Picnic

After we picked up the twins from their morning class we went to the park outside their house and had a lunch on the grass. Steph had sandwiches with terrific bread and a light curried chicken filling. It really was nice; Kate Jackson was there too.


This first vid is when we first got home and Paige is showing her work. Graham hears the compliments PK is getting and wants to get some of the praise too. Then we learn that his older sister did some of the detail for him!


Next is a bunch of us on the blanket.

Evie Bea was so good and active today. She liked the picnic and although I missed the shot of her crawling to get her rattle, when we restaged it she tried to crawl and rolled over instead.

Pediatric Dentistry

It wasn't like this 60 years ago I can tell you. But then, what was?

Steph said she was taking the kids to the dentist and I could tag along if I wanted to. With Nana out of town I was inclined to go since I wanted to show the kids my band-aid that I got for having my flu shot this morning. (They still think Grandad is pretty nifty and brave and stuff so I do all I can to enhance my standing)
Anyway, my camera acted up a little bit so some of the stuff I shot I wont publish 'cos either the video jerks or the audio repeats and I think I have enough that you will get the picture.

Additional Video

In my prior post I somehow left out the video taken at the Thanksgiving dinner table. While I was getting that one loaded I also saw one of Jennifer cooking that I thought I should publish. I include a few others for good measure.

My Thanksgiving Post - Now with Video!

I'm just going to post a few pics and maybe later I will have time to upload some video. We are having a great Thanksgiving with Emily here all the way from NYC and traveling up to Pflugerville to see ALL the Martins. Steph and her family are suffering on the beach at Cabo San Lucas, poor things, so they were not at our do. Last year Emily was absent from our Thanksgiving get together, maybe next year we will all be present.
Anthony was particularly generous with the wine and Jennifer did a sterling job on all the food. The kids were terrific and The Cowboys and Aggies won. What a Thanksgiving. Now if the Texans can beat the Browns today, it will be a great w/e too.
We took Emily to the airport and it was pouring. She called us when she arrived at home last night.We hated to see her go, BUT, she'll be back for Christmas, yeah!



Nana and Anna
Marion (Anthony's Mom) and Emily

A beautiful poinsettia that came from Costco./ Emily and Anna and Colin O
At the table enjoying the wine.
My world famous pie-lets.

Emily and Anna/ The Downward girls contingent.


A few videos that you may enjoy. Anna dancing, Colin talking about a beautiful cat and dancing around on a ball. Jennifer reading Colin's bedtime story. And some around the table at Thanksgiving.

Evelyn Bea's Christening.

It was a real Christening with William, a Presbyterian minister and a friend of the family, who performed the rites, referencing commitment to Christ and engagement with Him several times in the lovely relaxed and family type home-spun service. We had almost ideal conditions. It rained all morning and all through the previous night and just about time for the celebration it stopped and the sun came out. It was cool enough that we were all quite comfortable. Evie Bea was drenched 3 times with the Holy water and didn't yell or fuss. She was at her best.

The musicians were very good - a quartet who played non stop for 2+ hours ( except we asked them to put a sock in it during the service.)
With Steph in charge of the food you can imagine the extravaganza. We were all hard pressed to attempt a little decorum whilst piling our plates not so high we looked like gourmandise.........There was salmon, quail eggs, tuna tartar, tenderloin, quiche, and all kinds of fruit and veggie dishes. The mimosas with Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin went down well, pun intended.






Here are a few pictures and a few videos of the event.

















William's thoughtful intro.....
Al's reading
Inside the conservatory.


Beverly and Evelyn.

Marmalade and Strays......

Well as you can see we attempted to make the jam today using the small oranges we picked this morning. It was fun and P & G really helped a lot. Let you know how it turns out after it gels (hopefully).

Steph went to the bank and came back with a big rambunctious dog. Had a name and number on her collar and was nice enough I thought, though rough . We called the number and left a message and we hope the owner calls back soon. I also took a few videos featuring Baby Evie Bea and some fun shots of Graham and Paige scoffing down bananas for their afternoon snack. The final entry is a video of the lucky dog Bee.

They're not only for Martinis.....

Sorry for the week's haitus. I was waiting till someone nudged me just to make sure there was attention out there. Jennifer did. So here goes.

When we moved to Houston in April we were pleased to find a little mandarin tree on the walkway to our mailbox. The oranges are small and a little bitter but we learned they do wonders to Grey Goose vodka. Before long we had a naked tree- I guess all the neighbors like martinis too! In October the tree produced another load. They are just now ripening and the kids saw them and picked a few this morning before school. Steph said she would make marmalade with what we picked. There are still lots left on the tree out of little people's reach so out 'tinis are not going to suffer. Here's a few pics....









And a video

More from Hawai'i

Here are a couple more pics from our cruise. We are still saying to each other "Last week at this time we were in ........"

Anna and Colin

Just a few pictures of these lovely children........

Pflugerville Pfollies

After we got back from the cruise we went to Austin to pick up Patches. Dr Jenn had kept her at her clinic; Patchie was well cared for by all the people there. It was more than 3 weeks since we'd seen her and she was so happy and ran around in circles whimpering.


Jenn provided us with a quick lunch since we wanted to get back to Houston in a hurry to finish unpacking etc. Here's a pic of Jenn and Nana in the garden gathering some produce for lunch.....



Anthony has a new Apple computer and Colin and Anna love it. Look at these two videos.....



Colin was about to recite a poem while sitting on Nana's lap, but a spider got his attention. Look ----




Here's the entire poem, he speaks in 4 year old lingo with a Pfugerville accent.



Anna and Colin are so entertaining and make great subjects for blogging. Here's a little dance routine by Anna and Col followed by a vid of Colin's interpretation of the world-famous Body Parts Dance.

Halloween on Ship

We spent Halloween aboard the Diamond Princess. We left from Los Angeles and sailed to the Hawai'ain Islands. It was terrific and princess went all out. For Hallowe'en they had a big champagne party and most of all the waiters were in costumes.
Here's a few pics.


Patricia from Brazil was our favorite waitress along with her partner Anna from Thailand. They really treated us well and we had almost every breakfast at their station. Here's Patricia with Bev and then Anna with me.












And here's a video of the champagne party. The Maitre D' was pouring champagne for at least 1/2 hour ( case after case after case ) and it was bubbling down a pyramid of glasses. The music was loud and it was fun. Princess went all out and impressed us with this give-away.

Balcony Suite

We had a balcony (lanai in Hawai'ian) suite for the long cruise to the islands. Here we are at the beginning of the cruise still looking and feeling svelte.





We went to Nawiliwili first oin the island of Kauai and had a great time there. We listened to hula - watched it too, and went to the beach at the Marriott Resort. It is called the Garden Island and is really pretty.
Then we went to Hilo on the big island of Hawai'i. We saved 108 dollars by taking a bus for $3 and walking 1/2 mile to the Rainbow Falls. Here's a few pics of the falls and a video Bev took behind the falls........






Next we went to Maui where we took a local bus for $1 and went to Kaanapali. We transferred to a small local bus and went on to Kapalui where we had been snorkeling almost 30 years ago with our daughters. While swimming there I was attacked by a great white and got a nasty nick on my bonse..........'scuse the out of focus



The big white bugger banged into me and swam off. He didn't speak English so he was unaware of the remarkable series of cusswords I laid upon him.


Next we went to Honolulu where we had been several times before and had enjoyed the snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.
Here's Hanauma Bay and a little Japanese Girl with a special message for you.....



Our final stop was back to Hawai'i but to the western side to Kona. We bought coffee at $46 per pound. The town was pretty much unspoilt by tourism and we enjoyed a beer overlooking the bay and our ship and another one that was visiting too. This pic Bev took of me and a tree growing through the roof of a shop.