dry, for now

The water finally drained down but we have more to come. Yippee. Here's a pic of Eric walking home after being dropped off at the end of our road. The city eventually came and roped off the front entrance to our neighborhood.

texas flood

It's wet, very wet. Here's a shot of the house. (The water eventually made it to the two trees.) And the next is a shot of the street. Eric was at the movies and had to find another way home. They had to drop him off at the end of the street. The water was between knee and thigh deep. Big trucks were driving down the street pulling rafts...what fun.

fitzgerald's

Eric went to a bar/club for the first time tonight. (He saw his first mosh pit too.) He hated it. Fitzgerald's had a battle of the bands and we thought it would be good for Eric to watch and listen. Yeah, too bad they sucked. He was ready to go. Right before we left, Lauren called and said she was in town. We left Fitzgerald's and went to Pappa's Seafood to meet up with Lauren.

ketchup

I had to post this. It was covered in ketchup packets. (I did notice a few orange ones which I'm thinking weren't ketchup but Taco Bell hot sauce.) I think someone must like ketchup more than Eric.

dragon

Ever wonder what to do with your old flatware? How about make a dragon. This was pretty neat.

yarn car

This car was so pretty. When I looked closely at the paint job, I noticed it was yarn.

peeps!

I guess this is what Andy Warhol's work would have looked like if he'd used Peeps.

note: I tried Peeps this year. They were as bad as I thought they'd be...until I held it to a match and roasted it. mmm...

slowly but surely

I'll get some art car pictures posted. This is the toaster van. The pop-tarts slid up and down. I love how it's dragging the cord.

art car parade

We went to the art car parade yesterday but I can't get any pictures to upload. Not one! Anyway, it was fun. George Clinton was the grand marshall (yes, the "the King of Interplanetary Funksmanship"). He's personally not one of my favorites, but hey... So anyway, there were a lot of cute cars. One van was a toaster with Pop-Tarts popping out and it was dragging a little cart with a guy riding in it which was the cord and plug. Another was a dragon made out of silverware. One had a pretty painted design all over it but the paint was YARN! Oh, I almost forgot the one decorated completely with Peeps! It was neat. There were too many to name so I thought I'd list a few. We didn't stay for the whole thing but what we saw were good ones.

chocolate anyone?

Cosme wants a chocolate cake with ice cream for his birthday. So, here's a milk chocolate cake with chocolate chips and a fudge-like icing (recipe from Mom). Now, I can either a)put the rest of the icing on the cake or b)call it done and save the extra for me! My strong psychic abilities are telling me you chose "b". Okay, fine, I will. Don't worry, we're not going to overdose on chocolate. I got vanilla ice cream...Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream. Time for two thumbs up..."Very Nice" (in my best Borat impression)-that was especially for Lauren because she loves Borat...not.

UPDATE: the icing is SOOO good. It thickens up and could be wrapped and sold as candy. I didn't put pecans in it so Eric would eat it, but a lump of that icing with a pecan in it...mmm.

ANOTHER UPDATE: yeah, that cake doesn't go so well with that icing. I wasn't too impressed with the whole cake situation. I made the milk chocolate version which called for a yellow cake mix, a vanilla pudding mix and a chocolate pudding mix. I'd made it once before and remember liking it okay, but not so much today.

a few pictures

a couple of black and whites


and one color

fun, fun, fun

If you're having fun and you know it... nevermind. Yeah, Eric wasn't really digging our Cinco de Mayo outing. We started off at the Mas Tequila celebration at the Hard Rock Cafe. There wasn't much going on. They had bands playing all day and a 500 gallon gold margarita but not much of a crowd. We went inside for lunch and were stopped for a picture. So, we will be seen (in about a week) in The Houston Press. You know how they say black makes you look thinner? Well, I was wearing white. It's not a good thing.

We walked down to the Crawfish Festival to find even fewer people there. We left and drove over to the Cinco de Mayo festival at Hermann Park. So that's where everybody was hiding. Too bad it wasn't any fun. We made this picture and left. That was our outing. It was fun (as long as you don't ask Eric), just not a whole lot going on.

look what I did today

I found some stickers and stuck 'em. If I'd known I was going to do it slanted, I would have started lower with the E. Oh well, maybe next time.

mmm, donuts

Eric and I took the Saturn Vue back yesterday. (I think I actually started to miss the Mercedes.) Eric wanted to play around on a Telecaster at Guitar Center but we made a pitstop first. We went to Christy's on Gray at Montrose. That was the best 51 cents I spent all day. I liked going here when I was a teenager. Can you see why?

road trip

Okay, so Saturday the three of us drive to Temple to meet Mom and Grandma to make a couple of exchanges. (We also get to have some of Lauren's birthday cake, minus Lauren.) We decided to rent a bigger car (Saturn Vue) for our ice chest and Cosme's aching back. We're running an hour behind schedule but no big deal. Our plan is to leave Temple, do some sight-seeing in Austin and San Antonio, then head home. We arrive in Austin and love it. There are a few protests going on and a couple of festivals. The main thing Eric wants to see is the SRV memorial statue...right in the middle of a reggae festival. So, between almost hitting several pedestrians and driving through Austin trying to find the thing (think European Vacation "look kids, Big Ben, Parliament...") we leave - HATING Austin. We saw the statue from the road but decided to come back another day. We still have San Antonio to see before the sun goes down. Going down 35 through San Antonio, Cosme points out Alamo Street. I let him know that it should be off exit 141. Well, when exit 148 comes and we're almost out of SA, we decide to turn around. So far, I hate San Antonio. I'm not digging this upper level/lower level on the highways, it's really messing with my head. I decide to get off after passing the right exit which puts us in a shady part of town (think Vacation when they're driving through St. Louis and hear gun fire "roll 'em up..."). We finally find the general area of the Alamo and have an idea where it might be. We park about 5 blocks away and start to walk. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! We saw one thing we set out to. There are people and bleachers with VIP seating everywhere and guys in Air Force uniforms. They're having some sort of ceremony starting soon. I take one picture of the Alamo just to say we made it. We walk around, find Dick's Last Resort on the Riverwalk and head in for a little fun and abuse. We headed home after that - really liking San Antonio. Yeah, I think our road trip calls for a redo.

Bummer.

Okay, the picture in the top left corner is not my house, it's a photo I made of a place in Freeport. So I'm just reading on Houstonist and find out Tony Hawk was downtown on Sunday giving some skating demonstration to benefit some school in Freeport. Guess where we were on Sunday. Guess what we missed on Sunday. Oh well, I guess I can look on the bright side. We caught the whole "Tony Hawk demo" thing in Los Angeles when they were promoting the X Games. Besides that, Eric had a hands-on demo while he was rockin' Guitar Center...he even got new strings. So beat that, Tony Hawk. (And yes, that is an old picture of Eric on his Alva board.)

do you hear what I hear?

Every morning, every afternoon, all night long

Testing...1,2,3

My first post.