RANDOM MUSINGS

Work has sucked this week. Which is freakin hilarious considering I was not even there on Monday! Things are just so different at the office now…the process to get anything approved or changed involves way too many people. Too much micro-managing going on, and nobody ever makes a decision. Just talk talk talk. That drives me nuts. As if that is not stressful enough, I found out Sunday that my dad’s best friend died, and I drove to Beaumont and back Tuesday night to go to the funeral home. Which, if any one knows anything about me, you know that included at least one “Low Fuel” scare. Ha.

If anyone is paying attention to anything Astros-related, you would have seen a ton of articles about changes this week. New hitting coach, new utility player, Lane is gone, etc. Things are nuts. I always hate it when players get sent down. How do you not take that personally? Oh well. Baseball is their job, right? If you are not producing, there are consequences. Which may be me after this Quarterly Meeting. j/k. Anyway…I do agree that the Astros need a change. They seem entirely too comfortable. And being comfortable with losing is never a good thing.

Tomorrow we are taking E out for her birthday dinner. Whoo-hoo! Her birthday was Sunday and we already did the night out thing, as you can tell from the pictures, but tomorrow night is just for the Four of us. Yes, I know I capitalized that. That is how it should be. The Four. Ha. I am so freakin excited about her gift. Even though none of it was my idea! Summer is the creative genius.

Hope everyone has a good Thursday…

BOSTON – Three-ton concrete panels fell from the ceiling of the city’s Big Dig tunnel, killing a woman in a car and shutting down a section of the massive building project that has become both a central route through the city and a source of construction concerns and cost overruns.

Full store here….

 This is one of those “modern marvels” that people talk about…kind of scary!

Man, the week since I last posted has been LONG. New pictures are up….from going to Red Star on Friday, and Elodie’s birthday festivities Saturday night. Both were a BLAST. Dancing at Red Star is always good, even when there is a little bit of drama thrown in. Right, Cristina? I was so tired on Saturday, and even though Cristina and I were running really late, ended up having a really good time Saturday night. E celebrated her birthday at Ginger Man…where we ended up sitting outside. It was so hot that Cristina brought up going swimming. Always a freakin great idea…so we did. Then Ruchi’s, of course. Jenny stayed the night, and most of the next day, and I do believe she loves my idea of the perfect Sunday afternoon activities - couches and television! We chilled….it was great.

As fun as the weekend was, I received really bad news Sunday night….my dad’s best friend died Sunday afternoon. I already did not feel so hot, and was just not in the mood to be around a lot of people, so I did not make it to work yesterday. Had a good, chilled, take-my-mind-off-things day, though. The funeral is tomorrow in Beaumont, and that is going to be a LONG drive. Going to be such a long week.

ROUND ROCK, Texas — Brandon Backe, missing from the Astros’ rotation since April 13 when he left a game against the San Francisco Giants with an elbow sprain, took his second step back to the Minute Maid Park pitching mound on Tuesday when he worked 4 2/3 pain-free and effective innings of Triple-A ball.

 Read more about it here…

New pictures are up…two nights out and one baseball day.

I ended up going to see Superman Returns again this weekend with my parents. It was just as good the second time. The best part is when the credits start and you hear the music come up…they used the John Williams original fanfare for Superman. You just hear it and you KNOW that it is Superman. That is my number one complaint about the Spiderman movies. I consider the music to be as important as any of the characters. And Spiderman has no distinctive score…granted, the second was better than the first, but still not great. Ooh….I saw the teaser for Spiderman III during my second viewing of Superman. And it looks amazing. Much darker, which is never a bad thing.

Finally…the Astros appear to have their bats working again. It is about damn time. I could almost want to go see them again. For a while I did not want to go…too hard to watch on TV, much less in person! These past few games have been good for raising the spirit, though. I guess Garner should throw chairs on the field more often!
All in all, this long weekend was pretty good. Good to have a break before all hell breaks loose at work…starting with a crazy luncheon on Thursday. A luncheon that went from an expected attendance of 150 to having over 300. Nuts. Stuff like this is why I love my job, though. Things are always changing and are rarely what you expect them to be.

Got to go out twice this weekend, too. Both of those were a lot of fun. Hung out with what I call the “married crew” on Friday. That was hilarious. Monday was more the usual group. Also, RED STAR THIS FRIDAY! Let’s go. Dollar beer cannot be beat. Let me know if anyone is interested
Ooh…I also had good food today. My family usually does not do much for the 4th. But Cristina’s dad grilled. YUM. Thanks for letting me crash!