Over the weekend two friends came to town, one from Chicago, one from Dallas, and sadly the weather in Austin could not have been worse for them. Kristin's main goal for the trip was to visit every food trailer possible but with the weather being rainy and in the upper 30's to 40's, almost all of the trailers were closed. We did manage to go to quite a few good restaurants not located on wheels but other than that I failed as a hostess. On Saturday night we finished dinner by 9:30 and I couldn't come up with a single thing for us to do. They were back at their hotel and I was home by 10pm. So be warned, if you come visit me you will leave stuffed and very well rested but not sure what there is to do at night in Austin. Also, I might take you out and order food that scares the crap out of me.

Unrelated to their visit, some new people have moved into our building and I'm sure they are very nice but they keep parking in my spot. Not that we have assigned parking but I like the spot right next to the door. I've been parking there since we moved in and I'm not ready to give it up. Also, I'm fairly certain even my car is upset over this situation:


Whoa, whoa there car, it's going to be okay. No need to eat the teeny BMW. We'll just have to figure out when they typically leave the house and take back our spot then. What, is that not normal person behavior? Crap.

Now that Kristin has taken the bad weather back to Chicago with her, Austin returned to beautiful 60 degree days. This can only mean one thing, spring is on its way and the new shoe collections are out! Last year I fell hopelessly in love with a pair of Valentino wedge shoes but common sense took hold and I didn't buy them. Today I saw these and be still my beating heart!


I am going to start shaking out the couch cushions now to find the $745 needed to buy them. And on the freak chance that there isn't that much money tucked away between the cushions, these at the bargain price of $475 would make a suitable replacement:

31 on 1.11.11

In case facebook didn't tell you, it's my birthday! I'm 31 on 1.11.11 and while I'm usually very squeamish about odd numbers, today I am making an exception.

(As an aside, I'm not much of a facebook user but I love getting birthday wishes there. It makes me feel special even though I know 100% of the wishers only know it's my birthday because the side bar told them so. Thanks Mark Zuckerberg!)

Over the weekend jparks and I tried to go out to celebrate my birthday. I hired a sitter and bought us tickets at the fancy theatre to see Black Swan. We got there, checked in, took our seats, ordered drinks, and then found out that our tickets were actually for Sunday night. Sad trombone. Today I thought I might take myself out on a day date to see Black Swan but by the time the show time rolled around I was feeling pretty lazy and decided instead I'm better off sitting my ass on the couch and watch all the assorted crap on the dvr that jparks hates. I'm sure choosing The Craigslist Killer over Black Swan won't come back to bite my ass at Oscar time.

Besides the riveting Lifetime movie matinee, I went for an ultrasound today where I got exactly one crappy print out picture and four large vials of blood taken by a rejected member of the Jersey Shore. After harshly judging him for his highly gelled hair and spray tan I have to admit he was one of the best blood takers I've ever had. Those Jersey Shore men are good for something besides shilling crappy diet supplements and spreading V.D. across America after all!

Now I'm capping off this stellar day by alternating between barfing up fried pickle and sparkling water and watching Teen Mom 2. Welcome to 31 self!

Here's me and my birthday 40 before I realized how bad sparkling water is to throw up. I party hard, yo

so this happened...

I would like you all to know that I have the cleanest toilets anywhere. I make sure of this by obsessively wiping them down with Clorox wipes in a way that would make you think I'm OCD. The rest of my apartment is a total disaster but damn if my toilets aren't lovely. And the reason my toilets are so clean is this:



That little blob is Undetermined Gender Baby Parks, due to arrive on July 26th, about two weeks before Truman's second birthday.

Here's jparks's reaction to this announcement:


And here's mine:


Now those super clean toilets are making sense, right?