Saturday, September 30
Ed and I went to the Bulb and Plant Mart today. We got some anenome, ranunculus, hibiscus and iris bulbs/rhizomes. Also some perennials...I'll list them tomorrow when I can look up their names. Then we went to Buchanan's for their fall festival. We bought more mums and two trees: a Mexican redbud and a Senna. They are both very small, and the redbud is a Texas native. We're debating trellises and arbors now. It's gotten a little hotter this weekend, though.
At Buchanan's fall festival, we listened to a woman lecture on feng shui in the garden. It was interesting, if only to finally hear how to pronounce feng shui. Turns out it's fung sway, with a heavy Texas accent. Some of the theories were interesting, but some were poppycock. Moral of the story, don't let your garden get out of whack, but don't worry about releasing bad energy from antique items by burying them in salt.
Friday, September 29
As of today, I work for Williams Communications, rather than New Boston Systems. For what it's worth, I work in the Communications Group, but serving Communications Solutions. The whole thing is part of Williams which is also a gas pipeline company. And here's the big event that's going on now (maybe I'll do it next year).
Yesterday at lunchtime I went to the Garden Club of Houston's Bulb and Plant Mart, which was near my office. It was huge, and crowded, so I didn't get anything. I may go back tomorrow, because they had interesting bulbs. And plants.
Ed is getting home tonight, very delayed due to mechanical difficulties.
Wednesday, September 27
Nice weather continues, but with no rain. So I'm watering now, but it seems odd since it feels like fall. Ed is in Chicago for a BAFT conference. Here is evidence of how the Internet has grown in the past few years: when I first met him, I could search on his name and find a lot of articles and documents pertaining to banking work he'd done. Now I can't get him to come up in a search at all. I'm sure the documents are still there....I wish I'd bookmarked them.
Tonight I'm going to draw with my graphics tablet. And experiment with some new DHTML tricks I've learned. Oh, and here's the next toy I'm going to buy for myself.
Tuesday, September 26
A surprising discovery I made tonight while, um, doing research. There are hundreds of Arvo Pärt pieces on Napster! Not to mention Wagner, Puccini, et al.
Monday, September 25
And now we're into fall. It was cold today! People were wearing coats! Well, we weren't, but it did feel great. It's supposed to get down to 40 to 45 degrees tonight, and last night it was too hot to sit out on the deck after dinner. We have our windows open, even though we don't have screens (we're going to order some). Ed and I went for a run on the jogging trail that runs down Heights Boulevard (in the esplanade on the left of the postcard). We noticed that some of the Victorian houses were decorated for Halloween, so I started to get out some of my Halloween stuff. It fits in here - even though our house is new and light inside, it seems like it could maybe be haunted.....
Sunday, September 24
We're back into stifling heat and humidity. But a cool front is coming. I 'planted' the plants I bought last week by digging holes for them and just setting them in the ground in their pots. I didn't want to stress them by planting them in this heat.
We went for a drive in the country today, and saw some old ranches, which are quickly being replaced by boring subdivisions. It's amazing how much new construction there is here.
The house next door got its windows today. I actually like having it there, even though it's close. It's kind of cosy. The new house has a bay window in front. I'm glad ours doesn't, because I don't like them.
Saturday, September 23
Today I went to a Mediterranean festival with my friend Ellie. They had great food, including pierogies for some reason. We're staying in tonight, cooking risotto and making homemade salsa. We have friends who are known for their great homemade salsas, and so finally cracked open the salsa book we've had for about three years. I'm flaming the tomatoes over the gas flame. Also having some margartias made with Key limes.
This is where we went last night. It's in the Heights, and although their schedule hasn't been updated in a while (maybe years), they do get name bands in. Not last night, though.
Friday, September 22
Here's a bookmarklet that might be useful - it converts a web page to a Palm Pilot document. Don't click on it (that will convert this page to a Palm doc, which would be less than useful). Instead, save it as a favorite, then, when you're viewing a page you want to save, access it like you normally would a bookmark. It will prompt to save the file somewhere, where you can sync it to your palm. I don't know about cross-browser or cross-platform issues....let me know. And, I didn't write it, so thank you whoever did.
Thursday, September 21
Note to people going on babysitting duty next week: Don't
lock the keys in the car.
Not to people leaving their children with a babysitter next week: Leave
an extra set of keys
Wednesday, September 20
I woke up, went to work, worked, ate lunch, worked some more, came home, went for a run, cleaned up a little, ate some leftover pasta, wrote this, and then......
Tuesday, September 19
Ed has always secretly liked Martha Stewart Living, but it's still kind of amusing to observe. This month I didn't unwrap my issue for a few days. Finally he got impatient and opened it himself. He keeps wanting to espalier things. I've had to convince him we do not need a sesame seed toaster. He was fascinated by the article debating folding vs. hanging clothes - the type of article I really dislike. His glee over the ant poison trick (after overcoming the initial impulse not to smash them) made him a true Martha believer. I wish he would get more interested in how to build a trellis, but it's probably just as well. He's eager to make pumpkin ravioli, and I guess that's good enough.
Monday, September 18
I've actually managed to run the last two evenings. It's much drier, now. It felt good, and I get to see some things in the neighborhood that I haven't noticed while driving or biking.
I've updated my resume. Will do so again in a few weeks.
Sunday, September 17
This weekend's nursery spree: Oxblood lily, basil, lemongrass, Anthurium, Alamanda, evergreen wisteria, firecracker fern, umbrella palm, mums and asters. The oxblood lily (also known as schoolhouse lily and hurricane lily) is a Texas heirloom plant which is hard to find in nurseries. Lots of people find them on old abandoned homesteads. Our local nursery, Buchanan's Native Plants, had them, though. That really is a great nursery. By the way, the Anthurium and Alamanda were Ed's picks. He's had the gardening bug for a few years now. He just doesn't know how to diagnose plant problems. We had a Mexican heather that was turning yellow last month, and he was convinced it had aphids. I fertilized it, and it's fine now. So I'll take care of his plants. We're considering trees, although our yard is very small.
Saturday, September 16
We've had a cool front come through! It was delightful this morning - low humidity, warm but not hot. So we decided to walk to Kaldi Cafe for coffee and breakfast. This is just 6 1/2 blocks away, but until now, has been unwalkable. It felt great! And we sat in the alley/courtyard to eat (see picture at link above), which felt great, too. Then we stopped in a few of the eclectic stores nearby, but didn't buy anything. We really have to get a baby gift for friends of Ed's, but everything in these stores could poke an eye out.
Which reminds me, since there are antique stores nearby, too.....I saw the pink poodles that Grandma had (and I sent to Kevin years ago) in an antique shop. They were 150 dollars! Go figure.
Wednesday, September 13
Forgot to mention that I mailed your birthday present today,
Dad. So, um, you might probably definitely won't be getting
it by your birthday. Sorry about that. It's coming via post office, by
the way. And it's insured, so tell me if it's broken.
We've been getting steady rain. It's a bit cooler, but still humid. Ed is so convinced it's cool now that he won't turn the air conditioning on, so it's 80 degrees in here. I'll turn it on in a minute.
The house next door is all framed, and they've started putting the walls up. They didn't work today, though, because it was pouring. Once the walls are finished they won't be hampered by weather, and we won't hear much noise. It really hasn't been bad, though.
Tuesday, September 12
I got the game The Sims yesterday. I was trying it out, getting my feet wet, and I had a nice little family with a mother, a father, and a little boy. I was working on building their house and helping them move up in the world. Then I left Ed to supervise while I went to fix some dinner. Not four minutes later, he had started a kitchen fire which killed both parents. The little kid was sobbing. I decided to start a new family, but I didn't fare much better. They had a baby, and the mother was exhausted, so I had her take a nap. The baby started crying, and I tried to get the father to pick it up, but he fixed himself a sandwich instead. The mother wouldn't wake up, and eventually protective services came and took the baby away. Anyway, at least the mother was more rested from then on, and she didn't seem very upset. I can see that this will probably be an addictive game.
Monday, September 11
It's rained a bit over the last few days. My rain lily is blooming! They've made the water rationing voluntary (whatever that means). It's muggy as heck, now, though.
Yesterday I started a bunch of seeds. I'm not sure how they'll do, some are pretty old. I also started a compost pile.
Not much else to report.
Sunday, September 10
Today's link is to may favorite radio show, This American Life on NPR. I've been meaning to highlight this show for a long time. I've listened to it for a few years - it's best to accidentally stumble across it on a long driving trip at night. But...when I first moved here, before I met anyone, when Ed was travelling alot, I discovered that you can listen to most episodes on-line. I played them all the time. For those who haven't heard the show, each week it has a theme, with a prologue and three acts related to the theme. The on-line shows are in RealPlayer format. Here are two of my favorites....Episode 94 - How to and Episode 101 - Niagara. Listen to them sometime, or go to the website and read through the synopses to find others.
Saturday, September 9
We went shopping this afternoon, stopping first in an architectural antiques store near downtown. I bought five antique doorknobs - two dark brass and three ornate iron. I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet, but I liked them. Our last stop was the nursery around the block, where I bought a pale yellow rain lily. White rain lilies grow wild here. They only bloom after it rains (not after you water them). I also bought a dendrobium, which I just figured out is an orchid. We saw a lot of things we want to plant in the yard. We can grow some unusual things here, and that nursery carries unusual things. We have another great nursery within a few blocks which specializes in native plants.
We saw The Tao of Steve last night. It was very funny. It took place in Santa Fe, and had a scene at the opera (Don Giovanni, you'll see why when you see the movie). Now I want to move to Santa Fe. Ed says I should see Santa Fe first, but I didn't get to see Houston before I moved here, did I? After the movie we had dinner at La Griglia. I had the very excellent Red Snapper La Griglia, topped with crabmeat, champagne sauce and grapes. Yum.
Which reminds me, Ed and I are going to make a mosaic backyard table. We need tiles and broken crockery. Any sources out there?
We have water rationing now, so far just affecting watering the lawn and garden and washing cars. We can only water on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The water may not touch sidewalks or driveways. This is nearly impossible for us, since we have a small front yard (no driveway, though). Anyway, it might rain today, and it's in the 70's! And it's not supposed to get above 90 today!
Friday, September 8
In the news here today: the hundredth anniversary of the 1900 Galveston Storm This was the worst natural disaster in United States history in terms of lives lost. This site even has video - film shot by an assistant of Thomas Edison. For some reason, I've had spotty results of this site retrieving it's images, but refeshing got them all.
Thursday, September 7
It's finally cooling off. There were forest fires over the weekend, so the whole place smells like a wood stove. I kind of like it, but my lungs are irritated. That could be because of the high ozone levels, though.
Tuesday, September 5
It only got to 108 ° today. Would have been a record any other day, but yesterday hit 109 (before I did the screen shot). Usually, restaurants and stores here are freezing. Now they're feeling a little warm.
I took Ed to a shoulder specialist today, because his was feeling worse. He was happy to get a diagnosis of tendonitis, with a yummy steroid shot as the prescription. He's feeling much better now.
There's an article in last month's Texas Monthly about Philip Johnson, the architect of my building (referred to here as the Transco Tower). The online version doesn't have pictures, unfortunately. What's impressive about this building is that it's not downtown - so it rises 71 stories above everything, in a completely flat city. And it has a lighthouse-style light on top that goes around at night.
Monday, September 4
I got to Houston just in time for some record-setting weather. We hit an all-time high here today (breaking the previous high of 107, which we tied on Friday).
Saturday, September 2
For those keeping track of my childhood memories....does anyone remember the dream I had at age two, about a gorilla breaking into our liquor cabinet on Glenview? Well, imagine my surprise when I saw this TV listing (Acrobat Reader required). I must have seen this movie.
Friday, September 1
We've been setting heat records here. It was 107° yesterday. It hasn't rained for a few weeks.
I talked to Alan today, he called me at work. I've booked five rooms for New Orleans - a temporary reservation, probably. All the cool hotels were sold out, but I'm hoping to squeeze in on one of those later. The one I got is a backup. Anyway, that's Barb and Alan, Mom and Dad, me and Ed, Linda and Kevin (with accessory humans, possibly) and Tiffany and someone (maybe Greg, who has moved out into his own place). We can cancel any rooms we don't need up to 72 hours ahead.
