The backyard animal kingdom...

...is acting wacked.

As I approached the lil' pond to feed the goldfish this morning I noticed one fish out of water, motionless, hanging against the side. I thought "great. the raccoons have discovered a new food source." Visions of the rampant death and destruction I discovered one morning at the other pond flashed through my head.

Then I realized that the fairly large white goldfish seemed to be attached to some kind of stick. Moving cautiously closer, I realize it is the water snake on the bank who has caught a fish by the head and is possibly in the process of contemplating HOW it is going to swallow this thing that is at least 5x the size of it's own head.

About this time, Chi the rasta-schnauzer (aka luvmuffin or stinkycheeze) has taken notice of the snake on its fishing expedition, and dodges toward the snake, who freaks, as I freak calling to Chi to get away. The snake drops the fish back into the pond and the fish swam away. I did not get a look at the injuries it may now be sporting on its face.

Then as I sat down on the front porch to check out the neighborhood blogs and have my coffee, suddenly, a blast of machine gun-like noise makes me jump out of my chair. I look up and it is a Red-bellied woodpecker pecking/pounding away on an aluminum rafter. The rafter is part of an unfinished cover-structure G made for his little sail boat. The bird continued to peck well beyond the point of realizing the thing is not wood and looked up at me as I laughed at him, as if to say "What?!!"

Update on G in the Hermann Memorial Half-Ironman

There is a website that has "live" updates on the athletes in the Half-Ironman. I've been waiting to see what G's time is at the next checkpoint of the bicycling leg... I don't think the stats are quite as live as the word "live" would indicate.

I can see that he swam the 1.2 miles in 46 minutes. I can't find anything on the news this morning about the wind and water conditions, but i do know that event-holders cancelled the swim leg of yesterday's races because the choppy water was too dangerous. They said they would not cancel today's swim leg no matter what.

Here is the website that has the athlete tracker, G's number is 1002.
http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/lonestar70.3?show=tracker

He is listed as 34th place of his division (men, age 50-54)...GO G!

I keep trying to post something...

...but I just can't think of anything remotely interesting to write about, which is saying a lot as it seems the scope of what I find interesting is broader than many would consider to be so. I'm going make myself do this now.

Today: Fed the critters, ate breakfast, washed dishes, roasted coffee, watered plants, called Lonestar College and had to leave a message for the advisor, prepared strawberries for shortcake, gave a recruiter a glowing review of a coworker from my last job, cleaned the pond filter, moved some pond rocks around, let the dawgs out and in and out again, etc.

Now I think I will take a shower.

It seems I have good days and bad days, and yesterday/today have been sort of a ho-hum low-spot in my energy and outlook. It is pretty lonely here all day and I feel kind of useless. As frustrating as the stuff at work got, at least I felt like I was intellectually good at something.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty crappy about myself, questioning my decision about school again, my eyesight drives me nuts and i wonder if I am making a bad decision about the BFA in painting...my thoughts keep drifting back to the Monet painting at MFAH that Monet did later in life when his eyes were failing him. It is dark and dreary and contrasts much with the body of work he became famous for.

The logical side of my brain is screaming that I should work toward something more in line with what I was doing at my job. Some strong coding skills would definitely provide a return on the investment. When it comes right down to it, I'm really floundering inside...pbbbffft. I don't mean to sound like a total loser caught up in a pity-party for myself. At least I know these moods seem to come and go... and this too will pass.

Tonight Gordy and I are going to try and check out the art exhibit at M-Squared. We haven't seen Max and Michael in quite some time and I could use a dose of Max's wackiness.

Gordy will be participating in his first ironman this Sunday down in Galveston. He is real excited about it. He won't be trying to win any records, his goal is to pace himself and simply complete it. I did some research about good snacks to eat during these things and found a gold mine of recipe's from Dr. Allen Lim. So I will be putting together a batch of things sat/sun for Gordy to have. I don't know yet if I will be able to go down there and watch Gordy cross the finish line, I would really like to see him accomplish this as he has worked long and hard to achieve it.

Entrance Gate to Joshua's Native Plants

Entrance Gate to Joshua's Native Plants
Originally uploaded by Michael-Ann

Today I FINALLY got around to checking out this nursery located in the Historic Houston Heights. WOW! What a neat little place... amongst the many unique and beautiful plants are fountains and antiques and folk art stuff. I had a wonderful time browsing around.

I could not resist bringing home a few treasures from the place: some Thai Basil, a small sassafras tree, AND a hybrid thornless blackberry bush :-))

I think I have made a decision about school. How does a Bachelor of Fine Arts (studio) in Painting sound to you? I've always wished I had some formal training. I feel very self-indulgent with my decision. I've always had this feeling that art was not something I should consider a means for making a living, but G keeps insisting I should not think about having to make a living and go with this.

For my minor I'm still trying to decide: visual studies, marketing, or management.

Hello there blog... Sorry I've been away so long

I'm just gonna spit out a few random thoughts. I feel like I'm in the beginning of a new chapter of our (G & My) lives. Today G left early this morning headed toward his first day at his new job downtown. Neither one of us slept well last night. I have to say this feels a little odd after working together every workday for the last 12+ years. In a small way, I feel like I'm being left behind in the dust of a talented man zooming ahead in his career. On the other hand, I am very excited for him. I think this is the first time in a long time he has had the opportunity to work along side people fully-qualified in his same field.

For me, I am very fortunate that he fully supports my going to college and getting a degree. It would seem a degree is about the only thing standing between me and being taken seriously as a candidate for a good job. The crux of the matter is, if we are to invest time and money into my getting a degree, it should be a solid decision on my behalf, and well, I don't really know what I want to be when I grow up. Biology, computer science, art, marketing, business management, either appeal to me a great deal, or seem to be logistically wise as far as rounding-out my current career trajectory. That is to say in some way or another each is a hat I could see wearing.

I have a few weeks before the next semester begins. I feel very anxious about making this decision. Shall I keep on the same path, or make this an opportunity to explore a new one?

I could just focus on the short-term and the fact that I need to take some remedial math courses before moving forward with anything. Never made it past Algebra I in high school with all my delinquent behavior.

*sigh*

On an utterly unabashed different topic... Have been having a wonderful time the last week spending time with both G's. I love them so much, as I do my whole family. If I can be blessed (heathen that I am) I am truly blessed in the form of family. So many different, intelligent, humorous, talented people. On a daily basis I am in some way or another inspired to be a better person by at least one member of my family. I don't believe many people can claim this.

I have to wrap this up now, even though many sentences above could and should be written about in much deeper depths. I still have cages to clean and birds to feed. Then I suppose G jr and I will figure out what needs to be accomplished today on his list of things to do.

Mini Celebration

Yesterday, toward the end of the work day, I got a strong hankering for a margarita (or two) and sent out a text SOS to Kate and Leeroy. AT 5:05pm on the dot we met up at Dos Gallos. After our thirst for booze got stimulated we opted to park at my house and walk down to Twin Oaks for further libations in celebration of Kate's getting a new job. I am so excited for her - she has really deserved a little break-through since graduating from college.

We had a great time being loud and rowdy at the bar - and taking lots of photos of each other with Kate's kick-ass Cannon. I can't believe how well it does in low-light.

I must have needed last night worse than I thought, I'm not 100% certain but I think I may have had 6-7 margaritas and I feel down right chipper today.

Anyway, not much else to say... other than it is nice to be around these younguns.

*ugh*

Just when I thought it was tough, the past two weeks have been sooooo stressful and it all culminated yesterday with my wee spaz rasta schnauzer being in some kind of terrible pain causing her to not want to move or eat and yelping loudly when disturbed. I took her to the vet and had to explain I was in a financial position to not be able to justify any crazy expenses.

He did his best to give her a good look over and try to determine the source of her troubles. It would seem she has managed to hurt her back, to what degree is unknown. I'm almost certain our big fat lab Beaux had something to do with this. He is oblivious to his surroundings and barrels into/bounces on top off anything in his path.

So the vet prescribed a cocktail of pain and anti-inflammatory meds along with something to soften up her stool as she was a little backed up too. We have to keep her from moving around as much as possible, no stairs, no big dawgs bouncing around her.

One good thing that came out of this is that while Chi was hopped up on her pain meds last night I got in some substantial fur-trimming and matt-removal!

Wow! Just got off the phone with Gordy Jr. In Baghdad! What a nice surprise to hear his voice this morning. He sounds so good and grounded in himself. He gets to come home for leave next month, hopefully will get to see him! He said that they are in a record stretch of not being bombed -since the beginning of January. Will be so glad when he is back state-side for good.

Well... have to go do my chores and go to work, lots to do yet for the big show in Austin next week. With any luck at all we will get a favorable response to the next version of our software.

One last thing before I go... Mom! I am sorry I missed your birthday yesterday. I wasn't until LATE last night I even realized what date we were on. It was much too late to call you when I did realize, so had to leave a sleepy message in your blog. I'll try to call you today.

can't get enough pie!

well maybe i can. Today was national pie day. I had planned to go down to M2 Gallery and celebrate the evening with Max and Michael and a truckload of pie. Dumb me, I didn't realize they were going to be done with their festivities @2pm... I thought it STARTED at 2. Gordy made two of his awesome key-lime pies last night and today I made an Albanian meat pie called "Lakror" and another veggie pie that is a traditional recipe from the isle of Crete... called "Boureki". Both were freakin' delicious, unfortunately they were finished about 3 hours too late for their debut.

I've had my fill and I'm busting at the seams, a little bummed that I didn't realize beforehand that i should have had this stuff ready much earlier. Gordy said we could bring 'em down tomorrow, but I don't want to bring the guys leftovers :-(

At my request Gordy took some of the bounty of our private pie-fest over to the neighbor. I don't know what the heck he will think of the pies... hope he likes them.

Im feeling sorry for myself tonight.

Gordy crossing the finish line

Dot

Pics from Christmas

Kate came by this past weekend and dropped off a CD with the pics she took at the house with her new camera. I've uploaded the pics to flickr to share with anyone who may want to have a look. However, I made it so the pics are only available to my flickr friends and family - It seemed like the polite thing to do, since I am not the one who took the pictures. If you don't have a flickr account AND we are not friends/family you will not be able to see the pics. Sorry! Just contact me via flickr and I'll "friend-ya."

Kate does some great photography, thank you bunches for taking pics hon! Kate's pics

I don't know how I managed to make it all the way through the holidaze without taking a single photo.