May 26, 2007 | Filed under: Is She Still Talking?, The California Adventure

Not yet visible: the splotchy sunburn I got while washing the car in this top. Awesome.

Whoops. Little too much outdoor exposure yesterday without any sunscreen. Convenient, as I have a fancy-schmancy birthday dinner to attend tonight and just about everything in my closet is strapless or halter-style. Halter dress it is! It should help to camouflage the sunburn nicely, but I know the straps are going to hurt like a mo fo. I think it’ll be a wine-as-pain-reliever sort of night, which does not bode well for tomorrow morning…

May 23, 2007 | Filed under: The California Adventure

No, I said a boy [space] friend. Not a boyfriend. Biiiiiig difference. I mean, I assume I’ll actually like someone I’m friends with.

In the last two years here I’ve managed to find myself some pretty solid girlfriends, for which I am eternally grateful. But my posse of guy friends? That has not yet materialized. Sure, there’s no shortage of men at work, but, honestly, that doesn’t cut it. I had dinner tonight with three of them, all 45, plus or minus. It was … nice, but … well, just not the same. People, we talked about their wives and children and summer vacation plans. I’m getting desperate here. I need more.

Wanted: Male(s), 25-35, for shooting the shit, drinking beer, non-stop verbal abuse and the occasional road trip. Must like sports. Ability to discuss taboo subjects such as politics, religion and how hot Britney used to be a plus. Race not important. Please be single or firmly established in a long-term relationship; no room for jealous girlfriends here. Bonus points for having hot, single friends and/or being a Chicago Bears/Bulls/Cubs/Sox fan. My respective Wisconsin teams will kick your ass. Serious inquiries only.

May 21, 2007 | Filed under: Because They Pay Me, I Run Therefore I Am, Is She Still Talking?

Recommendation of the Day: Long day? Go running. Especially if you just got home from happy hour.

Your knees won’t hurt as much at all. Admittedly, you may find yourself a bit more dehydrated than usual, but that’s no big deal, just drink some extra water when you get home. However, you will be more than ready for bed by 9 pm. That may be due to your 12-hour workday, but maybe it’s due to the run. Hard to tell.

May 20, 2007 | Filed under: Is She Still Talking?

Life’s been a dull roar of stress lately — Texas vacation notwithstanding — and I find myself fairly incapable of making even the smallest of decisions. No “I’m the decider” press conferences here — I can’t even commit to a bistro table and chairs for the patio or a new duvet cover. Nothing I look at is quite the right combination of price, quality and style. Adding to the indecision is the little voice in my head questioning how, exactly, I intend to use outdoor furniture in an urban studio apartment and reminding me I’ll have to move anything I purchase. Retail therapy? Pretty ineffective these days. No, when I’m stressed, I cook and clean. (Who wants to be my next roommate?)

Donna Reed would be so proud — this weekend’s kitchen exploits included both a pie and a coffee cake (pie crust and cake made entirely from scratch), along with homemade guacamole, Italian chicken, pasta with mushrooms and freshly grated parmesan, and an eggplant dish. You’re welcome to come over for dinner any night this week. There’s surely enough to go around!

I realized that I’ve reversed course on a couple of issues lately. Not as important as, say, a woman’s right to choose (Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, I’m looking at you), but as they are views I have previously espoused here, I feel compelled to update you.

Thing 1: After, oh, four or five years of watching strappy espadrilles hit the stores every spring, I have finally succumbed to the lure of the wedge.

Say what you want. They’re hot. InStyle says so.

Thing 2: The boys of summer have captured my heart. Or at least my attention until football season. I’ve often “watched” baseball as background noise for whatever else I was doing (folding laundry or some such), but these days I actually watch the games. And enjoy them. And yell at the Comcast tv guide for telling me TBS will have the Braves game on when it is clearly Home Improvement. Some days I even learn something about the game! I’m pretty much at the mercy of the TV programmers here, so I see a lot of Giants and A’s games on Fox Sports Net and whoever Fox and ESPN feature for their respective Saturday and Sunday night games. If TBS ever starts telling me the truth about when the Braves play, I might get to see them, too. But nobody will steal that place in my heart reserved for the Brew Crew. And, at the risk of sounding like a Cubs fan…people, this could be the year!

May 17, 2007 | Filed under: People I Like Even More Than My Job

Ahh, Texas. There’s no place like it in the world. And thank goodness for that — I’m not sure I could live somewhere with that much humidity and that huge of roaches on a regular basis! (No, there are no roach pictures. You’re welcome.)

The capitol.

Inside the capitol dome.

Fuzzily-lit downtown Austin.

A zillion bats flying at night. To see what happens when I apply my CSI skillz to this picture, click here. And never trust the dark again.

I miss it already. I miss vodka every night before bed. I miss waking up in the morning without an alarm clock. I miss burning off enough calories just by talking to make up for the constant supply of tempting, un-diet-friendly food. (What I do not miss? Animatronic LBJ. Dude is frightening!)

But mostly I miss someone I’ve known for half my life, who probably knows me better than I know myself, and, despite that, is friends with me anyway.

See how the grainy film effect makes us not look so ghostly pale? Love it!