The Tuckers

AM workouts

2012-01-22T17:17:00.000-06:00

January is zooming by!   With classes starting at my university last week its definitely gotten busier at work.   Its good to be busy and yet I find myself needing more hours in the day. That won't happen, so I have to adapt...I also need to stop looking at work emails while I get ready for work, hooking my email to my cellphone may've been a bad idea....

Anyway, one way I seem to not find enough time is for my workouts. I'm fortunate to be able to use work time 3 days a week for workouts but my 4- 5 pm time seems to get overrun with meetings or many times with me trying to get one assignment finished that is easier to just plug on through than to try to find a stopping place and pick up the next day - I'll find myself wondering WHERE I was and have to backtrack to get back to where I was.   My solution - workout in the morning. I've been getting up a little earlier and working out at home, but tomorrow I'll go into the office early and work out in the gym there, then shower and get dressed at work.   I've got a bag together to leave in my locker (when is the last time I used a locker? 1997?) and a set of clothes for tomorrow, I'm hoping this plan works because I think its the best way for me to get a good workout in. I think of myself as fairly low-maintenance but keep thinking of more things I need to bring with me, and am going to have to work at picking an outfit the night before, I usually pick out an outfit while standing in my closet in the morning...

We've had a great weekend, including an overnight guest. My sister is taking a class at the community college near us and so she came to our house Friday night so she had a shorter drive on Saturday morning.    More time with my sis, hooray!   I'm telling you, everyone is in school - Kevin, my sister, his cousin also just went back to school. I'm very glad to support them in their efforts and love that I do NOT have homework or reading for school :)

the difference a semester makes

2012-01-19T19:45:00.000-06:00

I realized today how different K's semester will be than last semester. This semester he'll only have to drive one day per week where last semester he had to drive all but one day per week! Both times, the odd day of the week is Thursday. We will all be happy to have him home more, especially Smokey!

K being home more has already come in handy, only 2 days into his semester. Smokey started licking his foot a LOT, and we realized it was something wrong with his toe - the one far back up his leg, like a thumb. Since K was home he was able to call the vet, make an appointment and zip in there. Turns out Smokey must've caught it on something and made it inflamed, we also learned its called a 'dewclaw' no idea why its called that, but it is... He's lucky he doesn't have to wear a cone, he just has some medicine to take...lucky he thinks his meds are 'treats'

back to school

2012-01-16T18:47:00.000-06:00

Kevin is getting ready for his LAST semester of grad school. He'll be busy, but thankfully won't be going to Huntsville nearly as often..

Good luck to everyone starting back to school this week!!

I'll be Gator Guiding tomorrow, helping students by answering questions and welcoming them back for the spring semester.

10-pound challenge

2012-01-09T19:54:00.003-06:00

Its no secret I want to lose weight, and I have read in many places that telling the world makes you accountable, so this challenge looked like a win-win. If I lose 10 lbs by April I'll be entered for some great prizes, even if I don't lose the full 10 lbs its a great motivator!

I joined the 10-pound Challenge hosted by Newlyweds on a Budget. Lose 10 pounds in 12 weeks, win $$$. Are you in?

Rain day

2012-01-09T19:21:00.001-06:00

Other parts of the country have snow days, we have rain days...

I knew it was going to storm, but I think the amount of rain surprised everyone. I went to work like normal and the rain wasn't too bad - some rain, mostly a lot of thunder and lightning, but later in the morning it looked like night outside it was so dark!

There is a bayou right outside my window at work, so I watched the water creep up and up - and overflow into the parking lot of a local restaurant. I'm quite lucky to have a window, I know many offices don't and I think I'd feel so disconnected from the day without it - I like knowing if its sunny, rainy, etc. outside.   Last week I couldn't figure out what was going on - it was hazy from a grass fires miles away.

Back to today, I use the level in the bayou as an indicator of how bad it might be getting home, especially since one way out of work goes right over the bayou and is notorious for flooding. That way did flood, like expected. They decided to close the school at 2pm, so I headed on home. I was glad to be able to get home pretty much like usual - many streets around town were underwater.

It was a great day to have done a crockpot soup - our trusty chicken tortilla soup was ready to go this morning and all K had to do was put it in the crockpot and turn it on.

We did make a new meal this weekend - stirfry and it turned out great. We did a lot of chopping to have everything ready to cook all at once, and used our new electric wok.   It turned out great and is a good way to get some veggies in our day - bell peppers and mushrooms for me!   I don't really have a recipe since K was the main chef and he likes to 'wing it', I'm definitely a stick to the recipe cook, but both work.

I know that he used soy sauce, hoison sauce, red pepper flakes, sesame oil, and curry powder in the sauce. I may've left out an item or two, we had all those items on hand from various cooking adventures!

He cooked the meat first (chicken and beef - good mix we usually have one or the other in most of our meals), then did onions, garlic, and ginger then added the veggies (red and green bell peppers, and later mushrooms for me), that cooked for a bit and then he added the sauce. I did get a picture of the peppers, so pretty with the different colors!

Playoff win

2012-01-08T14:06:00.004-06:00

What a game!!!! The Texans beat the Bengals 31-10!!! We got there early as requested, and as soon as we walked on the premises it was a party atmosphere. Tailgaters were everywhere, with smokers going and music blaring.

We went on into the stadium and you could just feel the energy. Everyone was keyed up, Kevin had so much nervous energy at the house that he couldn't sit still.......we've been waiting 10 years for this..

There were special guests - Bum Phillips led the team in to lots of cheers, Dennis Quaid was at the coin toss with a cute little kid on his shoulders (~~grand~~kid? Thanks Delena!). They also did a quick stage set-up and Clay Walker performed the theme song he'd written years ago, "It's Football Time in Houston," we’ve heard it for years so everyone was able to sing along.

All of the special guests got everyone more excited for the game, and it didn't disappoint. It was a close game for most of the first half, but then the Texans just dominated!!!

When we came into the stadium, we were given signs and rally towels and everyone quickly figured out the signs could be folded into great noisemakers. They'd kept the roof closed so we could make it LOUD and we did, with the noisemakers added to our cheers and yelling every time our team was on defense it was just deafening in there. According to this article in the paper, the decibel level reached 110 "the sound of a buzz saw 3 feet away", no wonder my ears are messed up today - worth it!

Adding to the noise was the fact that everyone was actually in the stadium (not out tailgating) and it was the biggest crowd in team history.

After Andre Johnson’s touchdown everyone was cheering and jumping so much, I swear the floor under our feet was moving (or at least vibrating). Not a comforting feeling, but exciting to realize the entire stadium is rockin!

We stayed til the very end, and saw the team rush the field to celebrate.

After the game, the feeling outside was even better – leaving the stadium was just as loud as inside, we took a set of stairs out and once outside we could hear the full ramp of people coming down cheering just like they were still inside, I will never forget it!

The excitement is city-wide. We went home, took care of the dog and then back out to grab a late dinner. There were Texans jerseys everywhere! From news coverage and my facebook wall, everyone in town (and many out of town) was watching the game.

It feels weird not to have a game to watch today, Sunday. It will actually be nice, we can watch the playoff games that are on and be relaxed during them knowing the team we care about is already onto the next round! I am glad the game was Saturday so we have another day to rest before going back to work…I’m sure a lot of Houstonians are hungover today!

GS cookies

2012-01-08T09:46:00.007-06:00

I dreamed about Girl Scout cookies the other night, then read the next morning that they have a new cookie this year to celebrate 100 years of Girl Scouting. I love lemon-flavored things so will have to check them out if our area has them (I've heard we don't :( ).

They kind of go against the new year's resolution of being healthier, but if I count my calories and have space for one (or two) I can have them, just can't sit an eat the whole box like I want to do.

What is your favorite kind? K's is thin mints, I love tagalongs (peanut butter and chocolate) and samoas. I usually don't get samoas since K isn't a fan of coconut and I don't need a whole box to myself....still struggle with self-control.

We'll see if we get any girl scouts at our door this year, we haven't in recent years and no one at work brings them around....thank goodness for booth sales!

Good luck to all the girls (and parents) selling them!! I sold for years and years, and got so tired of a dining room full of cookies..

Playoffs

2012-01-07T08:00:00.001-06:00

Its a huge football day in the Tucker house, and in all of Houston! Kevin's school is playing for the national championship in Frisco (near Dallas) and the Texans are playing in their FIRST ever playoff game and they get home field advantage!!

We'd originally wanted to go to see his school play, but since we knew that the Texans game might be the same weekend, whether or not we'd go was always in limbo. Before the NFL schedule was set we considered trying to go to both, but that would've just been too much driving and take away from the enjoyment of either game. The decision was made for us when the Texans game was scheduled for 3:30 Saturday, Sam Houston's game is at noon today so no way could we do both, and it was no contest - K has been a Texans fan since day 1 of the franchise.

It has been so much fun seeing the excitement in the city this past week as they get ready to play. Flags, shirts, even haircuts and tattoos - you name it someone has it.

and, since his aunt and uncle will go to the Sam Houston game, I am buying one of their tickets so I get to go too!!! The other ticket is going to good use too, a friend of K's brother's. One day I need to just buy my own ticket, but I admit I like having the Sunday to myself some days when K attends the game.

Here are some bits of trivia for you:
- the last playoff game played in Houston was in 1994 (I was in high school!)
- the Texans have the record of the longest its taken a new team to get into the playoffs - 10 years, no wonder we're so excited!!

I hope we're this excited tonight because we have TWO wins to celebrate!

2012

2012-01-04T07:10:00.003-06:00

Hello 2012!   We had a very low-key New Year's Eve, we didn't even stay up until midnight.   We watched the New York ball drop and called that good enough. I think our young nephew stayed up later than we did!

We did enjoy the fireworks in the neighborhood, people must've dropped some major $$ on them! They were impressive to watch and I didn't know which way to look there were so many going off.   Smokey was NOT a fan, poor thing fireworks scare the wits out of dogs (and little kids). He got a lot of laptime.   If you don't know what is making all the noises, it sure does sound like a war zone!

Speaking of war zone, I recorded all but one of the Band of Brothers episodes that were on right after Christmas and we're working our way through them, great show and amazing to see what so many young men went through in WWII...makes me wish my grandfathers were still around so I could ask them about their experiences. My mom's dad never wanted to talk about it, and my dad's dad died before I was old enough to ask.

Doing pretty well on resolutions so far, I know only 4 days in...but keeping with them each day is the way to make them stick!

I think Smokey must've made a new year's resolution to make bath time easier on us, he got a bath last night in the tub and he was so good and still. I end up in the tub with him so I was still soaked, but a hot shower afterwards takes care of that.   Maybe he finally realized bath = treat!

Traffic is back to normal and everyone is back to work and school. On Monday traffic was so light I started wondering if I actually did have work that day, I did...but hardly anyone else did

San Antonio

2011-12-31T18:37:00.001-06:00

We took a quick trip after Christmas to San Antonio. We hadn't been since 2004 (it was our first trip together). It was great to get away for a little bit and to not have to do any cooking or cleaning after having my whole family over for Christmas - going from 2 people to 7 is crazy! fun, but crazy!

We made a good choice in going somewhere we could drive to, no worries about what time we had to be anywhere, we just left when we were ready. I was teasing K that his truck was trying to go north since the only place it (and he) have been recently is Huntsville. It was a quick drive west and we got settled into our hotel. We checked into our wonderful hotel, The Menger, and had a perfect location, literally next door to the Alamo! Thanks Delena for the recommendation!

We hadn't realized that our trip coincided with the Alamo Bowl game. For our entire trip the city was filled with lots of fans from Baylor and Washington. We were surprised how many Washington fans we saw! We expected to see Baylor fans since Waco isn't too far away but both teams had a huge presence. It made the whole city very festive. On one of our trips down to the Rivewalk we stumbled on a river parade -- we were wondering what eververyone was looking at, and then saw some members of Baylor's band in one of the tour boats getting ready to play. They started playing and the boat floated on and we saw several boats with the BU banner and who we assumed to be the team! K is pretty sure he saw the Heisman trophy winner, we googled him afterwards and yep we saw RGIII.

Since we were located downtown we could walk nearly everywhere we wanted to go, and we did - we walked to the Riverwalk and to and around the Alamo. We even found a pizza place near the cathedral and walked there. The only time we got in the car was to go to see the Mission San Jose, and it was worth the trip! Neither of us had ever seen any of the missions except the Alamo, and enjoyed exploring it and I love that the church is still in use today.

We had some great good food and drinks and did a good job (I think) of not eating at chain restaurants (always a goal when we travel). The first night we ate at an Italian place called Paesano's, and the second night we each had some delicious seafood at boudro's. It worked to our advantage to be a party of two, as there were waits at both places, and I think everywhere with so many people in town for the game.

The Riverwalk and the plaza near the Alamo were still lit up for Christmas, and our hotel was still decorated too. It was beautiful. I think we'll have to go somewhere at Christmas more often so we can see the decorations, I love seeing the lights!!

2011 questionnaire

2011-12-31T17:30:00.002-06:00

I wanted to do a recap of the year and so took this questionnaire from NonSoccermom's blog. Since this is the blog for both of us I tried to answer from K's perspective for some but its pretty much all about me :)

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

Carol – went snorkeling (K went too, but had already been as a kid); Kevin –worked as a TA, he enjoyed it (he likes grading!) but it was rough making the 130 mile round trip 4 days a week, thank goodness for his aunt and uncle who had recently moved up there and let him stay with them when needed, he stayed one or two nights a week many weeks.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I kept some of mine and was a fail on others, and K doesn’t really believe in them so I can’t really say what he did or didn’t do.

Here were my resolutions for 2011 and notes on how I did:

1) find quick, easy, healthy meals to cook and get a good group of 'go to' meals we can rotate to have a good mix of meals we did try out some new recipes, and found a few we liked, but don’t really have a better set of ‘go-to’ recipes, will continue to work on this in 2012 – I probably need to make it more specific, try a new recipe once every other week, that should be doable..I’ve got enough cookbooks and usually end up on the internet.

2) lose 10 lbs by Laura's birthday (May) failed miserably, I am slightly lighter than I was a year ago, but not anywhere near where I wanted to be.

3) work out consistently with weights -- I'm pretty good at fitting in cardio, but not weights see above and I think this would help with #2 as would making the meals in #1 healthy ones

4) read 12 books (one a month seems like a doable goal) achieved! Being part of a book club helped me with book ideas.

5) don't look at phone when I'm driving (including text messages) I was better at this, but it is still tempting, but so dangerous to do – I’ll just think of all the stories I see when I am tempted, literally ‘it can wait’

We started talking about 2012, again K doesn’t really do resolutions but I’ll do some for both of us based on what we’ve been talking about recently:

Stick with our budget - we’ve done pretty well at being on one income this year, but we have had to dip into our savings occasionally, and will again due to some car repairs being made now. I know that is what the ‘emergency fund’ is for but also know that we dipped into it for some other more regular expenses and would feel better if we weren’t doing so. If anything I’d like to work on adding to savings in 2012.

Travel somewhere neither of us have ever been – currently discussing Boston (anyone ever been?) Traveling took a back seat in 2011 since K was back in school. He will be for the first half of 2012 and his fall schedule is sort of up in the air since *hopefully* he’ll be teaching, but we both love to travel and missed it this year. Going along with the first resolution, we’ll need to save for it.

A repeat from 2011: find quick, easy, healthy meals to cook and get a good group of 'go to' meals we can rotate to have a good mix of meals, to do this we’ll try a new recipe at least once every other week (if anyone has suggestions send them over to me!)

Make fitness a regular part of our day – I still work out, but don’t usually want to and have been lax on it lately, we talk about doing a daily walk after dinner but it falls by the wayside pretty quickly. All of us (Smokey included) would benefit, and with K home all but one evening a week in the spring it should be much more attainable.

That is plenty..

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, several college friends, and I need to go meet Mr Liam!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No, thank goodness (knock wood)

5. What countries did you visit?

Mexico as part of our cruise

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

Extra money? But really, I am so glad that K will be home every night in 2012. It was hard having him gone several nights a week for most of the fall. I don’t know how people who travel all the time for work do it, or even harder must be soldiers and their families since they are deployed for months at a time.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Hmmm, honestly I can’t think of any. K would probably say the day the Texans won the division and clinched their first playoff appearance, Dec 11 (I had to look it up). I remember that day (I was out Christmas shopping when it happened hehe), but the day that sticks in my head is when my brother and his wife moved back stateside, they’d spent 6 months living in Nicaragua. I am so glad to have them back safe and sound.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Being elected VP of my professional organization is quite an accomplishment, and has kept me very busy planning the conference to take place in 2012. Its coming up fast! For K, completing his semester as a TA and maintaining a 4.0 is pretty impressive. I know there were times he didn’t want to make the drive and I didn’t realize what a big part I’d played in having him apply for the position. He succeeded and learned a lot about teaching along the way.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Probably in the cooking department, I did make a few good meals for myself when K was gone but we both did a fair amount of take-out this year.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Thank goodness no!

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My stand mixer? I can’t really think of big purchases, oh except for some new tires for both vehicles, safety is very important!

12. Where did most of your money go?

Mortgage payment, gas for K's truck, and car payments, but one vehicle is paid off, woohoo! And I’ve told K that I don’t want to have 2 car payments at the same time again if we can avoid it. We plan to hold onto both cars for a long time, and I really think buying used may be the way to go

13. What did you get really excited about?

Going on the cruise and truly getting to unplug was pretty exciting, and fell right as K finished his first year of grad school, which was perfect.

14. What song will always remind you of 2011?

I am lacking in the current music department, but probably that damn Friday song! Oh, and “Bulls on Parade” since the Texans defense adopted it as their own. I could’ve sworn that song was one I listened to in the car with my brother going to school in the morning but looked it up and it didn’t come out to 1996, after he graduated. Hmmm, guess it was some other song. Every once in a while I hear a song that takes me back to sitting in his Honda civic riding to school…he had much heavier taste in music (still does)

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? Happier, my job is still going well and seeing K in a field he enjoys is really rewarding
– thinner or fatter? Slightly thinner.
– richer or poorer? Poorer, going to one income we’ve taken a hit, but seeing K happier is worth it and we’re in good shape

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

traveling, spending time together

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

I think K would say driving…

18. How did you spend Christmas?

At our house, we hosted my side of the family (first time ever), then a quick trip to San Antonio

19. What was your favorite TV program?

Homeland, it was late in the year, but a great show and we totally happened on it by accident. I’d called the cable company to get a special to bring down our bill and it went down by adding more movie channels (go figure), so starting that day we got showtime and that was the premiere weekend for the show, I think we watched it first because Claire Danes was in it. We both enjoy it. We also enjoyed Game of Thrones and I still love my shows Big Bang Theory, Good Wife

20. What were your favorite books of the year?

K’s reading consisted almost completely of books for school, so this is completely from Carol’s perspective. I loved the Hunger Games trilogy, it is a quick read and very addicting. I even reread the first one for my book club. Other books I enjoyed:

Pillars of the Earth but don’t watch the tv mini-series, terrible!

Game of Thrones, K has been trying to get me to read this series for years, but it took a show coming on for me to finally give it a shot, reading book #2 now and K finally has time over the break to read the new one #5

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

Hmm, I am terrible about music, so none really.

22. What were your favorite films of the year?

Looking at our Netflix queue (we barely ever go to the movies), it looks like True Grit was our top-rated movie for the year, oh and we did get to the theatre to see Contagion – made me paranoid about getting sick, but a good movie. I wish I could say the last Harry Potter was up there, but we finally got around to seeing it and weren’t impressed.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

We had a party for Kevin’s birthday in June, and used our ice cream maker to make peanut butter ice cream, together with chocolate cake it was fabulous. It was fun to have everyone over. He turned 36.

It was a swap from earlier years when my birthday has been made a bigger deal, and a welcome one. For mine we went out to eat and for drinks in Rice Village, my sister joined us and it was just what I wanted. I turned 33.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Can’t really think of anything, a personal yacht? All in all, 2011 was very good to us.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

Comfortable and no-iron as much as possible. We each need to up our wardrobes a little bit, but it works for now.

26. What kept you sane?

We kept each other sane this year, me with work and him with school were very busy and hectic. Nights out with family and friends did too.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.

Life is not a competition.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T18:18:00.001-06:00

We hope your day is filled with family and fun (and great food!)

We are having a great time hosting the Bosche side of the family. Hosting is hard work, but also great fun!

Its been a rainy weekend in Houston, but we've been warm and cozy in the house.

We made gumbo on Christmas Eve, with homemade shrimp stock! It was a great meal for such a dreary day, and worked well since everyone arrived at different times. We ate when we got hungry and kept it hot for when Gene and Mache arrived from Austin.

We had a great time visiting and opened gifts on Christmas Eve. Opening gifts on Christmas eve instead of Christmas day is tradition on BOTH sides of the family, and as hosts we decided to continue it, bonus we all got more time to enjoy the gifts and enjoy seeing each other enjoy the gifts we got. There were lots of PJs exchanged and they were all worn that night! After exchanging gifts we hang out and visit and had eggnog (I had hot chocolate since I'm not a fan of eggnog).

Kevin smoked a turkey for our Christmas Day dinner, and it was delicious. We started working on it on Friday since he had to brine it then smoke it.....

I made side dishes, and also had some help from my family - it was a great spread of food, and we brought in some dishes from Christmases past - my favorite, cherry coke salad that my great aunt used to make....

Baking Adventure

2011-12-23T18:11:00.000-06:00

I am already having a great Christmas vacation! I took Thursday off from work to get the house ready to host my family for the weekend. It was a busy day with cleaning house and the big trip to the grocery store. I love that I don’t have to work until 2012 (one of the perks of working for a university is it is closed the week between Christmas and new years).

This year for Christmas I wanted to learn to make my husband’s favorite cookies, crinkle cookies that his mom makes each year. I got the recipe, bought all of the ingredients and all was going well.

The dough gets pretty thick and the mixer was struggling. I told K that it smelled like it was burning and the mixer held on until I finished mixing but was smoking by the end! Kevin has had the mixer as long as I've known him (almost 8 years) so it served him well, but just couldn't take the thick dough.

Just that afternoon I'd said that if I kept baking that we might need to get a stand-mixer, but I wasn’t planning to get a new one this quick!

We have to have a mixer for some other cooking we’re doing this weekend (they are a must for mashed potatoes!), so I braved the crowds this morning and went to find a new mixer. I’d done my research online and could not believe how many models were only available online, usually I don’t mind it but the timeline I was one even next day shipping wouldn’t work. My ‘plan b’ was to borrow one from my in-laws, but I wanted to get one of my own! Target was out of them, but I found just what I wanted at Kohl’s – a KitchenAid stand-mixer in empire red.

I finished the crinkle cookies today, and they look and smell great! I even got to break in the mixer when I made peanut butter cookies, it is wonderful and makes mixing so easy, now I wonder if I shoulnd’t have burned up his mixer long ago….hehehe

While I was out, another gift appeared under the tree, I don’t know what it is..I love surprises!

We'll have a busy weekend with family, so I'll say it now MERRY CHRISTMAS!

lots of football

2011-12-17T08:27:00.000-06:00

The football keeps getting better and better for us.

We watched K's school on tv last night and they won their semifinal game! So, they are headed to the championship game for the first time in school history! We hope to go, we just have to wait and see how it works with the Texans' playoff schedule. Usually by January there are no games we want to watch since our teams are all out, but this year we actually may miss some because they overlap, exciting!

In Texans news,Kevin finally found the division champs shirts! He waited at Academy for 2 hours to get them. He'd waited on Thursday for 2 hours and then they weren't on the truck -- the store should've known, with all the technology now they known exactly what was on that truck. I shouldn't complain, he got them and even waited in line again and got me a blue one...so now, all of the Tuckers have one and we'll wear them to the family Christmas gathering today.....I'll try to get a photo.

we have one more gift to buy, and have everything else wrapped and ready...good thing since we're doing TWO family Christmas gatherings this weekend and have a game to attend tomorrow. Go Texans!

countdown is on for work: 3 more days for the year!

Christmas cards

2011-12-16T06:52:00.007-06:00

We finished and sent our Christmas cards on Monday. It felt so good to get them in the mail. Hopefully they will begin arriving in people's mailboxes soon. I'm always so paranoid I'll misread the addresses and get a bunch of them back as non-deliverable - I did that one year with a few, somehow got one person's street address with another person's zip code...won't get there that way! I do think sometimes that I should just mail merge them, but the hand addressed envelope looks so much nicer (my handwriting isn't great, but its personal). It takes me a while to do the cards, but I enjoy thinking of everyone on our list and know they'll enjoy hearing from us - I love checking the mail this time of year and seeing the photos and updates from our far-flung friends and family.

We thought about doing a photo card, but decided against it...maybe next year. Instead, we did a Christmas note in each of them. Its too short for me to call it a letter, but I wanted to send to everyone an update on
what we've been up to, its been a busy year!

I even got out my crafting scissors and made zig-zag edges. They look cute but I need to get better scissors before doing that again!

In case you aren't on our list but want to read the Christmas note, here it is:

We hope that 2011 has been as good to you as it has to us! It has been a busy year in the Tucker household. In the spring, we took a cruise to help celebrate Carol's sister's 30th birthday. It was nice to get away and unplug. The trip came at the perfect time because Kevin had just finished his first year back in school at Sam Houston State University - he'll graduate in 2012!

Carol still works for the University of Houston - Downtown, and she was elected as Vice President of her professional organization. This position has kept her busy as she prepares for the annual conference to be held in Feb 2012.

Kevin has been working as a TA this semester, so he has been busy grading and attending that class in addition to his own coursework. He's in the right field since he ENJOYS the grading!

Smokey's year was interesting too. He had to get used to the parakeet who found us in March - he looks like a cat the way he watches the cage!

We both look forward to the holidays and want to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2012!!

field trip

2011-12-15T20:00:00.002-06:00

We had a great day Tuesday!   I took the afternoon off work and went on what I decided to call a field trip - why should kids get all the fun field trips?

I went with Kevin up to Huntsville to meet his coworkers and classmates.   He had one last class to attend for his History of Science class and then the entire class and the professor were going to a nearby bar to celebrate the end of the semester. His whole class is only 7 people!

Before his class we met his cousin for lunch - he works for the athletics department so he is BUSY getting ready for Friday's ~~quarterfinal~~ semifinal football game. Go Bearkats!   Note: I corrected what level of game it was, I can't keep the terms straight.

It was nice to get out of the office and enjoy some time with my husband.

He finished his semester today!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-14T06:30:00.002-06:00

hanging out with Santa!

Texans are playoff bound!

2011-12-11T19:31:00.003-06:00

Big day in Houston!!! By beating the Bengals and the Saints beating the Titans the Houston Texans win the division, wohoo!! First time to go to the playoffs. Kevin has his tickets purchased in case we get a home game :)

I actually didn't watch the game, I spent a great day with Gwendolyn and baby Stella to finish up some Christmas shopping and have some long overdue girl time. Gwendolyn and I were college roommates for 2 years, and I still thank my lucky stars that I was matched up with such a wonderful roommate!!! We really did 'shop til we drop' and both got a lot of items marked off our lists...

I tried to find some division champs shirts on my way home, but both stores I went to were sold out - once said they sold out in 10 minutes! I'll be on the lookout for them, guess you just had to be in the right place at the right time to get them.

PS If you are ever at Sam's, their 4-berry milkshake is delicious and a deal at less than $2, just don't look at how many calories it has....shopping counts as cardio right??

Thanksgiving, weeks later

2011-12-10T18:22:00.002-06:00

Long overdue.....We had a great, family-filled weekend for Thanksgiving! My whole family came to our house, and we had a great time. It was a quick trip for my brother and his wife, they both had to work on Black Friday so they came in late Wednesday and headed back home early on Friday. I'm glad they made the trip to be with us!!

We ate too much (who didn't), but did pretty well. We had one snafu with the turkey, my dad cooked it at their house before coming up and he either miscalculated the time or the smoker (electric) malfunctioned, because the turkey fell completely apart. He rescued enough of it for us to eat, it was very smokey tasting...We'll try again at Christmas.

That weekend we even did a home project (made good use of my handy-man dad's help), so we know have a cabinet (storage!) in the master bath, we love it already!

It was an eventful weekend for Rockey too, he got a new home with my brother and sis-in-law. They took him home with them and he now has a roommate - a little feathered friend. We enjoyed having a bird for a while, I think I'll stick with 4-legged pets.

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Reindeer

2011-12-07T06:17:00.002-06:00

Its probably just a baby deer (fawn), but I like to think its a baby reindeer. So cute...

at our neighorhood Christmas event - 2009.

thunder alert system

2011-12-05T06:55:00.000-06:00

We have a thunder alert system. Our big, tough (ha!) dog, Smokey, jumped on the bed in the middle of the night, he was scared. I just thought he was trying to get some snuggle time, but K said it was thunder and later I saw the lightning. I didn't even know it was raining again...

I'm a softie, so I let him stay on the bed with us. I was feeling especially soft towards dogs since we'd seen one in the restaurant earlier in the day that was bleeding. We are speculating, but think that it was a stray that a person saw outside and brought into the place to get it cleaned up. Several restaurant workers were helping him, they finally coaxed the dog onto a large tray and carried it out, I assume to a car to get it some medical help. poor dog, it was odd to see a dog in a restaurant but I'm glad some people were trying to help him (or her).

December snuck up on me

2011-12-04T20:59:00.011-06:00

The days keep getting away from me! I still want to do a Thanksgiving recap and here we are almost a week into December. So I don't get too far behind, I'll talk about this weekend and then come back to Thanksgiving a little later.

We had a busy, wonderful weekend.

On Friday, I went with my sister to my first ever Cirque du Soleil show at the Toyota Center. The show was called Dralion. I loved it! My favorite parts were the trampoline artists and the girl performing on the ring hanging from high above. I was amazed at how people can move around and how beautiful and effortless they make it look. I want a big trampoline now, but I know that even when I'm on a trampoline I look nothing like how they look. They would go from one to the other and up the wall and back down looking like they defied gravity. I could've watched them for much longer. In my opinion, they could get rid of some of the clown act, but I think they serve as entertainment during costume changes and did serve as comic relief. I'm so glad my sister invited me to go, she had an extra ticket and invited me over her new boyfriend :) I'm excited for her and her new relationship and know that there will come a time when he's her go to +1 but think (hope) that some things - like Broadway shows - we may always be each other's date, it allows us to go and spend time together and doesn't force the guys who may not want to go to sit through it. Kevin often surprises me, but I doubt Cirque is something he'd want to see much of. Before the show, we even had time to see her office, looks pretty much like any other offices except for the trophy cases and lots of Rockets paraphernalia, there are even cubicles!

We spent Saturday doing chores and K worked on school, and I did some Christmas shopping, even my car got a gift - 2 new tires that were long overdue, and thanks to my livingsocial deal I saved $70! love a good deal.

Today I was able to go with Kevin to the Texans game. I thought I'd be watching it from home, but I was able to use his uncle's ticket because he had gotten a SIDELINE PASS to the game so he could shoot photos for a nearby paper. We brought our binoculars to be able to find him on the sideline and had fun finding him - sort of like a "Where's Waldo". I am sure he got some good photos! It was a great game to get to attend. They played, and beat, the Atlanta Falcons! The team is now 9 - 3! We spent a lot of time cheering on our defense and being LOUD to mess up the Falcons' offense. We succeeded!

We're both tired from the game, you wouldn't think cheering would be that tiring...but it sure is.

To add to the fun, we also had a COLD front come through today, woohoo!! It made for a rainy day, and a cozy evening, with cocoa and addressing Christmas cards.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T12:10:00.011-06:00

We have so much to be thankful for and are excited to be hosting my entire family this year!   We hosted last year but were missing a couple of people (my brother and his wife were living in Nicaragua). We are glad they are back in their own house and that she has found a job she loves! I wsh the same for my brother.

Everyone will be arriving at various times later today and I don't plan to be online much, so I'll wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving now!!   I hope you are able to spend it with loved ones.

Before I eat too much food I want take time out to think of how much I have to be thankful for:

- my health (we often take it for granted until its gone)
- family and friends who love us
- a sweet husband who puts up with my crap and my temper and can always make me laugh!
- a job I love
- K finding his passion - history - and being able to go to school for it

I'm so glad I took the day off from work, getting stuff done around the house and then running a few errands. I've worked the day before the holiday before and its always a ghost town, and I end up just trying to get things done but watching the clock too...this is a much better way - good way to spend a vacation day!   Kevin doesn't have class today either, so we get to spend the day together.

Ren fest

2011-11-21T18:00:00.016-06:00

This Saturday we finally made it out to the Texas Renaissance Festival and had a great time.   We go every year and have a different experience every time we go.   The weather wasn't quite what we wanted -- we were hoping for a cold snap -- but it was still a great day to be outside.

We like to get there early, so we got up fairly early (it is a weekend, so we let ourselves sleep in a bit), and got on the road. Its a good little drive to get out there, but with music and great company its all part of the fun.

Kevin's goal was to do things he hadn't done before this visit, and we both accomplished that!

I tried out the rock climb, it looks like a castle turret so they call it 'storming the castle'.    It was my first time trying rock climbing. I am terrible - couldn't find any handholds, but they were nice and let me swap to one of the sides used for kids - that was much better!   More handholds, but it was still hard.   When I'd gone up as far as I wanted to go and they told me to let go so they could let me down it took a lot of effort to let go of the wall.. (We have pictures, just need to make time to download them)

Kevin's first was stepping up to the 'tomato guy' and throwing tomatoes at him. The guy insults everyone the whole time, and Kevin called it - he poked fun at his height, pretty funny...but I don't think I'd want to put myself in his crosshairs!

The people watching is spectacular!   It was the Barbarian Invasion themed weekend, so there were lots of costumes for barbarians and really costumes of all kinds - we even so a "Where's Waldo Waldo" and a Trekkie...what either of those have to do with Renaissance times, I don't know.   We were both anachronisms...

We finished off the day with a funnel cake and then headed home.   It was sad on the drive in and out to see how many trees (and homes) were destroyed by the forest fires.     There were so many scorched trees, and there is no end in sight to the drought.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing school (K) and getting ready for Thanksgiving (me). I'm already halfway through my 2 day work week!

a bad day

2011-11-15T18:31:00.002-06:00

Kevin had (literally) a shitty day yesterday. He drove up to campus for the class he TAs for and was walking across the grass. He tripped on something and went down on one knee...right into a pile of dog poo! He got most of it off, but had to go on to class like that.

We had a good laugh about it last night, but you know your day is off to a bad start when thats how it starts. It didn't get any bette ,since the news about Matt Schaub (Texans QB) being hurt came out later in the day.

Here's hoping today was a better day sweetie!

I mostly post about our great and memorable days, but this is proof we have bad days too

Happy Veteran's Day

2011-11-11T07:01:00.001-06:00

Until recently, I'd always thought of veterans as people in my grandfather's generation, and while they are veterans and we should be thankful to them, we should also thank the men and women of all ages who have served in wars and 'conflicts' and all the other names for it since then, and anyone who served in peace-time too. Facebook has helped me realize people my own age enlisted and were deployed. I wasn't close friends with them but friended them on FB since we went to high school together and see an occasional post from some who are still serving overseas.

I don't know if I could serve in the military - the most structure I've had was marching band and I wasn't even very good at that! I am grateful to everyone who has served, and to their families who have to worry about them and try to carry on as usual while their loved one is far from home. I don't know how the families do it. Kevin has spent a lot of nights away this semester to suit his school schedule and eating dinner alone and missing out on talking to him at night gets old. This situation is far from what they go through, I know that and I'm not at all trying to compare it, it has just made me think of what families must go through when they are apart for a much longer period of time.

Thank you to all the Veterans who serve, and to all of us - we should treat them as if every day was Veteran's day!

PS - I am going to love writing today's date - 11/11/11

2011-11-07T19:46:00.000-06:00

Kevin registered for his last semester of grad school today!

He is very ready for this semester to be over - he has just over a month left! and next semester his classes will be closer to home, so we'll get to see each other more. We're all happy about that - Smokey especially.

The last semester will be busy, he has to take comprehensive exams, but should be much less driving..

BBQ cookoff

2011-11-06T17:11:00.002-06:00

The people in our neighborhood can COOK! This weekend we went to the neighborhood's annual BBQ cook-off and did the important job of tasting the food they'd made :). We had a great time walking around and seeing the teams hard at work - we could even watch them plating the dishes for the judges (reminds me of Hell's Kitchen). Its serious work getting the bed of greens just right for the presentation! We tasted ribs, chicken and brisket and even tasted some more exotic bbq. I walked up to one table and couldn't tell what the food was I was looking at - I'd thought it was chicken but it looked REALLY pink, the guy finally said ''honey, its just tuna it won't hurt you", and it sure didn't. Once I worked up the courage to taste it, it was delicious and even better with the soy sauce they had to accompany it, reminded me of sushi!

K loves the brisket, but my favorite category was the desserts, I got to taste a peach cobbler, grilled pineapple with cheese and chocolate, and pumpkin pie made by cooking the entire bottom of a pumpkin!

Along with the food, they had attractions to go with the western theme. Most of them are for kids, but they had a mechanical bull. I tried it out and am terrible, but did better than last year. Last year I fell off as soon as the bull tilted, this year I made it a little longer but still fell off pretty quickly. I'd have done it again if there wasn't such a long line, and I'm surprised the line was almost only KIDS, when else do we get the chance to try riding a mechanical bull?

ready to ride!

We will attend this event every year! Only downside, it makes K want to use his smoker, but he really doesn't have time to use it, maybe he can use it on one of the Texans road game weekends...

This weekend really revolved around food for me. K went to the football game today and I watched it from home and made a lasagna for us to both enjoy when he got home. It was delicious! It was good to have a home cooked meal, the weekend is about the only chance we have to do this, and this week it'll be Thursday before we have dinner together again.

I enjoyed my extra hour of sleep last night, but am going to be off on what time it is for days......

Battle Red

2011-10-30T18:51:00.001-05:00

We got to see another Texans win today!! They had the roof open and our seats are in the sun, so we cooked most of the afternoon, but it was worth it. Thank goodness for twitter I knew the roof was going to be open before we left the house, so we slathered on the sunscreen. Good thing too because otherwise I'd be 'Battle Red' all week with a sunburn. (Battle Red means the team wears their red uniforms and they give out red shirts before the game. This year they wore white pants instead of red, which looked MUCH better). I even put on a temporary tattoo. I wanted to put it on my face, but my skin is so sensitive I was afraid it would not end well, so on my hand it goes. Its actually holding up really well, and this way I can leave it on for the workweek - can't really do that if its on my face! Its hard to take a photo of your face and your hand at the same time....

Being the day before Halloween, there were lots of great costumes, I really couldn't capture them with my camera, but see if you can find Waldo in this photo....

Even Toro got into the action and dressed as Batman during the second half. The best costumes I saw were a couple dressed as Popeye and Olive Oil. I always want to do a couples costume but am terrible at coming up with ideas....

Halloween

2011-10-29T11:09:00.042-05:00

Its almost Halloween and so that means its time for scary movies....Kevin LOVES scary movies, me not so much. In fact, I really only watch them with him because he loves them so much. I keep trying to get him and my sister to see the movies together so that they get to see them and I don't have to......its a win/win, right?!?    It never works, and trust me I know that part of why K likes scary movies is then he gets to scare the crap out of me by sneaking up on me....he does that a little too well.

Last weekend we watched Psych9 -- don't watch it, it was awful and made no sense...if anyone understands the ending, please tell me. It was interesting to see Cary Elwes in another movie, K completely missed my references to the Princess Bride which means we MUST watch it soon!   That is how I get him back for making me watch horror movies - he has to watch rom-coms with me....hehehe

Last night we watched Paranormal Activity 2....ooooh, it was scary and meets my scary movie quota for at least 6 months.   If K wants to see the third installment in the theatres he'll have to go solo...

Along with scary movies, you can tell its close to Halloween by all the decorations in the neighborhood. We have very few decorations, just our metal jack-o-lantern at the front door and some decorations inside, but some people in our neighborhood go all.   Here is a skeleton climbing a tree that is at a house down the street from us. It creeps me out every time i have to drive by it.....

At least our neighborhood has the decorations for the correct holiday, when we went out to eat for my birthday last weekend we saw this. Isn't it a little early to have Santa out? They also had out wreaths everywhere. Can't we let each holiday get its time? I did find it funny he was right in front of a Victoria's Secret ad (and store), guess that's why he has that smirk on his face.

Wordless Wednesday: Birthday flowers

2011-10-26T06:15:00.000-05:00

I had a great birthday! hope to do a full recap soon, right now I'm still reading through all the facebook messages! feel very loved, and the flowers were a great surprise from my sis!

another blonde moment

2011-10-19T19:42:00.001-05:00

I had a very blonde moment this weekend.

I was at the store and bought Halloween candy - I've been holding off on buying it so I don't tempt myself. I brought it home and hid it from myself - out of sight out of mind (working so far!). I bought it because I was thinking that Halloween was NEXT Monday and I didn't want the candy to be picked over by the time I got around to buying it on Sunday.

It wasn't until later that I realized Halloween isn't until the following week (a week from Monday), and the really bad part - I was skipping over my birthday thinking that Halloween was next week. Who forgets their own birthday when thinking of the week ahead? Can I blame work that has been busier than ever recently?

Aside: I can't bring myself to buy candy I don't like, I should so it would be really easy to resist, but I just can't bring myself to do it, and honestly there isn't much candy I don't like.....though I'm not a fan of candy corn.

No big Halloween plans here, just handing out candy to the kids in the neighborhood.

Fall is here!

2011-10-18T19:34:00.000-05:00

The cold front came through and fall has finally come to Houston!

I've decided that our next trash can will be a rectangular one. That way on windy days like today it won't roll down the street like our round one did today.....It didn't get too far, but I did have to go get it this evening, small price to pay for some nice cool breezes!!

I know the cooler weather might not last very long, but I plan to enjoy it while we have it and already wore one of my sweaters :)

I'm way behind the times and am finally watching the movie Wall Street, no not the sequel the ORIGINAL one!

Sunday

2011-10-16T09:53:00.001-05:00

I'm so happy to have a more relaxed Sunday morning.   When the Texans have a home game we still sleep in but then have to get ready and going so that Kevin can head down to the stadium by about 10 am.   They have an away game today and kick-off isn't until 3pm so we had time to make a nice breakfast - homemade biscuits (by homemade I mean Bisquick, but that counts in my book!) and I have some computer time before I need to get ready to go to the grocery store and finish up my chores. We are going to make a big pot of spaghetti today, hooray!   This semester hasn't allowed a lot of home cooked meals so I love it when we have time for them.

We were both busy yesterday, me with errands and Kevin with grading.   He has 75 midterms to grade! I've never seen so many blue books in one place.

In running errands I got Smokey a new toy yesterday - this time a raccoon. It has 5 squeakers and he's already worked one loose.   He loves a new toy.    He also seems to have discovered the ceiling this week, not sure why but suddenly he looks up at the ceiling all the time, and he was investigating our wall clock....no idea why, maybe he's a 'watch' dog.....sorry, couldn't resist the pun.

Houston should get a COLD FRONT this week, I cannot wait and am already contemplating soups to make....mmmmm

College Night

2011-10-16T09:04:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, I helped my alma mater at a college fair. It has been probably 15 years since I've been to a college fair, and that time I was on the side of looking at the colleges. There were schools from all over the country represented! I had a good time, talking to the kids and parents and seeing the different places they are in - some are excited to be going away (some of the parents seem most excited for them to be going away), others are overwhelmed or shy (shy - that was me at that age!). It is a huge decision to make and such an exciting time in their lives.

Some area schools even brought the middle schoolers, I thought it was strange at first but a great idea really - never too early to think about college!

Luckily there was an admissions counselor with me, she could answer all the questions really well -- and tied the answer to the age of the kids, telling middle schoolers to study and the way to prepare is to read a lot to improve their vocabulary, and having much more specific answers to the high schoolers' questions. I felt like I should've studied before going! Even after having gone there for 4 years and worked for 6 years, I couldn't answer some of the questions, but I think that just comes with practice. The school has also changed a lot since I left, programs they have now and sports - we never had sports while I was there. I know that I was a help even without having all the answers. Rather than the admissions rep being able to talk to only 1 family at a time, I could also talk to one and we also had a student from the school so we could talk to 3 families at once. If they have to wait too long they may leave and never come back. If you have a chance to represent your school at a college fair, I recommend it. I will definitely do it again, but am glad I didn't do it as a job - its a tough schedule, fairs every night and in different parts of the state/country, tough to do with a spouse....I know that I miss Kevin when he's gone for only a few nights, and it would be really hard to do for weeks at a time...

Wordless Wednesday: Appreciated

2011-10-12T06:51:00.003-05:00

Fall Festival

2011-10-09T19:38:00.000-05:00

We (especially K) had a busy, wonderful weekend. Our neighborhood has a lot of events during the year, almost everything geared towards kids (the one adult event was the Casino night which we went to and really enjoyed). Sometimes we go and sometimes we just skip the events. This weekend was the Fall Festival and we invited our niece and nephew (and their dad, K's brother). They came and we all had a good time. Its always fun to see what catches their interest and what they don't like at all. There was a rock wall and a bouncy house, but our nephew wasn't interested in them at all...first thing he was interested in -- a balloon sword! (his little sister got a balloon dog) They also played several games and got prizes (stickers, silly bands). The funniest to watch was the kids throwing a rubber chicken - Kaden tied for 3rd place. He probably should've placed higher because the first group of kids threw from further forward, but he was happy and that is all that matters - he got a spider ring, and during some game he got a small teddy bear (Mr Boo). The biggest hit for the niece - the train! They got to sit in their own car and rode around in it, poor thing she cried when she had to get out of the train car. Kevin and Kaden were twins in their orange clothes...

Afterwards, we met my in-laws at Culver's to eat. I had my first pumpkin-flavored item of the year, a pumpkin cheesecake mixer...yum! Thankfully they have a new 'mini' size so I can get my custard fix without overdoing it too much (don't tell me how many calories are in it, I don't want to know). I'm on the lookout for pumpkin flavored goodies. I'm not a coffee drinker, so that is out but I'll find some other goodies this fall. I was sad that I'd completely missed their sweet potato fries, must've been a limited time menu item.

Today we got some much needed rain. If you heard cheering it was probably all of southeast Texas applauding the rain! It rained pretty much all day and was a great sound to hear. Kevin went to the Texans game and I ran errands. One errand has to wait for another day, we had so much rain that the place I went to get my oil changed had lost power and said they wouldn't be able to ring me up if the power stayed out. seems to me like some of their tools (not to mention the lights to see) wouldn't work, but they only seemed concerned with the fact they couldn't ring me up.....didn't want to tell them people made transactions long before electric cash registers....

I wasn't totally sad to leave my car chore for another day, it let me get a long overdue haircut! I feel like a million bucks when I get a haircut! I tried taking a photo of it but haven't mastered taking photos of myself and kind of ruined the style when I had to run through the rain so I don't really want to have K take a photo of it now, will plan to get some photos of it soon.

I met K at my in-laws after the game for a chili dinner. The weather made that meal the perfect food for today - a rainy day, not really chilly but they were all chilly since they'd gotten soaked coming back from the game. only disappointment was that the Texans lost :(

Friday chaos

2011-10-07T07:04:00.000-05:00

I had more excitement than I needed this morning. Rockey (parakeet) got out while I was changing his millet. Luckily Smokey was outside -- that is now our policy, the dog must be outside for the bird cage to be opened.

I tried to catch him but couldn't grab him - not sure how my sister grabbed him so fast when he got out Labor Day weekend. Kevin gave me the idea to toss a small towel on him so he couldn't fly away, and then grab him and the towel. That worked well! I did have to catch him TWICE-- he got away the first time I tried to put him back into the cage, but he is safe and sound.

I'm looking forward to Rockey going to live with my brother and his wife...He's cute, but not much fun as a pet.

My day can only get better! Happy Friday!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T06:53:00.003-05:00

I picked this up on sale at Kroger a few years ago, love this decoration! I still need to get it out at my house but its made the appearance on facebook and now this blog! I thought it might be too early to put out Halloween decorations until I saw all the decorations go up around the neighborhood...

It is too early for me to buy candy. I am resisting buying Halloween candy because as much as I say I'll just space out buying it (we need a lot since our neighborhood has a ton of kids), I'll just end up eating it, so no extra candy at our house til the end of the month. I should buy candy I don't like so that I'm not tempted by it, but I'm not that good...I buy what I like but will send the leftovers (minus a few for me) to school with Kevin. poor grad students need candy more than I do!

weekend o fun

2011-10-02T20:28:00.012-05:00

We had a great weekend! It was just the break we needed from how busy we've both been with work and school, and will be for several weeks (months?) to come....

Friday was very low-key since I'd had to make a quick trip to Austin for the day for work and didn't get home til later than usual.

Saturday we had ~nothing~ on our calendars and K is pretty well caught up with his school work, so it became a 'date day' (my newly coined phrase). We usually do 'date night' but I like date day even better since they can last the whole day! Kevin had been wanting to see the movie Contagion so we finally made it to the movie theatre to see it. He was more interested in the movie than I was initially but we both really enjoyed it. I usually see a movie just because I want to, forget what the critics say, K reads reviews and lets those influence whether or not he wants to see the movie, which usually means he chooses better movies than I do. We very seldom go to the.movies anymore, so a movie matinee is quite a treat! The movie did make me want to wash my hands more often and never touch anything in public, it also had the unsexiest scene I think Gwyneth Paltrow has ever appeared in.

After the movie we roamed around Half Price Books and found a set of books that Kevin wanted and one book for me and treated ourselves to a nice dinner out. We took our time at dinner and enjoyed the day.

Today (Sunday), K and his family had an extra game ticket so I got to spend all day with K! We went to the Texans game and what a game it was! They beat the Steelers, woohoo! It was a nerve-wracking game, it seemed like the Texans defense was always on the field. They played a great game and won 17-10. I could not believe how many Steelers fans there were in the stadium, at times it seemed like a sea of 'terrible towels'.. I'm hoarse from the game - had to be LOUD while we were on defense, should be interesting at work tomorrow.

This evening I even went for a bike ride in the neighborhood! It was so hot all summer I cannot remember the last time I rode my bike. Its still pretty warm, but starting to feel a little like fall.....

I hope you all had a great weekend too! I could use another day off.....

We were so busy having fun I haven't even made it to the grocery store! I need to get over there - we do after all need to have something to eat, but I'll just worry about that later in the week!

Dog wisdom

2011-09-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sad to say this week is just as busy as last week so I haven't found much time to post, but I have been reading some of the blogs!!

Several people have recently done blogs from their dog's point of view recently, and they are so cute.

I may do a similar post later - when Smokey is feeling talkative - but for now I wanted to post the lessons I could learn from our dog, which came from a question asked by Gretchen:

- be excited about doing anything/everything with those I love -- he is always so excited for a walk or any attention

- let things go. Smokey will be unhappy with us when we take him to the vet and other things he doesn't like, but a few seconds later all is forgotten and forgiven

crazy busy

2011-09-24T07:40:00.008-05:00

I knew it would be a busy week, and boy was it!

Work is running me ragged. I want to do a 'day in the life' post, but my schedule lately is just so crazy that I don't even want to think about it when the day is over! maybe next week... Not only is it our busy reporting time, but I'm on a screening committee so we had four (count them 4) interviews on Friday, and 2 others earlier in the week...one more next week. Add to that my regular meetings and the pilot project we just kicked off, and woo-boy I feel like I need to take a picture of my office to get to see it. Luckily for me I have a great staff who do a lot of the work, but I still feel behind and I can't get my mind off of work, which means I woke up super early today.

Kevin is staying really busy too. He was able to cut out one trip to Huntsville by staying with his aunt and uncle Monday night, they they live in Huntsville. I know that he enjoyed saving a round trip and they were happy to have him stay over! I fully support him staying up there and think it will become a regular occurence for this semester. Smokey is NOT in favor of it, he was bummed all that evening, but he'll get over it.. Funny thing is that they tease him that they are finally getting him to spend the night, he wasn't much for sleepovers growing up...

I will enjoy the weekend - today I get to attend a baby shower for a dear friend, and tomorrow we'll watch the Texans go for 3-0 against the Saints! I also did get to see my dear friend Delena who recently moved to Atlanta and I get to see her again today at the baby shower, woohoo!! I already miss her so much!

We are officially no longer in summer, and I say WELCOME AUTUMN!

whats that light?

2011-09-19T20:36:00.004-05:00

I usually don't like getting woken up in the middle of the night, but last night was an exception! I woke up about 4 am to big bright lightning lighting up our bedroom and heard the thunder, and the most welcome sound of all - RAIN! It was wonderful to hear the sounds, rain has been severely lacking in most of Texas for quite a while. Only way it could've been better was if it was a night I could sleep-in so I could stay awake to enjoy it.

Smokey was not a fan, he's usually pretty good in storms but I think he forgot what those sounds are, because soon we had him in the bed with us. He burrowed under the covers (part mole?) and felt safe again..

Shopping trip

2011-09-17T21:28:00.014-05:00

I'm far from an Extreme Couponer, but do like to get a deal. I had 2 different coupons from Kohl's in the mail, and realized that each said "may be combined with other offers", which means I can use both on the same shopping trip. I was able to save $10 off a $10 purchase AND $10 off a $30 purchase.

I went there today while Kevin watched football and found some shirts on clearance (I love their clearance rack!) and a pair of pants for each of us. Kevin tries to dress up a bit for his TA days and needed some new khakis and I've been wanting a new pair of black pants for work.

Clothes shopping was a nice little break in all my errands, and now this week I can wear a new outfit! One of the shirts I bought was originally $52 and I got it for $5.20...no way would I have spent 50 bucks on it, but $5 I can handle.

I loved seeing all the sweaters and jackets in the store, fall is coming!! I cannot wait until I can start wearing my fall clothes, and really had to resist looking at all those clothes since with Houston weather I already have more than I need, but really want to get a big sweater I can just toss over my outfit for when my office is freezing (it usually is).

9/11

2011-09-10T09:02:00.016-05:00

I've been saying for days now that I'm not ready for the 9/11 anniversary. Its hard to believe its already been 10 years. I remember that day so clearly and I imagine I always will.

The coverage is hard to watch, especially when they caught on video the second plane flying into the World Trade Center when we still weren't quite sure what had happened to the first tower. I found this short video online and think its a good brief summary of what happened, and shows me coverage in a way I didn't see that day since all morning I was at work trying to get to news sites online to find out what was happening - they were all overloaded with people and so we mostly heard radio coverage.

Its strange to see what news was covering BEFORE the attacks - it was a different world in a span of a few hours.

That morning, I walked into work to hear a woman I worked with, Mary, say that a plane flew into the WTC, I thought it was a prop plane or something like that and really didn't understand until I found more information - we had the radio on and tried to get online (unsuccessfully). It was unreal and we were scared because we weren't sure how many planes there could be and there were thoughts they could have other targets - including downtown Houston. Eventually work closed for the day. I didn't want to go home - I lived alone at the time - so a coworker, Jason, and I stayed together for part of the afternoon.

We didn't know what to do, so we tried to do 'normal' things. I'd had a flat tire the day before and we left my car at a shop to get the tire replaced and went to get something to eat. At lunch, I remember how surreal it was to look up at the sky, it was such a gorgeous day - cloudless, beautiful blue - it was hard to believe that under that same sky something so horrible had happened.

Eventually I did go home and watched coverage the rest of the day, tears streaming down my face. It was hard to watch but we had to to try to understand what had happened.

Kevin heard the news from a radio host, they were in the middle of an interview with Dom Capers (head coach for the Texans at the time) and she had CNN on in the background. He watched the coverage from work on tvs without sound.

Our world has never been the same, and there were days when we wished we could go back to worrying about Britney Spears and the other meaningless news we'd worried about before that day. We can't and we won't, but we'll never forget those who did that way, including so many people who were going for a regular day at work or flying cross-country.

When Kevin and I went to NYC a few years ago we went to see Ground Zero, we couldn't really see too much - its a construction zone for the memorial now, but we wanted to see it....

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-07T06:51:00.002-05:00

Our dog is tough on his toys. this is the HEAD of his stuffed skunk, but he still plays with both pieces.

football is back

2011-09-03T17:18:00.006-05:00

Football is back! The Texans had their last preseason game on Thursday, and lots of people are watching college football today - we have the UH vs UCLA game on now. Congrats to Jill & Hal who are brand-new season ticket holders with UGA. Neither of our alma maters have football teams and Kevin isn't all that interested in college football so I pretty much cheer for whoever my friends root for - Go Dawgs!!

Proof that everyone is ready for football to be back, we saw the 'football oreo' at Wal-Mart today. These are just begging to be flicked through fingers formed into a goal post. We also saw football shaped Ritz crackers. Both items stayed on the shelf, I just wanted a picture for the blog (and for facebook). You can tell sometimes when people are taking photos that they are going straight to facebook. I've even seen a phone with a button just for loading things to facebook, how lazy are people? wait, don't answer that.

Almost Friday

2011-09-01T19:03:00.005-05:00

Today I dug out some red pens so that Kevin is ready to grade quizzes tomorrow.

In honor of Emily I also found my fun colored pens - pink and bright blue and will bring them to work tomorrow to use! I'll see if they cheer up my day as much as they do hers.....its the Friday before Labor Day so I'll have head start.

At my last job we'd collect random quotes that we thought were funny or strange, depending on the day...I don't think I have them any more (sad), but will have a new source for quotes..Kevin's professors. Here is a a quote from the professor Kevin Tucker TAs for: "Don't look for consistency, look for the crazy. Its easier to find" Its related to a historical figure but is applicable to so many situations.....

watering

2011-09-01T06:50:00.004-05:00

Hello September! Good bye and good riddance to August. I know we broke heat records this year, but I would gladly take some cooler weather and rain and NOT get anywhere near the records.

Our neighborhood has had voluntary water restrictions most of the summer. We've been sticking with them for the most part. Since our house number is an odd number, we get to water on odd numbered days and the even numbered houses water on even numbered days.

We get the better end of that bargain since any month ending in 31 days gives you 2 odd days in a row, that never happens for even numbers.

Its ok for our neighborhood since its voluntary, but mandatory restrictions (which the city of Houston already has), wouldn't work out as well for the evens. Of course the mandatory ones are days of the week and they can only water TWICE a week, where sometimes we get up to 4 times. Our grass will be lucky to make it...

If you are ever in a situation where you pick odds or evens, odds give you more days!!!

TV premieres

2011-08-28T18:09:00.018-05:00

Kevin is very excited about the new football season starting. I'm looking forward to it but must admit that I'm more excited about the new tv season.

Looking back on what we started watching last year, most either didn't make it (Traffic Light - I was bummed when it got cancelled) or didn't hold our interest (V, the Event), but we'll still give the new crop of shows a try. We usually give them a try because there could be one out there that we like enough to keep watching. A new show from last year, Happy Endings, is now a favorite! With the DVR we can try them out and pick and choose what we like. We usually DVR it all to watch without commercials and will even more this year with K's school schedule.

Most of the new shows coming up don't interest me - like the Playboy club and the Pan Am show, but I do want to see the new one with Christina Applegate, I still miss Samanta Who and can't believe she's the same girl from Married with Children..

More than trying out the new shows, I'm looking forward to the return of our favorite shows. My top 3:

I need to find out where Fringe is going to go - Peter suddenly doesn't exist?!? How can Olivia overcome that?

Big Bang Theory

The Good Wife

What shows are you looking forward to?

the semester is off, gonna be a doozy!

2011-08-27T09:22:00.008-05:00

I'm so glad its finally the weekend. Working for a university, the fall is really hectic - and judging by this week, this semester is going to be even busier than past years. The students are back in classes and the campus is bustling with activity (and construction)...even my Friday calendar was busy (thats usually my time to catch up in my office). I had a meeting for a new committee that I'm on, and later in the day I was called into a conference call already in progress (while I was in another meeting!) It is good work that we're doing, I just hope I can keep up with it all...

Kevin's first day as a TA went well, he is assigned to a specific class - a junior level class - and will attend that class along with his own classes. So far his assignments for that class are to take roll, take lecture notes, and grade quizzes. Right now, he's working on a paper due for one of his classes on Wednesday, they don't waste any time!

Its going to be a busy semester for both of us, don't be surprised if the blog is fairly quiet...

Strange school supplies

2011-08-23T19:59:00.002-05:00

Kevin's 'school supplies' are kind of strange this year. He didn't really need any of the usual supplies and he's still using the netbook we got last year (and taking over my kindle when he needs it for an ebook!). He's been wanting a ceiling fan in the loft. He spends a lot of time working on the computer there and since its upstairs it gets warm up there. He bought it yesterday and tried to install it, I helped him but we didn't get the wires matched up right - confusing since there are 3 switches to control that light. His dad came over today and helped him finish installing it, looks good!

2011-08-21T17:25:00.014-05:00

We had a great day with our niece and nephew, and their daddy, Kevin's brother.

They brought over our nephew's birthday present, a BB gun, and set up some coke cans as targets. They even dug out Kevin's old gun and it still works! I'm not sure who had more fun, the 6-year-old or the 30-something boys. They played off and on all afternoon, with lots of breaks since its so hot outside, another 100 degree day. Seeing that gun, I can't help but think of the movie "A Christmas Story" since I think thats basically the gun our nephew has.

Our niece is so cute, following her big brother everywhere he goes and she loves to open and close the doors for everyone, not sure whether she wanted to be inside or out, I think she just enjoyed playing with the door. She is a chatterbox, unfortunately we're not real sure what she's saying a lot of the time, once we can - watch out, she'll talk our heads off...

Our nephew stayed at our house while niece and daddy went home to take a nap, and it made Kevin's day since he was able to stay home with our nephew while I went to the grocery store. I left them watching "Finding Nemo" but pretty quickly they were out shooting guns again.

We made a great meal of sliders -- fresh made at the meat counter at the store, on King's Hawaiian bread rolls (love that bread, its a little sweet), fries, and homemade ice cream.

Kaden was a big help in making the ice cream, he and Kevin measured out the cocoa and he helped put ice into the bucket. We should've made sure the cocoa was fully dissolved into the water - there are some surprise cocoa blobs in the ice cream, but will do better next time. We made this recipe since it was the easy (faster) way to make ice cream...

Good luck to Kaden on his first day of first grade tomorrow!!

The only one who didn't have a great day is Smokey. Having kids around stresses him out, which we knew. but this was the longest he's been around kids in a while and it stressed him out so badly that he had a seizure soon after they left - he had one almost 2 years ago after a busy busy day around Christmas. We've definitely found his trigger -lots of stress. He is fine, it only lasts maybe a minute and a few minutes later he's back to normal and now we know what to expect - the first one scared us and him...we'll have a low-key night tonight.

The Help

2011-08-19T06:50:00.005-05:00

I finally went to see "The Help" last night, and I LOVED it!

Its been out a week, but it took a while to coordinate schedules, mostly my calendar since this has been the busiest week! My sister and I each read the book so we made a girls night out of it, and Kevin was happy because he didn't have to go see it..

Of course they had to simplify some things from the book and leave things out, but all in all it was pretty true to the book -- I did wish they'd left one scene the same (what happened with Constantine) but understand that it worked better in print then on the screen)

I was skeptical about Emma Stone playing Skeeter, but she did a great job and you really forgot it was her. The actress playing Minnie was right on!

Go see this movie!

I see why my mother-in-law is #107 or something on the waiting list at the library for the book, it was very popular already and the movie just catapulted its popularity.

Looking at it from today's views its hard to think there was ever that much separation between races, but it really wasn't that long ago and unfortunately some people still hold some of those views. I found myself thinking of my grandparents' maid, Eunice, and what she would've had to say about working for a family in Louisiana, she lived through that time so I'm sure she could've told us a lot.

summer wind down

2011-08-17T19:23:00.003-05:00

Summer is definitely ending, work is picking back up (although it never really let up this summer!) and Kevin already has reading assignments for his classes - he starts back to school in one week. I think we're both ready for him to go back. I know he enjoyed the break, but this summer has had its moments when I've been frustrated that I'm so busy and he has all this time off, we knew what we were getting into but having a spouse back in school is tough some days.

He's already halfway through and loving it! It will be a crazy school year, he'll have TA duties on top of the schoolwork that he had last year and I'll be even busier with my VP duties in addition to my work duties - those have been keeping me busy this summer..maybe thats why it feels like it never slowed down...

I'm really looking forward to the cooler weather - sweaters, soups, maybe some rain?!?

We've already been to a football game, the first Texans preseason game of the year. For Kevin and a lot of people fall would not be the same without football.

Chess Tournament

2011-08-13T13:41:00.008-05:00

Kevin is running his first chess tournament today, and its going well! I came with him to help him with set-up/tear-down and also to run errands (like grabbing lunch for us both). In the downtime (I have lots of it), I've been playing with my computer, catching up on some work stuff, and will read my book later.

Our alma mater was nice enough to provide space to us (2 classrooms - one for the games and one for the checkin/waiting area, etc) at no charge, and he has 13 paid competitors, and one 'house player' so there is an even number of players. They are quite an age range, from kids of 6 to 8 to grown men, and the kids are tough competitors. the girl will represent the US in Brazil for her age group!!

Kevin just judged his first dispute, the fun part of being a Tournament Director.

He's also the sponsor of a new chess club that meets near our house, website here.

It is fun to see him in his element and with people as passionate about chess as he is!

Lefthanders Day

2011-08-13T09:50:00.000-05:00

Happy Lefthanders Day! I missed it last year, I found out about it the day one day after it happened, so this year I'm making a point to honor it - even joined the facebook group.

I did buy myself some left-handed scissors for the curtain project, and I guess they are left-handed - they work really well!

Here are other things I've noticed are designed for right-handed people:

- my eye doctor has pens attached to clipboards to fill out the paperwork necessary to be a patient, and the location - you guessed it, on the right side. So I kept having to move the chain out of my way since it went across the page, I also tried having it under the clipboard, either way was awkward.

- the ladle for a punch bowl is right handed when it only has the lip on one side and is designed to poured using the right hand, really awkward for me. the best solution, get a ladle with the lip on both sides

- the lawnmower has the cord you have to pull to start on the right side, again awkward for me, no wonder I have to get Kevin's help to start it..

I swear, even some of my necklaces are righthanded. if the pendant can come off I just reverse it, but some the pendant won't come off and I have to hold the clip open with my right hand so i don't end up with it on backwards

PSA: Civic Visor

2011-08-10T06:38:00.005-05:00

I drive a Honda Civic and recently received a letter about a class action lawsuit regarding defective sun visors. I happily set the letter aside since my sun visors were fine, and later that same week the driver's side sun visor split and wouldn't stow away properly....very annoying (and dangerous) since it was in my line of sight.

I grabbed the letter to read it more closely and found that they'd extended the warranty for the visors to 7 years (probably the only thing ON my car that is still under warranty), and so Kevin took my car to the dealer and got it replaced at no charge to us, woohoo!

Since then, I've found out that BOTH of Gwendolyn's visors have broken and here neighbor's broke as well...I'm starting to see why a class action was created, I don't know that many civic owners and already have 3 examples of them breaking..

The dealer will replace it OR Honda will reimburse you if you paid to get it fixed.

Here is more information on the class action.

I'll take this problem over uncontrolled acceleration, but still annoying. I'm not a car person, I just want something to get me reliably and comfortably from point A to point B.

random Carol thought of the day

2011-08-08T20:51:00.003-05:00

I see bumper stickers on my drive in to work every morning and think they are missing out not making "spouse" stickers, they have mom, dad, grandma, grandpa...I'd totally buy a sticker saying my hubby goes to Sam...even better, "my hubby and our money go to Sam"

Last of the curtain projects complete!

2011-08-08T20:03:00.015-05:00

This past weekend, I finally finished a project I'd had in mind for the last 6 months and had started working on a couple of months ago.

Our media room has french doors with glass panels. We've been wanting to get curtains for the doors both to block out some of the light when we watch a movie and to give privacy since it doubles as an extra guest room when my family comes to visit (a queen size air mattress fills up most of the room).

We thought about buying some but quickly saw they were more expensive than we were willing to spend, so we had the idea to make some.

I took measurements, picked out fabric (and then I made a second trip to the store since I'd bought only enough for one panel, not two). I do not own a sewing machine nor do I know how to sew very well (my experience is with sewing on girl scout patches and those didn't turn out too pretty), so I was lucky that I was able to get my friends Jay and Gwendolyn to help. Gwendolyn is the craftiest person I know, and the two of them made a beautiful art car so Jay is crafty in his own way.

I went to their house on Saturday and got their help to make them (read: they made them for me). Their experience with sewing (and her mom a phone call away) was invaluable. I had the fabric pinned, but they gave great suggestions of making another fold so we had finished edges, and so we pretty much started over, with the ironing board and a bunch of pins. Jay can sew!
Added bonus: I got to spend much of the day with both of them and their 2 cute kids. Advice to Stella - find a man who can sew and who will kill bugs, just like your daddy!

That night Kevin and I hung the curtains - they are on tiny cafe rods and they block the light really well for the movie watching and really make that corner of the room look much more complete.

Thanks Jay and Gwendolyn!

Here is a before and after shot (I actually remembered to a take a before picture!)

Netflix streaming, your days are numbered...

2011-07-31T17:32:00.000-05:00

File this under 'first world problems'...We've used Netflix for years and recently started taking advantage of the streaming option, we've used it a lot since moving the wii to the TVdownstairs. Kevin uses it for documentaries that would put me to sleep and I use it for tv shows he has no interest in watching.

Recently Netflix announced they are raising their rates by making the disc and the streaming plans separate come Sept 1. We plan to drop streaming since that is also about when Kevin goes back to school and the new season of tv shows will start, plus most of the movies we've found on the streaming aren't worth watching, though we did recently watch "the Fighter" and it was really good.

Netflix must know I'm planning to drop it because they just added "Mad Men" to the streaming, I've never seen it - any guesses on how many episodes I can get through in a month? I'm still trying to finish up "Arrested Development" too....hilarious show

football is on

2011-07-29T18:53:00.005-05:00

This blog is called "The Tuckers" but its pretty much all posted by me, Carol, which is why its very heavy on what I do and what I find interesting. Sometimes I feel the need to share some of what is more news making for Kevin.

The NFL lockout is over and we are ready for the season to start! I've even started another fantasy football league, wish me luck in keeping up with 3 teams! and if you're in the league, please be patient with me because I'm still figuring out what all the settings are as the 'commissioner'.

Kevin and his parents will once again have season tickets and this year his brother has one too. That'll be great because they can both go to all of the games and could mean - more games for me whenever my mother-in-law doesn't want to go :)

We'll see how the fall goes, it will be even busier with Kevin's TA position, but I am so ready for fall....

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-20T06:41:00.005-05:00

This is my first time to particpiate in Wordless Wednesday - already broke the name by using words....eh, my blog my rules.

This is the traveling trophy that Kevin has now won twice (2nd place) at his chess meetup.

Houston eats

2011-07-16T08:55:00.007-05:00

I got to have lunch with a dear friend, Delena, and my sister yesterday. It was a great break from the work day and we went to a place that I'd been wanting to go back to but couldn't remember the name of - its tough to find a place when you can't even remember the NAME.

It finally came to me - Dharma Cafe and so when we made plans for lunch I suggested it. Second visit for me, first visit for sis and Delena. Delena was nice enough to pick me up from work (parking at work is tough to leave during the day) and we had a great time chatting and eating. I had the Italian grill sandwich and a curried lentil soup. I didn't think I liked lentils but really did like this soup. The place is pretty easy to get to, even with the construction on north main - now, when that street is totally shut down for lightrail construction it may be a different story.

After our meal they gave us gelato, turns out they give out free gelato on Fridays, vanilla cinnamon yum...It was frozen so hard they must scoop it and then freeze the bowls, otherwise they have someone with arms of steel working the ice cream scooper. Vanilla cinnamon may have to be our next homemade flavor.

I was so glad that the restaurant was still there, earlier in the week I tried to take a friend to a Vietnamese place I love, and we got there to see that the marquee said "Closed - thanks for 3 great years". I was so sad, I loved their food -especially an eggplant tofu dish. Pagoda, you will be missed. We had to settle for a Mexican place nearby since we'd already taken part of my lunch hour to drive over there, it was good but disappointing after I'd set my tastebuds to Vietnamese food. Houston has lots of restaurants, but unfortunately in some areas they seem to be every changing...there are several places that we refer to as "it used to be xyz"

If you read this you'll think all I do is go out to eat, I assure you I don't...most lunches are brought from home or leftovers (in fact the Mexican food leftovers were my lunch on Tuesday) and Kevin and I do a fair amount of cooking at home, I'm constantly on the search for good easy meals so we can have a set of 'go-to' meals during the workweek.

randomness

2011-07-13T21:00:00.014-05:00

July? How can it already be July?!? This year is flying by!

Work is keeping me really busy and we've had 3 weekends straight with parties, starting with Kevin's birthday party. We have one more birthday party this weekend and then our weekends should settle down a bit. I've loved getting to see everyone whose come out for the parties, so often we end up in our little routine of work, errands, chores, repeat. We're making the most of Kevin's time off from school and want to make a point to see our friends more often even after school starts back up.

Congrats to Kevin, he was selected to be a TA for the fall! It will mean more trips to Huntsville but will be great experience and look good on a resume, or CV - why does academia have its own format? just to be different I guess.

How many social networks does one person need? apparently one more - I accepted an invite to Google+ even though I can't keep up with the other social media sites I'm already on. I'll give it a try, I don't have much to say but I do have a lot of places to say it. Here's hoping everyone can 'play nice', the anonymity of it all has a way of making people say ugly things, or act like they are in junior high.

more randomness -- Kevin won a trophy! its a traveling trophy, but he won it again for winning 2nd place in a weekly chess tournament he went to tonight. I've used the term 'football widow' but may have to start calling myself a 'chess widow' - left alone because hubby is playing chess. I kid, I love that he is so passionate about his interests.....maybe I'll get a photo of it this week.

4th of July

2011-07-05T18:24:00.010-05:00

Happy belated birthday to the USA! We had a great 4th of July weekend even without seeing fireworks. There is a burn ban for nearly all of Texas so many of the usual fireworks options weren't possible. I know safety comes first and a la Smokey the bear, "only you can prevent forest fires" (or in our case grass fires), so we settled for fireworks on the tv. There was a show in downtown Houston, but I already drive down there every day for work and I love my a/c so the tv was good enough.

Even without fireworks, it was a great weekend. We went to Hunstville on Sunday to see Kevin's aunt and uncle's new house. They have been busy getting moved in, unpacked and really making it their own. Its a great house and has SO MUCH space. I know they are loving it and look forward to many more family gatherings there. I don't know why but kids love stairs - they love them at our house and love them at his aunt and uncle's, I guess because they don't have them at home..I think they could run up and down them all afternoon...I wish I loved running up and down stairs, it is quite a work out! We enjoyed visiting with everyone and ate lots of good food. l

My new favorite salad is "Chinese Cole Slaw" that his aunt made at Easter and again this weekend. I'd also gotten the recipe from her and made it for Kevin's birthday. It makes a LOT, so I'd suggest reducing it or planning to eat it for a while and assemble as needed so that the crunchy stuff doesn't get soggy. Seriously - I split the recipe in HALF for Kevin's birthday and still had plenty.

Chinese Cole Slaw

Cole slaw

2 packages shredded cabbage

2 bunches green onions chopped

2 packages chicken flavored Ramen Noodle Soup

4 packages (1/2 cup each) slivered almonds – sautéed in butter

Dressing:

¾ cup oil

6 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

6 packages equal or 12 tsp sugar

Seasoning packs from Ramen Noodles

Salt and Pepper (I forgot to add this, and really don't think it needs any salt beyond the ramen seasoning packet, that thing is sodium city)

Combine cabbage and chopped onions, refrigerate.

Mix dressing and refrigerate.

Sauté almonds in butter; drain excess butter. Crush uncooked Ramen Noodles. Mix together, and refrigerate.

Add dressing, noodles, and almonds to the cabbage just before serving.

2011-06-29T20:00:00.002-05:00

Happy anniversary to us! I cannot believe that tomorrow will have been 4 years since we said "I do." Time does fly when you're having fun, and we have lots of fun.

Only bad thing about getting married on a Saturday, its a long time before your anniversary falls on a weekend. We still find ways to celebrate. We met up for dinner tonight after I got off work and before Kevin's chess meetup (oh yes, we are both nerds) at a great Chinese & Vietnamese restaurant in Montrose.

We hadn't really talked about exchanging gifts, but Kevin surprised me with a card that is so perfectly us. My favorite line, "but what really matters in my world is that we are together, and however busy life may get, I don't forget that...ever" I don't know how you cite a greeting card (Kevin would probably know, but he's playing chess right now), but credit goes to Hallmark.

smart meter

2011-06-28T21:15:00.005-05:00

more proof I'm a nerd....Kevin noticed we had a smart meter installed recently. Instead of the meter with dials its digital and can send our electricity usage to the electric company rather than have someone have to come read it and sends its CONTINUOUSLY.

Tonight on the news I heard a story about smart meters and watching the usage change as they turned different appliances on and off. They mentioned a website where you can make an account and look at your usage, so I made an account (you do need some info from your electric bill).

I can see our usage in 15 minute increments or on a daily basis back to when we got the smart meter, which is evidently the end of May.

I love a good graph and can easily see the highs and lows of our usage for the month of June. Its so recent that I know what was going on to explain the spikes.

the highest spike - the weekend my entire family was at our house

the low - the one day we had rain

If you have a smart meter and live in Texas, check out this site: https://www.smartmetertexas.com

Birthday Boy

2011-06-26T18:26:00.006-05:00

Kevin had a great birthday!

As a treat I went and bought him some donuts for breakfast. We spent much of the morning getting ready for the party - a clean house and lots of food for everyone to enjoy. In addition to the meats he'd smoked (ribs and brisket) we had corn, beans, potato salad and a coleslaw that I'd enjoyed at his aunt's at Easter. We even found a little bit of Kansas City BBQ sauce that we were able to enjoy and have people taste. We'll need to make a trip back to KC so we can get some more...Haywards - its spicy and wonderful.

Everyone started arriving mid-afternoon, and we had a great time eating, visiting and playing Blongo ball. Blongo ball games were all pretty short - it is HOT out there.

One friend had odd guests with him - 3 turtles! They are his new pets and he'd picked them up from someone on our side of town on his way to the party. They were a hit with the kids, even the big kids like me -- the baby turtle was so cute. Luckily, we'd brought Smokey over to my in-laws in the morning since he's not good with crowds.

Kevin was able to wear his birthday shirt. His mom found it online, so true for my history buff.

For dessert we had chocolate cake and homemade peanut butter ice cream. The ice cream was fantastic, very smooth and very peanut buttery. Sonic ice (tiny pellets) is the way to go! We are definitely getting better at making ice cream.

2011-06-24T06:25:00.004-05:00

The ice cream maker arrived last weekend, hooray! We made our first batch the same day it arrived - kept it simple and started with vanilla (with our good Mexican vanilla). We have some learning to do because it didn't freeze up too well and was kind of icy - but the taste was great, and it just means we have to practice. We think it was not enough ice, so we'll make smaller ice and really pack it in this time.

Last night we started up a batch of PEANUT BUTTER ice cream. We'll have to finish making it tonight since it needed to chill for 2-4 hours and I'm not one to be working in the kitchen at 1am if I can avoid it. I am so excited for this ice cream, I love PB -- I had to make a breakfast with PB today after smelling it for so long last night....

We plan to serve it with chocolate cake at the party for Kevin's birthday! PB + chocolate = heaven

I hope to have a full party re-cap soon. Kevin is smoking meat today and a bunch of our friends and family are coming over tomorrow. Wishing an early Happy birthday to my sweet Kevin!!!

ice cream maker

2011-06-14T19:07:00.006-05:00

We ordered an ice cream maker back in mid April. We found the one place that said they had it in stock only to find out after we ordered that nope it was backordered from them too...back to the drawing board. We ordered it from trusty amazon (still back-ordered) but they now swear it has shipped. We'd been half joking that we'd have it by Kevin's birthday, but looks like we'll be lucky to get it by then. Note to self - order things everyone wants for the summer in the dead of winter before everyone else thinks about it

So, I decided to google ice cream maker recipes and realized that I am going to have to spend a LOT more time at the gym to work off all the frozen goodness I'll be eating.

just look at this - nutella gelato, I <3 you

and some of our blueberries may find their way into something like this

cannot wait....where are you ice cream maker??

Texas Exhibit and more

2011-06-12T19:09:00.012-05:00

Its been a VERY busy weekend! My side of the family came over to visit and stayed with us the whole weekend. We love having the space to have my entire family stay - my parents get the guest bedroom, my brother and his wife take over the media room and sleep on our queen size air mattress, and my sister takes over the library on her smaller air mattress. Its a lot of people for the house, but makes it possible for us to see each other for a longer period of time.

Friday was a work day for most of us, so we didn't do a lot, just went out to eat (and waited for my brother to get there...making the trip from Austin he got in pretty late).

The real fun was on Saturday. We went to see the Texas exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It was a great exhibit - we saw the actual cannon that started the "Come and Take it" slogan. There were a few places where I'd go into the room and not be sure which sign I should start reading first to follow the chronology. After I read a few I'd realize I'd started in the wrong place (further ahead in the history of Texas then other information in that room was) and have to backtrack. I learned quite a bit - and saw some names I recognize from street signs and buildings around town (Travis, Lamar, Beck to name a few). It was amazing to see how many places the items are on loan from and I have to wonder how (and how long) this exhibit was organized. I also could've done without the random costumes from the 20th century, but must admit a dress made with turkey feathers and tape was quite a sight to see! Thank you Groupon for the HALF-PRICE tickets!!

There is a new dinosaur set up in the lobby which was impressive to see, a flying one with a 30' wingspan....good thing for us they are extinct. This is the musuem that we'll have a membership to soon (won at the casino night), cannot wait!! I'm also excited for a NEW wing to open in Summer 2012!!

Later in the day, we introduced my mom to Thai food. She and Kevin stuck with peanut chicken, but did enjoy it and the rest of us had various curry dishes...yummy! Thai and Indian food are what my brother and his wife crave after their extended time in Nicaragua, unfortunately for us we haven't found Indian food near us, but do have some good restaurants of other kinds near us.

After that (told you we were busy!) we went to pick blueberries. Laura and I had been earlier in the season. Our first trip was a scouting trip to see how the crop was, its been so dry we weren't sure if they'd have a good crop this year. It was slimmer pickings this weekend - more moving from tree to tree to find ripe ones. The person who updates their website (owner?) had said he thought NEXT weekend would be better but we were committed to this weekend. We still had a good time and picked over 18 lbs of blueberries in about an hour and a half. I needed to replenish my supply (about half of the ones I picked two weeks ago have already been eaten, and made great muffins!), but I think Mache was on a missions, she filled her bucket completely! We brought some towels this time to put between our neck and rope for the bucket, it was more comfortable and came in handy to wipe our faces. I do think twice in one season is my limit for blueberry picking, but had a great time - and it was my dad's first time to go.

Today's plans changed when we realized that bugs Kevin had been seeing around the house were coming from our pantry. They'd gotten into some of our food - even Smokey's! - and so today was taken over by that project. We tossed some of our food and took EVERYTHING out of the pantry, sprayed it down with bug spray (after putting both of our creatures outside) and then re-organized it as we put it back. This was something I'd wanted to do, but not today.....

Casino Night

2011-06-07T06:30:00.001-05:00

Our neighborhood Casino Night was this past weekend. We went and had a great time! We'd both been looking forward to it for MONTHS. Most of the neighborhood events are geared towards kids, and they can be fun - especially when we invited our niece and nephew, but not having kids I feel like we don't get as much out of the events as we could - and some we just skip.

We made an all out date night of it - got dressed up and went to eat at a restaurant near the civic center that it was held. It felt good to put the cellphone away and enjoy the time with my sweet hubby.

Once we got inside we were each given $2000 worth of chips to gamble with - pretty obviously NOT real money since I'd have a panic attack before spending that kind of money in a casino.

We spent most of our time at black jack and craps. Kevin had the good idea of practicing at black jack before we went and I think it helped, especially since the table we went to was playing with one deck so all of our cards were dealt face down....I kept forgetting what my cards were. hadn't realized they deal face up only when playing with the 'shoot' (multiple decks). This is the first time I've ever seen Kevin gamble, and he's pretty good at black jack.

I like craps - I finally understand it. I enjoy the social aspect of it, everyone is rooting for the shooter and every cheers or groans based on the result. Sometimes I'd lose track of my bets, good thing the people working the table know!

I'm not a high roller, even with fake money. I was betting $100 - $200 at a time, and I'd see others throwing down $500 or $1000 chips...I know big risk makes big money, but I'd probably lose. I was really pleased that we were winning or at least breaking even. We'd even set aside our original chips to make sure we had something at the end of the night.

At the end of the night we had about what we started with and got a raffle ticket for every $1000 in chips. We got to put the tickets into raffles for various prizes -- we put 3 in for a gift card bouquet and 1 for a membership to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The most popular item was by far the ipad but we figured we had no chance and put our tickets where our odds were better. That last gamble of the night paid off - we won the museum membership!

blueberries

2011-06-03T18:32:00.000-05:00

I think I may turn into a blueberry. Kevin keeps teasing me that I'm going to be like Violet from Willy Wonka and turn blue, or was it purple? Why you ask?

Laura and I went to the blueberry farm last weekend and picked about 8 lbs of blueberries! Since then I've been eating handfuls of blueberries and have thoughts of making great things with some of the ones I froze - muffins, cobbler...mmmm They are pretty good by themselves or on cereal too.

I'd wanted to fill up my bucket, but didn't quite make it. We learned some lessons from last year and remembered to bring water and hats...good thing too because it was HOT.

art cars

2011-05-24T21:11:00.004-05:00

We missed the Art Car Parade this year, but I was so happy to see (via facebook) that our good friends Jay and Gwendolyn were in the parade!

They have this great hearse art car, but last year it had a fever (was overheating) so they had to miss the parade. Not this year...

Seeing the car anytime I drive up to their house cracks me up - the car is nearly as long as their driveway.

Art cars truly are a labor of love, and I am so glad people enjoy making them because they are beautiful (and sometimes scary) to look at.

Mexico Cruise

2011-05-21T14:22:00.026-05:00

We are back on land and had a great time on the cruise! It was a great vacation, especially nice since my cellphone simply wouldn't work so I just packed it away and enjoyed time with Kevin, my sister and her friend. I was glad to see they liked it, it was the first cruise for each of them and the second for us.

We had lots of good food, time to relax (lots of reading of my book!), and just had a great time. The cruise directors always have something going on - lots of trivia games, which I love. This time they even had 2 nights of comedians, and we made it to an 'adults only' show, the material is more like what we're used to at a comedy club, as opposed to the 'family friendly' show we'd seen before.

We also checked out the casino (lost $40 at roulette), and I rode the HUGE slide this time! Even with all there is to do on the boat - the excursions are definitely the best part for me.

Our first excursion took us by bus to see some of the historic spots in Merida, including a HUGE cathedral. It has THE largest indoor Christ statue in the world (the largest is the outdoor one in Rio de Janiero). Our tour guide (Jerry) was very knowledgeable and entertaining. He was always pointing out things for us to see along the way and telling us a little about the history and life in the area. After seeing the sites we were taken to a hacienda (plantation) that has been turned into a rum distillery. We were able to tour the place - even see some workers bottling the rum -and then have a tasting. The setting was great, we sat on benches (think park benches) under a canopy of trees and were able to taste rum as well as several fruity liqueurs -- my favorite one was made with a fruit called guanabana. If you didn't like it, you could toss it over your shoulder into the plants, though most of what I didn't like went to Kevin. We saw lots of iguanas and a gorgeous tree called the 'Fire tree'.

Our second excursion was a first for me - snorkeling! We went with a group to a man-made beach on Cozumel where we were able to walk right into the water and snorkel. There were small reefs and lots of fish! I had a hard time at first, but once I got the hang of it - it took a bit for me to get used to breathing through the tube how I needed to - it was really very serene. At times the water was rough so it was tough to stay under sometimes, but I got the hang of it (and a good workout!) The guide who was with us has great eyes, he brought up several creatures for us to see and touch - including a small yellow stingray! The shore set-up worked well so that we could go back onshore when we were ready - my sister and I went back out again while Kevin and Ana stayed on dry land. I did get stung by tiny jellyfish, I felt something burning on my arm and leg, and then saw that it was swollen when I was out of the water. apparently its pretty common - they had a bottle of Caladryl right at the counter. Leave it to me to find the jellyfish.

All in all, we came out pretty well - no sunburn, just the jellyfish and some overeating. We did better than some people who overdid it in Progreso - know your limits people. There is one excursion called "Corona Beach Party" which is basically an open bar in the sun. Last year and again this year we've seen people who imbibed WAY too much and had difficulty walking. The woman we saw this year actually went swimming in a small fountain -I thought she had leaned against it to steady herself and actually said I hope she doesn't drown when I thought she fell in, nope turns out she was getting in to swim....she did this not once, but twice. I hate to think what the locals must think of Americans when behavior like that and what you think of on Spring Break is most of what they see. I like a good drink, but also like to be in control of myself, especially in a foreign country.

I'm not ready to head back to work, but am very glad to be home!

Cruisin

2011-05-15T16:13:00.003-05:00

Right now I am enjoying the view of the Gulf of Mexico and there is a high probability that I have a fruity drink in my hand....love a good vacation!!!

We're going with my sister and her best friend on a cruise to celebrate sister's 30th birthday! Its the same itinerary as the one we went on last year but will be a much different trip. We're taking different excursions - seeing a rum plantation (and having a tasting!) and snorkeling, a first for me.

I know that this year's vacation means a lot more to Kevin - he's looking forward to reading for fun and also not reading if he doesn't want to, its been a long semester and we're both ready for the break.

Pictures to follow!

Scholarship dinner

2011-05-13T19:41:00.005-05:00

dang, I wrote up a post about the Scholarship dinner we went to recently, but Blogger ate it! It was posted and everything and then Blogger had some sort of issue and everything posted since Wednesday was taken away.....grrr, good thing I'm not a prolific writer....

I don't really want to rewrite the entire post, but we had a great time and had some great food (salmon and carrots with honey glaze and new potatoes). I was able to meet some of Kevin's professors and classmates. HE even met one of his professors in person for the first time - he'd had that professor for an online class.

We weren't able to get any good photos because we sat up front and the presentations were literally right next to us, I felt like I should duck to avoid being in other people's photos!

We got there early and were able to walk around the campus a little bit (not too much since we each had dressy, not so comfortable shoes on), I never knew there was a school called Austin College on the grounds that is now Sam Houston State University. I'm so proud of Kevin and love seeing him in his element!

Corpus Christi

2011-05-08T08:39:00.010-05:00

Its been a busy few weeks. Work is busy and added to my regular workload I've been busy taking care of my VP duties with TAIR. The VP duties should even out for a while, but its been extra busy getting ready for the planning meeting and then doing follow-ups afterwards.

The next conference will be in Corpus Christi so we held our planning meeting there, to be able to see the hotel facilities. It was my first trip to Corpus and its a great place! I didn't have much time to look around but did get to eat at two restaurants in town. I really liked Water Street, fresh seafood is the best! We walked to the Landry's for dinner and I could definitely spend more time walking on the seawall and looking at the signs. There was even a carnival up the street from us, but again no time. If you like fast food, the original Whataburger is in Corpus, I saw it but felt no need to eat there.

The only photo I took is this one with my phone. This was the view from my hotel balcony. It is the USS Lexington, which I hope to tour the next time I'm in town. I found out afterward that this is the ship that Jill's grandfather served on it in WWII! Kevin and I have toured an aircraft carrier in San Diego and were amazed at the small place they slept in for months at a time. I'll be back in February for the conference and have already mentioned the city as a vacation spot for the two of us, its not a bad drive from our house and would be a great weekend get-away.

2011-05-02T18:39:00.010-05:00

We watched history being made last night. I was getting a little bit of work done and about ready to go to bed, but Kevin saw on the news that the President was about to make a statement. We had no idea what the statement was about, but knew it was something big. We watched the speculation and then the leaks being reported, and finally confirmation -- Osama bin laden was dead.

We stayed up with the nation to watch the statement. Word spread like wildfire with all of the social media out there -- facebook, twitter, you name it people heard the news that way. Today I was able to check in to a "World without Osama bin Laden" on foursquare and it felt good.

I remember exactly where I was when I heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and still cry when I see the footage from that day, I guess I always will...

March for Babies

2011-05-01T18:54:00.006-05:00

The March for Babies went well today! My sister and I joined many thousands of other people in Houston to walk 5 miles to raise money so that 'one day all babies will be born healthy'. This is the fourth year we've participated in the walk and each year it gets bigger and bigger.

In prior years the crowd has thinned out as we got away from the start line, but this year there was a large number of people around us the entire time, making it tough to walk at the pace we want to at times, but a great problem since that means more and more people are walking and fundraising for a great cause.

There are many people near and dear to me that are having babies right now, and I like to think that I'm doing my little part to help make sure the babies are born healthy and happy.

Many people walk in honor or in memory of a child in their own life who was born too early. We saw a number of shirts with the child's name and stats printed, it is staggering to see how small some of them are, and heart-breaking to see the ones who lived only a very short time. I also know that some of the kids in strollers and walking themselves are the very same kids we are walking for..

Royal wedding

2011-04-26T18:43:00.008-05:00

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that this week is the ~royal wedding~. When their engagement was announced I was excited about it, but now I am just ready for it to be over. I will probably look at some of the coverage afterwards but am NOT getting up at 3am to watch it...

Seeing all the coverage of the upcoming nuptials and the comparisons to Princess Di does make me remember when I watched her funeral. I'm too young to remember her wedding so the funeral is my touchpoint to British royalty. It was my freshmen year of college and only one week into the semester. I was living in the dorms, and several of us got together to watch it in a friend's room. We stayed up all night to watch it, and though it was really sad to watch it was also a great memory for me, almost a slumber party.

Seeing all of the pictures of London also makes me want to go back, I've been twice and Kevin has been once but never together...its on our list of places to go to together!

2011-04-21T21:11:00.006-05:00

I am so ready for Easter! I love watching the kids hunt for eggs and this year we'll celebrate Easter at Kevin's aunt and uncle's house. It will be a last hoorah since they've sold the house and will be moving soon afterwards.

I can't wait to have a glass of wine, I gave up wine and liquor for Lent and have stuck with it even though I've been tempted more than once...

Which Way?

2011-04-17T10:28:00.016-05:00

I had to share this article about my hometown. There really are streets called This Way, That Way, Any Way, Circle Way and even His Way (behind a church near my elementary school). And people wonder why I have a hard time with directions?

The article does NOT mention that all the other streets are named for trees and plants. To this day I'll be looking at plants and realize that I know the name of the plant only because I knew someone on that street while I was growing up...

I don't know if there is a street called Aganpanthus (imagine learning to spell that as a kid) but that has become one of our favorite flowers to have in our yard, because we have success with it. We bought several for our front yard and they are now blooming!

Another claim to fame for Lake Jackson, there is a person there named David Hasselhoff and the famous one swapped places with him for a day as part of a new show called "Same Name", looks like it got picked up as a new series.

Product Review

2011-04-02T20:23:00.013-05:00

I made it through April Fool's day pretty well. I did fall for tricks that TWO different morning radio shows pulled (I'm an April fool!). I also had a good laugh at the websites that different companies put up, my favorites: Google voice-alyzer (I have heard of an actual app for computers to limit drunk facebooking) and Starbucks Mobile Pour. Not too bad, but I am still not a fan of April Fool's day!!

Recently, CSN stores contacted me about doing a product review. Kevin and I had just been talking about getting a new toaster oven so what to buy was easily decided. The toaster oven we had was on its last legs – it wouldn’t cook evenly which made it pretty much useless. Kevin has had it the entire time I’ve known him so it has served him well but needed to be replaced.

We ordered this toaster oven, the Delonghi 4 Slice Digital Toaster Oven in black so that it matches our other appliances.

I've been really pleased with how quickly I receive items from CSN stores. We ordered it on Wednesday and received it that Friday, perfect timing so that over the weekend Kevin could make cinnamon toast for both of us!

It is a little bit shorter in height then the one we had previously, but the shelf inside can be repositioned so it will serve the needs we have - mostly toast, reheating pizza and other leftovers and baking taco shells.

I love the digital temperature control. The last one had a dial and only about 5 temperatures were actually marked, beyond that you had to adjust the dial to approximate the temperature you wanted. With this one I can just push the button until I get to the temperature I want - it changes in 25 degree increments. Having this level of accuracy is really helpful for the taco shells, since they overcook pretty easily.

My only complaint about it is that the bars on the shelf have larger gaps than the one we had previously, which we only realized when we burned a set of taco shells – they would fall into the gap a little bit and be too close to the bottom heating element. We solved that problem by using the tray that came with the toaster oven, and then they turned out great!

2011-03-31T20:29:00.003-05:00

HOW is it already the end of March?!?!?! This year is flying by!

I dislike April fool's day - I always fall for at least one thing during the day (usually several)....here's hoping I'm not an April fool this year....

It does make it easy to remember my cousin's birthday. Happy Birthday Harriet!!!

2011-03-24T06:49:00.005-05:00

I'm so proud of Kevin. He got a letter in the mail that he's been selected for a scholarship! He didn't even apply for it so we guess that one of his professors must have recommended him for it.

The letter also says there will be a reception for scholarship recipients which means there may be an excuse to dress up and go out in our future *yay!*

unrelated, but also happy news. Smokey is finally getting back into his lazy dog routine, even playing with his toys. He has been so fixated on Rocky (the bird) that its good to see him getting back to normal. He still stares at Rocky sometimes but nothing like how he was over the weekend, he'll even leave his staring post to sit in my lap :) he's big to be a lapdog but we make it work.....

Meet Rocky

2011-03-20T10:35:00.010-05:00

We still have the bird. We had an alert put up on our neighborhood's website but haven't gotten any responses. I haven't seen any fliers or heard about anyone missing a bird. The poor thing might not even be from our neighborhood, since it can fly there is really no telling where it came from - or how long it was out, when we got it some food it just ate and ate. So, it looks like we're now bird owners.

We didn't want to keep calling it "the bird", so we decided to name it. We got lots of name recommendations - including Bandit so we'd own Smokey and the Bandit, but we decided to name it Shamrock (since it found us on St. Patrick's day) and call it "Rocky."

Its been a tough weekend for Smokey - he just stares at Rocky constantly, and we have to reprimand him when he tries to jump at the bird. Poor things, they are stressing each other out. This photo is what Smokey has looked like for a good part of the weekend - sitting and staring at the bird, looks like Sylvester with Tweety bird. They are both eating, which we take as a good sign, but we'll have more work to do with Smokey to get him used to not being the only pet in the house.

New Friend

2011-03-17T15:10:00.007-05:00

Kevin made a new friend today - a parakeet showed up in our yard! Thankfully Smokey was inside the house when the bird showed up.

Its very domesticated and a 'people-bird' because it came right up to Kevin and wanted to go into the house.

We'll have to try to track down the owners, but for now we have a bird at the house, and lucky for me - a lady at work has a cage that I can borrow and since she has parakeets she's able to tell me exactly what we need to feed it and keep it healthy until we can find the owners..

A neighbor told Kevin he should tell me its a St Patrick's day gift, it is green, and pretty cute.

Spring Break

2011-03-12T08:16:00.004-06:00

Kevin is on spring break and I’m on weekend. Despite what people think, I do NOT get spring break off even though I work at a university. I do hope that it will be quieter at work next week so we can finish up some of the work that’s piling up on our office desks.

I know that Kevin has been looking forward to the break. He’ll still be working on school but won’t have to attend class and can just continue reading all of the books he has to read. Thank goodness I do work for a university – we’ve been making great use of the library to get some of the books he needs.

We’re kicking off his spring break by smoking a pork shoulder today. He got up early and started the coals – I didn’t even hear him get up! And then once the coals were ready we put the meat on. It’ll taste good I hope – I’m a bit skeptical of how much mustard went into the rub. I hate mustard and the smell of it putting on the rub nearly made me gag.

Random thoughts:

I can’t believe DST starts this weekend, I don’t like leaving for work in the dark….here’s hoping I get used to the time change quickly, you wouldn’t think one hour would make that much of a difference, but it sure does.
Kevin and Smokey have re-synced their haircut schedule. Its hilarious that both my boys get their haircuts on the same day, but it makes it easier to remember when they went

Note: The link was provided by CSN stores, but the thoughts are all my own.

2011-03-03T10:01:00.007-06:00

Kevin is becoming quite the Mr Fix-it. He fixed our lawnmower this week! We couldn't get it to start a few weeks ago and he was going to take it to the shop but didn't want to get charged a bunch of money for them to do something simple. He worked on it and diagnosed the problem, and with the help of videos (thank you YouTube!) was able to replace the ignition coil. We were in disbelief when it started up. I'm so proud of him.

I need to take a photo of the garage, we worked on organizing it last weekend and he got a pegboard to organize his tools. It is so nice to be able to easily grab whatever tool you need....Our garage is starting to look like a little shop.

We get to spend this weekend with my brother and sis-in-law. I am so happy they're back from Nicaragua, it has been so strange not to get to see them both. We had seafood last night and today's plans are Indian food and a Rockets game!

parking

2011-02-26T13:39:00.004-06:00

I hate when I reinforce stereotypes - the latest one, that women are bad drivers.

I'm not a bad driver but am bad at parking.

A little background: I got a new parking place at work this week - an assigned one, woohoo! There is the trade-off that it’s a ‘buddy spot’, which means the spot is actually a spot long enough for 2 cars. Another person is also assigned to the spot and whenever we are both at work one of us is blocked in. We have to coordinate between ourselves to move a car if the person parked in the back needs out.

Anyway, I went to park in the spot and figured it’d be easier to back in so that I could more easily get out of the spot in the afternoon. I thought the parking log was before the post on the side, but I was wrong…so now I have a small scrape on my car…argh… having that happen in the morning really ruined my day for a while. I get mad at myself when I do dumb things, and really hated having to tell Kevin what I did.

I love Kevin for a million reasons, the latest being that his reaction was, “oh well, that's what bumpers are for, for bumping into things."

success

2011-02-20T15:45:00.004-06:00

The conference I helped to work on was a success! We had it this past week in Austin, and were so fortunate that the weather was warmer and drier then it has been recently. I was starting to worry about the weather with all the ice days people have been having around the state.

I always learn so much at the conference, its great to get together with people that do the same sort of work and learn from their experiences and in getting to know them I also now have a network of people to talk to as I need to work on things they've already done or just bounce ideas off of others in the field.

We also manage to have some fun - this year's special event was a casino night. I had a great time playing black jack, roulette, and even craps! I've never understood it before but learned that night - they knew many of us hadn't played and would help us along, and watching it you catch on. We weren't playing with real money, making it even better!

I will be much more involved with next year's conference since I was elected VICE PRESIDENT of the organization!!! I am excited, and a bit scared, about what I've signed up for, but know it'll be a great experience and so many people have already told me they'll help.

I got home on Friday and was so glad to see my boys, poor K was home alone all week but he had plenty of schoolwork to keep him busy.

Today we went and bought him a netbook to use for his schooling, I am sure I'll use it too for my internet play time :)

Mid-season shows

2011-02-12T07:44:00.003-06:00

I love my DVR. It lets us watch shows without commercials, even if sometimes it does only record half the show, and when that happens - thank goodness for hulu!!!

The spring shows are starting up, and this week we gave Chandler Bing's new show 'Mr Sunshine' a chance, but didn't like it.

We did like 'Traffic Light". Embarrassing admittance: I enjoyed hearing Chumbawumba again....it was everywhere when I started college, odd how some songs can just take you back to a certain point in your life.

I'm still not sure about "Perfect Couples" but will give it another chance.

What other new shows are good?

2011-02-12T07:27:00.005-06:00

Can you believe we had another 'arctic blast' in Houston? I got to leave work early on Wednesday and started late on Thursday to avoid the icy roads. We were lucky that it came in between Kevin's classes, so the roads were clear for both of his trips to class. His class the week before was cancelled because of the ice.

Working for a university has the advantage that they have to make the decision early and publicize it fully that we'll close in bad weather, unlike many of my friends' employers who almost never close!

The weather next week is supposed to be warmer and drier. I am so glad because I'll be driving to Austin for the conference I've been helping to organize. I'll have to head up there on Monday, so I won't get to spend the evening with my Valentine, but we'll have a nice meal this weekend. When I do travel for work I realize that I would hate to travel OFTEN for work.

Happy news of the week, my college roommate had her baby and its a girl! Congrats to Jay and Gwendolyn, and to Gabriel on becoming a big brother! I'm sure there will be posts on their blog, right now they are probably using any downtime they have to get some sleep...

curtains complete!

2011-02-04T16:53:00.007-06:00

I've had a great no-snow snow day, and done everything I wanted to do today and helped Kevin play 'doctor' with our computer since he had to replace the power supply.

Our dining room curtain project is finally finished and looks great!
(before picture above)

It started in December when I went to look for curtains at the store and found out that the length we wanted isn't in the stores, its made but not often stocked at the store. I knew the look I wanted, but hadn't figured out exactly how to achieve it. In January we went to look at curtains at the store to see what we liked and see what was available in the size we needed. We found something we really liked. Luckily we had a really helpful clerk because its a whole language unto itself. We chose some curtains that have "grommets" to attach to the curtain rod rather than rings or a pocket (see the vocabulary, I was clueless when she first asked us which we wanted). We ordered the curtains and lucked out by taking advantage of a 50% off sale.

The red curtains came first, the sheers were back ordered. The sheers finally came this week and we were able to put them up today. It really completes the room. We even found a curtain rod with finials (more vocabulary) that are stone and look like our light fixture!

AFTER photo

I am finished with curtains for a while, even though we still need them for one more room...

No Snow Snow Day

2011-02-04T07:58:00.003-06:00

I was hoping to have snow photos to show you to today, but there was only freezing rain and ice. I'll enjoy my 'snow day' anyway!!!

I plan to work out, read my book, and finish putting up our curtains.....love an unexpected day off!!!!

Any Superbowl predictions? I don't really care which team wins, but will root for the Packers since a lady at work is a fan, and brought her cheesehead to work so we could see it....hilarious. She also has cheese earrings....

2011-02-02T13:02:00.002-06:00

even down in Houston we're feeling the cold weather that is supposed to make history in terms of amount of snow, temperatures, etc.

Our power went out for a bit this morning - turns out it was part of the area-wide rolling blackouts. Fortunately for us it was after I'd gotten up (my alarm is plugged into the wall so I doubt it would've gone off - should probably), and we'd both gotten a good night's sleep and it came back on in time for Kevin to make his coffee (no power = no coffee). Its gone off several more times during the day, fortunately his schoolwork today is mostly reading NOT writing a paper so he can just leave the computer off all day.

The weather is looking bad for the rest of the week, snow in Houston? its in the forecast.....

Technology overload

2011-01-27T06:24:00.005-06:00

I may need to take a break from technology. In my dream last night I was tweeting.

At the house, we have more gadgets and things that need to plug in then I thought I'd ever have and there is no end in sight.

I just finished reading my first full-length book on my kindle and really liked using it. My favorite part is I could read it at lunch on my cellphone, no more having to haul the book or realizing when I get to work that I forgot it. I should say that it nearly killed my battery each day...but it was worth it - at night I'm too sleepy to read, so lunchtime is a great time for me to read. I still love the feel of the pages and using an actual bookmark, not pushing a button to 'mark' the book, so I'm not abandoning traditional books, but definitely love my kindle...and thinking of how many books I can bring with me in a small space is enticing for when I take a trip.

brain - please shut down technology thoughts when I sleep, even if it is to say something about Girl Scout cookies. My tweet in my dream was that someone was serving a spread of them for dessert, a great idea.... but not so great as I try to reduce my dessert intake.

Giveaway Winner

2011-01-09T19:36:00.003-06:00

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway.

I had 16 entries and did the drawing the old fashioned way of writing numbers on paper and drawing the winning number. The winner is entry #5, Faith. Check out her cooking blog In the Kitchen with Butters. Congrats!