Sunday, November 17, 2002
Now we are in full home tour swing. I spent the last week painting the porch trim. We used gold and red for accent colors. I'll take some pictures to post eventually.
This afternoon the home tour decorations chairperson stopped by. She liked all of our ideas, and gave us a few new ideas. I was very glad that she told us not to go overboard with decorating because our house was interesting just as it is. Since we don't have any Christmas dishes, she is going to see if Pier 1 will volunteer to decorate the dining room table for us. We also get a dedicated florist for the event.
After she left, we had a meeting with all the docents (there are 21 for the three shifts, four of whom are friends of ours). We showed them the house and they signed up for the rooms they'll be guiding. Now that we've done most of the large projects, I'm not feeling as stressed about the tour. I still have a lot of yard work to do, as well as painting the back porch trim and the door to the garage. Plus all the Christmas decorating, but we still have almost three weeks for all of that.
Stargazers, take note that the Leonid meteor shower is supposed to be spectacular, the highlight of the next several decades, over the next day or two.
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Happy Birthday, Kevin -- did you hear the feature on Yvon Chouinard this morning on NPR's Morning Edition? If not, you can find it here.
Tuesday, November 5, 2002
Election Day. I was appalled the first time I voted here to find that Houston used punch ballots. Today marked the debut of eSlate. I might have skipped this mid-term election if I wasn't so eager to try out eSlate. It was (to me, admittedly a little more accustomed to trying new technologies) a perfect way to vote. It wasn't a touchpad -- you used a wheel that tabbed through the choices, then you pushed "Enter" to select. There were Previous and Next buttons to move back and forth. At the end you were presented with a list of all your votes. You could then click on any one of these to go back and change your vote -- a very nice feature. Then when you were ready, you clicked the "Cast Vote" button, and a waving American flag signalled you were done. Compare this with the old punch system where you used a poker to punch holes in a card. Made a mistake? Too bad. Then at the end you threw your ballot in a can like you were voting for student council president. Pathetic, especially when compared with the already antiquated voting machines we used in Pennsylvania (since the 60's at least) and New York.
In other political news, and don't think this timing is accidental, Houston is repealing the 55mph speed limit that was implemented last spring. Everyone knew this wouldn't stick, not here.
And on a personal note, goodbye to Craig, a good work friend who gave notice last week that today would be his last day with NextiraOne. Craig was fortunate enough to inherit 19 million dollars from his grandparents, and so was able to take this job and shove it. Good luck, buddy! (on a side note, Craig called me within an hour of walking out the door to complain that he was bored).
Sunday, November 3, 2002
I was really looking forward to yesterday because we had so many activities planned, but rain foiled a lot of them, including World Art Car Day. We were able to make it to some of the open houses that were part of Historic Heights First Saturday, a new monthly event here. We visited two B&Bs, Angel Arbor and Sarah's Bed & Breakfast Inn. We wanted to see them in case we ever have lots of company and need to have some guests stay nearby. We also visited the studio of Virgil Grotfeldt. We'd been there before with Looking at Art, but liked him so much we wanted a second look. We were two hours early for his open house, but he was nice enough to show us his studio anyway and took quite a bit of time explaining his techniques and materials, so it was actually better than being there with a group. All three of these places are within walking distance of our house.
Next we did a quick drive by the Art Car Museum, where the art cars were lined up before the parade. It was pouring, though, so we didn't get out of the car and look at them. We drove on to nearby Glenwood Cemetery. We had hoped to see some Dia de los Muertos activities, but with the rain all we saw were some remnants. This cemetery is so beautiful, though, that we just like driving around in it and looking for graves of famous people. We paid our respects to Howard Hughes and the fathers of Texas and Houston, then headed home, stopping at two antique stores on the way.
Next we went downtown to see the movie Frida. We both really liked it. And finally we had a great dinner at a restaurant we hadn't tried yet.
Saturday, November 2, 2002
We bought a piano last week on our antiques spree, and it was delivered last night. Ed found the above site to check the age of the piano, a Hölling & Spangenberg. It was made in 1885-1886. It wasn't until after he found our piano that he realized an English version of the site was available by clicking the British flag. The piano is beautiful, but will need a lot of work to sound good.
We bought a dresser from the same dealer, and that came last night as well. I've been having fun getting out some of my little antique things to put on it.
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