I know I shouldn't ...

but I can't resist!

Ok, all of you brides out there ... FESS UP! I KNOW you've done this ... right????

What the heck am I talking about? Registry peeking. Yeah, yeah, we have registries and we add items. What's this peeking business? Well, the online registry is SO COOL because it keeps guests up to date on what still needs to be purchased.

On the inverse, it also tells me what people have bought for our gifts!!! It's not *exactly* like peeking under the paper to see what a gift is before it's unwrapped, but sorta like it .... ;-)

Anyhow, I'm JAZZED to have a blender and George Foreman grill coming! Seriously! We have basil plants that have grown like gangbusters (even after I moved/re-planted them!). I have made pesto a few times this summer, but have yet to be able to find my food processor attachments ... so I've been cutting the basil leaves up by hand. UGH! My fingers end up black and green after the event, and I am not able to make that much pesto by myself. SO I'm elated to see a blender will enter our lives in two weeks ... because it will mean my pesto cutting days are over! And once my super secret pesto recipe is made, I can grill chicken on the Foreman and we can have chicken pesto pasta!!!!!!

#95 — Do a blog post exclusively about Esse ... show photos from my kitty's youngest days.

.... CHECK!!!!!!

Since this spring, I've been meaning to do a post about my big squeeze ... Esse my cat. Well, she's technically "our" cat now ;-)~

Anyhow, here are some photos of Esperanza del Gato (Esse, aka Booger or "the Boog.")

Here's one from when she was a LITTLE KITTY. She was just learning about being an outdoor cat. She jumped up on the screen door (probably looking to get inside), but I wasn't there. And the screen didn't quite hold up, so she fell through .... and this was what I found when I got home.



Here's another from my Holga ... taken of Esse Boo when she was in Independence. Isn't she small and sweet????



And yet another



Esse doesn't play nicely with other cats ... except for Gus, the homeless neighbor cat in Indy. Gus taught her the ropes of being an outdoor cat. She loved to romp around with Gus, but she utterly SHUNS any other cat or dog. I felt badly leaving Gus in Indy (I called him Gus because he reminded me of Gus from Diseny's Cinderella because he was shy and skittish), but he was a wild cat ... and I wasn't sure he'd travel well (or at all).

This is after we moved to Hays. She was cuddly on the bench ... and awfully full of yawns!



Here are a few photos of the Boog obsessing about fish:
Her first play with fish ... in the big tank.



Just taking a little drink of water ... but she has a better chance at poor flit:



Trying to play with flit the fish:



Let's talk about Esse's bed habits. In Erik's words "she takes her half out of the center of the bed." Oh wait, maybe that's me during nap time. ;-)~ Anyhow, in Hays, if I didn't get into bed first, she'd curl up in the middle, making it impossible for me to get in bed without moving her.





She also has a thing for fabric/materials. She likes soft, soft, soft blankets. She also likes to lie on clean black pants. Booger.

BUT this was the best! One day, I came back and found her UNDER the pile of my laundry (which was piled on the bed). WHERE does she come from?!?!!?!?



And Esse is definitely into cat naps:









Let's talk about outside. Booger LOVES going outside. The photo below was from when it was SNOWY in Hays. There were several inches of snow on the ground, and I wouldn't let her out. To say she was pouty was an UNDERSTATEMENT:



And now, here she is .... outside on the back fence ... checking out the neighbor's birdhouse. Maybe that's where she caught the bird a few months ago...



I'm thankful to have yet another 101 in 1001 done.

I have another photo of her I'm trying to dig up from the first day I brought her home, but no success yet. I'll let you know!

Week 1: Fantasy Success!

For those of you waiting with baited breath, you'll be happy to know Bone Collector scraped by with a 12-point win over the always feared Bluntmaster Generals (don't ask about the names. Some of these dudes ... lets just say you don't really want to know where they've been.)

My new man-crush Donovan McNabb was outstanding, throwing for 361 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-3 rout of the Rams.


Next Sunday, I've got a difficult matchup with the perennial tough Daniel Larusso All-Stars. Wish me luck!!!!!!

Lists, lists and laundry lists...

It took me until college to realize I'm a list person. I love them. Writing down everything that needs to be done can be daunting, but crossing things off the list -- oh sweet reward!

Last night, I sat down and compiled today's "to do" list. It was 17 items long. ACK! Slowly this morning, I've chipped away at 8 of them, feeling quite productive before noon.

But here's the best part: I came to Erik's this morning, and figured I better finish the laundry. I don't mind doing laundry, but when the two of us don't do it for 2-ish weeks, it piles up and the net result is 7 loads. UGH. I started a few loads last night, and figured I'd finish it up this morning .... and lo and behold, I go into the laundry room and 2 loads have magically been done! I LOVE ERIK!!!!!!!! With 16 other items demanding my attention today, that's 2 less loads of laundry to do!

Leave a comment telling the sweet (but seemingly mundane) items your spouse/significant other does that just brightens your day!

Baptismal day

Random fact: both Erik and Karen were baptized on Sept. 6. The years were far, far apart, but we were both baptized today.

Happy baptism to us!

(we found out this random fact when we had to gather our baptismal certificates for marriage preparation).

Are you ready for some football?

Back to the Erik part of our program ... Yay!

For the for the fourth straight year, I'm competing in a fantasy football league with some other gridiron geeks like myself.


Last year, I had my best season yet thanks to my man, Peyton Manning. Sadly, our league dropped its keeper format this season and Peyton has left me for another.


Undeterred, I found a new fella ... Donovan McNabb. If DM can stay healthy (fingers crossed) I'll feel good about my chances this year. If not, it's back to the baseman for the Bone Collector (Karen prefers Bone Crusher ... She's so violent ;-)

Here are some other members of my squad.


Although, I detest T.O. as a person, he scores lots of touchdowns, and that makes Bone Collector quite happy.


I'm also hoping for a productive season from Marvin Harrison. He was hurt most of last year, but a comeback isn't out of the question.


Larry Fitzgerald got a fat contract in the offseason. I hope that doesn't slow down his production.

Stay tuned.

Of course, I'm not the kind of owner to sit on his arse while his team struggles. I'll make changes if necessary.

#82 — Finish filling out this darn list

.....CHECK!!!!!!!!!

Phew! Who would have ever thought it would take me from January until now to finish filling out my 101 in 1001 list. But it's done! And I get to check off another item from it!

Gustav

Ok, time to talk about spot news.

Yesterday afternoon as I was driving around Wichita, running errands like a maniac, I heard a piece on NPR about Hurricane Gustav and its effects on a small town in Lousiana called Houma. "So what?" you might ask. So, one of my college colleagues, Matt Stamey, lives down there and works as a photographer for the Houma Courier.



(photo by Matt Stamey)

Matt is chronicling the events via the Stormtracker Photo Blog, but he also has some brief updates on his personal blog as well.

An excerpt from Day 1 of the Stormtracker Photo Blog:

"Wow, that was intense.
Being from Kansas, I had never seen anything like I saw today as Gustav made its way through Terrebonne Parish.
As the wind and rain increased, I wanted to see first hand what a Hurricane felt like. It didn't take long to realize that standing in the middle of town during a hurricane wasn't for me. "

And this is an excerpt from day 2:

"I felt whole again, I was finally out shooting. For a while, I forgot that a hurricane had just passed. We were talking with a couple of guys on their street and it felt like any other day. We were out there getting photos and stories of the people who live in our community.
If it's a story of a kid at a science fair, or story about a man and his batman collection or a story about someone who just lost their home, the concept of gathering the images and story remains the same."

What I just love, love, love about Matt is how genuine he is. He moved down to Houma a few years ago and just dove into the community. He truly became a part of the community, and whenever he talks about it, it is SO evident. I wish I could have become part of the community at my first newspaper .... and truly called it home. Stamey has done that, and I have to tip my hat to him for that.

Let's rewind a bit to 2005 and Hurricane Katrina. Matt was beginning to call Houma home, and was also in the biggest national news event of the year.

Having the heart of gold that he does, Matt wanted to help. And thus "Faces of Katrina" was born.

He explained to the K-State photographers: "my main goal with this project is to get families back together. It kills me when a little boy comes to me and asks if I've seen his dad. Any little bit I can do to help, I will."

So he went to a few shelters and photographed the refugees, posted it on the Courier's Web site, and hoped families would be able to find their loved ones.



(photos by Matt Stamey)

You can view the project HERE and HERE.

Matt is so awesome that he put together a year-anniversary project, too. You can check it out HERE.

I also think he put together a DVD about the project ... where he spoke about the project, his thought behind it and the results of it. He presented it to us at our annual K-State photo gathering .... and I just wept when I saw it. It was so truly beautiful, and you could tell it was so heartfelt (I'm all tearing up as I'm typing this now!). I'm not sure where you can get it, but if I find out, I'll add it to this post.

So ... be sure to go leave some encouragement for those in Houma at the Stormtracker Photo Blog!

Ice, ice baby....

Ok, all old school music aside, I want to be a little serious today. This post is about ICE — In Case of Emergency.

Dad and I were talking last week and I said something about ICE and how I had a few ICE numbers programed into my cell phone. HUUUUUH????? was his response. Nice. But mom had no clue what I was talking about either. SO it occurred to me others might not be aware of this as well.

REWIND: While working as a reporter in Hays a few years ago, I covered cops, and in the course of it, someone mentioned ICE. I didn't know what it was, so they explained it to me. The basic idea is many people carry a cell phone with them at all times. If (God forbid) something were to happen and I was to be unconscious or unable to communicate with emergency workers, they would grab my phone and go through my address book and find ICE. I would have an emergency contact or two or more dialed in.

Since I rarely carry a purse or wallet on me, but generally have my phone on me, this seemed to make good sense. SO.... I have ICE in my phone.

But do you? ;-)

"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2006 that 1,600,000 emergency room patients could not provide contact information because they were incapacitated." — from the ICE sticker Web site.

And of course, everything you wanted to know about ICE on Wikipediasite.

LONG Labor Day weekend!

This weekend, I scooted out to California to assist the lovely and talented Jessica Del Vecchio document Bhavna and Corey's 3-day Hindu/Christian wedding.

I have had ZERO extra energy to look through any photos (and as a professional courtesy, Jessica will first post a slideshow/her photos before I share any of mine).

Anyhow, I'm UBER thankful to Jessica for asking me to assist her this weekend. It was an invaluable experience.




Also up on the Heartland blog is the slideshow from Jessica and Chris' wedding in Los Angeles! (Doesn't Jessica look TOTALLY hot here????????)