Birthday!

For my birthday, my terrific husband gave me a new tv for the bedroom. Our old one was from the Clinton era so It was very nice to finally have an upgrade. He gave me this gift on the day before my birthday.


He mounted the tv to the wall (don't worry, we are going to hide the cord soon...sheesh) and I noticed a problem. Our fancy tv made our crappy dresser really stand out in all it's crappy glory. When the old tv was perched on the dresser, it did not look so bad. It was like the two negatives cancelled each other out or something. But now, it just looked like shit. "It" being the dresser that Dale has had since childhood. A fine dresser for a child but a bad choice for an adult's bedroom.

The next day was my birthday. Want to see what I wore to work?


Yes, I worked on my birthday but only for half the day. I started the day off by reading the happy birthday on me facebook:

Then I did some actual work, but not much. Must not stress oneself on ones birthday.

I went to lunch with a bunch of co-workers/friends:

They paid for my lunch and bought me a gift card to Lush! SCORE!


After that, I went to get a massage and facial. On my way to the spa, Dale texted me a pic of a dresser he was thinking about purchasing. he was at our favorite furniture store and the dresser was on sale. He could get it for a VERY good price. I said "buy that sucker" and so he did.


See the old dresser behind the new one?



I can't believe I finally have a grown up person's dresser! Soooooo fancy!

This has been a fabulous birthday. I love my husband. I love him because he has good taste. I love him because he knows to buy at a good price. I love him because he negotiates price. I love him because he knows what I like. I love him because he works hard and can, once-in-a-while, buy me a big gift! Heck, two! I would still love him if he could not buy me the big gifts because just being with him is my favorite thing.

And that's the truth.

Another Post About Zoe and Lily

Because they are cute.

Here they are playing the toy piano:

And here is a 3-picture series of Lily. Not sure what she is doing here but I like it.




Here are two pictures of Zoe. I think she has been paying attention to the poses on the cover of fashion magazines.



Funny thing about Zoe, she can't handle flash photography. Her eyes go all wonky once that flash hits 'em. Check it out:



Hahaa! Still adorable.

Lily, on the other hand, is immune to the evil powers of the flash.


And finally, two back-to-back photos of the girls with an identical smile. It's how you know they are sisters.



That's all.

The One Where She Shows Off Her Cute Nieces

After my surgery and midway through my recovery, I flew to Lubbock to visit my sister and her kids. I had booked the plane ticket months ago and I really missed my family so I went, sore face and all. I'm so glad I did! It was great to catch up with my sister and her girls are delightful. I love them so much! They are so funny! Every morning, they would watch me do my hair and make-up. They always asked me if they could have some lipstick and I would always compromise and give them lipgloss. They would try on whatever shoes I had on that day, walking around the living room with their hands on their hips like how they imagined runway models would do. Adorable.

I had some pink glitter Betsey Johnson jewelry boxes at home that I knew the girls would love. I bought some cute bracelets, put them in the boxes and gave them to the girls.

They loved them! Maybe the boxes more than the bracelets....

Above is Zoe


And this is Lily





I took them to breakfast one morning. Just me and the girls...



I already miss them. I'm warning you, my next post is going contain more pictures of these two. I can't help it! They are so cute and I love them!

Postoperative Post

Dang! It's been quite a while since my last blog post, hasen't it? Well, I had my sublingual salivary gland removed and recovery was a bitch! I was in heavy recovery mode for about two weeks. I also traveled to Lubbock to see my sisters and their families. After that, it was back to Austin for SXSW. I have a lot of stories an photos to share. This post will take care of my surgery and recovery. Let's get started.

March 2nd I went into the hospital to have my sublingual salivary gland removed. In the photo above, I am waiting for the surgery....all chipper and ready to go. Ok, I was a little nervous. I knew they were going to have to intubate me to keep me breathing. They could not use the typical oxygen mask because they were operating inside my mouth and the mask would prevent that from happening. Any-hoo, the thought of having a tube shoved down my throat makes me a little antsy. You understand.

Intubation

Here is the husband:

lookin' all handsome
If he were not there I would probably have had a panic attack.

Surgery took about an hour and it went smoothly. However, I woke up in extreme pain. I remembered the anesthesiologist telling me that during surgery, they monitor my heart rate and respiration to determine if I need more anesthesia. Basically, if your breathing pattern quickens they know you are in pain and give you more drugs. So when I woke up in recovery I knew two things: 1. I could not talk and 2. I was in the worst pain of my life. So I started breathing very fast hoping the nurse would notice. She did. I got an ice pack and pain meds right away.

Heavily Medicated


Thank the lord for pain meds. Feeling a little better.

Dale was able to take me home that day where I immediately got on Facebook and pandered for sympathy flowers. It worked.

Beautiful flowers from the husband's amazing sister and her family.

They happen to own a flower shop. Woot!!


If you are in the Austin/Round Rock area, give them a call for all of your floral needs.

I basically drank my food for most of my recovery:

Green Monster Shake (found on Pinterest).

Almond shake found on the South Beach Diet website.

Ice packs were my best friend:

And husband took tremendous care of me.

The pain during recovery was much, much more intense than I thought it would be. It also took longer to recover than what my doctor had told me to expect. On the bright side, my surgeon was skilled and the surgery seems to be a success. None of the nasty side effects have happened to me (loss of sensation to one side of the tongue, loss of taste to one side of the tongue, accidental damage to a major salivary duct, etc.). Hopefully, this whole mess is behind me for good. I mean, the cyst that caused all the problems popped up in August! I've been dealing with it for quite some time. Now it's time to close the book on this sucker.

The end.

Misprint's 6th Annual Beard & Moustache Competition: Part 2

Let's start things of with a little crowd surfing, shall we? If you watched Whisker Wars on IFC you know who Phil Olsen is. If not, I'll just tell you real quick like, mmmm-kay? Phil is "the founder and self-appointed Captain of Beard Team USA"- from Phil's Whisker Wars bio.

More importantly, he is not in his twenties which is the appropriate age for crowd surfing. I'm in my thirties and would never consider doing this. Not with my neck and back problems...now way Jose! Somehow, Matt Bearden was able to talk Phil into risking his 63 year old bones into the young mans game of crowd surfing. See for yourself:

Austin crowds are the best! They handled that fella like a new born baby. Gentle as can be....nothing to fear! Kudos to Phil for trusting the Austinites.

Here are some more shots of bearded men:

Myk O'Connor's Beard:

He won "Gnarliest Beard" that evening.

Jack Passion was going for the "Gnarliest Beard" title as well

but the dude can't catch a break in Texas.

Aarne Bielefeldt going free style

doin' it, doin' it, doin' it well!

This guy painted his face and beard to look like The Austin Facial Hair Club's logo:



Hairy chest anyone?

Well there you go.

This next guy came up on stage, sat down, took one shoe off, and rambled incoherently into the microphone.


This fella had a terrific moustache:

Of course, I was taking pics with my phone so I could not capture the detail. Go here for better pictures of the evening.
Or here

That's all for now.