Great Scott! They are making a sequel.

(No, not Back to the Future.)

The last Piranha movie was so horrible I wrote a blog post about it. You can read it here.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up seeing the 3DD version because I'm a glutton for punishment. And based on the trailer, they aren't taking themselves so seriously this time so it's possible I might enjoy it. I mean, the title is 3 DD. This version stars Christopher Lloyd and David Hasselhoff and a bunch of other people.

I moved (again) and there is a Studio Movie Grill down the street. This looks like a movie that would be much better with beer!

I'm going to go ahead and change my name to Monet

I never took art in school. I can't draw a stick figure worth a crap and I hated coloring as a child. I didn't have the patience to color in the lines when I could finish it quickly and move onto something more fun like talking. I know there are several report cards out there that mention I talked to much in elementary school. In my defense, I finished my work first.

Anyway, my friend Reneè had bought some groupon-like vouchers for one of those wine/art studio painting classes and asked if wanted to go. I have been wanting to try one after seeing some friend's paintings on Facebook. We went to Vino Artino a few weeks ago to paint bluebonnets. Reneè brought some yummy salted chocolate and malbec. I love malbec but my brain does not so I only had about a glass to keep from having a migraine.

I have to say, I am impressed with how my painting came out. And it's 90% due to the very specific instructions we were given. The instructor told us how much paint to mix with other colors, which brush to use and when to add water to keep the paint from thickening.

Below is a photo essay of my attempt at painting this:

The professional version

We started with painting the sky and grass. I was pretty impressed with myself at this point. Those clouds? They are awesome.

Next we were supposed to make some bushes and a little hill. This is where I started to doubt my ability to paint.

The "hill" looks like a smashed bush. And the bush is just ugly.

Trees seem like they would be easy. Just draw some lines. My tree looked like it survived Hurricane Ike.

Hurricane Tree

Grass/chicken scratch

After we added some grass we added some plants at the bottom of the page. You can seem them in the later pictures. Then we moved on to my favorite part. We added the leaves to the tree. It was fun to add the different colors and layer them and use fun brush strokes.

Happy tree!

At this point, we moved on to the windmill and barn. I was pretty sure my painting was ruined at this point.

What did I do?

It looked a little better after I filled in the barn and added some shading to the windmill.

Now it's time to start Texas-ing up the thing and adding the bluebonnets.

All done!

Masterpiece!

I thought about signing my name in the corner but I am pretty sure that would have turned into a big globby mess. I definitely want to go to another class though! It was a lot of fun and I have a cool painting.

Lake house laziness

I spent the weekend at Lake Livingston being a complete and total lazy ass and it was amazing. Unfortunately I had to work Friday until 6:30 so I missed night one of Girls Weekend. I drove up straight from work on Friday though and did my best to make up from it. I'm pretty sure my liver is in shape for Vegas now (I fly out February 18).  My goal for 2012 is to spend more time doing fun stuff and less time working. Girls weekend was the beginning of that. I have trips to Vegas and Disney World planned for the next several months.

View from where I was reading by the water, drink in hand

Since I'm too lazy to type up anything witty or funny, here are some pics. I haven't gotten over my Instagram obsession yet, by the way.

View from the porch 

Test tube shooters that tasted like medicine

Beautiful sunset

Laura Tebowing and me Fostering

I'm going to attempt to be less lazy. We'll see how it goes.

I cannot believe it's 2012. Especially since I have yet to see a flying car. 

I'm going to try to not be so lazy in 2012. With blogging, with cleaning, with taking care of myself. All those things that people resolve to change every year. I quit making specific resolutions a few years ago because they seem to only set me up for failure. I try to make general improvements in my life each year.  Some are easier than others and some I never quite accomplish.

This year, being less lazy is going to be the general mission. I have goals in mind and will try to work toward them, without being so critical of myself if I fail. 

Happy New Year everyone! 

I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And Cap'n Crunch is the bomb.

I have pretty high self esteem. I don't obsess about looks (although maybe it's time to if I don't want to live alone forever with 37 cats but that's another post). I think I'm smart. I think I'm funny.  I probably think I'm way funnier than anyone else does. I don't care if people don't like me but I do love it when people do.

I cannot believe how many people read my last blog and all the positive feedback I received. I guess I better step it up around here. Talking about accidentally getting drunk the treadmill isn't going to cut it any more. It's probably a good thing only 10 people read this thing usually because I doubt anything that profound will come out of my mouth/fingers for a while.

Sort of on the same subject, I get totally nerded out when famous people on Twitter reply to me or retweet me. Last week Derrick Ward* was talking about his favorite cereal and I tweeted him to let him know I agreed that Cap'n Crunch is the bomb and that people that disagreed were haters. (I have started saying the bomb a lot in the last few weeks. I have no idea why and I'm kind of ashamed.) He started following me which is totally freaking awesome! Most of my 154 followers are spambots.

*I'm super obsessed with the Texans. I've always been a huge fan but this year I'm totally obsessed, especially with reading stories and blogs from the national media. Maybe I need to blog about my football obsession next time. I won a signed Antonio Smith picture on Twitter too.  It'll go great next to my David Carr autographed picture [insert winky face emoticon here or maybe I need the vomit face].

Me and the Ninja

Being an Aggie (aka The Longest Post I've Ever Made)

Last night I watched The Burning Desire, a documentary on the collapse of the Aggie Bonfire on November 18, 1999. (If you got here from somewhere other than my FB or Twitter and aren't familiar with Aggie Bonfire, you can read about it here: http://bonfire.tamu.edu/)

I was a student at A&M in 1999. I woke up that Thursday morning to 17 messages on the answering machine checking on me, my roommate and my sister. I had no idea what was going on so I turned on the TV and then I watched news footage until I had class. And when my professors cancelled class, I went home and watched more news coverage. Twelve Aggies died that day in 1999 and Aggieland became a different place. I think I became a different person after that day too.

I had just turned 21 the week before. I was technically adult but a still a kid really. I had a job and was going to college (that my parents very nicely paid for). There weren't really any responsibilities. I hadn't really dealt with loss. I didn't personally know any of the people injured or killed in the collapse but I was consumed by grief. I couldn't stop reading or watching news about it for days. When they had removed all of the bodies (I really hate typing that but there isn't a nicer way to say what transpired) from the stack of logs, I went and walked around the perimeter of the Polo Fields where the logs were still laying in a heap. The orange construction fence was full of letters, pictures and flowers. I visited the flag pole in front of the Administration Building where another memorial sprung up. An Aggie left his Aggie ring with a note saying he wanted those who had died to wear it. Most of those killed were underclassmen that hadn't earned their own Aggie ring. Other people followed and left their rings where they stayed for a month before the university sent them back to their owners.

That story is just a glimpse of what kind of place Aggieland is. Not only did a current student leave a gold ring outside where anyone could have walked away with it, but others did as well. And they sat there for a month.

When I was a senior in high school I wanted to attend SMU. I wanted to work in the news industry, in tv or newspapers and SMU had a great journalism department. I was accepted and offered scholarships but when it came time to make a choice, I choose A&M. I didn't have any prior connection to A&M. I honestly didn't know that much about it, other than it was a good school and it was close to my parents house if I ever got homesick.

I think back now and I had no idea what I was getting into but it turned out to be the best decision I ever made. I made some bad choices in college. I took the long road to my degree. But every day I'm proud to be a Texas Aggie. Aggies have a saying: "From the outside looking in, you can't understand it. And from the inside looking out, you can't explain it" and it really is true. A lot of people think Aggies are cultish (we are) and stupid (we're not) and there is a reason a million Aggie jokes exist (they are funny).

I never lived on campus. I never worked on Bonfire and I wasn't really actively involved in a lot of the traditions while I was there. I loved my time there and as a Former Student (there are no ex-Aggies) I've become immersed in all things Aggie. I have the great fortune to make trips to College Station on a pretty regular basis. Most of my people I consider good friends now I met through an A&M message board years ago. To this day they are some of the best people I have ever met.

Being an Aggie is more than having a degree from Texas A&M University. The diploma, the ring and education are just a part of it. Being an Aggie is about being a good person, coming together when adversity strikes and making the world a better place. The world is a better place because Texas A&M exists and I'm a better person because I went to Texas A&M.

Bonfire was a tangible symbol of A&M's burning desire to "beat the hell outta t.u." and after it collapsed, the university deemed it unsafe and it no longer takes place on campus. Students took the initiative and began holding Bonfire off campus.

Tomorrow's game will be the last in a 117-year rivalry between the Aggies and the Longhorns. It's likely to come back in the future, but for now A&M is moving to a new conference next year and the heated battles will no longer take place in the arenas and stadiums and on Facebook between fans. I hope in the future it returns and I'm kind of sad tomorrow's game is the last. I'm hoping the Aggies get one last win before moving to the SEC. I hope the current students keep Bonfire alive. And I hope someone reads this whole long blog.

Tomorrow I'll be thankful for many things but mostly, I'll be thankful I'm a Texas Aggie.

My Aggie Ring 

I'll just blame it on being lazy

Hi, neglected, sad blog. How are you? I'm doing well. Not much is happening in the world of lazy. I moved. Have I ever mentioned that I hate moving? Because I do. It sucks. I still feel out of sorts and it's been over a months. Work is pretty busy. I did get a fantastic performance review. I guess working late and on weekends for nine months paid off.

I'll try and come back soon with a great story to tell. for now, I just wanted you to know I didn't forget about you.