I just have to add a post to say...

...that Chrissie's nephew is REALLY the cutest baby I have EVER seen. She's mentioned it more than a few times, but frankly, everyone always thinks their baby, niece, nephew, grandchild, godchild is the most adorable child in the world. Normal folks know that's simply impossible. Not every tot can be #1.

Hate to break it to you, but some babies ain't so cute.

Not the case with Chrissie's nephew. He is truly awwwww-my-heart-aches-he's-SO-cute adorable. Her latest set of pictures had me literally wishing I could pull the little guy right off my screen; too huggable to believe!

It's funny because I often joke with Felix that I will do my best to be an honest mother. If my little pumpkin is wrinkly or odd-lookin', I will simply accept that and not foist some distorted notion of "tell me my baby is great" on those around me. Felix laughs and tells me not to be absurd. Apparently, part of parenthood is entering this weirdly warped reality where one's child tops all others. Hmm...we'll see. One thing's for sure. Between my dad telling me that I'm getting too old (my aging genes are unraveling with each passing day) and my friends popping out newborns left and right, I sense that starting a family is in our not-so-distant future.

Then we'll see whose baby is cutest!

And now that it's Friday, the answer is:

DAVID

=)

Here's something to get your brain going on Monday:

Five hundred begins it, and five hundred ends it.
There is five in the middle, and there is first of all numbers and first of all letters.
When in place, it will name the eminent king.
Who is it?

.....drum roll please.....

Yes, we finally have our own website. No more banners. No more annoying ads. And a REAL domain name.

www.kathyfelix.com

Boring, you say? Conventional? Perhaps. But let me tell you why commonplace is better than creative.

When I arrived at Stanford as a wee little freshman, the first thing everyone tells you is to think VERY carefully about what you choose as a username. Your SUID is not just your e-mail, they warn you; it's your Stanford label for life. Forever means nothing to most 17-year-olds, though. I watched some of my dormmates make sturdy and faithful choices - kwilson, mjohnson, and so on down the first-initial-last-name road. Whatever! I wanted to be creative and cute, choosing my high school nickname to represent me in the Stanford world. Others were motivated by more obscure reasons, picking oddities like demon, flame, and peaches. The dullards sniffed in disdain; how are you going to put that as your e-mail address on your resume? I just thumbed my nose back and thought, who cares about resumes?! That's years away.

Well, it's years away now. And the first thing that happened when I joyfully came back to Stanford to begin employment was to discover that I was stuck with the same cutesy-ootsy SUID. But I'd graduated! I'd left Stanford! I'd had other jobs and done other things with my life! I needed something standard and professional to put on my business cards and give out to my colleagues. Too bad...the warnings were true. I'm labeled for life. I wasn't the only person to get stung, either. My boss, in fact, who is a class of '75 grad, sheepishly admitted to me that he had also picked a less-than-ideal SUID as a wee little freshman as well.

Good thing we have aliases!

I learned my lesson and have completely changed camps. Old, stodgy, boring, and conventional sound great to me. Chrissie, I should tell you that Felix thought www.katlix.com was the scariest thing he'd ever heard. And Tom, I just don't think catbus would have held up.

So www.kathyfelix.com it is. At least it will stand the test of time!

We're back! Felix and I had an amazing week-long vacation in Whistler. This is actually a tradition for us; Whistler 2002 was our fourth annual trip and each year seems to be even better than the last! Of course, being the compulsive, bossy, event-coordinator-type that I am, I organize our trips. To be fair, Felix put together the first visit...but I just couldn't resist grabbing the reins from him and driving every year after.

I choose the dates. I choose the place to stay. I book the rental cars and airport shuttles. And most importantly, I decide who gets invited and how many people get to come. (***evil laughter and hand-wringing here***)

Can we say power trip?

It's always a lot of fun. Most of our closest and bestest friends and family go, and we ski, ski, ski, and eat, eat, eat to our little hearts' content. Gotta love the eating. We even tried out a new German place this year called Bavaria Restaurant. The menu came complete with homemade bratwurst, real German beer, schnitzel, spaetzel, and strudel. They had it all. Felix ate this big ol' pork hock that was crispy and VERY tasty. Can't forget Mongolie Grill either, where you pay for your meal based on how much it weighs. Everything's make your own, and believe it or not, I ate more than anyone else. That's right, baby; 1.064 kilograms. I kicked Stan's butt, and if you've ever seen him tuck away a meal, you'd know why I'm so proud. I needed to be rolled home when that was over.

Yum!

Felix and I broke down and bought helmets, too. My head is SO huge. I had no idea. With the helmet on, it seems surprising that my neck can hold everything up! When we post our trip pictures, you'll see what I'm talking about. Short people shouldn't have such big noggins. Make me wonder if I wasn't meant to be taller...

This was also the first year that we've ever had video. Stan gave himself a birthday present by buying the most amazing camcorder I have ever seen. It's barely as big as my hand and was just sooooooo cool. Everyone had the chance to get some fun footage in, and the best part is that Felix decided that we should get one, too! Maybe not the same model (how much did you spend, Stan??? 'fess up!!!), but definitely one that we can have fun with.

So the trip was phenomenal and gave me much needed rest. As evidenced in my ability to write a nice long blog, which I haven't done in quite awhile. I also did some other playing around today...can we say new domain name? But that's a secret until I get the whole web-hosting thing figured out. When it's all launched and not broken, I'll let ya'll know. I promise.

8.5 hours sleep in two days. That's basically one good night's rest spread way too thin. The Thursday/Friday conference turned out to be a nightmare and a half. No, really, I'm not exaggerating. In fact, it was so bad that the rest of the staff in our building even noticed. When the attendees left today, my co-worker from across the hall actually suggested that we have a little party on Monday to celebrate the fact that the #?@$! thing was over!

No one liked hosting them.

Ah well, such is life in a service industry. Besides, today was actually a great day. Why is that? I'm on vacation. Yup. When I left work today, I officially left for the week. Whistler, here I come!!!!! I even printed out a little picture from our trip last year and a good-bye-I'll-see-you-in-a-week note to tape to my monitor. Changed my voicemail. Cleaned up my desk. And left for vacation.

Mmmmmmm....I feel better already. **grin**

Chrissie's the bomb. I knew that if anyone would respond to my cry for help, it'd be her.

So now I'm at the hard part....what the heck am I going to choose for a domain name? Felix and I talked a little about it last night. Let's just say that we don't necessarily see eye-to-eye. In fact, at the end of it all, he just threw it back into my court. I'm the one who does more with the website anyway, he says.

Great. SO helpful.

And tomorrow, I have this heinous (what a great word) conference that starts at 6am and runs until 11:30pm. Ugh. Double ugh. TRIPLE ugh. I am so not a morning person...

Uh-oh.

On April 2, Yahoo! Geocities is no longer going to provide free FTP services. My blog is in big trouble.

Any suggestions out there?!?!?!?!?!