in laws and coping

I just drank a whole bottle of Riesling in a 15 minute time span. German Riesling, mind you. My inlaws would approve, but I guzzled it down because they're driving me bonkers. They're driving T bonkers too.

I just made hot sauce with 3 habenero peppers, 2 roasted chipotle peppers, 2 serrano peppers and other hot sauce related stuff. Bill, my FIL, likes really hot sauce. He told me if I were to cook for him, I need to make the hottest sauce possible. I know I made it hot because his face turned red when he tasted it and he was sweating bullets but his comment to me was "Oh. It's okay. I can sort of feel the burn." He hasn't eaten any more. My poor husband and step-mother-in-law are drinking lots of water because they thought his comment meant that it wasn't really *that* hot.

I know how to make really hot sauce.

Anyhow, I insisted that I made the batch just for him. Bill pushed the bowl towards me and went "Well, why don't you have some since you think it's that good?"

To spite him I took a huge scoop with my chip and chomped on it in front of him. I think the raised eye brows indicated that he was impressed. I think my hubby is mortified. I'm disappointed in myself for feeling the need to one-up Bill, but oh well.

The fortunate thing is that I can take heat well and if you don't let the substance near the tip of your tongue you're okay. But, here I am typing away, hiding in a sense with a rumbling tummy from consuming a sauce made out of pure hot peppers. My way of calming all of this down is by guzzling tons of this supposedly "super dry" Riesling that Jay got me for my Bday. "Cause you're a sour puss. It's as dry as you are..."

The Riesling is super sweet, BTW.

It's actually really good with a multidimensional bouquet and smooth fruity flavor. A touch of muscat and pineapple I detect...I ain't sharing more than I already have (Anna and Bill each got a sip.) Anyway, either Jay messed up when he purchased it or he really meant to say I was fruit baket. Maybe he thinks I'm sweet.

Or, in my quasi tipsy state, I'm just over analyzing things. Oh well, I don't care. The magic German Riesling takes heat away immediately. If Bill wants a competition with hot sauce, bring in on Babe!

Oy. I'm a mess. Gotta go finish preparing dinner...

Before the in-laws get here

So my father in law and T's step mom are coming in this afternoon. T's sweeping. I cleaned the toilets and put things away, but just can't seem to keep my hands off of the new little-itty-bitty lap top. That's what the pics are about.

I have no idea what we're gonna do when Bill and Anna get here. T's mom is really laid back. Vacationing with her kids means doing regular day to day things with them--grocery shopping, watching TV, hanging out at home and reading, listening to music.

T's dad, on the other hand wants to go Polka dancing. Where are we gonna go polka dancing????

For the record, I've gone polka dancing with my father-in-law three times. Yes, three times I've been pelted with god awful German um-pah music swirling in circles trying to keep my head straight and attempting to stay charming after copious amounts of beer. Bill's a sweet drunk and all, but we can't go polka dancing and hang out at pubs every night!

Bill is really similar to my dad. Highly intelligent, but a bit aloof. He never really opened up to his children as they grew up. Ask my husband what his father likes to eat, the response is: "I dunno....Food?"

After all these years, I do know that Bill like homemade blue cheese dressing (which T's momma sent me the recipe for when she heard they were coming down to visit), Manhattans with no ice (that's whiskey with a touch of vermouth), real butter and anything German. I guess cause he is German and so is Anna, but surely you'd think they'd maybe like to try out a Thai restaurant or something (T's shaking his head no right about now).

Sigh.

I think we're gonna go to Fredricksburg for a day trip and then head out to Schlitterbahn water park in New Bruanfels if it isn't raining too much, check out the Wurst Band one night at Scholz Bier Garten...maybe sing "Deutchland Ist" around a campfire while we're at it.


Ich muß Deutsches jetzt sprechen. Die würde die höfliche Sache sein, zum zu tun. Möglicherweise essen sie fajitas. Sie ist nicht deutsch, aber es ist gutes Tex Mex cuisine.

Scheiße.

kitten update

They're starting to use the litter box all on their own now. Although still drinking Momma's milk, her solid food is of interest and they also know how to drink from a water bowl. We still can't quite figure out what color the white one is going to end up. Her faint grey splotches now sport stripes and although color pointed, she does have one mitted paw. I'm guess Yngwie is going to be a diluted calico.



Etouffee moved them to behind the stereo which is an okay location I guess. They don't seem to mind Benny Benassi or 16Volt, but absolutely cannot stand Charlotte Church. Good for them.



We've got wheat berries all over the house (what one uses for kitten kitty litter since they tend to ingest everything). They were dive bombing into the litter box a couple of days ago just for fun.



Personality wise, I like the grey kitten, Capo, the most. She's very mellow like her momma and inherited a lot of Ragdoll breed traits even though she doesn't look like one. Her eyes are a neat sage green color:



Same with her brother's:


Capo's size comparison with Momma (and grandma):

Dancing Goths

Giant Blackberry

I get treated really well over at my contract office, I must say. Today was kinda weird. They told me to just walk in on their staff meeting to pick up my new machine. In fact, I was waiting in the front office and the gal just gleefully told me to go into their conference area insisting that they were expecting me...and well, I walked in on a meeting. Heh. Karen, the financial lead asked me to join. Um, Okay... Tea and crumpets? Sure, why not?

Granted, I'm still family, but all I had to do was show up with bright red friction burned shoulders once and whine about the 16lbs lap top a couple of times and suddenly, the thoughtful initial luggage rack order was immediately replaced with a very thoughtful beautiful little itty bitty teeny weeny two pound 11 inch monitor Sony VAIO laptop. A Cindy sized laptop! I just didn't expect to get it within days of them noticing the old machine was a wee bit heavy for me to lug around.

It's so tiny, it's cute. Either that or one can think of it as an enormous blackberry with more computing power. It's got this index finger swiper thinggie too...unfortunately this model doesn't have a web cam. If it did, I'd stream some of the more bizarre and comical meetings I have at the UTLC for entertainment's sake.

Jocco Crawford

Taken in my home a while back...

left feet

So um, I hurt my foot.
Actually, it's been hurting for a long time, in fact, well before my party which was last month. I suspect I injured it at home while practicing turns without wearing shoes. The problem is that I was so stressed out with party planning, work and mom related stuff that I just kept ignoring it. Since the season was over, I didn't dance much at all until summer classes started back up last week. Oy, that was painful.

I'm really bummed.

This is kinda bad timing too. My doctor changed offices and I have to do a lot of walking back and forth across campus due to having 2 locations now. Mom's also moving up here so I'll be helping her pack and haul things up to the house. Mostly, I'm just depressed about not being able to dance.

And thanks to the lovely stomach flu, my weight is down into the double digits. My ballet teacher exclaimed how trim I looked yesterday during class. Heh.

I can't be vain though. That's all water weight. Don't worry, I'm noshing on chicken curry right now with Thai tea to drink and had a huge brownie for my breakfast. :)

The weirdest thing about my foot injury is that is doesn't hurt when I'm on full pointe and I think that has to do with the hard shoe holding all the tendons together. When I'm in soft shoes standing on demi pointe and my toes spread apart, that's when it hurts. It really hurts when I turn on my left foot which is why i think a tore a ligament or something. There's a lot of tenderness in the ball of my left foot in general. The outer section of my big toe also hurts of you poke it ("Then don't poke it!" says the darlin hubby). I suspect the podiatrist is going tell me to stay off of it and do an ice massage.

Just bought a dress for Tracy's wedding on Friday. It's a cute halter style with large navy print.

As a side note, I've got weird issues with my upper arms, but as you can tell, I'm slowly getting over it. You sort of have to get over your body image issues when you spend time dancing with a bunch of super skinny buff teeny boppers in nothing but a leotard and tights in front of a large mirror. A nice benefit of ballet though is that you learn how to showcase your body in such a way to make it appear long and lean. Even the slightest angle change makes all the difference in the world. You learn the art of "line presentation" and after a while when have worked you ass off, you eventually become long and lean not just in the classroom but through all of your waking life. This is why you can recognize dancers walking down the street. It isn't necessarily their size. It's the way they carry themselves. I remember this one time when I saw one of my ballet teachers David Justin zipping by on a motorcycle. Sure, he looked hot an all (I will admit to that) but what caught my eye was his ramrod straight back. I just *knew* it had to be a dancer on that Harley as weird as it seemed and when I realized it was him, it made perfect sense.

If you wanna know why I have issues with me arms, it's because they're kinda big for my size. In fact the circumference is larger than my husband's by 2 inches. I have no idea why God gave me big soft upper arms, but he did and that's okay. Where am I going with this? Oh that's right, the wedding. I know Tracy isn't like this at all, but I did have a bride ask her guests to "please hide any arm flab and back fat with an appropriately colored shawl" ages ago. Yes, the word bridezilla is quite useful and after buying my dress I was immediately reminded of that request.

Anyway, the dress matches these adorable wedges with ribbon straps I got a few weeks ago, but with my foot injury I think I'm going to have to go the quirky route and wear a pair of boots especially since I plan on taking pics for her. It's funny, people seem to associate me with my boots, especially at work, so I guess it's somewhat expected (hrrmmm I sense a new blog topic coming).

So, I've got the dress taken care of. Gift and food I've got covered... but no date! T has to work Friday morning. It feels weird going to a wedding alone, actually but at least I'll have the camera with me so I'll have something to do aside from trying not to look lonesome. Furthermore, my friend/co-worker Darcy is going to give me a ride up there and she's doesn't have a date either, so I can just cling to her for dear life...kidding!

Jay says he promises to stand next to me at least twice (gee, thanks). I have a feeling he's going to be doing a lot "standing" considering he'll be the only single guys there.

Skinny Puppy: Mythmaker and The Greater Wrong of the Right DVD

Skinny Puppy kicks ass! That is a tautology. The latest Skinny Puppy merchandise which I have proudly purchased is their latest album, Mythmaker, and the Greater Wrong of the Right Live DVD.

I just want to say that Skinny Puppy's recent work has definitely got my stamp of approval. I honestly love everything they're doing these days and can't think of a single thing to go against it.

The Greater Wrong of the Right is often interpreted as an anti-Bush album, and I guess Mythmaker follows on that theme? Really I have no idea. This is Skinny Puppy, the lyrics are in the abstract stream-of-consiousness style. So the lyrics can mean almost anything (or absolutely nothing) - it's really up to you to decide for yourself. (I don't "understand" what the lyrics are supposed to be about, but to me, that's great!)

If you watch The Greater Wrong of the Right Live, you get to see Ogre dressed up as Batman dressed up as a demented surgeon. That alone is already worth the price of the DVD. I've never seen Skinny Puppy live... or have I? I'm actually not really sure. I've seen Ogre in his "solo act" ohGr. In fact, I saw them in Austin in 2001. You see, cEvin Key was on drums for the tour, and since Ogre + cEvin Key = Skinny Puppy (now, at least), I almost feel like I did see Skinny Puppy, only they played ohGr songs. I was right at the front of the stage with my brother. Sweat from Ogre's hair actually flew into my eye. What an honor! In fact, my brother and I should be in the ohGr video for "Minus" somewhere, but I've never been able to spot either one of us in the crowd. I guess we didn't look freaky or excited enough.

This wasn't supposed to be an ohGr post, but what the Hell... here's the video for "Minus:"


Instead of putting an mp3 up for download, I'll just be lazy and refer you to the Skinny Puppy myspace (link below). Check out the song "Pasturn" (this was the song I would have put up as an mp3 anyway). It's beautiful. While you're at it, listen to the other three songs they have up right now.


Buy Mythmaker at Amazon
Buy Greater Wrong of the Right Live DVD at Amazon
Skinny Puppy website
ohGr website
Skinny Puppy myspace

Munchie Mondays: Koriente inspired Noodle Bowl

I've already mentioned before how addicted I am to Koriente's noodle bowls, so it was about time for me to try to figure out the recipe. Granted, I'm going to keep going there for numerous reasons (especially the bubble tea) but for a quick fix, this recipe does the trick.

A word on some of the ingredients....

Sammi and I both refer to this sauce as "Rooster Sauce." I don't know what the proper name is in Vietnamese, but you can find it in Asian super markets and some larger grocery stores pretty easily. It's basically a vinegar based chili sauce and always comes in large squeeze bottles...with a roster on it:



Mung bean noodles or "bean threads" are easily found in Asian super markets as well. You can use rice noodles or sweet potato noodles for this recipe. The idea is to use any sort of noodles in the cellophane category. They've got a chewy texture and are easy to cook.



Word of warning: DO NOT BUY CELLOPHANE NOODLES MADE IN CHINA!!!!

Only buy the ones from Taiwan or Korea because there have been numerous cases of Chinese made bean threads made out of cornstarch instead with a lead extract added to make them look transparent. Frankly, I wouldn't buy any food item from China, but it's really hard to avoid...just my two cents.

As for vegetables to put into the noodles bowl itself, the possibilities are endless. Aside from the ones listed, I'd also recommend: steamed broccoli, steamed asparagus, cooked shitake mushroom, julienned carrots, etc. You might also consider a tea egg or quail eggs in addition. Don't worry about proportions. What is listed below is just a guideline.

Koriente Styled Noodle Bowls
feeds roughly 2

3 cups total of any of the following vegetables:
shredded red cabbage
thinly sliced red bell pepper
Julienned cucumber
baby carrots
...
1 avocado thinly sliced
2 cups of any type of salad greens
2 tbs of Nori/seaweed flakes (optional)
2 tbs of toasted sesame seeds

two bundles of mung bean noodles
2 tbs of Rooster sauce

Sauce:
1/4 c of Soy Sauce
2 tbs of Rice Wine Vinegar
1/4 tsp of ginger powder



Combine sauce ingredient in a bowl and set aside. In a pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add Rooster sauce to water. This will give the noodles a spicy kick. If you have low heat tolerance, feel free to omit. Boil as long as package instructions suggest. Drain liquid and set aside.

Divide salad greens between two bowls. Mound cooked noodles in the center and then arrange sliced vegetables around the noodles. Garnish with seaweed flakes and sesame seeds and serve with sauce. If desired, squirt more Rooster sauce on top.

Pretty easy eh?

lampwork bead and byzantine chain bracelet

One of my favorite beads I forged a while ago was done with copper green, dark ivory, and ink blue with clear Murano glass encasing silver foil. The heat reaction yielded some nice bright red and brown streaking.



I was thinking of making a pendant out of this bead but decided on bookending it with a byzantine chain work (something I've been doing more of lately). The clasp features another one of my lampwork beads, a small copper green round with ink blue frit, and a Swarovski crystal heart.



This weighs the bracelet so that the focal bead is always facing up. It's actually quite comfortable to wear and is a useful design idea for any of your large flat beads.

Munchie Mondays: Sarah's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sarah brought these amazing chewy chocolate and peanut butter chip cookies to the party and several people asked for the recipe. Since ballet intensive camp starts up in a week and I gorged on cake, BBQ, alcohol, cheese and chocolate all this past week...and because I'm feeling mighty lethargic, I have to watch what I'm eating so I haven't taken a stab at this cookie recipe yet.

However, I can tell you that they do taste darn good. In fact, I hoarded Sarah's tub full of cookies for most of the party. They sat on my lap as I opened presants (mind you, I made sure others got a cookie too, but as far as I was concerned she made them for me.)

Anyhow, I'll be sure to take photos of the cookies once I bake a batch up, but for now, here's a pic of the trusty recipe originator!


Ain't she cute?

She was kind enough to email me the recipe last week....:)

Sarah's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/8 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 tbsp (one and a half sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup brown sugar (light, dark, or a mixture of both)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 to 2 cups chocolate chips or chunks (semisweet or bittersweet)

Preheat oven to 325. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats

[note from Sara: I used semisweet combined with peanut butter chips, and i was pretty lax about sticking to the measurement here. I like lots of chocolate! I skipped the parchment paper...the cookies were fine, they didn't stick at all or burn]
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda, and put aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Add flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Form scant 1/4 cup dough into a ball. Holding ball using fingertips of both hands, pull ball into two equal halves.

Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie. Be careful not to smooth the dough's uneven surface.

[note from Cindy: I know this sounds weird but it's kind of the same principle as pressing a cookie down with a floured fork to make hash marks and it helps the top surface bake crisp while keeping the center chewy. You just happened to get the benefit of unleashing any pent up anger by ripping apart dough. If it helps imagine some ass hole of a guy you're doing this to...]

Place formed dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 9 balls per sheet. Bake until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheets.

Koriente

I am so addicted to Koriente's specialty noodle bowl called the "Noodle Garden" which according to their site consists of A nest of spiced mung bean noodles on organic spring greens, with avocado, red bell pepper, red cabbage, and cucumber in our own balsamic soy sauce.


Deceptively simple ingredients and yet the flavors and mouth feel is divine. I find myself craving it often so much so that I had this noodle bowl on Friday as my birthday dinner and then again Saturday evening. I explained to my husband that I wanted to celebrate the day after my birthday too.

I normally order this with either a wintermelon and jasmine bubble tea. Koriente is also tea house so they've got a vast selection of hot and cold teas. I've just been so stuck on my noodle bowl and bubble tea combo that I haven't branched out! You know how it is sometimes. You find a restaurant you fall in love with due to one singular amazing dish and this is what's happened to me.

Koriente also displays some great ambiance and zany artwork. It's this strange eclectic mixture of urban art, sleek Asian influenced decor, hippie wares and stuff. Everything sort of has a red and black cast to it which makes it fit in perfectly with the gothy and bohemian natives up and around 7th and Red River. There are rice paper lanterns in the ceiling, minimalistic springy chairs and friendly graffiti on the walls. The light from the candles and Christmas lights cast a soft roamtic glow on everything even making painting of a woman with her eyes blackened out wearing bunny ears somehow lovely. Outside they've got a full fledged flower garden thans stands out next to the gas station and club it is situated between.

Sammi and I were there together on a whim back when PAIL had their CD release party. There were technical issues over at the venue Elysium, so we had time to kill and just happened to notice (for the first time in months, mind you) the restaurant when we were walking to the club. It's a great place to go with a hot a date or a close confidant due to the restaurant being small and quiet. Since then I've gone numerous times with T and it's always been wonderful.



It's definitely a mom and pop family run sort of place. They recognize the customers. The people there know I like lots of ice and less sweet for my tea, etc. There's this one waitress who works there (I don't know her name yet) who is always smiling and cheerful. She's not physically beautiful at least not in the traditional sense and yet she exudes this radiance, inner peace and happiness that's utterly addictive. I instantly feel cheerful whenever I see her and it definitely adds to the whole experience. In fact, all the workers are cheerful happy people. I highly suggest trying this restaurant.

Visit:
Koriente Restaurant

Mix CD Time: Some Favorite Tracks from my Birthday Gifts

(Let's see if hotlinkfiles.com works well as a file sharing host.)

It should be an obvious assumption that I got tons of music for my birthday. It makes perfect sense of course. Anyone who knows me well knows that a sure fire way to make me happy is to either give me music or feed me good food. Heh. In some ways, I'm a simple gal. :)

I also love getting mix CDs as well (and making them). You can read about my musings and rants surrounding that type of media here in a different blog post. I'm sure many of you have shared the same dilemmas.

To make up for all those weeks of non posting, here's a bunch of music for ya'll. This is by no means everything I got (I think in total, I got about 23 new cds and 10 mix cds), but it's what I've been listening to this weekend. If you like what you hear, click on the name of the artist for more information. If you like it, buy it. Nuff said.

Needless to say, my friends have impeccable taste.

In the Nursery(from Cassandra):
"Anatomy of a Poet"
"Motive"

Regard Extreme (from Cassandra):
"Manifeste"

Ministry (from Shawn):
"Yellow Cake"

Killing Joke (from Shawn):
" Invocation"

Shiny Toy Guns (from Shawn):
"Don't Cry out"

Los Cerveceros (from Eddie):
"As Long as There's Beer"

Ruthie Foster (from Belinda):
"Give You My Love"

Cocteau Twins (from Darlin Hubby Travis):
" Fifty-Fifty Clown"
" Fotzepolitic"

Mogwai (from Jay):
"Friend of the Night"
"Killin all the Flies"

Múm (from Jay):
"I can't Feel My Hand Anymore. It's Alright. Sleep Tight"

Eric Clapton (from JBro Johnny):
"Cocaine"

Combichrist (from JBro Johnny):
"This Shit Will Fuck You Up"
" Happy Fucking Birthday"

Munch Munch Munch

Today is my real birthday!

My hubby surprised me by sending me an edible arrangement basket to work. This one specifically...


As you can imagine. I'm swooning. :)
My darlin hubby. Cute...and not a rodent!

Monnie also gave me a bottle of cherry brandy today. I hope I don't come across as some sort of hedonistic lush today and I'm dragging all the merchandise from work. I am a glutton though. Something my husband truly understands. LOL.

It's My Fucking Birthday Today

That's right. You click on over to my profile and you'll see the lovely 29 has now flipped on over the the honking big 30.

Co-writer and best friend Shawn (das Mobius) drove all the way down from Kansas to help me celebrate this past weekend, so FINALLY we are all here in all of our glorified cuteness. If you haven't figured it out by now, gentle reader, photos of us on the right hand nav bar were taken ages ago back when we were all in our early 20's. *gasp*



To be honest, I actually like growing older because it means I put up with a lot less shit. :) Anyhow, in a nutshell, the party was an absolute blast. No Cindy Party is complete without an ass load of musicians (I think I counted about 9 or 10 representative bands there) and lots of jamming.

Sorry about the enormous players below. Unfortunately my MediaMax account is pooping out for whatever reason, so I can't upload any music for y'all! But, I did discover kind of a cool site called esnips.com that has gobs of cool media for sharing purposes.

Listen to:
"Happy Fucking Birthday" Combichrist

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"Happy Birthday" -from Bhoot Unkle

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"Happy Birthday" - R Kelly

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Visit:
"Cindy Adzuki's Badass B-day Party Post"
Birthday Party Photo Stream

Another very VERY cool pic:

Dimitri (Tungsten Coil) and I are doing our accordion playing crime fighting team routine here.

amongst furry rodents

Yes, it's another Jay post. Just fucking live with it.

Anyhow, I discovered something somewhat amusing (turned mildly disturbing) in my inbox today. I have an account on this photo hosting/sharing site called Flickr and with it you can browse other people pictures and tag "favorites." The system administrator has it set up so that the owner of the photos gets a nice email message every time someone favorites a pic and who the user is. You can imagine my interest was piqued when I noticed that a particular person had favorited a whole slew of images.

Ah ha! A kitten lover I thought to myself.

I clicked on her favorites profile:
Be Very Afraid
That right.

gerbil	gerbil	gerbil	gerbil	gerbil
mouse	mouse	hamster	mice	mice
Jay	Jay!	Jay?	JAY?!	JAY???(WTF?)
gerbil	mouse	hamster	bunny	bunny
bunny	bunny	bunny	bunny	bunny...

Eh? I'll admit to being a little mortified. I mean, I've had people favorite my face before...you get over that creep factor pretty quickly. As long as dude or dudette doesn't have your contact info, it's okay. Thing is, with my face I'm usually in the favorites files with other Asian chicks, barely legal looking gals, goths, ballerinas, etc. I'm not amongst animals that share bloodlines with rats.

I finally located an image of said user. It sure didn't look like his mom. I started panicking. Did Ms. Leather Tits have an alter ego? Was this a crazy ex stalking my friend? More importantly, why is Jay mixed up amongst rodents?

I calmly emailed said user and asked if she happened to know my friend since I noticed that she picked through ALL my pictures and favorited every single one containing him (dodging what I really wanted to ask: Is he also one of your pets?)

She kindly responded with: Oh no, I thought he was cute. that was all. lol

So she means to say out of the couple million photos of Flickr, she happens to think that my friend Jay is cute enough to procure an esteemed spot with the bunnies, gerbils, mice, rainbows and flowers and whatever the hell she has in her pile.

If that isn't a form of flattery, I don't know what is. I bet he'd say I put her up to it or any other freaking statement that dodges the fact that he has got an attractive face. Oy. Average my ass.

Eyes have opened!

Awwwwww!


Cute.


Kinda uncanny resemblance, doncha think? Either that, or it's the pride of being a grandma making me think that. :)

I get the sense that they were shocked to discover that my hubby and I are much larger beings that imagined. I would assume they thought we were about as big as our hands.

This one is cute too...Etouffee is snuggling with the orange kitten (tentatively renamed "Lanyap" by Kyung and his family).



They officially turn 2 weeks tomorrow!

PAIL: The Last Soundtrack

I can tell you the first time I listened to PAIL's new CD The Lost Soundtrack I was very shocked to discover it was a home recording. This is a fantastic sounding album that's well mixed and produced professionally. The 10 songs feature adept guitar work, head-banging concert friendly tunes and soaring harmonies. Unlike many bands out there, I am happy to report that the album yields a fair representation of what the band sound like live. Furthermore, the album itself contains 2 quicktime movie videos.

If you like groups like Killing Joke, Ministry or Motorhead, you'll probably love PAIL. Frankly, if you've got any leanings towards goth rock, punk or metal, you'll enjoy these guys. I personally think the sound construction is similar Lacuna Coil with the female harmonies and they cite Filter as an influence, but frankly, Mike Titsworth has a much richer deeper vox than those two.

The lyrical content is definitely noteworthy and I'm glad they're included them the liners. Morgan and Titsworth are able to conjure interesting imagery through their words urging the listener to track back and reinterpret the possible alternate meanings. Take the song "Bitter End" for instance:

The bitter end was sweet like the fruit that fell from the trees
Meat from the apple had rotten away, dusted the breeze
And from this end came seeds that would later lay flowers at her feet
Everything that I've heard heard about fresh start tears me apart
because all my fears approach as the bitter end nears
I'll tell you why
Listen
You wonder why I break my heart?
So you won't die
I wonder how a fresh start could open our eyes and make us realize
Just a kiss for the kids
Time waits for no one
and that end was this
Just a kiss to set her free from the likes of me


Band Members:
Benjamin Morgan - Guitar
Mike Titsworth -Vox, Guitar
Rachel Titsworth - Keyboard, Vox
Brad Schumerbeck - Drums
Shannon Deane - Bass
Russell McCoy - Guitar

Upcoming Shows:
July 20th @ 10pm Red Eye Fly (Austin, TX)
August 24 @ 10pm Elysium (Austin, TX)

Listen to:
"The Bitter End"
"The Line"

Watch:
PAIL performing an older song called "New" live:


Visit:
PAIL's official website (you can purchase albums through their official website)
PAIL's Myspace
PAIL's Garage Band Profile


(photo by Ricardo Acevedo)

Before I'm 100% done with this post, let me vent a bit...

It's took me a while to write up this review because of the circumstances surrounding my experience with PAIL's release of The Last Soundtrack. Although the concert surrounding the release was entertaining, it was entertaining and energy packed for all the wrong reasons. Fortunately, that had nothing to do with the band's performance (which was darn good given what they had to work with).

DON'T EVER LET A SPANKING NEW SOUND GUY HANDLE SETUP FOR A BAND'S CD RELEASE PARTY.

There, I said it.

Now, I don't know the whole story surrounding why the usual sound guy wasn't there, but as an outsider I was definitely a little vexed. Not only is it unfair for the band, it makes the venue seem unprofessional and ill prepared, pisses off an ass load of fans and makes the musicians cranky, fucking nervous and/or livid. The release extravaganza at Elysium was on June 15th and PAIL was the headliner with two supporting acts that are in my top 10 list of Austin Bands, Chant and subNatural. which would have been a phenomenal experience. But given that sound check didn't end until 9:45pm and SubNatural was supposed to go on at 10:00, the show was delayed by a full hour. Furthermore, Chant didn't even get a sound check which baffles me given the complexity of the multiple percussion rigs. I would imagine they're not that easy to mic. This oversight led to Bradley only being able to hear a screeching loud version of himself and himself only through the right channel of his IEM, which doesn't quite work when your show is dependent on precision and the need to hear a backing track. Well shit...you can imagine tempers were flying and things were tense. The audience was right there with the musicians emotionally the whole way through though.

How did they handle all of this?

Sammi will probably give more detail at some point, but Bradley/Chant took the angry route, banging on his cans with more ferocity than ever and yelling at the sound guy to fix the levels on his IEM while still playing, SubNatural just made the best of things and eventually the lead, Ritch, went off and took matters into his own hands and usurped the sound booth. PAIL laughed things off despite the fact that the first 2 songs of the set were laden with feedback, the bass kept cutting in and out, and no one could hear Mike's vox.

I have to say though, the line "My x-girlfriend got fucked in the nose by a monkey" caught me off guard while he yammered with the audience. We all got fucked in the nose, so to speak, but you know these are seasoned performers when they can take a bad situation and turn it into something memorable.

Cuteoverload

Ha! Etouffee's baby (the white one) is on Cute Overload now thanks to darlin hubby. Just scroll down to June 29th and read the comments. But of course a kitten sucking it's thumbs is a cute thing. I feel so proud of her. She's got internet fame before reaching 2 weeks old! My hand is famous. :) We're beaming of course...and we didn't even birth her.

The party of all parties: intemperance and turning 30

I should probably start by saying my actual birthday is July 6th, so I'm technically still 29. But, I did party like it was the very end of my 20's on Saturday.



First off: I love my friends. I really do. I love what they do for me. I love what they put up with and I love the fact that I can easily love them back. My best friend Shawn drove 650 miles over 10 hrs from Kansas to be here for my party and drove back the next day so he could teach his next class. Dearest Monica and her hubby Blake put in countless hours to help me with food preparation. My husband calmly sat through with my wailing when the cake people misspelled my name all while my wonderful brother was chewing them out over the phone.


Sammi, Shawn and I (aka the Adzuki Bean Stash writers)




Don't mess with the King of the grill!


Monnie helping with pics.


With darling Hubby.

Those tokens of friendship and caring manifested itself in subtler ways all night too and not just with actual gift (although I received many amazing gifts): Troy pulling back my hair for me while I strapped on Dimitri's accordion. Sammi giving me an honest-to-god kiss for celebration's sake and singing in front of everyone with her big hearty voice. Kate hooking a necklace clasp for me so I could try on the new gift Marilyn game me. All those friends who lugged their instruments and gear only to get trapped into an accidental 45 minute homage to "Another One Bites the Dust" (or "Another one Rides the Bus" depending on where you swing). All those friends who took the time to make me something. All those friends who laughed with me no matter how stupid the situation was. All those earnest hugs, pecks and spontaneous inside jokes...yes, I definitely felt loved.






Dimitri and Cindy, accordion playing crime fighting duo.








With my baby cousin Eric


With Ritch


With Sarah


With Kate


With Mark


With Jay...aww he's blushing. Or maybe he drank too much bourbon.


With Roger and Summer

I think about my work friends, the parents with their beautiful babies, the vast number of my musician buddies with their sacrosanct weekend schedules, the over 50 crowd and the under 25-ers, people I've known for more than a decade and those I've only known for months. I think of them along with the wild party queens, the restrained goths and my super-shy introverted companions all joining together despite the disparate social circles to help create the memory of my celebration. With that, I feel so appreciated.

Matt and Lane


With Brent


With Vickie, Quinlan and Kyung (the awesome boss I speak of frequently)


With Marilyn and Eddie.


The dashing Dan, me and Sandy with the needle point gift from her and Beth.


With Beth (who I often feel is my mom away from home)


With Claudia


With Bradley


Kyung and Quinlain


With Juliet


Ross and Juliet


With Bobby and Elizabeth


Sophia serenading us.


Phil and Angie.


With Troy and Alice.

The second, and somewhat less sophisticated musing I take from all of this is that I am never getting drunk again. Ever.

If you recall, I've never been drunk before. I usually just get tired and fall asleep consequently bypassing the stupid tipsy dumb-blonde phase. This time around, however, I succeeded in getting piss-ass drunk, trashed and as a result, puking my guts up the next morning. Why would any college student want to do this on a regular basis is beyond me.

Alcohol is evil, I say! Behold the beautiful, poised, graceful me oozing with temperance prior to consumption:


After about 5 mix drinks, a couple of beers, champagne, wine and Jay's bourbon, I was reduced to this pile of babbling shit, cute shit mind you, but still babbling and I don't really know what the fuck I was talking about:

You can just see it in Jay's eyes as he pleads with my husband:
"Awkward...please get your inebriated wife off of my [manly] lap so I can finish my drink."

Again. Sober and beautiful:


Versus plastered and pathetic:


Let this be a lesson to you kiddos. Don't get drunk if ya wanna look hot all night. It just doesn't work. Besides, large amounts of alcohol leads you to do things like...

Play your harp with a goofy grin:


Think a cat book is the funnist damn thing in the world:


Contemplate why:


Continually jam to "Another One Bites the Dust" even though it isn't that great of a song:


Howl at the moon:


Forget which bearded man is your husband:


Flash your naughty bits:


Dance like there's no tomorrow:


Start ranting about the evils of the recording industry...oh wait you can do that sober:


Attempt to drink and smoke while on a swingset:


Stare off into space:


Take really bad photos:


On a different note, I should point out that Etouffee's kittens were a hit. We had groups of people come up to visit her in the master bathroom closet where she decided to set up camp.






As for food, well, I over prepared, as expected. And of course, the bulk of my friends are food people as well, so they brought stuff. I can't even begin to go into all the wastage and my heart feels for those starving kids in China right about now. However, a good portion, such as the BBQ was salvageable.



We did manage to drink all the alcohol though.

This is just a small sampling of pics taken that day. We took over 300 and then I uploaded around 180 onto Flickr. I think they capture the night really well and there are more pics of jam sessions, party goers, food details etc. I wish I took a photo with Monica, but we were both so busy making sure the party was going smoothly that we actually didn't cross paths.

Visit:
Cindy Adzuki's 30th Birthday Photo Album (Static Version)
Cindy Adzuki's 30th Birthday Photo Album (Slideshow Version)

To all my friends and family who came out to make this day special to me, I love you dearly. Thanks so much.