Battle Red

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

Fall Festival

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

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

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

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!