9/11

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

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

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

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

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!!!