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Martha and Craig flew to Baltimore on Thanksgiving Day, to be with Michael Craig. But before they left, Martha made sure Donna had a peanut butter cupcake for her birthday. Donna and Mom always had a peanut butter birthday cake on their birthday.
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Papa Tom, Destry, Colton, Donna, Dad, and Martin. I was the only "girl" voice when we sang "Happy Birthday" to Donna.
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Destry, Colton, Keely, and Donna
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Donna and Mom celebrate their birthday in New Orleans in November 2004.
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We had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at the Flying Saucer with Roy and Camille, who was in town from Denver.
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Good sign when we filled up for the drive to Shreveport: "1303" is our street address!
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Papa Tom and Jade made Thanksgiving cards for Sadie, Jim, Lucy, and Jake, and delivered them between naptimes. Well, almost between naptimes. Lucy was still asleep while Papa Tom and Jade played with Jake.
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Jake and Lucy are 5 months old. He barely fits on Fox's lap!
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| I thought a drummer was soloing at the Thunderbird Coffee House, about two blocks from us, until I stepped onto the back deck and realized nail guns were rat-a-tatting plywood onto the house going up behind ours. Looks like the new neighbors will have a great view of our back yard! |
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| So this is where Yoda and Darth Vader have been hanging out! Friday's hearing lasted from 8:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Very nice to take a midday lunch break and walk through the park along the Colorado. Christmas decorations were up. Not sure what Star Wars has to do with Christmas, but was fun to see the decorations. Red v. green light sabers? |
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| New highway bridge in front of pedestrian bridge over the Colorado |
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| A Great Dane in the Christmas spirit! |
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| When we returned to the Holiday Inn Express, several Union Pacific pickup trucks were in the lot. |
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| I'd never seen, up close, pickup trucks with regular tires AND train wheels. I wonder if the entire pickup lifts up when the train wheels are engaged? Noted that the truck tire psi was 95, whereas the Zoomer's tires only require 35 psi. |
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| I wonder what they would be locking or tagging? |
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| After Wednesday's hearing ended, Papa Tom met me at Neighbors, a multi-tiered restaurant on the Colorado River. We were too late for sunset. And, okay, it was below 60 degrees, so the ski jacket came out. |
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| Neighbors is surrounded by antique vehicles and farm equipment. |
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| After dinner, we walked across the Colorado River on the old highway bridge, now for pedestrians and cyclists, and romantics who leave their names on locks attached to the bridge. |
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| Or memorialized a special date. |
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| Papa Tom studied the river below, but it was too dark to see anything. |
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| Thank goodness Papa Tom remembered to bring an extra cap from Austin. A warm head makes a difference! |
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| I had a 4-day hearing in Bastrop, beginning on Tuesday, November 17. Couldn't help but admire the autumn sky at the end of the day. |
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| Because I was only 40 miles from Austin, Papa Tom came over and joined me for dinner at the Roadhouse. We tried the Roadhouse's jalapeno cream cheese burger, named one of the top 50 burgers in Texas by Texas Monthly magazine. Shorted ourselves on the experience by scraping the fresh cut jalapenos off before eating it. But cream cheese, slightly spicy with jalapeno juice, is great on a burger! |
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| So many burger places, so little time! Papa Tom remembers going to Griff's Burgers as a kid in Beaumont. |
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| Fox decided to invite Piper to sleep over, after talking with Mya, River, and Piper on Monday night. |
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| Fox is a tiger holding baby Piper in her lap. Fox wrote both their names and drew the heart. |
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| Fox asked me to write the note for her: "I want a sleepover. Please, I'm begging you, Piper, because I never had a sleepover with you before!" She then signed both their names. |
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| We had time to walk the letter to the mailbox just before Fox's bedtime. |
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Fuzzy stood up and wiggled her cute pink nose to tell Mya and River how much she likes the pictures of mouse friends!
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| Mya sent a drawing of two mice enjoying their home, just like Fuzzy does. I love the mouse whiskers! |
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| River sent a drawing of mice playing in their cage. He even signed his name at the top. Good job, River! |
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| New construction as seen from our back deck. I had to go check it out. |
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| Two 2-story houses are going on the lot. We can't figure out how the new houses in the neighborhood are getting around the impervious cover requirements. We weren't allowed to extend out deck out any further due to rules about how close it could be to the elm tree. We'd originally wanted to build it around the elm tree. Wouldn't that have been cool to have a deck around the tree? |
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| The house at the back of the lot. Yep, these will have Dr. Seuss roof lines. Used to be so out of character with the neighborhood, but now there are so many with "modern" roof lines that our house may soon be out of character. |
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| With the onset of fall weather, it was time to harvest the rest of the basil. We had about 8 cups of leaves, so made and froze pesto. |
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| The easy pesto recipe includes basil, olive oil, garlic cloves, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, and salt. So far, we've made pesto baked chicken. Delicious! |
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| Rather than participate in the plain red Starbucks cup controversy, I kept right on taking cold brewed coffee from home to work in my ceramic Starbucks cup, from the original location in Seattle. You'll notice that the original mermaid (on this cup) has had a corporate makeover. |
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| It was kind of chilly (okay, in the 60s) last Sunday (November 8). Fox arrived home from Anjanette's in some cozy footie pajamas just in time for some shenanigans before the bedtime story. |
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Girls' Auxiliary Queen-with-a-Scepter coronation at Oak Park Baptist Church, New Orleans, around 1967 (judging by my Twiggy haircut). Happy Birthday on November 8 to my sweet Sista Martha. Can't remember what was in the basket: flower petals? I'm guessing Sista Donna, who's not as appropriately adoring of me as Martha is ;-), carried the crown or scepter.
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Little brother Charles and me, Christmas 1956 (ages 3 and 2). Happy 61 on November 10, Charles!
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When I tried to wish Otis a Happy Redhead Day on November 2, I was reminded that he considers his hair to be orange, not red. Maybe he'll be a Longhorn someday?
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We drove to Waco on Saturday to see Emma sing with the All-Region Choir in Jones Hall at Baylor University. Students from about two dozen area high schools audition to be part of either the Ninth and Tenth Grade Mixed Choir or the High School Mixed Choir. Emma was chosen to sing soprano with the High School Mixed Choir, which performed mostly classical pieces; the men in the choir pondered "What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?," a sea shanty I'd never heard before. Afterwards, we had dinner with our favorite soprano and Al and Joyce at the Olive Garden.
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The wooden hand railing had rotted through and pulled away after 7 years in the rain, heat, and cold. Time for a metal hand railing. Papa Tom did the installation.
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| Voila! Back up to code, ready for the one or two days of icy steps this winter. |
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After gymnastics class on Monday, Amon took Jade to get the new hair style she'd been asking for. She chose the length herself. No more tangles!
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OK, Amon, you're cute too!
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Using Papa Tom's Whataburger coupon before the midnight expiration date
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| Okay, this post is self-explanatory, right? Thought you might enjoy seeing some of the costumed revelers. |
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| Chainsaw and The Scream |
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| Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top? |
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| A king and his queen |
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| Pretend cops |
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| The Viking struck a pose with his sword |
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| Scared of the . . . Austin bat? |
