Pizza and Blokus

We invited our young friend C and her mom over for a quickly put-together pizza dinner tonight.... the dad is off in Louisiana working, so it was just the four of us. We had the homemade apple pie from the Love Creek Apple Orchards in Medina (that we brought back with us from the Hill Country trip) so that was our dessert. My husband went to the local Italian restaurant for the pizza, then picked up ice cream for the pie, and C's mom put together a large bowl of tossed salad.

Dinner was planned and ready to serve in a heartbeat, and I even had time to make up placecards that little Miss C loves so much.... these were decorated with stuck-on ladybugs and leaves, a la The Hill Country, along with cut-outs from the brochures we got in the town of Comfort.

We showed C and her mom the pictures of the country house, and C was practically jumping out of her shoes. She loved the little loft bedroom and she "has dibs" on that one if we do buy the house out there in the hills. They both loved just the name of the town itself, which my husband and I have always loved as well.

The more I see the pictures of this house, the more I love it. And of course, the more I love it, the more I want it. I read all the fine print in the brochure, and the selling price includes all the furniture, which makes the house even more enticing. We've called the owner, to see if we can spend a couple of days and nights there... sort of a trial, to see how we'll really feel up way up on that hill. The owner rents the house out for vacationers, so we'd pay his regular rental rates. We haven't heard back from him yet, so we'll try reaching him again tomorrow.

Still... I'm trying to stay calm and level-headed about all of this, which was impossible to do while C was here. At least twice every half hour, she'd tell us to buy the house. Or she'd suggest we buy a horse to go along with the house. After C looked at all the photos of the house, I saw the gleam in her eye, and I knew that she was re-arranging her bedroom in her mind.

Oh well, we'll see what happens. If it's meant to be, it will be. (I hate the uncertain-ness of that silly phrase.)

Medina, and Bandera.... and Home.

After leaving Comfort this afternoon, we decided to drive towards home. We had seen all we had gone there to see...... and found a good house in Wimberly, and a great house in Comfort. We had a lot to think about, and it didn't make sense to keep driving around the Hill Country.

On the way home, we drove through Medina....... a tiny, sleepy little town known for their apple orchards. We had been there before, and had stopped at Love Creek Orchards and Apple Farm. Not only was Medina still the tiny little town we had remembered, but Love Creek Orchards was still there and thriving.

We went into the Apple Store for a slice of pie...... and I picked out some fresh preserves as well. Before we left, we bought a whole pie to take home, which is now happily sitting in our fridge.

We also drove through the town of Bandera, which was on the way home. It's such a cowboy type of town....... much too rough for us. Every street has at least two bars/taverns..... lots of motorcycles in that town......... lots of huge ranches along the outskirts. Just not the place for us, and we drove right on through.


We got home at 10:30...... I had called the pet-sitter when we got close to home, so he'd know when to expect us. He was surprised that we had cut the trip short, but I explained all of that over the cell-phone.

As always, Gracie jumped all over my husband and tried to get into his pockets when we got home. The cats were happy to see me....... and I was happy to pet their little noses and rub their tummies. As always, AngelBoy was the first to roll over on his back near my feet. We had seen some cats in Comfort as we walked through the town, and petting them made me homesick for ours. And when we had dinner in the cafe in Welfare, there was a dog there who could've been a twin of Gracie's.... and that made us miss Gracie.

My husband has been sound alseep for a couple of hours. It's 2:00 in the morning as I'm typing this, and I'm ready to call it a night. I knew I couldn't sleep till I got this all out of my head and typed down....... and I'm hoping I can fall asleep without thinking too much about that house up in the hills of Comfort. Now honestly.... isn't that a great name for a town?

Comfort

Ah....... Comfort, Texas.... population just two thousand. We had been to this town twice before, and we both breathed a sigh of relief to see that Comfort hasn't changed. Not one little bit. It looked like Mayberry when we visited it twice before, and it still looks like Mayberry. We were so happy, I just can't explain it.

We got a room at the Comfort Commons, the historic inn on their Main Street. The Inn has rooms above the main floor of the hundred-plus-year-old building, and little cottages surrounding the Inn. We were able to get the same little four-room cottage that we had stayed in years ago.

Dinner that night was at a little cafe in Welfare, the next town over, being that the cafes in Comfort don't stay open too late. Welfare is about 8 miles from Comfort, so it was a little bit of a ride, but the food was good, and they had two men playing guitars and singing country songs while we ate.

We had breakfast at the Inn early this morning, and spoke to the owner about the town. We found out why Comfort is still Mayberry-like, instead of being Wal-Mart-like. Comfort doesn't have the accessability that those other towns have...... no huge roads, no businesses other than small bed & breakfasts and privately-owned antique and gift shops. The Main Street in Comfort hasn't been changed in over a hundred years, and little shops come and go, newer ones making necessary repairs to make them even more quaint.

The oldest and longest-operated General Store in the U.S. is on Comfort's Main Street, but it burned nearly to the ground a couple of years ago. The family who owns it is re-building it, but right now the building is fenced off to keep people away from the rubble.

Only two realtors in Comfort, and the owner of the Inn gave us the name of the best one. We were at that office right after breakfast, and we went to see a house up in the hills above Comfort. This time, my husband was the one whose eyes lit up as we toured the house and the property.

Five acres..... a three bedroom home, a separate guest cottage, a two-car garage, a storage shed, a greenhouse, a flagstone patio, a vegetable garden. Beautiful kitchen, high-ceilinged living room, two big bathrooms, stone wall and country gate at the beginning of the property. Lots of nooks and crannies in the multi-level gardens, stone fences and walls, a view that can break your heart. Huge deck at the back of the house, small deck outside the third bedroom (which is a loft overlooking the living room), small deck outside the guest cottage.

The house blends so well into the hillside that you don't know it's there till you drive down the road to it. No neighbors that you can see...... only one house off in the distance as you look out at your view. Again, as in Wimberly, a view beautiful enough to make you cry. Five acres. And a house that's only a few years old, built by the owner. It looks like a Texas country house..... floors are either wood or tile. All the doors are vintage. The wood railing surrounding the back deck is vintage.

And there I was..... furnishing that home in my mind......... with leather and Texas-country antiques. And there was my husband, taking pictures of everything, and I knew by the sparkle in his eyes that he had found "the one."

So now we're thinking and discussing. This house is different than the two-bedroom house in Wimberly. Because this house is so much bigger, and because it has the guest cottage and the huge garage, and the storage shed, we could live in this house if we wanted to. Not only could it be a weekend retreat, it could be a year-round home if we chose to live up in the Hill Country.

And because Comfort isn't like the busier town of Wimberly, the price for that house on five acres didn't make us even cringe. I could see us living there, either for weekends or forever. And when I asked my husband if he could see us there in that house, he said yes.

Most importantly...... when you look out at the view, you see nothing but the hills.... no neighbors, no telephone poles, no roads. And when you're in the center of the town, you're in Mayberry.... and you're waiting for Andy and Opie to walk out of the little barber shop.

I'm just trying to stay calm...... not get too excited........ and I'm hoping that whatever is meant to be with this house will be.

Kerrville

Another little town that we had been to before and we thought would be a high contender on our list. The population of Kerrville has grown to 25,000. It's somewhat of a college town, with Shriner's College there. Pretty college, not too big, all its buildings contained on nicely-kept grounds.

We stopped at a realtor's office and got some brochures...... but then realized that the Main Street there was just as busy as the one in Fredericksburg. Plus, there were a lot of big chain stores there as well. The realtor we spoke to was nearly 90, if not older.... all cowboy-ed up in jeans, boots, big silver buckle on a wide belt, and slow, slow, slow in walking and talking. We quickly realized that we didn't want to look at homes in this town anyway, so we thanked him for the brochures and said our goodbyes.

We couldn't believe how much Kerrville has grown....... but once those big chains come in, a quaint town changes into just another town filled with Wal-Marts, Home Depots, Lowes, and on and on. Not what we're looking for. We have all of that here...... why would we want it near our country getaway?

Fredericksburg

This is a town that we thought we would love...... we'd been there before, and happily criss-crossed their Main Street looking into all of their shops. The population of Fredericksburg is 8911, according to the sign posted just outside of town.

However, once we got into town, we saw the Wal-Mart signs...... and our hopes of finding a vacation home in Fredericksburg were forgotten. We parked the car and walked along Main Street for a few streets...... couldn't criss-cross back and forth the way we'd done before because we would've gotten flattened out by the traffic-- mostly huge trucks. Trucks! Have The Powers That Be in that town lost their minds?

And so many gas stations and car repairs shops on Main Street! Another sign of poor planning. After driving past so many peach orchards and vineyards before getting into the heart of Fredericksburg, we were just too disappointed for words.

We were also hungry for lunch by that time, so we stopped at one of the Main Street cafes for lunch...... all the while shaking our heads over the too-busyness of the town that we thought would be a good contender for a vacation/weekend home. My husband and I ate quickly and couldn't wait to leave........ the whole time we ate our lunch, all we could hear was the traffic on Main Street.

I doubt very much that we'll ever go back to that town.

Blanco

The next town was Blanco...... another sleepy, sad little town that just needed some tender loving care to make it something special. We stopped at the visitor's center in an old courthouse to get some suggestions for antique shops, realtors, restaurants.

There were just a couple of antique shops, only one realtor, and one restaurant. We decided not to bother with the realtor, being that we wouldn't consider living in that town anyway. We weren't all that hungry for lunch yet, so we waited on that as well.

We did stop in two interesting little antique shops....... I found a glass fruit bowl with a pedestal which I was looking for (a birthday gift for C's mom), and I was happy to give the $10 to the elderly lady who owned the shop. In the second shop, I found a Limoges cup and saucer, with Lily of the Valley flowers on it...... beautiful handpainted cup and saucer, which I really don't need, but I love those flowers because they remind me of my grandmother. And the owner of that shop was a nice little man who told us that he played guitar and banjo with a group of "old guys" who play anywhere, "even for free, just so's we can play." We stayed and talked to that old man for nearly half an hour, and enjoyed every minute of it.

Wimberley

We got to Wimberley at 3:45 on Wednesday afternoon. Being that we didn't stay too long in the towns I've just listed, we made good time that day and got to Wimberley sooner than we thought we would.

The population of Wimberley is just under ten thousand, so it's a bustling town, but very sprawled out. The sign as you get into town reads: "Welcome to Wimberley... A Little Bit of Heaven."

And it truly is.... enough restaurants and shops to keep you busy and interested, but not a Wal-Mart or huge supermarket in sight. The residents there have rallied hard and long for many years to keep all the big chain stores out. The result is a quaint little town with privately-owned shops..... no huge signs, no billboards, no Wal-Mart, no Target, no big shopping centers, no large concrete parking lots.

The Wimberley Pie Company has been there for years, and we had been there before. We stopped in for some pie and spoke to the owner there, who gave us some insight into the town after we told him we'd be looking at homes there.

We went to The Wimberley Inn, a group of cottages that we had stayed at when we were in Wimberley some years ago. After checking in there, we found a restaurant for dinner.... "Chriswell's" (I believe that's the correct spelling.) The food was good, but the restaurant was decorated in an upscale manner, more suited to downtown Houston than to downtown Wimberley. We were sorry that we didn't stay closer to the center of town and eat in one of the older, Wimberley-like cafes.

On Thursday morning after breakfast (at the Wimberley Cafe) we went to a realtor suggested by the owner of the Pie Company. We saw two houses with a wonderfully friendly realtor......... one that was built up on stilts, giving you too many stairs to walk up, plus the view from the deck of that house overlooked the roadway. The inside of the house was big, but the configuration of the rooms was very strange. Just not our cup of tea.

The other house was a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house.... beautiful view from the backyard overlooking the Blanco River. Far enough and high enough that if the river overflowed, it wouldn't come anywhere near the house. At the moment, the river there is bone dry, because there's been a drought up in the Hill Country. This was a brand new house, the landscaping not even finished yet. One problem with that house--- no garage, very little storage unless you put up a shed, and the neighbors on either side of the property were within shouting distance because the house sat on just under two acres. (Okay, two problems with that house.)

Beautiful little house, though, nicely laid out, well-planned, all new appliances, all new everything... no one has lived in it yet. As I stood out on the deck, we heard peacocks calling in the woods. The realtor said wild goats and deer would find their way to the property, as well as the usual raccoons, possums, and other small wildlife. I told the realtor that the view was "pretty enough to make you cry," and I meant it.

I fell in love with that little house........ so many windows all along the back of the house, all overlooking the river and the side of the hills....... I could imagine us living there, and that's the problem--- I started to decorate the house in my mind. The style of that house sort of matched the style of our home here, and I could see it filled with furniture from the local antique shops in Wimberley.

And of course, I could see us in it. Thankfully, my husband has more sense than I do at times such as these. He liked the house, liked the brand-newness of it, liked the view, but didn't like having such close neighbors, and didn't like having to build a garage if we wanted one (and of course we wanted one).

We took the name/number/eMail of that realtor and told her we'd be in touch. As we drove off and into the next town, I was still decorating that house in my mind.

San Marcos

This is a college town..... Texas State University-San Marcos is a huge sprawling complex of buildings....... some older than others, but all spread-out on heaven-only-knows-how-many thousands of acres. So sprawled out that the college has buses to take students to and from their living quarters.

Main Street in "downtown" San Marcos is filled with college students and shops that would attract the students.... lots of coffee shops and bookstores, tee-shirt and jeans shops. There are lots of shopping centers, not big ones, but scores of little ones. Makes for a very busy town. There are also train tracks running through town, and we were stopped at a train crossing while a very long freight train made its way from one side of the town to the other.

It was in San Marcos that we learned what the "RM" road signs mean....... that means "Ranch to Market." Where we live now, we see "FM" (Farm to Market) signs.

We thought we'd like San Marcos, but it's a town filled with concrete, busy streets, busy shopping centers. Nothing quaint about it, but I can see where it would appeal to the students. It's a college town, to its very core.

Lots of huge, huge ranches along the roads up there...... I can only imagine how many acres were behind the ornate gates of each ranch. Speaking of the ornate gates..... it seems that each ranch tries to out-do the other with the design of the gates up there.

Schulenberg, Luling, and Prairie Lee

Schulenberg's population is just under 2700 people. We didn't stop there.... so small a town, and hardly anything there, so we didn't think it was the place for us. We drove over bridges that ran above the Colorado River and the West Navidad River. (Small bridges, that probably flood when the heavy rains hit them.)

The town of Luling is the watermelon capitol of the state, I believe. Either that, or they just love watermelons. The water tower in this town is oval, in the shape of a watermelon, and painted with dark and light green stripes, just like a watermelon would be. I don't know what the population of Luling is, but it can't be much more than Schulenberg.

Tiny town, poor-looking, with lots of pre-fab homes and sad-looking properties around the central part of the town. We saw one home with a train caboose in the front yard. I don't know if that was a decoration, or just a very unique guest house.

Lots of cactus plants along the roads there, all blooming with tiny yellow flowers. We drove over Plum Creek... another spot that probably floods with heavy rains.

Prairie Lee was the smallest small-town I've seen........ took us about five minutes to drive through it. We did see a bright pink house in the middle of a beautiful green pasture..... I swear, it looked like someone had put a giant birthday cake in the middle of a field.

Columbus

The town of Columbus was the first we stopped in on Wednesday. The population there is just under 4000. Its Main Street had a dress shop, a bank, and a beautiful old courthouse. There were also two antique shops which we went to..... lots of vintage items..... the owner (an elderly man) was sitting in a chair reading a book when we walked in and was sitting right there in the same position when we left. We know he wasn't sleeping or deceased because he talked to us when we walked in, and then said thank you when we left.

We had lunch at a buffet restaurant called Schobel's. That was the only restaurant in town, except for a tiny cafe near the antique shops. Columbus wasn't a town that we'd consider for a vacation home...... its Main Street was just too sad, too neglected. The people were friendly, though, but that wasn't a surprise. There hasn't been a town here yet where everyone doesn't either smile or wave, whether they know you or not.

The Hill Country

We got home late tonight from a three-day trip into the Hill Country. We weren't due home until Sunday, but changed our plans and came home early. We thought we'd need more time up there, to look at vacation homes in the different towns we had visited a few years ago.

Was it just a few years ago? Or was it more like six or eight years back? A lot of those "little towns filled with antique shops" now have huge thoroughfares flanked by a Wal-Mart on one side, and an HEB or Target super-center on the other side. The quiet little streets we remembered are now four or six-lane boulevards with traffic lights and traffic.

Happily, the two towns we liked the best from our past trips are still the same as we remembered--- Wimberly and Comfort. And the town of Medina was also the same, but that wasn't one of the towns we would pick to vacation and/or live in. (Nothing against Medina, but the best thing there is the Love Creek Apple Farm Orchard.)

My husband is already sleeping, but I'm wide awake. I know I'll be tossing and turning for over an hour if I go to bed now, so I may as well just type down here what I've been scribbling into a notebook during our days up in the Hill Country. I'll go through the towns one by one, just as I have them written down.

No matter where we go, it's always so nice to get home. Our pet-sitter took wonderful care of "the kids," the house was just fine, and it will be nice to sleep on my own pillow tonight. But first.... the Hill Country towns, one by one.

Lizards and Teenagers....

This morning began with lizards on the dining room window, and this afternoon ended with our two favorite teenagers making collages at our dining room table.

The windows of our dining room have a sun-shielding film on them, being that those windows get too much sunlight in the afternoon. As a result, you can see out of the dining room windows when you're inside the house, but if you're outside those windows and looking in during the daytime, you can't really see much at all.

For the past couple of weeks, small lizards have been hunting for their breakfast on my three dining room windows. I don't know if they eat ants or spiders or flies, but it seems that our dining room windows have become the breakfast-buffet location for the lizards in and around our yards. At any given time during the morning, there's at least two or three lizards crawling on those windows. Mickey Kitty is thrilled with this lizard activity, and he can usually be found sitting either below those windows or perched on the widowsills, waiting till his paws can reach the point where the lizards are.

Mickey Kitty definitely has an advantage...... he can see out, but the lizards can't see in. As Mickey Kitty taps his paws on the dining room windows, the lizards' heads will spin around towards the noise, but they can't see the source of the noise. I don't know who ends up being more frustrated--- the lizards or Mickey Kitty.


This afternoon, right after I got back from my piano lesson, our young friend C called me on her cell phone to ask if she and her friend L could walk over to our house. The girls were at C's house, but locked out because her mom was still at work and she had forgotten her key. Not only did she forget the key that she always keeps in her back-pack, but she forgot to re-hide the secret key that she keeps outside of her house. "I know right where both of my house keys are, but they're both inside the house," is what she told me.

I told the girls to walk on over......... I couldn't go pick them up because my car is a two-seater, and I wasn't going to take a chance by letting them both squeeze into the one passenger seat. They probably could've both fit, being that they're both such tiny girls. But they walked on over, with their back-packs, for goodness sakes. I suggested to the girls that the walk across the park would've been easier if they had just left their back-packs in C's yard, and both girls looked at one another and burst out laughing. Neither one had thought of that. But I'll bet they'll think of it next time.

The girls both drank two large glasses of pink lemonade to cool them off after the hot walk, then settled down at my dining room table to make collages. Neither of them had homework today, so C had asked if she could take out some things from the supplies of arts-and-crafts stuff that I always have in the house. C has been making collages here since she was a little girl. Simple project... I always have art paper in the house, and glue-sticks and colored art pencils. And I've always done what my Aunt Dolly did for years--- before tossing out magazines, I go through them and cut out interesting or cute pictures and just slip them all into a shoebox. I use the pictures for decorating the favor-bags and/or gift-tags for our parties, and C has always used the collection of magazine cut-outs for her collages.

C showed L the box of cut-outs, and both girls picked through the pictures to find the ones they wanted to use. C found a cut-out with the words "Born to be wild!" on it, and true to her adventurous self, she chose that as her theme. The girls got as far as placing their pictures on the art paper, but didn't have time to glue them down because C's mom came by to pick them up. They would've gotten farther along with the project, but they took a good long while to carefully look at every single cut-out in that box.

I told the girls that we'd just finish up the collages the next time they came by. We carefully closed the sketch-pads so the design of their cut-outs wouldn't be disturbed, and they can glue the pictures down the next time they're here.

C was such a little girl when she made her first collage here...... so young that I wouldn't let her use the scissors because I didn't have one with rounded edges and I was afraid she'd cut herself. Now here she is at 15, and using the large-size scissors with careful agility. Time sure does fly on by.

Gorgeous weather......

After that heavy rainshower the other day, we've had beautiful weather. Sunny, glorious days with a tropical breeze stirring the 90-degree temperatures. We went to the Kemah waterfront yesterday for lunch.... we got there before noon-time, and the parking lots were nearly full. At least half a dozen tour buses were taking up a lot of parking spots. I'm sure those bus riders were most likely from towns inland which lack the gulf views. And summer has just barely begun....... heaven only knows how early we'll have to drive into Kemah come June or July.

I've found a fun web-site.... DesignHerGals.com --- it was advertised in the latest issue of Oprah's magazine and I went to it for a look-see. The site enables you to design your own "gal," whether in your own image or someone else's...... and you can get notecards or other stationary items printed up, either by the site, or with your own computer. I put together a gal that resembles me, and one that resembles my sister, and I ordered some notecards for the both of us. I will send them to my sister for her birthday this summer. She'll get a kick of them, I'm sure, especially since I took great pains to design my sister's gal in the clothing and accessories that my sister would wear--- casual for the clothing, light on the accessories. My sister isn't into fussy and frilly, the way I am, so I tried to remember that as I scanned through all the options on the web-site. That site is like an on-line version of paper dolls...... lots of fun, and it doesn't cost you anything to play around with it...... money only comes into play if you place an order.

Piano lesson tomorrow....... and I can't wait. My song this past week was "Malaguena," and when K showed me the music sheets for it last week, I sat at her piano and cringed. "Do you expect me to learn that in just one week?" She said of course she did. Well, hush my puppies (as they say in Savannah)..... I did just that. Not only did I learn the song in just a couple of days, but I've been playing it over and over and I just absolutely love it. I thought my husband would get tired of hearing it, so I alternated playing it with some of the other songs that I learned before that. I keep going backwards in my lesson books, using the "older" songs as warm-ups for the music that I'm supposed to be learning for the current lesson.

One night while I was playing "Malaguena," my husband dashed into the living room holding a long bath-towel, with Gracie right at his heels..... he swept up the bath-towel as if it were a cape, and he was trying to get Gracie to play the part of the bull. It just cracked me up so much that I had to stop playing because I lost my place in the notes. Another evening while I played, my husband came into the living room with a silk rose between his teeth. I didn't laugh quite so hard at that one, and he's since given up the Spanish-style skits to go along with the music.


I am re-reading "Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil," by John Berendt. Truly a wonderful book, and I've been wanting to go to Savannah ever since the first time I read it. We plan to visit there sometime this summer, so I'm reading the book again so the story and its characters and that beautiful city will be fresh in my mind. This true story is so well-written that it just brings you right into Savannah as if you're living there. When that book came out years ago, tourists flocked to Savannah in record numbers, searching for the mansions and the characters mentioned in the book. The book is still quite popular, and so is Savannah, although I'm sure some of those main characters have passed away by now.

Spiders and Alligators

The season has begun....... summer, that is, with all the creepy crawly things that go with it. Yesterday morning when we opened the front door, there was a spider web from one side of the front porch to the other. My husband nearly stepped right into the middle of it as he went out to walk Gracie.

Had I been the only one out on the porch, I would've gotten a broom to remove the spider, then stomped on that broom to make one flat spider. I don't mind spider webs, but I don't want them in a place where I can easily walk into them. My husband didn't stomp that spider...... he picked up one corner of the web and then the other, and re-located the spider to another part of the front garden. I'm hoping the spider doesn't move himself back to the front porch.

In this morning's Chronicle, there was a photo of an eight-foot-long alligator that's been in one of the nearby bayous. They're doing some construction near that bayou and the workmen are bringing food for the alligator, so in case the animal decides to crawl up on the shore, they can throw the food into the water so the alligator will change direction and chase after the food.

Did it ever occur to those workmen that they're conditioning the alligator to expect food when it comes up onto the shore of that particular bayou? Not to mention the fact that the bayou there is right next to the shopping strip that has the bookstore, the Hallmark store, the fabric store, and a few resale shops...... it's a busy shopping area, so I'm hoping that The Powers That Be take it upon themselves to catch the alligator and move it to a bayou in a less populated area.

A couple of weeks ago, there was talk of a twelve-foot-alligator in one of the bayous near our subdivision. Our young friends C and L told us that story, and we thought the girls were either exaggerating the length of the alligator or were just repeating a rumor started by the high-school kids. But soon after they told us that, that same alligator was on the pages of The Chronicle as well. It was like seeing an alligator on steroids.

There's a sign posted on the grounds of the complex where my husband works, which isn't that far from where we live. The sign states that "visitors should be aware" of the wildlife, such as alligators, coyotes, deer, ducks, turtles and birds. I guess that's their equivalent of a "Welcome" sign.

Pouring rain this morning...... we woke up to the sound of the rain on the porch roof, along with high winds that blew over the longer stems of my impatiens by the front walkway. I was out there a little while ago, after the rain quit, trying to make the flowers stand up straight again. It worked with some of them..... I'm waiting for the sun to come out, and hoping that the flowers will stretch up towards the sunlight.

I found out this morning that our friend J is in the hospital, with dangerously-high blood pressure. He feels just fine, but his doctor put him in the ICU for a couple of days. J is a very active person, and the confinement is driving him right up the wall. He misses his dog and his cats, which are being taken care of by a neighbor till he gets home, and he misses his antique shop, which is being taken care of by a couple of the dealers. He's been begging the doctor to let him go home since he got there, and the doctor is relenting a little bit....... J might be back home before the weekend is out.

J now has strict diet guidelines for his condition..... no more coffee, no more wine....... and a whole bunch of other things that he can no longer enjoy. I think the doctor gave him that same list last year when this happened, but J didn't pay attention to it. This time, the doctor told J that he was "five minutes and one breath away from a stroke." I think that diagnosis might have got J's attention.

Spaghetti Dinner

It's nearly 9:30 as I type...... our young friend C and her parents left here a little while ago. The three of them came over for dinner...... nothing fancy, just spaghetti and sauce...... C's mom made a salad, I baked some crescent rolls, and also some lemon squares so we'd have something for tea afterwards.

We had asked C and her mom over on the spur of the moment, and while I was on the phone with L, her husband S drove up into their driveway. He had left for Louisiana on the day after Easter, to go back to his job there for his usual two-week helicopter run, but they didn't need him for a few days, so he drove back home, rather than wait around at the base over there. He surprised C and L when he got home, and they surprised him by telling him they were on their way over here.

Dinner for five is as easy as dinner for four, so I set another place and made up another placecard........ got to have placecards for our C..... she saves all of them. Tonight's cards had Italian chefs on them, which were perfect for a homemade Italian dinner.

We talked about summer trips...... we had spoken about this before, when L suggested that it might be a good idea to travel somewhere together. We haven't made definite plans yet, but we discussed possible destinations. C's dad and my husband get along great...... they play golf together whenever they can, and they would have fun doing the "guy things" on a vacation that neither I nor C's mom would be interested in. As for young Miss C, she could decide what she wanted to do when we got wherever we were going. C has a lot of fun doing "guy" stuff, and she's just as content to go shopping and sightseeing as well. Both her mom and I love museums and bookstores, so we could keep busy with those when the guys wanted to do more adventurous things.

This is all still in the talking stage..... we're all thinking, and discussing...... so we'll see what happens during the next couple of months. I think it would work out just fine, as long as we can all agree on a destination.

New GYN

After the cancelled GYN appointment at the beginning of this month, I finally got to meet my new GYN this morning. As I said a few weeks ago, I'm very glad that the first appointment had to be rescheduled, because I wouldn't have liked that first doctor as much as I liked the one that I saw today. I just can't explain it, but I didn't like the expression in the eyes of the doctor I originally had the appointment with three weeks ago.

The doctor I saw this morning is an Oriental woman, very sweet, with the most beautiful eyes.... smiling eyes, a smiling face, and such a happy and positive disposition. I liked her photograph when I saw it on the wall of the GYN office, but I couldn't say the same about the photo of that first doctor. So, everything worked out for the best...... I had to reschedule that first appointment, and I was lucky enough to be able to choose the better doctor. Or I should say "the better doctor for me."

Always hard to switch doctors..... you get used to them, they get used to you. I'm hoping that this young doctor will have many, many years of practice in that same location.

So many pregnant women and tiny babies in this office...... my other doctor (who retired two years ago) didn't seem to have many young patients. I think most of her patients were like me--- way past child-bearing age but still in need of yearly exams. The four doctors in this new office are all fairly young (the oldest being around 40) and most of their patients are either trying to get pregnant, or presently carrying a child, or bringing in the new baby for the post-delivery check-up.

I've always been in the habit of bringing a book to any doctor's or dentist's office.... as soon as I sign in, I take out my glasses and my book and start reading. I've found that if you make eye contact with someone in a medical/dental waiting room, then you're setting yourself up to hear all about that person's reason for having to see the doctor. Which is never something I'm interested in hearing...... I'd rather bury my nose in my book and keep it there till my name is called.

The Easter Bunny Has Left the Building....

It's 9:30 as I type...... our friends are gone, the kitchen is all cleaned up, and the dining room is back to its usual state. With the two additional leaves in the center of that table, the dining room looked small, but everyone was comfortable and there was plenty of room around the table for a long dinner.

We started off with K and B's tossed salad...... they had everything in there--- three different kinds of lettuce, olives, pine nuts, raisins, cranberries, celery, tomato slices, feta cheese, carrots, artichokes, and I know I must be forgetting a few items.

After that, we had thin slices of quiche--- from K and B also. They brought two kinds-- one with spinach and cheese, one with bacon and cheese. Both of them looked delicious, and whoever couldn't make a choice between the two got a thin slice of each on their plate.

Then came the Scottish eggs, made by my husband. After the hard-boiled eggs were covered with the sausage meat, they were quite big, so I sliced them in half length-wise and everyone got a half. K said they're usually served with honey-mustard, which I happened to have in the pantry, so we passed that around. I don't eat sausage, so I just ate the egg and tasted the smallest possible bite of the meat. I was surprised that young Miss C liked the eggs--- she's picky about egg dishes, but after she ate her serving, she finished up the sausage that I had left.

The main course was my salmon-crabcakes, shaped like bunnies--- which made everyone smile. No one was expecting that, and each of the cakes came out perfectly. I served those with a side-dish made by C's mom..... red bliss potatoes roasted with onions and artichoke hearts, then tossed with feta cheese just before serving.... they were delicious.

After that, we had the egg hunt.... as everyone was searching for the eggs, it gave me a chance to clear off the dining room table and set it up for dessert. I was also able to put those Easter bunny photos at everyone's place at the table.... my husband made them for everyone and they were such a hit. Each of our friends in different bunny costumes......... we all laughed so much at them all. My husband took my face and put it on a porcelain bunny figurine..... in the photo, I'm wearing a Victorian dress and hat, and I've got a cameo at my neck and a parasol in my hand.

Dessert was a delicious cream-frosted vanilla cake filled with orange slices and topped with strawberries, made by S. It was sitting on a very pretty white platter and she had the top and sides decorated with the berries...... so pretty to look at, and delicious and light to eat.


Young Miss C found the golden egg......... in the TV room behind the Tibetan "Serenity" statue, and C also had the most eggs in her basket. C's mom L had the second-highest number of eggs, just one less than C. For the prizes, I gave C the super-sized box of baseball cards that my husband bought for her, and L got the porcelain birdhouse that's also a tealight holder. (Perfect for L, because the colors match her breakfast room.) I had some extra gifts, in case one of the men got the most eggs, so I'll just save those prizes for the next party.


We all truly had a wonderful afternoon......... everyone got here at 2:00 and the party broke up around 7:00. It's much nicer, I think, to have a big dinner party like this in mid-afternoon, rather than at dinner-time. Especially for K and B, who have to drive all the way out here from downtown.... they're able to get home before the traffic gets too heavy.

It sure is easier hosting a party for nine than a party for thirty. Even with all the plates and silverware, the cups and the glasses, it was so easy to get the house back together when everyone left. A very nice Easter day...... and the weather was perfectly beautiful.

Easter Sunday Morning

It is nearly noon as I'm typing...... everything is just about ready for this afternoon. The Scottish egg (or is that Scotch eggs?) are in the fridge, waiting to be baked, and so are the bunny-shaped salmon-crabcakes. The plastic candy-filled eggs are hidden around the house, waiting for the after-dinner egg hunt. Prizes are wrapped, favors are set out by the guest book, placecards are set, the table looks very pretty in pink and ivory. The dinner plates have large pink roses and green leaves on an ivory background, so those worked out perfectly. All the plates that I'll need for the different courses of today's dinner are lined up on the breakfast-bar..... neat little piles of nine.

I'm just waiting for the dishwasher to finish up, so I can empty that and have it ready for this afternoon's collection of dishes and glassware. The cats are on the porch still, and they all have probably realized by now that we're having company. They don't like being secluded on the porch, but once the house starts filling up with people, I honestly think they're happy to be out there in their own space, whether we're having nine friends or twenty-five. Even Gracie is out there now, and she loves the porch so I don't think she minds being out there at all.

This morning when my husband walked Gracie, she seemed to turn her ankle the wrong way and now she's limping just a little bit. If the limping doesn't quit by tomorrow, I'll take her to the vet so he can have a look-see.


We were invited to L's house last night.... her parents had a little birthday party for her and her twin brother M. Our young Miss C was there, along with her parents, and L and M had invited a bunch of their friends from school-- all of whom we know, being that C has invited the same group here to our Christmas and Halloween parties. Such a nice group of kids.... they're all 15 years old, and they're all truly just 15, rather than 15 going on 37.

We only stayed a couple of hours last night........ just enough time to have a little something to eat, have a slice of birthday cake, and chit-chat with the other adults there. I had explained to L's mom that we had been busy all day preparing for today, and we still had things to do last night. When we came home from L's party, my husband made the Scottish eggs, then we both hid the plastic eggs around the house. I thought if we both did that, we'd have a better chance of remembering where the eggs were hidden, just in case our friends don't find all 89 of them. 89 eggs seemed like a lot for just seven people to hunt for, but once we got to hiding them, it didn't seem to be too many at all.

Time for me to get the last-minute things done..... the dishwasher needs to be emptied out, and I need to set up the coffee urn, and I also need to feed the cats. Where's the Easter Bunny when you need him?

Bunnies in The Fridge....

My idea to make the salmon-crabcakes in the shapes of bunnies was such a great idea. It took a lot longer this way, but the results were definitely worth the time. The cookie cutter in the bunny shape made a much bigger serving than I thought, being that the metal cutter is more than an inch in depth, and nearly four inches high. Just one bunny-cake will be enough of a serving for each person.

I didn't write down exact measurements, but I think my ratio of salmon to crabmeat was three to one. I have another container of crabmeat that I didn't use, because I wanted the salmon to be the main ingredient, with the crab being just an accent to the recipe. Before I lifted the filled-up cookie cutter off of the baking pan, I sprinkled the tops of the bunny with parmesean cheese, then crushed pistachio nuts. The cookie cutter came off easily, with just a little bit of pressing down on the fish mixture so the salmon-crabcake would retain its bunny-cute shape.

So now they're all in the fridge, waiting to be baked. Ten or fifteen minutes should be enough cooking time, because both the salmon and crab is pre-cooked. (When I pre-cooked the salmon, I left it rare in the middle so the second cooking wouldn't overcook it.) I don't want to let them get dried out, so I'll have to watch them carefully tomorrow. I had just enough of the mixture to make one very thin bunny-shape for my husband and I to try....... it easily lifted off the parchment paper after baking, so I don't have to worry about getting an ear-less bunny tomorrow. I had forgotten just how big and how deep that cookie cutter was. I think it was a Wilton brand, or Williams Sonoma. I had found that over in one of the Alvin antique shops a few weekends ago when I went there with our friend V.


My husband has been busy this morning making Easter Bunny photos of all of our friends who will be here for dinner tomorrow. He is a wiz with "photo-shop," and he can put anyone into any picture. He searched the Internet for people posed in bunny costumes, then used pictures of our friends to put their faces into the photographs. The results are hilarious..... he has shown me all of the photos except the ones he did of me and him. He said he needs to keep at least part of them a surprise for tomorrow. I told him that I didn't want my photo to be a Playboy bunny, but I don't think he would do that. (From my lips to the Easter bunny's ears....)

The table is done....... all set up for tomorrow's dinner. The pink tablecloth from my husband's mom was the perfect one to use. We put both leaves into the dining room table so everyone will have enough elbow-room for a multi-course dinner. I used my porcelain bunnies to decorate the table, as well as the Easter basket that I found in J's antique shop. The sides of the metal Easter basket are decorated with vintage Easter postcards, which is perfect because the placecards I made are also vintage Easter postcards. I filled up that basket with porcelain eggs and it looks beautiful. We're still planning to have the egg hunt after dinner and before dessert, which will give everyone time to stretch and relax-- and everyone will be out of the dining room so I can get things set up for dessert.

This is the first time we've had a dinner party for Easter Sunday, since we usually spent the day at K and B's house for their own Easter brunch and egg hunt. They couldn't do that this year, so they'll be here tomorrow. I don't know if they'll resume their Easter party next year, but if they don't, then everyone will be here again, I'm sure. Which means I'll have to think of something else to do with that bunny cookie cutter.... the possibilities are endless.

Salmon-Crabcakes

That's what I'm planning on baking for Easter dinner....... salmon-crabcakes, topped with crushed pistachio nuts. I cooked the salmon this afternoon, and tomorrow, I'll mix in the crab, along with the onions, cheese and spices, and everything else that usually goes into my regular crabcakes.

I have a large cookie-cutter that's in the shape of a bunny's head, complete with long ears. I'm going to use that to make the salmon-crabcakes come out looking like bunnies. It will take some time, because I'll have to pack the salmon-crab mixture into the metal cutter, top it with the crushed pistachio nuts, then lift up the cutter without disturbing the bunny shape. Let's see.... nine people for dinner, two bunnies each.... that's eighteen salmon-crabcakes, and I always make extra, just in case. The bunny shape is rather large, and we're having other courses, so just one should be enough for everyone, but I won't take a chance with that. I'd rather have more than I need, rather than not enough.

Our friends K and B are bringing a tossed vegetable salad, and also a mushroom quiche. So that's two courses right there. Our friend L is making a special side-dish for the salmon-crabcakes.... a casserole with red bliss potatoes in a cream sauce with feta cheese. And S is bringing dessert.... a sweet cake made with ladyfingers. Also, my husband plans to make Scottish Eggs, which are hard-boiled eggs covered with sausage meat.... they usually get deep-fried, but he found a recipe for baking them. I guess I'll serve the eggs with the salad course.

So much food...... by the time we do get to the main course, I'm betting that one bunny-shaped salmon-crabcake will be enough, but I've got enough fish and crab to make the extra ones. I'm hoping that I can lift the crabcakes off the baking pan without messing up the ears on the bunnies. I plan to use parchment paper, and I'll spray the paper with the non-stick spray, so that should help. (I guess the bunny-shapes are my "over-the-top" item for this dinner party.)


We went out for dinner tonight, to Babbo Bruno's. Delicious sea bass on the menu, half of which is in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner. We got home in time for me to watch Barry Manilow on "Larry King Live." Wonderful interview.... lots of old footage from Barry's early days, plus he sang three songs from his new CDs. Manilow signed another contract with the Las Vegas Hilton.... he'll be performing there for another three years. And he's also working on another music CD--- songs from the 1960s. His 1950s CD is still topping the charts.... I have it in my car and it's a wonder I haven't worn it out yet. Great music, just great music.

Anyway......... it's been a busy day but the house is just about set. The cats are all out on the porch now, and won't come back in the house till after our friends leave on Sunday night. I've got the centerpieces out on the table, the favors and party-bags are all arranged, and everything is ready for the egg hunt. Tomorrow I will open up the dining room table and get out the tablecloth and china and silverware. And I will also be making those bunny-shaped, pistachio-crusted salmon-crabcakes. I thought it would be best to set them up on the baking pans tomorrow so I can take my time, then wrap them up and keep them in the fridge till baking time on Sunday afternoon. With a little bit of luck, all the bunny ears will be intact when it comes time to serve them.

Easter Egg Hunt

My husband and I had talked about the possibility of an egg hunt for Easter Sunday, and he convinced me that it would be a fun thing to do. I convinced him that an indoor egg hunt would be best, so I won't have to worry about grass stains on the carpeting.

There will be nine of us for Easter dinner, but my husband and I won't be hunting for the eggs, so that just makes seven. I ran out to Kroger this morning, searching for Dove chocolates-- they really are much better than Hersheys and Nestles (my apologies to both of those companies). I now have 89 chocolate-filled plastic eggs in lots of bright Easter colors.

I had all those plastic eggs in my holiday closet, along with a wooden egg that I spray-painted gold. That was all in preparation for an egg hunt that we were going to host a couple of years ago, but we decided not to follow through with that after my husband's mom passed away. I also had prizes for the egg hunt in the holiday closet--- one prize for the person finding the most eggs, and another for the person who found the golden egg. So those gifts came out of the closet this morning and I wrapped them up in flowery, spring-time paper.

We've got seven Easter baskets lined up by the fireplace, so our friends can choose a basket and search for the eggs--- after dinner and before dessert. They get to keep the candy in the plastic eggs, but I'll save those eggs for next year. Seems like once we start something here, it becomes a tradition in this house, so I know we'll be doing this again.

We had been going to our friends K and B's house for Easter every year--- they were hosting their own Easter brunch and egg hunt (for adults, with just a few children). K and B couldn't do it this year, because of other family and business obligations, and they just didn't have the preparation time they needed this month. So that's how Easter Sunday dinner is ending up at our house-- along with K and B who will get to hunt for eggs this year, rather than hiding them. At their house on Easters past, they hid over 500 eggs, being that the guest list for their brunch was between 35 and 40 people. So many people, and so many eggs, the hunt was done outside. But they have wood floors in their home, and were never concerned about the grass stains.

We plan to hide the eggs in all the rooms of our house except the bathrooms (for obvious reasons) and the kitchen (because I'll be busy in there while everyone else is hunting). We have it figured that when the egg hunt is over, everyone can count the eggs, empty the candy into zip-lock bags, and we can give out the prizes. My husband will probably hide all of the eggs, since this was initially his idea. He showed me the spot already for the golden egg, and I couldn't have come up with a better place for it. My only suggestion to him was that he not hide eggs under the furniture. Getting down on hands and knees looking for eggs is a lot of fun if you're a kid, but not if you're over 50. And the only kid who will be here on Sunday is our young friend C... the rest of our friends will be giving thanks to the Easter Bunny who hides the eggs above knee-level.

Kemah Waterfront

We drove into Kemah today, to have an early lunch at one of the waterfront restaurants. The weather was nice and warm, without being broiling-hot, and there was just a light tropical breeze dancing through the palm trees. Very nice, to sit out there and have a green salad topped with fresh shrimp and crab, and watch the boats going by. We tried to go there for brunch last weekend, but we didn't get out early enough. One hour can make such a difference there---- it gets very crowded (more with tourists than locals) so you have to plan for an early start in the morning.

Lots of boats there today.... sailboats, yachts, fishing boats, tiny boats that I wouldn't feel safe on, and too-large boats that must cost a fortune to run. My favorite one this morning was an older wooden boat, very vintage, but in excellent, well-loved condition. The wood was gleaming, as if it had just been polished, and the white parts of the boat looked new and freshly painted. There was some dark green trim around the boat which gave it even more of a vintage look. I usually read the names of the boats as they go, but I was so taken by the style of that old, comfortable boat that I forgot to get a look at its name.


We went to C's house tonight... she and her mom were celebrating S's birthday. C's dad's birthday was last weekend, but he was still in Vegas then. L made an angel food cake stuffed with fresh strawberries and frosted with fresh whipped cream. Very light, very delicious.

After the cake, we all played Blokus. Only four at a time can play, so C played with her dad--- he hadn't played before, so she was whispering strategies into his ear. We all love that game, and we've been playing it since one of C's friends gave it to her for her birthday in early March.


Beautiful weekend... the weather has been just perfect. Sunny and warm, breezy and beautiful, nice and clear--- bad-hair days are gone. For now, anyway.

This week is the count-down for our Easter Sunday dinner....... there will be nine of us, being that C and her parents will be joining us. The more the merrier........ more work for me, but merry just the same.

The Heights

We drove into "The Heights" section of downtown Houston today....... wonderful century-old town filled with antique shops, cafes, resale shops and "junk/junque" stores. The Heights is filled with block after block of vintage cottage-style homes. Wonderful just driving around and looking at the houses. It's been a while since we've been there, so it was fun to walk around the shops and look at all the antiques for sale. Believe it or not, I didn't buy a single thing. There were items that caught my eye, but I knew that if I brought something home, then I'd have to part with something. (One thing in, one thing out--- that's my rule.)

I guess I truly love everything that's in this house, because I wasn't willing to give up one "old" thing to bring in one "new" thing. There were so many porcelain pieces and pretty cups and saucers, and vintage furniture--- anything and everything you can imagine is in those shops of The Heights.

We had lunch at a little cafe called "Shade." We'd been there before, for brunch with our friends K and B, but that was last year and we hadn't been back there since. I ordered fillo-dough triangles filled with sauteed mushrooms and feta cheese..... they served it with sauted spinach and cous-cous.... delicious.

We didn't have dessert there... we were too full from lunch, and thought we'd look around the shops and then go back to "Shade" and split a dessert. We looked around for a couple of hours, though, and by the time we were done, the cafe had closed at 3:00. Plan B--- we drove to Hank's Ice Cream, a tiny shop in the neighborhood behind the AstroDome.

We've been to Hank's many times, and he has the most delicious homemade ice cream. And Hank is such a nice man who truly enjoys making and selling ice cream.... we love to go there. So that's what we did......... the best chocolate ice cream on the planet is at Hank's, without a doubt.


We heard from C's mom that her dad is home...... he drove in from Vegas and got home in time for dinner, just as he planned. We'll stop by there to say hello tomorrow....... his birthday was last Sunday, but C's mom is baking a cake for him and we'll all celebrate with them tomorrow evening. Nice to know that everything is back to "normal" at their house now.

Babbo Bruno's and Baseball Cards

We went to our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner tonight..... delicious food, as always, and perfect service. Half of my dinner is in the fridge--- fresh-caught grouper (fish) cooked with apples, pine nuts and escarole. Our friends K and C were thrilled to hear the news that C and her parents won't be moving to Vegas at the end of the school term this summer. C wants her son to meet our young Miss C... they're both the same age, they both love the water, they both are still in the friends stage, not the dating stage. So we'll have to see if we can arrange that somehow. The two teenagers don't live in the same town, and go to different schools, so getting them to meet will take some thought.

After dinner, we went to Target...... my husband bought a shopping bag-full of baseball cards for C..... that girl loves baseball (especially Craig Biggio of the Astros) and has been collecting cards for years now. We called up C and her mom to see if they were at home, and we stopped by their house when we got into our subdivision. My husband told C to stay in her room till he hid half a dozen packs of the baseball cards around the house. When he called her to come out, they did their favorite "hot and cold" treasure hunt for the cards. C didn't know what she was hunting for, but she screeched when she found the first pack and was thrilled with the rest of the search.

When she was done, she opened the packs one by one, and she and my husband inspected all the cards.... she found a few of the Astros' players, but no Craig Biggio cards. There are still about twenty packs of cards left, but C doesn't know that...... we had left most of them in our car when we went into C's house, so my husband will be hiding them around our own house for her to find.

Some of the card-packs had bubble gum in them... pink slices of gum, not as big or as thick as I remember them, and they're wrapped in thin plastic now, rather than just sitting on top of the cards. When I was a kid, we could break the piece of gum into four quarters, to share with three friends. The bubble gum in those baseball cards would make great bubbles. C gave one of the gum slices to me, and I broke it in half and shared it with her mom. We each tried to blow bubbles--- didn't work out well with just half of the gum. I remember that pink gum having a richer taste. The tiny bubbles we were blowing didn't seem to be worth the effort.

Maybe C can do a baseball card hunt instead of an Easter egg hunt......... she and her parents are going to join us for Easter Sunday dinner, along with our friends K and B, and J and S. There will be nine of us in all. C's dad started driving home from Vegas on Thursday night, and right now he's in Amarillo. He's going to sleep there tonight, then continue driving home in the morning... he should be at his house by dinner-time tomorrow. C and L, needless to say, are thrilled.... they hated the fact that he had to be in Vegas all this time, and of course they're happy not to be moving there.

I was just thinking this week that getting the house ready for Easter Sunday wouldn't be too much work, being that no one who was allergic to cats would be here--- our friends C and R are going up north for Easter, and R is allergic to cat dander. Now that our guest list has grown, I have two more cat-allergic people coming-- both of C's parents have allergies.

Even though we have three cats in the house (not counting Rusty who stays on the backyard deck) we don't have a problem with the allergy-people as long as I keep the cats out on the screen-porch for three days before our company arrives. I do that for all of our parties, and I've been doing it for our smaller dinner parties as well. Once I put the cats on the porch, I vacuum every room every day, and I use a lint-brush twice on all of the furniture. A lot of extra work for me, but it works wonders for our friends who can't tolerate being in a house with cats. Since I've been doing that, no one has had a problem.

Our friends here must not be as highly allergic to cats as my NY-cousin R is..... I did the same thing last year when she came to visit... plus I kept the cats out on that porch the whole time she was here--- she still had problems with her eyes because of the cats. Next time she visits here, we plan to get her a room in one of the local hotels.

Much easier for her, not having to sleep in the same house where our cats are.......... and much easier for me-- I had a hard time with AngelBoy last year when she visited. My cousin kept making faces at AngelBoy through the windows between the breakfast room and the screen porch. She would scrunch-up her face at AngelBoy, and he would scrunch-up his little whiskered face right back at her. I told her that AngelBoy understands when people make fun of him, but she didn't believe me. (R absolutely loves dogs, but she really isn't a cat person.) AngelBoy was so upset with me while she was here last year.... every time I went out to the porch to feed the cats or just play with them for a while, AngelBoy would turn his head away and not even look at me. He got over that when R went home, but there was no softening him up while she was here.

Speaking of cats and dogs and puppies.... when we went to C's house this evening after dinner, she was in her room when we got to her house. My husband talked to her through the door and told her to stay in there for five minutes because he had a surprise for her. He barely got the word "surprise" out when C screamed through the door "You got a new puppy?!?!?!" That child.... she's constantly suggesting to us that we need a new puppy to keep Gracie company. (As if four cats aren't enough company for this poor dog...)

I told C about my cousin's new puppy and she said that R should bring Pinkie down here with her when she comes to visit again. Well now.... I wonder how my fluffy white AngelBoy-cat would take to a fluffy white Maltese puppy. I can see AngelBoy's whiskers scrunching-up at the thought of that.....

Pinkie Puppy

My cousin R called me this morning..... just by the tone of her voice, I knew she was at home and not at her desk. She works in Manhattan, for one of the NYC agencies, and whenever I call her at the office, her usually over-the-top-happy voice is very subdued.

So when I heard her musical Hellllloooooo this morning over the phone, I quickly said "Don't tell me.... you're at Hobby Airport here and you need me to come pick you up!" Don't you and I both wish..... was her reply.

She told me that she had better news. You're engaged? You're getting married? You got your own apartment? You won the $10,000 First Place Prize at the dance-club? What could be better than sitting at Hobby Airport and waiting for me to come get her?

Her answer: "Mom and I have a new addition to the family here." Well, I knew what that meant--- "You've got a puppy?!"

Yes she did.......... a two-pound, three-month-old Maltese. Okay... so maybe that is better than being at the airport. My cousin was just cooing over the phone and singing the praises of the new puppy, which she had named "Pinkie." Totally cute, I'm sure--- have you ever seen a puppy (Maltese or otherwise) that isn't cute?

My cousin said she would send me photos, but I'm not holding my breath on that.... I'm still waiting for copies of the pictures taken of the two of us when she came down here last Spring. When we were finished with our phone call, I got on the Internet and searched for photographs of two-pound, three-month-old Maltese puppies....... absolutely adorable little bundles of white fur, no bigger than a tiny bunny, with black eyes and a black nose that just begs to be kissed. Which is just what I had told my cousin over the phone before we said goodbye--- "Give Pinkie a tiny kiss on her nose from her Texas Aunt!"

New puppies.... just like new babies.... they are full of such joy and promise, and they give such unselfish love. And I know for certain that Pinkie will have a good home. Already, my cousin has bought Pinkie a plush little bed and pillow (pink, of course), and two little sweaters (both pink, one with a hood). The puppy is too small to go out into the NY world, so they're training her to use those little "wee-wee pads" they have for puppies. Given my Aunt J's (R's mom) age, she won't be able to walk up and down her steps to bring Pinkie out into the yard anyway, so those little pads are the best thing.

And when my cousin R is working in Manhattan all day, taking care of tiny Pinkie will be her mom's adventure. Thankfully, R didn't just buy Pinkie without first bringing her mom to the pet shop for approval. They had been talking on and off about getting another dog-- their other Maltese passed away about ten years ago. My cousin has seen dozens of Maltese puppies since then, and so has my aunt, but until Pinkie, none of them captured their hearts like the two-pound female Pinkie.

Speaking of hearts, mine nearly stopped when my cousin told me what the Pet Shop was asking for Pinkie..... $1800...... can you imagine?! I had to literally bite my tongue to stop myself from telling my cousin what that amount of money could do for an animal shelter. She did tell me that the Pet Shop gave them $200 off the asking price, bringing Pinkie's ransom down to $1600. When I told my husband what they paid for that sweet puppy, he right away said "That's eight hundred dollars a pound!"

I checked out prices here for Maltese puppies.......... they range from $500 to $750, depending on whether you want a male or a female. Let's see, my cousin could've bought a plane ticket to Texas, landed at Hobby Airport and waited for me to pick her up, we could've gone puppy-shopping here, and she could've flown back to NY with a Maltese puppy.... both plane ticket and puppy costing less than Pinkie's $1600 price-tag.

But that's not the way it works in the puppy world, and I know that from experience. Not the way it works in the kitten world, either, come to think of it. When a tiny little puppy or kitten cuddles up to you and decides that you're the momma, then cost doesn't become an issue, unless you truly, truly don't have the money, of course.

So.... welcome to the family, Pinkie.... and your Texas Aunt has already mailed you some tiny bells for your collar and half a dozen gourmet dog biscuits.

Cloudy Day......

The sun tried to shine today, but didn't quite make it. Not raining, just cloudy, and warm and very humid. A bad-hair day, to say the least.

We went out for lunch this afternoon, to the local Thai restaurant. Such delicious food, and such gracious, quiet service. Excellent service, just like our favorite Italian restaurant. The only difference is that in the Italian restaurant, you feel like you're at a party, and in the Thai restaurant, you feel like you're part of a serene celebration of food. I ordered my usual (Shrimp Pad Thai), half of which is in the fridge for tomorrow.


We got a surprise phone call from our young friend C this afternoon...... she wanted to know if I would pick her up from school. Usually, C walks home with friends, but I didn't ask for her reason for the call, I just asked her where she was and off I went. When I got to the school, I found out the reason-- she had to stay after school for a tutorial class, so all of her friends had already left. Plus, her book-bag weighed a ton..... had to be at least ten heavy textbooks in that bag. Given her small size, I don't know how she would've easily carried that all the way home from school.

I picked C up in the "cool" car (mine) and asked her if she wanted to go to her house or mine. She chose mine, and I made sure she called her mom. Her mom works till four o'clock, so she told C she'd pick her up on the way home.

C was hungry when she got here.... she was reading a book during lunch-time, and the book was so good that she forgot to eat. By the time she realized she was hungry, lunch period was over. I looked in the fridge and told C her options........... she chose a fresh "spring roll," then she had some spinach-spaghetti with meat sauce. After that, while the three of us played a game of "Blokus," she had some chocolate. C is such a tiny thing.... I don't know where she puts it all.

C's dad will be coming home from Vegas this weekend. Today is his last day of work out there, and he'll either start driving home tonight or early tomorrow morning. C is all excited... she has really missed her dad. Needless to say, she's even more excited that they won't be moving to Vegas after all. There are four or five more weeks of school left, and she's got most of the summer planned out already........ things to do with her friends, part-time jobs to make some spending money, and she's still hoping to go away to the "WakeBoarding Camp" for a week. She's been saving her allowance and gift-money since last September, so she could do that this summer.

C also plans to get her learner's permit once school is over, so she'll be wanting driving lessons during the summer. C is going to take to the car as naturally as she takes to water. She's a smart girl with a calm head on her shoulders. She's already made a list in her head of friends that she knows she would not want to get in a car with, either because they're too silly or not very careful with their bikes, so can you imagine the damage they'd do with a car?!

I sincerely hope that C keeps such a calm, clear head as she gets further into her teens.

Doctor This........

I had an appointment this afternoon for my yearly "Well Woman" exams. This was an appointment that I waited two months to get, being that it was with a new doctor--- my "old" one retired, sadly.... I loved that doctor and was sorry to get the notice that she was selling her practice. I chose not to go to the doctor who bought her office...... for the simple reason that I prefer a female GYN to a male GYN.

So on went my search for a local female GYN...... I found one through my friend A, and happily made an appointment, even though I had to wait such a long while. And that's another subject altogether-- why do "new" patients have to wait so long for their first appointment?

I was early for this afternoon's appointment, given that you always have to fill out so many forms on the first visit. By the time I filled in all the information they wanted, it was time for my appointment. However.... half an hour after my appointment time, one of the girls told everyone in the waiting room that Dr. T was an hour behind schedule.

There are four doctors in that office, all female GYNs, and their pictures are hung up on the wall above the reception desk. They tend to do that a lot down here-- post the photos of the doctors whenever possible. Which is kind of nice..... you can see who you're getting before you actually meet them.

So while I was waiting for Dr. T to catch up with her own schedule, I was studying the photographs. Dr. T looked nice enough, but I didn't like her eyes.... they weren't kind eyes, they were hurried eyes. Looking at the three other photographs, I put them in the order in which I would've picked them as my doctor, had I seen the photos before making the appointment--- Dr. T landed in third place, fourth place being taken by a Muslim doctor, photographed with all her head-covering.

I brought along a book to read this afternoon, so I got busy with that.... "Once Upon A Town," by Bob Greene--- fascinating true story about a little town in Nebraska during WW II--- wonderful reading, but have some tissues handy because it will bring tears to your eyes more than once.

Back to the doctor's office........ Around 1:30 or so, there was another announcement for the patients waiting to see Dr. T--- she had been called to the hospital for a delivery, and would be at least another half-hour behind her schedule, if not more, depending on how long the baby in question decided to take in making his/her entry into southeast Texas.

So there I sat...... already an hour past my appointment time, and looking at possibly another hour and an half wait, and quite probably more. Enough was enough.

I went to the reception desk and asked if I could re-schedule my appointment. The girl told me that it would be a good idea if I just sat and waited it out. And why was that? "Because you're a new patient, and if you leave, I can't give you another appointment with Dr. T because she said that she isn't taking on any more new patients."

But she's going to be at least an hour and a half behind her schedule now.... I don't have all afternoon to sit here and wait--- and what if there's a complication in the delivery room-- I could be here for the rest of the day.

The receptionist would not budge. If I left, she couldn't give me another appointment with Dr. T because of the no-more-new-patients rule.

Fine. I told her that I didn't have to see Dr. T, being that I hadn't seen her before and I'm not really her patient until she sees me for the first time. I asked her if I could get an appointment with one of the other doctors. "Which one would you like?"

My eyes went to the photographs on the wall....... I picked my first choice-- Dr. C, who had the kindest, most gentle eyes (as opposed to the hurried, smug eyes of Dr. T). The earliest appointment with Dr. C was the week after Easter. Fine..... I'll wait. (But at least I won't be waiting in the office till then.)

Honestly..... every time I go to a doctor's office, I can hear the words of my dad echoing in my head: "Be careful of doctors... they didn't all graduate in the top ten of their class. Instead of hanging their diplomas on the wall, they should be hanging up their report cards."

There's a reason it's called a "Well Woman" exam------ because as you're sitting in the waiting room looking at the hands of the clock moving past your appointment time, you're thinking: Well, woman, how much longer are you going to keep me waiting out here before you call my name?

Chili Cook-Off

It's that time of the year once again...... the annual chili cooking contest at the local college. So off we went, with our friends J and S. I must admit that I was praying for rain today, but it turned out to be a bright and sunny day. J and S had never been to the cook-off, so I made sure my husband told them how informal it was--- an outdoor event on the college campus, with paper cups and plastic spoons for chili tasting, and the Board of Health Rules and Regulations may or may not be adhered to by the chefs.

I don't eat chili, and even if I did, sampling dozens of chili recipes cooked by student groups just wouldn't be my cup of tea. I usually do, however, get to taste the cornbread recipes there... squares of which are given with some of the chili recipes. My husband doesn't much like cornbread, so that's where I come in. He gets the chili, I get the cornbread. The perfect marriage.

There were nearly 20 separate chili booths this afternoon, each decorated with their own theme-- the History Group (with team members dressed in Shakespeare-like outfits); the "Good Morning VietNam" booth, with VietNamese students dressed in traditional clothing; a booth that looked like it belonged on a tropical island, with chunks of pineapple mixed into the chili; another booth with team members dressed in baseball shirts; still another with a booth shaped like a pirate ship, its members wearing eye patches and balancing fake parrots on their shoulders.

The VietNam students made spring rolls (50 cents each) and they gave away free samples of a wonderful tossed vegetable salad--- carrots, cucumbers, lotus and palm hearts, cabbage, crushed peanuts, ground ginger.... not only was it pretty to look at but it was one of the most delicious salads I've ever eaten. I was so impressed with their spring rolls that I bought a dozen to take home for dinner (no cooking tonight).

My husband and our two friends sampled all of the chili recipes, and filled out their ballots for the ones they thought were the best. There were also ballots for the most decorated booth and most innovative costumes.

The highlight of the afternoon, however, was a free cornbread given out by one of the tropically-decorated booths.... their cornbread was baked in mini-muffin pans, and it was, by far, the best cornbread I've ever tasted. We spoke to one of the students at the booth and she told us that her grandmother baked the cornbread. Her grandmother wasn't going to tell anyone the exact recipe, but all the food served at the cook-off has to list the ingredients.

So, into that delicious cornbread mixture was creamed corn, cheddar cheese, green bell peppers, onions, butter, eggs, and (are you ready for this?)--- crawfish. And that's not a misprint. That delicious cornbread had chopped-up bits of crawfish in it........ absolutely moist and just the best cornbread, every last crumb of it.

I've got cornbread mix and creamed corn in the pantry, and crawfish tails in the freezer. There's also cheddar cheese in the fridge, but I don't have green bell peppers. I don't think the recipe would be the same without the peppers, so I'll wait till I go to Kroger and get some. And then I'm going to try and whip up that cornbread and see if it comes out as good as that girl's grandmother's.

I was happy, of course, that my prayers for rain weren't answered. I would've missed that cornbread.