Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Caliente!!

Wonder how hot it can get around here?

103° Scattered Clouds <----clouds w/ rain would be awesome!
Wind: N at 3 mph
Humidity: 30% <------seems thicker than this for sure!
Dewpoint: 66°
Pressure: 29.79"
Heat Index: 108° <-----no kiddin'?
Wind Chill: 103° <------WHUUUT??
Sunrise: 6:22 am
Sunset: 8:26 pm

from justweather.com

We haven't had rain since April, then it was flooding! Feast or famine around here! Makes you wanna hole up in the AC. Matter of fact, that's what we've been doing! Hope we get some relief soon! Stay cool wherever you are!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

9 months later

No, not 9 months later and a baby is here!! LOL! No way.....;)

Nine months after Hurricane Ike and not much has changed with the townhouse! We went over there this past week and took some pictures. You wouldn't believe it! Looks almost as bad as a week after the storm. I'm sure there are parts that look worse, but after 10 minutes I was sick to my stomach and had the heeby jeebies, I had to leave! Not only are the fleas taking over, the rats and homeless people from time to time are making themselves at home. You know too, the pool hasn't ever been drained... that is a liability big time! What has our Board of Directors done about it? Not much at all! Oh wait, except spend our money!! I will post a few pics, and you can look back to the others in older posts to compare, but most pics will be on my Flickr site if you're interested. I have sent them along with letters to any news agency I could think of and every local news channel and even some national ones. Maybe if we get some press, something can be done. Not that I would live there again, ever, but we are still paying our mortgage and rent too, and the Board is spending any kind of insurance settlement we may get on frivolous things. It just makes me want to scream, wait... I have done that! So prepare to be shocked:
Our front door is back there somewhere, the weeds are 10 ft high!
the marina
remember this boat? hasn't moved!
lumber anyone?
just sick...

Monday, June 8, 2009

VIsit to "Big D"

Nick and I took a weekend trip to Dallas for a family wedding this past weekend. It was a nice getaway just the two of us. Trey stayed at Mimi & Poppy's, and had fun going to the museum, riding bikes, building fires in the chiminea, and making smores!

We left on Friday morning and got there around 4pm. We stayed with the family at The Adolphus Hotel, right in downtown and it was fabulous! The rehearsal dinner was at 7pm. My husbands cousin was getting married, lemme give you a little background and this will all make sense! Nick's cousin (the Groom's father) owns a Budweiser distributorship in Brenham, he was a wholesale beer distributor lobbyist for 15 years. The bride's father owns one of the largest construction companies in the country, you'll see why this was such an extravagant weekend! ;)
The dinner was at a place in the West End district called YO Ranch Steakhouse (check out the website, it's awesome). This place has so much memorabilia and fantastic photos from the 20's. We sat by the owner and his family and they told great stories from way back when. It was one of the best steaks I've ever had. The whole place was awesome, and we were there a while, from about 7pm to 2 am! We had a 5 course meal and dessert you wouldn't believe! There was umlimited amounts of beer (Bud of course!) and wine, actually whatever you wanted, all you had to do was ask. The staff was amazing dealing with all 200 of us, serving our drinks cold and our food hot! Lots Aggies roaming around, plenty of stories, photos of the bride and groom, lots of love and well-wishes! Most of the groomsmen work in DC for various lobbyists and congressmen, so imagine the schmoozing going on! I think out of all the festivities thru the weekend, this was the most fun! Mike's Mom, Aunt Bibby, even showed up, she was really sick and they didn't think she'd make it (as in live) much less come to the wedding, but she promised Michael she'd be there and she was. She was a trooper too, she was there until almost midnight, and stayed awake too! Bless her heart!


Saturday Nick and I had the day to be tourists, it had been about 20 years since I'd been in Dallas. I had a list of things I wanted to do... if you know me, lists are friends!! Nick's best friend Patrick works in N. Richland Hills, so we took a drive. He works at Cabela's and we spent 2 hours there, it is HUGE! Then we plugged in Simone (GPS) and off we went to play tourist! I wanted to go to the Sixth Floor Museum, it was a gorgeous day, so we parked there and visited the Grassy Knoll, the Book Depository, and the reflection pool and memorials. It was very surreal to realize what had taken place there (since we weren't born when JFK was assassinated)and see all the memories, photos, newspapers, Jackie's jewelry, etc. We wandered around town and found Pioneer Park, there were lifesize bronze statues of a cattle drive, pictures don't do it justice, they were down a hill, across a stream, everywhere!!


standing on the "X"
on the grassy knoll

pioneer park

The wedding was at a church on the campus of SMU, Highland Park United Methodist. It was a huge gorgeous old church, made for a beautiful wedding! It was a short and sweet wedding, my favorite kind! We didn't hang there long, headed back to the hotel where the reception was. When we got there, in the foyer of the Grand Ballroom they had an ice sculpture and a table with goodies, cheeses, breads and fruit. Good thing because we were both starving! Oh and the first of many bars we'd see! The ballroom was gorgeous, the cakes; incredible and the band was awesome! We grabbed a table and enjoyed the music for a while, then got some dinner. Everything was great, the wedding party showed up and started the dances. By now my feet were killing me, and I saw alot of bare feet, so I joined in! By the time midnight rolled around and the carriage arrived for the bride and groom, I was more then ready to go up to our room.




the groom's cake!
my aching feet!

The next morning we had a brunch to attend and it too was wonderful, but I was ready to get home and sit still for a bit. I was pooped! Trey was ready to be at his own home too, nothing like home after a trip. Thanks for reading this far, hope you enjoyed it!