Moving to Wordpress

I decided I like the look and feel over at Wordpress, so I'm moving blogging operations to stephanielo.wordpress.com. Sorry for the address change, but I think it's for the better. Come visit!

Mama's tired

Man I'm wiped. NIWeek ended today and boy am I glad. It's the kind of work event that sucks the life out of you for the duration of the time it goes on, but even for all that I enjoyed most of it. I wrote the on-site news release which was actually kind of enjoyable to write, but made for a pretty intense couple of days.

Tonight Mason's at Little Woodrow's with Gary, so I went on a walk, opened a bottle of vino and got Dreamgirls from movies on demand. Good times. Tomorrow I'm going to leave work early to go to happy hour at 4. Good times.

Five Healthy Babies

A guy I work with just became a dad to five babies -- his wife delivered healthy quintuplets (!) today! It's a really cool story. She made it to 34 weeks, which is almost unheard of for this many babies. Catch up with the whole thing on her blog and their web site.

The aforementioned giant cucumber from my garden

Yes, we dressed it up. Yes, we are adults. Trisha (who sits next to me) brought in some Ms. Potato Head gear. This is how we lighten the mood during the stressful summer -- dressing up vegetables. Here, Andria (who sits across from me) models it. God bless camera phones.

I'm a bad blogger

As Shelley reminded me below I haven't been doing very well blogging. So, here's a few things that have been going on in my life.

• Work, work, work. Summer is the busiest time at my company (not at Mason's, ha) and this year is no exception. I am managing a large project and to boot, my manager is on maternity leave, so that means I don't have her to bounce things off of as usual. She did send me a lovely bouquet of flowers though, which was very sweet.
• Reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Which was amazing. HP books are the only ones where Mason and I have to map out a plan for who gets to read them first when a new one comes out (this year, I read it at night and Mason read it during the day). Plus, once one of us nears the end of the book, it's not unusual for that person to hole up in a room to finish, and the other person knows not to bother the person reading. I posted a comment about the book on Lance's blog.
• Gardening, when I can get outside, when it's not raining. I haven't watered my garden since mid-May. No joke. My plants are so big that I can't get into the back corner of the garden where the watermelon patch is. One of the tomato plants is so big it's fallen over -- the tomato cage can't hold it. I grew a 1.5 lb. cucumber (I didn't mean for it to get this big, but with all the rain I can't get outside every day and cucumbers grow really fast). I'll post a picture soon. I made three quarts of pickles and canned them, and then canned two quarts of peeled, seeded tomatoes. I can't eat the veggies fast enough. If you need cucumbers let me know. I have a ton. Oh, and there are two baby watermelons that I can see, but like I said I can't get back there so I'm betting there are more.
• This is really cool. Mason discovered yesterday that the neighbor who lives behind us is Lam Jones, former UT football player who played with Earl Campbell and was coached by Darrell Royal. He was the second overall pick in the 1980 draft and played for the Jets. And he has an Olympic gold medal -- he was a world-class sprinter. Anyway, he found out he had bone cancer in Oct. 2005, so he took this gorgeous photo of the UT tower after we won the championship in Jan. 2005 and the co-op sells them to help him raise money for his medical bills. Mason met him yesterday, and he gave us one of the pictures for free as a housewarming gift!

So there you have it folks. Work, gardening, Harry Potter, and living next door to a local celebrity. That's what's been going on in the Logerot house this summer. I really promise to post pics from our vacation and of my massive cucumber. I just have to upload them. More soon! I promise to be a better blogger from here on out!

Competitive eating cracks me up

I love it. They're announcing all the competitors and telling bits about them, such as "So and so is a burrito specialist, and holds titles in matzo balls and reindeer sausage."

They're gearing up for the annual 4th of July hot dog eating contest. The big news this year is that the favorite, Kobayashi, has some sort of jaw injury. Will he win? Or will his injury cost him the championship? That is yet to be decided, folks.

As an aside, I find it ridiculously unfair that some of these people weigh 105 pounds, etc. If your job is to stuff as much food in your mouth as fast as possible it only makes sense that you should be larger than those of us who actually watch what we eat. But I digress.

Vegas, a cold, and fine restaurant dress

So, today's our anniversary (3 years!) and we are in Vegas. We started the week in California and will end it here. I'll post more details later, but for now I will say that all was well until I woke up with a nasty cold today. Which blows. The kicker is that we had reservations at Mesa Grill for dinner, which is Bobby Flay's restaurant in Caesar's.

I tried to act normal this morning, thinking it was just allergies. The weather in CA was really cool (in the 50s in the morning) and I thought maybe the climate change was the cause for my scratchy throat and congestion. But no. The good part is that I was still able to enjoy our dinner, which was so delicious and really fun. We even brought a bottle of wine that we bought in CA and had it with our food. So yay for good food and wine, and nay for people's clothing at Mesa Grill, which brings me to the final part of this uplifting post.

I admit that Mason and I can be snobs about some things. Dress at nice restaurants is one of them. Our feeling is, if you have to make reservations at a venue a week in advance, you should probably dress at least in church clothes for your meal. Tonight, we saw all kinds of crazy stuff, including denim shorts (on men and women), Birkenstocks (hello 1977) with and without socks, tank tops, and the like. You get the picture. Of course we quietly made fun of them.

Come on, people. Put on some pants and real shoes. It's not difficult. It's a four-star restaurant in one of the most famous cities in the world. Dress like it.

Anywho, enough ranting. Just had to get that out before I go to bed. And speaking of that, my Nyquil is kicking in so I am off. More later.

All politics aside

You have to appreciate the strategic, possibly unintentional, placing of the 20% off sticker by a Barnes and Noble employee.

I took this tonight with my camera phone. Thank God for camera phones.

More fun with camera phones

In Galveston last weekend, we visited a WWII submarine. This sign was inside.

Apparently, I am quite unique

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Even better is that this is true for both my first name+married name and first name+maiden name. I did get an e-mail once from a Stephanie Logerot in France, but that's all I know of.

Up to the Mountain

If you have visited my MySpace page recently you might be wondering what's up with my headline. Here's a video of the song it's from. Enjoy!

Yay for holidays

We're heading to Galveston for Memorial Day weekend. Hope everyone has a great vacation!

If you need another reason to eat less fast food

Go here-- fast food ads vs. reality.

You can't swim in leather pants

I LOVE The Office.

Behold

Our first brisket. Mmmm. Mason tended the fire and I am proud to say I carved it. The house still smells like smoke.

Random video I love

Aretha Franklin sings "Nessun Dorma"

So, the backstory is that Pavarotti was supposed to sing "Nessun Dorma," from Puccini's Turandot at the 1998 Grammys. It's apparently his signature song. But at the last minute, as in, the day of the Grammys, he comes down with something and can't sing. Of course, this sends the producers into a frenzy and they have to scramble for a last-minute replacement. So they show up at Aretha's dressing room hours before the show, hand her a tape and ask her to sing it.

She brings the house down. I seriously get goosebumps when I listen to it.

Finally!

Sanjaya's out!

And all God's people said AMEN.

There but for the grace of God I go

Virginia Tech Web site
Official memorial Web site
Friday, April 20, is Hokie Hope day, during which people around the country will wear orange and maroon.

When I heard about the shootings yesterday I was reminded of the Columbine shootings, of course, which happened during my senior year in high school. I re-read this column I wrote about it (scroll down to the April 17 entry) four years later in college. Writing it was a blessing.

Wines I Like

Last weekend, we enjoyed Geyser Peak Winery's 2006 Sauvignon Blanc with our Sunday dinner (sun-dried tomato/mascarpone stuffed chicken, basmati rice) and it was divine. I tend to like red wines more than whites, as I feel that most reds go with more types of food and can be enjoyed on their own. I don't expect a lot from wines whose grapes are harvested the same year they are bottled; this wine, however, was pleasantly tart (I don't like overly sweet wines) and went extremely well with the meal. Sauvignon blanc is probably the most tart wine you'll drink, and I love it. This one isn't too Sweet-Tarty, and complemented the chicken's lemon hints. I tasted it at the Grapevine Market on Anderson Lane if you'd like to pick up a bottle.

Tonight, Mason was reliving his college days at Crown and Anchor with a friend, so I reheated some stuffed chicken, steamed some green peas and made a bulgur risotto with lemon, Parmigiano-Reggiano and mascarpone cheeses. With this meal, I enjoyed a bottle of 2005 Cooper's Creek Marlborough Reisling, an excellent New Zealand wine. If you're familiar with Rieslings you'd expect it to be sweet, but this one is more tart, which made me love it as I don't like overly sweet wines. It has lemon and citrus hints that went beautifully with the meal, and once I was finished eating it stood on its own. I highly recommend it.

Some outside house pics

This is Mister Lincoln. That's the official name of this rose variety. It's doing the best of the six roses I have right now and produces big, bright red blooms that smell wonderful.








This is Moon Shadow. Again, the official name. It produces more blooms than Mister Lincoln although it has more fungus, which I'm working on getting rid of. That's what happens when you abandon a plant in January and new owners don't move in till March. At any rate, the flowers are really pretty and every time I spot this bush I get that Cat Stevens song in my head.





This is the front of the house, minus most of the garage since Mason's truck is parked out front and blocks most of it. Sorry about the spot in the bottom corner; my Photoshop skills aren't advanced enough to get rid of it. I love having a front porch. It's something I always wanted and didn't think I'd get since not many houses in Austin have them. I got lucky.





Today I bought a nectarine tree and a lemon tree, fulfilling my dream of having fruit trees in the backyard. As I dug the hole to plant the nectarine tree, I hit several large rocks (up to 12 inches long -- huge!) and was reminded why lots of plants don't grow well here. Let's hope my fruit trees do well.

If you don't come across I'm gonna be down

Tonight we watched Wordplay, a magnificent, and magnificently nerdy documentary about the NY Times crossword puzzles and a national crossword puzzle contest. If you're not into this sort of thing there's nothing I can say to convince you to watch it. However, if you are, you know it. It reminds me why I love Netflix. You can't find this kind of movie in video stores.

Internet 1.0

Check out this video from a Canadian TV report in 1993 about the Internet. Wow. My favorite part is when he explains emoticons.

Since I might wake up and think it was all a dream

I took pictures to document this snowy day in April. I hope I never have to say "snowy day in April" again.

My car. The roofs of the houses across the street are white.

Snow collected in the patches of dead grass in the back yard.

The flower bed in back and Atticus, who thought he made his grand escape into the back yard.

Atticus realizing he made a terrible, terrible mistake and walking quite prissily through the snowy dirt back inside.

Well, I was going to take pictures of the outside of the house today

But I can't because IT'S 35 DEGREES AND SLEETING OUTSIDE. No, I haven't moved to Siberia. I'm still in Austin. No, I didn't warm up the ol' flux capacitor and travel back to January. It's still April. And it's officially colder here than in parts of ALASKA.

I'm going to be really upset if my plants die. The ones I JUST PLANTED BECAUSE IT'S APRIL IN TEXAS.

Sorry

Long day at work today and I didn't take any house pics. They'll come soon, I promise.

Since you asked -- house pics

Several people have asked me to send pictures of the new house, so I took some of the inside. I'll add more of the exterior tomorrow. Here goes.

Guest bedroom #1. We haven't quite gotten around to decorating it yet. It's been two weeks so I don't feel bad about that.

Upstairs bathroom. It's hard to take a flattering picture of a bathroom.


Loft, with some of the balcony that overlooks the living room. It's hard to tell, but the walls are LSU purple. We think we're going to make this into an exercise room and are looking for an elliptical machine to put here. Sadly it's too small to put a pool/ping pong table and still have enough elbow room to get your game on.


Atticus in the pappasan -- I'm looking down from the loft into the living room. Atticus is getting fat but he is still a useful exterminator, having taken out several bugs that have flown into the house.

Living room, looking down from the loft. I know it's messy.

Our new toy, a 50 in. Samsung HD tv. Oh, the joy of having room for a nice tv. Note the lovely green in the background, a product of our wonderful painting skills.

Messy kitchen. I got home late from work today. Sue me. Anywho, it's hard to tell here but all the appliances are stainless steel, and the fridge (out of view, to the right) has the freezer on the bottom, which gives the foodie in me a lot of joy. The new dining room table is so messy you can't see it in all it's glory, so I'll take a pic of that another time. Probably right after we clean it because we have guests coming over.

Sink in the half bath downstairs. I only took a picture because I wanted to point out the cute pedestal sink. All the sinks in the house are like this.

Other guest bedroom, which will be painted soon (as evidenced by the blue tape you see) and is being used for storage at the moment (as evidenced by the vacuum in the corner of the pic) and was apparently once inhabited by pets or small dirty children who liked to rub against walls (as evidenced by the dirty spot you can see near the floor, which is one of many dirty spots in the room). I call it the dirty room and will continue to do so till it's painted.

I didn't take pics of the master bedroom or bath yet but will do tomorrow. I know you'll all be waiting anxiously.

Keith Richards snorts blow, ashes

I knew the man was a loon but he actually mixed his father's ashes with some blow and snorted it.

UT police officers can be quite funny

So, I subscribe to Campus Watch, which is a daily e-mailed account of all the crime University of Texas police officers report. Most of it is stuff like -- you guessed it -- public intoxication. In the midst of the boring stuff the author(s) sometimes throw something that makes me laugh and make the report worth subscribing to. Like this:

Two UT students were staggering. One student was observed leaning to the left and the other to the right, not in their political views but in an effort to support each other as they attempted to maintain their navigational beacons back to Jester Dormitory.

You can subscribe here.

A very active hurricane season? I'm shocked, just shocked!

As my astute hubby pointed out this morning, a breaking news headline announcing a weather forecaster's prediction of a very active hurricane season is not news. Apparently, CNN even recognizes this -- in the highlight box above the story, one bullet says "Last year, [this forecaster's] forecast, like others, overestimated storms."

Bigger news would be "Forecaster Predicts Hurricane Season Will be So-So."

Back to blogging!

After a long break from my blogging days at World Magazine, I've decided to re-enter the blogosphere. This blog will be much less formal than my World blog, so get ready for house pics and cat pics mixed in with the occasional serious post. Let the blogging begin!