H-town

The weekend to Houston was fun and over too quickly.  Got to see good friends, ate a lot of good food, got my art fix, and got a steal on a pair of suede knee-high boots.  $120 boots for $30!  Yes, that's a trip highlight.

Ate at this tapas bar (gotta enunciate that clearly when talking to someone on the phone) called Mi Luna.  It was heaven (your voice is supposed to go up two octaves when you say that, like Will Farrell in "Elf" when he's demonstrating to Jovie that anyone can sing).  Alan and I have decided we'll be watching our weight when we move somewhere that has so many dining options.  Actually Alan will never have to watch his weight.  Grrr.  Anyway, I snapped these photos:

 Holy Mama, that was some good food.

I just want to reach out and pick up that glass of wine.  We were sitting outside in a shopping/dining area called Rice Village, next to Rice University.  Alan and I often poke fun at people who like to hang out and be seen in these trendy areas, and there we are right along with them thinking we're so different.  The difference is we didn't drive up in our Mercedes or Lexus, and my shoes were probably from Target.

Okay, doesn't that look like I totally staged and perfectly positioned that little work of art?!  I couldn't reproduce that if I tried.  Just plopped it on the bread and there it was.  I love food.  Food is gorgeous and yummy, and I love every last calorie.

We went to the Museum of Fine Arts because they were having an Impressionists exhibit.  I am no artist, am not able to spout off names and titles of works of art like some, but I did take an awful lot of art and art history courses in college for someone who was not an art major.  So I LOVE ME SOME ART.  And this was the piece I was most excited to see:

That's a crummy image, but I had some difficulty finding an online picture that I could copy.  I'm a Van Gogh fan.  What a strange life he had.  He died just a few months after painting this self portrait.  But here was the painting I most wanted to see, and they had glass on it.  Put a rope or barrier or whatever you have to do to keep people from touching it, but don't put glass on it!  Geez.  Anyway...in case you're thinking I'm sounding too artsy-fartsy, let me assure you we were completely immature during our museum visit.  I had as much maturity as a 12-year old boy every time I saw the token boob sticking out of any biblical woman's garment, and Alan was finding random celebrity likenesses in the portraits.  I don't think you're supposed to burst out laughing in a museum.

It was a simple trip, but always fun when you're with the person you're supposed to be with.  Alan always tells me how much he enjoys being with me, no matter where we are.  I hope a lot of wives hear that. 

Livestrong

Today was a whirlwind day.  Up at 5:00 to leave the hotel by 5:30, driving around searching for parking, and then hurrying up and waiting for the race to start. Most of the photos were taken with my cell phone, so they're not the greatest quality: 

I've never seen so many people in one place in my life.  20,000 runners plus at least one spectator for almost every runner...it got crazy.  It took 25 minutes just to get every runner across the start line.  Our capitol is beautiful, by the way.  The stone is a pinkish hue, so it looks like a rosy replica of the U.S. Capitol.

This picture is not so great.  I can tell you those are forced smiles.  Alan was tired and I was developing one of the worst migraines I can remember.  Alan finished the race in 3:40:42 chip time.  He's not thrilled with the time, but this was yet another hilly marathon.  I think he's awesome.

You probably can't see him, but Alan's on the other side of that green wall about to finish.  That's as close as I could get.  I saw some crazy stuff at this finish line today, including people collapsing and whose bodies were contorting and failing on them.  It was disturbing and scary.  A runner that we know from Midland sacrificed being able to qualify for Boston by staying back with a runner who was in serious trouble the last four miles.  No one else was helping this guy.  They ended up putting him in a wheelchair the last few yards, but still gave him a finishing medal.

We were mere blocks away from the University of Texas, so it was surprising how many comments and cheers Alan got for his TCU shirt.  Go Frogs!

The weekend wasn't all about running.  We ate well.  This french toast is as tall as it looks.

I wasn't a good photographer this weekend, especially on race day.  I should have stayed at the finish to get a picture of Lance Armstrong finishing the half.  I should have made my way to the marathon side of the finish line to get a good picture of Alan.  I could have taken photos of the craziness around me.  But that stupid headache was such that I was almost crying in the car as we left town.  Alan says I did cry, but I think my eyes were just a little moist. :-)

We didn't want to come home yet, no matter how weird Austin really is.

Hideaway

This weekend Alan and I are driving to Fredericksburg for one last getaway. We're staying at this quaint little B&B cabin:

Think calm, peace, relaxation. After the past week, it's much needed.

Ft. Davis

Yesterday, Alan and Leigh and myself went to Ft. Davis for the day. I've been to the state park before, but never really went into the little town or visited the fort. I couldn't have requested a better day, as far as the weather. It was cloudy, it thundered, it poured, it paused for a little while and then rained some more. It was perfect. The Davis Mountains are really very pretty.

We ate at a Chuck Wagon BBQ place before touring the fort. I suppose if I ever visit the fort again, I won't wear a summer dress and sandals. We could have ventured off for some cool hiking had we known what to expect. We walked through the barracks and officer quarters and the hospital. I was certain a hospital from the mid to late 1800s had to be haunted, so I made sure to check for cold spots in every room. :-) I'm not much of a history enthusiast, but I do think the fort is very well done and enjoyed it way more than The Alamo.

After the fort we checked out the shops in town where I bought homemade canned pickles and Leigh bought a cookbook from the Hotel Limpia. We bought much more fudge than we needed (did I mention Leigh was with us?), Alan and Leigh got ice cream, and we headed home. If there's anything to learn from this, it's that when we travel we eat. A lot.

Little Things

We saw some really "big" things in D.C., both literally and figuratively. But there were some little things we really enjoyed:

The coffee shop. We walked to Caribou Coffee every morning for the most awesome oatmeal, muffins, and coffee (or for Alan that would be hot chocolate). I'm going to miss that oatmeal and will be trying to recreate it at home.

The Metro. Oh my gosh - how fun to zip around the city on a subway! We didn't rent a car and relied completely on public transit or our feet. And we never took a cab - it was either the metro, a bus, or a shuttle. Everyone was so nice helping us find our way around. Maybe it was the beautiful weather affecting people, but they were really very friendly and approachable. As far as using our feet for transportation, by the end of the third day we were having a lot of trouble standing or walking for very long without looking for the nearest bench. Ouch. It made the metro even more awesome.

The food. It wasn't so much that the food was just good, it was that it was different. We don't have different here in Midland. We have American, Mexican, and some Asian. It's just fun to try new things, like the awesome mussels at Tony and Joe's or this platter of calimari.

Standing where they stood. It amazed me to be in the Capitol, particularly in the old House chamber, where Lincoln (among many others) also stood, worked, debated, argued. That's not a picture of the chamber but is the inside of the dome. I actually thought the painting in the center was kind of silly. It shows George Washington as he's ascending into Heaven.

The "quiet" at Arlington Cemetery. You were expected to be quiet and respectful, and in doing so made it all the more somber and humbling.

The diversity. Another thing I like about big cities is that the diverse population is also an educated population. Not something we have a lot of around here. Umm...I don't have a picture to go with that.

Anyway, I could go on and on about how wonderful the trip was. I hope it doesn't come across as being boastful, but rather hope I'm conveying how excited I was to be there and how appreciative I am of Alan for such a wonderful surprise.

Wow.

I'm going to be standing at the foot of this in a few short days. What pretty much no one knows about me is that I have this really corny, patriotic side. I'm that person that loves the National Anthem and enjoys saying the pledge at school. So this trip is definitely a bucket list type of thing.

A humongous Valentine

Alan and I got back yesterday from a weekend away in Dallas (we stayed in Dallas but spent most of the time in Ft. Worth). Ft. Worth is the one other place where we feel at "home," so it's always fun to go back and visit our favorite places. Most of those places involve food, but we usually end up at one of the museums as well. Neither one of us had ever been to the Modern, so that was fun for a while. I'm a closet art fan, and the Modern was so cool, but even I reach my time limit in a museum.

As our weekend was coming to an end yesterday, we had lunch at one of our favorites - La Madeleine. Alan and I often make fun of pretentious people, and you'd definitely find that type of clientele at La Madeleine. So as we were pulling up to the restaurant, I pointed out that maybe this was our pretentious thing we do? And some would see going to the museums as pretentious. But we really do love that restaurant and going to museums together. Anyway, it was a fun and fitting Valentine's weekend for us...pretentious or not. :-)

But the most exciting part was bringing home the biggest Valentine I've ever received:

Check it off!

Haven't you made that list in your head of the things you must do before you die? You're lying if you say you haven't. Well for me, going to a Braves game in Atlanta was on my list, so I felt pretty fortunate this weekend to be spending two days at Turner Field. It was awesome!

They played the Brewers, which meant we got to see Prince Fielder hit three homeruns and C.C. Sabathia pitch nearly nine innings on Saturday. Which really means nothing if you're not a baseball fan.



My partner in crime...wouldn't have been the same going with anyone other than Alan:



We put some time into making these signs and never made it on the Game Vision board! Seriously, I could write a whole post on the making of the signs. We planned, argued, debated, analyzed, argued some more, and finally compromised. Our seats on this day were nowhere near a camera man, which made all the difference. We tried to get the FOX camera guy to see us, but oh well...Alan still had fun showing our sign to any and EVERYONE throughout the day.



Good ole Bobby Cox!

Jeff Francoeur's not having his best season right now, but he's still awesome to watch in the outfield:

And lastly, my hero, Chipper Jones (that's him facing the camera). Did I mention that I didn't want to wait this late in the season to go to a game, soley because I WAS AFRAID CHIPPER WOULD GET HURT? Going in August was Alan's idea. THANKS.



It was a great trip, and the scenery wasn't too bad either (I spied a tree or two.) Something else interesting about being there was that we were definitely minorities, ethnically speaking. And you know, that's kind of a cool thing to experience. However, that one brief period when we were lost in the hood and could only think of all those episodes of The First 48 that were filmed IN ATLANTA...yeah, that was a little uncomfortable.

Hopefully it wasn't our last trip to Atlanta for a game, but at least now I can die peacefully. :-)

Disabled

Saturday, while Alan recovered from a hangover, I spent the whole morning getting our hotel and rental car lined up for this weekend. Being the big Braves fans that we are, we've been anticipating this trip for quite a while. So who gets hurt a few days ago? Oh just our favorite player, Chipper Jones. He's unlikely to be ready by this weekend, and we purposely chose third base tickets just to be near him! There are other favorite players of course, like Brian McCann, the catcher. But nooooo! Brian McCann suffered a concussion in last night's game. I can tell you five players I'd really like to see, and everyone of them are hurt.

Did you notice how Alan's hangover had absolutely nothing to do with anything? Yeah, I just wanted to mention it. :-)

On the Road Again

Next week Bailey and I will be in Oklahoma at DeeBee's. The plan is to just completely c-h-i-l-l while DeeBee cooks and keeps the pool clean (ha!). I'm about to start a long series of workshops when I get back, so I consider next week to be the end of my summer vacation. <sigh> So in order to really relax, I'm getting my lesson plans completed this week. I have nearly the entire first semester planned and on paper!

Unfortunately there are a lot of things I haven't done to get ready for the school year, not that I'll bore you with the details. But the point of summer break is to BREAK, which I've done pretty well. Speaking of breaking, the last real summer hurrah is coming up in three weeks when Alan and I will use these:


I just like looking at them. And I will hug them and squeeze them and call them George.

Pretty and Not Pretty

Bailey left for church camp yesterday morning and arrived at Lake of the Ozarks, MO around 1:30 a.m. this morning. She's sharing a room with six other teenage girls, including two of her best friends. I'll consider the week a success if those three can stay out of trouble. Here's where she's at:

Here's what she left:

She may never come back.

Big D

What better way to end the weekend than to leave this dusty city, although this time it's not for volleyball. Alan's running a half-marathon in Dallas on Sunday, which gives us all day Saturday to do whatever, anything! We get to see DeeBee and Caitlin for a short time at Caitlin's soccer game, but after that who knows. We haven't been to the Dallas Museum of Art, so I'm thinking a trip there will satisfy my little-known artsy needs. Or shopping. Shopping could be good. (I think our hotel is close to the Galleria.) Anyway, come 4:00 we're outta here!

Having an explosive time in Lubbock!

Something that has changed in correlation with my working this semester, and no I'm not talking about the ho-humness of my blog. Our dinner routine is suffering. I just don't have time or feel like cooking much anymore. I think I made spaghetti one night last week and salmon patties another. I used to cook 5-6 meals per week counting the weekends.

So Friday night before we left for Lubbock, Alan and I had chips and salsa for dinner. A lot of chips and salsa. For me that was followed by 3-4 Girl Scout cookies. Yesterday I had a decent enough breakfast at the hotel followed by a couple more of those cookies mid-morning. Lunch was a mammoth pizza slice at the mall, followed by Peanut Butter Patties as soon as we returned to the gym. Dinner was McDonald's. I skipped the cookies this time.

I could tell there was going to be some unpleasantness thanks to the amount of non-vegetable/non-fruit products I've been consuming. God bless my body for waiting until we were back in the comfort of our hotel room to express its disdain. I was reminded of that scene from Dumb and Dumber where at first you get the sounds INSIDE your body. And it just went downhill from there.

I'm blaming Alan for the GS cookies. He bought five boxes at home, which we inhaled. He then bought 3 or 4 more yesterday at the Wal-Mart here in Lubbock. Several of us parents were sitting around yesterday morning talking about how each member of the family claims stake to whichever type is their favorite, such as: hiding them under the bed, tucking them away in drawers, or writing threatening messages on the box. So it was only fitting that Alan show up a little while later with MORE cookies. At least my favorite kind seems to be one that no one else cares about - Peanut Butter Sandwiches. How can you not love those?

Alright, time to go get ready for another day of volleyball. When we get back to Midland tonight, I have to make two huge pots of red beans for a luncheon at school tomorrow. Beans....hmmm. This could be ugly.

Glad I didn't wash my car

Couple things I despise about this area - wind and sand. We had the pleasure of driving through both on the way home from Amarillo today.

Amarillo by morning, Amarillo's where I'll be...

Sitting here in the hotel room in Amarillo while Bailey gets a much deserved nap, and Alan channel surfs between The Fantastic Four and Star Wars. We just got through watching the really horrible Charlie's Angels II. The whole reason for my tuning in was so that I would be so bored and annoyed that surely I would be lured to sleep. No such luck.

No wins today in volleyball, but Bailey's 15 year-old team was forced to play up to 16s and 17s. Not exactly a fair tournament, but it was good to have that kind of competition. I think most of the players and parents are going out to eat tonight, and then we'll be back at the facility bright and early at 7:15 tomorrow. I'm hearing that we'll be done by noon and home in time to watch the Superbowl! I don't think I'll have time to throw any cool finger foods together like DeeBee, but at least we won't miss the commercials.

Many hotel chains these days are trying to impress guests with the trendy, clean, white, spa-type of bed linens. Problem is, there are no real blankets on the beds. So I called the front desk asking for blankets, and both Bailey and Alan thought I was being demanding. Alan went so far as to say that given a few more years I would be much like my mother, who is known for requesting and demanding service that most of us would be too embarrassed to request. Uh, no. When you're paying $95 a night for a nice but not outstanding hotel room, I think they can give me a blanket for the damn bed. And guess who is all curled up in the very warm, soft and cozy blanket right now? ALAN.

9 hours and we're back

I gotta say it's a little strange for the weather to get colder and more wintry the further south we traveled towards home. But aside from the brief period of snow and bad roads, we still made it back to Midland in good time.

Not sure I'm that glad to be back home though. We had a great time in Oklahoma with DeeBee and the kids, so now I'm missing their company! I'm also going to miss the portable electric blankets below, Mia and Brandy:



Some holidays are fun in that you get to see your family, but stressful in that you're spending your time running around from house to house trying to ensure everyone gets their fair allotted time with you. But this Thanksgiving was just plain relaxation, shopping, couch potatoing, eating, and of course a lot of video games:



The main reason I'm glad to be home, however, is because we felt bad leaving Junior alone for five days. Matt was nice enough to come by a couple times to check in on him, but he obviously had a negative reaction to our being gone. He tends to get mad when we leave town for a few days, so it's not unusual to come home and find a trail of destruction. This time it was magnets knocked off the fridge (the breakable ones), leather flip-flops chewed, papers and other junk knocked off the counter, but mostly....the freaky cat molted hair all over the place! I know he tends to shed hair when he gets upset or worked up, but good grief. There were tufts of hair everywhere, like you would expect had their been a major cat fight in the house. But Junior seems to have survived, and it didn't take long until he was attacking my jeans and holding on for dear life. Welcome home, dear humans!

Even the cat will get fatter

Tomorrow we leave for Oklahoma to spend Thanksgiving at DeeBee's. The past few years the girls have spent the bulk of their Thanksgiving holiday at their dad's, mostly because they enjoyed hanging out with certain family members on his side, i.e. YOUNG people. I understood why, but still it feels a little odd when your kids are not around on a major holiday. So it's kind of cool that we're spending Thanksgiving together this year. As the girls are getting older, I don't expect we'll have many more family trips.

That leaves Junior in charge of the house. And without Alan around to play chase with and me to stalk from dark corners and hallways, I suspect he'll be doing a lot of this:

More from Oklahoma in a couple days...

In Albuquerque

It was an easy drive to Albuquerque yesterday, about 6.5 hours. We were expecting a little over 7 hours, so it was a pleasant surprise. However....we're changing hotels today. We have a smoking room, which was already giving Alan a headache last night, and our a/c stopped working around 3:00 a.m.! It was working again a couple hours later, but that's not going to cut it. I went down and had my little discussion with the front desk this morning who assured us things would get taken care of, but we decided not to chance it. By the way, it's really hard to play the firm and demanding customer role when the front desk person is whispering the whole time. Anyway, it makes things a little inconvenient logistics-wise since we were in walking distance of the finish line, but better to get a good night's sleep and just drive to the shuttle, finish line, etc.

Today we're going to chill and maybe see a movie, and then tonight there's supposed to be a big pasta dinner for the runners.

I wonder how many rolls of toilet paper Junior has chewed since we've been gone.

Companions

I should be posting pictures of my niece and nephews here in Oklahoma, but the four-legged family members are the ones posing for the camera.

"Oh, what a beautiful mooorrrrning!"*

The main thing on tap for today has been getting ready for our trip tomorrow. Bailey and Marlee and I head out tomorrow for Oklahoma, leaving Alan here to host a barbeque at our house all by himself. Is it possible? I'm sure they'll have a great time, but will he vacuum up the mess before I get home on Friday? You know bachelors...

I didn't work out today, which is the first time in forever. And not very smart since I plan on eating way more than I should the next few days. DeeBee's pantry is always stocked. :-) We are excited, and ready for some shopping, eating, bowling, eating, video games, eating, maybe a movie, and perhaps more eating. Woohoo!

Bye, Alan! 143

*Only means something if you're old and familiar with "Oklahoma!"