So, it started out with me being hungover from drinking too many frozen screwdrivers at The Front Porch. I finally drag myself up and out the door to go get my eyebrows waxed for the new year and, as I'm approaching my car, I see that my driver's side window has been smashed and there is glass everywhere.

I look inside and see that the radio is still attached (I guess they couldn't figure out how to get it off) but everything in my glove compartment has been pulled out - my glove compartment where my iPod was. The iPod is, of course, gone as is my BlackBerry phone charger (WTF?) and, worst of all, my fucking cheap sunglasses that I've had for five years or so and love. See that picture of me in the banner? Those are the sunglasses that they took.

I filed a police report, mentioning that there's actually blood in the car on the door, the radio, and on the trunk (yeah, they looked through there too), but the cops never even came outside to look at my car, which sort of pissed me off. I get that it's a small crime, but shouldn't they do something about it?

So, now I need to get the window replaced (1:30 appointment today to do so), buy a new iPod and FM transmitter, and find a new fucking pair of sunglasses which will be impossible since I can never find sunglasses dark enough. I'm guessing that will cost about $600. Bah. Maybe Christine's idea of a new iPod fund for me will take off or something. The timing on this sucks even worse since I got hit by some lady a few weeks ago and have a $375 estimate on the work. Yay for needing to spend like $1,000 on my car. :-P

.: 306 words at 02:35 AM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Sephora hardly ever does sales, but right now if you enter FF2007 when you check out, you can get 20% your whole purchase. Needless to say, I bought a ton of shit.

Also, if you sign up for Ebates they'll give you $10 and 4% back on your Sephora purchase. Make sure to use this link and I'll get $10 too!

Yay for cheap(er) make-up!

.: 65 words at 09:32 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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I can't believe I haven't mentioned this yet, but I am beyond excited for the next - and final - Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I've loved all the books since I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone back in late 1997 or 1998. I remember finishing it on my lunch hour in the Kentucky Fried Chicken that was very close to my office and wanting to cry, it was such an amazing book.

While I didn't love the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, as much I'm planning to go back and reread it (or at least most of it) before starting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

However, at least part of the reason that I was blogging this was to let people know that Amazon is offering a free $5 promotional gift certificate to spend in the store if you pre-order Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows before July 20, 2007.

Since they also offer a pre-order guarantee where price decreases between your order time and release date, you'll receive the lowest price, you can't really lose out from ordering from them. Plus, select Standard Shipping, you're guaranteed the book on its release date or it's free. I actually didn't choose this option last year, but ended up getting my book anyway.

What are you waiting for? Go place your pre-order!

.: 238 words at 12:30 AM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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A nice guy named Stephen from Dorval, Quebec sent me a book off my wishlist, Claimed By Shadow by Karen Chance.

I'm assuming that this was a birthday present, but since I don't know who you are (or I'm not associating your online persona with your real name), I just wanted to say thank you!

I just finished the first book in the series, Touch the Dark, a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed reading it and was thinking to myself that I needed to see if the new one was out, so this was definitely a pleasant surprise.

Again, thank you, Stephen!

.: 105 words at 09:19 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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I thought that St. Patrick's day was going to be kind of mellow at least for the first part. I went to bed at about 5:00 am (I spent a lot of time reading, taking a bath, watching movies on TBS, and just generally fucking around), so I didn't get up until around 2:00 this afternoon.

I had just heated up some pizza and was watching Major League (I love that movie) when Foxy called. The conversation went something like this:

Her: "Guess who's going to the rodeo with me and Shelly tonight to see Brooks & Dunn?"
Me: "I don't know. Who?"
Her: "You!"

A friend of ours is on the rodeo committee and was able to get a bunch of awesome seats to the show, so I got to go along with them.

I hadn't been to the rodeo in about two years (the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the biggest rodeo in the world) and was supposed to go on Tuesday to see Rascal Flatts, but the lead singer had bronchitis, so the show was cancelled. The weather really sucked that day and Ben wasn't feeling well (which meant I would have had to sit alone), so it wasn't a big deal, but Shelly and Foxy have been to like six shows this year and were always talking about it, so I kind of wanted to go.

The rodeo was fun. My favorite part - aside from the concert - was the calf scramble where twenty-eight kids race to get calves to raise the next year for the show (all animals sold at the show raise scholarship money). One girl had the last calf and had him roped and almost in the ring when he got loose and another boy got him. I felt so bad for her since she had really wrestled with that calf, but they announced later that since she had worked so hard, she was going to get a cow of her own anyway. It totally made me happy.

Brooks & Dunn were awesome, though they didn't play "You're Going To Miss Me When I'm Gone," which is just about my favorite song of theirs. I've been a fan for years and saw them back in 1992 or 1993 when Martina McBride opened for them, but I didn't realize until how awesome Ronnie Dunn's voice is until last night. It's easy to sound good on the radio, but much harder to sound good live in front of almost 75,000 people.

After the rodeo, we went to Sherlock's on Westheimer to hear my brother Russell's band Adrenaline play. They're really good, doing mostly covers, but they're recording some originals now, which you can hear on their MySpace page. It's really good.

After we left there, Satyajit had texted us to see where we were, so we went and met him and Lambo at 59 Diner for some food. I love 59 Dinner and was so happy when it went to being open 24/7. The nice waitress Emily even comped my Oreo shake since it was my birthday and Satyajit paid for all of our meals. It was a great time and we laughed at everything. OMG. It was so much fun.

So, it's a few hours until my birthday dinner at Lupe Tortilla (Mmmmm) and I am so excited. I love birthdays! Yay!

* Quote from Shelly when we went to New Orleans this year for New Year's/her birthday. I'm supposed to say this at least twenty-five times today.

.: 589 words at 04:28 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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I can't believe I haven't blogged for like two and half months. I have no idea why, except work has been so busy lately, so I might be burned out on blogs by the end of the day. ;-)

So, here's some random stuff:

• I finally - for the first time ever - bought a cell phone. It's not that I haven't had one for the last eight years or so, but my first one was a Christmas gift and my second one I got through a marketing program and they left the service on for three years for free to boot. After seeing that most of my minutes are spent talking to Ben, I switched to T-Mobile's MyFaves plan and bought a Blackberry Pearl. I absolutely adore it. It's so shiny and pretty and new. I've named her Josephine.
• I spent a bajillion hours playing Fairy Godmother Tycoon. That game was absolutely addicting. It needs more levels, though, since I'm already done with it.
• I've been reading a lot (well, I always read a lot, but I digress) and I've read some great books lately - Pompeii, Touch the Dark, The Secret Life of Bees, You Suck: A Love Story, and more. I list all the books I've read the last few months in my sidebar, but my All Consuming profile has everything I've read over the last few years in case you ever want to check out my reading list.
• This week a post I wrote for Everything TypePad went live. I actually wrote this post too, our first in a series highlighting the TypePad Knowledge Base, but since I didn't blog about it then, I'm blogging about it now. ;-) It's always so surreal to have something that I wrote up on an official Six Apart blog.
• Red, my camera that I've had for about four years, has got a dirty sensor that's going to cost about $100 to repair, so I bought a Sony Cybershot DSC-H5 today. It's 7.2 megapixels, has an image stabilization feature, and looks cool. It's essentially an updated version of Red which I love, so hopefully this camera will be just as awesome.
• Cindy came in from Canada for my birthday party last weekend and it was amazing to get to see her again. When you count Mac and Don, she's the third out of town blogger I've seen in just a few weeks.
• There was more stuff that I wanted to say, but everything else has totally slipped my mind.
• Dude, I can't believe my birthday's Sunday!

.: 428 words at 06:21 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.



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"It's always so surreal to have something that I wrote up on an official Six Apart blog."

I still feel this way a lot, too. But these are great posts! I'm really glad that info is up there, it helps a lot.

Posted by Anil at March 18, 2007 04:51 PM





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Saturday night, Sarah made dinner for about twenty of us at Shelly's house - a yummy, Italian dinner. Ben and I got over there a little late after running errands all day Saturday (and we got to have breakfast at Waffle House, which was delicious and my first time to eat there, unbelievably). We were kind of tired, so bowed out early to go home and watch Babe since I watch it every Christmas and I've really been in the mood to see it again. After watching it (and crying at about fourteen different points in the movie), I headed home.

I had some work done on my car Tuesday since the brake rotors were out and it was suggested that I get a coolant flush as well. I was already spending over $400 and didn't want to spend the other $90, but I figured I might as well since I was getting a bunch of work done already. Even though they said it would only take about an hour and a half, NTB ended up keeping my car for three hours. Annoying, but Foxy came and picked me up and we got some shopping done, so it wasn't the end of the world.

Anyway, so I'm driving home, about at Greenspoint, singing along to my newly installed radio (it went out sometime while I was in Europe), when I notice that my car is running hot - hot, like all the way past the H in the gauge. I'm starting to freak out, wondering if maybe the gauge is broken, and if I should try and make it the last ten miles or so home or if I should stop somewhere and see if it will cool off. It's about that time I'm coming up on Richey Road, so I decided to go ahead and get off the freeway and find somewhere to stop.

Just as I'm making this decision, the check engine light comes on. I start getting over and trying to take the exit when the car starts making this pinging sound. I make it off the freeway, come to the Richey Road intersection thinking over and over "please don't make me catch the light, I need to get through and find somewhere to park," and - of course - catch the damn light. I stop, the car stalls, and smoke starts pouring out of the hood in copious amounts, so much so that I thought that there must be a fire under the hood.

I get out - mind you that I am in my pajama bottoms, a t-shirt, and a hoodie - and start trying to get my phone to work, but it was out of battery power, something that never happens. I'm trying to get my phone to power up when a little red car pulls up next to me with two young boys in it. The driver puts down his window and is all like, "Ma'am, ma'ma, do you need help? Ma'am, you should get out of the car. Ma'am, let us help you."

I go over to their car and ask them for a cell phone. They back up and park behind me and Alan, the driver, gives me his phone so I can call my parents. I call and tell my mom a quick message about how my car is on fire, I'm at Richey and I-45, and to come as quick as they can.

The next fifteen minutes or so I spend in a panic waiting on my mom and dad to get there. Alan and his friend Alex, are absolute angels. They spend the entire time telling me it's going to be okay, not to worry about anything, and asking passing motorists if they have any water that they can put in the car. Alan gets some from one motorists and puts it in the car despite my protests about opening the hood since I was scared that there would be a fire under there and I would kill the nice kid (he was sixteen) that stopped to help me. We even moved my stuff out of my car in case it was going to really burn.

Eventually my parents showed up and we got the car pushed off to the side. We took my dad back home, finally got through to a towing service, and went back to wait for the wrecker. He got there not too long after we did and put my tiny little car onto his big ass flatbed trailer. It's now about 4:15, so by the time we get to the house, wait for the car to be taken off of the trailer, wash my face, and then get to bed, it's almost 5:30.

The next day my mom calls NTB and explains that I had my coolant system flushed on Tuesday and, after driving only about a hundred miles in the meantime, the car overheated and will no longer start. They immediately offer to tow the car to the nearest NTB and take a look at it to see what needs to be done. A few hours later, we talk to a guy and he's tentatively saying it's their fault - it looked like there was something up with the coolant and that most of it had drained away causing the engine to completely lock up. In other words, my car's never going to start again without rebuilding the engine.

Today NTB called and they have accepted full responsibility for my car. Not only will they fix my car, but they're also going to get me a rental car. I'm also hoping that they are going to refund the money I spent on the tow truck and on the coolant flush - the thing that started this whole problem in the first place. I hope that they also refund all the money that I spent on the brake job to help make up for things like being stranded on the side of the road in the early morning hours while thinking that your car is going to explode any minute.

So, all in all, I'm glad that NTB has stepped up and that this isn't going to cost me a ton of money, like I had worried about. It's damn inconvenient, but shit happens and as long as you try to make it right, that's what really counts.

.: 1067 words at 12:00 AM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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I submitted the following picture to JPG Magazine for their theme Tourist. It's two of the gargoyles atop Notre Dame overlooking Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

I have other shots from up there that I love (when we got back to our apartment in Versailles that night and I downloaded the pictures for the first time, despite the fact that I was so tired and my feet were killing me, I was excited and so very happy that these pictures came out exactly like I saw them in my head), but I just can't get over how old and amazing the stone looks in this picture. You can just feel the history emanating from it.

If you like it, please go vote; it would really make my day.

.: 133 words at 02:31 AM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Earlier this summer, I read an article in Lucky Magazine about how to achieve the perfect smoky, glittery eye.

Now, being a fairly girly girl and also raccoon-like in the way that I love shiny, sparkly things, I desperately coveted some eye glitter. Alas, the loose dust that they mentioned, was by Napoleon Perdis, an Australian make-up designer, and it was almost twice the cost of the glitter to buy it. Being Internet savvy and tenacious, however, I refused to give up and eventually stumbled upon Napoleon Perdis Loose Dust at Adore Beauty where I got their Techno Glitter (#39), shipping included, for about $20.

Since my group of friends and I spend a fair amount of time about town in bars, I wear it out almost every where I go and I have gotten a ton of compliments on it from everyone from the Subway lady giving me my sandwich to Jawad when we went to hear him at Sambuca the other night.

Ladies, if you're looking for something to add some drama, sparkle, and fun to your make-up palette, I can not recommend this enough. If you want to apply it really heavy, like I do, just make sure to wet your make-up applicator first. That makes a huge difference.

.: 213 words at 02:10 AM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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I haven't mentioned it yet, but I've been posting pretty regularly over at my Vox blog, The Neurotic Fishbowl That is My Life...: Vox Style. Most of it's Vox Hunt and Question of the Day posts, but it's still posting.

I really do love Vox and I'm quite proud that it's the newest product from my company. Registration's now open, so you too can now join.

Yay Vox!

.: 71 words at 10:48 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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It's unbelievable that in my The Best Trip Ever Set, I am only at the beginning of day two (we started off at the Eiffel Tower and then ended up going to Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, and back to the Eiffel Tower since the lines were smaller) and I've already uploaded over 150 pictures.

I swear, before I get through all 1,243 pictures that I took on this trip, I will be old and grey.

Feel free to go take a look at what I've got up so far, if you are so inclined.

.: 97 words at 06:19 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Last weekend was absolutely the best Halloween I have ever had.

It started off with an unexpected three day weekend, so Thursday night Ben, Foxy, Shelly, Satyajit, and Sean went over to Tony's Side Pocket on West Dallas (formerly Keys West, but I like that name better, so that's what we call it). There was a lot of screwdrivers, raspberry kamikazes, pool games, slow dancing, and country music, so all in all, it was a good time.

My next day Ben came and picked me up around noon so we could go have lunch at Chuy's since I'd been craving it for weeks. Since I was throwing the First Annual Halloween Spooktacular Masquerade Dinner at Sambuca that evening, I thought it would be nice to have little gift bags for everybody. After eating, we walked over to CVS in the shopping center and picked up little goodies like pumpkin yoyos, glow in the dark rubber bugs, and spiky balls plus some candy. While there, we found the best Christmas decoration ever.

We also made a run to Rice Village, Linens N' Things for some more Island Teal Satin Glow, Best Buy, and the grocery store. Some how we managed to spend something like four hours running errands, so it was almost time to get ready and head out to Sambuca for dinner.

First of all, let me just say how much I love Sambuca and all the people that work there. The staff is beyond amazing and my entourage and I get personally greeted bu almost everyone that works there each time we come in. We've also gotten close to a lot of the musicians (like Tianna Hall and Norma Zenteno) and several nights a month you'll hear, "This one's for Kymberlie..." from the stage without me even needing to make a request. That never fails to make me smile.

Anyway, Jonathan, the lovely manager, booked the VIP lounge for us, so fifteen of us had the most delicious dinner upstairs in our own private section with our own bar and servers. We even had special little menus with the menu I had picked for us that I'm planning on framing and doing something special with for the guests.

The next day was spent relaxing and not doing much, though Ben and I did get to watch Santa's Slay on TV (that movie is funny when you're drinking, btw). Eventually it was time for us to get dressed and head over to Melissa's for some food before heading to some huge house party.

I was a pirate this year - a pirate with a corset that totally involved a lot of work on Ben's part since he had to get me into the thing (think the scene in Gone With the Wind where Scarlett gets put into one), for which I am eternally grateful. There's some great pictures, so go take a peek.

The party was lots of fun and I loved my costume (rental from Party Boy on I-10, so if you ever need a good costume, I highly recommend going there). I also used a shot block for the first time ever, which I missed out on in college since I didn't back drink then.

Eventually we headed home to eat some Taco Cabana and watch some Drawn Together, but then it was off to bed since we were having brunch the next day at Mi Luna.

Since I usually work on Sundays, I've never got to do the brunch thing before and it was a blast. It was mostly a blast due to the fact that we were there for four hours and I drank a bajillion glasses of sangria. I never drink wine (I'm more a vodka girl) and the sangria really kicked my ass. Thank god all the pictures with me in them were taken early! Ben and I ended up looking for patio furniture at Garden Ridge and two targets and he got to walk with my very tipsy ass through the stores laughing at all kinds of things. Good times.

So, that pretty much concluded my best Halloween weekend ever. All I can say is that I love my friends and that spending time with them makes me happy beyond belief. I really don't think I've ever been as happy as I am now. *sniff* Sappy, but true.

Now Natalie just needs to get better and come hang out with us again since I miss her much.

.: 749 words at 02:48 AM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (2) :.

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Yeah, so it's been months since I posted. Anyone remember me?

Things are good: I'm busy constantly, out all the time, have the best group friends ever, and am really loving my life.

I've finally started going through my pictures from Paris and Rome (yep, I did go in May to those of you who were wondering) and have got a few of them up in my Best Trip Ever photo set.

I took some incredibly awesome photos - especially ones from the top of Notre Dame - and I'm really excited to get them up for people to see. I took 1,243 photos (seriously; that's not a made up number), so it may be a while before they all make their way up for display.

I just thought I'd let everyone know that I'm not dead, I'm doing really well, and there might be some new pictures up in my Flickr account, so go have a look and feel free to say hi if you're so inclined. :-)

.: 170 words at 11:33 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (5) :.

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These are two phrases - "Do you speak English?" in both French and Italian - that I'm going to have to learn very well soon.

In case you're wondering if I'm simply trying to be prepared in case I meet citizens of either Italy or France, the truth of the matter is that on May 20th, I'm leaving to spend eleven days in Paris and Italy.

My lovely friend Melissa, the same Melissa who made all the yummy jello shots for my birthday, is going to Paris for a business trip and invited a bunch of us to go with her since she not only has a hotel room, but the company flat in Versailles as well.

The group of us who are going - Melissa's mom and brother, Ben, Nathalie, and I - were talking about what we wanted to do while there. Someone brought up going to Italy, so we're going to be in Paris for a week and then fly to Italy for a few days since we found these cheap round trip tickets for a couple of hundred dollars.

Two of the places I have always wanted to go just happens to be Paris and Italy, so I am beyond excited to have this opportunity come up. Not only am I going to get to see these places, I'm also getting to go with three of my favorite people on the planet. I really can't even begin to guess how much fun we're going to have on this trip.

So, for those of you who a) still read this site and b) have been to Paris, what would you say is a must see for someone going to Paris for the first time? I'd love to know what y'all found to be the most enjoyable.

.: 299 words at 02:48 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (9) :.

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Roses from Mac and Mr. Fish for my birthday. I love them.

.: 12 words at 03:59 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (4) :.

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I've never mentioned this, but I have found the absolute best t-shirt store in the world.

The store is Threadless and right now they're having a huge sale. All their t-shirts are marked down to only $10 a piece. Tons of things are selling out, so if you see anything you want, I suggest getting it pretty quickly.

I own about ten of their shirts (The Communist Party, Corporate Zombie, Emotional Trip, MP(3), Afternoon Delight, and Chance are some of my favorites) and they are just the coolest. I always get compliments on them. Well, that or people just like my big boobs.

Either way, you really can't go wrong with $10 t-shirts and cheap shipping. Go be a cool kid like me and get some of your own. Use the Threadless coupon "SUPER TEES" to get $3 off your order.

.: 142 words at 02:29 AM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (2) :.

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Saturday was Kymberlie's 2nd Annual Karaoke Birthday Bash and I have to say I had the absolute best time of my life.

It started off with me calling Marc and asking him to be the birthday girl's driver for the evening since the birthday girl should never ever have to drive herself on her birthday.

After confirming that he would indeed be willing to drive both me and Natalie Fox (Foxy for the rest of this post since I had three Natalie/Nathalies at my birthday) for the evening I got dressed - jeans, a low cut top so I could put glitter all over my boobs, my Burberry heels, and my birthday tiara from last year. Nothing like Burberry heels, glittery boobs, and a tiara to make you feel like a pretty princess!

I had reservations for 8:00 at Farrago and I love my friends, but we they tend to run late. I couldn't believe it, but by 8:15 we already had half of the people there. From what I can remember, this is everyone that ended up at dinner: Russell, my brother; Carrie, his girlfriend, who happens to be a Rocket Power Dancer (she's Carrie M. on the first row); another Rocket Power Dancer, Nicole J.; James; Mona; Marc; Heath; Melissa Kling; Ben; Melissa Kronberger; Vivian; Thomas; Sean; Shelly; her brother, Brad; Sean (AKA Scott); Elaine; Andrea; Mary; Penny; Foxy; and, last but not least, Kendall.

Dinner was lots of fun; we all talked for hours, ate delicious food (the pepperoni pizza there is just simply to die for), drank wonderful drinks (oh, the pink lemonade martinis are so good), and I even got to open presents (including a nifty little hand-held massager, some earrings, a Sephora gift certificate, a Barnes & Noble gift certificate, a cute purse to name some of the loot). To top it all off, everyone even covered my drinks and food. Yay!

After that, most of us headed over to Sambuca and met up with more revelers including Jenny, Rod, Roger, Satyajit, Sarah, Chat, Nathalie, Natalie, and Barrett. We drank for a few more hours (and the delightful bartender Danny even bought my first drink), talked and laughed the whole time, and then most of us took off for Ben's house.

By 2:30 we had the karaoke system hooked up, the disc set up figured out, and the singing began. And, boy, did we ever sing. We sang for almost the next five hours. We sang ABBA, The Counting Crows, songs from the Grease soundtrack, Radiohead, Chuck Berry ("I'd rather drown than live without my ding-a-ling," as ad-libbed by Brad, had to be the best line of the night), George Michael, Nazareth, Barry Manilow, Tina Turner, Lou Bega, Madonna, David Allan Coe, Neil Diamond, and more. We definitely got $80 worth out of the discs I rented.

In addition to the hours of singing fun, we also had cake made by Foxy, jello shots made by Melissa Kling, and Hot Sex shots supplied by Sarah, not to mention Ben opening up his house for all of us. A lot of people put a lot of effort into making my birthday really nice and I appreciated it so very much.

As a matter of fact, standing in the kitchen doing the first of the Hot Sex shots with about twenty people toasting me, I swear, I have never felt more loved or special. Really, this whole birthday was nothing but the coolest experience of my life. You always know that your friends love and adore you, and I really feel it with the crowd I hang with, but I felt it so strongly at my party that I just about cried in the kitchen when they were toasting me. Words really can't put it into perspective.

7:15 we finally packed up the karaoke machine, Marc drove various people to either their cars or their houses, and I headed home. I drove all over Spring since the Burger King by my house was closed and I had psyched myself up for a Croissan'Wich, but finally got my breakfast (the birthday girl triumphs!). The rest of the day was spent sleeping and watching lots of television, which is really the perfect end to a twelve hour birthday party.

This was really one of the best days of my whole life and I can't wait for Kymberlie's 3rd Annual Karaoke Birthday Bash.

.: 742 words at 03:18 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (7) :.

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It's hard to believe, but it's already the middle of March. Not only that, today just happens to be my thirty-first birthday!

The last couple of years I've really been hardcore about celebrating my birthday and today is no exception. As a matter of fact, tonight's celebration is in three stages and has been dubbed Kymberlie's 2nd Annual Karaoke Birthday Bash. Thirty people have RSVPed that they're coming and another ten are probably showing up later, so we should have a good crowd.

First, we're starting off with dinner Farrago since they have these delicious pink lemonade martinis and very yummy pizza. After dinner, we're heading to our favorite bar, Sambuca, for some more martinis and to listen to some great music.

After that, the final stage of my birthday will begin. Sarah (a relatively new friend and now my realator) has a karaoke machine and since I had so much fun singing last year with Katie, I decided that we needed to do karaoke again this year. I found a place that rents your 350 discs with over 4,000 songs on them, so we're going to finish up the night at my friend Ben's house where we'll be singing and drinking until the wee, wee hours of the morning.

All in all, I'm really excited about my birthday even though I am now officially in the "over thirty" category. You can always make me feel better about this by sending me a little something off my wishlist, though. ;-)

Man, I'm so excited! Tonight is going to be great!

.: 263 words at 03:36 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (10) :.

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I've been back from San Francisco for a few weeks and was really going to blog, I swear, but things have been crazy. Of course, I'm not going to be doing much blogging right now because I have to pack for my trip to Vegas (my plane takes off in about four hours).

So, I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and that life's treating you well. Hopefully, things will slow down a bit over the next weeks, though I doubt it with my birthday coming up, including the spectacular Kymberlie's 2nd Annual Karaoke Birthday Bash.

Have a great day, everyone! I'm on vacation! woot!

.: 106 words at 10:58 AM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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It's hard to believe, but I'm not actually dead and I haven't forgotten how to use Movable Type. A miracle, no?

This is just a quick little update since I'm leaving at 8:00 am tomorrow for San Francisco to finally meet all of my co-workers. That's right - we're all on our way to California tomorrow for our Christmas (yeah, it's a little late) party.

Anyway, I've got to go to bed soon, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive, my dad's still doing well, and I that I am going to come back and start posting again some day, maybe even someday soon.

I owe lots of people e-mails (especially Nicole and Kenny) but I'll try and get those out soon. My mailbox is getting something like 800 spam messages a day and since I use webmail, that means I'm having to delete it all by hand and, with that many messages, it runs slow and takes forever.

Anyway, if you still come by and read the site, be sure and leave a comment to let me know. Readership here is basically down to nothing, but it would be nice to see some comments again.

Oh, and while you're at it, go vote for this recipe that Mike created.

.: 217 words at 11:48 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (16) :.

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Kymbrlie is having a massage. She will be back online someday.

(She is ok, and her dad is doing good. She's just busy right now, and I told her she needed another update here - so I'm taking care of it for her. Like her own personal assistant.)

- Christine

.: 50 words at 06:33 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (13) :.

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I spoke with Kymberlie about half an hour ago; her Dad is out of surgery and it was the "best case scenario" after all. The cancer seems to have been contained in his kidney, and he was in recovery when we spoke.

I could hear the relief in her voice.

She wanted to thank everyone for their positive thoughts. She will post more within the next day or so.

- Christine

.: 71 words at 01:53 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (6) :.

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Tomorrow my dad goes in to get his kidney removed. Best case scenario: His cancer hasn't spread and everything will be fine. Worst case: I can't even think about it.

His surgery is around 10:00 and should take about three hours. He'll have to spend some time in recovery too but hopefully that won't take too long.

Christine said she'll swing by and take me to lunch or dinner and then I might meet some friends downtown at Sambuca. God knows I'll need a drink by then.

If you don't mind, continue to send good thoughts our way. They're really appreciated, even if I haven't e-mailed anyone back yet (I haven't been spending too much time on the computer except to work lately).

.: 124 words at 07:08 PM in Fish Tales :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (5) :.

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I just got off the phone with my mom and it sounds like everything is going to turn out okay.

The doctor doesn't think the cancer has spread from his kidney (he's got three tumors right now). He's had complete renal failure in that kidney already, but the other one has already picked up the slack and is functioning just fine, so he shouldn't need a transplant (though two of my uncles have already offered) or have to worry about totally losing func