you'll have to

excuse me but this is a very busy week.  I have a lot going on.  I know I was being pretty consistent with my posting but I'll definitely be falling off the wagon this week.  Halloween is tomorrow and I'm helping with the haunted house.  This means that my photo assignment, which is done on a schedule, is being squeezed in.  Once the haunted house is over, I'll probably need a day or two to go back through all the photo stuff I've been trying to squeeze in to stay on schedule.  For now, I'll give you a preview of what I'll look like tomorrow night at the haunted house.

You know what?  I know that's me and it's still creeping me out.

i learned this from

my grandparent's neighbor when I was a kid.

MR Ducks
MR Not
OSAR
CM Wings

This was from one of my stops in West Columbia.  Foie gras, anyone?  I'M KIDDING.  (I'd never eat that stuff.)

Oh, and the stuff I wrote above translates to this:
'em are ducks.
'em are not.
Oh yes they are,
  see 'em wings?
Which translates to:
Those are ducks.
They are not.
Oh yes they are,
   see those wings?

remember that workshop i

mentioned yesterday?  We have a little assignment but I have a problem.  There are so many interesting things around here that I don't know where to start.  At first I thought about Brazos Bend State Park and Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge but I just don't know.  I've been to both of those places and I'd really like to head back out to Brazos Bend.  When I'd just about decided on loading up to be there when they open at 8:00 this morning, I thought about West Columbia.  There are so many neat places in West Columbia, I mean it was the first capitol of Texas...  I don't know a whole lot about the town I live in.  Yes, I've lived here for 7+ years and before that I worked here for 10 years but let's face it, it's really not as interesting or historic as West Columbia.  Who knows.  Maybe I'll hit up one right after the other.  I really don't know but whatever I choose, I need to leave in an hour.  Some places don't open until 8:00 but my goal is to try to get as close to sunrise as possible.  I shall return with pictures.

yesterday was a

busy day.  I was at Firestone by 7am so I could be the first in line for tires.  (It seems like all our vehicles need tire attention at the same time.)  After that I headed down to vote.  Have I ever mentioned that I worked for 8 years in the county clerk's office?  I started having stomach issues and then came the skin issues.  I diagnosed myself as being allergic to work.  Many will agree, but none of that "many" are doctors.  It does seem strange that things got better once I quit working... I'm just saying.  After that I came home and did some laundry while I was doing some stuff for a photography workshop I'm taking.  I could finish about how I went for a pedicure and later on to Pearland.  Or I could tell you how today I need to go to Houston for more errands and then probably stop in Pearland on my way home.  I could tell you how I'd like to hurry back so I can clean the floors.  I could go on to tell you about the other things on my to-do list (like adding recipes to the recipe blog) but I won't do that.  I'll give you a peaceful picture from our walk at the beach.

Now that I've got the picture up, I might as well start all that stuff I have planned today.

i used to love

to swim.  At some point, I became terrified of water.  I can only think of two things that have happened that might have prompted my fear of water but they both happened long before the fear kicked in, years before.  When I was in elementary school, a girl in the grade above mine drowned.  We came back to school after the weekend and found out she had died.  She was in her pool and her hair got caught in the drain (or at least this is the message all the third graders were given).  Apparently, her family thought she was goofing off but she was actually stuck under water and trying to get free.  I'm sure I've talked about this before but about the same time as that incident, I went fishing with two friends.  It was the two girls (sisters), their brother and their mom and stepdad.  I don't know where we were but I can describe it.  The local jetties are all just strips that stick out into the water.  These jetties went straight out but were butted up against a tall wall, then made a right turn once we got to the end.  I always figured it was Galveston but I really don't know.  We were playing on the rocks at the very end, after that right turn, while the parents were fishing.  A wave came and knocked me off into the water.  I was having a hard time grabbing onto the rocks because they were so slippery.  I remember that a couple of times I was able to get a good grip to pull myself up but each time, another wave would hit and I'd be sucked back under like I was in a vacuum.  Nobody helped me and not only was I scared of drowning but I suddenly thought about the stepdad's stringer of fish he'd caught that were probably touching me.  I finally pulled myself out of the water.  The palms of my hands were bloody from the barnacle or whatever on the rocks.  I also had scratches on my legs from rubbing up against them.  I don't remember exactly how everyone reacted once I got out but I had a feeling like they thought I did it on purpose.  After that my friends and I walked back to shore so I could sit in the shallow water to soak my scrapes in the saltwater.  Needless to say, that sucked. 

Yesterday morning we went out to the Surfside for pictures.  For the first time in a long time, I walked to the end of the jetties.  Along the way, I stopped and watched the rocks along the side getting hit with waves and then that water being sucked right down the side of those rocks.  I watched and thought about that time I fell.  I took a picture of the water being sucked down but it just doesn't stand out.  Oh well, here's the picture.

i reopened a can

of something yesterday.  After my blog post, I clicked on the recipe blog's link.  It had been a REALLY long time since I'd posted anything there.  I got busy with that.  You know, because I need another never ending task.  I did make a few changes though.  See, around 2005 I made cookbooks for Lauren and Brittany.  Lauren was in college and Brittany was graduating high school and moving off.  I collected recipes from relatives that are considered family classics, you know, the dishes that certain people always make and bring on certain occasions.  Anyway, I did that.  Fast forward a few years.  Once my grandmothers started going downhill with Alzheimer's, I ended up with more old recipes.  I started the recipe blog just so Lauren and Brittany could turn to it if needed.  (I mean it's not like I'm the only granddaughter but I do have all the recipes...)  Lauren asked me for a recipe the other day.  It was one of those that was in the cookbook of family classics but her cookbook has since disappeared.  I thought about that while looking at the blog yesterday and realized how easy it would be to just have everything there for everyone.  Right now I'm in the process of finding all the recipes from the cookbook to add to the blog, in addition to all the recipes that still need to be sorted through.  It's not a spectacular setup.  I mean it's a blog so everything is listed by its posting date.  I am trying to label them as well as I can so the recipes should be fairly easy to find.  Think of it as a database of family recipes.

I hit pause while catching up on Project Runway the other day.

She looks surprised. 

i've claimed a lot

of words to be my middle name.  I'm pretty sure "consistent" has never been one of those words.  How about a random blog post several weeks later?

I went for a drive this morning.  This was the one picture I got.  I thought the sky looked pretty.  I liked the leftover fog.  I liked how it looked over the prison farm.  It was about this same spot on Highway 36 that I broke down in the early 90's.  I was so scared and it was around midnight.  For some reason, broken down near the prison, a teenage girl automatically assumes there's a murderer on the loose.  Okay, maybe not most girls but this one did.  A couple of cops passed and did nothing.  I had no cell phone and my grandparents were expecting me.  A long while after waving my little glow stick out the window, a deputy finally stopped.  My grandmother was waiting up with every outside light on and looking out the window.  Can you imagine her reaction when a cop car pulls up in the driveway?  I'm sure she was relieved when I not only got out of the car but got out of the car without handcuffs.  They were both happy to see me.  The next morning was a different story.  When my grandfather took me to get my car and it actually wasn't broken down but just low on transmission fluid, I got a very common and much repeated lecture on how I only worry about whether or not there's gas in the tank. 

I'm going to try to make "Consistent" my middle name... in a good way.  I'll try to be more consistent with my posting and less consistent with the neglect.