btw - lee, don't read the previous post

it involves breasts, namely, mine. i hope i got to you in time.
sincerely,
-ashley

goin' back to TA-HO, to TA-HO, to TA-HO

Tahoe, here we come! JR and I are renting a condo in Tahoe this weekend with Lindsey & Angela, and Alex & Jasmin. Oh the drinking to be done! We got a condo for 6 at Granlibakken, which looks really cool.

We've got a lot to do today before we head out - get the oil changed, finish laundry and packing, pick up a prescription, pick up a package from the post office, drop off Winston at a new PetHotel, go to JR's boss's party for a while, and buy liquor and wine and snacks and alcohol. Did I mention the alcohol? For there will be hot tubs.

Awww yeahhh.

gone skiing (sort of)

And... we're off! For the Forsythe annual ski trip! And the "sort of" part is because I don't actually ski. I tend to get drastically injured just walking, and I almost split myself in half AND broke both feet off at the top of my ski boots last time I tried. And I tried HARD! (But I literally thought, "This is it, both of my legs are going to snap off at the ski boot, because it is physically impossible for my skis to remain horizontal, with my boots remaining vertical, while I am prone and wrapped around something that shouldn't be on a bunny slope.") Actually, I think my actual thoughts (and what came out of my mouth) was more akin to "fuck! fuck! fuck! ohmigod! fuck! fuckfuckfuck! FUCK!!!" (rinse and repeat.)

So these days I kick back with hot toddies in front of the fire and read a book or surf the interwebs or take photos or nap, and stay nice and warm all day until all the friends and family come home, freezing and windburned and wet. Then we eat good food, drink, and play games of great hilarity. It will be so terrific to see everyone!

We're at the airport right now, and we board our plane soon. We fly into Albuquerque (via Phoenix) and then we're renting a car to drive to Red River. Five people, all their ski gear and miscellany, in an SUV. That should be fun AND comfortable. Let it be known: I'm pre-calling shotgun.

Enjoy the weekend full of torrential rain, SFers! See you soon! And don't even try to break into our house while we're gone, you nefarious thieves - we have a ferocious cat guarding the place (you don't want to fuck with the Mercury), and a cat sitter who ranks just behind Merc in don't-fuck-with-ness. Hi cat sitter! (You know who you are.) Thank you!

Wow - I feel so much better! I've been holding back on the obscenities recently, which (let's face it) goes against my nature. What a relief!

congrats, stovall!

I just have to give a shout out to my friend Jon, who finally (FINALLY!!!) left "that company" for a great new job at Rackspace. So now, instead of looking at spreadsheets all day long, he will be doing amazing things with his exceptional design skills.



Cheers, Jon! I wish you the best!

happy birthday, jr!!!

Well, we did it! We successfully pulled off a surprise party for JR tonight! Despite a close call when Shannon hadn't gotten my e-mail yet and kept saying, "Absolutely! We'll go celebrate your birthday with you on Friday night!", and Aaron kept saying, "But that's date night. We can't go.", and the back and forth of "We can do date night any night!" and "We'll see...", he was still surprised. He had no idea.

The plan was for just JR and I to go to dinner at Kookez and then to go see a movie, just the two of us. Unbeknownst to him, Deano and Shyer had made a cake, and Aaron and Shannon were waiting for us at a special table at Kookez, with balloons and everything, even a mug full of sugar-free candy. We had a nice long dinner with all our bestest friends, drinking wine and beer, and JR and I took a night off from our diet.

Deano and Shy put 31 candles on the beautiful cake Shy had made, and brought it out in a fiery blaze. :) The cake was delicious! After we had our cake, we all counted through the candles and recounted our entire lives up to this point. JR started it off, and he noted the last 2 candles as the best years, starting when he met the best girl. I'm totally keeping those 2 candles.

I love you, JR. Happy Birthday. Best years of my life too. And only more to come.

just a regular ol' tuesday

Today is just like any other Tuesday, except Aaron & Shannon are looking at a rental just a few blocks away this morning that we really hope will be THE ONE, and tonight is the Google Dance.

It's been really nice having Aaron & Shannon in again; we can get a glimpse of what we've really been missing this whole time - close friends to go to dinner with, or have movie nights with, or get smashingly drunk with at a moments notice. Last night we took the bus and then walked to a great little restaurant at Market and Church called Chow. It's one of those places that we've always wanted to go, just never taken the opportunity. It was yummy: really good food was eaten, and Stella Artois was consumed. Ahhhh... A week or so ago we got a taste of how nice it is to have friends so close after going over to Rick's place to learn how to play craps - you can have a great time, consume too many alcoholic bevs, and WALK HOME. We really, REALLY hope they get this apartment a few blocks away.

Also, going rental-hunting with them this weekend was very eye-opening. Read Aaron's description of it: it's dead-on. Each one had something perfect AND something absolutely intolerable. The land-lady at one was like something out of a movie. You can't write characters that are that freaky.

Although this wouldn't happen any other time, they also saved me from a street-cleaning day parking ticket yesterday. Our neighbor Pam came banging on the door to let them know my car was still on the street, and they moved it and then moved it back. Yay!!!

The other part of the normalcy of the day is Google Dance tonight, where a gazillion SES Conference attendees come to the G-plex to drink and rabble-rouse and see all kinds of cool stuff and listen to good music. Depending on the amount of alcohol consumed, there may be actual dancing. We'll see. And then I get to ride the shuttle home, so I don't have to worry about driving. I love that! Plus, I get a cool t-shirt. And come on, that's really what it's all about.

Hopefully I'll get good photos tonight and then be the responsible blogging/flickring adult that I'm supposed to be and immediately upload them and blog about the event. Why they have to do this on a Tuesday night is beyond me.

Between 10am and 6pm though, it really is just a normal day. Maybe I need to find some way to become involved in organizing of these things, because just talking about tonight makes me feel like today is a blow-off day. I'd rather be helping set it up than doing my regular work.

So, be sending your good vibes our way at around 10am Pacific time, because that's when A&S see the last place.

And, after re-reading this post, I see that the repeating thread is alcohol consumption... Here's to a less alcohol-related post in the future. *clink*

congratulations, aaron!!!

Congrats are in order for my good friend Aaron, who has gotten a fantastic position with Ironport | Cisco, and will be moving to SF with his GF Shannon in September. This makes JR and me giddy with delight - it will be great to have old friends in our "new" city.

They were here visiting just a week or so ago, and they went to all those great events with us: the opening of the Dark Matters showing at YBCA, and the Laughing Squid party at Flora Grubb Gardens (see my earlier post). We also dropped by Jenna's for one night of Brett's Birthday Week extravaganza, and had a great time.

When they headed out, they ended up on the plane from hell, and were stuck on the runway for four hours in Disco Plane 2, Electric Boogaloo. Seriously. FOUR HOURS. Of that! I would have lost my mind, and that would be after having a seizure.

Aaron has been quite the jetsetter, because the day after they got back to SA, he turned around and came back out here for a full day of interviews, and since it's a great company and work environment, he fit in and they loved him. Of course, he couldn't get out of SF without more plane trouble, so after JR dropped him off and got back to work, he called to ask JR to come get him, because his flight had been canceled and he couldn't get out until the next day. That sucks, but it gave us an evening to celebrate with a positively glowing Aaron.

I can't stress enough how excited we are to have Aaron and Shannon moving out here. It will be fun helping them find a place to live, and then introducing them to all our favorite SF spots. And it doesn't hurt that that makes one more smart and talented person leaving that company - you know the one.

So congrats, Aaron! You rock!

jonstovall is a stone. cold. bitch.

See the comments on my previous entry to know why I'm pulling him into a room and asking him if there is a dagger he would like to remove from my back.

"i work at an internet company"

I'm losing track of all the funnies from a friend of mine about working at a company that has made it it's mission to be an "internet company"...

• I can't read Twitter because I work at an Internet Company.
• I can't see Flickr because I work at an Internet Company.
• I can't use Campfire because I work at an Internet Company.
• I can't see YouTube because I work at an Internet Company.
• I can't use Gtalk because I work at an Internet Company.
• I can't see Vimeo because I work at an Internet Company.

What's next? "I can't access the internet because I work at an Internet Company."???

This just begs for a "redneck" kind of joke:

"You know you don't work at an internet company if..."

sxswi 2007

Well, we're back. Great panels, great schmoozing, got to see some of my own personal internet rockstars, and drank til the wee hours. Incredible parties. Check out some of the photos:

Flickr Set: SXSWi 07

So far, I've only uploaded the ones from my powershot. I still have to upload the ones from my Rebel.

After the conference was over, JR and I headed for San Antone to see family and friends. I got to see my dad's new house (amazing!). My sister Karolyn came down from Houston one night. And we had such a great time with our friends! Hi friends! :)

That's all for now. I'll tell you how I torqued my back while crashing to my knees (busting my right knee for the THIRD time now), but it'll have to wait.

gone skiin'

I am off for the "Something-th Annual Forsythe Family & Friends Ski-stravaganza and Get Yer Drunk On". I coined that name myself, so don't hold JR's parents responsible. I also think it requires "jazz hands" on the "-stravaganza" part, but whatever; do what you like.

There will be so many of us there we had to rent 3 houses!!! I'm so looking forward to seeing everybody! I myself do not ski, but there are plenty of other things to do, like ... drink hot spiked cider while I read by the fire, and ... play drinking games at night!

There will actually be fun stuff for the cripplingly clumsy, like snow tubing and maybe some snowmobiling. Hmmm... I wonder if those require coordination after all... Anyhoo, this trip is a big, snowy-white, blank page waiting to be filled. Yippee!!!

joe and jr at lime

joe and jr at lime, originally uploaded by ashleyv.

Last weekend our friend Joe came to SF for Adaptive Path's MX conference. While he was here, we got to take him out on the town. We had dinner at Fresca (ask him about "horrifying fish platter"), drinks at lime, and the next night, dinner at Empress of China, on the top floor of a building in Chinatown, with a great view of the city and the bay. It was great to see him, and it made us miss our friends and family in San Antone. If only Julee could've come with him. We miss her too!