One whole month and I haven't pissed off too many people

This will have to be a very quick Random Tuesday Post because I seriously don't seem to be able to find the time to blog. I'm not sure whether it is learning the new job, unpacking/setting up the house, all the visitors we've had in the last 30 days or a combination of everything. I suspect the latter. Benefit so far? I haven't pissed anyone off yet! I'm either not working up to my full potential or I'm not doing anything wrong yet. Probably the former.

Here is our 30 days in a nutshell

We promptly discovered the farmer's market.

 

 Our hauls have been substantial. 

We also participated in Banned Books Week at the market.

Though she is not pictured, Nessa was quite a draw to our table.

We've had friends and family show up.

All of our kids came over for the weekend including a surprise visit from Dr. Boy. We didn't think we would see him until November or so given his exam schedule but there he was knocking on the door. I may have shed a tear or two.

I made beignets. They were scarfed down in a matter of moments. Dr Boy, JR and I were the only ones that had ever eaten beignets before so these were new to the Eldest Son and his Lovely Wife.  Those of us with beignet experience liked this version because they weren't as sweet. The other two just loved fried dough...because who doesn't? I made these from refrigerator biscuits. Next time I plan to try deep frying refrigerator cinnamon rolls. I'm obviously a sick woman and should be stopped.

Last weekend my mom and stepdad came over to visit. We had a great time going out to dinner, visiting a distillery (hated the booze though) and generally spending time with each other. Sorry no pictures. Not sure what I was thinking. 

We've visited a winery (or two)

Where we drank too much,

Joined the wine club thus committing ourselves to buying at least 3 bottles of wine a year. Like that's a problem! 

We did get T-shirts out of the deal. So there is that.

T-shirts will we will no longer be wearing because the weather has gotten decidedly colder.

Evidenced by my photographic efforts.

 The first week we got here

 The second or third week after we got here.

  

This morning!

JR had to dig around to find the ice scrapper.

He has decided that parking in the garage is best option from now on.

He will have to clear space. Good thing the car is small.

So there you have it. A random edition of our first 30 days in what is looking like its becoming the frozen north. Go check out other Random Tuesday Thoughts folks at Stacy's place.

Stay groovy,

M

RTT - Odds and Ends and taunting of friends

The last few weeks have been a bit crazy with the new job, new rental, new town, new state. I've taken a bunch of pictures and posted a few on Facebook. Facebook made it much easier to keep in contact with everyone without having to write a whole post or worrying about internet access. I just took the photos with my phone and uploaded them from my phone.

Here just a few random things going on around here.


I taunted my friend Mark via text with our crystal clear, particulate free, actual water tasting water.

Me: It has this funny fresh clean taste.
Mark: Ooooooh is that healthy? it probably has no taste--how sad. I like to feel the testure of water like chewing the air..

He's just jealous.

My next text to him.
Me: Baby it's cold out there.
Mark: ........

We set up some outdoor stuff

Our little winter garden and our clothesline.

Sunday breakfast and family lunch/dinner. Or is that lunner? Or dinch?

Homemade easy peasy beignets. I made these from refrigerator biscuits. While I was frying them up I wondered; "Why can't I do this with cinnamon rolls?" that will be the next thing. Nothing like taking something already bad for you up a notch.
 

We knew that Older Boy and his wife were coming to visit but Dr. Boy showed up out of the blue. Made this mama cry a little to have everyone all together again. I'll be guilt-ing the kids into visiting more often now that we are so close.


Oh an then there was this. It showed up in the mail. Our little film didn't win an award but this was good enough for me. I consoled myself that I was smart enough not to spend $700 in airfare not to win. Though winning would have been cool. I could have accepted via the internet. Sort of like U2 didn't one year at the Grammys. I probably would have been as drunk.

That's it. Go over to Stacy's place to visit other Randomers. She's back up and running from her cross country move too.

Stay groovy,
M

RTT- Only in Texas

I don't often participate in the Random Thoughts Tuesday deal because I just don't seem to find the time. I don't really even blog as often as in the past but I've got a couple of things that I just can't leave only. So here goes...



From the annuals of "Only in Texas"
I was invited to an Executive Round Table breakfast this morning to speak. (Though I didn't speak all that much.) When I say Executive Round Table meeting think old white guys. Respectful, very nice but still old white businessmen. Anyway the start of the meeting is what was, to me anyway, strange. Sort of on the surreal side of strange. Sort of funny but not really funny ha ha. The opening of the meeting started like this;

1. a prayer, (short, sweet and to the point. Bless our endeavors, our government as long as they do what WE think is best and our christian values. I'm sure you get the picture.)
2. then came the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S., (this seemed a little less heartfelt than the next number. This pledging came complete with U.S. small flag.)
3. then the Pledge of Allegiance to the Texas flag, (yes, there is one. This also came complete with a small Texas flag. Of equal size of the federal flag, mind you.)
4.  then the singing of God Bless America. (A rousing rendition I might say.)

At this point I think the other diners at IHOP were pretty freaked out. I was pretty freaked out. I didn't know what was going on so I kept trying to sit down between each section. After the first pledge I stayed standing, waiting for the others to sit just so I didn't make more protocol mistakes.


From the home front
Nessa went to the groomers on Sunday. This is not her favorite place to hang out but she bucked up. She got the whole spa treatment including the Top Dog Package. This package had her smelling like pina colada. 

She has a new little neighborhood girlfriend.  McKayla is 10 years old and a sweetheart. When she comes over Nessa becomes so excited that she runs circles around McKayla and the house. They play fetch, tug-the-toy and chase. This is the first young kid that Nessa has ever bonded with. Normally, she is afraid to children. 

Entertainment
JR was given free tickets to a baseball game tonight. You may have seen my posting on Facebook. These tickets are in the luxury suite. All the food and booze we can drink and all free! Well, free for him. The price for me is sitting through a baseball game without a book. He made me promise not to bring one. I tried to get him to take our friend Mark with him but he wanted me there. Strange man! He knows I'm an introvert who would rather stay home with a book and a glass of wine by myself.



That's it for me. Everyone have a great day.





Be groovy,
M

RTT - IM chats, Texas wildflowers, new knife

It is that time of the week.

One of the ways that I keep in touch with my children is to chat with them on IM. These chats can be anything from links to articles they want me to read to these sorts of chats. I got such a laugh out of this particular IM chat.

Ben: the hell? people in the south put peanuts in coke?

Me: they put peanuts in everything

Ben: how can one region be so wrong at everything all the time

Me: they boil the damn things and if that isn't gross I don't know what is

Ben: well frying everything I get to some extent
 that is a trend elsewhere too parts of britain well known for it

Me: whoever the genius was that thought up fried pickles should get a Nobel

Ben: this year's culinary nobel prize goes to Cletus spends money immediately on meth

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I needed a new knife. It is very handy that JR works for a restaurant supply store but I try not to go to his place of employment because, well, I could spend a whole lot of money. I mean really!, who doesn't need a whisk the size of their head? And, don't get me started on ladles.

I did spend a little money on Saturday. What did I get? I picked up a professional grade sudoku knife for half what I would have paid for it online or at the kitchen supply store. Score! These are my favorite type of knife though I was eying a 8" serrated knife. I might could use one of those. (that's Southern speak for, "it would be handy to have one".)

 

I'm pretty particular about my knives so buying professional quality is important. I want one that feels good in my small hands, not too heavy and with a sharp edge.A really sharp blade. I'm talking Ginsu sharp.

I picked up a medium hand grater and a really cool spatula. I was like a kid in a candy store. I know...I'm such a cooking nerd.

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We went with some friends to Brenham, Chappell Hill (pronounced chapel. Texans will fight you on the pronunciation of this town's name, trust me) and Independence, Texas to eat ice cream, 

 see the blue bonnets,  

have lunch 

and just hang out. 

We took Nessa because we really never go anywhere without her if we can help it. 


We are in a drought so the blue bonnets are not as prolific as they have been in the past. I got some pretty good photos though. 

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I found the title of this historic building ironic, this being the South and all.

Is it just me?


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That's all for me today. Go visit some other random players


Love,
M

Weekend recap - RTT style

The backstory:
Keely start Random Tuesday Thoughts.
Everyone loved it.
Keely's life got busy.
Stacy graciously took over.
Everyone loves it.
Giving Keely a much needed break.
You got all that? Yeah, me too.
Let's get down to business


I made food this weekend.  This may not seem like a big deal but I've been gone quite a bit in the last few weeks so all cooking, painting and cleaning were put on hold. Since, I consider cooking a creative outlet, putting it on hold is very hard for me. But I'm back in the saddle and have come up with something I think will be awesome! An egg baked in an avocado half. Topped with a little lime and cilantro. In fact, I'm jonesing for it right now. Except it is Tuesday; I don't have any avocados right now, shopping day isn't until Saturday and this sounds like breakfast to me. Not that breakfast food can't be dinner. Damn! I'm now convincing myself to stop at the store.

Doesn't this look like dinner?

Oh look! The California Avocado Commission has a recipe. I think this will be on Saturday's breakfast menu with a few vegetarian tweaks. Considering my love of all things avocado, (except maybe the avocado colored appliances that my mother-in-law had...ewww..whoever though THAT was a good idea?) it looks like I'll be culling through their recipe website soon.

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I painted.

 I thought I was done with this but I want to fill in a little on Sprite's bow and Jen's shirt. Other than that I think it came out really well. It is hanging on my drying wall. Jen's wonderful husband John takes the most amazing and heartfelt photos that he could keep me busy for a year trying to paint them all. Damn.You.John! (and I mean that in the nicest way because I love all of you)

This gray scale is of a friend's sleeping baby. I adore the look of it. JR wasn't sure what it was at first and I LOVE that about this painting. You really sort of have to know what the subject matter is or unfocus a little to figure it out.

Next up is the "We can afford that" banner and one of JR's grandmother boarding a train back in 1910. I'm planning to paint that one in a post-impressionism style. That ought to really confuse JR.

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The weather was a little hot and muggy on Saturday which encouraged our hibiscus to bloom.

Thankfully, it cooled down. I'm seriously hoping that we don't start summer until at least May this year.

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I've been working out very consistently for the last week and a half. While my scale and I are not agreeing, I say I can see/feel the difference. My clothes are fitting a little better. After all the travel food I've been eating I needed to get back into shape. Eating all those calories isn't hard but burning them off sure is.

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I love yoga.

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Nessa is spoiled.

In a sweet cuddly fuzzy type of way that is impossible to resist.

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That is it for me. Please take a few minutes to pop over to Stacy's place to visit other RTT participants.

Love,
M

RTT - weekend roundup

Random weekend doings. Though I'm not sure how random they are. It seems like a lot of sitting around in my jammies watching TV, eating junk food, drinking wine and spending money.

This post brought to you by Random Tuesday Thoughts. Hop on over to Stacy's place to visit others.

Love,
Michele

RTT-shameless self promotion

I totally plan to shamelessly self-promote today.

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 Paintings:
This is the one that I've been working on for a week or so now. It is coming along. I need to let the painting dry a while longer. I'm mostly working on the hair right now and blending the flesh colors. The blending stage takes the longest time. Sketching takes a little while mostly because getting the perspective right is difficult for me. Slapping the first layer of paint on doesn't take any time at all, a couple of hours at most. The blending and layering stages takes forever since you can only work on a little bit at a time. From now on I'll be adding highlights, low-lights and detail.

This is the second one that I am working on. As you can see it is another grayscale piece. I really like the abstract quality of it, JR not so much but than JR doesn't really like any abstract paintings. It is not a true abstract, of course, more of a study. This painting is of a baby's eyelashes. Which I think is kind of cool. My friend Lacey took the picture of her son while he was sleeping. I cropped it a little closer and chose to paint it on a 12 x 12 canvas. I think it gives it an interesting sense of motion and emotion. Once again, during the coming weeks I'll add the details. What do you think?

I have two more paintings in the drawn out phase. One is the banner from the "We can Afford That" site without the text. The other is an old photograph of JR's grandmother and her friend/sister (I'm not sure which) boarding a train home from boarding school for Easter break. Obviously, the photograph is in black and white since it was taken around 1910, but I'm going to painting it in color. I'm going for a very impressionism style with this one. It will be interesting to see how it comes out. I've found that paintings tend to take on a life of their own. I'm sure these two won't be any different.

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If you haven't watched it or if you have but found it so compelling that you just HAVE to watch again or if you have time on your hands or you just can't get enough of University of Houston during WWII history or you are so bored that you will watch anything even mildly interesting in an effort to relieve your boredom. Here is the documentary film I made with some others.



The University of Houston: War and Growth, 1939-1950 from UH Memories on Vimeo.


I figured out how to actually embed the file! Yay me! I'm feeling oh so clever now.

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As a Goldendoodle Nessa doesn't shed. Which is a good thing. What is a bad thing is the amount of money that it costs me to take her to the groomers every 3 months. Since, I have become very cheap this year I've decided to groom Nessa myself. I'm proud to say that she doesn't look too much like a lawnmower cut her hair and I've only nicked her once. The groomers can't say that. Now, if I could only be more proactive about bathing her every couple of weeks and brushing her at least once a week she'd have to have less mats cut out of her fur.


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As many of you know, my one New Year's resolution was to do one random act of kindness every day. This has now become sort of mantra for me and it has spilled over to JR. We were doing our (what has now become) bi-weekly grocery shopping trip and another driver was being a jerk. I said to JR, just let him cut in and don't get all huffy about it. Then call it your random act of kindness for today. Which he did. JR has been getting more on-board with this philosophy. Pretty soon we will either be the nicest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse (name that paraphrased movie quote) or biggest suckers to ever live. I'm okay with either.


That seems to be the limit of my random today. head over the Stacy's place by clicking on the button at the top of the page to read more random posts from other exciting bloggers.

Love,
M

RTT - Something I haven't seemed to accomplished for awhile

To say I been lazy with the blogging would be an understatement but to give me some credit I did start the "We can afford that" blog. Let's see if I can pull something out of my hat for this week.

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JR's birthday was last week. I took him out for dinner. He ate a mountain of seafood. I had a side of asparagus and a baked potato. We were each very happy with our meal. JR is now considered in the Senior set which for us means DISCOUNTS! Almost everywhere. We have already signed up at our local Krogers for the 10% discount on store brands. This even includes their organic products. We save about $20 per month with this discount. Most of the other discounts are for restaurants that we never go to, hotels that we have gotten discounts for last 10 years and car rentals that we rarely rent. But, they are there when we need them. On his next birthday he will be entitled to the best discount (in our estimation) a National Park Golden Pass! There is nothing we like better than a National Park and at $10 for a lifetime membership we will be all over that. Sadly, DisneyWorld doesn't offer very good senior rates because that is our second favorite destination.


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I co-authored a couple of chapters in a book last year. It is finally coming out in print. I should be getting my advanced copy in the mail in the next few days. I'll be sure to let ya'll know about it. Of course, I don't expect any of you to go out to buy it because it is written for anthropology ethnographers. 


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I think I've eluded to the documentary film I was making with a public historian colleague, well as of today when we fix all the copyright problematic music (graduate students are a blessing and a curse) I will be posting it to the world. The university media relations and the alumni association want first crack at it but the PBS station will be getting that. In fact, I should call them now. As soon as it is available I'll post the link. It is only 27 minutes long and has received rave reviews. 

"One of the best researched, written and edited pieces that has come across my desk in a long time." Mr. Adams, KUHT program manager

"Well, it took me forever to get to watching it, but I LOVED it! It was thoroughly interesting and engaging, and you put it together very well! I loved all the music. Good job! I hope that a PBS station snatches it up!" Gretchen German, actress, writer and blogger extraordinaire.



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My friend Carolyn and I have been going to almost weekly wine workshops at one of the local upscale supermarket. Last night was the only one I missed. And, of course, it was the one where they tasted $50+ dollar bottles of wine. I am not pleased.


That is about all I can come up with at the moment. What's doing in your life?

Love,
M

RTT - Patio redux, work holiday party recon, Paul McCartney

It seems imperative that JR and I have a little outdoor oasis wherever we live. Just somewhere to sit outside on a cool morning and drink coffee or on a balmy afternoon for our aperitifs.  This new place has a small patio area (and I mean really small but for a Houston rental it is big) between the townhouse and the garage. One third of it is tiled but the remaining 2/3rds was just dirt and some drainage rocks. If I had been clever I would have taken a before photo because it was just too pathetic.

Anyway, we spent a little time at Home Depot and about 4 hours dressing the place up.

We covered a good portion of the area in gravel, left a small strip for some bedding plants, potted up some plants, cleaned up and plugged in both fountains (you can only see one in this picture), set out a couple of sling chairs and a table that we have had forever and there you have it. A quiet little oasis in the city.

 

Nessa was a huge help. though she immediately cluttered up the place with her toys. The other fountain is right behind her. She promptly dropped her ball into it. 

All and all, I'm pretty happy with the way it is shaping up. We still have to decide how we want to cover the air conditioning unit. Can you say "ugly"? I'm thinking of having JR bring home a pallet from work to make a screen out of it. Then hang some plants off the pallet screen. I think that will make a nice vertical herb garden. 

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Another part of the weekend was spent doing a little recon work at Michael's Craft Store for the work holiday party. The planning committee plans to make these for the decorations in the large meeting room where lunch will be served. 

And these for the staff lounge where we plan to set up the desserts.  Except we won't be using candles with flames. We are planning to pick up some of those flame-less candles. The ones with the little LED lights. The University fire department frowns on fire inside the building. 

We found both ideas on Pinterest, of which I've become a Pinterest fool. I spend way too much time on that particular site. I now have about 15 projects I want to do that I have absolutely no time for. 

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If you and I are friends on Facebook you'll know that JR and I went to the Paul McCartney concert. To say we enjoyed yourselves would be an understatement. It was fantastic, amazing, fun and expensive but worth it.

There are a couple of things that I noticed about concert going in the 21st century that are different than the 20th. 

1. instead of holding up lit lighters the attendees held up cell phones with lit lighter apps on them. Very high tech.
2. maybe it was just this crowd in this venue (a stadium with the roof open) but there wasn't that blue haze of pot smoke. Or any pot smoke smell around us. Maybe, I have a weird sort of nostalgia but I sort of missed it.

There were some other things I noticed that I think are Houston centric such as, a woman wearing a real fur coat to a concert by an avid animal activist (no apologies from this crowd), everyone and I mean everyone sang along to all the songs (that was actually great) and this one says nothing about Houston or the venue but the nachos (the only things served by the vendors that was vegetarian) were so salty as to be almost unpalatable.  I say almost because I was hungry and they were served with great pico de gallo. Washed down with beer and they weren't too bad. Also, if you order them without the chicken or beef the concessionaires seem to think that you need more of the fake cheese sauce.

Here is a really bad video taken with my cell phone.

That is all from me. Please go visit a few of the others participating in Random Tuesday Thoughts.

Peace,
M

RTT - musings

Let me apologize right now. I haven't been a very good Random Tuesday participant but I've also been a pretty lazy blogger so I guess it all goes hand in hand. Sorry! It just doesn't seem that I have all that much to say and I've been really busy. Excuses! Excuses!

Here are just a few random things.

1. I'm contemplating starting a new site just for "We could afford that" posts.  I've got a boatload of photos from the trip and am bound to have more over the course of the year. I've got some idea of writing stories, funny adverts and such about each of the houses.  What do you think?

2. We have to move. The landlords are tearing our complex down in a couple of months so out we go. We plan to look at a few places this weekend. I hate moving but at least this move will not include a ton of extra stuff. See! All that de-cluttering is going to pay off.

3. I got a hair cut on Sunday. I'm pretty happy with it. Well, with the exception of today. For some reason my curls decided not to curl. Very annoying.

4. My friend Rachel and I are going to;

This Saturday. I'm pretty excited. Maybe I'll come home with something that I can give away.

That is about all that I've got for today. Go visit the other Randomizers because this post is just weak.













Love,
M

RTT - paintings, flowers, music and food.

The three day weekend went very quickly considering that I spent one full day of it in Phoenix. Doesn't that mean I get an extra day?

I've got more than a small bit of random today since I was away most of last week. When you're done go visit all the others that play along.

Stacy has been hosting it for awhile now. Click on the image to read more random posts.

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While I don't miss the cholla (jumping cactus) I do miss some of the other cactus' in Arizona. This would be one. Isn't it cute? It's wearing a hat.  Maybe one of those crazy ones that the British women are wearing these days. Don't they have a name for them?

Though I have to say I came back to the magnolias blooming. Very little beats the smell of magnolias in bloom. They are sweet without being cloying like orange blossoms. And, the flowers are gorgeous! All creamy white against dark green leaves. Spectacular!

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While in AZ I went into the local used bookstore...you know I had to, right?
I wasn't looking for anything particular and didn't really find anything. I did come across the shelves of cookbooks and these caught my eye. Not for the recipes in them but for the text on the spine.

 Yes, that does say; "The Way to a Man's Heart". 

I guess it is all about the era in which you are living because while JR loves my cooking I can't say that it had anything to do with winning his heart. I hadn't actually cooked for him before we got married. I think I had other attributes that won his heart.  

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While in AZ I went to a very small family owned Mexican place for lunch. The margarita was good, the burrito was okay but the red salsa...

OMG! It was awesome. 

I wanted to bath in it (though now that I type that it sounds creepy). I could have drank it straight. It was that good.

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Another place that I popped into while in lovely dry Arizona was a music store. I ogled the ukeleles on display. They had the coolest ones and if I had had extra money I would have picked up a new tenor uke. Alas, I was broke. I did pick up these.   

Ukelele song books! I'm all jazzed to tune up the uke and get playing now.

Interestingly enough they had a display case of old accordions. I immediately thought of JR. He probably doesn't want me to tell ya'll this but  he played the accordion as a child/youth. I keep wanting to get him another one. Wouldn't that be the start of an interesting Christmas tradition...me on the uke and him on the accordion. Think of the sing-a-longs. Who's up for the holidays at our house? What instrument/talent can you add to the mix. I think I'm going to insist that Jan's husband bring his cocktail shaker and his mad cocktail creating talent.

I think that is about all I can come up with at this time. In fact, knowing me I've probably exhausted all my ideas for the rest of the week. 

Love,

M