Category: Uncategorized

My cousin in North Dakota has posted some photos of the flood on Flickr. If you are interested, follow the link form her blog post.

It has come to my attention that the form on our “contact us” page is not working. Sorry if you tried to reach us and were unable to. I am working on fixing the problem.

***Edit 4/11/09*** Everything appears to be working now ***End Edit***

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, William!!!  William is in Dallas to celebrate this weekend, so we plan to eat some good food, have some good cake or sweets and see several movies (William’s favorite pasttime). We will try to take pictures and post later.

Why do I live in a place where a blizzard can occur during late March?

A good friend of mine received the University of Denver Community Service Award this past week. If you have time, take a few minutes to read his post about it here and follow the link to the university’s write up on him and his work in the community.

Well… we already know that one of the main bloggers on this site is not a fan of Facebook, but I have enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, even if only to say hi and see where they live now and see pictures of their kids.  I said I would never join Facebook, but I actually like it and can stay connected with a few people I would not otherwise.  One of the most popular notes on Facebook, which once upon a time traveled around on e-mail is the “25 Random Things” note.  William suggested I post mine on the blog for all the non Facebook members.  So here it is…perhaps you will learn something new about me.  Perhaps my husband will write 25 random things about him… perhaps not. 🙂

25 Random Things about Kyllan

1. I have never had a pet before (not even a fish).
2. I have the same middle name as my mother and sister. My daughter will not share a middle name with her mother, grandmother and aunt.
3. I am a very organized person at home. My closet is color coded, and also sorted by tanks, short sleeve, ¾ sleeve, long sleeve, sweaters… in that order. In my pantry… all the labels are facing out so I can read them. My DVDs are in alphabetical order. I do not consider myself obsessive/compulsive… just a fan of order.
4. I have to create lists for myself to stay on task and make sure I get things accomplished. I will not feel good about my day unless I get something crossed off the list.
5. My husband is one of the most intelligent people I know, and that is not just because he chose me for his wife.
6. Babies make me smile and for that one split moment… I think….awww… I want one. But… we are not ready for kids, so we are going to wait a little longer.
7. I have started trying a new recipe each week and have found I really enjoy cooking. I wish I had the opportunity to cook more.
8. If I were not in my current occupation, I would want to travel the world, take photographs, and write for Foder’s or Frommer’s or some sort of travel guide.
9. My husband and I dream of owning property in Turks and Caicos and somewhere along the South Coast of France.
10. I dream of going back to Turks and Caicos or the southern coast of France at least once a day.
11. I was born in Cleveland, but raised in Texas and therefore consider myself a Texan.
12. I frequently lack thirst… I can go almost all day with nothing to drink. I do not drink coffee and am not really addicted to soft drinks or anything like that. I know this is not good for me and am working on drinking water more frequently.
13. I LOVE sweets… soft baked cookies, brownies, Italian Cream Cake, Carrot Cake (as long as it is moist), molten lava cake, Lindor truffles… wow… I am completely addicted.
14. I hate cold weather and seem to frequently be cold. I wear socks to bed year round b/c my feet are always cold… like ice cubes… seriously.
15. I wear size 11 shoes. So does Michelle Obama.
16. I cry when I laugh, even when I am not laughing that hard. I just produce a lot of tears.
17. I am becoming more and more of a “home body” (mainly b/c my job can be exhausting at times and I just want to veg in front of the tv)and am perfectly fine with that.
18. I like to write in blue ink.
19. I have to take a shower every morning, even if I took one the night before. It is like my coffee. It gets me going (at least for about 30-45 minutes).
20. I set my alarm to go off at least 15-30 minutes ahead of when I need to wake up on purpose so that I can snooze. I have been known to snooze for over an hour, but I know that absolute latest time I can sleep.
21. I try to head to bed by 11pm, but it is typically closer to midnight or later that I actually make it there.
22. I like for all my clocks to be synchronized with the atomic clock in my kitchen. The clock on the microwave, oven, IPOD dock, etc… MUST be the same.
23. I hate being late. I often am late running to meetings throughout the day, but I really don’t like to be late.
24. My mother and sister are extremely creative and have that Martha Stewart like trait. I did not get that trait.
25. I have not lived in the same city as my husband since December 2003. We have been happily married for 18 months. We are only apart b/c he is finishing his PhD program in Denver. Absence does make the heart grow fonder and b/c of the distance, we talk constantly and never have time to argue. I can’t wait until we are in the same city…which should be very soon.

This set of photos from President Obama’s inauguration is proably the most interesting I’ve seen. The geek in me would also like direct you to this picture, taken with the GigaPan, and this picture,  assembled from 613 individual photos with photosynth. If you can’t figure out what the big deal is about the gigapan shot, zoom in… and then keep zooming.

This is completely random… One of the things that Kyllan and I want to do this year is keep a closer eye on our budget. The economy is killing our dreams of early retirement. I recently started using quicken online and really like it. With just your account information, it automatically details out your spending over the past several months and generates different charts showing spending trends. It uses those trends to setup budgets for categories like entertainment or dinning out and an overall budget. It will keep track on how well you are sticking with that budget as the month goes on. I don’t want to sound like an infomercial, so I will stop there. I like it, so I thought I would share… It’s free.

Yesterday was a wonderful celebration of a long journey (one that started long before President Obama’s announced his candidacy for President).  It was such a wonderful thing to witness, whether in person or on television or the Internet.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching the events.  Despite the fact I had to work, we have a television in our office and myself and several colleagues watched the ceremony in the midst of a busy work day.  After the acceptance speech, I didn’t even have words to say.  All I could do was reflect on such a powerful moment.

Given the historic nature of the event and the excitement in the air, my sister and I decided to attend an Inaugural Ball here in Dallas at the House of Blues.  We celebrated with food, dancing, entertainment, networking, and the hope of extraordinarily great things to come.  We had a great time!  I posted pictures on my flickr page.

I was so motivated at work today while thinking about the aggressive agenda President Obama had today on day 1 of his new job.  I was so inspired to push myself harder and I know I am not the only one who feels that way.  I simply cannot wait to see what is  in store during the Obama Administration.  Being a political science major, I wish, just for this instance, that I was a member of the Executive Office of the President.  How incredibly challenging, but wonderful that would be!