to being a grandparent. I'm also looking forward to the day we both retire and buy a sail boat to live on and sail around the world.
{inhaling deeply} those are some great smelling roses :-)

Drinks in Cuba, then half way round the world

Ok, so not literally... Barbie and I headed downtown to Cuba Libre for happy hour last night. We drank $3 cosmos, and we ate plantain chips and pot stickers.
After happy hour we headed over to the Fox and Hound to meet up with Ben and a bunch of people from the Austin Yacht Club (I think). Some of you have heard of Ben, he's a very dear friend of Barbie's who cashed in his suit and tie and boring desk job and pursued his dream of sailing around the world in his boat, the Gypsy Soul. Ben has amazing stories and we watched last night as he captivated his audience with a slide show of his travels. Along with every picture came a wonderful story and we could have listened to him for hours. You'd expect someone who is pursuing his dream to be driven and passionate, and I guess Ben is in a subtle way, but what strikes you the most about him, is how laid back he is. We had a great time. We met some cool people too.
I think something I ate disagreed with me, though... by the time I got home I had the worst heartburn I've ever had in my life and my stomach was in knots. After I threw up I felt better.

Awesome wedding!

Our friends Jay and Julia got married this weekend. The wedding was out in the hill country at a ranch near the small town of Wimberley. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever seen, set outside against a backdrop of woods and nature. There was a peacock roaming the grounds that seemed very proud of his colourful plumage. We also spotted two other peacocks that looked like albino peacocks, if there is such a thing. The ceremony was short and sweet, Julia looked absolutely amazing in her wedding dress and Jay, handsome of course in his tux, had never looked more proud and happy. Being an April 1st wedding, the ceremony wasn't without its humour. What stands out in particular was the reference to Julia's cooking skills, and to Jay's air mileage status, which if you know them is very appropriate. Their friend (and ours), Gary, performed the ceremony and did a wonderful job of injecting his own flavour of humour into the ceremony as well. And the funniest part was when one of the readings turned out to be the Pulp Fiction version of Ezekiel 25:17.
The reception was an absolute blast. The food was really good, lots of fresh vegetables, salmon, and chicken. We hung out with all of our friends and also met some of Jay's old room mates and friends from college. They were a very fun bunch! Amy and Brian made a deal with each other that whenever we are all together at a function that has dancing involved, they'd sit out and let me and Gary tear up the dance floor since we both like to dance ;-). I danced with Julia's infamous uncle John, and we hung out with the groomsmen and their friends. We got invited to an after party at Jessie's cabin but with Brian needing to stay sober so he could drive us home, he started to get a little tired, so we gracefully declined and spent a while saying our goodbyes to everyone.
We had a wonderful time, sullied only by a moment of bad judgement on my part in which I unintentionally offended someone. All in all, though, a great evening full of good friends, good food, good wine, good stories, and now, good memories.

Congratulations, Jay and Julia!

fun at the latino bar

Last night was interesting. So my dance instructor has put together a team of girls to go out to clubs and dance, kinda like the go-go dancers at studio 54. You know, girls scattered about the club on podiums shaking their groove thing. Only this would involve a pole. Her first gig was at this latino bar called Rodeo (row-DAY-oh) and she said it wasn't quite like she had in mind but was using this as a test to get a feel for if it would work, and to advertise her business as an instructor. Anyway, Tiff and I wanted to check it out to see if it was something we'd be interested in doing for fun.
So after happy hour we headed home for a while and then met up at midnight to drive down to Rodeo. We brought Brett and Brian with us for obvious reasons. We entered the club and took a quick tour around the room to see if we could spot Nicole. It was the most bizarre feeling because people were staring at us. We headed to a bar and got beers and found a spot to sit and observe the crowd. Nicole showed up a while later with her portable stage and pole. She had brought a girl from Sugars named Emily with her. It wasn't quite what we expected, and certainly nothing that we would consider doing ourselves. The two girls came out to the dance floor and did a sortof strip-tease but only down to a bathing suit, and then they took turns dancing on the pole. Of course Nicole was amazing. Emily was not so amazing, but the crowd seemed to enjoy her. Most likely because her boobs wouldn't stay in her outfit and she didn't seem to care or notice. Very soon after the girls finisehed we left.

So bottom line, it wasn't what we expected, and certainly not for us. I could be a go-go dancer, but not this. No way.