Emil

We’re wrapping up a fabulous burger supper and talking about what to do on Friday/Saturday nights of our football-filled weekend.

Lori (after stumbling onto some “today in Austin site”, scoffing at their generic look): “Argh! They use effin’ stock photography.”

Emil: “Livestock? Cows?”

Sadtrombone.com

We see a Blue Healer cow dog “walking himself” by carrying his own leash in his mouth. He’s ready to romp and play and is trying very hard to get his owner on board with this idea.

Lori: “That Healer needs some cows….or goats or sheep or something. What other animals get herded?”

Emil: Whales.

Lori: ??? They do not. Whales don’t travel in herds.

Emil: Yes, they do.

Lori: Whales really travel in herds?

Emil: Yes. What do you call a baby whale?

Lori: I dunno.

Emil: A calf.

Lori: Ok, I know whales are mammals, but it’s not like little Sea Cowboys are riding Sea Horses and using Sea Cow Dogs to herd whales.

Emil: No, because there are Sea Men riding the Sea Horses.

#ba-dum-tssss

I love Twitter. I’m a little bit evangelical about it.

As a result, I hear arguments. Most of them don’t hold water…like when someone claims to hate it but they haven’t ever tried it (which doesn’t apply in all cases, but certainly does in this one). I’ve also heard people say, “I don’t know what to say on Twitter,” when they are the same ones who light up a new facebook status every 10 minutes.

Even if you don’t want to do the talking, you can do the listening .

Today gave me a shining example of why organizations (and businesses) need to use Twitter.

The Capital City A&M Club has weekly Monday lunches. During the fall, they replay the copy of the weekend’s football game without any of the filler between plays. Other times of the year, they have speakers and networking. I never really pay attention to the thing, but a friend made me realize that this week, Dr. Ben Welch would be speaking about leadership.

…except that he wasn’t. He had to cancel (dental emergency) and Scott Jarvis was speaking about Texas A&M Qatar, instead. They even did name/year intros. Since I’m not a “Class of” anything, I was left saying something like, “Lori Luza. I didn’t go to A&M.” (That isn’t even technically true, but lying is better than telling them all about my horrible experience.) “I used to work for Dr. Welch, so I came here to see him. I’m married to an Aggie class of ’89.” yuk at my embarrassing drivel instead of just my name.

It was a great topic, but it wasn’t worth my drive down and the disruption of my mid day. Dr. Welch’s topic would have been worth that and more. Scott did a lovely job and shared great information…but it wasn’t anything I needed. And, since A&M isn’t my alma mater, it was only mildly interesting to me. And, as it turns out, Dr. Welch sought Scott as a replacement on Saturday night. They had ~36 hours to let everyone know of the change.

• They could have emailed the change to their list. It’s a huge list so they probably have a rule about not bothering people more than once a week. Fine.
• I had emailed the guy in charge of this group with my menu questions. He could have written me back or alerted me to the change
• If they had tweeted the change, I probably would have seen it and would have stayed home.

So, see? Twitter is the easiest fix to problems like this. Stuff happens. It’s how you handle stuff that matters.

This weekend was Daddy’s golf tournament. Emil couldn’t make the trip, so I trekked up to Paris on Friday. I was all the way there before I started to see (mostly on Twitter and some on facebook) all the jokes about the Rapture.

I called Emil to say hello and made some of my own wonderfully witty comments. I apologized for being in Paris for the Rapture, but assured him that I was hell-bound and would be home ASAP to meet him so we could endure the apocalypse together.

me: “I’m sorry I won’t be there for the Rapture, but as soon as the tournament is over, I will find a way to get to you, so we can be together.”

E: “Yeah–I mean, you can’t go anywhere until you come home. Your basket is here.”

me: “What basket?”

E: “Your hand basket. It’s right beside mine. We can’t go to hell without ‘em.”

And this is why we are married and get along so well. We can make jokes and laugh about anything. Emil taught me to laugh hard and deep, the way Daddy did naturally. Everyone should learn how to do this. Life is a lot more fun when you can give it a great big belly laugh…you know, the kind that makes you sore the next day!

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It was a little smaller than usual with a lot less sponsors than in recent years. It’s unfortunate that they can’t get their ducks in a row like a “real” event. It was only a few short weeks ago that they even finalized the date. :/

When we first starting looking at cars to replace BB and Little Blue Car, we went to the same family of dealerships where we bought BB. It’s a Honda/Toyota/Scion/etc. group. We were looking at and drove the Honda Fit. While we had a fabulous experience buying BB, in the wake of the quakes/tsunamis in Japan, and coupled with Honda’s slimy sales tactics, we weren’t happy. But, apparently, they don’t read their Yelp reviews before repeatedly calling formerly-potential customers.

Our sales person from that day had called right when we got back…and with the luxury of Google Voice, I blocked him from calling again. However, as technology would have it, he can call from a number of lines and, today, manged to get through . I was on my way out the door and off my game for just a moment….a moment of weakness. argh!

The convo went something like this:

Hello, Ms. Loosa, this is (not his real name) from Round Rock Honda. How are you today?

Fine. How are you?

Great! Listen, I just wanted to see if you and Aaahmeeel (also not Emil’s real name!) were back in town from your trip and if you were still looking for a Honda or Toyota or a Scion or any other “.
(Really…he said something not much different than that!)

“Actually, after we left your dealership, we drove up the road to Mazda. They were willing to work with us on the price,
so we bought TWO cars from them.”

Well, if you ever need anything from our family of dealerships, maybe with your next vehicle purchases, I’d be happy to help.

Thank you.

When I told Emil the story at dinner (’cause it’s just too juicy to tell in a 140-character Tweet!), he was all giggles!

#Booyah, Honda. Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!

zoom-zoom

I will repeat this because I know they care: Round Rock (city of), you lost the tax revenue on not-one-but-two vehicles because of one slimy salesperson. We quite likely would have purchased two cars from that RR dealership. But, by driving just a little further north, we found some down-to-Earth and real people. And, we contributed to all that lovely tax revenue in Georgetown, instead. (You’re welcome Ali & Andy, and the Winklers, too!)

Google Voice gives me an extra layer of call screening. He got through because he called from a different number. He still had to state his name to connect the call.

Our experience with Roger Beasley Mazda was so good that Emil (yes, Emil!) wrote a letter to Mr. Beasley to thank and recognize our sales person and the rest of the staff at the dealership. You should have seen the faces of our salesperson (Mark, who was at the top of the board for the month with-or-without our purchases) and the other staff members when we gave them a printed letter. I guess no one does that anymore! Our full review on Yelp will come when we get our real license plates and my cargo net.

Emil even signed our letter “Zoom-zoom, Emil & Lori Luza” Nice.

Easter with the Luzas has shifted over the last few years from a BBQ feast–with a lot of wee-hours-of-the-morning cooking–to a hamburgers/hot-dogs lunch. It’s not as yummy, but it’s a lot less work, especially for a devoted few.

Last year, I honestly don’t remember what I ate. I probably took veggie patties and soy dogs.

This year, we were only going to be there for the one/big meal, so I opted for veggie packets and fruit kabobs. Along with chips, this was our contribution to the family meal.

Veggie Packets

prep:

• Chop onion into ~8 sections; with it’s natural layers, grabbing a wedge for each packet will be easy.
• Chop or slice vegetables for ease of scooping 1/4 cup portions.
• To make ~40 packets, this took me ~2 hours.

assemble:

• two layers of foil
• 1/4 cup diced potatoes
• 1/4 cup sliced zucchini
• 1/4 cup sliced yellow squash
• 1/4 cup sliced carrots
• 1 small wedge of onion
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon rosemary
• a pinch of thyme
• salt & pepper

Double-fold the packets along the top and then fold in the ends.

cook:

• Grill over a hot fire for ~15 minutes.
• Our grills were VERY hot that day, so we put them on the top rack.
• In our case, they were done when the foil started to change color.

Fruit Ka-bobs

Thanks for my friends on Twitter and facebook, I knew what fruits would grill well!

prep:

Clean and cut fruit into wedges big enough to slide onto skewers and not fall between the slats on the grill. This took me about an hour.

ingredients:

• apples
• pears
• strawberries
• pineapple
• mango (given the size of the mango pit, this was by-far the hardest to work with)

prep:

Soak wooden skewers in water to keep them fire resistant. Some also advised soaking the fruit in water to prevent burning.

cook:

• Have each person assemble their favorites into a ka-bob.
• Sprinkle a little sugar on each ka-bob.
• Grill over a hot flame for ~5 minutes, turning one time.
• You know they are done when the fruit has grill marks.

The apples and pears will taste like bites of pie. The strawberries are unlike any I’d ever had.

I can’t speak to the pineapple or mango since I can’t stand the stuff, but it was quickly claimed when we packed up after lunch and divided all the leftovers!

YUM!

We’ve been too busy to keep up with blogging. I’m still only half way through my post-SXSW post, which was going to be quite funny…but it’s not so much, now.

However, I can’t pass up the chance to blog these images from Emil’s going away lunch from his now-former job. As a staff, they didn’t know anything he really liked other than boobies. So, this women-dominated group set out on a task to give him as many boobs as they could fit into one lunch. They excelled in every way possible that didn’t involve putting my own boobs on public display! The entire lunch was full of laughter and adoration for Emil. As it should be!

The gift bag wishing him Beast Wishes!

His decree of Divorcement from his work-wife, Terri. He has to pay her child support for leaving her while still acting like a child.

A boob/nipple made to fit a Dr. Pepper.

A boobies pop.

A “you can’t leave” card complete with the sounds of Hoops and Yo-yo’s voices.

Denise putting final touches on Emil’s dessert.

Another boob. This time just one. All chocolate.

*squee* at all the boobies!

Emil with two of his nephews. Lydia sent us this picture and said it was just after Long John Silvers opened in Bryan and just before Bobby/Patty and family moved back to Washington.

Personally, I don’t think this looks like Emil.

Happy Anniversary to us!

One decade ago, we said said, “I Do” while surrounded by the love of ~300 of our family/friends. It was our perfect day.

• We filled the church with bluebonnet scented candles early that day to fill the church with their gorgeous smell.
• The weather was perfect. Father John opened the windows to our church. I never saw them opened before and haven’t since! The scent of the candles lingered among the feel of gentle breezes and sounds of chirping birds.
• Our family and friends were perfect. My heart grew larger and larger at several points during the last few days of planning and the wedding weekend:
  • when I heard our wedding music the first time–performed by Tim, Alison, Melissa, John, and Emily–on piano and strings; I didn’t just tear up, I cried; it wasn’t just the songs we picked, it was the personal touch only family and talent can bring to the occasion
  • when the girls on our Alternative Spring Break trip were so anxious to do *something* that they tied our bubbles in a flash of ~10 minutes…in the van…on the way to the Gila National Forrest…in New Mexico
  • when Patty & Julie arrived from Miami to help, support, and love the whole weekend and all the hustle-bustle
  • when the Jenn/Patty/Julie took me out for what might be deemed The Most Calm Bachelorette Party Ever®; somewhere I have the Aggie CARPOOL receipt from my ride home
  • when Emil’s family and our wedding party showed up in droves on Friday to help decorate the reception hall
  • when Patty made gorgeous on-the-spot silk arrangements from the stems and garlands I purchased because she saw voids in my “affordable” decor plan for a giant reception hall
  • when Elain ran the one errand she hates because she was the only one who could leave the decorating
  • when Emil’s mom managed the process for extra last-minute linens from the church’s ladies’ organization where we rented them
  • when Jim personally delivered the party favors I forgot to pick up
  • when someone (who??) alerted me to the time for us to meander over to the church for the rehearsal
  • when I changed from the tshirt I was wearing to one that was for The Big Event (an Aggie tradition) that was set for our wedding date: 3.31.01; #awesomesauce
  • when Scott, just one week after graduation from Trooper Academy was there for our big weekend eventhough we were absent (due to Alternative Spring Break) from his
  • when Father John made ready his favorite five ferns (a Zeta Tau Alpha nod, even!) to fill the rail in back of the altar
  • when I heard Diane and Crystal speak our selected wedding readings during the rehearsal; they were poised and eloquent for both the rehearsal and ceremony
  • when AJ thanked me for including our whole family in various roles of the ceremony mass and reception; she told me she was proud to wear a corsage on our wedding day
  • when Emil’s brothers took him out for pool; they’d never gone out as a group before…and though it was the closest thing he had to a Bachelor Party and was the night before the wedding, it was low-key and “safe”
  • when I took quiet/alone time after the rehearsal to calligrapher my personal/private vows to Emil and sew the navy blue roses to the back of my dress (a Paula Opal original and one-of-a-kind)
  • when AMay gave me a pretty face with her fierce makeup skillz
  • when my mom and grandmother showed up dressed perfectly for our theme/style, eventhough I’d never gone with them to pick dresses
  • when Pam gave me her emerald engagement ring to “borrow”; a nod to my own Irish lineage, too
  • when our photographer, Tim, made me feel like a princess instead of like the photo-phobe I normally am; who knew such a introvert to make me feel so at ease?
  • when I saw Daddy for the first time in a tux; he looked so handsome and wanted so desperately to please me that day
  • when Erin genuinely grinned to each guest
  • when our wedding party walked down the aisle, arm-in-arm, with the ladies sporting those cute little sweep trains I adored
  • when Sharis drove in from San Antonio, arriving after the matrons/maid walked, but just before I did…such a sweet moment
  • when Daddy was at the ready with a handkerchief just before he walked me down the aisle…and how perfectly he performed such a very-important-to-me role from the foyer to the doors to the aisle to the actual giveaway (I love and miss you, Daddy!)
  • when Donna & Matt reverently escorted the Host and those worthy to receive it
  • when we shared the light from our unity candle with everyone in attendance…and wow is that a great photo!
  • when our (again, introvert) photographer was able to properly wrangle the Luza chaos into place for the big-damn-family portrait
  • when Leanne and Winkler set about 400 candles ablaze at our reception…to give the reception the look I wanted
  • when Chad and Brandon moved the altar arrangement to the reception (a step I had left out of the wedding day timeline)
  • when we weren’t yet “at” the reception; I peeked inside and saw decor moved and curtains pulled up off the floor and folded over a railing; I persisted until I found out the keg “exploded” beer all over the place; I’m still grateful that our family/friends took care of it as best they could in hopes that I’d never find out; no telling what else they “saved me from” that day!
  • when (again, when I peeked in) I saw everyone drinking our fancy margaritas…since there was no beer for the cocktail hour!
  • when Charles & Elain led us all, including my non-Czech/Catholic family and friends, through the Grand March, which rolled into our first dance, which was then severely interrupted by Aunt Grace, but that was fine because my dad’s laughter was priceless…making her shenanigans all worth it!
  • when, just after the first few reception “events-within-the-event” our photographer pulled us outside for some sunset images; Emil genuinely kissed me on the forehead, and Tim instantly said, “do that again!” One of my favorite shots!
  • when Mike DJ’d with the eloquence I felt worthy of a romantic day; we made the right choice in hiring a friend instead of “real” DJ
  • when, during the siblings portrait, Bobby hugged me and said, “Welcome to the family, Sis.”
  • when Sandra/Roy emcee’d each and every little “event-within-the-event” with perfection, poise, and humor
  • when Leanne and the other Replant members asked for a photo with us
  • when my grandparents danced for a few moments during the Generations Dance; Mama Bee was miserable yet tolerant of my wishes, but Grandaddy was elated
  • when Bob joked about his little gift prank of “camping” “egg cartons”; he must have given us three of them between our shower, the wedding, and “just because”
  • when Ali (and her/Jenn’s mom) found me at the water “barrel” and said sweet things about our ceremony (which given the month, colors, and similar faith was right on target with her own wedding a year or two before)
  • when Tres (Charlie the Third) danced with me, and when he danced with Kelly
  • when (one more time) our photographer remembered one of my Must Have images of us getting margaritas from the margarita fountain
  • when Pam & Pat were dancing to the songs we picked just for them (Play That Funky Music, White Boy and Brick House); probably my most favorite image from the whole reception
  • when Jenn made sure I remembered to give Emil’s mom, my parents, and my grandparents their gifts; yep, I had forgotten
  • when Daddy asked if he could change; he was so concerned about being properly dressed for long enough, but also knew he had to give his tux to Emil’s brother Tim to return on Sunday
  • when Emil told me and all our guests of our honeymoon location (I was too stressed out with wedding planning and asked him to plan the whole honeymoon & not tell me where we were going; he bought/packed me everything from swimsuits to sweaters): Greece; I’m still kinda dumbfounded that we did that; best wedding decision I made; best trip ev-AR; the image of my face during the reveal is another favorite image. Thank you, Julie, for your stories that made me appreciate Greece from afar.
  • when Crystal, who is Greek, taught us Thank You (Efharistó) and other key phrases in Greek in anticipation of our trip
  • when Emil gave envelopes containing itineraries and contact info to both our moms in case the unthinkable happened while we were abroad
  • when we had our getaway to the sights of bubbles and the sounds of little bells; it was a perfect blend for our senses to end our perfect day!

Happy Anniversary, Emil, my darling, my love. We had our perfect day, and these last 10 years have been the best of my life. I know the next decade will be just as exuberant as the last.

xxxooo