Sunday, December 31
After days of perfectly blue sky, we're having some drearier weather. It could sleet tonight!
We went to visit Miranda's baby today. She was premature and had a rough start, but seems okay now. She's had a couple of CAT scans now, which show improvement from her initial test as far as brain hemorrhaging. She's up to almost seven pounds at 5 weeks, which is pretty good.
Last night we finally saw Harry Potter, after several attempts. The theaters are packed lately, and it was sold out, often for the entire day, the last two times we went. We all liked it, but we don't think we'll try to see another movie while Erica's here. We couldn't believe the crowds.
Thursday, December 27
Well, we had a very nice Christmas. It was clear and cold, and still is. Erica got new irons, and has golfed twice since receiving them. We all got great gifts - I got a resonator guitar, a cell phone, some books, CDs and DVDs, kitchen applicances and gadgets, a nice photo of Mom from Linda, and eyeball soap. Ed got a humidor, a harmonica, clothes, CDs, beer glasses, and books, including "The Worst-Case Schenario Survival Handbook", which probably seemed like a great idea for him, but I caught him studying "How to Jump from Rooftop to Rooftop" yesterday.
Monday, December 24
We've dressed up and had our fondue, and we've had our drive to look at Christmas lights (really a euphemism for Erica practicing her driving skills). Unfortunately, there was some spontaneous combustion toward the end of the evening. Now Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Saturday, December 22
Wow, sorry, I didn't realize it had been so long since I've written. I'd actually like to take the time to post some pictures, but since that will just delay things, I'll at least write a little now.
Erica arrived on Thursday. She and Ed played golf yesterday, then we went to Miss Saigon for Vietnamese food for dinner. I took the afternoon off and did some shopping. I shopped today, to, and was surprised to see that a couple of cool new stores had opened on 19th St. in the Heights. There already are cool stores there, but these additions were nice - one was an antiques store in the old movie theater, and one was a store specializing in just antiques that I liked.
We're cooking at home tonight and watching Christmas specials (if I get my way).
I'll try to get to the photos later.
Sunday, December 16
It continues to pour here. But that gave us a chance to finish shopping, wrapping, baking cookies, and decorating the tree.
Saturday, December 15
There was an article in Texas Highways this fall about the Houston Heights called "Small Town in the Big City" (I can't find a link, but I do have the article). Tonight we saw evidence of that - Christmas carolers! About 20 of them, including one person we'd met before (Paul, with the Great Pyrenees who walks by all the time). I haven't seen Christmas carolers going door to door (at least not without asking for money) since I lived in Massena.
Friday, December 14
I am taking today off, trying to get some things done. I ran some errands, worked on Christmas cards, and hope to get a tree soon.
I had an e-mail this morning from Greg Jenkins, who is traveling through Thailand with a friend and having a great time, although he sounds a bit homesick.
Tuesday, December 11
Since I have been posting sporadically, I'll take a trip in the (not so) way-back machine to 11 days ago, when Ed and I did the Heights Holiday Home Tour. This was Ed's first Heights tour, an this time we had a strategy. One of the houses was across the street from us, so we sat on the porch drinking a beer until we saw that the line was short. Then we sprinted over to see our first house. We are ashamed to say that although we had waved to these neighbors, we hadn't met them yet. We had been told they were a doctor and a nurse, and had seen both in scrubs, but it turns out they are both perfusionists who studied under Dr. Denton Cooley, the surgeon who performed the first successful U.S. heart transplant in 1968 (as an aside, Cooley's grandfather also founded the Heights). Anyway, as we exited the back of the house (which is on the National Register of Historic Places), we did get to meet our neighbors.
After this house, we walked to the next one (on Tulane) which was one block away, and to the next one (on Allston) which was less than two blocks away, and even to the fourth one, which was six blocks away. We took trolleys to the next two, and a trolley home (since it was going to the house across the street). This tour inspired Ed further to get our house on the tour. I've been telling him that we don't have enough antiques for the tour, and now that he's done it he sees what I mean.
Monday, December 10
Today I saw the Olympic flame twice. First as it passed a block and a half from our house, and later as it followed me to work. Here's the route through Houston (we live near Heights Blvd. and 11th, and my office is on Post Oak Blvd.) . And here's the entire route. It looks like it gets to Pittsburgh on December 19th, and Santa Barbara on January 16th. It's not worth going out of your way to see, but I'm glad I happened upon it, particularly here in the Heights where it was a huge event with thousands of spectators, entire schools of kids, people dressed up and waving flags, selling cotton candy and pennant.
Sunday, December 9
It seems like we here in Houston, Texas, are having the only cold weather around. Our dank and rainy days have apparently brought in a cold front -- temperatures in the mid '30s tonight. Ed and I took advantage of the only blue sky for weeks today by riding the motorcycle around town. By the end of the drive, we were pretty chilly. Young Dewey was surprised to learn that his job description includes "Hand Warmer". He's been avoiding us ever since.
Last night we went to a restaurant that was new to me, but not to Ed. It is owned by his old girlfriend's sister, so he was procrastinating going there. It turns out it is a fantastic Northern Italian place, and there was no one familiar there, so I am sure we will be returning. I had a wonderful pumpkin risotto -- I need to find the recipe. Another pumpkin recipe from the same restaurant is here. Afterward we went to the nearby Ginger Man for a Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, one of our favorite new beers lately.
Thursday, December 6
I'm in the midst of moving this site -- I have the space, just need to transfer the domain. Check and see if all of your files are transferred here. Once they are, I'll finish the process. All files are still available at batterman.org for now. FYI, the cookie checking at the new site has not been rewritten yet, so at the new link, our website addresses are still visible. I won't transfer the domain until I have this code working.
Tuesday, December 4
Everybody loved the snowman. People came from other floors to see it. Here is a picture that someone else took, showing me actually working in the background!
Unfortunately today, all our frivolity took a backseat to the goner worm, which completely clogged our Exchange server. It didn't help that the first person to open the virus was the Exchange administrator, who not only has access to the global address book, but also is a friend of a lot of people in IT. Normally the IT staff would never open a virus, but in this case a few people (my boss included) did.
Monday, December 3
Today at work we built a snowman. Actually, this is something I and my team of developers had planned for a few weeks. Here's how it turned out.
