Such a Night / Graham visits Nana

I stayed up late last night --- on purpose. Continental Airlines management had their annual meeting in a hotel a few miles from our condo. I went to the party after all the official stuff was done and saw people I hadn't seen in 6 years or so. It was a lot of fun.

Today after lunch Steph brought Graham over to stay with us while she and Paige went shopping.
Here's a vid of them arriving.........



And here's another with Steph and PK leaving and Graham and Nana sitting on our front porch while Patchie explores the grass.....the car honk is Steph warning a turkey driver not to back up without looking! She was about to clozzen Steph's Mercedes.......





And now for something a completely different........Nana and Graham Brooks dancing:


Hope you like my videos.....

Jigsaw Puzzle

After our Thai food dinner tonight the twins did a jigsaw. Mommy and Nana helped but I could see P and G had the idea of finding matching color pieces and fitting them together.

....and kids

"Grandad do you want to go to morial park?" "Where is it Paige?"
"You know it G'dad -morial park" Then the penny dropped and I said yes, I would like to go to Memorial Park too.
We had lots of fun and here's a video of Steph feeding her chicks. Reminded me of the little mockingbirds.



Another of Graham on the swings.........



And finally here's one of Paige looking like Phylis Diller after exiting the static electricity producing plastic slide chute.

and kids...

At Memorial Park yesterday we had lots of fun. Here is a video of Steph feeding her chicks

Birds

There's a mockingbird just outside our back patio that has the bluff in on Patch. She has new chicks in the tree and is so protective and territorial. It has just started to be a problem in the last week because prior to that when Patch went out the bird ignored her. Now we can hear the new chicks chirping and its made the mom more belligerent. Yesterday the bird attacked me too. Patchie just has to hear the chirp alarm sound and she goes into scared frozen mode. The bird has dived bombed her maybe 8 times and scraped her twice........now Patch hides under the bushes and has to be dragged/coaxed out. I'm hopeful that the aggression will abate after the chicks fly away.

One more thing...........

I got this picture of Emily and Anthony scarfing down the sandwiches in the park.
I think its a smasher, heh?

Colin's 4th Birthday Celebration

What a day! We had such a great day filled with family.
We got up early and drove to Austin (Pflugerville). This was one of the reasons that helped convince us to move to Houston- that we would be able to visit Austin for a day trip- and it worked perfectly. We were there after a 2.25 hr drive. 152 miles door to door.

The party started at 1100 and we helped carry all the stuff that Jenn and Anth had created out to the park which abuts (almost) their property.

Anth is a genius cake maker and here is the creation he made for 'train-mad' Colin:


Here's a video of the group in the park singing to Colin.


Emily read a story to Colin






We left at about 4 p.m. and got home by 6.30. With 2 nice bottles of vino from Emily and an ELECTRIC mosquito swatter from Jenn and Anthony

And as a footnote, here's one of Emily swinging Colin

Old Boy...........

Yesterday was my 67th birthday anniversary. It was a good day despite part of it being spent hanging window curtain rods. Hate working with hands above head screwing things in.
To say nowt about removing and replacing improperly placed brackets once they had already been installed. (spackle,repaint etc) All part of the deal really. It always looks better than the first go when its redone heh?

But all in all we had a lot of fun. I got calls from everyone I wanted to, (except the President, he must have forgotten). We went walking in the park, we swam, we had lunch out and then we had birthday cake.
Here's a video of the event:

Forgetfulness? Aging?

I'm gonna have to start making lists or tying string to my finger. I cannot believe I went to Pflugerville last Friday and forgot to take my camera. I docked it Friday a.m. so that it would be fully charged and then we left without it. Oh there were so many good shots that you now will never see. Anna was beautiful and animated the whole w/e. Little Colin was puny most of the time and docked himself in front of his laptop for hours, perfectly content with his little Disney-like friends on the screen.

Jenn took some pics and said she would send them to me. If she does I may add a few to this post at a later time.

A walk in the park

In years past whenever we visited Houston we often excercised at Memorial Park. It has a well-traveled loop of 2.9 miles and is interesting because of the characters you see and the surroundings-trees, grass, animals etc.

Since we don't yet belong to a gym (as we did in ELP) we have been using the loop for exercise on a frequent basis. Usually walking around it in about 41 to 42 mins.......each time we do it we strive to equal or improve upon the time. Here's what it looks like.

Paige's Turn

She's blowing bubbles here. Poor pic taken from upstairs bedroom through glass and screen.


Last week Graham spent time alone with Nana. Today was Paige's turn. We picked her up after school and she was alone...Graham was feeling puny today ( PK's words) So he skipped class.




Paige and Nana played in the little grotto type garden we have....
Here's a few pics and a video....

Sticker Shock

A few weeks ago after arriving in Houston I went to Whole Foods and Central Market and frankly I was quite concerned by the pricing of the groceries. I mean onions $1.99 per pound and shrimp $14.99.........everything else followed along the same lines---way overpriced for my budget.
So, after trying Kroger and Randall's and Rice Epicurean and not being any more satisfied, I finally found where the HEB is. Not too far away just past The Galleria. Then I discovered FIESTA! Yeah. Shrimp are $6.99 and onions are .79..........everything else is similarly(reasonably) priced and just right for me.

Next week Nana and I are off to Austin to watch Anna and Colin while Anthony and Jennifer celebrate Anth's parents 50th anniversary.
It is great that we are close enough to be involved with the kids w/o having to endure airports and aircraft.
Here's a coupla pics from earlier this year. Colin looks like he's practicing 'speak no evil' then 'see no evil' Anna is showing Nana how well she can colour.