Connecticut Yankees

It's been quite a while since we've had visitors from "way up north." My husband's sister and her husband have been here for the past couple of days. My sister-in-law last visited here in 1993, when we were living in the little house in League City. Her husband hasn't ever been here, so this is his first visit to Texas.

And it's been a busy few days. We had lunch here at home after my husband picked them up from the airport on Friday morning, then we all drove out to Alvin (home of baseball's Nolan Ryan) for a barbequed rib dinner at Joe's BBQ late on Friday night-- the only place for barbequed ribs, as far as we're concerned. As a rule, I don't eat meat, but whenever we go to Joe's, I always take a bite or two, just to taste..... and the ribs have been consistently tender and delicious for all the years we've been going there. It's about an hour's ride from here to Alvin, but definitely worth the time. One of these days, we may even be lucky enough to see Nolan Ryan there, because he still lives in Alvin and eats at Joe's from time to time. (So we've heard.)

Yesterday morning, my husband took his sister and her husband downtown to the Astros' baseball field (Minute Maid Park -- I still think that's a ridiculous name for a ballpark.) They went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the stadium, which lasted an hour and a half. I decided not to go, since I had been to the stadium a few times before, and I wanted to get everything ready for dinner here last night. We ate at home, then drove an hour away to Stafford for a Steven Wright comedy performance last night. I think my husband's sister was overwhelmed by the front-row seats that we had. We try and get the best seats for any performance that we see-- we don't like to be "lost" in the back of the crowd.

Inbetween the morning baseball stadium tour and an early dinner, my husband and his brother-in-law went to a nearby driving range to hit a few golf balls, and my sister-in-law and I went to a local gift shop to look at all the Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations. So many pretty things in that store, and I could've gone overboard buying holiday items, but I didn't. I already have everything that I need for Thanksgiving, and I have more than enough for Christmas. But the looking was fun..... and there's always good ideas for table-dressing in that shop--- they have such pretty arrangements on their display tables, which are easy to copy.

Today is their last full day here, before they leave tomorrow morning. We'll drive to the Kemah waterfront for brunch...... sit and watch the boats go by, then walk through the shops there. We were thinking of driving out to Galveston, but between the drive downtown to the ballpark yesterday morning, then the drive to Stafford last night, I think my husband is all driven out.

Speaking of Stafford........ Steven Wright's performance was very funny. My husband had heard a lot of his jokes before, but we hadn't ever seen him in person. All of the comedy material was new to me..... and the show lasted more than two hours, without a break. The opening act was awful.... a girl with a guitar and a tambourine, neither one of which helped her sing better. When she sang the last of her four songs, I couldn't even bring myself to give a few courtesy-claps. I just sat there with my arms folded, happy that she was finally leaving the stage. Before she came out, and announcer said "Here she is, straight from New York City....."-- I've forgotten her name. But halfway through her first song, I was thinking that someone should announce to the audience that this girl was far from the best that NYC has to offer.

Walking around our house here must have been like a trip down Memory Lane for my husband's sister...... a lot of my mother-in-law's furniture and decorative items are around our home-- so I'm sure it was nice for my sister-in-law to see her mom's treasures in every room.

This was also the first time that our dog Gracie has met my husband's family... she was on her best behavior, as she always is..... she is so well-behaved that people who don't have dogs talk about getting a dog. (These people need to know that good dogs don't just happen... it takes a lot of training, for both the dog and their owners.) The cats were less overwhelmed by our out-of-town visitors......... AngelBoy scrunched up his face when his nap was disturbed -- he opened his eyes into the narrowest of slits, then shut them tight again to resume his nap. Mickey Kitty let my sister-in-law pick him up, but she clearly didn't know how to pick up a cat. Mickey was gracious, though, and let himself go limp while she tried to get her arms in a good position. And ShadowBaby was his usual accommodating self..... letting everyone scratch his ears and pet under his chin, while they told him what a big cat he is.

Our company isn't sleeping at our house here, however....... we got them a room at a local hotel for the nights they're here, being that we don't have a guest room set up in this house. And it worked out well that they're not sleeping here, because they would have been barked awake by Gracie at five o'clock in the morning, for the past two mornings. The raccoons have come back.... from our neighbor's yard to our yard, then they go into the yard on the other side of us to climb into M & R's attic. They've had a "Critter Control" truck parked outside their house for days now.... they've caught one raccoon up in their attic, but there are still more. The Critter guy told them that the male raccoons always travel alone, while the females wander around with other females and/or their babies. As soon as the raccoons pass into our yard, Gracie wakes up from a sound sleep and barks up a storm. As a result, my husband and I woke up at 6:00 yesterday morning, and at 5:00 this morning. Talk about getting an early start on the day. My husband searched the Internet for getting-raccoons-out-of-your-yard suggestions, so before dawn this morning, he was sprinkling the lawn and the flowerbeds with cayenne pepper. While he was doing this, the raccoons were up in the huge Live Oak tree in the corner of our yard. I wonder if all that cayenne pepper will make the birds start sneezing.