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.

Memorial Park...yesterday was a slow day!

Since the office group was talking about going to Happy Hour tomorrow after work, I decided it best to run again today to keep up with, or more truthfully begin the Indy mini training. Instead of parking on the main thoroughfare and fearing crossing the street, I ventured further into the park only to find it packed with walkers, joggers, runners, and a few bikers. I almost didn't think I'd actually get a parking space. Last night there was a plethora of spaces and my estimate of "a lot of people" was only a mere fraction of the number of people and canines I saw roaming around. It was about 6PM when I finally found a spot and got geared up to run. Compared to the night before, this was the place to be! It was almost like running the mini dodging people the whole way, except some of them were coming at me. By the time I finished running, it was dusk, and the trail lights were on. But that wasn't stopping the cars coming in and the people taking off for an evening run. I was going to take some pictures since the sun was out and it was 75 degrees, but I got a little sidetracked with the whole parking issue. Rather, I included a link that shows the expanse of the park (first), and then the link talking more about the park itself.

http://www.houstontx.gov/abouthouston/exploringmemorial.html
http://www.houstontx.gov/parks/memorialpark.html

First Day of Work like First Day of School

Do you remember those first days of school? You had to have the perfect outfit, the perfect hair, the right backpack, and on and on..... Yeah, that's what my day felt like today. Tracey, my HR person, called last week to tell me I needed to wear gray or black to go with the background for my press release photo. Uh, excuse me? So of course it was the first day of school all mixed in with Picture Day. What a disaster waiting to happen! At least the picture sitting was one of the first things; I didn't have to make it through gym class and recess and still expect to look presentable.

Today was great. I went to work at 10AM and came home at 3:30PM. What more could you want on a first day? Oh, yeah....an hour lunch at Lexington, this fantastic restaurant close to the office. I went there on my interview and was very excited about the salad; well today was even better. French Onion soup and blackened halibut!!!! It wonderful. No, seriously though, today was mainly a meet and great of everyone on the 7th floor (my floor) and the 6th floor (customer service and logistics). My boss, Mike, gave me a flash drive of literally hundreds of pages I need to read and some great data sources for my role. Unfortunately, the laptop wasn't ready, which explains the coming home at 3:30. Except, I didn't really come home.

I decided to explore Memorial Park to figure out if I could run there or should drive there to run. I drove around a bit to find a huge expance of running and biking trails along with a major thoroughfare running through the middle. It took me 1.25 miles before I was adventurous enough to cross the street. Yes, I told you this was the first day of school; more like the first day of kindergarden. Unfortunately, I didn't start my Garmin back up after I crossed the street until I went at least another 0.5 miles, so this just put me closer to the 4 mile mark than 3. Memorial Park is a wonderful place. There were so many people out and about, even in the mist/rain this afternoon that I never once felt out of place. There are so many options to run that my plan is to just go there rather than dodge the traffic on the streets around the apartment after work. It's a quick drive back and forth, and the "air conditioned" seats are definately an added bonus driving home! Pictures will be coming of all of the sites around Memorial.

Monday, Monday

After a great night's sleep at the Marriott, I managed to get up at a decent time in the morning and head out. I decided to drive from the airport to the apartment to get a feel for how that drive is going to work. Unfortunately being that Monday was President's Day, I don't know how good of an idea I really got. I did decide it will probably be best to buy the E-Z pass for the toll roads and take the Hardy Toll instead of I-45. I don't know what possessed me to do that, but it probably wasn't the smartest, especially after my coworkers talked about how bad I-45 was at lunch.

I managed to find the apartment fairly easily and at least get my bearings straight. This took me up to lunch, and I was ready to find something tasty. I did drive around for about an hour just checking stuff out only to come back to a place James had researched and suggested. It was a little sushi place around the corner from our apartment. It was rated as one of the best places to get sushi in Houston. If he wouldn't have told me that, I probably wouldn't have stopped. It's in a strip mall that doesn't look the best, but as I was always told in elementary school, "You can't judge a book by it's cover." This place was fantastic; it was full of regulars who the sushi chef knew their orders by memory. (Always impressive.) I had the sushi and tempura lunch special which came with soup and salad for a very resonable price. James and I will be walking there for their Saki Happy Hour after work. It is in total a block to block and a half from our place.

After lunch, I went back to the apartment to find the lockbox on the door. Yay for moving in 3 hours ahead of schedule. I unpacked the car, which took several trips. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised with the apartment. It is a one bedroom, but rather spacey. I think there will be space for all four of us to cohabitate. The only concern is being on the 4th floor with two little girls who are used to being let out in the yard to roam around. They will have to get used to walks on a lease and lacking some of their freedom for the next few months.

The kitchen is a good layout with a nice island in the middle. (Picture below.)

The living room had a large couch and oversized chair along with a desk. There is even plenty of space next to the couch for the queen-sized airmattress to go for our visitors.

And the dining room has a large table with plenty of space for dinner or games.

Then there is the bedroom with the his and hers closets. (Yes, I have managed to stay in one closet with my things, and there is plenty of space for James when he moves down.)

Then came time for the run to Target and the grocery store. It was like starting over; I have none of the bare essentials in the place. Cleaning supplies, trash bags, ketchup, and the list goes on and on. I'm sure Target and City Market (grocery store) were thrilled to see me coming. The other part I underestimated was how long it takes to shop, even with a list, in a store where you have no idea about where things are. Wow; it's crazy. Mind you, the looks I got from the locals who were there to pick up one or two items compared to my cart full of basics. I admit, I was slightly embarassed when one woman made a comment to her daughter as they decided not to get in line behind me. Oops.

Then it was off to the grocery. What's there to not love about checking out the grocery store. Well, figuring out when you're nearly finished in the produce section that, oh by the way, you were supposed to weigh each of your produce items using the 4-digit or 5-digit, if it's organic, code to print a bar code for your purchase. (I missed the memo on that one.) Other than that, the produce was fantastic. This will be the place I go for those items over the next few months. They also had a great bakery with such an assortment of fresh baked breads they put Panera or Great Harvest to shame. People were picking up loaves and putting them in brown paper bags. By this point, I was slightly overwhelmed and opted for their already sliced and bagged fresh bread. I did get an out of this world 9-grain bread that was fantastic this morning. Then on to the cheese department where I spent 10 minutes just trying to find parmesan. I didn't know there were so many kinds of cheese from around the world. Now finding my staple Campbell's Tomato Soup was a whole different story. This is not your "typical" grocery store. It's more in line with the organic, whole foods kind of place, so Campbell's wasn't on the shelf. I'll have to venture some where else.

Indiana to Houston - One Day

Sunday morning, I managed to see James off to work for his last shift at Henderson, get myself together, drop the little girls off at Nana's and Pa's, and get on the road all by 7:45 AM. With little to no traffic on a Sunday morning I cruised on through Western Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, and arrived in Texarkana around 4 PM. Of course, that was entirely too early to stop for the night, so I decided to motor on. I drove down US-59 through several small towns and ended up going all of the way to Houston.

I stopped at 9 PM at the Fairfield Inn in Humble to see about a room for the night. There were literally 7 or 8 cars in the lot and a handful of lights on in the hotel. When I got into the lobby the night manager told me they were full for the night and booked for the week. "Ummm....okay," I believe was my response. I ended up at the Marriott at Intercontinental Airport a.k.a. Bush. After a bit of haggling with the lady at the registration desk, I was able to talk her down to a resonable price from the initial $259 she quoted me. (I was tired at this point, but not desparate or crazy enough to pay that.) I think the part where I told her she needed to find me a room somewhere else since the Fairfield was supposedly booked help my cause a bit. Oh, and telling her I just drove all the way from Indiana may have helped the pity points too.

All in all, the drive to Texas was good. It's really an easy drive; 70 MPH most of the way on a minimum of 4-lane highways. The worst part is the total distance. From our house in Newburgh to the apartment in Houston, Mapquest quoted 899 miles from door to door. They show a time of 14 hours and 21 minutes. I arrived in Humble (30 miles shy of that) in 13 hrs and 15 minutes. Not too bad.