The Kirtsy/Alltop Party

This past BlogHerBlogShe weekend was super swell.
So swell it may take more three months to process and/or recover.
Starting with the Kirtsy/Alltop party.

Last spring, Guy asked us kirtsy chicks if we'd like to help him host a party at his house. We thought about it for about a millisecond and started screaming YES!!! in his general direction. And then we started planning. With two great sponsors, YouData (my new favorite company, great people!) and ListenShare (amazingly fantastic folks and friends) With five incredible artisanal wine sponsors from California like Palmeri and Terriors. And Israeli Wine Direct. With tons of great people and food and fun. And 500 swell swag bags for this party and the People's Party. It was an amazing night. Check it.

Starting with these videos from Jesse.

And these stolen photos from Guy.
The buttons.

The YouData Tshirt Swag Prep

Kristen

A Few Fab Kirtsy Editors
(more here)

And from Jordan
(The brilliance behind so much of the party...
including the amazing red lanterns)


The vintage red sign in typewriter

The paella

And from Rohit.
(more here)

If pictures are worth 1,000 words, then I just wrote a novel.
(But here's one more, maybe my favorite.)

I'm Limping and Gasping and Stretching to Make It Until Next Week

I have officially been blogging two years. That's right. 738 days. In fact, I missed my blogiversary (a word I love like blogsylvania, blogtastic and blogtard) on July 1 and I missed about 34 days of blogging since the last day I posted something. Because I'm awesome.

But dude, I've been busy.

With various and random things. Like stuff. And having TERRIBLE photos of myself plastered in the Sunday Chronicle (They used a fisheye lens! For reals y'all! A farking fish eye lens!). And going to fab video game parties across state lines (I know! Totally geektastic!) and giving away four Nintendo DS Lites this week (Go now. You can totally win. They're great, and you're talking to the converted.) And like a million other things I can't remember right now because my brain has been sucked out by aliens. I swear that is happening while I sleep.

But I'm limping in to the break station on this marathon. A break station with lemon martinis and geeks. A place otherwise known as San Francisco. I'll be there next week to get refreshed, recharged and ready to roll into another great year in Blogsylvania. (I'm looking forward to getting back to the Queso.) It's going to be blogtastic.

Happy Happy

So much to celebrate.

Kirtsy is One.

And the 19th Amendment is Eighty Nine.

Which means thanks to 19,

I can vote for Barack Obama!

Whoohoo! 

Celebrate good times come on.

Memorable Margs

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you're all out and about and far away from a computer. We have been. Far away riding boats and watching movies and being lazy. But now we're back, so it's high time to break out The Padrino's famous marg recipe. And it is as follows:

The Padrino's Famous Marg Recipe

1 can frozen Minute Maid Limeade

1 limeade can of tequila

1/2 limeade can Triple Sec

1 limeade can of water

Juice of two limes

Mix all ingredients in a pitcher. Drink.

You can thank me later.

("This recipe is the concentrate for frozen margs in a blender with ice. If you drink them on the rocks, like any decent person should, you are supposed to add 1 to 2 more cans of water.")

Or you can do like we do and forget to add the water. Because we always forget, and then we're all, "Wow. The Padrino likes 'em strong." 

And then we just drink them anyway.

So Happy Memorial Day...now go out and create some memories! 

And then promptly forget them.

Welcome To My Week

I feel like I'm just waking up, and it's almost Friday. How did that happen? Where did this week go? Well, I'll tell you where it went.

Monday: Sk*rt became Kirtsy. Letters got rearranged. The site address is different. But basically everything else is the same. I've been pretty silent about this process, but I definitely do have a few things to say about it. I'll post about the whole thing next week

Tuesday: I read this fantastic book called Were You Raised by Wolves? Clues to the Mysteries of Modern Living by Christie Mellor. This book is hilarious. It's also now my official must-buy gift for 20 somethings graduating from college and/or entering into the life force. I'm posting a review on it that I did for Parent Bloggers Network on Cool Stuff today.

Wednesday: Speaking of our 20s, some friends of mine and I were interviewed by the Houston Chronicle about how we used to watch Sex and the City every Sunday night a decade ago (a DECADE ago!)...and how our lives have changed since the show first came on the air. I almost didn't agree to do the article for obvious reasons. Oh the cliches abound. We're just hoping the article doesn't take any scary turns, but instead talks about how important girlfriends are. Because girlfriends are. Important. (We're doing a photo shoot for it next week. And I'll post the final results, assuming there are no double chins involved.)

Thursday: I went the entire day without drinking coffee. No one knows why. 

Friday:  We are driving to Tulsa to attend a wedding. Because that's what we do. I hope to have some mad-cap zany adventures to share next week (and photos with lots of single chins).  I mean, it is Tulsa people. Par-tay. I can't wait to see what happens.

What Makes A Mother?

Reposted from last mothers day ...

Someone asked me, "What Makes You a Mother?" And here I am coming up on my second Mother's Day as a mom, and I have no idea how to answer this question.

Because obviously there isn't an answer.

At least if there is, I don't completely understand it.

After all, it's not about being pregnant and having a baby. Because of course, you don't need to do these two things to be a mother. That said, I've been pregnant three times. I have one beautiful son. And even as I type this, I'm literally shedding tears for the other two babies I lost. Because I was their mother. And I celebrate them too this weekend.

It's also not about doing anything. Because there are a million ways to do everything, and I'm guessing at least 96% of the options are completely valid, good, and right.

So I guess being a mother is mainly about the being. And, as they say, being is mainly about being present in any given moment. But in this moment, as I sit here two days before my second Mother's Day, my precious little boy is spending two days with his grandmother and grandfather, and the HcQ and I are having our first ever childless vacation at home. Which means I'm not presently being in any moment with my child. It also means I slept in past 7:30 a.m. for the first time in 19 months. I woke up on my own, without my Hurricane alarm clock. And I made coffee before I changed a diaper. It's been an incredibly lazy morning, just the kind I like.

However, as I sit here drinking that coffee (and typing), I swear I keep thinking I hear the little whimpers my beautiful little son makes when he wakes from a sleepy nap. And then, I realize he's not here right now, and I have that oh darn feeling, like when you wake up from a great dream and realize you aren't really George Clooney's girlfriend. That's what I'm experiencing.

See, even though I can do whatever I want today, I keep thinking about what he's doing. In fact, I'm seriously resisting the urge to call my mom and see what they're doing right now. And I can't wait to see him tomorrow.

Because my thoughts are always with him. And even though my life doesn't revolve around and through him (because that's pressure he doesn't need), his is a very cherished room in our incredibly way full busy, beloved, and blessed house.

And even though on any given day, I would and will daydream for a day like this and remember my open-schedule days of yesteryear with blissful longing and a rose-colored sigh...here I am.

Enjoying the eye of the storm, but really missing the Hurricane.

Because I'm no longer that person of yesteryear. My heart has added an extra room.

And whether I completely understand it or not, I'm changed.

And that's what makes me a mother.

A Vacation In My House

I'll admit it. The past two weeks have been pretty rough. I've had a lot going on at work. A lot going on at home. A lot going on between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. A lot of goings on running around in my brain. And I was tired.

Worn out.

I might even use the word, overwhelmed.

And by last Friday, I was borderline useless. A lump of pathetic, waking up at the dawn of crack with the most energetic cavetoddler on the planet. 

It occurred to me then that a look at the two of us was a poloroid of extremes. My husband got the picture. And said, "That's it." He took the Hurricane to his mom's this weekend with orders that I was to rest and sleep and do fun things only. He said, "Do. Not. Work. I mean it. No working. Only sleeping."

This is only one reason why he is my favorite person on the planet. 

And so I had a vacation. At home.

And about 10 minutes into the silence, I realized it was the first time I've been alone in my home since August of 2005.

Almost three years. And that made me cry. With joy. And with exhaustion. And from a truly grateful place, I was thankful for the 1,000 plus days of movement and noise and cra-za-zy from the commotion of souls. And extremely thankful for the 24 hours of silence.

Shame Shame Everyone Knows Your Name

Shame is the new Hitler. 

That's right. I said it.

It's garbage. And the word is out. Out. We're on to the crap shame creates. And we're so over it. 

This generation. Our generation. We're taking it down.

I see the rumblings and movings of this everywhere.  And I know, I know, I know that a movement is starting. A change in the way we look at the world and each other.  A movement, people! 

Maybe. 

If we keep talking about it.

And Brene' Brown is talking about it.  (I heard her speak last week. She's absolutely amazing. She blogs too! Follow her. I'll be talking much more about her later this week. Watch for it.)

Chris Rock's mom is talking about it. (Check out her book...review and GIVEAWAY on cool stuff today. It's seriously seriously good. )

And I'm telling you people, the shame is going down. We know its name. And its name is dead to us. You watch. 

Things will change.

Join the movement.

Loves Me Some Corn Dog

Where The Heck Have You Been?!!!

This is the question that I got asked this week. A lot. A real whole lot.

Because, sure, I did unintentionally take a little hiatus for three weeks. The longest amount of time since I started this bad boy two years ago. But it was an accident. Sort of.

See, I just didn't post for a couple of days, which turned into a week, which turned into another and so on. And you were cool about it. Until this week. Then I started getting the question. A lot. A few of my favorites.

"What happened to the Queso? I haven't seen you post in a while? Or is this one of those nightmare things where your family moves and no one bothers to tell you?" -Em

"Did you die. Write me and tell me if you did."  Isobel

"I'm sick of that yoga lady picture. Make it stop."  Rebecca

"Dude." -Jenny, the Bloggess

So I'm back. If anyone's still out there checking to see if the yoga lady picture is gone, or at least lower on the page. 

Here's a look at what I was doing while I was unexpectedly away:

1. Not blogging. I was twittering some and sk*rting a bit. But just not blogging. No one knows why. Not even me.

2. I have become addicted to a dumb show on iTunes (and probably on TV somewhere) called Greek. It's like 90210 but with frat houses and text messaging. In other words, it's completely craptastic and totally not worth blogging about. Unless some of the rest of you watch it. And then, let's talk about Cappie and why he's so completely repulsive and yet attractive. Weird. And Rebecca? What's up with her? And how can you not love Dale the Bible kid? For starters.

3. I went to New York to see friends and ended up working some. And talking on the phone a lot. About work. I also went to a super fun sk*rt meetup. So there was that. 

4. I hung around with Jenny.  She did not slash my tires.  She's all talk.  Or type. Whatever.

5. I re-read the book The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center. Because tonight sk*rt is doing a LIVE book party with Katherine. That's right LIVE. Its going to be like American Idol. And the presidential debates. So I'm expecting some fantastic singing and name calling about who's the better American. Or maybe just book talk over mexican food and beer. This will be taking place in Texas after all, where everything happens over mexican food and beer. It's just what we do.  Want to join us? Visit sk*rt tonight at 8 p.m. Central (9 Eastern, 7 Mountain, etc.)

6. Lots of other things. So I'll have a lot to say. I'm back.

Six Simple Words Can Communicate Volumes.

Last summer I met Larry Smith of Smith Magazine, the purveyors of the six-word essay. You know. It is all the rage. And the gist is pretty obvious. You tell a story in six.

Like for Eliot Spitzer: She wasn't worth the hourly rate. See? Get it?

It's very Zen. And speaking of. I was in a Bikram yoga class last weekend doing the 26 poses, slipping into a heat-induced purple haze when I started thinking in six words. Maybe it was a Zen thing. Maybe I didn't have enough liquid in my brain, but I started to think. In sixes. And then I thought, six words is way more than enough to communicate what is really important in life. In fact, we should all stick to the sixes. Or even fewer. And start to consciously communicate more with less. Like...

You are one of my favorite people.
I'm lucky to know you.
You are enough.
I love you.
You matter.
Breathe.

Ah. Zen. Wouldn't the world be such a better place if we all practiced it. If we were more succinct. More direct. More with less. And then I thought, wow, yoga really does do wonders for your soul.

And then the instructor came over, looked at me with sympathy and spoke a volume with six simple words...

'Hi, this is the advanced class.'

Nice.

So much for Zen.

(Sorry Karen! Love you!)

Balls.

Okay sure, I know nothing about sports. But I do know that they're really popular with the kids these days. And other people too. Maybe.

I also know these things:

1. The Dynamo won their CONCACAF quarterfinal game against Guatemala's Municipal team last night. So there's that. Plus, while witnessing this, I consumed an artificially-colored bright orange margarita. You know. Team spirits.

2. The Final Four. Or Sweet Sixteen. Or Awesome Eight. Or whatever. It's happening now. And if you're like the HcQ, you are flying to Tulsa to watch your favorite team that's playing in Washington D.C. And really, I don't ask. I just assume that televisions and high-definition technologies are far superior in Oklahoma. Because obviously that would be so.

3. I just heard about this excellent way to potentially win tickets to the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship South Regional Finals on both March 28 and March 30 2008. Check it out. If you can't watch the games televised in Tulsa, you might seriously consider trying to win this chance to see them live in Houston.

4. Over an impromptu dinner tonight with these girls, I learned that Rockets Power Dancers might have drunkorexia because they allegedly love a new drink that I like to call The Drunkorexia because it only contains 40 calories. That's less than 100-calorie Pringles, y'all. Do the math. And making the soon-to-be-famous Drunkorexia, is actually simpler than math. Of course. You just combine water, Absolut Citron and two lemon segments in a glass. And bam. Drunkorexia. Serve it with heaping yummy bowls of air. And enjoy.

5. Of course, if all sports featured antics like this, I'd watch more sports.

6. And that's all I've got on sports.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Five years ago today, I said a prayer of thanks and excitement and blessing in St. Patrick's Cathedral right after my favorite person surprised me in Central Park with a ring and a question.

I answered with a yes.

And I've been thankful ever since. And I can't think of a better reason to celebrate with green beer. Lots and lots of green beer.

Sk*rt Cupcakes and Unicorns Go Together Like Sarah Jessica and Parker.

The sk*rt get together, sponsored by Everyday Food, was all that. There were goody bags. There were freebies. There were cupcakes. Plus also a unicorn. We had a fantastic time meeting sk*rt users, eating breakfast and handing out super-cool swag. It was such a great way to start the morning — thanks for joining us!

10 lucky winners received a one-year subscription to Everyday Food plus a goody bag with two super-cool items: a counter top magazine holder (to rest your latest issue of the magazine against while you’re cooking), and a darling green storage box sized to fit a whole year’s worth of Everyday Food — plus, everybody who dropped by was delighted to receive a copy of the lastest issue.

SXSWi is the kind of place where crazy is the norm. So when the unicorn (who was popping up in all the coolest places) made an appearance, we considered it an honor of the highest sort.

And really, what’s better than meeting a unicorn over a cupcake breakfast?

The correct answer: Nothing.

SXSW + SK*RT = LOVE

So the sk*rt chicks made it to SXSWi. And it only took 8 to make the 2.5 hour trip. It was kinda complicated. But we're here. Well, almost. We'll be at the actual event in a few hours. I've been to the music portion of the week a couple of times, and it's amazing. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what the interactive little brother is all about. I've heard it's like a Geeky-Disneyland-Circus on steroids. Sounds fantastic to me.

So the sk*rt chicks will be there. Handing out mints. Because fresh breath is a priority in our lives.

We're even hosting a little SXSWi get together Sunday morning. And you are so invited. If you are going to be anywhere near Austin this weekend, here's the official announcement:

Meet us at City Hall Sunday, March 9th! Swing by Austin Java (301 West 2nd Street) at 9 a.m., and we’ll all be there for an hour or so (or more, or longer or however long we want) and we’ll hang. It’s super close (steps away) from the convention center, so if you’re going to SXSWi, you’ll be right there.

We might even have cupcakes.* Because we’re crazy like that.

Of course, we know that there’s a lot happening on 3/9, so we’re getting an early start…with coffee… and sk*rt lovers…and breakdancers**… and trained monkeys***, and then even more coffee****.

We can’t think of a better way to start a day. You can even let us know you’re coming if you visit the event listing at Upcoming.

And! This just in! Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and their awesome magazine Everyday Food have just let us know they’ll be giving 10 subscriptions plus 10 cool counter top magazine holders to 10 random people there. So, the most random people win. Kidding. But something like that. Plus, everyone who comes will receive a copy of the latest Everyday Food issue. You know, to read if a SXSW speaker gets boring. It could happen.

We hope you come — we'd love to meet you.

Kisses,
the sk*rt chicks

*Cupcakes could be anything.

**Okay, so not really breakdancers.

***And probably not monkeys. Probably.

****Also, herbal tea, or juice, or gin, or whatever.