Grand Prix GTP

I've put a deposit on my new car, and will be picking it up very soon!
It's a 2000 Grand Prix GTP... it's supercharged, and so nice! It's fast, and comfortable, and exactly what I was looking for.





and of course Chris gives it two thumbs up!
I may have to create a second blog just for the car... so I can document the upgrades and modifications and even normal maintenance that we do to the car. I have a camera and the Internet... that's all I need!!

Little girls in costumes

My niece Drew is almost three, and is beautiful and smart and a complete joy.

She can be smiley and sneaky, or just cute and sweet. Well I spoiled her for Christmas, of course, and got her loads of educational toys and girly dolls and other silly toys.

The hit of the loot was a fairy costume. It is a little leotard outfit with wings and a wand. When she opened it she immediately loved it and wanted to put it on. She wouldn't put it on over her clothes, but insisted on undressing then putting the costume on. After dancing and prancing around the living room for a while she started to ask to go outside. Well, it is Houston, but it was still too cold and windy for her to go out there in the fairy outfit. She was told no, she couldn't go out there, and in her little two year old language she explained, with passion in her voice, that she needed to go outside so she could fly. She couldn't fly inside, and that's why she wanted to go outside.

She was pissed, then very sad when her mom was able to explain that she won't really be flying, and that it's just a costume. Isn't that the sweetest and saddest thing you've ever heard?

Well, she still loves the costume and wore it yesterday too. She uses her hands to move the wings (trying to jump start them I think). And she can't just walk in the costume... she has to dance and do her little fairy hop. Oh... and she just can't leave the room without her wand. The universe would fall apart.

Derion, my nephew, got a Wii for Christmas. The poor kid was breathless when he opened it. They don't have a lot of money, and he's old enough now to understand he won't always get the most expensive toys. He ripped the paper on the box, then his eyes bulged out and his jaw dropped. This is where he stopped breathing for a minute. We could also tell that he was in shock, and even considered that the box had been used to wrap something else (who would be that mean?!). But he continued to take the paper off, and opened the still sealed box. He was ecstatic.

"I got a REAL Wii for Christmas! Wait till I tell all my friends!"

And he won't even shoot his eye out :)

I love my niece and nephew and am very glad to have them so close to me.

1990 Mazda Miata

Oh... what good times we've had. I've had my Miata for 4 years now, and I just finally did it the justice of taking pictures... beautiful pictures... Crispix pictures. And now I'm going to sell it. I'll have fun for the next few weeks, or how ever long it takes to go.



Even though my car is small, it's taken me so many places. I've driven this car to the hill country, and of course up to East Texas many, many times. Hit a skunk once. That wasn't fun. Been given a few tickets before. That wasn't fun either. And I could shop for normal groceries with this car, but I couldn't go to Sams and stock up in bulk. So everything except for hitting skunks, getting tickets, and shopping at Sams is really fun in this car.



Okay... I'm exhausted now. From taking lots of pictures, to editing then posting those pictures. Tomorrow I'll type up all the details and post this baby for sale on Auto Trader, the Miata forum and Craigs List. Yeah.

Check out all the pics here... and the best way to view is with the fast slideshow.

Click here for lots of miata pictures!


http://houston.craigslist.org/car/519755419.html

1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata $2,500 OBO
Red with Black cloth interior
5 Speed
4 Cylinder
16-valve 116-hp DOHC engine
2100 lbs
Rear Wheel Drive
Here is a link the 1990 Mazda Miata Brochure:
http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/users/paloma/Miata/miata_90.html

165,107 miles

AM/FM Stereo
Air Conditioning
Cassette
Power Steering
Power Windows

VIN: JM1NA3512L0153702

For LOTS more pictures see:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellemcfierce/sets/72157603516265646

I've had this Miata since early 2004. It had two previous owners who took very good care of the car. It was garaged kept until I've owned it, and I've kept it under a carport.

This has been my daily driver for the past 4 years. I'm a professional woman working downtown Houston. The car has not been smoked in, and driven a lot of highway miles. I visit my family in Longview often.

The transmission and clutch were replaced in November of 2004, at 128,622 miles. I just replaced the shifter seals and installed a new leather shifter cover.

Last summer the A/C was converted to new type. It does blow cold, but there is some type of slow leak that causes me to have to get the Freon refilled once each summer. I took it to get diagnosed in July. They added Freon and the blue dye. They wanted me to drive it until I could tell it had leaked out so they could check where the blue dye came out. Well, it's still blowing cold right now so I haven't taken it back.

Everything works great. The windows, the radio, and the cassette deck. The map/interior lights don't come on all the time though.

There is one not noticeable dent on the car, above the passenger side wheel, you can barely see it in a few of the pictures in the flickr set. Someone bumped me years ago, and said she would pay for it to be fixed herself, but never did. I've learned to live with it.

It gets good gas mileage. The last time I tested it was around 25 miles per gallon.

I've got the key lock for tire nuts. I also have the detachable sun visors, and the optional window protector. In the trunk there is a jack, spare tire, canvas top cover, plastic window cleaner, and battery :)

The Miata is a lot of fun to drive. Come test drive it and you'll agree!

What I really want for christmas.

I <3 William Shatner




The Shatner Book



My next big art project is going to be a painting of Shatner. I hope I can do the legend justice.

Merry Holidays!

Happpy Christmas and Merry Holidays! I feel like the holidays are going to fly by way too quickly! We're going to San Antonio for Xmas this year to be with Chris' sister Shanon. I'm excited about that... I love San Antonio and we always have fun with Shanon.



I finished wrapping all the gifts, and amazingly the dogs decided they wanted to be in the picture. Aren't they the cutest doggies eva!! All those gifts are for my cousins and mostly kids gifts... I put a candy cane on each present. I think it looks cute, and that makes me happy :)

I have tomorrow off... I'll be shopping for a dress for my company christmas party tomorrow night. So far this Christmas is kicking last Christmas' ass.

Ending the new year on a good note

Sometimes I feel like everything is dragging... time is sluggish and nothing is getting done. But not lately. Lately so much is getting done.

Chris helped me with my Miata over the weekend. I thought about taking some pictures and posting the before and after... but it gets dark so early that all the pictures would be dark. I'm fixing the glove box, the panel under the steering wheel, the one place it leaks at the top of the drivers side door, and all the shift boot parts (including a new leather shifter cover). I'm going to be sad to see it go, especially now that all the little broken things are being fixed. But I'm looking forward to a new car even more. We test drove a lot of cars (went to a small used lot in Pasadena- Emmons... highly recommend it... we weren't pressured at all and all the cars were in great condition). I think I've set my heart on a Pontiac GTP... nice and sport, and still bigger than the Miata.

I went shopping on Friday... 7 hours of shopping. Hobby Lobby has almost everything 50% off. I bought most of the gifts there, believe it or not. Then I went home and wrapped them... there is something very pretty about wrapped packages under a tree.

I thought of what to get Chris for christmas... and he's going to love it.

The company I work for will pay for school. They reimburse 100% of tuition, fees, and even books. Now that I'm retired from derby I can finally go back to school (I don't know how some of the girls work full time, skate and go to school... I just could not do it). So I've registered for two online classes. I'm going to work towards a degree... one class at a time. I was doing good back in 05 when I stopped going. Now I have more confidence about going back, and am in a better situation than before (job, house, money, boyfriend... everything is working for me).

I've enjoyed my Google Calendar ever since I started using it. Now I have even MORE reason to like it! I just added Houston Community College's Acedemic Calendar to mine... so I can see all the dates pertaining to school! Plus I added Movie Releases... so I'll know ahead of time what movies are out each weekend! I can't wait to see I Am Legend.

I got to work at 7 this morning instead of 8. I like getting to work early. Starts the day off right, and I get to go home earlier. I want to keep it up.

Thursday night we're going to see the Toadies (my favorite band)... And I have off Friday, and Friday night is my company christmas party. I need to buy a new dress still.

So much is going on. I'm catching up and it feels great.

I even had time to help Goldie and Audio by making them a flyer for their birthday party... Karoke birthday party!! It's not the best, but I'm still a novice and I'm proud of it :)

Book Club

We read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Cups-Tea-Mission-Promote/dp/0143038257

It is a great book. I'm not finished, but that's okay. Only one of the women had finished it. The women were awesome! I was excited to be there, and probably talked too much, like normal.

I had planned on stopping by Specs to grab a bottle of wine, then swing by Borders to get In the Line of Fire: a Memoir by Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan.
http://www.amazon.com/Line-Fire-Memoir-Pervez-Musharraf/dp/0743283449/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197045256&sr=1-1

Because Three Cups of Tea is about a man who builds schools in Pakistan, and In the Line of Fire is an autobiography of the President of Pakistan I thought it would be perfect to bring to the book club for the Christmas book exchange.

Well apparently Specs has a wine tasting every Tuesday and it took me twenty minutes just to navigate the parking lot and eventually leave the parking lot... I never even went inside. Then I drove over to Borders, where again I drove around the parking lot for close to ten minutes before parking illegally and running inside. They didn't have In the Line of Fire (I didn't have time to get my copy from the house). So I was stressed about all the traffic, running late, and not getting the book I wanted.

So what did I do? I bought Sphere by Michael Crichton instead (one of my all time favorite sci fi books) and bought a six pack of beer at the gas station. Perfect. I was so happy I was whistling.

I had such a great time. I could tell these women have known each other for years. They were funny and smart and we talked more about our favorite reality shows than the book, but that's perfectly fine. It was nice to meet someone as attached as I am to Kid Nation.

Next month we will be discussing Love in the Time of Chloera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I hope to finish it all by that time, but if not it's okay. Ah... no stress... no worries... I could do this for a long time!

Be more green

I just watched this: http://cwtv.com/thecw/free2begreen

It lists a few simple things we can do to be more green. I'm thinking of giving these energy savings CFL light bulbs as gifts this year. My family will save money and I'll be doing my part to help the environment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

And my family would completely understand... this is totally my kind of gift. They probably expect something like this. Very practical. Hehe... they'd be disappointed in me if I didn't get them these lights. Yep.

The kids are probably getting some type of game, or arts and crafts thing, or a jigsaw puzzle.

JC Penney is having a big sale in the morning from 6am until noon. I was thinking of going, but mainly all the stuff on sale is stuff I want for myself... so that'll have to wait until after Christmas.

I get off work at noon on Fridays. Today I'm heading straight to Hobby Lobby (I've got the coupons) to get Christmas stuff (it's all 50% off, even without coupon!) and look for gifts, then to Walmart, then Target, and finally the Memorial City Mall. I want to try to get all the remaining gifts purchased today.

I also will be looking for a dress for next week's company Christmas party. I want something a little dressy. Usually I look for something that will show off my back tattoo really nice... but not at this party.

I've got my list of who to buy for, and some ideas of what to buy... and I have a spending limit... I just hope I don't go over, and that I can refrain from buying stuff for myself and the house that can wait until the sales that happen after Christmas.

I've been working with the Merchandise committee lately... and I made this display for the bouts in Dallas:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellemcfierce/sets/72157603330969899/

I know I'm a dork... but it's been fun. Sorting and organizing. I created an awesome spreadsheet of the full inventory, then rolled and bagged all the merch (Chew's idea, thankyouverymuch), labeled them (Holly's idea, thankyouverymuch), then boxed them, then labeled the boxes... it's all really neat and tidy now.

And that display (Wreckhell's idea, thankyouverymuch)... well it took a few of us a lot of man hours... and glue... but it's beautiful! And the pictures with the prices on them... they are attached with velcro (Mia's idea, thankyouverymuch), so we can change them and update them easily.

And the numbering system is new (Blindside's idea, thankyouverymuch), and Shirt #1: HRD Logo Babydoll, is marked on the display, on the merch bin, and on the inventory sheet.

I really hope they have a great time selling merch this weekend, and find the system we put in place to work well and make merch less stressful and more effective. That's the goal anyway.

I test drove a VW GTI on Wednesday. It was awesome! Turbocharged! Good price, good mileage, exactly the kind of car I want, sporty yet roomy. I need to get my bonus first (I hope next Thursday!)... and test drive a few more cars... so I am not going to jump on this car just yet... it is the first car I've test drove since my search began... well the first one that didn't die while I was test driving it. It is awesome... but I'd like to check out my options first. I'm very thorough with everything I do... especially something like this. Plus I kind of challenged myself to get the Miata up to selling standards before looking for a new car. Kind of like when I make myself hang up all my clean clothes and do laundry and give away what I don't wear before going shopping for a lot more clothes.

It's weird how much time I've gained since retiring from derby... and how much I still feel like I don't have enough time to get anything done!

I watched the end of Beauty and the Geek last night. Awesome. I <3>

Cool sites

I've recently stumbled upon random cool sites, and I want to share them with the three people who happen to read my blog :)

http://www.cartoondollemporium.com/
- check out the political characters.

http://www.freerice.com/
This site donates rice when you play the word game. Very very addictive. And educational.

http://www.children.org/
I am now the proud sponsor of a little boy in India. For only $22 a month I feel like I'm doing a good thing. Hopefully they are really helping.

http://www.autotrader.com/
I'm looking for a new car. Well, newer than my 1990 Mazda Miata (soon to be for sale). This site is awesome.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/
For checking the gas mileage of the vehicles before test driving them.

http://www.rottenneighbor.com/
This is really cool, and at the same time pretty scary.

http://www.marketscenter.net/ext/houstondowntown/
I work downtown and this map is awesome!


Check it out. I just Scrooged myself. Have a look by clicking on the link below.
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1203491509
This holiday greeting brought to you by OfficeMax®.

That's all for now!

Car Hunt Story

True story. I just test drove a car. The owners of the car were with me. The car died during the drive. We couldn't get it to start again so we pushed it into a parking lot. Chris came and picked me up. True story.

Car hunting is fun :)

My favorite quotes and stuff.

I'm going to use this blog post to collect my favorite quotes and stuff.

"Don't tease me about my hobbies. I don't tease you about being an asshole."

Said by Mark (Peter Sarsgaard) in Garden State, which was written and directed by Scrubs star Zach Braff.

Have I mentioned I don't like scary movies?

Well, I don't like scary movies.
But I do love my man. And I can handle a Vampire movie a lot better than I can a zombie movie. I was going to link a picture of the poster for the movie... but I can't make myself do it. Just know that I sat through the entire movie!! I didn't 'technically' 'watch' most of the movie... but I heard it all. And it was disgusting! The only thing I can say though was I loved the ending, and left feeling pretty good about making it through a full scary movie without walking out. yeah me. Chris was proud.

Puffy face

I have a puffy face. I got my wisdom teeth taken out this morning. It hurts, but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The whole experience was kind of weird. They gave me an iv with drugs to put me to sleep... but I wasn't asleep the whole time. I remember them giving me shots near each tooth. The dentist told me afterwards that I was talking sometimes through it. At least I didn't feel any pain at all.

Anyway, I got home and went straight to sleep. I've been keeping ice packs on my face to keep the swelling down.

So exciting. 4 less teeth in my mouth now. Now when I bite you it will be that much less than before :)

Fast forward to the beginning of a Novel

Since my birthday...

Elle and Trouble at Elle's BDay party!

I saw Rat City beat TXRG, then Kansas City beat Rat City in Austin at the WFTDA Roller Derby Nationals. It was amazing.

Texacutioners Flag at Nationals.

Crispix & Elle at Nationals.

The next weekend was my best friend, Jurate's birthday party. She got drunk and made us each say something nice about her into a video camera. And as if that wasn't hard enough, half an hour later she made us say something we didn't like about her into the video camera!!

The next weekend was Crispix's birthday. We had a great time. Brought a dj to a sports bar and pretty much took over. It was also Trouble's going away party. She's moved to Cali now. We miss her already!

And finally, the piece de resistance... the Championship Bout. It was amazing. My team played great. It's like we all were clicking and understanding the directions we were sending each other with our minds. Unfortunately for us the Sirens were also in synch with each other, and knew what to do to take us down. It was a tight game, and we fought it as hard as we could. We lost, but we held our heads high because it was a good defeat. They outplayed us, and hit us a little bit harder than we could hit back. It really was an amazing game. I am so lucky to have had the chance to play with such an awesome team against such an awesome team.

Timber!!

Run, Elle, Run!!

Bosses 2007

And the Brawlers and Betties bout... wow. The Brawlers have been beat by over 60 points every game this season. But they were in training. This rookie team needed one season to catch up to the level of the rest of the league, and on Sunday they proved that they've done just that. In a nail biting hour of derby, which was neck and neck the whole time, we saw some impressive derby by both teams. It really was a close game, and honestly could have gone either way... but the Brawlers wanted it more. They would not settle for less. Catazon came into the second half with a fire, pulling out two 9 point jams to seal the win for her team.

The Betties fought hard, and played well. Beverly Kills was amazing as always, and her team was blocking as hard as they have all season. Their loss is not a sign of the team weakening... not at all... it's a sign that the entire league is improving. I can't wait to see the opening bout in March. It's going to be hot!

Now I'm retired from derby. I've hung up my skates and am trying to find my normal routine. I still want to be involved with HRD, and help where I can, but I will not be skating again. I'm not sad about it, yet. My body is still too thankful... no more getting beat up three times a week!

We went to a halloween Pirate party at the GRAB bar on Saturday... it was fun. I went shopping and overhauled my waredrobe for work... that was a lot of fun :)

Now it's Halloween day. I don't have a costume... well I can be Peg Bundy again (that's what I dressed up as on Saturday), but I do have plans. Tonight at Midnight I'm going to meet a group of people I barely know, and we are going to start writing our novels. It's http://www.nanowrimo.org/ and if you don't know, go check it out. I have successfully removed one obsession for my life, and immediately replaced it for another. Ha. I've signed up to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. That's a lot of writing. A lot. I don't know what I've gotten myself into, but I'm excited. Shit, if I can do derby I can do anything. For realz. January I'll start taking night classes (paid for by the day job, yeah!). I'll probably start taking Viola lessons in December too (Just did some research and found that it's affordable and convinient).

So... I'll be busy being a total nerd and writing my very first novel. Yes it will have derby in it. No it's not about me. It's completely make believe, but some characters will be loosely based on people I know. So be nice to me, or I'll put you in my novel, and you'll be twice as ugly as you really are. Buwahahahahahahahahaha!

Beautiful Maps

I'm a mapper. Technically I'm a GIS Analylst. I create maps, maintain the GIS system we have in place. All of our pipelines accross the nation are geographically stored in a database. I help make sure they are in the correct location, and have the correct data associated to them. Everyone else in the company uses different software to query off of our data and run reports and other boring stuff. My job is the fun stuff.


This is an aerial photo of an oasis in the Australian Desert.



This is an area just outside of Paris. The farming patterns look crazy!



This is an area in Southwest Kansas. It's intricate pattern is beautiful.




This is Hawaii. It's amazing how you can see the land under the water.

I have a few art projects in mind that involve these images, and others like them. I can't wait until I actually have time to work on them!

Ten Year Reunion

My 10 year high school reunion was last weekend. Chris and I drove the 4 hours north to Kilgore, Texas and headed straight to the shin dig planned at the local burger joint, The Back Porch. Lots of people showed up, and I had not seen any of them in practically ten years (with the exception of my cousin, Renee, who happened to marry one of my classmates, Wayne.)
I sang a little karaoke, said hi to everyone, googled at everyone, and couldn't stop grinning the whole time. It was a blast from the past.
We stayed out until after 2am, going with the pack to a pool hall where Chris impressed and intimidated everyone near the pool table.
The next day we went to the reunion picnic where most of the classmates with kids brought them to play. There were a gazillion kids. From preteens to 10 weeks old. They were all adorable. Chris and I played horse shoes until they pulled out hundreds of water balloons for the kids to play with… then Chris introduced himself to the kids and they let him throw balloons at them. Somehow we both made it out dry.
We went to dinner with my cousin and her husband, and her two nieces and one nephew. Scotlyn, Brai (I actually have no idea how to spell her name… it’s pronounced ‘br-Ay’, like Pray, but with a B), and AJ. The kids were a lot of fun to hang around. So much personality in the 4 and 2 year old girls. AJ just hangs out and watches to see what the girls are going to do next mostly.
Then we went and took a nap. Because we’re getting old and could not hang. We woke up just in time to get ready and go to the big reunion party down by the lake. It was beautiful, and even more people showed up for this event than the previous two events.


(Cindy, Wendy, Jena, Amy, Cindy, Reann, and Melissa)

I got lots of pictures, which I will post on flickr, with notes, as soon as I have a free hour at the house.
Who I saw that I have really really missed since moving to Houston, and got to catch up with at the party: Terra, Jena, Cindy, Wendy, Wakie, David Hastie, Lee, Lauren, Kelly, Cindy, Amy, Reann, and April Hearn.
People who I feel like I have even more in common with now and will try to stay in contact with: Katrina and her boyfriend, Canan and his wife, Olivia and her boyfriend, Jena (I know I already mentioned her, but she falls into both categories very nicely!), and Meagan.
Who didn’t make it that I would have loved to see: Scott Miles, Emily Harrison, Johnathon Hastie, Clay Copeland, Nicole Francis, Millie Minor, Melissa Cassidy, Adam King, BenJamin Monk, Scotty McFarland, Clay, MiJoi, Caryn Crutcher, Bethany Chisler, Clay, Gina and even more that I can’t think of off the top of my head right now. Thank goodness for myspace and email. I know I can contact at least half of these people and harass them for not making it to the reunion. The other half I will have to hunt down, but I think I can find them. And probably some of these people listed didn’t come because they weren’t in my graduating class… but I still wanted to see them!! And yes, there were 3 Clays in this list. I miss them each.
My birthday is tomorrow, and I’ll probably celebrate it this weekend. The next weekend is my nephew’s birthday plus WFTDA Roller Derby Nationals in Austin. Then the busy month of September will be over, and I’ll be able to focus all my energy on training for the last and final bout. 2007 Championships. The game is on.

Flight of the Conchords

Flight of the Conchords

How have I missed this group?! They are my new favorite thing. I wonder how long it will take me to get one of their songs on my phone.

Before and After Katrina

MSNBC shows very shocking pictures of areas hit by Katrina.

I want to plain our next mini-vacation to New Orleans. The Big Easy Rollergirls have a bout Sun November 18th. Maybe that would be a good time to see some derby, and help their economy with our excess spending money. And it sure couldn't hurt to get out of Houston!

Elle the Heroine

I am very luck to have met Chris Rien (http://magnetic-eye.com/). He illustrated most of the artwork for HRD this year. I found out he was in need of a drawing table, and I had an extra drafting table just gathering dust... so I gave him the table and he drew me as a futuristic badass derby heroine. It's awesome. Thank you Chris!!



I wonder if I can make this costume in time for halloween.

I'm going to have this printed and framed. It will remind me of all the fun times, and none of the hard times. Well, maybe it'll also remind me that I got through all the hard times.

We ate really good Belgian food this weekend (thank you Ivana), and watched a few movies that have been on our list (Thank You For Smoking, and Mansfield Park). Plus I watched so much Law and Order that I started double checking all the locks in the house. I should have just watched more movies.

September is going to be a crazy busy month, so I took this weekend off. I did as little as possible and it felt great. I've usually got ten projects going at once, and I like to stay busy. I thought it would be hard to not do anything, but once I put myself in lazy mode it felt like home.

I've got a list a mile long of things that need to be done... most of them Derby things. The way I'm feeling today though, maybe those derby things aren't as important as I think they are. Maybe they don't really need to be done at all. I'm sure I'll find out... someone will be yelling for something soon enough. Blah. We should skip Mondays altogether and get straight to Tuesdays.

A McLovin kind of week

It's Thursday already. This week has flown by.

Last Thursday the weather was really bad... they let us all leave work a few hours early so that we wouldn't get stuck in a flood. I got home and laid down to take a nap around 5pm. I didn't wake up until 7 the next morning to go to work. That's about 14 hours of sleep.

Friday comes and I get off work at noon. I drive up to the north side to meet with a company that wants to hire me on the side to train their employees. I'm excited about this because to me it's easy money. I have a home office which has three computers networked together, and I use it to train people sometimes. So after the meeting a small group of us drive out to the Alamo Draft House and watch Superbad. It was super rad and for a minute I thought about changing my name to Elle McLovin.

We got home pretty early and I went to bed around 11. I didn't wake up until 2pm on Saturday. That's about 15 hours of sleep. Saturday was a lot of fun. Went shopping at the ghetto mall by my house... got lots of cute things. Met up with Dementia to hit the town and go dancing all night... but couldn't find a dance club to save our lives. Everywhere we went was empty. We realized we are very out of the loop in regard to 'going out places'. Ended up at that new bar, Boondocks, then Poison Girl. PG is always a good standby. We ate at La Topatia after 2am.

Sunday was Bout 6- August Assault. We played the Brawlers. We won the game, but they made us work for it. I scanned the stats sheet before leaving and we nickel and dimed them. 4 and 5 points jams were the typical. If they hadn't been so physical and really on their blocking game we would have been able to score more than four 8 to 10 point jams. Claudia Van Damage gave me one of the most fierce blocks ever. She nailed me. I can't wait to see it on the dvd. Good clean solid block. Someone else hit me and I slid into the Brawlers team bench and knocked my head on it! I was dazed for a second, but got up and back in the game with no problem.

My Bosses played a great game. Death only went to the penalty box ONCE, and it was for a team penalty that was accidental anyway. D'Master skated her first bout... and she rocked! What a great surprise to find that our greenest skater can block her but off!! I saw her get multiple blocker take outs, and at least one jammer take out. Very proud. Blasphany fell wrong and sprained her ankle... so that was bad, but at least she didn't break or tear anything. She's going to stay off of it for a little bit then be back in plenty of time to train for the Championship game. BloXX jammed like a super star, and Death was awesome, like usual. Flame was a great high scorer for us, as she usually is. And I think Holly and I did a good job of helping our team gain points each jam. Nawty as always was the best Blocker 3 ever! Each time I went up to jam (which was a lot more than we had previously scheduled... but it's cool... I can jump in like that) I checked to see who was my B3... and when it was her I would lose my nervousness and gain a little bit of confidence.

The only thing I'm not 100% proud of, and I don't fully understand what happened, but towards the end of the game people's tempers started to flare. I don't know why, and I didn't see what caused anything... and I'm sure the audience didn't know why, and were watching skaters throw tantrums and it wasn't sportsmanlike, or professional, or respectful at all. I still love my girls, and will give them the benefit of the doubt, and will forgive them... because shit happens out there, and sometimes we flip out. I didn't do it this bout, but who's to say I won't do it the next bout. I'll try not to, of course, but when our adrenaline is pumping, and we're that fired up and aggressive sometimes we say and do things that we don't mean.

I wish I could have watched the Sirens and Betties game more. Mistilla the Killa was on fire!! I think this was the best game I've ever seen her skate. All of the Siren jammers stepped it up. Dementia was top notch, as always... but Carmen and KK both were really impressive. Honestly I was very surprised by how both of them played... getting lead jammer, scoring those points quickly and calling off the jam... over and over and over. Now I know for sure that us Boss jammers are going to have to train hard just to keep up with the Siren jammers. The Championship bout in October is going to be awesome.

The after party at the GRAB bar was awesome! Lots of great music and drinks and friends. Chris has his car window broken and his radar detector stolen though.

I took off Monday to recoup from the game. I ended up spending over 5 hours finalizing the Governors Cup flyers, posters, and website artwork. I got them all sent to the printers and to the other leagues so they can use them.

Tuesday night was Art Night at Elle's. Chris and I had a Adobe Illustrator 101 class for Dementia and Sinister Sista. The more we teach them, the better I feel about handing over the art projects to them next year.

Wednesday we had league practice. Only 5 Bosses came to practice, but we got to work with all the New Perfume, so it was cool. We worked on endurance and did the snake drill three different ways. With so many skaters constantly skating I'm sure we skated over 200 laps, easily.

And now it's already Thursday again. No team practice tonight (yeah!!)... so I have no idea what to do with my free time! I'm sure I'll think of something though...

Photo by Kerry McClain
kmcclain.zenfolio.com/p24952090/

Pod What?!

I am retiring from Roller Derby at the end of this season. (Yes Goldie BloXX... I know you are going to kick my butt when I quit). I am thinking about joining our volunteer announcer crew next year. The Colonel offered to let me practice getting on the mic with his podcast reviews of the games.

I sat in on my first podcast last night with him and Bill. We talked about what we expect to see at this Sunday's bout when the Brawlers and the Bosses play. At first they didn't want me to preview the bout I'm going to be in... but I think it went okay. I have mad respect for all the Brawlers. Heck, if it wasn't my team they were playing I'd be chearing for them to win too! Here is the podcast in all it's glory.

http://www.colonelpod.com/

And since we didn't take any pictures, I'll post one of me from DeMentia's birthday party this weekend.

Lighting and Thunder and Storms, Oh my...

Last night there was a huge storm. The weather was fine before I went to bed, but at around 2:30 am the bottom fell out of the sky. And landed on my house. I usually sleep very well through storms. Something about the rain and thunder is soothing. But not last night. First my poor little dogs are terrified of lighting and thunder. They normally sleep in their room, but when it starts to storm they wake us up with their barking and insist on sleeping with us.

I’ve heard that you can tell how far away the lighting is by counting the seconds between the lighting and the thunder. Every second equals one mile away. At the peak of this storm there was NO time difference between the lighting and the thunder. I was almost as scared as Bella and Penny. I was still asleep, but slightly awake, and scared like a kid. I was glad the dogs wanted to sleep with me, because me soothing them helped calm me.
I meant to go unplug all the tv’s and computers. I was sure that the lighting was going to hit the roof and light our house on fire. But it was over quickly, and I fell deep asleep. I dreamt that my dogs were still afraid of the storm and that they were talking to me. It was weird and very realistic.

When I woke up there was no sign that the storm had even happened. The ground outside was wet, but there were no trees in the streets or anything. Then I get to work and ask my coworkers and none of them had a storm near their homes last night. Houston weather is very peculiar like that.

The storm reminded me about one of my best friends, Sana, who was afraid of storms. She is from Morocco, and they do not have thunderstorms there. Even in the US it does not lighting and thunder everywhere… Did you know that? I assumed that storms were normal and lighting and thunder a very typical weather condition for everywhere in the world. But nope. It’s depends on the region. All of the Southern Coastal states, from Texas eastwards all have thunderstorms. So when Sana moved here six years ago, and experienced her first thunderstorm she was not kidding when she was asking me if we should get a mattress and cover ourselves with it in the bathroom. She’s been through enough of them now to not be that scared, but it was very funny at the time.

Safe products

I am addicted to the Houston Chronicle's MamaDrama Blogs. One of the latest blogs is about Johnson & Johnson's Baby Wash, and how it is listed in breastcancerfund.org for containing cancer causing petrochemicals.

"Laboratory tests released today revealed the presence of 1,4-Dioxane in products such as Hello Kitty Bubble Bath, Huggies Baby Wash, Johnson’s Baby Wash, Scooby-Doo Bubble Bath and Sesame Street Bubble Bath. The tests also found the carcinogen in Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo, Olay Complete Body Wash and many other personal care products.

1,4-Dioxane is a petroleum-derived contaminant considered a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a clear-cut animal carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program. It is also on California’s Proposition 65 list of chemicals known or suspected by the state to cause cancer or birth defects. Because it is a contaminant produced during manufacturing, the FDA does not require it to be listed as an ingredient on product labels."

I wonder what other products we use have bad stuff in them.

This site, http://skindeep.ewg.org/, is really cool. You can type in the product and it will tell you the ingredients, and what issues those ingredients have and if they are linked to cancer or are toxic.

Through my readings I found this link: http://www.ecover.com/us/en/. From what I can tell they sell eco friendly cleaning supplies, but it doesn't say if their products are safe or dangerous for us.

This stuff is all overwhelming. I like the skindeep site. There are a handful of products that I use all the time. I'm going to check them to see how bad they are, and maybe change products, but I'm not going to go crazy and stop using shampoo or detergent.

That reminds me... my pads are filthy and I need to wash them before the bout this weekend. They would be considered toxic right now.

DNA Test, Sushi

http://www.personaldna.com/

Here is my personal report:
Animated Analyst
My personalDNA Report


That was a cool little test.

We ate sushi on Sunday, like normal, at Cafe Japon. They have 'sushi happy hour' all day on Sundays. It USED to be $1 per piece of sushi... but last Tuesday for some reason it went up to $1.25. All the prices went up. Small amounts, but when you're eating sushi at a dollar a piece it can add up very quickly. At least the Asahi and hot Saki stayed at $2 each. We are not happy about this sudden change.

Art Night at Elle's is tonight. We have so many projects going on, and no time to work on most of them. I wish I could take a week off of work and just spend 8 hours a day completely all the wonderfully great art ideas I've thought of for this year. But alas, the bills must be paid. So that we can afford that expensive sushi.

Moving, Painting, and Tryouts

We helped Ivana B Sedated move out of her old place and into her new one on Saturday. I don't know how we got it all in two trips with a suburban, but we did. I've never been that lucky... I have so much stuff I don't need but can't seem to part with that I have to rent one of those really big uhauls, and make a couple trips with it. And we both had one bedroom apartments! I'm going to force myself to spend some time tonight taking pictures of some of that stuff I need to get rid of and put it all up on CraigsList.

Sunday we had an early practice, then a meeting... I didn't get back to the house until noon. Chris had already put on one coat of paint with his sister the night before (staying up until 2am to do it!!). I met him with Ivana at his new office and we helped him put on a second coat. Half red walls and half grey walls. The grey went on with one coat. The red is at three coats and counting. I think he needs to buy some more before we can continue. It looks really good though. Great color combination. (Not that lime green with curry yellow isn't a great look also, Ben :P).

HRD try outs are this week. We love try outs... we get used to hanging out with the same faces all the time... it's nice to spice it up with some new perfume. Just for Phil from now on I won't be referring to our new girls as 'fresh meat', but instead will coin a new term of endearment, 'new perfume'... because they will each bring their own fabulous sweaty pads stink to the rink :)

I wish every single skater trying out the best of luck. Pay attention, follow the trainers' instructions, try not to be nervous and just have fun! We look forward to meeting you!

Tomball Night

This Friday, August 3rd, HRD is going up to Tomball for Tomball Night. I'm not sure what to expect, but you put a bunch of cowboys and derby girls together, drinking beer telling tall tales... well I expect to have a good time!
I'm renting a passanger van that will carry a bunch of us up from the Montrose area into Tomball and back. It's supposed to be a 'party bus', but Texas has stupid open container laws, so I'm not sure how that is going to work out. I'm going to do a little research to find out how we can legally let the people in back drink as long as the driver stays sober.
I'll post more after the event. This is a great excuse for me to buy those boots I've been looking at... and a cowboy hat. Yeehaw!
____________________________
Update on 08-06-07

The Tomball Night was a big success! Robert had a huge space for us, and we brought tables and a canopy and filled it up with all kinds of HRD merch. We sold more at this event than any other event outside of our bouts. We now have razorback tank tops, and I love mine already! The fireworks were cool, and the parade was nice (a little short, but nice). We'll try to get in the next one and spice it up a bit... hehe
The antique guns and knives at Bob's Wild West were cool... if you're into hunting and that kind of stuff. Robert had his own mini store next to our table with LOTS of cool silly things... like bendable Gumby and Simpsons figurines. We bought a bag full of cute/fun stuff. I guess you would call them novelty items. They were really cool though.

Blue Heeler

We got home from the camping trip on Sunday. Late that night there was a puppy out in the street, trying to play with the traffic. I usually wouldn't mess with a dog running around outside, but this one was so cute and really close to being hit that I just couldn't leave her out there. She's a blue heeler, and very gentle. She came up to me very shy, with her tail between her legs, and with big puppy dog eyes. I put her in the back yard with my two dogs. There's a doggy door to the house where there is food and water. We keep a doggy exercise pen around the doggy door area, so I didn’t have to worry about this puppy getting too far into the house.She is so soft and pretty. And very playful. She was friendly to both of my dogs, who are less than half her size. She didn’t bark or cry the whole night.

She looks so sad... she could be howling "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen..."

"Nobody knows my sorrow..."

I have to put a disclaimer on these pictures... she looks so sad, but Chris could only take the photos from the other side of the fence because when he was in there with her she wanted to play too much and wouldn't sit still... she was very happy and playful the whole time. She reinforces my belief that blue heelers are a great breed of dog.

Well I'm happy to say that I found her home! After work on Monday I put a collar and leash on her and walked her around the neighborhood. Some boys playing basketball in the street recognized her and walked with me three blocks over to her owners house. She had been looking for her dog. That just made my day :)

Camping was a hit

We went camping this past weekend. I was worried about the weather, and inconsistent reports about it flash flooding and thunderstorms. I didn’t want to be stuck in a muddy tent, or not be able to float the river. Well my fears were unfounded. The nine of us camped in tents, and went tubing and had a great time in the sun the whole weekend.
We got to the Guadalupe pretty late Friday night (around 11pm). We set up tent, ate, and then I went to sleep J Actually I slept a lot in the car on the way up there too. What can I say? I was tired!
Chris apparently stayed up until 4 or 5 in the morning playing with everyone in the river. Our camp was on the edge of the water, and they all wanted to get a head start on the water fun. All I know is when I woke up BloXX and Nawty were covered in mud from wrestling that night. Hahaha… I hope someone got pictures of that!
Bees were everywhere. One even ended up in my mouth! Ugh!!! It didn’t sting me, but freaked me the heck out! A bee did sting Chris on his back. We had a great time floating down the river. Met lots of other tourists. Introduced them all to the Houston Roller Derby. We were ‘packing it up’, and giving leg whips the whole time we were out there.
We didn’t bring sunscreen on the river, and what we had put on that morning wore off… we all got a little sun burnt. I’m hurting today! I used SPF 45, but like I said it wore off. At least my back didn’t get any sun, so my tat is safe. And I was wearing sunglasses and a hat, so my face isn’t red either. But oh how my legs and stomach hurt!!!
I took a nap on the river too. I was so comfortable, with my hat down and drooling on my chin. Then I hear some whispering… “Don’t wake her up… let’s see if she notices…” Those meanies were going to see if I could make it down some of the rapids asleep! But I heard them, and I heard the sound of the upcoming waterfalls, so I was able to go down them wide awake! Chris was supposed to protect me and wake me up!! But he wanted to see how far I’d go too! Hahahaha… I’ll get them back…
I’d forgotten how peaceful it is to sleep under the stars. When the sun went down the air was clean and a little cool. Did I mention that I slept a lot on this trip?
Goldie and her man Martin cooked some really good fajitas and chicken… not to mention waffles with eggs and bacon for breakfast!
The owner lady of the camp was a real witch. She stomped over to us to yell at us that no one is allowed to have their own float at her campsite. You have to rent theirs. We didn’t know, and she didn’t have to be that rude to just let us know their policy. We just took the tubes down the road and aired them somewhere else… and those of us without our own tubes rented from somewhere else also. This was probably their last busy weekend of the season because they will be releasing the damn at Canyon Lake today and it’ll flood the river for about 3 weeks. And we could have rented our tubes from them, but because of how rude that lady was we didn’t. And we will not go back to that place. Customer Service!! If she had talked to us friendly it would have made a world of difference. It would have made our weekend better, and hers too probably!
We found the snake that lives at the spot we camped at. It hides in the rocks at the shore of the river. Less than 10 feet from where we slept. Thank God we didn’t know that until we were almost leaving… I wouldn’t have been able to sleep so well!
We all took a bunch of pictures. We’ll post them soon!

The Simpsons....

Meet Elle Simpson. She has a really strong southern accent :)

http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html
You can create your own Simpson self.

Make your own, and post it, or a link to it if you can.

Elle

In the beginning...

Over two years ago I stumbled upon a myspace profile where a skater was talking about something called roller derby. I had no clue what it was, but I was looking for people to go skate with. (I had heard rumors about groups of people skating downtown, but had not located http://www.skatetrash.org/ or any urban animals at that time).

I met Psuedo Punk, HardCora, Bettie McNasty, Tawdry Hepburn (it was her birthday), Chewcifer, and MiLuv Tequila at Rudyards. They were all in quads and giggled that I was in blades (I used to love my K2's... now they're gathering dust). We skated to Rice University where they did some laps on the track and practiced turn around stops (turn around stops were the coolest thing I'd ever seen). Psuedo broke roller derby down for me... very basic. It's a game. They do it in Austin. Two teams skate an oval track trying to pass each other (I didn't catch the part about blocking or hitting at the time).

For Tawdry's birthday we ate at Two Rows, then went to see MiLuv's boyfriend's band play at a bar downtown. There's a picture of my first night floating around the internet somewhere (we're in the bathroom of all places!). I definitely liked the social part… they were all very friendly.

That was a Friday night. I showed up for practice that Sunday and rented some of the rinks quads so I could participate. Two days later I had my own quads and was ready to sign up. I had no idea what I was getting in to.

Fast forward over two years, 320 practices, four pairs of skates, seven pairs of wheels, dozens of bruises and rink burns later. Now I spend two nights a week at league practice, once a week at team practice, one to two nights on derby art, and an event or two on the weekend. Usually I can depend on Monday night being my own.

You'd think by now I'd be used to the practices. But I am just not a naturally athletic woman. I was a vegetarian, but started eating meat about 9 months ago. I had to accept the fact that derby is an extremely demanding sport that requires more fuel than tofu. Now I drink a protein smoothie, a Boost, and eat a protein bar every day. And I eat a steak every once in a while to try and beef up.

I think the hardest part about being in roller derby is just showing up. Making that commitment to be there and participate, that’s the deal breaker for most who don’t stick around. If you go to practice, and push yourself 100% the whole time… you’ll become a better skater. Your form will improve, your understanding of strategy and the game will improve. You’ll get faster and hit harder, all by just showing up and skating.

But showing up for all those practices… that is the kicker. You’re going to miss out on so many other things in your life. That’s the reason I postponed taking more college night classes. The reason I haven’t finished a painting in two years. I don’t know how some skaters work full time and go to school… and I have a lot of respect for the women who have kids and still participate in derby.

So after all this time I am loving derby more and more. When we actually get to scrimmage or bout… that is the best. That’s what all the hard work is for. I can admit though that I am looking forward to a time when I will be retired, and will be able to enjoy watching a bout completely relaxed. Oooh… and this September Nationals will be held in Austin… we already have our VIP tix and hotel reservations… three days of derby by the top teams in the nation… it’s going to rock!

Camping... Rain or Shine?

A bunch of us are going to the Guadalupe river this weekend. I’m excited because I haven’t been this year yet. But I’m also worried about the weather. It’s supposed to thunderstorm everyday. That would not be cool.

Ann Heiser Butch put together this floating trip and has at least 22 people signed up to go. Then Goldie BloXX and a few more of us are going to camp on the river. I haven’t been real ‘sleep in tent’ camping in years. I’m a little nervous about camping in the rain, but BloXX promises that we will be fine. As long as the river is open, we’re going. Yeah!

I need to remember to pack my OFF and sunblock (I’m so white Death calls me Transparent).

I love the river. The first time I ever got drunk was on the river. I was teaching some college boys the right way to swig Hot Damn, and got carried away. I didn’t realize I was drunk until I tried to get out of the river at the end of the float. I kept sliding down the mud.
And I’m the only person I know who can sleep on the river. It is so relaxing… just tie up with someone, pull my hat down, and take a nap. Priceless. Hopefully we’ll have lots of stories and pictures from this trip. Well, maybe not pictures!

New Blogness & Tripping

I miss myspace. I used to blog almost everyday. Well since my work doesn't block this site (yet) I can try again to have a blog outlet.

I've been watching programs about sports on tv when I get a chance lately. I was never into watching sports before derby, but now want to know how other athletes do it. I saw a great special on the Detroit Shocks (www.wnba.com/shock/) the women's basketball team. The 2003 & 2006 WNBA champs.

The special was focused on the coaching team and their method of training. The coach is really aggressive and a bit of a bully. He used to play in the NBA, and was known as a bad boy... lots of fouls. He has taught the Shocks how to play rough, and now they all are a team of bad girls, who get lots of penalties.

This got me thinking about derby, and how close we are to heading down the pathway of everyone playing with disregard to the rules and penalties. Right now on our league there are only a couple of skaters who we think like to trip, or fall in front of jammers, on purpose. I'm not talking about an occasional throwing a penalty in the heat of the moment. Skaters that continue to fall, slide, trip and otherwise not play according to the rules or the way that every skater on the league has agreed to play, even after they have been approached and asked to stop.

So what now? What do we do? Should someone approach each girl individually? Should we as a league discuss this? What if she denies it, or doesn't think there is anything wrong with it, or even worse, thinks that as long as she isn't caught by the refs then it's okay. Then should we all change the way we skate to include tripping, pushing, sliding, and forget about clean blocks and legal hits?

Should I even be discussing this in a public setting? Sure... I want to know what the fans think too. Especially those who watch mainstream sports... how is this type of stuff handled in other sports?

I won't call out anyone in particular, or let someone else call out anyone in a comment. No calling out any one skater or team. That's the only censorship here.