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!!

Sheesh I'm tired

Once again I became fixated on something...unfortunately, Andy did too.  (sounds ominous doesn't it)

Andy has begun a new workout routine and diet.  The diet calls for him to eat a ton of protein every day.  So, we got a whole bunch of things that would provide that protein and not have him eat the same thing every day.  Translation: lots of cooking and therefore lots of cleaning.  

And somehow I ended up with several soup recipes to make too.  Well, we bought the ingredients for these recipes.  Now I need to make the soups before the fresh ingredients go bad.  I'm happy to make food for Andy, especially since I know he really enjoys them.  But why oh why did I set myself up for so much work...not smart Mary!  I'm a few days into the work and have a few days left.

Here's what I've made so far:

Black Bean Soup

15 Bean Soup

Many Bean Soup

Blueberry Soup

Peach Soup

Cucumber Soup

Cucumber Fresca

Cucumber Yogurt Dip

+ food for our daily consumption (aka dinner)

Here's what is still on my list to make:

Creamy Bell Pepper Soup

Watercress Potato Soup

Minestrone Soup

Mashed Potato Casserole

Peach Tomato Gazpacho

Italian Spinach Soup

Spicy Tomato Sauce for a breakfast dish

Crazy, I know!  I told you it was a lot of work.  Are you thinking "where is she going to put all of this food"?  I realized after the first soup or two that I really have to work on our freezer so that I can fit them all in there.  Yeah, that's a looming task too....  By the time I'm all finished, I imagine that one of our two freezers will be completely full of these soups.  I don't think that I'll have to make much else for his snacks.  I'll only have to worry about lunch and dinner; that's two out of his six meals...

I Love Lucy moment

I was making pizza dough the other day using a new recipe and method.  It sounded easy enough to do; the recipe gave me the option of using a food processor or mixer.  I thought that I'd use my fabulous food processor since it keeps everything contained; I always seem to make a bigger mess with my mixer which is also fabulous.  

So, I combine the hot/warm water, yeast, and sugar in the food processor; it sits for a few minutes.  I throw all of the other ingredients into the food processor too and start mixing.  It seemed to be too wet still so I added small increments of additional flour and mixed.  I was surprised how much extra flour I needed to add but kept going.  After a little while of this process, I notice that there is dough seeping out of the bottom of the clear part that locks into the base.  I promptly turned the food processor off and unplugged it.  I was proud of myself that I thought to unplug the thing!  After that self congratulatory moment, I thought great, this does not look good.  I grab hold of the handle to unlock the clear container from the base.  It normally is a little stiff but this time the clear container isn't moving.  I thought great, I'm not able to unlock the two parts.  I figured that if I wasn't going to be able to use it, I might as well use some elbow grease to try to unlock this and if it breaks I already wasn't going to be able to use it.  But my strength prevailed; I heard this crack sound.  Again, I'm thinking this is not good; I've broken it for good now.  As I try to lift the clear container away from the base, I see that the base is covered in dough.  Apparently, the dough managed to go up inside of the blade and down the hole in the center of the clear container.  Since I couldn't see the middle of the base, I wasn't able to view the dough until it had coated the base and spread all of the way to the outside.  So, I go through the process of cleaning up this HUGE mess from the clear container and base.  I even make sure to thoroughly clean around the center peg of the base that actually rotates the blade.

Since this last round was done with what I thought was the dough blade, I said forget that I'm trying it with the normal blade.  Everything starts well.  The dough needs a little more flour again.  After adding it, I start mixing it, and it almost forms a ball (like it is supposed to).  I notice that the speed has dramatically slowed down in the past five seconds.  I quickly turn the food processor off and unplug it.  Does anyone feel like they've heard this before?  We most definitely were singing the same song, second verse.  I unlock the thing and lift the clear container up with bated breath.  And there wasn't dough all over the place...YEA!  But why would the speed have changed so much, so quickly?  I investigate and find that there is some dough that has dried at the bottom of that center peg of the base.  Could the dough have gone down into the motor?  I don't know, but I am starting to smell something weird.  After looking around, I notice that smell is strongest at the bottom of the base.  Again, I'm thinking uh oh, I've broken my fabulous food processor.  I waited to find out how bad this is; Andy didn't call me back for several hours.  After explaining the like five ways that I might have broken the food processor, he said that this didn't sound good...  When he got home, he pronounced that he thinks it's okay.  I've not tested this theory yet.

I swore off electronics for the rest of that day since I had an earlier incident with another electronic/computerized device.  I was able to make the dough the next day with my fabulous mixer and dough hook.  It turned out very well!

Every time that I think about the process of making dough with my food processor, I think of the I Love Lucy episode where she bakes bread but put cups of yeast into the dough.  Everything is fine until the dough has been in the oven for a few minutes.  Unbeknownst to Lucy, the dough has grown.  It suddenly starts trying to foam out the edges of the oven; then, it starts pushing the oven door open.  Lucy attempts to keep the door closed, but eventually, the dough takes over the kitchen.  I know that my experience pales in comparison, but I'll remember it as my mini Lucy moment.

Doing Dishes rather than Playing with Pictures

After watching Cari do all kinds of cool tricks on Photoshop, I was excited to try it out on some of the pictures that we have.  If you've been reading you understand that there might not be many of those, but I was going to pull some out of the archive.  I knew that we had Photoshop on our laptop; I had looked at it a handful of times without really using it.  Feeling so inspired, I even read some other blog postings about more cool stuff you can do with the software.  While neat, I felt overwhelmed with all of the things that I was reading.  I figured that I needed to get my hands dirty with it; that's really the only way to learn any new software in my opinion.  So, I pull up a picture that I want to play with, right click to chose which program to open it in, and select Photoshop Create.  The only problem with this was that it wasn't Photoshop but Photosmart Create - TOTALLY not the same thing!  Now, I'm bummed that I can't so some of the cool basic stuff.  I was always realistic that I probably wouldn't be making these mind blowing pictures (my pictures are better than they use to be but don't have the potential for mind blowing).  So, there is the part of me that says oh well, you didn't really have any pictures to work on anyway.  But dang I hate the teasing; I have to drop too much from the anticipation.  On the upside, I won't waste hours tonight playing with Photoshop...haha...I guess I will finish washing the dishes before going to bed.

Maddy's 1st Birthday Party

Logan and Cici's daughter, Maddy, turned one last week.  They drove up from San Antonio to celebrate with family and friends at the ranch.

Cici and Maddy are checking to make sure that all of the food is out for the party.  The girl is being trained early to help throw parties.
Maddy was not happy that we were trying to put a hat on her.  It took three or four people to get this cute picture.  Cari, you took a great shot and showed us all some of the cute tricks that you've learned in photoshop.  So, this is shows how cute she was before the cake.
This is the after.  Cici was really smart and had two cakes for the party.  One was a small round one that we put the candle on; this was Maddy's cake - the one that is now all over her hands and face.  The other rectangular one was for all of the guests.

Everyone had a great time!  There were tons of pictures taken because we had at least 5 cameras.  We were really fortunate that several people had there USB cords; Cici and Mary Beth got all of the pictures from several of those cameras before people left the party.  I didn't get them, so the last two pictures on the post are stolen from Cari's blog.  Thanks Cari for always putting good pictures up!

The photobook of Jimmy & Mary Beth's party

Nicole Hager took wonderful pictures at Jimmy & Mary Beth's 30th anniversary and vow renewal party.  Cici and I had decided before the party that we wanted to make them a book with these pictures.  After scanning and trying to restore color to all of their wedding photos, I decided to incorporate them into the book for a bit of a "now and then" theme.  I started with Shutterfly but wanted more artistic choices.  Then, Cari recommended Mixbook.  It really let me make an art book rather than just a scrapbook.  Yes, it took me several days and many, many hours to get the book where I wanted it.  (FYI: like all software, it does take a while to feel comfortable with the program)  I think that it turned out really well!  Sorry it doesn't show the full layout all at once; I didn't figure out how to do that.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Andy started the Clothes Swap Party early

When Andy got home from work, I showed him the clothes and accessories that I set aside for the swap. He was able to find two pairs of my jeans that fit him. He loves being able to take jeans of mine. He already has one pair of my old jeans that I didn't love the way they fit. He would love to have my Lucky jeans that are too small for me right now. There is no way that I am letting go of those. He does look good in them, but so did I. And he has the habit of messing clothes up...I can't take that chance with my Lucky jeans; they are the best pair of jeans that I've ever owned!! Anyway, he found some clothes from my closet; he just missed the "Swap". No worries ladies, I still have another pair in my stack...  Start making your own stack!!

So You Think You Can Dance

We love So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) on Fox. I was checking the website for a couple of months before it started for the summer. I was so excited to see the premier; life got better when they announced that the show will be on in the fall as well...woo hooo!!! It's been on now for a couple of weeks, and I'm excited every Wednesday night when the dancers perform. Next week, it will be the top 10 performing. They are fabulous! If you enjoy watching dancing and haven't seen the show, you should check it out. There are all kinds of styles of music and dance. You get to see some of the best choreographers work with the dancers in practice as well as the performance by the contestants. Some nights there are a lot of good dances and one or two great dances. Other nights are really special with a lot of great dances. There are some dances that stay with you because they were beyond great - they were special. Here are some of my favorites from the past and present.  I'm sure that I've missed a few so feel free to post any others as a comment.  Some of these are so good that when I hear the song played I remember the dance; the two are forever tied together in my mind.

Bleeding Love

Sweet Dreams aka The Table Dance or The Boadroom

The Garden

Chairman's Waltz aka The Hummingbird and Flower (you can skip the first minute)

Calling You aka The Bench

Imagine

Waiting for You

Felt Mountain aka Crash Test Dummies

Mercy aka The Door (you can skip the first minute and a half)

Travis and Benji Finale (two white boys; there are lots of jokes that you get if you watched the whole season)

Black Mambo

Argentine Tango

Ruby Blue aka Jewel Thieves