Wow...Really, It's Been That Long - Project Updates

I just realized that it's been well over a month since our last posting...holy cow! So much has happened and so little of it has made it here to the blog for everyone to read about. I guess I will just start at the beginning.

We officially packed and moved from IN on 04/13 and the closing on the house there took place on that Friday. It was a lot of stress during the week since the date was pushed back and caused a delay here in Houston. We ended up spending an extra weekend than planned in the apartment, but it was okay. We closed and got possession of our new home on Thursday 04/23 and the fun began!

After sleeping on a really horrible bed for a few months, we resorted to the air mattress at the new place. I don't know if it was really more comfortable or if it was the thrill of having a home again, but we slept so well that night. And we needed a few good nights with the weekend plans. We did have quite the set-up using the laptop and the computer speakers as our entertainment center. A couple of boxes at the end of the air mattress proved to be just what we needed. (We intended to take a picture and show off our dorkiness, but somehow we got side-tracked. Shocking, I know.)

Saturday rolled around, and it was time to put down the epoxy coating on the garage floor. We wanted to be sure it had some time to dry before the movers arrived on Monday. It turned out great and has proven to be easier to sweep and clean up.

The next item was to install our new light from IKEA in the butler pantry area. The light that was there didn't provide much other than casting some shadows. The light worked better than we could have imagined, and it was much cheaper than what we anticipated spending at Lowe's.

Two down and a laundry list to go. The next item was to seal the tile/stone on the backsplash and seal the tile in the foyer, hallway, laundry room, hall closets, and the half-bath. The sealer went on easier than expected, but by the 3rd coat, I was ready to quit. The blister on my hand from the garage was getting the best of me. Needless to say, we still have our bath, the kitchen floor, and the bathroom floors upstairs to finish. We really need to get on that!

And lastly for a Saturday, we installed our clearance light from Lowe's in the dining room. If you saw the earlier blogs, you saw the hidious light in the dining room. I actually don't know what it should have been called. The light from the store wasn't exactly what we picked out, but it was definitely in our price range and elimated the ugly thing that was there. Now with the table and china cabinent and dry sink in the dining room too, it looks much better. I will post more updates with the furnished room pictures as we finish unpacking the boxes.

James has also done a tremendous amount of work outside. He's put down sod, planted a tree, built a garden, built a garden cart, and planted a few caladiums in the front. I'll have him put in his pictures and update of all of that.

Refrigerators, Ferries, Monuments, & Fresh Fish

After sleeping in and taking Exam 1 of Business Law & Ethics (which went much better than the last 2 quizzes about the same section), it was time to leave to girls in their new, big room and head out for our Saturday adventure. The first task was to visit our local (soon to be a couple of miles from the house) Lowe's and check out refrigerators. We found our future chill closet and scheduled it for delivery on April 18th. We had great customer service and plan on going back. I'm sure we'll have a few reasons.

Since we were in the Humble/Atascocita area, why not drive around a bit. We drove across Lake Houston on FM 1960. Once we were in Huffman, just across the lake we turned south and headed towards the ship channel and the bay. After driving on FM 2100 and catching US90 to I-10 and then to 146, Independance Highway, we didn't know what the adventure would bring. We weren't totally sure what we would see, but the map looked like we were at least heading in the right direction. Once we got on to Independence, we saw a sign that said, "Ferry in 2 miles." I had seen this on a "to-do list" but hadn't planned on seeing it today. We arrived just as a ferry was leaving, so we just turned the engine off and waited for our turn. Since we had no where to go, we watched the ocean going vessels and barges go up and down the ship channel. Directly across the channel from us was the San Jacinto Battleground and Monument. We managed to get a few pictures of it as well. We had to wait one more round of the ferry, and then it was our turn to board the Lynchburg Ferry. We estimated it had a capacity of 14 vehicles base on the count of our half. After exiting in the number 5 spot off of the ferry, we briefly drove past the battleship Texas and the San Jacinto Battlegrounds. The decision was unanimous; we'll wait for a visit from Dad and Catherine before we stop for a visit. This would be a perfect "vacation" activity for him!

The next big site on the drive was the Solvay Peroxigens Facility. It wasn't exactly on the agenda, but who's counting. I'm taking Grandma's advice of not having a schedule. At least now, I kind of know where the plant and the credit union are.

And we kept on driving. We could have stayed on FM 2100, but I didn't realize that until we drove back to Beltway 8 and on down to I-10. Oops! My new motto is I learn more about where we're going when we go the wrong way or completley out of the way!

From there we moved on through LaPorte to Bayview, just across a large bridge from Kemah. While waiting on the ferry mid afternoon, we realized how humgry we were, and that started the search for something good for lunch. We ended up at a place called Pier 8 where their motto is, "you buy it, we fry it!" This is where is goes from ordinary to impressive. This wasn't a restaurant where you went in and ordered some fried shrimp or cod or oysters. They had whole fish and fresh shrimp and seafood on ice, right there. We selected a 2.3 lb red snapper and told him to filet and fry it up. Of course, I couldn't pass up the shrimp either. We had 0.5 lb of the smaller guys. And why would you think to pass up the fries as part of the fish and chips? Well, we should have. We politely paid and found a picnic table on the front porch overlooking the bay. (The picture above is of our view.) There ended up being a slight miscommunication between James and the guy at the counter. They fried the entire fish!!! It was served to us on one of those elementary school lunch trays, and it was completely full. The plan was to take a picture before we started, but it didn't really go down like that. We realized halfway through that we just dug in. There are pictures of the aftermath. We have the skeleton; does that count?

After we were completely full, we visited three other fresh seafood markets. James wanted to see what they had available. Needless to say, there were crawfish, shrimp, salmon, red snapper, shark, squid, scallops, lobster, and many, many more. Had we not just come from eating nearly 3 lbs of shrimp and fish, we probably would have brought home too many pounds of fish/seafood. James has officially found his new place to buy fresh seafood!

Taking the advice of many others, we did venture across the bridge to see Kemah Boardwalk. This place was crazy with people. We saw those just driving around (like us) and others hoping to score a relatively close parking ticket. We just drove around to get an idea of what was there, and then we headed home. We had covered a lot of ground and were ready to relax. The big accomplishment of the day was adding to the rapicly growing list of places and things to see. There won't be a dull moment.

Flying Saucer Spotting & Visit

Wednesday night, I turned down dinner with some co-workers and an engineering firm to study and hang out with James. (Myself and another collegue confirmed it wasn't a CLM...career limiting move!) After a long day of a strategy meeting and frustration with business law, we decided to check out one of Steve's and Tammy's Houston Recommendations! (So far they have all been fantastic!) We went downtown to Flying Saucer on Main Street. http://www.beerknurd.com/stores/houston

We found a couple of seats upstairs in the loft aka the Pub of Love. It was a great place to people watch from. We could see nearly the whole bar.

Wednesday night was Dogfish Head Aprihop brewery night. Brewery night is every Wednesday with a rotation on breweries. It's keep the glass night for $1 (not quite as good as Capitol in Richmond where it's free), but I'm not complaining. It was the place to be and had at least 50 beers on tap, not to mention all of the other bottled beers.

Home Sweet Home!

James went for the home inspection this last week. Other than a few minor items, all went well. In his trips up and down and around, he took 37 pictures of the house! Unfortunately, I'm afraid I'll exceed the size limit of my uploads to blogspot. We have picked the ones we think are the best, but of course, they don't do it nearly the justice of an in person visit. Guess that's a good excuse to visit, right? Basic Info:

4 Bedrooms

3.5 Baths

3 Car Garage

3087 sq. ft.

This is the what you'll see when you walk in the front door. You're looking into the "piano room." It was the first house that we looked at and knew exactly where it would belong. I just need to visit the resale shop and find a nice chair to include in the room at some point.

Another view of the entry from the top of the stairs. This area (aka the game room) upstairs is open to the front and back of the house to keep the open feeling.

Downstairs, you find the kitchen in the back corner behind the garage and the dining room and off of the great room. The appliances aren't in yet, but will be stainless to go with the granite, tile, and cabinents. We were responsible for the refrigerator, and successfully found one this weekend at Lowe's. (10% off, already marked down, and a rebate for delivery) It will go well with the other appliances and was a great deal!

This was an added bonus. There is a small Butler's Pantry in between the kitchen and the dining room! What a great thing for entertaining! (And yes, the light in the dining room has to go; I have no idea what the builder was thinking!)

Here is the great room. The master bedroom is off of it. The fire place is on the same wall as the bedroom.

Here is a quick view of the garage. It is a tandem 3-car, so it only looks like 2 from the street. It will be nice have the extra working space (James' Brewery) while parking the motorcycle and both vehicles in there. I hear we'll appreciate that in the middle of July.
And last but not least, the backyard. We have a great covered porch that faces west. Maybe we can watch the summer storms come in. And the rest of the yard is pretty good size. It's as wide as the lot in IN and almost as deep. It is a little difficult to tell since our yard always looked much bigger without the fence.

Give us a few more weeks, and we'll have plenty of space for everyone to come visit. As of April 17th, we'll be taking reservations for the Davidson Bed & Breakfast!

Off to See the Animals

With the beautiful weather in store for the weekend, we decided earlier in the week to head for the Houston Zoo on Saturday. The zoo is located in Hermann Park next to the Medical Center. (http://www.hermanpark.org/) After taking the advice of a co-worker, we went "early" to try to beat the crowd. Now early for us after sleeping in and taking the girls out was nearly 11 AM. The parking lot was quite full, but not nearly packed like it was when we left. People were lined up to take any spot that opened up.

Once we got into the zoo (http://www.houstonzoo.org/), we visited the aquarium to see the fishes, and then headed out to the coy pond. Not only was the pond huge, but the coy within it were gigantic. James and another person there got the fish to come to the surface, so a couple of kids could see them. I couldn't believe the size of their mouths.

Then is was in to see a few birds, turtles, chipmunks, and a few more fish. We got a good laugh out of watching the chipmucks run like crazy all over their exhibit. They were some of the most active critters we saw all day. I think we showed up at nap time. All of the larger animals seemed to be finishing up their lunch or napping in the sun.

The most entertaining exhibit was the meerkats. We found the Hallie and the Ginger in the group. They had no shame! We enjoyed wathcing them chase each other around, dig in the dirt,

and just hang out. The first picture is of one who rolled around in the dirt dirt and then decided to sun. Totally Gingeresque! And then the next guy enjoyed chillin' and enjoying the attention of the crowd.

Then there was Miles, the newest addition to the giraffe family. He was so cute!

We learned while walking around the exhibit that Miles turned 8 weeks old on Saturday. A picture of his stats is included because his size is entertaining. He was 5'9" and 110 pounds at birth, so he's packed on the weight and the inches the last couple of months. The Houston Zoo's website actually has links to updates on all of the new additions. I actually looked up Miles to be sure I got my facts straight, and I saw all of the pictures and updates they've shared about him. How cute!

We ended up spending nearly 3 hours wandering around seeing all of the exhibits. James got his picture taken with the Asian Elephants, and he took mine with the tiger. Not sure what that means, but at least we can show we really went! I thought I was going to get out of having to see the reptile exhibit, but James caught that as he was checking the map one last time. We dodged them upfront when we went to see the meerkats. I went to be supportive but had the hebbie-jebbies the whole time. They just creap me out.

Hallie's & Ginger's Great Adventure

James and I took the little girls to the "bark park" near our apartment this afternoon for some play time. After riding in the car for over 15 hours and being in the apartment only allowed out on a leash, we thought this would be the perfect afternoon adventure. Oh, did I mention it's sunny and 83 with relatively low humidity. :-) We stuck with the "little dog" section of the park to let them aclimate to the whole new experience. As we drove up they quickly heard the other dogs barking and joined it. They could barely wait to get out of the car. Then it was through the gates on the leash and off to the races. Ginger spent the first 15 minutes just wandering around taking in all of the smells; she would be on one trail and quickly move to the next. Hallie and James played fetch with the ball for a little while. Shocking, I know. We decided to mosey on towards the "water element" and see what might be in store. Hallie, even though she can swim, wasn't sure of the whole pond situation. James would toss the ball in, and she would stretch as far as she could to retrieve the ball. Several times it was literally by the fuzz of the ball. But as expected, Hallie got a little braver with each toss. In a matter of 20 minutes, she would swim out to get the ball and bring it back. She went from biting at the ball to getting it in her mouth in one fail swoop. And even better was when she finally would wade in and the lunge toards the ball. She only inhaled too much water a couple of times, but that didn't stop her one bit. Hallie should also get the "plays well with others" award, and her tennis ball was a hot commodity in the park. And all of the lovely owners would always encourage their canine to leave the ball because it wasn't theirs.

Ginger on the other hand, really didn't care about the water at first. She went exploring at our end of the park and would return periodically to "check-in'. The pretty-pretty princess decided she needed some shade and went and sat in the shade under the shelter. But of course Ginger decided she needed some better means to keep cool. Shade wasn't enough, which really isn't a good sign since it's only March. After seeing Hallie and another dog (who is swimming in the picture above with Hallie), Ginger started seeing things in the water. She was barking and carrying on with the water. Eventually, I looked over to find Ginger with her entire head under water. What a crazy nut! She would go under water and bark and come back up and just look at us.

The girls ended up spending nearly an hour running around, socializing, and just enjoying the freedom a few acres can offer. Our trip culminated with the hose shower, which neither one enjoyed, and a ride home with the windows opened. It didn't take long for the great adventure to cause everyone to peter out...Ginger, Hallie, and James; Ginger on the air mattress, Hallie on Pa's lap, and James on the couch.

Happy Birthday to James

Today James arrived in Houston for the first time. YAY! I managed to meander my way around Intercontinental to pick him up at Terminal A. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly get up on time, and even though his flight left nearly 45 minutes late from Memphis, they arrived only 15 minutes late here. Oops! He was waiting for me at passenger pick-up, so there was no lap driving today. At least I know where to go to park for my next trip. (Uh, yeah...Saturday!)

We took a tour on our way to the apartment; drove past the office, Central Market, and stopped at Ninfa's for some lunch. Ninfa's is a local Mexican place with tasty food and a cool atmosphere. There is one just up the street from us on Post Oak & San Felipe. It came a recommendation from Uncle Tom, and we know why. James had a enchilada and poblano along with a taco; I had the fish tacos and traded James for the regular beef taco. They were tasting. And it passed the ultimate test...the Mexican rice test. This is the "true" test of a good Mexican restaurant! I can't wait to go again!

We spent the afternoon just driving around and checking out different areas in town. We drove downtown in hopes of running into the 3-story Specs. That wasn't our luck this time, but it was nice to see the area. We drove back through the Midtown area. This is chalked full of little pubs, restaurants, and shops. We even saw a couple of "biker bars" with tons of patrons. This gives us lots of choices for going out when James is here full-time as well as when we have visitors!

The highlight of the day was dinner! I ended up not making reservations for dinner earlier in the week because I wanted to keep the options open. James decided he wanted seafood, so we went to a place up the street called The Oceanaire. It's actually a chain with just under a dozen locations. They have fresh fish daily, which isn't really that spectacular when you live 30 miles from the ocean. I called for reservations at 6:30 and got a table for 7:30. We arrived on time, shocking, I know, and were taken to our booth. Upon being seated, James noticed there was a card on the table with his name on it. And then even better, the menu had a message on the top. "Happy Birthday James from The Oceanaire"

What James missed was the fact that the woman who took our reservation asked if we were celebrating a special occassion, and of course I said, "Yes, my husband's birthday." She asked for his name, and this was the result. It was a very nice touch! We had a nice Pinot Noir wine, an assortment of oysters on a half shell, and a wonderful dinner. I stuck with the grouper prepared oscar style, and James had the Hawaiian swordfish. Wow! It was such a wonderful dinner, and I was stuffed. But why would you stop there? You must have strawberry cheesecake ice cream baked alaskan. Baked Alaskan is a new term for me, but this is what happened. The ice cream was covered with whipped cream. Our server lit the alcohol on fire and poured it over the dessert. The little girl across the way from us was in aw of our dessert. (And, no I didn't take a picture; who knows what I was thinking at that point.) It was very tasty and a perfect end to a great experience. (Even better, they didn't put it on our bill! )

As a side note, this picture is amazingly similar to our first picture from the New York City vacation. We went to a restaurant/bar there that was open late for a burger and fries. We sat in a booth very similar to this (I think it was red too.), and enjoyed another fun dinner out!

Sunny Sunday

Today proved to be one of the sunniest days in the week that I've been here. Waking up this morning the temp was in the low 40's, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. And it stayed that way all day. Even though it was the sunniest, it unfortunately wasn't the warmest. (I hope I won't be struck by lightning saying this.) It reached a "cool" high of 60 or so. All-in-all it made for a great day to be out and about.

I started the morning at church, Memorial Lutheran on Westheimer at Bering. (http://www.mlchouston.org/) It's literally up the street from the apartment. Had I actually gotten up when the alarm when off the first time, I could have walked. But shockingly (yeah, right), it didn't work out like that. After running out the door, having to make two u-turns I pulled into the closest visitor parking spot at 8:12 AM with 3 minutes to spare. Yes, it's hard to explain the u-turns since church is just down the street, but the library parking lot doesn't connect to the Memorial lot, you can only go west on Westheimer from Augusta, church is east, and then you are able to turn on the street next to the parking lot. Whew! Church was very good. I really enjoyed the service, the wonderful message, and the music. I was warmly greated by the pastors and several parisioners after the service. I did get a chance to catch up with a few people I had met several years ago at a servent even in upstate New York. I am looking forward to going back Wednesday evening for Ash Wednesday and the next few months.

After putzing around the apartment for a bit, it was time to head out and wander around. The impressive part of wandering this time was there was no GPS involved. I'm trying to wean myself off of it a bit and really get a handle of my surroundings. Probably not the best thing, like this morning trying to get to church, but you learn from your mistakes, right? I found a large selection of running shoes at Sports Authority on Post Oak and spent way too much time at The Container Store. This is the place to go for any kind of basket, bucket, box, kitchen storage...you name it. I picked up an under the bed tub for sweaters and one for my dress shoes. (I'm trying really hard to leave James equal storage space.) In the last few days, I have realized why my dad thinks taking the grocery or Target sack to work with your lunch is tacky. (No, I promise I didn't do that last week, but I needed a plan for this week.) If you work in a manufactuing facility, it is totally cool to take you lunch in a grocery sack; you go to work in khakis on a nice day and jeans on most other days. Walking into the North American corporate center, carrying my computer bag and purse, wearing a suit and collared shirt/sweater, and toting the Target lunch sack probably doesn't scream professional. So, this is one something I can control about my presentation. I was able to pick up a reuseable lunch sack. It looks like the brown paper bags my dad tries to use over and over, but it's nylon and slightly insulated. It has plenty of space for a sandwich or leftovers. I'm excited to tote my eco-friendly lunch bag to work tomorrow.

I did take a few more pictures at the apartment. They are of the courtyard area from the 5'x3' balcony. Considering it's an apartment, I'm not complaining. It could pass as a vacation resort, and I'd be happy too.

And last, but not least...I was able to take a few pictures at Memorial Park. The plan was to take them after my run yesterday, but much to my dismay, the camera battery died. I have to admit, I was a little jealous of everyone there enjoying the afternoon. I really should have put my running shoes on and gone for a lap. This will give you a better idea about the parking situation and the number of people out and about. (Ok, for some reason my pictures aren't wanting to upload right now. I'll add the rest of them in the morning. Sorry to disappoint.)

Fido Freedom Park

In my adventures of driving on Saturday, I ventured out to the westside of town near Katy. I wanted to get an idea of what that area was like compared to Kingwood (northeast side), which I visited with our realtor, Patty, earlier in the day. I found yet another great, master planned community with some very wonderful homes, but more exciting than that, I found one of the bark parks in Harris County on my return trip. Instead of driving back in I-10, how I went to Katy, I drove through Cinco Ranch (master planned community) and ended up on Westheimer Parkway. Westheimer Parkway not only turns into Westheimer, the main east-west street south of the apartment, but it also takes a scenic route through George Bush Park. This park has a lot of trails, an equestrian center, and is more reserve-like than Memorial. Halfway through the park, I stummbled upon a bark park a.k.a dog park. There are three bark parks in Houston, and this one is the Millie Bush Bark Park.
What this means is that while all of the local parks are pet friendly, they are still required to be on a leash or you can get a ticket. Not at the bark park! There is a series of gates that you have to enter in order to get inside the dog freedom area that keep them in and don't allow them to run off. (Yes, there was a lab mix that was trying to get out while I was there. He managed to get though one gate into the corral area, but he couldn't get out.) You can see a bit of the corral area behind the "small dog park" sign in the picture below. And yes, there are two sections of the park: one for the small dogs (less than 20 pounds) and another that is open. I think Hallie will do better in the open section since she thinks she's a big, mean, ferocious 11-pound jack russell. (Let's not burst her bubble though!) There is a good amount of space here to let fido run around, chase other dogs, chase you, and even play fetch. During my visit, one pup even decided to play in the doggie pond. I would say this is, surprisingly, what Ginger would do. They will have to get a wash down before they're allowed back in the car to go home after running around and getting messy. For the next few months, at least, Millie Bush Bark Park as well as the others will become a place we visit with girls at least once a week. And I bet if they're on their best behavior, they might be able to give James those puppy dog eyes (Hallie is the worst about that!), and he'll take them for a mid-week treat.