Austin and Lubbock

I overslept this morning, so had to rush around like a crazy person to eat, shower, and get ready for work. I was able to get out of the house at almost the same time I usually do, but was not happy to start my day that way. Thankfully I'd packed my lunch the night before (leftovers are easy to pack), knowing that Monday mornings I have a tough time getting up, but never this bad! I overslept because I screwed up my alarm clock on Friday and because I was beat from going to Austin to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. We had a good time in Austin, but it was as quick trip - we went up there Saturday afternoon (brought Smokey), and spent the evening with my parents, brother, sis-in-law, and some of their friends, and headed back to Houston about noon on Sunday. It was fun to spend time with my whole family - my sister rode with us, and great to be there to help her celebrate her birthday. This is only the second birthday she's celebrated - they don't celebrate them in Nicaragua. Smokey loves their backyard and has plenty of space to explore and run around, unlike our small yard at home. He watched a squirrel for quite a while, sad to say he sees very few squirrels at our house since we have no trees that are bigger around than my arm.

This week I'll be getting ready to go to Lubbock for work. I'll have some free time, in the evenings, so if anyone has recommendations on things to do in Lubbock...let me know, I've never been there.

I turned on the news this morning and saw that there was a commuter plane crash in Buffalo, killing 49 people. My prayers go out to everyone on the plane and their family and friends. As people prepare for Valentine's Day, we really should take time to think of everyone in our lives we love and TELL them that we love them. I so often take for granted that my loved ones will be there for years to come, and it takes tragedies like this to remind us how quickly people can be taken from us, and what really matters in life....

It also makes me realize how much the little aggravations in my life - working through lunch to get my stuff done, sitting in traffic longer than usual to get home, and the list goes on - don't really matter. Take time today to tell someone you love them.

My Dog ate my Taxes

We got home from dinner at a friends' house last night to find a mangled piece of paper in the middle of the floor. Some pieces of it were gone, but I can still read the figure I needed from it. It was a form for our taxes that I'd had Kevin print out. I don't understand why Smokey picked that one piece of paper to tear up, he had to go into the guest bedroom and onto the bed to get it, and there were piles of other papers there (w-2s, etc). I should consider myself lucky he only tore up that one piece of paper. After we went to bed, Kevin made the observation that became the title of this blog - can we tell the IRS that our dog ate our taxes? doubtful, didn't' work for teachers, sure won't work for the IRS.

Our dog lets us know, by acting out, that he's not happy we left him alone. At least he picked something he can digest. Twice before, he's eaten part of our silk plants (which we now have in the bedroom and close the door so he can't get to) and then puked it up all night - a long, bad night for all of us. The first time he did that, I thought it was new (real) plants we'd just planted and was so scared that I had poisoned my dog, until we realized how green it was and that it wasn't a real plant, still not fun but at least we hadn't unknowingly gotten a poisonous plant.

Reunion

I haven’t had time to blog recently. I’ve been busy at work: kicking off a new project and we’re entering into the busy reporting time, and by the time I get home I don’t want to sit in front of the computer again.

Last night we went to the Melting Pot for dinner. It was our second time there, and my sister’s first time. This place is expensive, but worth the splurge. It is a fondue restaurant, and such a fun, unique experience. We only wish it was cooler outside, but still fully enjoyed the dinner. I’ve dipped food into cheese before, but this is the only place I’ve cooked my own main course in a broth. The first time I was intimidated by cooking raw meat myself in a small pot, but its surprisingly easy. We got the four course “Big Night Out”, with a cheese course, salad and then the main course was chicken, beef, shrimp, pork, veggies, raviolis, and even lobster! This time, for the first time, we got the chocolate course too – in a word, decadent! We got the Cookies n cream marshmallow dream: dark chocolate topped with marshmallow cream, flambéed and garnished with crushed Oreos. I could eat or the dippers (fruit, rice krispie treats, brownie, pound cake, cheesecake) by themselves, and put them together, as the waitress said when Kevin said it is death by chocolate, it’s a slow, delicious death. The food and atmosphere was all so good, and we just wanted to nap afterwards.

Today I went to my college’s reunion. The big event was last night, but I wasn’t interested in going to the dance so went to today’s events instead. The school has an “all-classes reunion” open to all alumni and usually have special events for those classes having milestone anniversaries. I was disappointed that I didn't know very many people, most of the alumni who came today were older, but can understand why the younger alums don't come. It has been almost 8 years since I graduated and this is the first time I've gone to the reunion. The main reason I went was to participate in the tour of the new Co-Cathedral, and it was wonderful! I had seen coverage of it on tv when it first opened last April, but was still amazed at how large it was, and how beautiful all of the statues were. The docents are very knowledgeable, and I love all of the symbolism throughout the cathedral: the red marble representing the blood of Christ, the 4 pillars at the podium representing the 4 writers of the gospels, the 12 pillars of the altar representing the 12 tribes and 12 disciples, and the stars in the stained glass being the Texas star in addition to representing a passage from Revelations. Back on campus I was able to see some of the improvements to the Crooker building since I left. Much of the campus is unrecognizable from when I first started there in '97. They have a brand new Quizno's, where was that when I was going to school and working there? Some changes over the years I'm sad to see, like my dorm being torn down, but others have been great changes for the bettter - especially all of the beautification projects. I am always glad to see signs of growth for the school and many of the new buildings have been sorely needed. and now the school has varsity sports! I was unsure about the addition of sports when it was being considered, but do think it'll bring more recognition to the school. The teams played against alums who played the club sports when they were at the school (girls volleyball, men's soccer). It is still bizarre to hear them talk about UST's competitive sports.

I now work for a different university, and have for over a year but sometimes catch myself thinking of "we" as still being UST and have to catch myself and talk about my current employer as "we". I've definitely gotten to feel at home over the past year at my new job, but will always have a special connection to UST because it was not only my first job but also my alma mater. All in all I spent over 10 years there in some way!