They're Back...

Yesterday was their first day back from Nantucket and we can really see a difference in little Evie. She is so alert and cries louder than she did before the trip to Mass. Unhappily she seems to have forgotten that she's OK with me because after a short while of me holding her her little face gets a funny expression and she then sticks out her lower lip and yarls. Of course a boob would help but I'm not about to try that ploy.
Oh well, as everyone knows my strong suit is patience :-) and I will give her plenty of time to adjust........

I got one or two nice pics yesterday. And a couple of nice videos.
Here is Evelyn. See how alert she is?



Here's Evies fat little bum. Is she well fed or what?


Here are the twins in Nana's car as we drive home to go swimming



Here we are at the pool


Stephanie is reading poems to Graham

Will the mystery guest sign in please,

My daughter Jennifer is a spy shopper. Well, not really a spy, but sneaky. Well, sneaky isn't it either she just doesn't tell the establishment that she has been given an assignment to see how they perform and she is keeping records.....and will rat to the higher ups.

When she told of the nice dinner she had last week, mostly on the cuff, I said maybe I would like to do that. So instead of recommending me and getting me a free pass into the elite 007 group, she sent me the application link.( just kidding Jenn )

THEY ARE STICKLERS and to start off with they give you a quiz about trains going in opposite directions at different speeds and what would the distance travelled be etc.
You must pass this test before you can even apply! I got 9 out of 10 and they sent me a certificate by e-mail so I could continue to fill out the forms. Well, it took most of the morning yesterday to fill out the application and compose a story about a recent food experience. I sweated over the essay part. I changed it several time and finally uttered a few 4 letter words and hit 'submit'. Congratulations, you are now a spy shopper and guess what my secret code is to get on line to find my assignments? ..... 005.... I kid you not.

Anyway, excited as hell about getting some free food I quickly checked the site for what's left in my area for August....... Golden Corral, for lunch only.
I checked for September and all there was available was Golden Corral for lunch or a Hamburger joint in Memorial park for lunch. I think I'll make my own sandwich.


Other than the above I have no fuel for posts 'cos other than fixing a faulty toilet I have nothing to say now that Anna's gone home and the Walkers are still absent. But wait until manana when they return. Ha ha Back in business.

Swimming before going home to Pflugerville

Anna and I went for a quick swim Friday morning before we headed off to Giddings to meet Anth. Here are a couple of videos showing the prowess of her diving.

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And here we are in Giddings meeting her dad.

And this last one of Anna in the car with Syrup. She was expecting me to take a picture and I took a vid instead......and Nana checks Anna's loose tooth.

The Last Supper

I made guacamole last night using 2 very large Florida avocados. There was more than a pint of product. Anna ate it all while Nana was making the artichokes and I was stir frying chicken and peppers.

Here is a video where Anna has regaled Nana with a crown and then tells us about her diving experience.



In this one Anna eats artichokes for the first time




Here she is on the phone




Here Anna is finally full after eating ALL the guacamole, a monster artichoke and egg rolls and chicken with peppers!


Here I caught Nana reading James Herriott's book to Anna

Anna said it: 'Time Flies'

When we got up this morning Anna was awake and waiting for us. She just stayed in bed lying quietly waiting for movement in the old folks ward!
Then down to waffles and syrup. Syrup, by the way, is the name given to her new kitty toy that meows like a real cat.
We discussed about it already being Thursday and tomorrow she would be returning to P'ville. She said "time flies"


Here 's a quick coupla vids of breakfast and jumping from island to island in a 6 year old's imagination.

Anna's New Clothes

Nana took Anna out to lunch which was followed by a shopping trip to The Galleria. They came home just as I was finishing dinner prep. We are going to have oriental egg plant parmagiano with some Pflugerville basil meatballs. As well as Anna we will see our old friend Brian McClain for dinner. Its always fun to be around Brian because he is one of those people with a million ideas and a good sense of humor. He always keeps the conversation going.

I took a few pix of Anna's new finery and IMHO they are all good so I will post them all even the doubles. Any complaints, see the boss.......she's downstairs vacuuming for Brian's sake.
















Plus a video which is a little dance Anna did for us.

Chuy's

Last night we asked Anna if for dinner she wanted artichokes as an appetizer followed by pasta and meatballs, or, would she like to go to Chuy's.....without hesitation "Chuy's" she said. So, she and I walked to the end of the block and across Westheimer and boom we were there. Nana drove but couldn't find a space in the busy parking lot nor nearby so had to park a block and a half away. Not much point in driving when you can walk it in 5 minutes, heh?

Anna can eat!

Today we went to the Zoo

We got there early because we knew we'd wilt in the noon heat and humidity. Anna really had a good time. She skips everywhere and sings to herself a lot.






There's two elephants.................










And here are a coupla vids for your enjoyment....

Anna's Back in Town..... dah dah

We are going to have a busy fun week 'cos Anna is visiting us till Friday. Colin started school today and Anna starts next week. So Nana asked if it would be OK to have her come visit. Jenn and Anth agreed so we met halfway between Pflugerville and Houston in a little town (misspelling theirs) called Chappell Hill. Jenn found this lovely restaurant where we could join up and have lunch. This is the menu board outside

This place is apparently reknowned for its pies. They had about 30 of them of more varieties than I had ever heard of. Even though none of us would normally eat pie :-) we did so on this occasion and here's what we got......
Anna's pecan

Nana's peach cobbler


Grandad's apple pie



Jenn's 'washed out' key lime (but delicious)



Here's Anna answering the question " How is you pecan pie Anna?"....








And finally two vids. One at the restaurant and the second when we arrived back at Bammel Lane after a one hour ride.

Water, water, everywhere ....

The title of this post comes from The Ancient Mariner....water water everywhere and all the boards did shrink, water water everywhere nor any drop to drink. (Poor bugger should have left the albatross alone.)

Well, thank goodness we have our stash of adult imbibitions because it doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere today. It started to rain last night and woke us up many times with the noise. This morning everywhere around us is flooded including our garage.

I took a video of the lake outside my garage.....

The Lexington Contingent

Since the twins and Evie B are up in Nantucket for the next few weeks, we decided to drive up to Lexington, Texas for the day so that we could visit with our relatives the Lewis's. Our nephew Rob is there this week before returning to West Point, N.Y. where he is a cadet.



Rob has always been a terrific kid and unassumingly very smart. His mom Cinda


is an Aggie engineer who opted out of the business world for a while to home school Rob and Bevie. She's done a great job. Rob and Beverly are the pay back for years of caring responsible parenting.

While in High School Rob was active in church and the community and he was industrious enough to be awarded the Eagle Scout level in the Boy Scouts of America.

Because of family history, Rob was destined to go to Texas A & M just like his Mom and Dad and Grandad on both his Mom's and Dad's sides of the family had. Heck, he was even born in College Station!

But Rob is a self starter. He decided to apply to West Point so that he could serve his country better. Of course he was accepted. He just completed his plebe year and pulled down a 3.5 GPA which would have been even higher if he was a fighter instead of a lover..... :-)

Little Bev was at work in nearby Giddings for a good part of the time we were in Lexington. She came home in time for dinner and, as she has been all her life, she was a pleasure to be around. She is so well grounded for a 17 year old. She is normal and nice aunque being beautiful. Just look at her.









Lee ( The Dad )


came home from work wet through 'cos his car's A/C quit working and went for a 3.5 mile run in the 94 degree temp. I remember when I used to do that. Sigh.

Cinda is a good cook and made all the dinner from ingredients she had on hand. The short notice of having guests didn't throw her a bit. We had home made salsa and chips followed by home made chimichangas and frijoles con arroz. Lovely.


Here's a couple of group shots.......













And one more of Little Bev



Other than the market being down 387 points, we had a great day!

No Bloody pics......

Twice I went to see the twins and their baby sister today. And both times I didn't take my camera. So no pics of the events.

I went swimming with the twins and they both were full of energy, I got them to dive off the side of the pool They were TOTALLY unafraid. Both of them did it right off the bat twenty or more times. Then we upped the ante. I said, 'dive in and swim underwater through my legs'

No problem, both of them did it umpteen times. Graham has such a terrif attitude. That kid could be drowning and he'd still be smiling. He loves the water. Paige was a little more adept at making sure her hands and head went into the water first when diving.....GB WAS BETTER AT BELLY FLOPS....

Perhaps the highlight of the day for me was following the hours of swimming when I took the kids to Azumas to pick up our sushi and sashimi.....all of us go nuts on Japanese cuisine and we really had a splendid dinner.......
There wasn't a lick left over when we were done. Great Day!

Sorry, no pics...

We had a Surprize Visitor

Since we ate a late lunch yesterday dinner was delayed too. So it was great timing when Steph called at 8 pm to see if we wanted to mind Evie for a few minutes while she went to the pharmacy. Sure we said and so we had her for about 45 minutes.

Here are a couple of shots I took.

No tenemos prisa pero......

Its not like we are trying to rush our cruise along but today we bought snorkel equipment. I already tried mine on and it seems to be of top quality and will work well. We're not counting down or anything (76 days) but we just want to be ready.

Before we did that we went to lunch at -ho hum- Neiman's. We were there with Steph
and her children as well as Al's sister Gwen and her beautiful daughter Lauren. It really was nice and I took a few pictures .....

There are several pics that overlapped and though I tried for an hour ( I originally published at 4. 06 pm it is now 5. 14 pm ) to space, comment and all kinds of maneuvers to correct the overlaps..........I finally gave in. Enjoy them as you can.












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Some fun and frolicking going on before we were seated