Friday, November 30
Today is Erica's 15th birthday. When asked how it felt to be 15, she responded "I'm one year closer to driving!".
In honor of Erica's 15th birthday, Ed had his first root canal today. And tonight he already lost his first crown, which was held on with temporary cement.
I've been back to work the last two days, yesterday feeling okay, today a bit worse. It will be nice to spend the weekend sleeping!
Wednesday, November 28
I'm not really feeling any better.
Tuesday, November 27
Stayed home again. Throat and hand not better. Eventually I accidentally popped my biggest blister, so I knew I needed an antiobiotic. I went to the urgent care facility, which was a mess. Three hours of waiting with sick people. And in the end the doctor did pop the blisters since they were so big that they would have taken too long to heal. The good thing is that I got an antiobiotic that should help my throat, too.
Monday, November 26
I stayed home today. My throat is worse and my hand has blisters the size of plums. I know you're not supposed to pop them, and that so far they're sterile, so I'm just waiting and seeing. It doesn't really hurt at all.
Sunday, November 25
I woke up with a sore throat on Mom's birthday. Instead of taking it easy I planted bulbs and helped Ed put up the Christmas lights. We decided that the woodwork was too dirty to put lights on top of it, so we washed it first. It looks great now, but that took a lot of out me. Which is probably why I accidentally poured boiling water on my hand while draining the pasta for dinner.
Miranda had an emergency c-section today because her blood pressure was dangerously high. They didn't even have time to induce.
Saturday, November 24
A shopping day. We went to Arne's Wholesale Warehouse for Christmas junk, and got that plus a fez with an eyeball on it for Ed. At night we went to my friend Eby's wedding reception, but it was too weird (an Indian wedding, so the outfits were cool, but the Indian disco they played was not). So we just went out to dinner with my friend Ted from work.
Friday, November 23
Mark Twain on Andrew Carnegie.
Thursday, November 22
Happy Thanksgiving! After a morning bike ride through the neighborhood, we had turkey at the home of Shirley Molin, Ed's friend Brian's mother. It was delicious. Afterward we went to the Uptown Lighting Festival, which is on Post Oak Boulevard (between my office and Eatzi's for those in the know). This was a rather bizarre even with a 'Singing Christmas Tree' which turned out to be a giant tree with the heads of the Second Baptist Church choir sticking out of it. There was also a tribute to Walt Disney complete with a giant sorcerer's apprentice hat. And fireworks. There were tens of thousands of people there; luckily we could park in my garage at the periphery and escape unharmed.
Tuesday, November 20
I gave blood today at work. Last year I did this near Christmas as an altruistic thing to do in the holiday spirit. This year it was partly that, but mostly because this drive was to support the husband of a woman I've worked with in the past. Her husband was diagnosed with myelogenous leukemia this summer, and needs daily transfusions despite being in remission. The local blood center lets you donate in someone's name so they get a blood "credit". It also lets you name two beneficiaries as well as yourself in case you need blood in the coming year.
Monday, November 19
I haven't felt much like writing, but I know I should.
Friday night Ed and I just went to Cosmos (our neighborhood bar, near the Art Car Museum) for dinner. Norma Zenteno was playing...we had seen her once before and liked her. This time we liked her so much that Ed got her card in case we need a band anytime soon.
Saturday we went on a quest for Hoover Type S vacuum bags and were finally successful. We also discovered that the Chinese restaurant in River Oaks we order from also has sushi. Could be dangerous!
Sunday we attended the baby shower of Miranda, who you might remember is the daughter of Ed's college friend Bob, and also the provider of Dewey. Miranda is due December 31st, but is having such a complicated pregnancy that she will be induced within two weeks.
And most importantly, I would like to say farewell to Mrs. Demmler, who was such a big part of my childhood.
Sunday, November 18
We went to a baby shower for Miranda, rescuer of Dewey. She is due December 31st, but because her blood pressure is so high, they are going to induce by the first weekend in December.
Friday, November 16
Today I was part of a presentation for the San Jacinto Community College Computer Science Club. I spoke about web development along with Ted, our webmaster and Dave, our e-commerce manager. It was nice to talk to people who are so interested in what you do. Ted was particularly happy, though, because preceding our presentation was a presentation on recruiting from Janna Algard from our HR department. I have worked with Janna before, but Ted was anxious to meet her because she was recently selected a Houston Texans (that's the new NFL team here) cheerleader. She made his day by discussing the cheerleader uniform selection and especially her experiences in the Miss Texas pageant -- including using "butt glue" and "boob pads".
Tuesday, November 13
I stopped at the pet store today and bought Dewey some catnip. Not that he needed it, but he ran around like a maniac for two hours and is now sleeping like a baby.
Ed, if you're reading this, I maxed out your hard drive last night. Sorry.
Monday, November 12
Hey, happy birthday, Kevin! I need to set up Outlook to remind me of birthdays more than three days ahead.
Today's tragic events were a reversal for us from September's tragic events. Today I was driving into work as I heard the news of the AA flight crash on the BBC. Ed, meanwhile, was at home watching on TV. The difference was that he had a flight to Washington, DC scheduled a few hours later. I'm glad that by the time he flew, they were saying it looked to be unrelated to the hijackings. I'm also glad that he was flying Continental.
Sunday, November 11
Yawn...sunny and dry today. We took the motorcycle out and drove north. We followed our usual MO -- check the weather radar, head to where there is no chance of rain, try to find good roads in the country to ride on, try to end up at a bar with outside seating around 4 o'clock, have a beer and head home. Today's ride was in Grimes County. We saw some great ranches, tried to determine how much acreage we need. The beer was in Old Town Spring (only annoying links available, sorry). This is a quaint old historic town which has been turned into a craft center...kind of like Solvang. Ed had been there many years ago and was trying to surprise me by ending up there. He was appalled to find that this was the Christmas festival, though. We did find a very Texas-like bar with a band of mullet-haired blues players, so it was a nice ride all around.
Saturday, November 10
We continue to have beautiful weather here, although we could use some rain.
Ed and I rode our bikes over to Glenwood Cemetery this afternoon. Mom, Dad and I had driven through last week, and I thought Ed would enjoy seeing it. It's a beautiful area, containing the graves of historic Houstonians, Heightsians and Republic of Texans, as well as Howard Hughes. I wish I had noticed the Cooley plot open heart sculpture last week. We saw this tribute to not-yet-dead Dr. Denton Cooley today near his grandfather Daniel Denton Cooley's grave.
Wednesday, November 7
Last night I went to our CRM kickoff dinner at Jillian's, which is a game (video, pool, bowling, etc.) place not far from my house. I got badly beaten in foosball by the Director of Business Development, about 8 times.
Ed was in Dallas yesterday and today, and tonight is at darts. At least I assume that's where he is, since he isn't here!
Yesterday's mayoral election turned out as expected....everybody I know contributed to the runoff, regardless of who they voted for. I don't know anyone who voted for the incumbent. I actually saw bumper stickers that read "Anybody but Brown".
Monday, November 5
Ed and I are sorting out our votes for tomorrow's election. Texas seems like California, with all the little niggly propositions amending the state constitution.
Today a large part of the IT department moved from the 31st floor to the 24th. In the process, I got a much nicer office (cubicle really, but with two real walls). My new area is much larger, with cherry furniture and a window. I miss being up higher though. I won't be able to see the lighted Christmas trees along Post Oak Boulevard from my window this year - there's a building blocking the way. On the other hand, not much chance of a plane hitting this floor!
