Yea rain...nevermind, rain, rain, go away; come again some other day

What an interesting day we've had!! Once again my sleep patterns are off - I wake up before Andy gets home, stay awake all night, wake Andy up, see him off to work, and then go to sleep. It's been great though to help Andy in the morning; he's a little grumpy and a slow mover in the morning. We also have a pretty clean house, and Andy has had lots of really good food to eat!

Here the story begins.

This morning I made fresh bread so that we could have warm bread to put strawberry jelly on for breakfast. We have several kinds of cheese in our refrigerator that are growing mold - apparently, it is the good kind. To me, mold means that I need cut that off and hurry to use what is left; Andy later said to leave some of the mold and let the cheese age...I raised an eyebrow to that... So, I wanted to try to use the havarti cheese that we have in the refrigerator. I decided that he could have a sandwich for dinner with havarti and gouda (yep, we have that one open as well...no mold though). In my search for something to do with all of the cheeses (yep, there are more). I ran across something that said that Edam cheese pairs well with melons. I perked up and thought we have honeydew melon. So, as the bread rose, I got the melon baller (thanks Correy; Cici and Mary Beth I knew you'd appreciate this) out and went after the slice of honeydew melon. Then, I sliced off some Edam cheese. I put these back in the refrigerator and baked the bread. I pulled the bread out of the oven intending to let it rest and cool for thirty minutes before waking Andy at 5:30.

I start the dishwasher and listen to an audio book while I rest on the couch for a little while. I hear some thunder which upsets the dog and notice a few minutes later that it has started to rain lightly. I suddenly hear some sort of tapping sound that is not from raindrops. When I look around for the source, I see that the cat is walking around the dining room table; he's probably batting at a milk cap. Several minutes later, I still hear the sound; wow, the cat is really going to town with that cap (they are toys for him). Then, I spot the cat, and he isn't playing with anything.

I looked around and quickly spotted water dripping from the ceiling....this is definitely not good! I grabbed a bowl and put it under the leak to collect the water. It was about 5:25 so I went to wake Andy up. I charge in to the bedroom, and tell him that he needs to get up because we have a leak in the ceiling. He jumps out of bed thinking that there is water all over the place and that the ceiling is collapsing in.

He investigated by among other things looking in the attic and turning the water off. While he was in the attic, I was able to hear two different sets of dripping only one of which was the water dripping from our ceiling. Our guess is then that water is coming through the roof. Nothing really seemed to help or explain the situation or that theory. I called and left a message for our landlords. Unfortunately, they only start answering their phones at 9 am. Knowing there was nothing more we could do (especially since the ceiling wasn't dripping anymore), we set about eating our breakfasts at 6:30. To my annoyance, the extra hour of cooling the bread meant it was a little warm but not much. I then headed off to bed while Andy worked on school stuff and waited to hear back from the landlord.

Some men come to check out the situation around lunch time. They see some little holes in the room that they try to patch. They told us that we would have to wait for it to rain again to see if that fixed the problem.

And here the story should end....

During the time that I've been writing this, it started to rain again. While no water has dropped from the ceiling. I could still hear tapping...it sounded rather like a metronome. I guess I was hearing water dripping in the attic from the roof to the ceiling. Oh boy! At least the water hasn't been dripping from the ceiling to the floor! But I'm guessing that the patch either didn't have enough time to set or just didn't work. It should be a fun night since there is a cool front moving through with lots of rain north of us headed southeast.

Sorry for all of the verb tense changes; the post is too long for me to fix them all....

Our Trip to Corpus and the TAMU-CC Summer 2009 Graduation

For several months, we've been planning to go to Corpus Christi to see one of Andy's high school friends, George Mayfield, graduate. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to head back down to my alma matter. I haven't been down in a handful of years. I drove us down through the middle of the night while Andy slept. This allowed us to pick up a frame for my diploma, me to give Andy a mini tour of campus, and us to see some of my friends who now work for the school. I had hoped that we might make it down early enough that we would watch the sun rise on the beach, but we were on 37 just outside of San Antonio for that. So, we headed straight to campus. It was amazing how stagnant the air was when we got out of the car; it was supper hot! For our mini tour, I tried to keep us going from one air conditioned building to another. We didn't see all of the new buildings, but it was amazing how many there were and how they changed the landscape and feel of the campus. In one building, the CI, I even got to help a woman find the building she needed to be in; it did my heart good to jump into Island Ambassador mode all of these years later.

We stopped off at the Round Building and saw several of my IA buddies. We talked for quite a while, but made plans to try to see each other sometime after graduation the next day. I found out while there that one of my friends, Bryan Davis, was receiving his Master's Degree.

Then we headed over the bridge to Bob Hall Pier in Port A. I needed to sleep! We had to figure out a way to set me up so that I wouldn't be too hot. Here is the Walker Beachmobile that we came up with.

We had the car angled so that the breeze blew right through the back seat where I laid out. Unfortunately, I still couldn't get cool enough. So, we called up George and Lauren, who we stayed with. They set up their air mattress, we pulled in to their apartment complex, the guys picked up some pizza from B&J's (I love their pizza; they were one of my spots when I was working on my degree in Corpus.), and then we took a well deserved nap. That evening we headed to Snoopy's (a good seafood place in Port A) for dinner. I was really surprised how long the line was; they told us the wait would be an hour. I don't think it was that long though. The food was good, and it was great to sit out on the porch looking over the water as the sun went down. We hung out with the George, Lauren, and their daughters Samantha (3) and Evelyn (2) for the rest of the evening. When I was falling asleep, Andy decided we needed to head to bed again.

Saturday morning was relaxed. We got ready and headed off to graduation. It didn't start until 1:30, but George had to be there at 12. We knew that we would need to be there early for good seating anyway so we went all together. The girls were both raring to go and were not thrilled that they were being asked to sit! So, I suggested that Andy take Samantha for a walk. After 30 minutes or so, I called him requesting that he switch girls. Evelyn then got her chance to run around. Andy was great about helping the girls use up their excess energy!! The girls were then able to survive the 2 hour long graduation ceremony.

I was thrilled to find out that I knew several people who were graduating! The woman in charge of the Equestrian Team & Club, Catherine Swift, received her Doctorate in Education. As I said earlier, my friend Bryan received his Master's in English. George got his Bachelor's in Business. In the craziness after graduation was over, I ran into someone else who knew me. We talked, but I couldn't for the life of me recognize her. I felt so bad! She even remembered my name, and I couldn't even recognize her face! It wasn't until several days later that I could figure out who she was. Lisa was one of the other flute players in the school band. She was receiving her Master's in Counseling.

We headed back to George and Lauren's apartment for the party that they threw. Several of George's fraternity brother's came to congratulate him. It was lots of fun meeting and talking with these guys.

We packed up our stuff, loaded the car, and met several of my friends for dinner. I got to see Brenda, Bryan, Leigh Ann, Sara (Huerta), and Chris. I didn't get to talk that much with some of them, but maybe we'll see them again in the future. I had a fabulous time seeing everyone!!

We drove that night to San Antonio where we stayed with Cici & Logan. Unfortunately, we got there so late that we didn't actually get to spend time with them. We'll catch up over the Labor Day weekend.

Sunday morning, we met my father for breakfast. He showed us the house that he and his fiance, Margaret, just bought. It's a 1917 house that has some beautiful architectural details. They are cleaning the place up and working to bring the house up to the place they want. As with any old home, there are plenty of things on the honey do lists. They will have a wonderful time showing off the place at any stage though. Then we went over to Stacey (my college roommate) and Einar Phillips's house. We hadn't talked with them in quite a while so it was wonderful to hear all of their news. They have an adorable little puppy who would sit and wag his tail causing him to slide all over the wood floors; it was hilarious! Then, we were off to Austin to stop by Amy & Ricardo's to meet their new baby, Ricardo IV. He's so cute! After a very short stop with them (we stayed long enough for little Richy to fall asleep in my arms), we headed home.

What a whirlwind trip it was!! It was great to see all of these old friends!

Sickly Kitty

At the beginning of the August, the cat stopped eating his food. We've had that happen before when he was sick. The vet advised us that wet food is easier for them to smell and therefore more appetizing. So, we assumed that the cat had a cold or stuffy nose and wasn't interested in the dry food. Off I went to the store to buy some wet food. Cappuccino was very excited when I opened the tin and added it to his bowl. He gobbled the stuff right up. After about two days of this progress, the cat started to throw up. We had noticed the nasty kitty litter but attributed that to him being sick and the change in diet. After the throwing up though, we made an appointment with the vet.

I dropped him off at the vet's office for them to observe him. He stayed there all day. When I arrived to pick him up, the people at the office told me what a cool cat he is. They always compliment our pets a lot. I'm sure that they do this to everyone, but I let myself believe that they really mean it with our pets.

By the time that I walked out of the office with the cat, I spent $240 and had 4 liquid medicines that the cat needed to take. So, no one was thrilled at our house. The cat hates liquid meds, and each of his meds was 1-3cc's. One of the medications was going to be twice a day too. When he had to take liquid medication before, he would foam at the mouth, end up with pink froth all over his mouth and chin, and shake the froth off so that it landed on the floor, walls, doors, etc. Lucky us; this time we had white, pink, orange, and yellow medications. I thought it would have been perfect if we had a canvas; we could come out of this experience with an interesting piece of artwork.

Thankfully, Andy was able to handle the medication administration better this time around. Only occasionally would the froth appear, but once it did, it was hard to stop it from getting worse. Here's a great shot of the outcome of frothing from the yellow medication. Unfortunately, you can't see his beautiful, plaintive blue eyes.

Now, the cat is back to normal and up to his usual mischief!!