Luke is 3, the magic number!

My sister is a good mom! She asked her son Luke what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he told her a castle. She stayed up way too late last night and made him a cool castle cake. Try not to notice the sacrifice the dragon had to make in the name of aesthetics. Today is Luke's birthday party, yesterday he turned 3 and got a big boy bed, among other neat things for his birthday. I am told he thinks he is the stuff with his new bed. :)

You can click on the pic for a closer look.

Serendipity-doo-dah

So I have been reading about grace. Grace in the sense of "the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them." The book I just finished, The Road Less Traveled, not only covers the concept of grace, resistance to it, accepting/allowing it but whole bunch of other interesting topics.

I found quite a few things were interesting but currently I am most interested in the concept of grace and what the author had to say about it. It makes sense to me that grace can be different for everyone, some accept it with ease others can fight it for years but to have it isn't easy. Reading the words that it isn't easy was very encouraging. That may sound odd but it is the truth.

Anyway, between reading the above mentioned book, discussing the concept of providence on Tuesday and try to process everything, my brain is whirring. I will next be reading Conversations with God and I experienced a little providence regarding the book while having lunch today. I learned that a friend of mine is on chapter one so we are gonna have a mini book group. :) It will be great to have someone to discuss it with while reading it but also it will help me read it in a timely fashion. :)

Whether you are a believer or not, you should consider reading The Road Less Traveled as it is very interesting. Only a few chapters are about grace etc. A lot of it is about love, neurosis, psychotherapy, poodles, etc. Okay, I may have made one of those up.

Lots of protesting in the Funk household...

Maevis is protesting her diet. She feels oppressed and has found the best way to symbolically get her point across is by electing to spend time in the "cage." I commend her non violent tactics as that isn't usually the case. For example, she was miffed that I was leaving the house and swatted my leg as I headed to soccer. I found it humorous that my shin guard saved me from her stabby claws.

Poor Simon fought like the dickens not to go in the carrier as he had to go to the vet on Friday. I have been spending time in the yard, as previously mentioned, pulling weeds. Simon has been out there with me and has in turn been having his own allergy issues. I noticed the other day while we were in the yard that his back leg was missing hair. Upon further inspection there was also a patch missing from his belly. So Friday I left work early and we ventured off to the vet. It was a loooooong wait and we were there over two and a half hours. Apparently many, many pets were being tested due to the food contamination. Essentially something is irritating Simon to the point where he is licking off his hair. So of course the solution would have to be bathing him. Lovely. Anyway I bathed him last night and I should have bathed him tonight but I will attempt to do so tomorrow. He is such a sweet cat. Click his majestic pic.

I am pretty happy about the fact that a handy man is coming over to fix my ceiling. I have saved a little money and it is about to go bye bye for a good cause. Or I can just let the hole continue and I will have a natural skylight to the attic.

I am starting to feel better. Days fluctuate and some days I have a strong pull towards wondering what is going on in a life that is no longer part of mine. As of late I have been thinking of M more than I had been but in a new/different way. I think I am just processing. Since this is a public-ish blog I won't go into detail as it isn't just my personal life.

Regardless, I am getting to a better place than I have been in a very long time. I am doing things I had put off or wasn't motivated to do and it feels good to get things accomplished. I am also trying to work on my future, suggestions would be nice. Or should that say nice suggestions only? :)

Anyway, next week I am having dinner with a friend of mine who I only get to see once in a while and I am really looking forward to our visit. She is a kind and funny person who I really respect and so it will be fun to catch up and wax philosophic. I know the phrase is poetic but we are more on the plane of discussing life and its many crazy facets.

As for poetry I haven't written poetry in a long time. I do have a friend that is great with lyrics about his son and cats if anyone needs entertaining. Speaking of poetry...I found a poem I wrote when I was in college earlier this evening when looking for an address. Please feel free to leave a cheese factor rating as most everyone seems to be hesitant to leave a comment.
Ehem...

Silent wonder

indisposed

I am reaching

down

to set

it

free

it rattles

within

my heart

this

silent wonder

you've ignited

within

no longer

indisposed

I wrote that in my Drugs and Society class. That was an interesting class with a very odd teacher. I remember the first day of class while going over the syllabus the teacher asked us not to send her any sample discoveries while on our travels. Apparently previous students would send her drugs, the latest was from India. :) I remember writing a paper on Opium/Laudanum for that class. I had watched Tombstone.

This seems to be one of my more random posts. So, post a comment, send an email or remain under the radar, whatever ye like.

May you have pleasant dreams, joyous days, and all the poetry you can handle. I am sleepy and off to bed.

~EF

If anyone knows of a blog that will let you play music, let me know cause that would rock! I could torture with word, pictures AND sound!

Going Flocking...

Well Winter is gone and Spring, although it has just begun...well it is kicking into full gear. Soon I will be out Flocking and if you are interested in having someone Flocked, it is for a great cause. http://www.planetcancer.org/ Anyway, this year will be my second year participating and I look forward to it. There will also be a kick off fundraiser and you can attend that as well, if interested.

We are but a couple weeks away from pre-sale wristbands. THE wristband to have for music lovers. The fine peeps from Austin City Limits will soon taunt us with the possibility of being fortunate enough to purchase incredibly cheap wristbands for the ACL fest. There are a very, very limited amount of tickets and the amount of people who try to purchase said tickets is enough to overwhelm the servers used to make your attempted purchase. The key is to be around your computer and to have a fast connection. Last year I saw that I received an email but didn't check it in time due to work. I remember before they would give you hints when the sale would be but I don't remember any for last year. The special tickets/wristbands should go on sale during the first week of April. You need to sign up via the http://www.aclfest.com/ site if you want to receive emails regarding the sale and all things fest related. If you don't plan on going you can help me out on my cause and sign up and purchase a pair for me! Seriously. Don't make me cry.

Being single can be great and it can be sucky. Deep, I know. As of late it is the little things, the reminders. Like having bought an Entertainment book and realizing the two for one deal really isn't that good of a deal when you aren't part of a two. I guess you could take the other meal home so later when you eat the additional meal, you can relive your dinner for one all over again. Um, wooo?

So here is my quasi lame reason why singleness is currently sucking... There are shows I want to go to and I would like to go with someone but I am not up for organizing a group. Going to shows can be a lot of fun and it is even more fun when you can go with someone who you know will have fun/appreciate the show. Frankly, they can be very fun date nights. Alas, I am currently single and figure I might venture out and go on my own. It may be good for me and I don't want to miss out on music just because I may have to go alone. So I will be pushing my boundaries...my next step is to pick a show or two.

There are some shows that are coming to town that I am compelled to go to just because they are either awesome live or I haven't seen them live and they don't come here often, if ever.
Then there are some that would just be fun. I am looking at Citizen Cope and Kings of Leon, both will be at Stubb's and should be good. Then I read tonight that Angelique Kidjo will be playing at Antone's in late April. http://www.kidjo.com/ She is a talented singer from Africa and I think I should take the opportunity to see her as I don't remember her ever coming through Austin since I lived here. I have one of her albums and she does an amazing version of Jimmy Hendrick's Voodoo Child.

Another show that I am really interested in is on May 1st and I believe it will be at La Zona Rosa. Toots and the Maytals. I think the whole place will be dancing. It will be positive, rhythmic and fun. http://www.tootsandthemaytals.com/toots/ I saw them perform at an ACL fest and there was a field of dancing happy people. :) I recently went and saw Michael Franti and Spearhead at Stubb's and it was awesome. Good music, a connection between the performer and the crowd, positivity and all kinds of dancing. I think Toot's show will be similar.

If you are looking for some free music for the whole family, visit http://www.centralmarket.com/cm/cmEvents.jsp and click on the locations you are interested in. You can buy dinner in side and hang and listen to great, free, live music.

Also, April 7th is the 29th annual Spamarama. It is only $5 and should be great for people watching and indigestion. I have yet to make it to one but really want to. This may be the year! Although, it is Easter weekend so that may not work out. Booo.

Ararat is closing tomorrow. I have only been there once, earlier this year, but even so it saddens me that a local, bohemian place with great food and creative ambiance is closing. So tomorrow I hope to go and join in on the closing festivities that will include music, fire performances, dancing, food, and an auction.

~Elaine

REI Gateway - Members Only Garage Sale

For those of you who have an REI membership or have been waiting for an excuse to get one the REI on N Capitol of Texas Hwy will soon be having their Garage Sale.

REI Gateway - Members Only Garage Sale4/7/2007 9:00 AM
Here is your chance to get some great deals on used gear. You must be a member to shop at the Garage Sale. Have your coop number ready. All merchandise purchased at the Garage Sale is non-refundable. NO CAMPING ALLOWED. LINE STARTS AT BACKDOOR AT 5 AM.
Location:
REI Gateway - 9901 N. Capital of Tx Hwy
Contact:
REI Gateway Customer Service - 512-343-5550
Cost:
Free
Registration Required? No.

This is a picture of a tree in my backyard. Spring is in the air and sprouting from the trees. :) Of course, along with wonderful blooming flowers the weeds have also returned with a vengeance. I spent some quality time in my backyard last weekend and on Monday night, pulling evil weeds. Simon spent some time outside with me, giving weeds the evil eye. If only his stare would have caused them to spontaneously combust. Click on his pic for a closer view.

I didn't nearly do as much SXSW as I would have liked. I just wasn't motivated enough to spend my downtime running around at night. Maybe next year I will take some days off and get a wristband. There were quite a few musicians that I would have liked to have seen. I did get to go to Waterloo Records and see Lilly Allen and Sparklehorse. I wasn't too impressed with with Sparklehorse but Lilly Allen was on after them and she has a great voice.

Lily's music has been called cheeky pop. I like it. Although some of her lyrics are a bit inappropriate, overall what she does works. I really like the music that accompanies the lyrics, which can be a bit sophomoric but she is aware of this. She is marketed as cocky but that part of her personality was not evident at the in store. She seemed a bit nervous at first, she played to a packed store. It may not have been nerves, she may have been tired, or just ready to perform.

What really sold me on her was seeing her live and hearing her sing a song by The Kooks called Naive. It was nothing like her music as it was a slow heartfelt acoustic song. It is painful for me to go to shows and discover that an artist is sub-par or the sound is messed up. She sounded great and was only accompanied by a young man on guitar. She sang a few covers as she did an acoustic show and as she said her music isn't really acoustic. I found a site where her version of Naive is located if you want to hear it. Go to Myspace to hear her songs.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/lily-allen-naive-radio-1-live-lounge-mp3.html

I thought of a funny story from my childhood last night that I wanted to blog about but then I promptly forgot it. Ooops. I just remember that it was funny. Anyway, this week has been going rather quickly, which I am thankful for as I would like some chill time. I think I am going to treat the yard this weekend so that some of the weeds will die. DIE WEEDS, die. Ehem. I hope to also do something fun this weekend but I don't know what that will be yet.

I am thinking about selling my camera and getting an SLR as I am just not happy with the time delay that I experience when taking photos. I am going to see if I have better luck with the manual function and then I will make my decision.

If music were measured by the pound then I have a few pounds of SXSW mp3s to wade through. I am going to try to weed through them and delete the chaff so that I do not clog my system with music I don't enjoy. I will post about some of the artists...eventually. :)

I have been a bit busy :)

The weekend was a rather good one! I got some chores done and had some fun. Saturday I got up and went over to Cafe Java and after eating I headed down town. I stopped into Waterloo Records in the hopes that there would be some free music as SXSW is about to start up. There were two discs and they were mostly blah. I then went over to Whole Foods and grabbed some water as it is starting to warm up here. They were barbecuing in front of Whole Foods and it looked good but I was still full from breakfast. So I went across the street to REI. There is a messenger bag that I want to buy and the North location didn't have it so I thought maybe the downtown one might. I was wrong. :(

My disappointment over the bag was soon forgotten when I discovered that I had stumbled upon that location's Garage sale. It is a sale on their clearance, returns, things used in photo shoots etc. I need to see if they have a mailing list specific to their stores as I would have liked to been at the store earlier. Regardless of the fact that I didn't mosey on in until the early afternoon, I scored on some deals. I walked out of there with three nice sweaters, a pair of shoes, and a jacket for my buddy Jackson, for all under $36. The jacket was originally $50, the shoes $60.

I may have had to remove Maevis from the jacket and thoroughly lint roll it. Click on her picture to get a better view. :) I made sure Jackson's daddy knew about the role-a-thon so that they would wash it. Which I am sure they would have done anyway but Jackson's mom is allergic to cats so best to wash it sooner than later.

Anyway, it made for an awesome afternoon. I went home and did somethings about the house and while I lounged on the couch my friend Stacy called to see what I was up to. I thought well cool, maybe she wants to go to the movies. She was calling to see if I wanted to play indoor soccer. I told her of my plans to do nothing but read and get some gelato. I asked if she had chocolate, and she happened to have a big bar of dark chocolate.

I decided to go as there just seemed to be something wrong with the fact that I was putting off fun exercise with really nice people, due to the gelato and laziness factor. I went and played and although I thought I was gonna hurl, I had so much fun! So tomorrow night I will be playing with Stacy's team again. :)

Sunday I went to my friends' house and had glorious raclette with their family. I managed to pick up some gelato on the way over as I figured I had earned it. :) Raclette is awesome!

I had lunch with Sarah today and we met at Sports Authority where we each got new soccer balls. It was cool to be able to meet for lunch. She is on spring break so that worked out well.

Working from home today was good as I opened up the doors and aired the house out. I was a beautiful day. The sky looked amazing after last nights hard rain.

So all in all it was a great weekend and the week has started off rather nicely!

~Elaine

Blogalicious

B to the L to the og a licious. Don't mind me, I am just entertaining myself. I have spent a chunk of time this evening looking at different blog templates and sites on how to improve one's blog. So maybe this weekend I will make some changes. I am surprised at how few templates there are for Blogger but maybe that has to do with the fact that this is a newer version of Blogger.

Tomorrow a new shopping area opens up near my work and I plan on going over and checking some things out as they have a lot of festivities planned for the next couple of days. There will be a lot of drawings and the one of interest to me is the Vespa. I do not know what I would do if I actually won it. I guess I could ride it to get gelato as that isn't too far away from where I live. I couldn't ride it to work as it would be too dangerous and take too long. Even if I could go 65 MPH on a scooter, I don't think I would.

I feel like I am forgetting something, like I have plans for this weekend but I have blocked them out. David called me today to invite me to nosh with his family on Sunday, which is always fun so I said yes. What am I forgetting????

I am vacillating as to whether I should go see the movie Zodiac or not, I am worried that it will be too graphic. I like mystery, not shock value or evil, as I am very visual and it disturbs me.

SXSW is starting up and I am going to try to catch a movie and maybe some music. I plan to go to Waterloo and catch some of the free in stores.

I have a story to share. My dad told me a story that was rather odd and humorous all rolled into one. It was odd as I wouldn't have imagined him doing what he said he did. The story goes that when he was a freshman in high school there was an upper class men who would harass him. He would take my father's pencil and at times break it. Well, my father has the nature in which it takes a lot to anger him. I think it may have been more frustration but one day my dad decided to pee on the pencil and then put it behind his ear. That is kind of nasty but he was driven to action. Low and behold, the upper class men not only took the pencil but he also put it in between his teeth and bit in half.
Not the after school special you expected, but special all the same.

I have another story about a high school band recital, wire, and a light socket. However, that will be for another time.

Spring Broke Sale!!

My favorite t-shirt site is having a sale. Their quasi famous $10 t-shirt sale. So, if you are looking for fun shirts for the impending warm weather then use my magic link! USE IT!http://www.threadless.com/?streetteam=efunk

I ordered some shirts today and I should be looking snazzy or slightly inappropriate, depending on which shirt I wear. :)

Last night I found a lot of indie music and that was fun but I spent too much time on that and should have been doing some reading. I plan to go to the SXSW site this weekend and dig through the music there. There is a lot of free, legal music out there, you just have to dig.

As for an artist I would recommend, check out Feist. She is really talented and sings in both English and French. She has a rich voice and a distinct sound. www.myspace.com/feist
She sings mostly what would be called pop, but really it is more than that. She is too creative just to categorize her as pop. Just give her a listen and let me know what you think.

~E

Happy b-day to my sista Amy!!!!

Today is my sister's birthday and in honor of said birthday I am posting a special photo. I dug out the photo the other night and scanned it so that I can share documented proof of one of the things that my sister and I both truly love. Chocolate.

The story goes that my father, who was raising us by himself at the time, had gotten us ready for bed. Teeth brushed, pajamas on, the works. He then accidentally fell asleep on the couch. That's when the Sirens' call to the kitchen began. We not only heeded their call but may have taken things to a new level. Needless to say, what you are looking at is the result of our love for chocolate. Which we both still have to this very day. We have since expanded our love from chocolate syrup (which we tried to cover the kitchen with) to now dark chocolate, truffles and the like.

Please note my sister at the mere age of three was already wise enough to know to turn the focus away from herself. Even though she too was covered in chocolate, you can tell from her body language and refusal to look towards the camera that she was saying - look at what that crazy one year old did.

Happy Birthday Amy!!!

It was Ohn...

Two Friday's ago I went and saw Ohn perform the Light Bar and they were great! They are a very talented bunch. The bar was smoke free and the crowd was more Wherehouse district (where it is located) than 6th Street. Meaning I was surrounded by adults. The whole experience was great. Admittedly, I am biased about Ohn as my friend Allison is their new-ish lead singer. I had fun hanging out and also taking pictures. I still have a lot to learn regarding lighting but having a digital camera allows for mistakes and photo taking in mass. :) Sooo, Ohn will be releasing a new album soon, I believe in March, and I am ready to buy a copy! Go to http://www.letsgetitohn.com/ and listen to samples of their upcoming release.

I know there is one more member of the band and I will have to upload more photos later.

I was talking with my friend David during lunch today about how cool it can be to learn about people outside of the work place. Like going to see them in a play and seeing a whole other side to them other than a cubical drone. I met Allison years ago when we were young :) and she is so much more than that glimpse of a person I thought I knew. We are good friends now and it is cool to look back and see how much we have grown, now that we are almost old. ;) Anyway, she is recently engaged and I am so happy for her!!

~Elaine


-Photos are the property of Elaine Funk please do not use without permission. That includes you David!-