The good news, which is actually more along the lines of AMAZING news, is that I’ve been dreaming up a photobooth unlike pretty much anything you can find on the market today. And I shared that dream with a friend who is a super talented programmer who’s pretty good at building stuff, too. He has helped me make it into a reality, and it goes to its very first wedding in 2 weekends!

I’m hoping to be better about blogging, but it’ll be over at the photobooth site. I’ll do posts with my favorite booth pics from every party, and I’ll update personal stuff like vacations, updates on the house, and the like.

So, I guess I’ll close this out now. From here forward, visit me at photoboothtastic.com. I’ll leave this up for a month or so incase anyone wanders across it.

Today food consumption went well – all healthy stuff. No workout tonight, spent the evening planning a trip to London with Chris later in the year (friend was there not too long ago and was helping us make an itinerary). Also: CAN’T WAIT TO SEE HUAN!

Since time is short – need to sleep very soon – I’m just posting a couple of pics from Homeslice Pizza and SoCo this past weekend. Happy Thursday night, almost the weekend!

Doing a biggest loser competition with my teammates from Floorball. I’m the littlest person, but it’s % lost and I’m stubborn. Definitely don’t want to lose.

Competition started 2 Sundays ago with the first weigh in and is 6 weeks of hard work. Week one weigh in 3/6 I was down 3.2 lbs.

(Also I’ve been working on the guest bath and it’s looking great but I need to take pics!)

So many good things to share but so little time. C’est la vie, eh? Hopefully more to come soon!

1.     The Arizona side of the Arizona / New Mexico border of I-40 has the highest banner sign per capita of anywhere I’ve seen.

2.     Lots of cars in New Mexico are from out of state which is surprising because there is NOTHING to do in New Mexico except buy/look at art and pottery or check out the sweet scenery.

3.     People are good drivers in New Mexico and understand that the left lane on the highway is for PASSING, not clogging.

4.     Dairy Queen goes as far as Arizona. (we should probably double check this one)

5.     Every important stop in New Mexico has a Dairy Queen attached.

6.     If you are paying to watch people live in seclusion then they don’t really live in seclusion. Commercial endeavors and living semi off the grid don’t mix.

7.     Sky City Acoma has way too many cars and peddlers and not enough people watching to be worth $20 but they do have an interesting tiered graveyard.

8.     When you see a sign outside of Santa Fe that says “Super Blitz – Cops are Everywhere” they mean everywhere in/near Santa Fe and nowhere else in New Mexico.

9.     According to TomTom, of the two fastest paths of Austin to Santa Fe one sends you through El Paso and one sends you through Oklahoma City.

10. The conversion rate of TomTom time to reality is 1 TomTom hour to 44 real world minutes.

11.  The University of New Mexico has ivy league school envy.

12. Frontier Diner off the UNM campus is delicious and cheap.

13. Santuario de Chimayo is a worthwhile spiritual experience and insightful into the power of faith, whether it comes from within or elsewhere.

14. Bandalier Park is not named by crossing bandit with langolier but is simply some guy’s last name. I was bummed for at least 7 minutes.

15.  Grand Canyon campsites suck compared to Texas. The “good” ground is all rocks and the other campsites are less than 10 feet in any direction.

16. Grand Canyon hiking is amazing but a day hardly does it justice. I think the best way to experience it might be to go backpacking, perhaps across rims?

17.  Using a cooler as a mobile refrigerator to save money doesn’t work as intended. Ice melts too fast to be an effective money saver. Load up on the non-refrigerated food though!

18. Winning in Vegas feels equally good no matter the game. But losing in poker and playing well still feels good. Losing in everything else just sucks. On the other hand, playing poor poker is the worst.

19. Automated blackjack shufflers suck!

20. Bellagio’s buffet is good enough to still be a steaaaaaal at over $20 / person. If you go to Vegas and don’t eat there you don’t deserve a happy stomach.

21. While I’m still decidedly anti-Apple computer after using one for 2 weeks, the MacBook keyboard is awesome.

22. Physical attraction must not be a hiring criteria for Vegas casino’s waitresses.

23.  Walking a block on the Vegas strip takes twice as long as you think, mainly because of all the bridges you need to take.

24. Half the litter on the Vegas strip is from escort trading cards that dealers like to pop in everyone’s face – man with children in tow, husband with wife, underage girl? Everyone wants a dozen nude girl trading cards, right?

25. Roswell smells like cow poop

26. How to use a Mac

27. You smell fruit and flowers at the top of a wine glass, minerals and vegetation in the middle, and the alcohol and oak at the bottom

28. People will pay $350+ for a dinner SANS alcohol (French Laundry, Napa)

29. Phoenix is eerily Big Brother with speed cameras all over and around the city

30. More tours should end with alcohol consumption

31. Hollywood Blvd is a short stretch that is way overrated

32. People will pay $5000+ for a handmade, basic function stick phone (Rodeo Drive)

33. Take a small cooler and instead of buying ice fill up with hotel ice

34. The remote area cell reception of 1^st gen vs. 3G iPhone is completely random

35. Driving in Northern California’s coastal wind sucks!

36. There is an unfortunate dearth of Ultimate after Tucson, until central Texas

37. Simple things in life are underrated. Besides seeing family and friends, playing Ultimate was the most enjoyable activity from San Francisco back To Austin.

38. California drivers are @$$holes

39. Bel-Air is a fortress

40. Traffic in Los Angeles really is the worst in the country

41. Public transportation can get you to 90% of San Francisco

Ranking the restaurants we ate at:

1.     Bellagio Buffet, Las Vegas, NM

2.     Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, Los Angeles, CA

3.     Four Peaks, Scottsdale, AZ

4.     Bottega, Napa, CA

5.     Frontier Diner, Albuquerque, NM

6.     Thai Dishes, Los Angeles, CA

7.     El Guero Canelo, Tucson, AZ

8.     Giordano’s????, San Francisco, CA

9.     Whataburger, Roswell, NM

10. In-n-out Burger, Oakland, CA

11. Izzy’s New York Bagels, Paolo Alto, CA

12. Chinese food, San Francisco, CA

Ranking the cities/towns we spent at least a few hours in:

1.     Napa, CA

2.     Las Vegas, NV

3.     Grand Canyon Village, AZ

4.     San Francisco, CA

5.     Los Angeles, CA

6.     Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ

7.     Albuquerque, NM

8.     Santa Fe, NM

9.     Roswell, NM

Ranking the hotels we stayed at:

1.     Hotel Vitale, San Francisco, CA

2.     Beverly Hills Hilton, Beverly Hills, CA

3.     MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV

4.     Three Palms, Scottsdale, AZ

5.     Fairfield Marriott, Fairfield, CA

6.     Hampton Inn, Albuquerque, NM

7.     La Quinta, Roswell, NM

Ranking the continental breakfasts:

1.     Fairfield Marriott, Fairfield, CA

2.     Hampton Inn, Albuquerque, NM

3.     La Quinta, Roswell, NM

Night one was Brazillian (and probably our most complicated meal):

Avocado Smoothie (it was actually good!)

cheese biscuits

Brazillian rice

collard greens

and salmon

Night two was Greek, but we forgot to take pictures. Got distracted watching Iron Man 2 (way later than we should have).

Chris made Indian food – one of my favs, I was really excited.

Yummy Chicken Tikka Masala

Next up were fish tacos

He grilled the fish, made the tortillas from scratch, and invented a new sauce to go on it.

And last (but not least) I made Chili this weekend

Used a friend’s recipe, and had to sub a few things based on what we could find. But overall a good first try at Chili.

Have you tried any new recipes lately?

We headed down to Nightmare on 5th at 501 Studios to see Naked Empire play a Halloween show.

Chris dressed up as Sad Keanu. We dyed his hair black (with permanent dye!) – now that’s dedication to the costume.
Ran out of time and didn’t find a helmet.

It’s an internet meme, and it is lol-tastic. Even real Keanu thinks it’s funny.

I ran to Goodwill and grabbed a white dress, then hot-glued trash all over it. The result?

White trash.

But what really is weird for me is that Chris has been dirty blonde since we met 10 years ago… and we dyed it black yesterday. Still shocking. Then he decided his beard didn’t match the black hair – the beard had some red in it.
So he shaved it. After a year of having a beard. Shocker number two.
When I woke up this morning, I had quite the start -
there was a beardless, black haired man in my bed.
Who looked oddly like my husband.

Black hair makes his eyes kinda creepily light green.
We’ll probably strip the black out and dye it back to dirty blonde soon,
but it was cool to see something new.

Switchfoot – they surprised all of us by cobering Beastie Boy’s Sabotage. Amazing. Check out Meant to Live.

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue – these guys were a huge surprise – danced the entire time they were playing.
So good. Too hard to pick a favorite song. Check them out for sure.

Muse! Our second time seeing them in 2010. Was amazing to be close enough to play with the eye-balloons
this time instead of a seat too far away. They always put on an AMAZING show.
Check out Starlight, Hysteria, Plugin Baby and Uprising
They are consisently in my top 5 favorite bands.

Chris waiting for the White Rabbits to start playing. They were really, really good.
Check out Percussion Gun.

Jeff’s birthday fell on Sunday of ACL weekend. (Good timing, Jeff!)

So Saturday night, we celebrated the big 2 – 7. By acting like we were still 21.

And I took a picture that’s definitely my favorite in a LONG time.
On the left you have Jeff and Chris – same age and grade,
lived 3 houses apart growing up in Houston.
Both went to UT, both stayed in Austin to start careers.
To their right are their little brothers, same age, both go to UTSA.
Both came up to help celebrate Jeff’s birthday.

I’m going to frame this one for sure.

On a separate note, Chris and I discovered Vitamin String Quartet
who cover rock and alternative songs with a string quartet. It’s kind of addicting.

The rest of the ACL / party pics are on Flickr

FRIDAY
Blues Traveler
Miike Snow
The Black Keys
Spoon
Robert Randolph & the Family Band
The Strokes

SATURDAY
The Gaslight Anthem
Silversun Pickups
The Temper Trap
Gogol Bordello
Muse

SUNDAY
White Rabbits
Portgual. The man
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Switchfoot
Cage the Elephant
Norah Jones

Against the house are Japanese Pittosporum. The little ones are Japanese boxwood (will trim down to be more squared once they are planted and happy). Need 3 more big ones and about 25 or so more little ones to finish out the back of the bed and lining the front. Still unsure about that middle area, but have some ideas!

• Thin out all 5 Crepe Myrtle trees – 2/5 done (the two in the front yard. three in side yard on the list for this week)

LIVING ROOM

• Clean out hall closet and organize it – done. there was more junk in there than I thought. it’s not pretty and organized, but it is organized.

GENERAL

• Keep the house generally straightened up – house looks pretty good
• Make the bed at least 3 days a week – made the bed this weekend. room looks much nicer with made bed.
• Have date night once per week – we watched District 9 and had pizza
• Keep up with the laundry (lots of sports = LOTS of dirty laundry) – did all laundry, and all bedding in master bedroom

HOLIDAYS

• Finish Christmas shopping before December 10th – already have gifts for Mom, Dad, little bro & his fiancee, and one set of grandparents
• Order and mail out cute Christmas cards by December 5th – cards picked out. need to edit photo and get the cards ordered
• Find someone to help with the exterior Christmas lights. Our house will NOT be the saddest on the block this year. – have a couple of people working on quotes

Also? We mowed the back yard, edged the front yard, weeded front garden, added composted dirt and rose food to front garden. Watched a lot of football. Was happy for the Texans and sad about the Longhorns.