I don't know what happened to this weekend. It just slipped away. I don't know how I got so busy, or how the time flies so fast. I realize I'm only going to be in town one weekend in April, and that weekend is Yuri's Night, so it will be a hubub of chaos.

So, this weekend: Friday, girls movie night. Two really DUMB movies. Really. Entertaining though. Saturday, I actually had some me-time after sleeping in. I started to mow the lawn. I went to cheesecake factory, came home late, and went to bed. Yes, that's two cheesecakes in one week. Sunday, I finished mowing the lawn (and NO, I did not run over the lawnmower cord, I was SO proud of myself). Saw the Core (yes, it was a bad-movie-weekend). Then Cirque Du Soleil (how do those people make their bodies do that?). Then Star Pizza (yum!). Sleep. And now I'm at work.

What happened to the weekend?

I'm homing waiting for the arrival of the cleaning lady before I run off to work. This weekend, I am going to finish my spring gardening issues. I am going to sleep in. I am going to Cirque Du Soleil.

And, for my little piece of Switzerland here in Texas, I was flipping through Texas Monthly, and on their calendar of Texas events, I read "Austin: Red Bull Flugtag, April 26". I mean, it went so far as to leave the German name of the event. Flugtag. In case you don't remember from my experience with this almost a year and a half ago, you can read about it here, but I believe the title says it all: Of flying machines and cliffs. I wish I could go, but I have volunteered to be dispatched to the middle of nowhere Texas to help search crews look for shuttle debris during that week.

Sorry I've been a slacker in updating my journal. I brief rundown of my news:

1. Cari & her very cuddly puppy started moving in last night.

2. I was up until all hours gorging on cheesecake for Sarah's birthday.

3. The cleaning lady is coming tomorrow (yeh for clean house!) and it is time to begin mowing the lawn. Sigh. I wonder if Sarah was serious about doing it for $10.

4. This morning I gave a presentation about NASA Careers to school teachers. It was very inspiring (I mean, I was inspired by how excited they were). They were all so -- well -- so "teachery". I don't know how else to describe it.

5. Tonight is our Yuri's Night Meeting. I wish April 12 would get here fast, I am really not enjoying this year's planning experience at all, and its beginning to cause a lot of roommate stress (sigh). Its a cool event, though. I am excited about it. Really.

That's my life.

First off, pictures of Whistler are posted here. Eventually I will get around to labeling them with sarcastic and witty comments, I promise.

The Cast

For the cast of characters you'll see in these pictures (for those of you are understandably confused about my family): Me (duh!), Nick (my brother), Rob (my half brother), Dad, Aunt Mary and her three children Caroline, Catie, and Rob, and my Aunt Nancy and her son Graham (her daughter Emily is being all cool in Mexico). Also there were Rick & Dale & Louis (all long-time family friends). Rick and Dale's son Adam wasn't there when I finally arrived (he only stayed the first half week), and their daughter Alex was in school.

The Mountain

We skiied Wednesday through Friday on Whistler and Blackcomb. I tried four sets of demo skis before settling on the Solomon women's X-Scream's. I love funny ski names (my alternate choice was called "Monster Head"). Ate really well (which is to be expected in that crowd). Stayed at a really huge, posh townhome, I can describe it in two words: "heated floors".

The Zipline

Saturday morning we did ziptrek where we crossed the river valley between Blackcomb and Whistler on a serious of 4 ziplines where we launched from the tops of trees and crossed the river over 150 above it - one time on the longest zipline in north America at 1100 ft long. It was one of the scariest things I've ever done. It makes me laugh that Nick was so frightened, though. Mr. Bad Ass backcountry snowboarder himself kept his hands gripped around the rope, white knuckles all the way. It was hard not to laugh, especially after the number of times he blew past me on his snowboard this week.

The Pacific Northwest

It was a cool drive back on the Sea to Sky highway, very aptly named. It makes me wish I could live somewhere (anywhere!) more beautiful than Houston. Then I had an excellent sushi dinner with George, Tracy, and Irwin (and talked about G&T's imminent very exciting trip to the British Isles), an even BETTER desert, and then hung out. Irwin has the most kick-ass surround sound system I've ever experienced, I just sat down in the middle of the room, and was completely encompased by the sound (I couldn't even concentrate on anything else). He is a total bachelor though. He doesn't have a light in his bedroom. Not a single one. You just have to count on the light from the bathroom and closet to illuminate it when it gets dark. I'm not even going to speak about decorating, luckily his friend Joann should keep his things in order! George and Tracy's place is also extremely cool (for different reasons). I love their hardwood floor, their view, and their black cat.

My cousins

And the funniest overheard conversation of the trip, between my cousins Rob P., Catie P., and my brother Rob. They range in age from 6 to 8 years old and are all as cute as buttons.

The scene: the rental mini-van eating snacks from the gas station while we wait for Nick and Dad to change Aunt Nancy's flat tire.

Catie (scolding): Be careful, remember what Mommy said, if we drop food in the car, the car people will make us pay for it.

Rob Kohart (confident): Don't worry Catie, Daddy and Aunt Mary have lots of money.

Rob Phillips (knowingly): Yeah, but they'll probably take it out of our college funds.

I'm back from Whistler! All safe and sound and wishing I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. Why do I live in an ugly place like Houston when I could just be a ski bum?

Anyway, I will eventually label all these pictures, but until then, you can look here to see them! Just click on the thumbnail to view the whole picture.

Pictures are HERE!

I'm having a great time in Whistler. The snow is beautiful. I adore skiing above the treeline.

Well, that's about it.

I'll be back to civilization on Sunday!

Darned Diaryland, won't let me add a new entry today, so I had to update this old one... I'm off to ski Whistler!!

I have a random Italian lady living with me. Yep, Becca's House of Wayward Strays.

I slept all day Saturday. In my hammock. I made a remarkable discovery. I woke up and Apache was lying on my hammock on top of my feet. Who would've thought a dog could get on a hammock without flipping it or waking me up?

Yesterday, I weeded. I think weeding is giving me carpal tunnel syndrome. By the end of the day, I was having trouble making a fist. Oh, and my palm tree attacked me while I was clipping off the dead palm fronds. And one of my rose bushes put a few holes in my fingers. The wounds of war.

Its about time for that political rant

Today, while I was driving in, one of the radio stations I listen to had the nerve to play the Dixie Chicks. Now, in case you didn't notice from my writing, that comment was seeped in sarcasm. One of the Dixie Chicks made a comment in London along the lines that she was embarrassed that President Bush was from Texas. Now people are burning their CD's and concert tickets and lighting up the lines demanding that local radio stations stop playing the Dixie Chicks.

How ridiculous! Not only are they entitled to have their opinion. But the thing that REALLY bothers me is that the callers to the show seemed to think that if you were against war in Iraq that you were UNPATRIOTIC. Why is war = patriotism? I consider myself patriotic, even though I'm at least a little hestitant about whether we should go to war in Iraq. Apparently, even listening to Dixie Chicks is now unpatriotic. I'm feeling a witch-hunt coming...

Of course, the people who called the radio station are probably the types that are pouring their expensive French champagne down the toilet; and calling them "freedom fries" and abstaining from "french kissing". All this anti-French sentiment is really bothering me. First of all: France is our ally folks! Secondly, China and Russia are also against this war. China could definitely be described as more evil than France. So why aren't people boycotting Chinese take out? Huh? Not to mention, we are already in the mist of an International relations crisis with France, why should we make it worse by insulting their whole country because they don't want to go to war? Not to mention, the reason we have a Security Council is so that each country has a vote - its not like France is going rogue, they are just exercising their voting rights. If every country had to vote how the U.S. wanted it to, well, then, its not exactly a democracy, is it? I just don't understand how we can vilify a country for voting in a way that its public has clearly given them the mandate for.

Today we got an email about how the government was cracking down on official travel to France, you know, we have to really buckle up since apparently western Europe is a dangerous place to be right now!

While I'm ranting, I want to rant about Secretary Tom Ridge's new commercials comparing homeland security preparedness to hurricane readiness. First of all, when did the nazi-esque term "homeland" become a part of our daily vocabulary? Second of all, don't you think these commercials actually create more panic than they resolve? (it seems like any sort of preparedness would be at the ridiculously ineffective 1950s slogo of "duck and cover" in the case of nuclear attack). Third, don't you get the feeling that all this talk about potential attacks and the extremely ambigious alerts, is just to make Americans feel more threatened than they actually are, making them more worked up, to make a potential war more personally threatening. It just feels like a smoke screen to me. Maybe I'm wrong... and it would be awful to be horribly wrong about something like this.


This amuses me:

Sniffle. Cough. Sniffle. Sniffle.

Darnit, I hate being sick. I curled up in my bed last night and stared at the t.v. for hours. I just realized, I didn't even eat dinner.

I plan to be lazy all weekend. Yep. Lazy me. Ok, I might do some work in the backyard. And maybe see a movie (though there's nothing really out). I will not come to work tomorrow (though the thought has crossed my mind).

Today in my radar searching efforts I have found: 3 airplanes, several major highways, and a BOAT. Of course, this is not what I'm searching for. Its very frustrating.

It's my life

It's now or never

Luck, it ain't enough, you gotta make your own breaks

In my Aunt Diane's words "Bon Jovi rocks!" Seriously, the concert was so high-energy. I don't know how else to describe it. I went to the concert with a sore throat, and its only worse now from all my screaming.

The rodeo was pretty danged entertaining too - I'm becoming a regular redneck, going to the rodeo three times this month! Even Aunt Di was sounding a little Texan, she was commenting on the scoring of the Bull Riders. (i.e. "That guy definitely deserved more than 70 points"). We were sitting so close (four rows from the stocks where the cowboys get on their horses or bulls) I could smell the horses (obviously, since they gave me a lovely allergic reaction). All I have to say is this: cowboys are sexy. I mean really, up close, they still are just sexy.

Now my guests are gone. Sigh. Its too quiet.

My mentor, Rich, and Sarah, seem to be having a Captain Kirk/Scotty thing going on. Rich (a.k.a. Captain Kirk) seems to think things are going to be done in a much faster time than Sarah (a.k.a. Scotty) can do it. I am just waiting for Sarah to bust out in a Scottish accent with "I canna do it cap'n, the engines canna take it!" However, Sarah hasn't learned the general rule of being Scotty, which is always tell the captain its going to take you twice as long as it really is, and then you'll always be the miracle worker.

I am so tactless.

I wonder if my Aunt Diane is coming back tonight or tomorrow?

Apparently, according to www.findyourspot.com, my top 5 places to live are: Medford, Oregon, Ashland, Oregon, Albuquerque, NM, and Burlington, VT. Overall on the top 20, it seems I should either live in Oregon or Vermont. Definitely not Houston.

Having visitors is fun. Or exhausting, depending on how you look at it. My Aunt Diane, a.k.a. "Shopping Queen", has successfully worn me out while doing the seemingly simple task of looking at trinkets and shoes. Its very entertaining, she seems to have a Spider-sense about where to find shopping, and then is drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Luckily, I learned from Apache how to herd other creatures, and so sometimes I made the mistake of putting myself in between Aunt Di and the stores. I think we wore my Mom out too - but she's getting on a plane for Philadelphia this morning, so she'll have some respite. Aunt Di is on the road to Dallas. And I am without my little green car.

So, the rundown: Friday night we ate. Saturday we ate lunch. We shopped in Galveston for trinkets. We ate again. We went to sleep. We work up and ate. Went to Kemah, met Sarah, and ate again. Shopped at Kemah until I had to drag them out of the stores to head for the rodeo. Went to the Rodeo. Ate again. Shopped at the rodeo. Came home. Crashed.

Sensing a theme? I have never eaten so well in my entire life. Mom and Aunt Diane totally have "grandmother" instincts. They kept commenting that my dog was underfed (because she ALWAYS eats voraciously) and fed her more and more with each meal. Aunt Di's interactions with Apache were particularly hilarious. We saw a t-shirt on Saturday with a dog on top of a person licking the person's face, and it had the word "Underdog" written on it. Well, that describes it.

Don't worry, we have photos of every single meal, so you can relive it. Actually, for those of you who were lucky enough to get a "you're missing the party" call, we, indeed, have a picture of us making that call. Mom and Aunt Di are two of a kind. Between the two of them, they have the technological saavy of an average person. My Aunt has this lovely digital camera, and all weekend, she snapped photos. Occasionally she will hand the camera to my mother to take a photo of her. We discovered last night that my mom hadn't actually managed to take a single photo with it. I was beginning to think my Aunt was technologically saavy -- that is, until the cell phone thing. She apparently can't program phone numbers, so my mom has to do it for her. In my Aunt's words "I'm a user," and therefore doesn't have to program her own cell phone.

Work has been obnoxious today. I have things to do, but the entire network is down. Well, its back up now. But you get the point. I can't believe how dependent I am on the network.

Hey, karen, I SMS-ed you? Did you get it? Hmmm? Tag!

I always think there's a band, kid.

I went to see the Music Man randomly last night. It was great! I love that show - I remembered so many of the songs, buried in my memory, cause we did it in 6th Grade :) (I was Mrs. Squires - the rule was you either had to be in the musical or while everyone was practicing you had to sit quietly in a room and read, which normally wouldn't be a problem, but you also had to write a book report - horror of horrors). Anyway, I felt like a little kid. Sarah obviously felt the same way kid, because she kept giggling every time the city council quartet came out. It was a good distraction.

In other news, everything is clean. Everything. Dog. House. Soon my car. And Mom and Aunt Di come in tonight. Our itinerary: Saturday - roam Kemah, shop, maybe go to Galveston if the weather shapes up, manicures, dinner. Sunday - rodeo. Monday and Tuesday my aunt is stealing my car and going to Dallas, and then we're going to the rodeo Again on Wednesday. Luckily next week is also spring break

In the bitching about my roommate report (who, don't get me wrong, I really enjoy living with and we have great conversations when we're not arguing): she had been using my guest bedroom as storage. I ordered everything out of the room by last weekend, and she did some work to that end. Finally, yesterday she moved the rest of the stuff out and INTO THE STUDY! What the heck?? Anyway, she has promised it will be all gone tomorrow. We'll see. But its ok. Its ok. Its ok. After all, I only put away the last of my boxes a few days ago, so I was setting a bad example, obviously. I just hate to have to keep reminding her that its MY house, not OUR house - I don't really want to live like that.

Nick Saadah took a picture today of a store that only sells olive products. Only olive products! Its like a second home to me. Maybe if my whole used-bookstore retirement plan doesn't work out, I can open an olive store.

Last night, I had a spontaneous dinner party. Seriously, I was only planning on cooking for a few people. Suddenly, I had 9 people over. It was fun. I like random things like that. And I love that I live in a place big enough that I can have all those people over! Of course, I could've timed it better, 'cause the house was a disaster since we were kind of letting things go for the imminent arrival of the cleaning lady today. Oh well. Sarah swiffered all the dog hair off the floor. Apache is molting again.

I had weird dreams again last night. I think I am being unduly influenced by the books I'm reading and the TV shows I've been watching. Really odd.

Nick Saadah took a picture today of a store that only sells olive products. Only olive products! Its like a second home to me. Maybe if my whole used-bookstore retirement plan doesn't work out, I can open an olive store.

Last night, I had a spontaneous dinner party. Seriously, I was only planning on cooking for a few people. Suddenly, I had 9 people over. It was fun. I like random things like that. And I love that I live in a place big enough that I can have all those people over! Of course, I could've timed it better, 'cause the house was a disaster since we were kind of letting things go for the imminent arrival of the cleaning lady today. Oh well. Sarah swiffered all the dog hair off the floor. Apache is molting again.

I had weird dreams again last night. I think I am being unduly influenced by the books I'm reading and the TV shows I've been watching. Really odd.

It seems lately when I sit down to write my entry all the things I had to say whooosh away.

Last night I had another of my re-occuring travel disaster dreams. Actually, "disaster" is the wrong word. I've been having these dreams since I was like 12. In this dream, Sarah, and Karen, and Kennda, and Gavin, and Jen, and Matt and I were all in England. We decided to take the bus to Suffolk. Don't ask me why Suffolk, but it seemed important. We were catching the last bus out and I couldn't work the automatic ticket machine. Finally we all ran through the terminal and climbed aboard. It was a weird bus. It was double decker, but too short. Anyway, about a half hour into the bus ride, we realized we were going to the wrong place. And this apparently was a crisis.

Anyway, that's the dream. The reoccuring nature is always some .variety of this - an airplane, bus, boat, cruise ship and the terminal or gate. And things always go wrong. And I always feel the same weird mixture.

This makes me believe that dreams aren't entirely random synapse firings.

So, today the fog is thick. Its more than a little strange. It feels like its still daybreak, because it doesn't make sense to have fog at lunchtime! Cognitive dissonance.

I bought my plane tix to Whistler. Yeh skiing!

I went to the rodeo last night. Yee-haw! Sarah apparently had more time than I to reflect on the experience, and here's her response.

Seriously, it had it all. I was more than a little shocked, and extremely entertained. Especially by the bigness of it all. Really big. With indoor fireworks. And men (very sexy cowboys) riding buckin' broncos. Seriously! And for all this, the stadium was completely full (well, that and the Tim McGraw concert).

Afterwards was Tim McGraw. It makes me want to be a country fanatic. I apparently screamed so loud that my voice is more than a little shaky today.

And..

Since I didn't update yesterday, I figured I'd fill you in on my weekend activities that are still making my whole body sore: I weeded the little cracks in my driveway (and put down anti-vegetation), I weeded the beds in my front yard, I put down mulch (14 bags, baby!), I fertilized and weed-and-feeded my grass, I cut down a monster habiscus, I cut back some of the hidious ground cover in one of my beds, AND I steam cleaned my carpets.

Go me.