RANDOM MUSINGS

But coming back to work sucks. Especially after driving 800 miles in five days! Hope everyone had a good week!

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Originally uploaded by Jilly2113

Seriously….I just go to Austin for the food. And the outdoor activities. And going to the movies. And seeing My Summer!!!

Photos from the Indian Fair are up….

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Originally uploaded by Jilly2113

Inn of the Mountain Gods was awesome! Everyone must go. Charter airfare, transportation, a casino, sports bar…what else do ya need?? If you must have it there is also golf. Blah! I will be more excited when they put the spa in. That will rock. The casino was awesome. As was the horseback riding. New Mexico is gorgeous. I would love to see it with all the snow. The weather was absolutely wonderful…the wind was a little colder than I would have liked, though. That is what we get for going so late in the season! There are a few random pictures in the Photo section…hope everyone is having a good week!

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Originally uploaded by Jilly2113

Vacations are great. Even mini-vacations. Marilyn and I went to San Marcus to shop like crazy people last week. It was a blast. We even went to that Wonder World cave thing in San Marcus…it is small, but super cute. Obviously it does not compare to Carlsbad or Natural Bridge or something, but it was cute enough to warrant the ticket price! They even have a little petting zoo area with baby deer and peacocks. It was precious. We also saw Ocean’s Thirteen…which is completely better than Ocean’s Twelve. Saturday we went into Austin and spent the day with Summer, Daniel and Cary. That was completely festive. And I parallel parked!! Summer and Cristina may be the only ones that understand how big of a deal that is! I did not even have to back in and out multiple times…FIRST try. Whoo-hoo! I bet it never happens again. Usually when we used to go out downtown I would have to get out and let someone else park if we were parking on the street. Hilarious. We had lunch at a cute little hamburger place that was yummy. And then we had sno-cones!! Summer and Daniel found a REAL sno-cone stand. Not one of those Hawaiian Shaved Ice wanna-be places. Haha. And they didn’t charge for cream. Which was strange. I have never seen that before. They were super good. I can’t wait to get back to Austin to have another one. Marilyn and I got up early Sunday to make it back for Father’s Day grilling at Bobbie and Herman’s house. That was fun. Good family day!!
All in all…pretty good time off. I didn’t even mind getting up and going to work this morning.

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Originally uploaded by Jilly2113.

Finally!! We went camping this past weekend. And I actually got to go. I do believe everyone was taking bets on that. At least Mike and Jen were. We went to a park outside of Austin…in Smithville. It was a lot of fun. Just nice to be out of Houston and be around some trees!! Festive things about camping…

1. Dairy Queen on the way there AND on the way back
2. Hot dogs!!
3. Trees!
4. Not being able to see out of the back end of my car
5. Free pizza from a gas station
6. Elodie taking a bajillion pictures of Jen’s “children”
7. Smoke from our sad little fire following Daniel and Summer everywhere they tried to sit
8. Jen and the spiders on her hat
9. Elodie jumping out of her skin several times
10. Summer’s bucket-o-beer
11. Daniel and his 4 different kinds of creamer
12. Just getting to chill!!
13. Cool weather
14. The postponement of the rain until we were driving off
15. Daniel bringing his blender
16. Bathrooms that were pretty well taken care of
17. Having the $3 I gave Summer and Daniel be stretched enough to buy two bags of ice and a can of hot dog chili. Even if they did have to ride their bikes all over town to do it!
18. I-10 being closed and having to take detours
19. Representing SHSU in several ways. #1 being my bright as hell orange wind breaker. That is what happens when the book store has a clearance sale.
20. The wonderment of how much stuff 3 girls can fit into one car. We are good!
21. Daniel’s squid jerky
22. Elodie drinking coffee out of a bowl
23. Jen’s super nutritious breakfast…I have not seen nutty bars in years!!
24. Chips and chips and more chips…and guacamole!!
25. The best feeling…getting in my own shower at home after I unloaded my car!

I know more things happened. I am just too tired and am drawing a complete blank!! One thing I can say for sure is that it was a good weekend.

Oh yeah…and my new kitty has a name…Caesar…as in Julius. Mainly because he attacks swiftly and with no warning! He is awesome. Very sweet and very playful. Summer, a.k.a the Cat Whisperer, even came over to meet him. He enjoys guests. Even if he still does not enjoy Zoe!!

   

IMG_9759.JPGOriginally uploaded by Jilly2113.

I finally got to go to New Orleans. Whoo-hoo. Crystal invited me to go with some of her friends, and it was just too good an opportunity to pass up! Left Saturday and came back Monday. It really was a blast. I did miss being with my 3 best girls on New Year’s, though. I put all my pictures up….although I plan on stealing Crystal’s at some point. Especially since I am a goofball and forgot to charge my camera before going out to Bourbon St for New Year’s…brilliant, right??

Highlights of the trip…

1. The best biscuits EVER at Mother’s. (You knew the first one was going to be about food, right?)
2. Being in a car with 6 other people + luggage. Festive!
3. Finally getting to go to the WWII Museum.
4. Wonderful cafe au lait at Cafe Du Monde.
5. Getting beads without having to do something I would regret when I have grandchildren.
6. Drunkin Smurfs!
7. Walking around Bourbon St with a red feather boa.
8. Almost shoving down a dirty old man who decided to grab my ass.
9. Crystal proving that she really does not know the name of her fave Astro…Willy Vedder? Seriously? Haha. J/K! :-)
10. Having someone recognize the Threadless T-shirt I had on and calling it by name.
11. Pat O’Brien’s Hurricanes. YUM.
12. The restrooms at Ripley’s.
13. The crazy bouncer at Jester’s manhandling the under-21 kids that were trying to use the restroom and throwing them out on the street.
14. Crystal and I being some crazy-fast walkers. Leaving everybody in the dust! Ha.
15. My phone freaking out and not working for some reason. If you txt-msged me Happy New Year, I promise I answered you! But almost nothing would go through. Boo on my Razr!
16. Hand Grenades!
17. Crystal’s cousin singing “SexyBack”….GREAT imitation.
18. The guy running around Bourbon St in his boxers.
19. Crystal being just the right height to get a faceful of boobs. Man. That was gross!
20. Bourbon St in general.
21. Jalapeno mac-&-cheese
22. Getting home and getting in my own shower!!

23. Addition…the letter “K” that caused Crystal to talk to herself without realizing it…trying to figure out the band that corresponded with that letter. She was a woman obsessed!                                                                                                  

I am sure I will add more as I think of them…Annual Meeting is combining with State of the City to kill most of my brain cells.

Have a good week!

This weekend was a blast. Pictures are up….duh. I still need to add some from Cristina’s camera… But she is lazy and has not gotten them off her camera yet. Anyway…we were very sporty this weekend. Ha. I believe we were trying to see how many sports we could “play” in one day. Fiddled with soccer and tennis, played some volleyball in the pool. Oh yeah, and I learned how to throw a football. Went out Sunday night to 4th and 5th streets. That was fun because it was not 6th. A little more expensive, but a bit nicer! Also got to see the movie Little Miss Sunshine. That was pretty good. Daniel showed off his man-skills and grilled for us. Cary contributed to that, too. Such manly men! Ha.  Ooh…and we also ate at a really good mexican restaurant. Random little place that was yummy. Just the thought is making me hungry!!

I really did not want to come back to Houston and go back to work. This was made more obvious by how my morning started. Damn alarm clock. I swear I reset it to 6:30…but NO. It was set for 8:30. Not very helpful when I am supposed to be at work at 8:00! Boo. Not a good start to my work week, but it will get better!

Probably because I am trying to get people to go to Red Star on Friday. If anyone is interested, let me know!

My husband (Brandon Backe) is going to have Tommy John surgery. Which means he won’t be able to pitch again until probably 2008! Yuck. I still think they need to keep him in the dugout. Not to take away from his manhood, but he is a great cheerleader. He gets hype.

More info here…

Hope everyone has a good weekend!! I will be in Austin for most of it, so hit me on the cell if you need anything. I stole that lingo from my brother.

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!

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!