Snow

Its snowing in downtown Houston! I was not really excited about it since I have to be at work and it makes me worry for the driving conditions going home, but it is beautiful. I looked up from my work to see it steadily coming down outside my window.

This is the first time we've ever had snow 2 years in row (blog from last year's snow), 34th time Houston has EVER had snow (since record keeping started in the late 1800s).

I've already seens posts of people laughing at how excited/freaked we are, but its rare for us and knowing how badly people drive in the rain its cause for concern...and celebration.....

Dangers of Social networking

Earlier this week I had to attend a meeting at Houston Community College (HCC), so I put headed to HCC for a meeting as my status on Twitter and Facebook.

A person I went to high school with commented on my status saying, "I've spent the day reading about hepatocellular carcinoma and found your status confusing." I saw the comment and thought it was odd to make that connection, but could find an h and two cs in the phrase, so it is probably also abbreviated HCC in medical literature. I also realize that your frame of reference will lead you to read abbreviations in certain ways...my job is its own alphabet soup of abbreviations. I went on about my business and didn't think anything more of it.

My poor mother-in-law read it and some part of her thought I might have it! She even researched it and called my hubby, who was unaware of my FB status , at home. I can only imagine how confused he was.

I hope I never have a disease such as that, but if I do or for any serious news I won't break it to people via facebook/twitter/whatever social networking site I'm using by then...

I know there are much more serious dangers with social websites, but that is the most recent one I've encountered, and now that my mother-in-law knows I'm fine, it is funny in a strange way.

Gobble Gobble

I love long weekends..I love being off from work long enough to forget what day it is :) It was a busy weekend, but a good one...

I worked Wednesday, seemed like I was the only person at work ~ I know I wasn't, since I saw other people, but it was definitely a skeleton crew. I probably could've taken the day off, but didn't have any real plans to go anywhere, didn't have to cook or travel, and I had made plans to go out that night with some former coworkers I hadn't seen in years so it made more sense for me to be in town...if I'd have stayed home I wouldn't have driven in. Kevin did take the day off and enjoyed a gorgeous morning at a park nearby - brought his bike and his camera. I wish we had cold weather more often, but it is pretty nice in many ways to live in a place we can be outdoors in the winter...most people put bikes up for the winter, we put ours away for the summer.

Thursday and Friday we spent with each side of the family. Living closer to Kevin's family made driving to spend the day with his family really no drive at all. Unfortunately, that means the drive to my family is longer, but still an easy day trip. Great to see both sides of the family, and I got my fix of turkey and pie...

Saturday morning we attended CPR training. It had been years since I'd taken a class and Kevin never had taken it before. He'd been wanting to take one since someone knowing CPR saved his uncle this past summer and now that we're moved and settled we were able to take the course. Its changed since I took it last time, and I know I understand it better. Having a small class (only 3 of us) gave us a lot of time for individual questions. I hope that if I were to ever need to do it, I could help someone by doing CPR...

That night we met up with another former coworker in town for the holiday (HI SHARON!) She was able to put a group together to go to Cafe Adobe - we used to eat there almost on a weekly basis, my waistline is thankful I don't anymore....It was great to see everyone! I worked with her my first job out of college, the first "real" job, and we had a lot of fun and I learned a lot during my time with them.

Sunday was a heartbreaker of a day. I was able to go to the Texans game, and the first half was wonderful but then they just fell apart and got walked all over the entire second half. Its tough to be a Texans fan. The highlight of the day - before the game we tailgated with St Arnold's (local brewery). It was the first time we were able to do so, and we'll definitely do it again. We had to walk around the Astrodome to find where they were - I had never seen how many tailgaters there really were...there must be as many people OUTSIDE the stadium as in it! We found out where their lot was and finally found it.....how we did, I don't really know. I was looking for a flag or their tie-dye Bentley, but Kevin and his dad saw the trailer....They don't have food, but they have beer on tap! I cannot wait until they can give tours at the newery (new-brewery)!

Draperies

I got a photo of the drapes, and you can see the new wall paint color. I forgot to take a before picture, so this photo of the living room that we took the weekend we moved in will have to do:

As you can see it was plain white walls and windows. We wanted to warm up the room and so we had the living room and kitchen painted a 'honey' color, and we love it. The wall color looks a bit different depending on the time of day, much warmer than the white walls we started with. We'll eventually paint other rooms in the house, but this is a great start, especially since these are the rooms where we spend most of our waking hours at home. The crown molding is also new and really completes these two rooms, now I just need to find a large wall hanging for behind the kitchen table and a window treatment for the kitchen and we'll consider them complete! Houses are always a work in progress, and with this house I want to make that effort, I never really did with the other one.....

Well, I didn't take photos of the draperies yet..but will soon.

We had a great weekend. We stayed around the house most of the day Saturday...it was dreary and rainy, and a good day to just stay at home. It rarely works out for me to be able to stay home on the days that the weather is telling me to stay home, so it was a nice treat. We made spaghetti for dinner, and I even baked some muffins for breakfast for Sunday, and broke in the smoker with a brisket - smoked it for 6 hours, then cooked it overnight in the oven. We had friends over yesterday to help us eat it...tasted so good, and it was a great treat to have it work out that everyone we invited was able to come. That should be the first of many good meals cooked on that smoker.

Tonight the Texans are on Monday Night Football. Kevin will be there, I'll watch it on tv. We are VERY excited to see them on national tv, especially against the Titans....

Thanksgiving is only a few days away and I am so annoyed that all the stores are already cramming Christmas at us. I know, their objective is to sell, sell, sell, but would it really be so bad to take these days to stop to think of all that we have to be thankful for? Even in the economy we are in right now and with all the people laid off, we have a lot to be thankful for. I am guilt of getting caught up in the hub-bub of it all, but do want to stop and think of all that I have to be thankful for. Here are the tops on my list of what I'm thankful for: a wonderful family (including the family I gained from marrying Kevin), my sweet husband, good health, a job I enjoy, living in a country with all the freedoms that we have. I know my list is much longer but that is my top 5. I want to be better at telling those in my life I'm thankful for how much they mean to me....I know that they know it, but its good to hear, even a simple thank you to the person working a check-out can brighten their day...