332 - 331 - work, fun and fire ants

Friday:

Friday was rather uneventful. I got a lot of work done, met a nice girl on break. I talked to her about the storms the day before. I told her I had been totally freaked out, she said Ohh... just wait til we have a real hurricane! (seems like I don't have long to wait)

There were storms today too. Not like the Tropical storm from yesterday, but some interesting ones. The storm blew in and then blew out... then another one. Watching them come and go from so far up high was really neat.






I went into the tunnels to go to the bank. No problem with that at all. Made it there and back and didn't take one wrong turn. It's nice to go down there to get places in the city. I like walking topside - the city is so clean and pretty... but there are the homeless, and as I've said before, they irk me. Down in the tunnels there are no homeless. Apparently they're not allowed in. I've been down there quite a few times and never seen any.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. Didn't go out, just lazed around.

Saturday:

Oooh we had fun :)

We left the house a bit early (not early for me, early for the two sleeper-inners), stopped and got water, and went off to the Museum of Natural Science. Today was Museum Free Day. A bunch of the museums participate in it. You go, it's free, and the Metro system has free shuttles between them. Way cool! Of course, about 50 billion other peeps think so too. So we went to the Nat. Hist. Museum, which was fun. We saw the dinosaurs and the gem exhibit... it was neat. Even more neat was that that museum is on the edge of Hermann park. SO pretty. Texas knows how to do parks, just let me say that. Fountains, all sorts of neat stuff, a cute little train that take s people around, and a Japanese tea garden. We walked over after seeing the museum (Slowly since as I've said before, Houston is about 22 inches away from the sun - 98 deg, 89% humidity. ugh) We walked around in the tea garden and really had a nice time. Pictures below:

We were all tired and super hot, and pretty hungry after that, so we went to the West Gray Cafe and had a late breakfast. After that we went off to hunt down some plants and supplies for a watergarden I'm planning. Then home for awhile to cool off and relax. Chels still wanted to check Home Depot for some plants for her little container garden she's planning... and I had seen some place called "Cactus King" that I had said I wanted to go see ... it looked kitchy and obnoxious, and plus, I like cacti... so off we went.

Cactus King really was cool - we were the only ones there except one kinda sketchy scary guy who I think owned the place. We wandered around and I was liking it until we hit the last green house. Some of you will totally understand this... If The House of 1000 Corpses had a green house... this is what it would look like. I walked in and instantly thought, "Yup... we're about to get fucking axed and ground into plant food". I said to Chels... "Umm.. do you feel like you just walked into a Rob Zombie movie?" She said "Heh. Yeah. I like it, but it's creepy".

There were neat art projects everywhere around the entire place, but in here there were ones with mannequin pieces/body parts all over in this green house. It was pretty delapatated, falling apart, pieces of wire and rope holding it together, twisty and turny a bit, leaking... so dripping here and there. A video camera duct taped in the corner. It was freakin creepy as hell.

I didn't get axed. I did get attacked by red freakin' ants. Have you been bitten? Friggin' hurts!! It felt like my foot suddenly caught fire. I looked down and had 5 or 6 on me, between my toes and on top of my toes. Course, I freaked, knocked them all off and was like "we're out of here"... then unfortunately stuck my damn foot back into my flip flop to take off, and guess what.. still a couple there. arrrg!!! So that hurt like hell.

We left there and went to Home Depot. I got a couple of adorable plants. Yay :) Then we went to Walmart because apparently Texas doesn't sell herb plants or seeds.. wtf? Anyway, Walmart (or at least this one) was about the skankiest place I've been to. I mean, skankier than normal (All Walmarts are skanky and filled to the rim with the worlds shuffling, moaning, unwashed masses) I was actually fairly certain that I was going to die. Me, Chels and maybe three other people were english speaking. The rest werent', and they weren't looking too friendly. Anyway... went out to the nursery there to look at their plants. Looked down and realized that there were a gazillion of them damn ants in there. So I took off quick, expecially since my foot was still throbbing horribly.

We stopped at Randall's on the way home, grabbed a movie and some dinner, and came home. I took a VERY long shower. Bugs freak me out.

How we're happy and hanging out :)

335 - 334 - 333 - heat rain BOOM!

Tuesday:
Tuesday I ended up staying home and working. Wasn't feeling perfect, and really, for some reason the idea of going into the Tower was just too much for me. I barely had anything to do since I'm waiting on a gazillion other people who seem to have no intention of getting me stuff, so screw it. I didn't want to go. I stayed home and worked and was Oh so much happier for it.

Had another Nerf gun fight :) Played with the kitties. Poked at the family. Went to bed early.

Wednesday:

This was an OK day. Work dragged (shock) I whined at Kelly for quite awhile. I have no one to speak to during the day so I figured, meh.. may as well talk at Kelly for awhile. I went down into the tunnels to go to the bank (because it was 75bazillion degrees out) and got lost. heh. I didn't really mean to get lost, I meant to go straight to the bank and back. But I went straight instead of taking the last turn by mistake, ended up waay far away from where I wanted to go. So I had to go topside to find the building. I believe I melted a tad since I live about 22 inches away from the face of the sun. I did find the bank, and walked back via tunnels fine. I realized when I left the bank that had I made the right turn, I would have been there about 15 minutes before I made it there taking the wrong turn. heh. But still. Made it.

Came home early to take Chels to a job interview at Buffalo Exchange. She did great! She got a second interview on Thursday :) Sooo cool. She kicks ass, yeah she does.

We had sort of a fend for yourself night. I didn't feel like making a dinner, so we all picked what we wanted and ate that.

No Nerf gun fight tonight. Just hung out and watched CSI (per usual).
Thursday:

Woke up at like 5 when the loudest clap of thunder ever burst into the house. I woke up and watched the news and they said "Tropical Storm Evan" was going to hit the coast of TX. They were showing a lot of Galveston. Galveston is pretty close, so I knew we'd get some. I got ready and went to work.

Being 44 floors up in a tropical storm is sort of like having seats in the dugout for a baseball game. Sure, you get to see everything, but there are bats and balls and sweaty players flying all over and you're not quite sure you're safe.

At first it was simply dark and driving rain. Then the thunder came. It was HUGE. I ended up calling the mothership and putting them on speaker phone so they could hear how loud it was. One of the peeps thought I was making the noise myself. SO loud! I hung up for awhile and we were IM'ing, looking at photos on the weather channel website of the storm. I said "Look... see the biggest baddest part? Thats me!" It was right on top of me.

I thought that was the loudest it could get, but it got far louder. I was sitting there looking out my huge bank of windows and saw black coming. It was kind of surreal. I instantly thought of the book "The Fog". Something dark and evil being in the fog and coming to swallow me up. It got closer and closer... finally everything was black outside those windows. But there was lightening in that black. It would flash and light up the cloud, although that cloud was so dense that it really never penetrated the entire thing. that's when it was the loudest. The shades in the windows would rattle and car alarms were going off all around in the various parking garages that surround the tower like a moat. So many sirens going off all over too. Loud loud loud.

The clouds lifted a bit and I saw a bolt of lightening hit the building next to me. (where the crazy windshield washers usually are) I believe it only hit a lightening rod, though. I watched and there wasn't any smoke or anything.

I called back to the mothership again... wanted to tell them and to let them hear the thunder which was still so loud. We were looking at some of the various reports online and saw that there were flash flood warnings. The more I saw the more I decided that heading home was a good idea. All the streets they were saying were nearby. 8 blocks... 5 blocks... too close. The warnings were saying "stay away from downtown"... well pfft. I'm already near it, may as well go home.

I went down the elevator and one of the guys on it said that he was headed home. I said I was "Crying Yankee" and getting out. I said "it's flooding out there" he said "yeah, good to leave now before the power goes out." I said "Ugh.. being here in the dark wouldn't be much fun" he said "Walking down 44 flights in the dark with 1000 other people wouldnt be much fun either" ew.. hadn't thought of that.

I got to the car... I had parked in the expensive lot so I could use the tunnel rather than hoofing it in the rain. When I was leaving there was a woman at the booth (cute little old black woman) I said "How're you today?" she said "Oh I'm blessed, child, blessed". I said "Well me too". She said "This is true, this is true, aint we all?" She handed me my change and said "Now you turn left to go home, you hear? It's bad out. Flooding every where. You be careful going home". I asked her to do the same. Sweet little lady.

The streets weren't that frightening. Not as scary as it was way up high. There were a few flooded streets and such, but the ride home was easy. I got home and worked for awhile, listening to the rain on my skylight and the thunder. I watched a bit of news... tons of flooding. Cars under water and all.

Now here's my "wtf are these idiots thinking?" rant. Doods... when faced with 2 - 3 feet of water in the road: stop your freakin' car. Now... when faced with 2 - 3 feet of water in the road AND you see huge assed SUV's and trucks stalled out in there? DO NOT drive your old as crap Cavalier into the same water. Do you honestly think your little crap box is going to make it when the big new SUV didn't? Moron.

OK. Anyway. Chelsea's interview went well. We should hear something next week.

We went to the grocery store and I decided to park underneath so we wouldn't get rained on. Duh. kinda flooded down there. heh.

I had a chance to talk to my brother tonight. That was nice. He's a smart guy. Made me feel a bit better about work.

I made dinner and now Chels and Ray and I are watching "The Fountain". So far I don't suggest you seeing it. It's kind of a drug trip mixed with alot of sad shit. Pretty movie, really. Kind of interesting. Not sure if I hate it or like it. meh.

btw... We have a Hurricane scheduled for next Tuesday. Weeee!!

336 - Happy Anniversary To me! (and Ray, and Chels)

Today is our family's second anniversary :) Two years ago today Ray and I got married, and Chelsea got a new step daddy. We all stood up while we got married, because it was our feeling that we all were being joined, so she should be part of it.

The difference between anniversaries now, as opposed to my first marriage is amazing. Before, it was a marking of time... almost a "Sweet dear lord I did this another year? Wtf is wrong with me". Now it's a celebration. A Yay! Only two years! We have SOO many more of them! It's like our relationships birthday.

So, I worked, came home early to celebrate.

I bought Ray Nerf Guns. (two of them) and some ammo. Ok. Guns for an anniversary? Yeah. What a blast! Chels and I ended up going out to get her one too so we could all blast away at each other. This house is perfect for Nerf Gun fights. We had two major skirmishes, no winner really (although I think I'm the winner because I was smart enough to start hoarding all the 'bullets' so the other two were almost ammo-less... all's fair!) We did fun things like shoot them up to the top level of the house, get them stuck, have them fall down and scare the cat. (way fun) I shot a few at the ceiling fan... ended up getting two stuck. We all shot at the fan trying to knock down the stuck ones. Got 4 more stuck. heh. I went and got the huge telescopic pole light changer thingy and knocked them down.

The Roxie cat got lost today. (She does often) She was upstairs crying. She would meow, I'd yell "polo!", then she would meow, and I'd yell "polo!"..... it was quite obvious to the trained Cat person she was playing marco-polo.

My husband, the greatest man ever to walk this earth, bought me an incredibly beautiful silver cuff bracelet. SOOO pretty! It's shiny and pretty and I LOVE it. :) Here's a pretty pretty picture;









Chels and I went to Salvation army. We always went to the one in Nashua, so we were kind of itching to go to the one here to see what it offered. It was actually very nice inside (unlike the one in NH) I bought the nicest bag, Chels got some funky stuff. All was good.

We had another huge Nerf blowout when I got home. Way fun :)

Then we went off to the Firkin and Phoenix for dinner. SO yummy! We had fun. They had a special up on the board called "Nutless Turtle Cheesecake". Of course, we had to ask the waiter how they found all the nutless turtles, and if the process of pulling their little legs apart to check their 'nuts' was difficult. The waiter was great and answered back that they get them from the vets down the street... they just have them neutered before delivery. Far easier than checking. *snicker* Also, prodded by my OH so terrible family, one certain blogger sneakily removed the P from the board. The board said "Pass it Around!" That's not what it said when we left >:D

We came home, watched some cool Japanese game show on G4 (Women Ninja Challenge) and had some Champagne. I always buy us the Champagne we had on our honeymoon. It's my favorite. It (of course) gives me a headache and makes me tired, but it's worth it. I let the kidlett have some as well, since our Anniversary is her celebration too. We all sat on the couch discussing how lucky we are and how happy we are with our little homemade family and then turned in for the night.

It was a really good day :)

339 - 338 - 337 - A brief overview

Friday:

wasn't terrible, got work done, blah blah.

OH... I did get to see something neat. I'm 44 floors up, and I watched a huge bright yellow butterfly flit by my windows. I thought that was amusing for some reason.

Friday night we went to Felix's restaurant. Mexican. Good! Been around for ages and ages. We liked it a great deal.

Saturday:

Saturday I did some cleaning, Chels and I went to Ikea to get her a desk, I got my haircut pretty short (wicked cute, I'll take a picture, Ray isn't too keen on it really)

I went to Venus Hair, Ohmygosh what a cool place! Chels and I hadn't explored "The Heights" yet so going out there was just the coolest thing. Tons of huuuge old trees and big brightly painted victorians. It was just very pretty.

That evening Ray and Chels and I went to "Whataburger". Its like McDonalds or Burgerking, but different.. different meaning Holy CRAP what a good hamburger!! These burgers (and fries) totally blew away any other fast food restaurants. The fries remind me of McDonalds fries before they started to taste like ass. SOO yummy!

Sunday:

Today was normal, did a lot of cleaning. Wanted to get the woodwork and such done, which I did. Watered the garden, was baffled at the heat. 99, but the heat index was 110 and over. Holy crap! Hot hot hot.

Ray and Chels went out to go to the mall to get me an anniversary gift. Apparently they got lost, so it took them hours n hours. Chels and I went back to the mall so I could get something for Ray, but we got there at like 6:50pm, and apparently the mall closes at 7pm. grr. So off to Target. I found something fun for him there :) Tonight we are CSI'ing (as usual) and eating pizza.

Ok... pictures:



This is where I have ciggies at the tower

This is Whataburger (finally, truth in advertising!)

Pussy for Dinner! *snickersnort* Ray and I were out having a cig, I looked in and there's Roxie, hanging out in my pasta dish. heh. She's a goober.

And finally; Chelsea bein' cute :)

340 - The week is almost over... almost...

First off, my birthday is coming. Someone buy me this or I'll simply die. I'll die I say! Ok... maybe not that. But Fam, look at my Kaboodle (gifts for me list) for the stuff I want.

As usual, work is completely sucking the life outta me. But that's normal, so really why discuss that, eh?

So, I onto more pleasant things...
I am on an email list for a client, and these peeps were talking amoungst themselves (because apparently they forgot I'm on there) about how our seo stuff. One of the guys was all freaked about us putting links to one site from their individual sites. He was all exclaimation pointy and such... So, since I have a good relationship with the main contact over there, and I happen to know this guy is a super smart ass, I emailed one of the nutty quotes from the freakin' out guy with a note after saying "A bit dramatic? OH NOOO We're DOOOmed! Doooomed I say!!! Soylent green is people.... soylent green is PEOPLE!"

I get a note back quoting some scifi writer, and off we went into the land of geekdome. Anyway.. it was fun, and I got him laughing and agreeing that too many chefs in a website spoil the whole thing.

Tonight I was peeking at CraigsList at jewelry. I saw the heading for a ring that sounded super pretty and cheap, so I clicked. The ring is soo pretty. The price is soo good. They're nearby. I decided against it though. Know why? I'm a shallow bitch, that's why. I won't buy it because the womans' hand and nails in the picture were nasty. Not dirty, just not well cared for. So I don't want to wear a ring that some person who doesn't care for herself would wear. I thought about it after and realized I'm just not nice most of the time. But seriously.. ladies... don't take a picture of you wearing a ring with your nails undone and your hands all wrinkley. If you have wrinkly hands, put the damn ring on the table and take a picture of it. Don't put it on your nasty hands. ew.
Since I'm on the subject of things I hate... here are a few things never to do (especially if you come to my house) because I swear I'll mock you publically as well as slap the dickin's out of you;

1. Do Not put your feet on my table. It's nasty, don't do it. Seriously it makes me gag.
2. If I'm in the bathroom, do not holler at the door. It's just ignorant. Unless the house is on fire or you're head is falling off, or there's a midget at the door for me to mock, wait til I'm out.
3. Do not eat food off my plate. I swear to God I'll stab your freakin' hand with my fork.
4. Do not yell. My house echos and I swear we all have good hearing.

.... meh... the list is so damn long I can't even type them all.

It was HOT hot hot today. The weather I put up doesn't tell it like it is... the heat index was like 101. So maybe it just got to 95, but it felt 101. heh.

Tonight we went out to grab Burger King. We hadn't had that in along time so it sounded like a good idea. I made it there ok. Made it back ok. Took a few one way streets (I do that quite a bit, not as much as I blow through stop lights, but I do it. )

We played Myth game. Eh. It was ok. Lucy was SOoo funny. There are little chips that go with the game and for some reason she didn't want us to touch them. We would reach for oneand she would slap us (she never uses claws) she was like a little wee dragon guarding gold.

(Here's a picture of Lucy guarding her chips. )

OH... and you should see the hot car that's parked outside my garage (in the alley). This thing is gorgeous!

Chels took a bunch of pictures of this for her dad, but I thought I'd pop one in here too!

340 - Customer Service Tards

Today was pretty ok. Not amazing, but I seem to be pulling out of my pissy mood. (Not totally - so watch it)

Woke up and did the usual, nothing major. Got to work ok. I'm starting to think that I really would like to have a dress down day at work. heh. People 'dress down' on Fridays... Jeans, but dressed to the nines other than that. I so want a day to walk in with flip flops and a tee shirt. (and a skirt or something... not just flip flops and a shirt. that would be way too dressed down).

*sigh*

Anyway. I had changed my insurance to my new address today. I had to do that so I can register my car here so I can get a license (seems backwards, hm??) Anyway, I got the quote for the change, which was 300 bucks less than what I was paying. I said "Yay!" and accepted the quote. SO.. then I check the payment schedule and it shows that it's $30.00 more per month :/ wtf? So I call Geico and ask what's going on. Apparently if you're in NH you have a year policy, which lowers your monthly payment alot. If you're in Texas, its only a 6 month policy. So my way lower quote isn't way lower, it's only for 6 months. *sigh* Oh well. I got a good policy. Tossed in the extra for car rental and such. Now I have to find out if I can claim my windshield or not.

Anyone at work wanna do me a favor and make sure that someone, anyone, keeps me in the loop as to what's going on? No one tells me anything. Drives me mental.

I got an email from Tigerdirect, the place I had put an order in for a Parallel to USB cable for the printer in the tower (which is antiquated and doesn't hook up to my laptop) it says "the address you gave us doesn't match the address on your billing statement, the order will not be placed until you clear this up" well damnit. The mothership changed the billing info on my credit card and didn't bother telling me (Holy Shocking! not. ) So I tell them the new company address. Then I say, it's either that or my bosses home address. Is it this .....? The guy says;

[Alanto, the Customer Service Tard]"Haw come you don kno yo' billing address, heh?"
[Me] I said "It's my company card, if they changed the address it's because they moved. So I wouldn't know what billing address they chose. So it's either..."
The fucker interrupts me!!!!
[Tard] "What you talk about, eh?! "
[Me] "The card is a company card.. the address could be changed"
[Tard] "Oh ya? Howd da address change wi'out you knowin'?"
[Me]"It's my company card. I don't personally pay the card"
[Tard] "you said it's YOUR card. You sayin' its not YOUR CARD now?"
[Me]"I'm saying it's MY COMPANY CARD!"
[Tard] "I don't understand".
[Me] "You know, I no longer want the cable. Do you have someone there with prior customer service training that I can talk to to ensure my order gets cancelled?"
[Tard] "What you tryin' to say, eh?"
[Me] "I'm saying, you knuckle-dragging-troglodyte, give me to your manager."
[Tard] "*SIGH* Hold on. "

So I get on the phone with the manager (Randy.... you know this is going to be an exercise in dork theater) and tell him I need my order cancelled. He says
[Randy] "Well you don't technically have an order. Can you verify your credit card information? We can't process the order without it."
[Me] "No? Not at all?"
[Randy] "Nope. Can't charge this card without the correct information."
[Me] "Good. Cancel the order. You're not getting that information."
[Randy] "Umm.."
[Me] "Yup."
[Randy] "I guess I'll cancel the order"
[Me] "Thanks Skippy"

I take off across the street and buy a cable at Radio Shack. I'm SOO excited! I have so much crap to print. I pay a ton more than I would have at tiger, but the guy spoke English, so there's a plus. I get back and try and connect it... no go. Doesn't fit. ARGH!!!!

I check online and find that tons of people have written about how you can't use one of those cables with the printer we have. I check HP and find that you have to use a wireless printer thingy to be able to use a computer with no parallel port. DOUBLE ARGH!!!

So I emailed Ben asking him to Ok a $40.00 printer purchase. meh. As if I'll ever get an answer back.

I IM'd with D today (props Boo!) IM'd with my daughters fellah for a few (Sup' DJ Jazzy James!) He went on a job interview today so I wanted to see how it went. He said;

[James]"I'm just waiting for them to get the drug test back"
[me]"Uh oh! They'll find out you eat kittens!"
[James]"LOL - Here comes the fuzz!"
[me]"Well.. if you're eating kittens the fuzz will come... although out of which end I don't know. ew"

heh. *Freakin out the daughters fellah!*

I called my brother. He had kidney surgery and is home for a few weeks. I thought I'd call and see how he's doing. Its odd that after years and years I still miss my big brother. Anyway... I found out that he makes fun of midgets too. Thank god. A family trait I can be proud of!! I told him my wish to someday have a tiny midget walk around with a flat cake plate strapped to their head and yummy birthday cake on top. A cake serving midget. *sigh* It will be mine.. Oh yes... it will be mine.

I drove home, we ate burgers, and now we're about to see Disturbia. :) Yay!

Interesting Houston observation:
Houston is so freakin' vast! Because of that, the buildings/blocks/downtown is so different from say, NY or Boston - Buildings have huge areas around them. Big garden area, fancy impressive entry ways with fountains and such. In other cities I've been in every spare inch is utilized for buildings or parking lots. The sidewalks are skimpy, the streets are narrow, you feel closed in. But in Houston there is plenty of room to spread out. So the streets are pretty wide, the sidewalks are too. OH... and the streets are laid out in a grid. Not like Boston's weird twisty roads. Grids. With lights perfectly timed. My brother said today that he'd been to Houston and thought it was odd. "Seems fake". It does seem fake. I like it :D

341 - Toooosday at the tower

Today was a wee bit warm. Ohmygod it was hot! The nice thing about working in the Tower is that it's kept so cold (presumably to keep the high number of walking dead from smelling too much) that I'm totally frozen by the end of the day. So when I pick up my stuff for the long trek back to my car, I'm numb. I don't even really feel the heat until I'm almost to my car. My toes are typically still frozen, and when I reach in my purse to grab my keys it's like a little ice box. heh.

I feel badly for the homeless when it's this hot, though. Apparently they've opened "Cooling Stations" for them. Which I assume is a lot like "Nashua's Air quality Days" where the bus is air conditioned and free to ride all day.

I spent the morning at home cleaning. I was PMSing so I needed something to do rather than wake up the family and yell at them. Went to the Tower and did a few useful things. Spent a few hours wishing I wasn't working. Went and had a talk with WebGirl. That woman is the most negative person ever. I knew she had gone away for the weekend, so I asked how her weekend was (I'm f*ckin' polite, ok!?)

• Me: How was your weekend? Did you have fun?
• WG: Yeah, it was great. Well... other than the hotel....
• Me: Oh really? Was it a bad hotel? (Knowing I'm about to get a long drawl-ey whine)
• WG: Well... I got a really good deal on a hotel and jumped on it. We were at Lake Tyler. Anyway, I went and although the Hotel was gorgeous and the service was great, they DIDN'T have a a pool! Can you imagine!? No Pool, No Restaurant!
• Me: Wow. Umm. Could you swim in the lake? (I'm thinking, wtf you moron, you stayed at a hotel on a lake... go outside and get in the lake!)
• WG: Noooo... I won't swim in that water!

Now obviously I wasn't going to ask the water retaining seacow WHY she would go to the lake if she had no intention of swimming in it.... but.... whatever. Maybe she's worried her bleach job will turn colors or something.

I walked over to Houston Center for lunch (Houston Center is a kind of crappy mall that's really only open because it's got a huge food court) Came back, wished for death for awhile longer, emailed asking for a few things from WG and another worker there. Stared out the window..... you seeing a pattern here?

I ended up coming home at 5:30. I made dinner and pretty much hung out. I sent my daughter out to get "Disturbia", but she left so darn late that I couldn't watch it *grr!*

SO funny - I send the kid out, she decides she's going to try Target again. She pulls out of our driveway and I'm up on the balcony with Ray yelling at her... I'm waving my arms and yelling "Chelsea No!!" Does she notice? No, she's 17. She wouldn't notice if her head was on fire. She pulled out onto our one way street heading the wrong way. *eyeroll* I'm seeing visions of my poor one headlighted car smashed up and my kid (un-hurt of course) telling me "I didn't knooow" (she has an excuse for everything that kid)

I took a bath . First time taking one in my enourmous bathtub. Ohmygod how great was that. The thing fills up to your neck practically. Its a big soaking tub that's soo comfy. That was way fun.

Well.... back to the Tower tomorrow. (someone kill me please)

342 - Money Monday - NOT

[WARNING: PISSED OFF RANT ABOUT TO ENSUE] Please please please tell me why my boss will not do a freakin' direct deposit!? WHY? I mean honestly, you can't go around talking about how 'we're an Internet company' and spouting about the latest technologies, then put a check in the mail, a check mind you, that WILL be held for 5-7 days because it's from NH. So I have to wait days for the damn thing to get here, then days for it to be useable?! Oh. Totally fanfuckin'tastic. *eyeroll*
Sweet fried Mary on a stick! Why not just use a chunk of bedrock, a big bird to chisel the amount on it and run it over here using a car with your feet poked through the bottom. ARGH! I've asked... I've hinted... I've begged, but I'm in Texas, so basically it's 'screw off'. Doesn't matter that I have bills to pay, car payments, a freakin' windshield that I didn't break to fix, a kid and me who needs friggin' meds which cost an arm and a leg..... wtf! I'm all for being a team player and all that, but at this point I'm just getting pissed.

Frustrated with my job, can you tell?

Ok... aside from that crap.

Chels, Ray and I went out to cash checks (ha!) and grab a light bulb for my headlight. Stopped at Sonic (yay!) and came home. For some reason my Internet connection here is iffy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It was a doesn't last night (Hence the morning post). We tried putting the bulb in the headlight, and got it in there, but it still doesn't work. It seems that there's some other issue. So there's another bill. grr.

Chels had a tweaky freak out over me not letting her go to some goth club by herself. *eyeroll* Her argument? Stomping around and whining "I'm not a baby anymore!" Umm.. Ok. Well there's a valid argument. Especially since I had to clean her disgusting bathroom this morning. How can she be here one week and totally demolish two entire rooms? for fucks sake. [END OF RANT: note: do NOT call me and try and 'talk' about this rant. No interest. I rant here because I don't feel like talking about it. Lets leave it that way.]

Things settled down late last night and it actually ended up being fun. Chels and I played Othello (which I like alot, but hate playing with Ray the strategical genius), we played with the kitten, who's simply a goofball. And I went to bed.

All in all a rather unsatisfying day.

Annoying Houston observation:
Houston has the worst... THE worst... public transportation. The fact that I can live this close to work and not be able to hop a bus amazes me.

343 - Sunday Lazy Sunday

Apparently there are no longer any Krispy Kreme donut places in Houston. Nope. My entire reason for moving here has now been taken away. Wtf.

I woke up this morning, did my normal morning ritual - Feed kittens, make coffee, make waffles, eat waffles, drink coffee, check email, watched Gardening by the Yard with Paul James (I so love this guy. Total goofball, but a genuine goofball, which I always like), Did laundry, cleaned stuff (which I love too), then did some Net surfing and reorganized my 'birthday wish list' on Kaboodle.

I got a chance to talk to Tony today. That was good. Sometimes I forget that I miss him. (I mean, really.. he's old and stinky and has the maturity of a 10 year old, why would I miss him!?) *snicker* Anyway... it was good to talk to him.
Chels, Ray and I had a ... erm.... washcloth fight. Well see, I tossed a rolled up paper towel at Ray then went upstairs to get ready to go out, where I was struck with the brilliant idea of folding up a washcloth and putting an elastic around it. I hid at the top of the stairs and tossed it at Ray, who whipped it back at me, so I tossed it at Chels, who I think tried to toss it back. Anyway... it went downhill from there. Fun tho :) I do so like to play.

Chels and I went out to go to Krispy Kreme. We parked downtown and walked up and down the pretty area of Main Street. There are SOO many cool restaurants down there. Anyway... couldn't find it so we went to CVS to grab some some Advil n stuff, and while we were there I asked the clerk if she knew where a Krispy Kreme was. "Krispy Kreme left Houston. We don't have any here"

*blink*

wtf.

Anyway... so after we cried and pulled our hair out, we stopped at CoCo's Crepes & Coffee and Ohmygoodness it was so good. I swear I'm gonna end up putting on weight instead of losing. (As a result I'm going to join Curves next week. There's one about 2 blocks away from my office. Of course, I probably will take issue with their teaching methods and all that since I had managed a few, but I'll get over it. heh.
Also, found a cool place to get my hair done; Venus Hair Salon. Looks just TOoo cool. I want this haircut I think. Gonna go ask about that. Leave me a message if you think it's simply too ghastly for me to get.

Tonight I made Chicken Parmesan.. supper yummy. I forgot the Parmesan cheese, so I sent Chels out to get it. She made it there and back and didn't get lost :) I'm so proud!

Since then we're just chillin'. Gotta work tomorrow, so that means I have to put aside time to weep while curled up in the fetal position.

Odd Texas Observation:
It's freakin' hot here.

346 and 345 - fa la la

Ok.. dont feel like posting much right now, but I found this and it's always been one of my favorite things ever! Had to share!

Cat Herder Commercial! Yes, this is what working in e-business is really like. Well.. maybe cat herding is a wee bit easier.

FRIDAY:

Friday was kinda blah. I was really feeling ill most of the morning and decided it would be in everyones' best interest to stay home and work from here.

I actually got more done than I usually do if I work from home, and I believe more done than I do when I go into work. So it was a productive day for me.

I did take a nap around noon. Woke up feeling a lot better, although not 100%. Problem being that the meds I take aren't fillable here, so I'm out of medication. bleh. I'm sending home my prescriptions and having the ex fill them (it's for me and for Chels) and in the meantime we'll have to make due. I wish my darn check would come so I can send him the cash for it too.. it's gonna be another week or so without them, and unfortunately I want to lay there like a lump without them.

I felt lots better by the end of the day. Funny little thing; We were all sitting here w/our laptops. The TV was off since Ray and I were working and didn't want the distraction. It started to rain, and Ray and I know that when it rains it gets loud in here because of the enormous skylight in the living room. Chels didn't know that.. so I noticed her looking around like "what the heck is that". I pointed up (as she was sitting directly under the skylight) and she said "Oh.. Rug?".

*blink*

Rug on the ceiling?! Well she thought the noise may have been the cat on the rug scratching it (which leads to a stern talking to for the cat). But Ray and I have had all sorts of fun with that. Pointing up and saying in a tard like voice "Ruuug". hehe... amusing for us, but it's bugging the crap out of the kid. Oooh the joys of being a parent.

Friday night we went to Sonic. Ohmygod it's so neat! Ok.. it's a fast food place, but you drive in and park and there's little ordering stations at all the parking spots. You order, they bring it out to you. SOO cool! I had been craving a corn dog (no, I have no freakin' clue why. Never had them until last October when Ray bought me one in Salem Mass, but damn they're yummy!) they have a gazillion different yummy drinks and shakes and slushes n stuff. Yumm!!

We drove from there into town to locate the library, which because we're uber-geeks, we need to know the location of at all times. Looks pretty good. It was closed, but we're going to go back and see about getting a card. Of course if you don't have a tx license, you have to pay $40.00 to get a card... so I'm not sure if we'll pay for the card then eventually get the licenses switched, or if we'll just wait for the switch before we get a card.

The whole license switching thing is a bit odd. I have to do it this month since my registration is due, but bleh. It's going to be super pricey. I'll deal with that next week I'm sure. I had allowed my insurance to lapse since re-upping would mean another 6 months with an insurance co. I'm not happy with. I didn't think it would be a problem, but apparently I can't get my car registered here w/out insurance (no surprise) and I can't get insurance here without a car registered IN Texas. SO... I have to go with my car and insurance in NH, change over the registration, then go to my insurance co and have them change my insurance to TX. Maybe. Could be I need to do it the other way around, but it seems damn near impossible to figure this out. I've called the DMV here about 15billion times, but apparently all DMVs are alike. You cant get the info you need without calling, but they don't actually answer the phone so you're kinda screwed. I swear I need to get a guide to help me with some of this crap.

Then I'll have to figure out the inspection issues. My damn windshield that's gonna cost me upwards of $400 bucks, my damn headlight which is gonna cost me about $200. argh. I had no clue relocating was going to cost me an arm and a leg. Thank goodness the place is paid for or I'd be totally screwed.

SATURDAY:

Saturday was fun :) I went with the blog poll and Chels and I went to Westhiemer to hit all the cool retro/recycled clothing stores. Ohmygod so awesome! Within a one block radius theres 5 places to go. I was kind of lamenting the loss of The Garment District in Boston. That place is so great. Well here there are 5 of them (not quite as large, but very much like it) right next to each other. I ended up buying two pairs of THE coolest retro huge sunglasses. Love'em. Chels bought a few things as well. Unfortunately, as with alot of sunglasses, they make me seasick. argh. Everything makes me freakin' seasick! So both pairs are gonna have to go up on Craigslist. I'm SO sad about that :/

On the way home we stopped at "The magic cauldron", which is a neat Pagan shop. We walked in and the funniest little guy was in there behind the counter. Utterly gay, totally adorable, and very quirky. Chelsea was wearing a skirt she had made that has the Virgin Mary on it. It always amuses me since the face is on the crotch and butt of the skirt. heh. Well the guy seemed to think that was hysterical. He was a constant mass of giggles and laughing. We actually had a fun time with him and Chels was really excited since he said he was looking for a seamstress to help with cloaks and such for the TX Ren Faire. She's going to bring him some samples of her work and see if she can hook up a job there.

We left there and came home. We were actually planning on hitting the trendy little crepe place nearby, but realized it was 5pm and maybe the Hubby would want food too. (damn demanding fella, isn't he?!) So we came home, grabbed the guy and went off to La Mexicana, a nice place on Westheimer. We sat out on their patio and had a great mexican dinner (Mexican, not TexMex which I'm finding simply does not agree with me). The food was great and came in HUGE portions. The outside patio was great. It's covered and surrounded by nice shrubs, so you don't feel like you're almost sitting in the street. We really loved the place. (The inside is, btw, very loud like we're finding most places are here. Odd, but it seems every restaurant we go to is super loud inside. Echo-ey almost.)

We came home and hung out. Nothing major :)

Nice day over all.

347 - blablahblah

Alrighty.. today wasn't too bad, really. The morning started out a bit wacky, but it ended up ok.

First thing this morning I went and checked to see if Mr. Possums was still sitting out there on the nest. (Did I write about that last night? I can't recall... before bed last night I went out to see if the possum was ok. I know I wrote that he was, and that there wasn't a 'mommy' with him, but I can't recall if I said what I thought was another fuzzy animal was actually a birds nest that he was sitting in.) Anyway, the little guy must of got down ok. I checked around the bottom of the telephone wire and didn't see any little hurt possum... so I'm thinking he made it down alright.

Made it work, ended up in a few meetings. One was with the mother-ship. *sigh* It's not that I don't want to be involved with whats going on back home.. it's that.. well.. I'd like to freakin' HEAR what's going on. I could only catch like every 3 or four sentences, so I lost most of what was going on. I'm sure that this was something I maybe should have heard most of... but I didn't. So I'll go off of what I did hear and hope it's ok.

I made it home in record time. Grabbed the fam and went to the bank and to grab some stuff at the store. Oh.. cool store thing.. Ever seen those little dvd kiosks? So cool. I never really investigated one before, but while I was waiting for everything to be rung up tonight I took a peek. Not bad! I paid 1.61 for "Crank"... the movie popped out and there we go. (Watching it now btw, lots of derty stuff in it... it's good! heh)

So we ate dinner, I did some work on a methodology thing *snore-snooze* and then Chels told me that she wants to go to Target (argh). So she said she wanted to go by herself. Swore to me she'd make it. meh. I let her go, sure I'd get a call in a while saying she was lost (because seriously, this place is freakin' hell to drive in!) No call.. I was outside on the balcony and she came down the street. Surprised the heck outta me. I thought "sheesh Jenna, real nice being sure your daughter wouldn't be able to make it to Target." she came out to tell me that I need to go with her... she had spent the last hour lost. heh. Poor thing. I was impressed she made it back though. Although the really funny thing was her reaction to me and Ray poking fun at her. *snicker*

But that's really it for the day. Nothing interesting. Nothing amusing. Just blah blah blah.

Sad Texas Observation with a hint of introspection:
There are so many homeless here. And rather than feeling a call to action, some sort of "I should do something" like I always feel when I see animals in need I get really pissed with them. We've all had hard times. Trust me, I think there were times I was just one or two bad days away from *being* them. But honestly. They piss me off. I don't want to give them change, or ciggs, or listen to them babble... I want to tell them to get away from me. I'm embarrassed about it, but I have no plans on changing it.

348 - Smoke n Fire

Hey... the building next door to me caught fire last night... This is the building I took pictures of the psycho window washers on:

KHOU News Story

Pictures

Bringin' my camera to work... I'll take any interesting pictures I can.

Well, no interesting pictures to take of the burned building. You can see that one or two of the windows were broken, but that's about it.

Today was pretty good. I had a lot of work to do so I kept busy. I SO like being kept busy. Idle hands, and all that.

I got a nasty gram from WebGirl. Apparently she didn't like that I had sent "thanks for meeting with me" emails with out CC'ing her. No biggy. I just rolled my eyes, wished horrid things upon her overly bleached head, and moved on.

After work was a bit stressful. I had barely any gas on the way home and was already a bit late, so I decided to drive to Montrose St. to get some gas. Unfortunately some inconsiderate schmuck had the grand idea of getting into an accident. So I got stuck in traffic for like 20 minutes. dammit. I finally got turned around and started my search for a gas station. That would be my luck, running out of gas on my way to get gas. "Isn't it Ironic?" (BTW Alanis, a black fly in your Chardonnay is NOT ironic, it's unfortunate you ignorant cow. Look up irony in the dictionary.) .... but I digress...

So I finally found a gas station, realized I had no cash and had to put gas on my credit card. I HATE that. I also hate ending up behind the damn ticket scratchers in line. wtf. Get out of line, scratch your ticket, then on the off chance you may win something Bubba, you may get back in. Sheesh. So I get out of there and start walking to my car and there's a bum standing behind it with a window washer. Simply shit-tastic.

I walk towards the car and the guy starts babbling;
"Oooh it's a sad Tuesday, huh? I'll clean your window, make it a happy Tuesday. Make you smile on Tuesday. I'm Georgie, Georgie will make your window clean. Then you won't be sad"

I'm thinking "For fucks sake, Georgie... I'm sad 'cus I have Georgie the hygienically challenged homeless guy about to slime up my back window and I don't have any change".

"Georgie" I say "I have no money... you probably have more change than I do".

"Ohh no no missus.. I clean tha window n make happy Tuesday!"

"Fine Georgie, but not a big return on investment, yanno?"

So I pump the gas while Georgie squeegees my window and wipes it down with a newspaper, and when I'm done I hand him 5 ciggs and leave it at that.

He tells me "Georgies' here all the time! Come back n get gas again"

"Thanks Georgie, I'll keep that in mind"..... the next time I want Georgie rubbing dirty newspaper all over my rear windshield. *sigh*... btw... it's freakin' Wednesday!!! Ehh well.. Suppose time is all relative when you're squeegeeing windows.

So I finally made it home. Now it's too late to get to the bank, but Hubby and Kid are in good moods, so that's cool.

Made dinner, vacuumed and cleaned a bit, ate... then kid has to remind me that I told her I would let her drive tonight. Meh. I swear I have palpitations every time I have to drive with her. So we go off to Target, I start getting acute angina (Doesn't angina sound dirty?) but we make it there and back.

I poked around with some graphics for awhile. I was feeling creative. Made a new header. You'll have to let me know if you like it.

So as I was about to post Ray went out on the balcony. He sticks his head out and says "Y'all come out here, there's a possum on the wire!" Yes. He said Y'all.

So out we go and whaddya know.. there's a little possum walking the telephone wire. Poor little guy got pretty far, then stuck, then came back, then got stuck again... we think that his mamma is stuck too. So now we're sitting here trying to figure out if we should call Animal Control. I suppose we could, but how Yankee will we sound??!

"Hey, Umm... yeah.. there are two possums on the telephone wires out here and they look stuck"

You know they'll be like... Yeah, that happens all the time. What are you, the new guy?!

meh. btw... big blobby red picture is the best I could get of the possum.

Ok.. off to bed for me ;)

P.S. - Possum Update:
Possum wasn't out there with with his mama. He is stuck though. He's sitting out there on a nest.

349 - School Days?

Ever have to change schools when you were a kid? Ever have to be the new kid in the class? If you have, try and remember having to walk into the lunch room the first time. You don't have anyone to sit with, and you feel like you're walking around with a sign that says "Friendless". You want to sit towards the back, or in a corner somewhere. Maybe you have a book or a walkman with you so that you can seem to not be paying attention to the stuff going on around you. That so sucks when you're a kid.

The odd thing is this; it doesn't go away with age. Sure you're fairly self assured, you know that you're an asset, you know your place in the world (or so you believe) - yet faced with being the new kid again it seems that some part of your brain pops back into that lunch room. Why is that? It's irritating.

Work was... boring. Bone numbing, eye twitching, life sucking boring. There were a few interesting points, though;

1. Not sure if I've told you, but my badge doesn't work on the back door of the tower. The back door goes out to the pretty sitting area where all the smokers go. Well apparently you have to have 'after hours' priv's. put on your card to do that... and I haven't figured out where Security is to do so. SO... I asked WebGirl where I could have that fixed. She said "Who told you that?" while grimacing and making some odd "I'm sucking on a lemon" face. I said "Oh, one of the svp's on 41" She said "Pfft... they dont know what they're talking about. I've never heard that before".

Well ok.. whatever. BUT.. today as I was sitting out under one of the umbrellas having a ciggy, I notice WebGirl hop over the gate to the back and sprint towards the door. Apparently she was off doing something and decided to take that way in. I watched her pull on the door for a minute (ahhh-musing!) then watched her repeatedly try her badge, then pull the door. This went on for like 5 minutes. I had my sunglasses on so I looked as if I was checking out my phone, but inside I was cackling wildly. I SO wanted to run up and say "Who was it that didn't know what they were talking about? Hmm? Nyaaah!" But of course that wouldn't be very professional, so I simply saw that one of the other doors was opening (someone coming out) so I got up, grabbed that door and yelled for WebGirl. She came striding over looking as if there was a very small piece of poop held under her nose. "Something wrong with my badge!" I said "Apparently, mine too" and left it at that. Made me grin, though.

2. One of the big NH guys came into the office today. He hangs in my office when he's working in TX. That was kinda nice. Someone to talk to at least. Not a bad guy really. He bought me lunch today. Sammich makes me happay!

3. I got a lot done today. Pried the written notes I needed from WebGirls clutches (She SO didn't want me to have them) and have 1/2 written up. Worked out a process for some of the content peeps. blah blah blah.

When I got home I cleaned a bit (yeah, I'm a bit obsessive) did the dishes and cooked meatloaf (my family loves it). We went to Randall's since there were a few things we needed, and luckily they had the movie "300" there. Ohmygod Yay. Tomorrow we'll probably run out and get "Hot Fuzz" Yay again :) Great movies. I would say that 300 is one of the best movies I've seen in ages. Watched that on our disgustingly huge tv. Now I'm getting sleepy and I wanna go to bed :/

A "little" bit of odd news I just saw:
Midget Star from Little People, Big World Arrested for DUI Yeah, I know... but seriously, the world needs more drunken midgets. (in big hamster wheels in the office... or with little strap-on cake plate hats wandering from desk to desk offering yummy frosted baked goods)

350 - back to the grind stone

I forgot a few things yesterday;

Friday:

D sent me some odd post on Craigslist from back home. Some moron was giving away a goat for free because apparently it didn't make a good pet, he felt the goat was retarded, and ate their linoleum. Imagine that. I was compelled to write him a note containing my thoughts on this....

Umm...Dude... Seriously.You bought a farm animal. A farm animal mind you, that is famous for eating tin cans and alike and you are actually shocked it ate random metal thingies and linoleum from your house? Seriously.

It's a goat. They are not intended as 'pets'. Not often have I encountered the little creatures in pet stores wagging their tails for attention. There are very few children's books referencing the bond and love between a boy and his goat. I do not see many Norman Rockwell paintings of boys frolicking in the park with their goat. And really, I would have to assume that teaching a goat to fetch a ball without devouring it would be a task a child may find difficult.

I think it's wonderful that you want to give the little guy to a farm (May I suggest Friendly Farm in Peterborough NH, or Petfinder.com) but I believe the problem we have here is not the diminished mental capacity of the goat, but the not-quite-up-to-snuff mental capacity of the parent.

Good luck with your goat placement.

Ok. Not nice. But duh. Seriously. And yes my husband said I was vicious - and perhaps I am - but poor little goat. Like it's really his fault they mistook him for a dog.

I got a call from the Mother-Ship. It was Friday Wine Hour (which I miss!) and they called on the conference phone to include me. That was wicked sweet guys, thanks :)

Saturday:

I bought neat stuff :) I got a a pretty little white bud vase with pansies for work. (My office is up high and nice, but blaaaaaannnd. My office puts the 'bla' in bland. So I'm trying to find some things that will add something without going crazy. I got two new pairs of shoes. One pair is brown leather sandal high heel thingies, boring, but I needed a brown pair. The other are super cute pumps with a little buckle and those neat new thicker heels. Very cute. (Very painful. They are the devils shoes, I'm sure. Good lord I thought I'd die today) I bought Ray a Jimmy Hendrix tee, and Chels some shorts. I bought myself an Orchid, since I've hinted that I want one for years and never got one. (Had to "by my own hero" ala Jim's Big Ego) And I got a new plant to be the friend of "Alfred" (the plant I bought when I first got here)

Sunday;

Chels, Ray and I went to that Firken and Phoenix pub (I had told you that) but I hadn't really described it much. It was really nice, all dark black wood, a huge bar, and big comfy booths lined with red velvet. Ray and I had fish and chips (SO yummy) and Chels had a hamburger that she said rocked. I had a Grasshopper (which I haven't had in ages) and Ray had a rum runner, which he made me try :P blech! By the end of dinner we ended up having a coaster/paper/stuff fight. Chels got all irritated, but still took part.

Now... on to today.

Work was work. I got stuff done, got sucked into lots of meetings, and wished for death a few times :) Nothing new. heh. Web Girl was a moron as usual. Something amusing? I saw her first thing in the morning. She was wearing some long tank sort of dress. Not bad looking except that its straps were so long that although it wasn't low cut on her, the arm holes were down to her waist (or there abouts) I kept thinking "Not very professional"...well apparently someone must have said something, or she finally got a gander at herself. She tied the straps into little knots on top of her shoulders. Looked like two little puff balls of poop or something sitting on her shoulders. Ok... I'm just bitter I'm sure... but she looked like a boob. OH.. and she told me she's going to Boston for the weekend before going to see the office. She's bringing her son with her. I said "Oh there's so much cool stuff there! You should take him to the Museum of Science, the Aquarium, and Faniuel Hall." She said "I'll look on Expedia and find things to do". *blink* Dumbass... I'm FROM the area! I may know better than Expedia! I swear to god if that girl ever had a lucid, non-boobish thought knocking around in her head I would simply poop a kitten.

I got a great card from Dave, Jan, Jess and Zach. Thanks SO much for that :) It made my day. We got the mail when we were leaving to go pick up some of Chelsea's shipped packages, and I had Chels read it to me in the car. It made us all smile! (by the way, click "comments" at the bottom of an entry, that should open a little pop up box allowing you to leave a comment. You can be 'anonymous' or whatever :) OH.. and Dave, thanks.

We drove to UPS to pick up the packages. I felt pretty good that I made it almost all the way there without needing directions, and I made it all the way back without needing them. Yay :)

We had dinner and now I'm slacking. :)

351 - Missed a few...

Haay :) My daughter is here! I've missed her so much! Of course, it was nice to not take care of someone for a couple of weeks, but I'm so happy she's here now. Something was missing without her here. And Biddy is far happier with Chelsea here. I'm sure Bids wants James here, but that won't be for awhile.

Since Thursday:

Friday i went to work, had a bunch of meetings did a bunch of work, and came home to clean up so that things would be pretty and sparkly for when Chels got here.

We drove out to Hobby airport, which is about 20 - 15 minutes away, I left early because I know I get lost all the time (Which I did a little bit, but not too badly). We didn't wait long, but I gotta say, Hobby is not an 'up to date' airport. I like it better because it's so close (25 min opposed to 45 min) but its sort of like going back in time. The waiting area is sort of a corner of the airport with some seats shoved in it. No monitors, so no clue which flights are coming in. It looks as if they've tried to retrofit all the security stuff into the airport, so it's all a jumble of security equipment. When you get off the plane, Southwest airlines doesn't have a bunch of baggage claim belts, just two, and you have to wait until you see a number show up over one of them, maybe your stuff is there. Maybe it isn't. heh.

Unfortunately one of Chelsea's bags wasn't. I wouldn't have stressed too much, but apparently her father told her to put all her meds in her checked baggage rather than carry on. argh. Of course the one they lost is the one with the meds. I know that you get the bags back pretty quickly, but it did sorta freak the kiddo out. I filled out the stuff and asked them to put a rush on it because of meds.

We left and of course Hobby is not in a nice pretty area, so poor Chelsea's first view of Houston is the bad section of South Houston. heh. Then it started raining like a MF'er. We're on I-45 with psychotic rain, and all I want is get off the road... so I take an exit figuring we'll navigate through the city rather than the Interstate. Unfortunately, the exit I take is the exit for I-10, with no damn way to get off! OH.. and there was road work going on, so it was a parking lot. grr.

We finally found a place that pointed towards "downtown", well I may not know a ton of places in Houston, but I do know downtown, so I got myself there, got to point out my office to kiddo, then made my way to Randall's to pick up something for dinner (I was taking kiddo out, but she wanted to get to her house and see her kittens, so we put off the whole 'out to eat' thing til Sunday.

Chels was super happy to be here, Biddy and all the cats were happy to see her. She seems to love her room (although I'm sure she's having some issues and feels scared right now, which is only natural... lord knows I'm having the same issues!) We ate, she ran around looking through the house. I was so happy that she liked the place :)

Saturday:

Saturday was fun. We had to wait around a bit for the bag that they finally found in Orlando, that kinda miffed me, but it got here around 1pm and the fact that we got it back made me happy. heh. We went to Randall's again to do some food shopping, Target, Ikea... we were pretty much done after that. When we got home Ray was sleeping. He decided he needed a nap. Chels and I worked on her room for quite awhile, moved things around and made it more "Chelsea-ized." We were supposed to go out to eat, but he woke up at 10, and even though the places around here are open late, we were tired. We ate and went to bed.

Sunday:

Today was really good. We went out to the Aquarium, which was way fun. That's not really Ray's thing, so it was just the Chelster and I. We went up in a huge ferris wheel that really gives you a great view of the city. We went on a train ride that takes you through a HUGE shark tank. It was pretty cool. There was some big saw tooth shark thing that ended up laying right on the top of the tunnel over Chels and I. We liked that. When we were done there we took a drive down Main street to the museum district (which is SO pretty) then up Montrose. Chels asked if we could see Westheimer (super cool shopping district that leads up to the Galleria) and back home.

We sat around for a bit, then went to Firken and Phoenix English pub. Very cool. Houston has been named number one as far as restaurant's, and for the most part they're all ultra urban and chic... but we really wanted something a bit more homey and comfortable. We really liked this place. Had great food, the waitress was simply adorable, and it wasn't all that costly (they make a kick ass Grasshopper too!)

We came home and are now slacking. Love the slacking!!

I'll get back to actually writing daily tomorrow (hopefully!) I have to go to UPS to pick up some final packages that we had Chels send. I'm looking forward to that... some of them are my clothes! yay!

PS. Odd Texas Observations:
People are nice here. Not nice like in NH, nice like ... genuinely nice. Everyone. From the convenience store to the big stores. It's unsettling. I need a 'dial a grouch' hot line to feel more at home.