happy birthday to

Lauren.  I sent her a text this morning telling her I hadn't gotten around to the post yet.  The pictures I have aren't the best quality but I'm posting them anyway.

Here I am holding Lauren.  The look on my face is a little creepy but Lauren just seems to be going along with it.  She's just chilling out.

Ever wonder what to give Lauren for her birthday?  (Or Christmas or Easter or any day at that)  Money.  It seems to get her excited.  Nothing like a little money to make you want to gasp and... er... grab your feet?  Uh... okay.

What doesn't seem to do the trick is hanging out with family, even if it is Jake and Brittany.  The walkman is doing no good.  Somebody should have dangled money in front of her.

Aww, a cute, chubby baby seems to mellow her out a little.

Or maybe just a hat.  (This was the Christmas Lauren and I decided we would be different and wear hats for the occasion.)

Oh well, I'm sure she's going out and having a good time tonight even if she doesn't have a hat, a cute little baby... or money!

unlike his rebel

friends,

 this one was a law abiding duck.

 

This was out at the San Jacinto carnival this weekend.

i've noticed lately i usually

have something posted before 7:00 each morning.  I don't really have anything to post today so I decided I post pictures to show why.

Today's garbage day.  I need to get two pounds of shrimp cleaned before the garbage gets picked up.

I want to bake a chocolate sheet cake.  Even though it's way too big for just us, Eric's having friends over tomorrow to help him with the wiring on the MG.  I figure that big of a cake might be perfect.

I need to make another pitcher of tea.  By the way, I only had one soft drink yesterday and it was a diet Dr. Pepper.  I didn't have any Coke.  It's looking like today might not go the same.

If I get around to it I might make rolls.  Let me rephrase that.  IF I get around to it I MIGHT make rolls.  While all of that is going on I'm doing laundry.

Once again, while there is a lot going on... there's not much going on.  Okay so maybe pictures of these things weren't necessary but didn't it make the post easier to read and maybe a little more filling?

i've cut back and

I think I'm doing okay.  It started with every time I had a soft drink, I had to have a bottle of water next.  I'm not following that exactly but I am also not drinking as many soft drinks.  We'll see how long it lasts.

i was out doing some

work in the yard yesterday.  Looking ahead as I mowed, I saw a bright pink flower standing by itself.  Before I mowed it down I ran to get the camera.  There was a little lavender flower beside it too.  Still thinking of Dad's print that I posted yesterday, I immediately thought of Lauren's new apartment.  You can see the two flowers here.

In case the blog looks a little off today, I might be in the process of making adjustments.  That's a big might.

now that it was

ordered, delivered and opened, I can share the canvas Dad received last week.

I made this last summer at the driving range.  I hope it turned out okay.  I've never ordered the gallery wraps but I've always been happy with this particular company's prints.

the cats were due for

a trip to the vet.  For some reason I thought it would be easier to take them at once.  The last time I used the cage there was plenty of room for two cats.  I scheduled their appointment and got the cage down and dusted off.  Note to self: cats get bigger.  It was a tight fit.

I wanted a picture so I kept calling for Lucille to look up at the camera.  She just kept her head hung like she was so sad to be in there.  This was unusual because Lucille's the one that loves being in tight spaces.

I got down to see why she would look up at me.  Oh, I see.

Her face was smashed against the door.  A few minutes later she realized she could make adjustments and get a little comfortable.  By that time, I believe Strat was getting fed up so he started to plan an escape... which he has done in the past.

He couldn't reach the latch on the bottom.  So he started to investigate a latch on the top.

I don't know if he pressed his face against the door to make me feel sorry for him and let him out or if he was trying to figure out how exactly to get to the bottom latch.  (I understand it could very possibly be neither of those reasons but that's how I'm piecing it together.)

Which ever he was thinking, he eventually gave up and decided to just go with it.  The office visit was another story.  It took me and the help of two others to get Lucille out to be weighed.  It's no wonder I figured they would both fit in the cage.  The last time Lucille was in it she was 5 pounds and Strat was 7.  This time they were 11.9 and 18.3.

I did like the convenience of taking them at once so sometime in the next year it'd probably be in my best interest, and the cats' too, to invest in a bigger cage.

**this post has been

edited to protect the "innocent".  through emails, my friend Jamie and I touched on the topic of OCD and the necessity of having everything just right.  She was referring to a birthday party she's planning but I agreed with her and realized how many things that applies to with me.  Okay, perhaps it's not OCD but I know I'm a control freak, especially when it comes to creative control.  A lot of the times I realize that if it's not done exactly how I think it should be done, I lose interest and want no part of it.  This not only applies to birthday parties or similar events but school projects too.  Sometimes I get carried away with school projects. 
Monday morning Eric told me he had a project due on Wednesday.  I thanked him for not telling me Friday and at least giving us the weekend to work on it.  He explained what had to be done... a family tree.  Ohhh, my mind began to explore all the different things we could do.  What fun.  I started rambling off ideas, all the different techniques or mediums we could use.  Eric stopped me.  "This is for Medical Terminology... it's not Art."  Fine.  Whatever.  He obviously wouldn't need my help.  Fast forward to 6:30 Tuesday evening.  Eric walks in the kitchen and tells me he needs help drawing a tree.  Even though I'm so excited to try a different idea I had earlier in the day, I didn't let it show.  "Fine.  Bring me your project board."  A few minutes later we had a black and white tree.  Sharpie on white.  (boring.)  I explained to him how there are places in the branches for the names to be written.  Done.

I really don't know why I get like this over school projects.  Maybe if I had done my own instead of pushing them off as another one does, I would have gotten it out of my system... or not.

this picture is about

to drive me nuts.  I found it over at Twomama's.  From back to front on the couch it is Kim, Mom, me and Cindy.  I just want to know where it was taken and who is the baby.  As much as the baby looks like Lauren, it's not.  I was eleven when Lauren was born and considering I'm about five in the picture, do the math.

I do have to add this fact.  I always loved the skirt Mom is wearing in the picture.  It reminded of Cha Cha from Grease.  Even though she was mean and stole Sandy's place in the dance contest, I still liked her dress and wanted to dance like they did.

i didn't do a very

good job with Easter this year.  I had a postcard to scan and post to wish everyone a Happy Easter.  I didn't get around to it.  I didn't even get around to buying cards and candy.  Eric woke up Sunday morning and wanted to know what was going on.  He woke up excited and came into the living room to find nothing.  I told him I was sorry.  I made up for it yesterday.  I had to run to the store and passed the Easter candy aisle.  Then I realized that all the Easter candy was half off so I loaded up on Eric's favorites.

I left them in the bag and when he got home I told him Happy Easter.  While filling my basket with the peanut butter eggs, I also saw some cute little fruity, gummie candy I just had to have.  They're so cute I'll show you the three that were left in the pink package after eating the bunny and chick.  An owl,

a squirrel

and a porcupine.

The pinks were so cute I had to get blue too.

when we left

Graceland, we went for lunch.  We were planning on this place but they didn't open for another two hours.  (I will try again when we go back to Memphis for Bluesapallooza - our road trip we planned a year or two ago to drive up the Mississippi Blues Trail to Memphis.)  Anyway, the next thing we thought of was a restaurant of Gina and Pat Neely from Food Network.  So that's where we stopped for lunch, Neely's BBQ.  It was pretty good.  Mom only had a drink, Eric just had chicken tenders and fries but I had a wet-glazed pork rib platter while Cosme had either the chopped or pulled pork plate.  It was good.  After Neely's we went back to the hotel but made a stop at Sun Studio for t-shirts (tour to be made on Bluesapallooza...along with a few others).  Mom had lunch and we packed our stuff up, checked out and hit the road for Shreveport.  Somewhere around Texarkana it started snowing.  What?  Yes, that's right.  We just left the east coast, it's the last day of spring break and it starts snowing when we get back to Texas.  It didn't last long, luckily.  We met up with Dad in Shreveport, did some gambling at Horseshoe and got to the hotel at 3:30 for some much needed sleep.  We woke up at 8:00 the next morning to find it snowing in Shreveport.  OMG.  Mom said it was snowing when they got to the hotel around 6:00.  Too much cold weather for me.  We headed south for home.  A few hours later we were back.

I think Strat was either trying to tell us we were not to leave again or if we were leaving again, don't forget to take him.

And that concludes our run down of Spring Break 2010.

i'm sorry but today's

post is going to be weak, really weak.  (Unfortunately, that's not an April Fools gag.)  Not only am I tired and have a lot of things to get done today but I have three pictures of the Elvis Car Museum...three... and they're not great.  Here they are.

See?  It's reasons like this I didn't get many photos.  I had the same lens on as in the house.  There were people and ropes always managing to get in the way.  I'm sure I was probably getting in someone's way too.  Whatever.

Eric got a few pictures on his phone but he still hasn't emailed them to me as requested.  Elvis had a 1960 red MGA.  It's cute.  Now Eric wants white wall tires on the MG.  (I think they're called white walls, anyway.)

a few more from

Graceland.  Here are some of his movie scripts.

They told us on the tour that Elvis was very generous and made donations to a lot of different organizations.  They even said that he would come across somebody in need and pay their bills or something like that.  Here's one of the checks from a donation.

The end of the house tour leaves you in his meditation garden.  This is also where he is buried with his parents and grandmother.

I'd heard positive and negative things about Graceland.  I'd heard things like it was a waste or you don't get to see very much.  Honestly, I thought it was the coolest.

After Graceland we toured his car museum.  I think I'll post those pictures tomorrow, along with the rest of our day in Memphis.

graceland is

so cool... not the decor or anything, but just being there.  When you walk in the front door and look to the right you see this room.  You can't see everything because I had to get close to avoid other people.  I wanted to keep this lens on since I expected low lighting so there was no zoom on it.  What you're not seeing is a really long couch where they said Elvis would sit with visitors.  (Imagine, using the front room for visitors and having a couch to sit on at that.)  Through the front room was this music room/area.

Oh wait, here's part of that couch.  They said it was either 15 or 20 feet long.  I can't remember.

Then there was his parent's room not far down the hall.

It was purple.  Along that hall was a staircase, a staircase the public is not allowed to use because the upstairs area is a closed, private area.  They said Elvis was a very private person so they kept all his personal areas off limits.  Here is the staircase and part of the landing.

And when you look up, you see this chandelier.

Since we're still in the foyer, I'll show you the room to the left of the door.  The dining room.

There were plenty of other rooms in the house but I don't have a whole lot to share.  Some of my pictures were blurry just because of the conditions.  I still have a few more from the tour but I'll share those tomorrow.  I need to make Eric's breakfast now.

we arrived in memphis

and our hotel was booked with a conference of some sort.  People were everywhere.  There were two elevators in this hotel and after a 15 minute wait for a ride, everyone was packed like sardines.  It was honestly more than this hotel could handle.  They might could have handled it better had this group not like to go on so many elevator rides.  Enough of that.  I haven't mentioned the most important reason for going to Memphis.  Graceland.

We got in line and it was a very long line for the tickets, followed by a long line for the shuttle.  We decided a tour of Graceland (and avoiding the long wait) was worth an additional $39 per person for the VIP pass.  We jumped to the front of the line and were immediately put on a shuttle to cross the street to Graceland.  I took pictures in the house but today I'm just going to post a few.  The first is two Grammy Awards.

The second is of a small section of wall with gold records.  The next few pictures are my favorites.  First of all, does everyone realize how big of an Elvis fan I am?  No?  Well, I am.  Elvis has always been one of my favorites.  I would come to Brazoria every summer to stay with my grandparents.  Besides playing with all my Barbies, one of the things I'd do almost daily was to pull out Grandma's Elvis records and sing and dance.  (She'd usually join me.)  Every time I play Stuck On You, I can see Grandma coming around the corner from their kitchen to the den dancing.  (No, not literally but that's what always happened.)  It was fun.  For now I'll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures.  These were taken on a part of the tour limited to VIP passes.  I really like the lighting on these outfits.

When I was a kid, I'd walk to the gas station in Brazoria and buy Elvis trading cards.  I guess they were set up like baseball cards, I really don't know.  They came wrapped up with a stick of gum.  They would have pictures of Elvis on the front and the backs would have Elvis trivia.  (Maybe that's what started my love of useless trivia.)  Anyway, I remember one of these cards stated Elvis wore a size 13 shoe.  These shoes just didn't seem that big.

Okay, one more picture from the VIP part of the tour.  His desk.

More Graceland and Memphis tomorrow.

i don't know what's

worse... 

I read on the Cuties website that they are only in season for another 36 days
or
I was looking up a website for fruit

Regardless, I'm about to have my fourth one for the day and will eat as many as I can until they are gone.

we left new jersey

the following morning and headed to Asheville, NC.  We did get to stop and have breakfast at White Castle on our way out.  This was nothing but a day of driving.  We stopped Friday morning for an early lunch at this place and bought t-shirts.  Our reason for stopping in Asheville was to see the Biltmore Estate.  Believe it or not I don't have any pictures of the actual house.  (Actually, at this point, it's probably real easy to believe.)  I tried to get some but the other tourists were kind of ruining every shot.  Also, there wasn't a whole lot of green or blooming going on.  The house had some neat stuff but it was a quick tour.  We decided not to get the audio tour but we were getting stuck behind everyone else who did... they were really holding things up and just standing around.  I could include a few funny things that involve gas-passing and getaways but I already typed it once and thought it might be TMI.   We went to their winery for tasting and a little shopping.  We left Asheville around 3:00 for our next destination.  The next stop will have to wait until tomorrow.  I won't even say where it is but it's a place I've ALWAYS wanted to go.  I'll give a hint... "Long distance information.  Give me Memphis, Tennessee"

On another note, I have a new addiction.  Not that I had an old one but I do have something I am totally hooked on.

Oranges are my favorite fruit.  Yeah, sometimes apples or strawberries are good and every once in a while even bananas, but I love oranges.  I don't eat a lot of them since they can be kind of messy with the peel and juice and seeds and all.  It seems like lately I've been seeing these Cuties everywhere.  I finally bought a bag the other day.  They weren't available to buy just a few so I had to buy the whole bag.  I figured some would end up in the garbage since there were so many.  Well, I also didn't figure on eating SEVEN the first day.  They are delicious, seedless and so clean and easy to peel.  You know how when there are brownies or cookies and it's next to impossible to walk through the kitchen without having a bite?  That's how I am with the oranges.  It seems like every time I walk through the kitchen I have to eat an orange...or two.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to eat one right now.

wednesday, march 17

 

we got up and caught the bus and headed through the tunnel for New York City.  I took the first picture because it's funny.  We got on the bus and Mom was up by the bus driver talking.  I understand we were curious to know how many stops it made and what its final destination was but I'm sure she said/asked a lot more than that.

Our first stop was Times Square.  I have one picture and it's not the best.  Eric was not in the best mood because not only was it crowded but I wanted to stop in the middle of this crowd for pictures.  We knew there would be a St. Patrick's Day parade but we just didn't know where.  Since none of us were interested, we headed to Rockefeller Center.

After going to the top, the plan was to head to the street for more sight-seeing.  We walk out of the building and were smack-dab in the middle of the parade.  We were actually standing alongside some women who had also exited the building but this was an area that had been blocked off.  I heard drums and bagpipes.  Then I wanted to watch the parade but NYPD had other plans.  I got an attitude with a cop.  I was in an unpleasant mood for a while after that.  We started off down the street to find food for Eric.  The St. Patrick's Day revelers were everywhere - which did not help my mood.  We finally went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  I didn't eat because that's how I operate.  I cannot eat a big meal and then be expected to walk around the city.  Once I eat, I'm done.  Yeah, I know these restaurants are everywhere but we'd never been and finding a place for Eric to eat was getting difficult.  Cosme and Eric loved the food.  We walked for a bit but we really couldn't get anywhere because there were so many road blocks.  It was frustrating.  We took the subway to Brooklyn and grabbed a snack and drinks then walked back over the bridge.  Not long after that we headed back to the bus station (which was another half hour of crazy right there).  I know I've left stuff out but it was that kind of a day.  We didn't do a whole lot but we saw quite a bit.  I learned two things from this trip to New York... 1) It cannot be done in a day and 2) NEVER go on St. Patrick's Day.