Lisa's Lounge

Well my goodness, look at the date! This work stuff is ridiculous. Time just keeps flying by. I can't believe January is almost over. I seriously need to start playing the lottery. So, to catch up: Ben and I took a little trip out to Florda from Jan 19-24. It wasn't ALL Disney this time, as Ben's Mom lives in Tampa. On the Disney side of Tampa :-). We stayed at her house a couple of days, and Disney the rest. It was really good to see Kathee and visit with her friend Jody (from like Junior High back in Michigan, I think) and Jody's kids. Kathee also has a new buddy, yet another lab named Lucky. The Mills' seem to like that name for their labs, because I think this guy is the 3rd one. (I didn't tell our lab Max about him... he might be a little upset that his deceased brother, Lucky #2, has been... uh... replaced)


While we were visiting over at Jody's house, which was on Sunday, we contemplated for a moment how long it would take to drive down to Key West. Very tempting, but too far. So, we headed back to Disney on Monday and left out of Orlando Tuesday night. Our annual passes expired Tuesday, so we HAD to maximize their mileage! January is very much the month to be at Walt Disney World. Very small crowd, weather was perfect, even if it was a little too humid at times, prices for hotels are at their cheapest... We'll probably go back next January! We stayed Thurs and Fri night at the Wilderness Lodge Hotel. It is beautiful! It's supposed to be built in the style of Yellowstone Park's Lodge, complete with a geyser!





And ducks swimming in the pool!


I'll have to catch up more later. I'm pooped. Check out Special K's site over there. Our friends had a big party while were gone... harumph.

Looking through old photos, I found a few of our home on moving in day. I thought it would be cool to do a comparison. Then I noticed the huge difference in the quality of the photos, too. Digital is amazing. The print ones were taken with a really good film camera… but still. Check out the photos, though. (Click on 'em and view them in a larger size) The changes over the 4 years are subtle – we could use some landscaping assistance – we both have new cars – and the neighbors are in and settled now. We were either the first or second on our block to close and move in. (Which is humorous to us as most of them chose their homes from the ground up. We decided within a 3-week period to a) move in together; b) buy a house; c) picked this house; d) close and moved in!)

Christine's bday was actually Wed, January 4th. Liz had rehearsal, I had a minor little football game to watch - and C ended up scheduling Bag100 rehearsal. So, Sunday we finally had the opportunity to celebrate! Here also is a video of Lizzie's operatic birthday tribute to Christine...

Happy Birthday! (be sure to right click and save as)

TEXAS! TEXAS! YEE-HAW! TEXAS! FIGHT! TEXAS! FIGHT!
Yay! Got my picture taken with the big #1 on the UT Tower. It was lit up all weekend, January 6,7, & 8 for the city to enjoy. UT will light it again when school starts January 17. Saturday was quite the diverse day! I met up with Christine and Nicole (A/K/A CnN) for a night of culture AND rock n roll. First, we went to a vodka and tea tasting party hosted by the Austin Lyric Opera, in advance of the opera called Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Our good friend Liz Cass had a great performance in her roll as the prostitute Sonyetka. So we got a little buzz on in the Texas Memorial Museum lobby, then walked over to Bass Concert Hall for an eye opening opera! I highly recommend seeing it. In my next post I'll have a sample of Liz's opera-ness in honor of Christine's bday.

Then it was over to the Red Eyed Fly for some Nooner. Their first live Austin show with the new guitarist, Errol. We decided to change clothes in the car. (THAT was interesting) I realized we were RIGHT by the orange tower with the huge #1 on it, so we HAD to get some photos. The Nooner show had a good turn out, given the fact they didn’t go on til 1am. Great show, guys!

THEY DID IT! THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS LONGHORN FOOTBALL TEAM BEAT TRASH TALKIN’ REGGIE BUSH AND HIS WEINER QB MATT LEINART FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!

I’ve told the story a hundred times or more – the last time Texas won the National Championship, well when they beat Arkansas for the trip to the National Championship game against Joe Theismann and his Irish of Notre Dame, my mother dragged my brother and me to the airport to greet the team. My feet were frozen and it was pure chaos, but a great memory!

Now that I’m 35 years older – the thought of heading to the Drag last night flashed briefly through my head. Nah, I’ll just go to bed. I will be down around campus tonight though, to take pictures of the tower lit up with the number 1 on it!!!

The new chant around town is sure to be “Please Stay Vince Young!”

HOOK ‘EM HORNS!

Welcome Welcome 2006. What a year you will be. We rang it in nicely last night – decided to have friends and neighbors over so we wouldn’t have to worry about anyone driving. Liz & Tim and Kristin & Jef came over, and our neighbors Ahrey & Trisha and Brad & Laurelyn came over as well. We grilled chicken and steaks, consumed an interesting amount of alcohol, and played silly parlour games. Um, and some serious drinking games. Liz & Tim stayed the night – or should I say morning, since we turned in around 5am – and at least the 4 of us were not in too bad of shape! I haven’t talked to the neighbors yet. Thanks to all of you for such a great time! Ahrey answering Ben’s phone and pretending to be a Chinese restaurant was hilarious! I have a little bit of video of it, but Special K took some longer ones. Hopefully she will post links on her website, www.karmalized.com.

I’m really looking forward to this year for some reason. I think that my job will have some interesting twists – the builder I work with is making noises about using another mortgage company. Which would totally suck, but be great at that same time. Guess we’ll see what happens. It’s no reflection of me, it’s other cities they are having issues with.

Ben’s band, Nooner, will release a new CD in early February. We’ve got the rough mix, and it sounds great! They hope to tour more this year and really make a big push. I like it and I don’t, of course. I hate it when Ben’s not here, but I am also hopeful for their success. They are such a good band! [ah, special note: Ben informed me Bag 100's cd should be ready to go in March! Very cool!!!]


And this may very well be the best picture from last night! We were playing 3 Man, and someone apparently rolled whatever the combo is (4 and 1? 5 and 1?) where you have to put your thumb on your forehead…