i'm off to a great

start.  It's just past 6:00 and I've already unloaded the dishwasher, made breakfast, loaded those dishes, started laundry, made the bed and started a post here.  All this and no sinus pressure.  I think I'll go for a walk today since I missed out yesterday.

I was looking online for a Christmas present for Eric yesterday.  I'm not really understanding Amazon's logic behind their random ad placement, once again.

"Yes, we know you're interested in gun cases but don't forget that somewhere out there, there's a baby that needs to be fed." - Amazon

Speaking of guns and Eric, Cosme and I went to an art market on Saturday.  I saw this print and thought it needed to be framed and hung above the bed in Eric's room.  So I got it.

They put this one in my bag as a bonus.

Don't be scared.

There was also a bakery booth at the market and I thought that it'd be very wrong of me to not sample their goods when there's a wedding coming up.  The more options, the better.  Since I'm picky when it comes to cake, I'm probably the best person for the job.

These cupcakes passed with flying colors.  I looked the bakery up to find out where they are (I10 at Bunker Hill) and I let Cosme know that if he ever felt like he needed to stop for anything on his way home, this place is fairly convenient.  I even announced that I'd like my next birthday cake to come from them.  I know, I know... 1) What about Moellers??? and 2) Why am I thinking about my next birthday cake when I just finished one off a week ago?  Not only do I love being prepared but I'm not against trying a new cake and if it flops, I'll demand a redo from Moellers.

I'm off to continue to TCB.  While cleaning the other day I started watching The Handmaids Tale on Hulu.  It's odd but the jury is still out.  I do have an issue to start off with though.  I remember a while back there was a group of women who showed up at the state Capitol to protest abortion laws and they were dressed as the characters from the book/tv show.  First of all, yes, I get it what they were trying to say (not that I'm for dressing up and protesting).  The show is about women not having any rights.  In the show (and I'm thinking the book too), these women are basically treated like nothing.  There are guards with guns everywhere to make sure they don't escape or talk or look the wrong way, whatever.  Let's take a step back though.  How did it come to this?  I don't really know where the Second Amendment was when this story took place but I'm pretty sure it was long gone.   Now, a better reason for these women to be dressing up as these characters would seem more fitting to stand up for the Second Amendment.  With the women being armed, they would have had less of a chance of this group/organization/government taking over and more of a chance at keeping a free state.  That being said, I understand that they saw it as "let's dress like women without any rights because that's how they're making us feel" but this story (from what I've seen only three episodes in) started with armed guards taking away that free state.  So really, I guess what I'm trying to say is, just leave the costumes at home.  If you want to dress up, save it for Comic Con.  Oh yeah, and if you really don't want to end up like them, stand up for your right to bear arms.  That's what it's for, after all.

Now I'm off to put on a red cloak and white cap and finish cleaning.  I'm joking.  It's way too hot for a cloak today.

we've had mushrooms popping

up all over the place.  I was in the laundry room and I noticed the "short person seven iron" leaning in the corner.  (I keep it there to reach things up high and the angle of the club is perfect for latching onto detergent bottles and my box of light bulbs... not that I ever reach for the box of light bulbs.)  When I saw the seven iron, I knew what needed to happen.

I went out to the back yard and went to town on the mushrooms.  As soon as I'd hit one, the dogs would bounce off after it.  I finally yelled stop enough and they quit but then Archer just kept barking at me.  He doesn't like me swinging golf clubs.

Earlier that day I was doing something in the front yard and they wanted me to feel sorry for them and set them free.

Fat chance.

On Friday we went to a few bars in Eric's neighborhood.  We stopped by a place called the Wilde Collection.  While there, I saw a girl and told her not to move that I wanted to get a picture and I promised I wasn't weird.  Then I showed her the picture.

I blurred out her face only because I have no clue who she is and never asked if I could post it, not to add to the creepiness of the look.

Then she had her friend get one on her camera.  (patting myself on the back for the good eye)

We looked around a little more and I spotted what type of coyote I'd be if I were a coyote.

After looking around there and then hitting up a few more shops, we headed to another bar.

That was where we were when I decided I'd reached my limit and was good.  And to everyone who kept going, I thought "have fun with that".  We ended up at Eric's place and stayed for a little bit and then headed home.  I think we're all ready to do it again.

i had an awesome idea

on Monday.  I sent Mom a text asking what she was doing the next day.  She said cleaning.  I asked what time she was planning to start cleaning.  Being familiar with her usual schedule, I asked what if we went to Eric's to hang out at the pool early and she started cleaning afterwards.  I told her we could leave around 1:30-2:00 and that'd put her back home by 3:00.  That sounded about right to me.  I told her to be here at 9:30 yesterday morning and we'd head out.  When yesterday morning rolled around, there was absolutely no sun.  She made it over here and we ended up leaving town at 10:30.  I'd talked to Eric and he said it was sunny there but I didn't see how.  Heading up 288, it was still looking pretty dreary.

We made it to Eric's and he was right.

We spent a couple of hours there, laying out in the sun and cooling off in the pool.  We left a little before 3:00 and stopped in Pearland to pick up barbecue for dinner.  We got back to town and Mom headed home while I headed to the shower.

I can't tell you if she got her stuff done but I can tell you the Kroger version of Benadryl works just as well as the name brand.  I can also tell you that shouldn't have been our first time to do that.

i mentioned my trip to

Hobby Lobby on Friday. 

But


I


failed


to


mention


THIS.

I don't know if I'm quite ready for that right now.

Cosme played tennis on Sunday morning so I dropped him off and waited at Eric's.  Once he was finished, I picked him up and we went back to Eric's and had breakfast.  Driving down I10, I was thinking back to when I was a teenager and worrying about the Datsun overheating in one of the three lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic.  I probably wouldn't have worried so much if they'd done this in 1988.

Back then there were just the few lanes for each direction and then the one HOV lane, which headed east or west depending on the time of day.  Now there is one HOV lane next to one toll lane for each direction and then outside the barrier of that area is the seven or so regular lanes.  I've traveled that road many times since then but when it's so empty like it was on Sunday morning, the massiveness of it really stands out.

Now that I've totally captured your attention with my amazement of highway expansion over the last 30 years, I'll think of something really crazy for tomorrow.  The evolution of light bulbs?

Speaking of visiting with Eric, he was supposed to come over yesterday.  It was also our anniversary so I thought I'd make a cheesecake for dessert to go with our lasagna.  The last time Eric came over he was a little disappointed after he asked if I'd saved him a piece of that cobbler and the answer was no.  I thought it'd really suck if I didn't give him a heads up and tell him he might want to wait and come another day since I knew the cheesecake wouldn't have cooled and set up by the time came and left yesterday.  I could just picture it.  I told Cosme he didn't need to post anything on social media since I don't like attention like that but then I could picture myself posting dessert pics... and Eric seeing them and thinking "WTF??? I WAS JUST THERE AND SHE DIDN'T OFFER ME ANY???".  So Eric didn't come yesterday but is coming Friday instead.  I'll make sure to have cheesecake for him.

I might have kept the cheesecake in the oven a little too long.  It might be a little dry.  I think I'll have a sliver for breakfast just to make sure.  Maybe it wasn't dry but just needed more time in the fridge.  Only one way to find out.

Time for breakfast.

i never got around to

making that banana bread.  I got around to mashing the bananas but then they turned brown when I decided to take a break so I threw them all out.  Seriously though.  I had absolutely no motivation to get up and do anything on Friday... when I eventually thought I felt like making the bread.  I did get up to go dancing that night though.  Lauren and John came down for her birthday to stay the weekend in Houston with Eric.  So if waking up at 4:30 Friday morning left me with no motivation, going to bed at 4:30 Saturday morning worked out about the same.

I was really going to try to sleep late.

I don't follow my own orders well.

I woke up at 7:30.  I pulled the eye shades back down and forced myself to go to sleep.  I woke up again at 9:30.  We made it to take Lauren for birthday lunch but then it was back home and back to bed where another nap kept me up until midnight.

We met up again on Sunday, minus Eric (who had a stomach bug) and Paige (who was off to celebrate her brother's birthday), feeling a little less out of it.  We went for lunch after doing a little shopping.  I don't eat crawfish but Lauren, John and Cosme do.  Well, that wasn't ALL they ate.  There was SO MUCH FOOD.

We went to BB's over by Eric's place.  They have "Tex-Orleans" and we had plenty of it.  Instead of sticking with my usual of shrimp and grits, I did a cup each of macaroni & cheese with beef debris, red beans & rice and something else that was grits with beef tips.  I didn't care for the beans and rice but everything else was good (but spicy).

Next time they come down, we really can't start the weekend with dancing.  That throws me off.  And maybe the next time they come down, everybody will be well and functioning at 100%.

sometimes things just

don't go as planned.

First example.
I ended up buying a pie yesterday.  Not thinking about the pie, I mixed up a lemon pound cake and stuck it in the oven.  Cosme called and said that along with our bbq, he was also bringing peach cobbler home.  We had a lot of dessert and a wide variety: chocolate, lemon and peach.  The night should have been awesome.  We ate and then my stomach had one of its episodes.  That's what I'm calling them.  They're not pleasant... at all.  They hurt.  A couple of hours later, when it's mostly all done, I'm exhausted and just curl up in bed.  I passed out last night before I drank all my nighttime tea with a heating pad on my stomach.  My stomach's a little grumbly this morning but the lemon pound cake I sampled for breakfast was pretty tasty.

Second example.
I got my film back.  It sucked.  It sucked big time.  It was totally camera operator error.  Well, the black and white film all has a line through it but I'm pretty sure that was all on me too.  I'm posting a few that came out ...not really close to what I was expecting but more so than some of the others.  Let's just say they're headed down the right path ...maybe not headed down the right path but it's like they turned in the direction of the right path but still haven't taken any steps.

Black and white, most double exposure.  (By the way, the double exposure is one of the things I was really looking forward to so yeah, there are quite a few.)

Archer.  Double exposure.

Maggie.  Double exposure.

Maggie.

Maggie.

Maggie.  Double exposure.

And then there's the roll of color.  It's mostly all flops but Lauren managed to get a few decent ones.  Here's my take on the Houston skyline from Eric's garage.

Houston skyline at night, not in the middle of an earthquake.

I guess I'll be practicing more.  A LOT more.

i went on a

Capture Crawl in November but an hour and a half afterwards, I got busy and I don't think I ever shared any of the images here.  It was downtown at Via Colori.  It's a festival to raise money but what they do is close off a few blocks downtown with squares taped off to serve as different canvases.  People use their chalk pastels and go to town with their street art.  This totally looks like something I would've been a participant in way back.

 

I thought about this Capture Crawl because I just got notice for the one happening this month.  I hope I can make it.  If so, I'll tell you all about it in a few months.

i went to the grocery

store Saturday morning and HAD to wear a coat.  I was shopping and somebody stopped me.  A button had fallen off and they picked it up and returned it.  Awesome.  That night we were going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers and I would again need a coat.  I didn't want to wear my regular coat because not only was it now missing a button but it's wool (I guess) and I didn't want to end up having to send it to the cleaners this morning.  With my mind made up against it, I picked a coat that I've had for a few years.  I believe it's pleather so that would be perfect if anyone bumped into me with a drink.  I was water resistant for the most part.

Cosme and I decided we'd go to church before the concert.  This was all working out.  The church was only a couple of minutes away and we'd be out around 6:00, giving us plenty of time to meet up with the other couple before the show. 

After finally deciding what to wear, we left the house a few minutes after 4:00.  I found a parking spot on the street and got out to pay the meter.  I told Cosme to wait there for the ticket while I got my regular glasses out of the car.  I looked down in my seat and noticed there was black stuff EVERYWHERE.  What was that?  I looked at the back of my coat and saw my coat was flaking apart.  Wonderful.  The temp for the night was going to be right around freezing and my shirt while was a 3/4 quarter sleeve, was very thin.  I didn't have time to worry about it.  It was 5:00 and we had to get inside.

We walked into the very bright church with its (what I would assume) white marble floors.  We found a spot in one of the pews and I saw a trail of black following me down the aisle and into the pew.  I took the coat off, rolled it up inside out like a burrito and could only panic about what I would do next.  Once we left, I was finally able to hold the coat up for a full inspection and yeah, it looked pretty bad.  It was 6:00 and we had places to go and people to see.  My two options were to wear the coat or freeze.  I wore the coat.  We made it to their hotel and I took it off immediately.  The place was packed.  Not only was there a concert across the street but there was a Texans' game on and everybody was at this hotel bar to watch.  I had to laugh because the coat was THAT bad.  We joked that we couldn't get lost because I was leaving a trail of crumbs everywhere we went.  That was a plus.  Another plus was that no matter what was spilled on me, the coat would definitely end up in the garbage.  One other plus was alcohol.  The more I drank, the less I cared about the coat and actually, the less I even needed the coat. 

Everything was great.  The concert was a lot of fun and afterwards we went to The Continental Club for an Elvis/Bowie birthday celebration.  There was LOTS of singing and dancing.  We had so much fun.  There was so much fun being had Saturday night, we stayed in bed all day Sunday to make up for it.  The only problem with that is there was so much doing nothing yesterday, I've got tons to do today... like taking my coat out to the garbage.

Here's how the coat looks now, after its final wear.

The backside

I'll just make a note that I had NO idea the front was doing the same thing.

On that note, I'm taking the garbage out.

But first, a few pics from the fun times.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers

Dancing with Elvis and the crowd

 Okay, now I'm out of here.

since i'm feeling

so much better today, I'll tell you about our breakfast at Snooze.  A while back I'd read that it was about to open in Houston so you know what that means, don't even think about trying it out for a while.  We gave it a while and then a little bit longer.  Before we'd even planned on our museum visit Friday, I woke up deciding we'd go to Snooze.  Actually, my plan was to leave the house by 7:00 so we could try and beat the (if any) Friday morning crowd.  Then I checked the museum's website and saw those onsite tickets and that totally put the early Snooze plans on the back burner.  So, we drove down the street to Snooze after the museum.  There were no spots available in their lot but we only had to circle the block a few times before finding a spot.  After the second time to circle, I asked Cosme if he wanted to just eat somewhere else.  He said no that since we were already there, he wanted to stay.  Part of me wondering if this is really what was going on in his head, I know it was halfway going through mine.

*replace all the fun, vacation and Marty Moose references with pancakes and breakfast

We ended up parking a couple of blocks down the road, which really wasn't that bad.  The place was full but there was only a 15-20 minute wait.  We could have waited outside and played some of the games they have set up but standing room only with a/c was a better option.  We saw a couple get up from the bar and decided we'd just eat there.

I had the Hill Country Mule while Cosme had one of their mimosas.  I'd been wanting to try some of their pancakes, like the peach pie pancakes, blueberry danish pancakes or pineapple upside down pancakes but I chose the breakfast pot pie instead.  It's rosemary sausage gravy over a puff pastry and topped with an egg. 

It was so good.  Cosme had the Havana Daydreaming sandwich.  It was pork, ham, gruyere, pickles and an egg with dijon hollandaise on a hoagie roll.

It was awesome.

Of course I didn't think we could leave without trying a pancake so we shared a cinnamon roll pancake.  (Seen in the background of my sandwich).  We were stuffed and totally happy with our decision to stick around and circle the block a few times.  That parking spot we eventually found down the road?  Yeah, well, that was much needed after we ate.

Mine.  After.

There's a mummy exhibit opening at The Museum of Natural Science on the 24th that I'm excited to see.  Maybe we need to plan to go see it and try some of the pancakes afterwards.

All this talk has me wanting something bready and sweet.  Maybe I'll get some dough rising and cream cheese softened.  By the time my roast is done in the oven, it'd be time to put something else in.  I like where this is headed but I wonder if I have all the other ingredients.  I guess there's only one way to find out.

we actually made it

to the museum today.  I looked online and saw they offered a few Fast Pass tickets on-site but there were only a few available and those were offered on a first come, first served basis.  We made it to the museum at 10:15 and our tickets for the exhibit were 11:30.  No problem, it wasn't like there was plenty to walk around and see while we were there.

When I was a teenager, MFAH didn't issue stickers but little metal clip on pins.  We always thought we were so clever and would keep these and wear them other places... like to school.  I don't guess I have to spell out what MFAH would stand for.

We saw some awesome ancient Roman and Egyptian artifacts, we saw some Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Seurat, Renoir, Matisse, Cassatt, Chagall, Cezanne, Picasso, Lichtenstein, and so many more.  I've never really been a fan of Jackson Pollock but I really liked the colors in Overall Composition.  And then there's what was up there with one of my favorites of the day, At the Table of Monsieur and Madame Natanson by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. 

I had to get a picture of this dog's face.  He was horrified that two cows were fighting.

Then came the reason we went.  The exhibit by Yayoi Kusama.  It was two walk-in type of installments.  The first, Love is Calling, was cool.  It almost seemed cartoonish to me but it was cool.  Maybe a better description would be groovy or trippy, I don't know.  It was cool though.  We went in as small groups of probably no more than 10 for three minutes.  It was a room of mirrors with these tentacle-like things sticking out of the floor and ceiling.  They seemed like those inflatable yard things.

The next, Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, was just awesome.  It was SO cool.  It was just the two of us in this time, probably since no more than four were allowed at a time.  It was a small room but we were limited to standing on a small platform, surrounded by lights, mirrors and water.  I wish we had three minutes in this one but it was only 45 seconds.  We both really enjoyed this one.
 

After that we left.  We headed down the road for a late breakfast but I'll talk more about that later, maybe Monday.  Now I'm making plans for a mummy exhibit that starts on the 24th at The Museum of Natural Science.  I'm excited about that one too.