Hey! Remember me?

I've got a lot to write about, so I'm going to skip the usual mea culpas about not blogging b/c I've been so freakin' busy, and get right to it.

What's happened recently:

Work is going at Mach 5. No, really. I mean it. Cuh-rayzee-go-nuts.

Last week was the big conference in San Antonio, and it went well. The second night I was there, a big group of us gathered in one of the attendee's room to play Rock Band. Yes, he'd brought all the gear with him from home, and with the 46" flat screen high def t.v. action, it was THE BOMB. I've never gotten to play Rock Band before, and for those of you who know how much I love to "perform," it was a game custom made for me. I tore UP the vocals on "Limelight" by Rush and "Creep" by Radiohead. Can't say I did so well on "Mississippi Queen" (whoever that's by). And I only tried to play an "instrument" once. It was the drums, and it was...well...sad. I also tried my hand at Dance Dance Revolution, and then decided (wisely) that it was time for bed.

I tried to take the day off last Friday, but that didn't work out so well. After dropping Geej off at school, I went to yoga (nice), but then I made the mistake of checking my work e-mail when I got home, and 4 1/2 hours and one conference call later, I realized my "day off" was toast. Sigh.

Last weekend the weather was INSANELY beautiful, which is one of the reasons we chose to take the Geej to the Austin Nature and Science Center--our first time there. I really enjoyed it, and want to go back again and explore the trails, but for our first venture, just looking at the rescued animals and digging in the sand were okay by us.

Monday it was back to the office. Monday was not a good day. In fact, it sucked. I'm not going to go into details, but suffice it to say, I wasn't a very happy camper. Tuesday was worse, and the only thing that kept me going was the fact that I'd made arrangements with BH to pick up The Geej after school so I could go to a 6pm yoga class. Well, work dragged on, and I got out of there later than I wanted to, and then traffic sucked more than normal and--you guessed it--I missed the yoga class. So I went home and immediately made a martini. And then another. I also decided that part of what was frustrating me was that there was no end in sight from the business and suckiness at work. I had no vacation or break of any kind scheduled to look forward to. So I forced BH to humor me and we booked a long weekend trip to the beach in April. Yay!! I wrote it on my calendar, IN PEN.

Wednesday was better, even if I was a bit tired (and a tad hungover). After I picked Geej up from school, I took her for a much needed haircut (she was beginning to look like one of The Ramones), and OMFG does she ever look cute--a stacked bob, short in the back, slanting down to her chin, which is perfect for her super-straight hair. And it makes her look SO much older. Sigh... I just can't believe how big she is when I look at her sometimes. Yesterday when we walked out of Birds was one of those times.

Also on Wednesday night, I discovered this in the kitchen: He was just sitting there, letting the water drip on his big ol' head, purring his big ol'ass off. I swear the boy ain't right.

Tonight, BH discovered this at our friendly neighborhood Spec's:

Ladies and Gentlemen, would you like Sum Poosie?
This wonderful concoction--that the world was absolutely thirsting for--originates from Florida, birthplace of Hooter's and alligator jerky. PLEASE check out their website and the two Grande Douchebags that started this little endeavor. I guess my favorite part of the website is the "Client Testimonial" on the homepage from Mike in L.A.: "Aside from being a great beverage, the name just couldn't be any cooler! I love to see the look on people's faces when I ask for 'SumPoosie'. It's a great party drink and conversation maker plus the girls love it!" Here's a tip for you Mike: These girls who "love" it when you ask for Sum Poosie should TOTALLY try and become one of their "Bottle Models." Then they could appear on a can like this classy 5' 4", 125 lb. gal from Ft. Lauderdale: "Yeah Mom! My modeling career is really taking off!! I'm the latest Bottle Model for 'Sum Poosie!' Aren't you THRILLED?!"

Lee, I'm TOTALLY buying you a case of this stuff.

I probably won't be posting for another couple of days. My friend Lisa and her baby boy Henry (Geej calls him "Him-oh-wee" and is TOTALLY obsessed with him) are coming to visit, AND I'm going to see Ghostland Observatory, AND the Texas Independence Day parade is on Saturday AND the Zilker Kite Festival is on Sunday, AND I'm going to see Built to Spill. So yeah...busy times around Casa Karla May.

More soon.

Texas, Our Texas...all Hail the Mighty State.

The Texas Independence Day parade happens in downtown Austin this Saturday morning around 10 a.m.

The Geej and I will be in attendance because freakin' Dah will be marching with the damn Plungettes.

Oh my effing God, people!! I think I may die.

Perhaps I should wear this to the parade, just to balance things out:

ROAR!!!

I have so much to write about, and yet...

All I can muster is the following snarky and apologetic post:

This is for all of us who have a cell phone--
Unless you are walking someone through brain surgery on a desert island and/or talking someone who is about to jump off the ledge of a 30-story building, I seriously can not even FATHOM an instance where you would legitimately need to continue your inane cellphone conversation when you're checking out at a store. I mean come ON!! Gethefuck OVER yourself!! In case you haven't noticed: There are HUMAN BEINGS who are trying to serve you (ringing up your groceries, your gas, your coffee, etc.)--a job that I pretty much guarantee you couldn't handle because of--YOU GUESSED IT!--assholes like YOU!

How can you STOP being a boil on the face of humanity? Well, have the human decency to stop your asinine conversation while you deal with the cashier who is serving you, and then you can call your friend back. See how eaysy that is?

And also, hotpinksox, I know you tagged me. And I'm TOTALLY going tag-it-forward, but right now, I'm just to sleepy.

Until I can refuel my tanks...

--KM

Where am I?

I'm here:


This was taken off of my hotel balcony at sunset this evening. I'll be here until Thursday afternoon attending/leading a conference for work.


BH is all alone with The Geej, Earl, Shiloh, and Leo...God bless him. Speaking of The Geej, she busted her top lip WIDE open last night while moderately spazzing out around a hard, wooden piece of furniture that came into serious contact with her face. For a second, I thought she may have actually bitten through her lip, but thank goodness it was less serious than that. But there was lots of blood, and it scared the snot out of both of us.

I'll try to post when I can, but it will be hard to pull myself away from this that's in my room:
Awww yeeeeah. This is how I ROLL!

When I picked The Geej up at school, she beamingly presented me with the following piece of her original artwork:

When I asked her what it was, she told me in an exasperated tone: "It's a MONSTER, Mommy! With THREE EYES!" as if I were the dumbest person in the world.

This is absolutely my favorite thing she's ever made. It now hangs in a place of honor at work. I can only hope that this is a budding gift and that some day she will give Bookhart's Wonderboy or La Turista's Peach a run for their money, but they have set the bar pretty damn high.

Happy Balentime's Day!

In case you can't tell, those are indeed red glitter shoes, a la Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.

In Honor of Valentine's Day...

14 Things I Love About BH:

• His unfailingly calm disposition



• His tenderness



• What an amazing father he is



• His shoulders and his chest



• The fact that he is the least picky eater I know



• His off-kilter sense of humor



• The fact that he's teaching himself to play the mandolin



• His sincere love of learning



• His seemingly limitless patience with The Geej



• His intense love of and respect for nature



• How damn smart he is



• Those green eyes



• He does his share of the housework without being asked



• He always puts the toilet seat down after he pees

Yet FURTHER proof that my mom doesn't know me at all.

This is what she unironically brought me back from her week-long trip to Mexico:Let's get a close up on that nice Mexican stereotype cartoon character, shall we?

The shirt she brought for BH says something like, "Dos XX Drinking Club." It's almost as ghastly as this one, but not quite. I'm just going to have to assume my mom was wasted when she bought this and NOT that she thought I'm the kind of person who would wear this out in public.

It's the only way I'll be able to sleep at night.

Today was a good day.

Got up, and it was cloudy and mid-50s-ish outside. The online weather report said that it was supposed to be sunny and in the upper 70s.

We took our time getting ready, and then left for the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market around 10:30 in the morning. It's super close to where we live, which makes it sort of sad that we hadn't gone there since BH appeared on the scene, but we made up for it today. It's early February, so the scene at the farmers' market was about 1/4 of what it will be in a couple of months. But it was still great.

There were jugglers demonstrating scandalous positions. (Or do I just have a dirty mind? Wait. Don't answer that.)

There were many "booths" with the obligatory (?) Texas flag tent shout outs. [Do other states do this? Or is our state flag just THAT much more kick ass? I'm just curious...]

There was the general awesomeness of a group of like-minded people gathered together to celebrate the scant remainders of the "community" aspect of their ever-increasing city.

Oh yeah...and at the farmers' market, every fourth person was sporting one of these--a "Better Bag" from Whole Foods. Death to the plastic shopping bag, people! Viva la bag! After that one, we decided to go to another one--the Austin Farmers' Market, which is a more recent addition to the whole local/farmers' market scene. Look at that photo. Doesn't it look all "big city-esque"? So weird to me that THAT'S Austin... But I digress.

Nothing much going on at the downtown farmers' market. However we did buy a one-container herb garden thing for $11 AND a couple of KICK ASS t-shirts from Jaye's friend Will (whose website escapes me now...damnit. Jaye?).

After that? We were still rockin'. It was fookin' GORGEOUS outside, so we decided to go eat lunch at a "wess-tuh-wahnt".

The Geej approved (which, as you know, makes life about 99% easier).


Now I invite you to gaze upon the sundried tomato Bloody Mary I had at lunch. Quit drooling. Yes, you should be jealous because this thing is freakin' amazing.

But wait! The best part of the day was yet to come: An EIGHT YEAR OLD'S birthday party. Wooh hoo! And Geej was the only kiddo under 7 even invited. How COOL is she?! But this party was even cooler: It was a "science" themed party hosted by a group super cool freaks who I am going to intentionally NOT tell you about b/c I intend to use them for the Geej's next 17 birthday parties...so back the EFF off. Now!

But, because I love you, I'll give you a hint about the coolest part of the party (besides the cake, natch):

And this...

And this...(slime making)

The Geej makes SLIME! All scientific like and stuff!!

Yeah. It was a good day.

How did I end up on this mailing list? Precious? Yes. Well made? I'm sure. But I'm not really the type to spend $198 on a dress for The Geej to frolic around on the beach in.

Speaking of The Geej, I'm pretty this little scamp could give her a run for her money in the comedy department:



Too tired for much else tonight. I will tell you, however, that I picked up my car from the body shop today, and they did a FABULOUS job. All of the dents and scratches and dings are gone gone. And they even washed, vacuumed, tire-dressed, and Armor-alled the inside of my car before I picked it up. Nice dudes.

Not much to report.

God, my life is interesting. Don't believe me? Read on, my friends...

My yoga workshop is over as of last Thursday, so now on Tuesdays/Thursdays/Sundays, I'm going to walk a couple of miles each evening. Hopefully I can also fit some random yoga classes in every now and again too. February is the month of making this "regular physical activity" thing a reality.

I am reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and really enjoying it. I'm not really a fiction person for the most part, so I'm sort of surprised I'm liking it as much as I do.

I started an at home microderm abrasion thingie tonight. Truthfully, I've had it for some time, but have only used it once every three weeks or so, so there's no way that I would've seen any results...if there are actually any to be seen with this bought-it-at-Ulta kit. But now I'm going to start doing it 2 to 3 times a week to see if there is any discernable difference. Did I mention that I turned 39 last week?

We've been watching tapes of the Geej at age 10 mos. to 1 year the past couple of nights. OH. MY. GOD! What a cute, funny baby she was!! It hurts my heart to watch these tapes because she's just so wee and adorable and charming and...well, quiet. Sometimes I really miss that time before words...

I conducted annual performance reviews for everyone on my team last week. Although it's a lot of work, I really love this process because it's a legitimate way to have a conversation that focuses in on their strengths and helps them understand the areas that they need to work on. Luckily, I have a really great team with very few serious weaknesses, and as an added bonus, they're all really open to constructive feedback. Now it's my turn--bi-annual anonymous Team Leader surveys are going on right now. We'll see how I do in about eight weeks or so...

I've got some work-related travel starting to appear on my calendar in the coming months: San Antonio in a couple of weeks, Toronto in late March, and Chicago in April--luckily, all places I enjoy.

I've decided that given the choice between cookies, pie, or cake, I would pretty much always choose pie.

See?! INTERESTING!!

Okay...now I'm off to check out the results of superphatuesday.

Really?

I haven't posted since Thursday? Day-um. What a blur, y'all.

So I picked up my car Friday evening (specifically, at 6:01pm--they close at 6:00--and I had to call and plead with them to stay open so that I could get my car) to the tune of $500+. Happy birthday to me, right? Most of that was for "labor" as they tried to figure out what the hell was wrong with the damn thing. Apparently they even had to call Nissan to help them diagnose. Ultimately it had something to do with some electrical connections to the engine coming a-loose (thank YOU Appaliachain kinfolk!), so they had to disconnect, reground, clean, and reconnect everything to make sure they'd remedied the problem. Oh, and I had some rear brake work done while I was there. Car trouble...gotta love it. I did all I could to get Geej fed, bathed and bedded before I myself got in the bed and cratered at 9:30pm. Yep: I'm totally thirty nine.

Saturday it was LOVELY outside. Geej, BH and I ran some errands (including getting my NASTY car washed), had some lunch, and did a bunch of chores around the house. About 4:30, Dah was on the scene so that BH and I could go have dinner with his mom and stepdad. We went out to the Lakeway resort, which I haven't visited since around 2000. They were staying there and treated us to dinner. The place was practically deserted, which must be why they got a room with a balcony facing the lake for only $116/night. Like I said, the weather was GREAT, so they really lucked out. After dinner, we came back in town and went to Deb and John's annual bowling birthday throw-down at Westgate, which is a stone's throw from mi casa. It was fun! And, as usual, I SUCKED. I mean, just because I arrive on the scene with my own ball/bag/shoes, people expect me to be good or something. But no: I suck. I bowled a 54, y'all! See? I SUCK!!

Sunday, both BH and I were dragging a bit due to the late-ish night and the drinking of much wine/beer. It was another lovely--and unseasonably warm--day, so we just hung out with the Geej and did a whole lot of nothing.

This morning, bright and early, Dah and her neighbor Nadine showed up so that I could take them to the airport. You see, Nadine won a week-long "all expenses paid" trip to Cancun at some raffle, and Dah is tagging along as her guest. All she had to pay for was airfare. She's never been to Cancun, and I think she'll like it. But a week? With a somewhat crochety neighbor in her upper 70s? Yeah... I expect to hear some complaints. By me taking her to the airport, however, I was able to secure the use of her car. Why? Because I decided to go ahead and get some cosmetic body work done on mine--I mean shit, if I'm in for $500+ already this month, I should just dive on in to the poo pool and immerse myself, yes? But seriously, I had 1 significant ding, 1 significant dent (from me running into a dumpster), and a bevy of scratches I wanted buffed out. The first place gave me an estimate of fourteen-hundred-freakin'-dollars! What?! Second place as about half that. Guess who I went with? So I've got Dah's wheels to get me around until they're finished doing cosmetic surgery on my car.

Geej's school was closed today (teacher work day), so she went to gymnastics camp for most of the day. She takes gymnastics at school as an "extracurricular" on Mondays anyway, and this same group who teaches gymnastics at the shool offers a half-, 2/3, or all-day "camp" when school's not in session. A lot of her little friends from school go, so I thought she might like it too, and guess what: she LOVED it. I went and got her at 3:00pm, and she told me tonight when I was putting her to bed that she "wanted to stay until five firty." Wow. I'm so happy she dug it so much! But when she got home, she was pretty wiped. So was Earl apparently, but for no real reason other than the fact that he's a fat, lazy slob.

I'm making progress on my epic "To Do" list, by the way. At least I don't feel like I'm drowning anymore (which is saying something). Back with you soon, people.