Pretty darn good weekend

I have to say that this was a pretty darn damn good weekend. Just short of amazing, actually. There are only a few things that could make a weekend amazing (in my opinion), and none of them happened this weekend, so I can't call the weekend amazing, but I can call it pretty damn good.

We're working summer hours at the office, so we're off Friday afternoons at noon. That makes for a pretty damn good weekend without everything else that went on! We were having friends over on Saturday afternoon, so Friday was spent at the grocery store and cleaning up the house. Let's just say it needed it!

Saturday was an early wine tasting outing to Haak Winery in Santa Fe. A friend won this in a silent auction and was so kind to invite Jay and I (thanks, PB!). We had never been to Haak before, so we were really looking forward to it. And, we weren't disappointed. Granted, it wasn't the wine country in California, but it was pretty good. I actually learned a few things about wine that I didn't know before. And, confirmed my taste for Tempranillo. LOVE. IT. Enough said.

Four bottles of wine, two bottles of cooking wine, and three wine glasses later, we were back at our house, along with a group of folks. We hung out and grilled up some burgers. CK brought chips, queso, and creamy jalapeno (just put an IV in me), and we munched and ate and drank some more wine and chatted. It's been awhile since we were all around a table doing that, so it was definitely good for the soul. We missed KK though! The rest of the day was spent riding around in the golf cart, as is custom for a weekend in Clear Lake Shores. We enjoyed watching the boats in the channel get pulled over by law enforcement for a variety of reasons... expired tags, drinking while driving, too many people on the boat, kids not in life jackets. Really, people? It's Memorial Day weekend. You have to know that the law is going to be out.

On Sunday, it started as all Sundays do with breakfast / lunch at our usual spot, and then it was all about the boat. I was able to work on my tan and it was just a nice day cruising around.

Today, Memorial Day, was a lazy day around the house. We took some time to remember what the day is REALLY about. We talked about our grandfathers who served, Jay's dad who served, and our many friends who are currently serving. Yes, it's nice to have the day off of work, but Memorial Day really is about those who have sacrificed so that we can have the freedom to do what we want on our days off. The coolest part of the day was heading over to Kemah (under the bridge) and buying fresh shrimp right off the boats as they came in. We decided to have shrimp Florentine and peel and eat shrimp for dinner, and it did not disappoint. Between purchasing shrimp and dinner we freshened up the mulch in the front yard. It looks really good now (if I do say so myself)!

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a much better weekend. It was great to see the Rice girls - love you all - and to spend some time outside. I hope you all had a pretty damn good weekend, too. Here's to a good (short) work week!

Training for a 5K

Well, that got your attention, didn't it? I know what you're thinking... You, train for a 5K? HA! It's OK... I thought the same thing, too. A couple weeks ago I mentioned to a group of girlfriends that I've been wanting to start running, but I'm just not a big fan (yes, I know how to run, I just don't like to do it), and that I'd heard about this program called Couch to 5K, did they know anything about it? The next thing I knew, a spreadsheet was set up (thanks PB!) in Google docs to keep us accountable, and I was waking up at 5 a.m. to run. The program claims that after 9 weeks, you'll be ready to run a 5K.

And so training for a 5K began.

And, if I'm going to be honest, so far so good. It's really not bad at all. Check back with me in three or four more weeks and I might think something different, but it hasn't been horrible yet. Granted, I just finished week one, which consists of a brisk 5 minute warm up walk, then alternating running for 60 seconds, and walking for 90 seconds, for a total of 20 minutes. I live on an island that is exactly 2 miles around, so it makes it really easy. I really have no excuse. I've seen a couple people just drop / shed pounds from running, and that's what really motivated me to want to start running. It's easy. It doesn't cost a lot (although I do need to invest in a new pair of shoes... the ones I have now are not for running, which could explain why my legs are sore... or that could be because I haven't ever run before in my life... it's one of the two). I can do it no matter where I am (I'm thinking about upcoming vacations... you can run anywhere!). And doesn't take a lot of time. Plus, I feel a lot better throughout the day, and I go to sleep a lot easier, too. Don't get me wrong... I'm pretty confident you won't find me running a marathon anytime soon, but I think a 5 K is pretty do-able.

So, this is my plan for the next 9 weeks, and hopefully beyond. I'll keep you posted. If you have any tips for a rookie runner, I'm listening!

Farewell, Oprah!

In my now 34 years on this earth, I truly never thought I would see this day come. Oprah's final show was today. Did I watch? No (not yet). Which is pretty typical... I work, therefore I DVR. So I will watch at some point in time tonight or later this week. But this woman, no matter how you feel about her personally, is a REAL icon. She has done so much good for so many people, and brought so many issues to light... she truly is an inspiration. I'll never be as rich as she is (and quite frankly I don't know that I would want to be!), but I can aspire to have a big huge heart like she does, and to do something good in this world in my lifetime.

So, farewell, Oprah. Thank you for gracing the airways all these years. Thank you for being an inspiration for women like me. Thank you for always speaking your mind and being a part of our lives.

And now, here are 20 strange facts you may not have known about Oprah (according to the Houston Chronicle).

New flowers!!

I spent most of the day on Saturday planting new summer flowers. I took a tour of Houston Garden Center Saturday morning to see what they had in stock, and came home with vinca, impatients, silva, and verbena. Looks good, if I do say so myself!!

The budget situation in Texas

It ain't pretty, folks. And being a state employee, I'm well aware of what's going on. It sucks, to put it plain and simple. But you know what? Educators are creative. And they'll do whatever it takes to keep educating our children - our future. Kinda like this guy:

For those of you out there who are educators and facing the same situation we are, thank you for sticking with it! It's a tough job, and hard to believe that education and health care are the first things to go when there's a budget situation. Personally I'd like to see our legislators - in particular pRick Perry, our governor - take a budget cut, but somehow, I don't think that's going to happen. So we'll continue doing what we're doing, so that one day we'll show them the mistakes they're making.

Whew! What a weekend!

We haven't had a weekend like this in a really long time. For whatever reason, our social calendar was full! But we're not complaining. We had a blast and would do it again in a heart beat! Here's a pictorial recap. I hope you guys had a good weekend, too!

Friday - Drag Races
The O'Reilly Spring Nationals were this weekend at Royal Purple Raceway (I still want to call it Houston Raceway Park). We always try to go on Fridays because there are two rounds of qualifying, and it goes into the night, so it's cool to see the flames come off the cars as they leave the start line. It's just a fun day. The drag races are something Jay got me in to, and now I'm hooked. HUGE fan of the NHRA!

OK, so I'm an idiot, and didn't take any photos from this year's races. Duh! But this is from last year. John Force's car is in the far lane. He's pretty good.  :) So cool!!

Saturday - Golf Cart Poker Run
The 3rd annual Golf Cart Poker Run benefiting the Clear Creek Environmental Foundation. Oh my! This was our first time to do this, and what an event this was! It started at our neighbor's bar, Jackie's Brickhouse, with more than 100 golf carts. I'd say probably closer to 150. We even had our own police escort as we proceeded to the Elk Lodge, Alan's Swampshack, the Monkey Bar, Palapa's, and back to Jackie's. And let me tell you... this was amazing people watching! The more bars we hit, the drunker everyone got and the louder the music on the carts got. It was definitely fun. We didn't win the grand prize (golf cart), but it was still worth it. Our poker hand ended up being 2 Jacks, a nine, five and seven.

Mom and dad riding in the back of our cart

Our escort for the day! Thanks, Denise!

All of the golf carts driving down FM 2094.

This is about half of the carts in the parking lot in Kemah outside of Monkey Bar.

That's me and Jay!

Sunday - Madeleine's 1st birthday

We had a blast celebrating our "niece" Madeleine's first birthday. It was a cowboy / cowgirl theme with lots of kiddos and tons of fun. Tons of food and laughs, and we were so happy to celebrate the day with the Kimmel crew! Thanks for having us! We love y'all!

The spread of food. Yum!!

 CK and her mom made - yes made - all of these for the kiddos. They were so cute!!

T-R-O-U-B-L-E. He's the big brother!

Brady attempts the slide. He was a little weary at first...

The birthday girl!

A little help blowing out the candle from big brother. I absolutely love this picture!

Not so sure about the cake or what to do with it...

but she quickly figured it out!

Sugar high!

All in all it was a great weekend. And with the news tonight about Osama Bin Laden being dead, it just got to be a really great weekend. I have a lot of thoughts going through my head about that right now, so I'll get back to that later. God bless our great country and our troops and their families. So proud to be an American!!!!