New Year's Resolutions & 2008 Images

2009 is not even a month old, and I'm determined to make my resolutions stick. Luckily, they were not that hard this year. The first one included ditching Costco brand mascara and getting something nicer from Sephora. That got done almost right away. Actually, I've been fairly productive in 2009 so far, I even have been honing my Facebook skills which is another resolution I made.

I did resolve to post to my blog, which I'm hoping will make me start writing again. I do a lot of writing at work but it's not the same thing. I need to get the creative juice and the voice going for the blog and for my book, which still needing its second round of edits by me. As an aside, the professional editing got done a while back by my good pal Jenny Meadows (http://www.mycopyeditor.com/). Please check her out if you're in need of copy editing services.

Like I did in 2008, I wanted to make my fist post in 2009 one that shows the great images from the year. I'll focus on the post-March timeframe.

My 40th birthday in Vegas was attended by me and 12 of my best friends from around the world - Sheri got the prize for coming from Australia (no not only for my birthday). It was a complete blast and have totally embraced being 40. I wore a gold dress which garnered a lot of attention. Sharon organized yet another fantastic party at Craftsteak in Mandalay Bay.

In August we surprised my dad with a party to celebrate his last stint as Operations Director at the Republican Convention. He has retired twice already and the joke was that this was the third one but it won't stick. We'll have to find out in 2012. It was a beautiful weekend in St. Paul, MN and a welcome break from Texas which was hot as hell this past summer.

The party happened right before the launch of the Latitude E-family, which I worked. It was great to be back with the old Dell gang.I'm on the board of KIPP Austin Public Schools. If you're not familiar with KIPP, please take a minute to check out the links at:

http://www.kipp.org/08/pressdetail.cfm?a=479
http://www.kipp.org/08/pressdetail.cfm?a=585

On October 1, the high school opened with ceremony at the school. It was a great day and really amazing to see the first freshman class and how proud they are of their school. To see the great coverage we got thanks to Trew Marketing and the dedicated staff at KIPP, go to:http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=7561401&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=5.2.1

Not long after the launch, Donna called to say she and John were getting married! The wedding was held at the Red Mountain Spa in St. George, Utah (http://www.redmountainspa.com/) and it was a complete blast. The bachelorette party included hip hop dancing and a drum session. I can say for sure on my blog with all credibility that none of us have any future as a dancer with Britney Spears. We are fairly sure the instructor quit not long after that. Luckily we were a little better at drumming.

John and I did water pilates the day of the rehearsal, and there was a great hike in Snow Canyon National Park the morning of the wedding. The wedding was in fact held in the park where we all went barefoot on the red sand. John and Donna were one of the happiest couples I've seen at a wedding. Congrats guys, and thanks to the Regenbaums and Kerrs for a great party.

The wedding was a great start to a fun holiday season. Dad and Pam were in Austin for Thanksgiving, along with Laurel. A huge meal was cooked and we all had dinner at Mom's. I think I am still stuffed!

After a busy December, it was time to rest and relax. We rented a house in Sonoma for a week with me, mom and Laurel. Check this place out - a great option if you're planning to go to CA wine country (http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p171072). We liked Sonoma because it is laid back and free of tour buses, but has many wineries and other fun things to do close by. Laurel got stuck in the snowstorm from Portland, but she made it! Highlights included Healdsburg, Bodega Bay, lunch at the CIA in Napa and the Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa. Susan and Pablo were out visiting Joe and Soledad, Pablo's sister and her husband. We all head Christmas dinner together and drank lots of red wine...Lory even made a cameo appearance for a day at the spa and some great food and wine. A great wind up to a great year.



More to come in 2009...really. Happy new year everyone!

Hiking the Smokies

Me & Dad

This week, rather than simply doing nothing, I have been visiting east Tennessee - home of my dad, Mike Miller, and his wife Pam. My dad is a serious hiker who about a year ago completed hiking all 900 miles of trails in the Smoky Mountains. We hiked almost 20 miles this week and I have the blisters to prove it. Despite the fact that the weather was not great over the weekend, it ended up being a beautiful couple of days. Here are some photos I took with my cool new camera! Check out the serious water crossing (I passed on this one).

The Smokies are a very special place to me and my family because my grandparents had a summer home there in a place called Elkmont - near where we were hiking. My dad and his brothers spent most of their summers there. Elkmont is a community that existed prior to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. This park now attracts more than 9 million visitors per year and is the most visited of all the national parks. The families who lived in Elkmont when the park was created were granted a lease from the government which expired in 1992. You can read more about the history of Elkmont on this site: http://www.imagesbuilder.com/gsmnp/elkmont.html.

Anyway, the real shame is not that the houses had to be given back, because everyone knew that was going to happen - but that they are still there 15 years later. Believe it or not, the US Government has not been able to figure out what to do with all these houses. It got so bad that in 2005, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed Elkmont on their list of the Eleven Most Endangered Places (http://www.nationaltrust.org/11Most/list.asp?i=156). We saw our old house this week, and very sadly it has continued to fall into a state of disrepair (it was a really cool house). There is some indication that certain homes are going to be restored - if they are in fact salvageable at this point. In the right hand picture, you can see where some new wood frame has been laid over a decaying roof. We are not sure what the deal is on this, but I'll post more when I hear. That's all for this week...

My Grandparents' House

New Roof?