A crazy house for the 'hood

This house:

 

is being built about a mile away from us in a neighborhood very similar to ours.

It is hard to see from this photo, but the house is not square on the lot. It is at something like a 30 degree angle to the lot lines, which are due north-south in this part of Houston.

I am sure some idiot Feng Sui expert gave them advice.

Who advised them to use this architect is beyond me.

Cats are funny

Doreen is in Boston this weekend, leaving me alone to take care of the house, the cats, and the dog.

And it has been a chilly weekend. SO this morning I way lying on our window seat with a poncho that Doreen bought back in Ecuador because she thought I needed something to throw over me.

And I did.

Our cat, The Kitten, Little Guy, or Little Gallo (he never got a name, poor thing) came up to sit with me, and then decided to get under the poncho.

 
Then he saw there was a hole in it.

 
so he had to peek his head out.

 
and of course, he realized that he didn't want to stay under the poncho

 
he had to come out

 
and find a better place to sit

 
which was on my legs

 
So what could I do?

 
I let him wander about

 
and find a place to sit

 
that he was happy with.

 

Emergency Room

I spent two and a half hours in the emergency room today.

Why is less important than the process. Let me say only that the call was necessary, and the results were negative, and I was not the subject of the call.

We first started with a trip to an "Urgent Care" facility. The injuries were deemed "too severe" so we had to head on down to the Memorial Hermann Emergency Room in Memorial City.

We got there quickly, and I would guess we arrived at about 11:00. We checked in (immediately) and the patient was "enrolled" (triaged, I guess) in two minutes.

The patient came to sit and chat with me while we waited. Now, let me be clear, the patient was not in any pain, and while the patient's appearance was ghastly, there was no imminent danger. I suppose you could say there was no emergent condition.

But the waiting room was not crowded, and we chatted peacefully for about 10 minutes before they came to get us and put us in a room. We were lucky to get a room with a bathroom (bonus!) and sat in THERE and waited for maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

A nurse came in to ask some questions (what happened. Did this guy beat you up. Are you in pain, are you on any meds) and then she left. She was very nice and friendly and efficient.

In another ten minutes or so the doctor showed up. He had an assistant who was there to write everything down, and an apprentice doctor to watch what he was doing.

He pushed and prodded, and looked deep into the patient's eyes. He declared the patient fine, but "As long as the patient is here, we will do a cat scan"

So we waited another 10 minutes or so and they came and wheeled the patient to the cat scanner.

A short ten minutes go by, and the patient returns.

They say it will be about an hour. to get the results, so we settle in. I ask the doctor if I can get some sandwiches, and he says that is fine. So I amble over to the canteen, and grab a ham sandwich and a turkey sandwich, some chips and water.

I return to the room and we have a little emergency room picnic. It wasn't too bad.

The doctor comes back shortly thereafter and fusses at me for letting the patient eat (He was the same doctor who said it was OK) and we could leave soon.

About five minutes after that, the nurse returned to take some blood pressure and give us our walking papers.

Down to discharge we go.

ANOTHER five minutes or so and we were gone.

It was shy over 2 1/2 hours, which I would say is not too bad. We never waited too long, and many people interacted with us.

As much as the medical system in the US is in trouble, it worked for us today.

Mourning and Celebration.

The weather in Houston has been unseasonably cool. And dry. By this time of year we are usually looking at 80s during the day, maybe even the 90s, and the humidity is starting to rise.

But not this year. I hope that this portents a cool summer.

Yesterday was a very busy weekend day by my standards. We started out early, as Blaze insisted on going outside about 5:30. That's OK, as we knew it was going to be a long day. We had our coffee, toast, and banana as we do every day, and did some chores around the house until about 10:30. At that point we went out for breakfast at Theo's, our local Greek diner. We had a funeral to attend that startedd at 1:00, and it was going to be crowded.

One of Doreen's book club members, whom she has known for 20 years, passed away while riding her bike on a country road outside of town. She was in training. for the MS 150, a bike ride that raises money for Multiple Sclerosis. She had been the director of a small private school here in Houston for about 30 years. She was only 56 years old

The funeral mass was held at All Saints Catholic Church in The Heights, where the book group originated (all the members once lived there, now I think only three do.) and was extremely well attended. I can't say quite how many people this church holds, but every seat was full and people were standing in the side and rear aisles. The homily was a very nice tribute to her service. I can't really attest to her character (I did not know her) but based on the tears it was a nice tribute to that as well.

After the service there was a reception at her house, only two blocks from the church, where friends and family gathered to remember and honor her. It was all very moving

She lived only a couple of blocks from a house that I owned and lived in back in the 1990s. Strangely enough, I know the current owner, but have not seen the inside of it since he moved in and made some renovations.

So we walked over and rang his metaphorical door bell. (Of course we called his cell phone. This is 2013, after all. Does anyone have doorbells anymore?) He was gracious and let us in to see the changes he made. He added onto the kitchen and lighted up the place. It looked very nice, and he said as long as he stays in Houston he will stay in that house. I can see why. He also added onto the garage apartment, making it much nicer, and bigger that it was before.

We left and made it home for a quick nap.

Then we had to march over to a friend's birthday party just south of Rice University. This was a lot of fun, and we knew many of the people who were there. It is always good to catch up with friends. The food was outstanding, and the drinks flowed freely.

We got home about 10:30 and I was doing last rounds with Blaze. I started called her to come in when I heard our next-door neighbors calling her as well. Iaughed and called out (over the 10' tall solid wooded fence) "John, you are a bad neighbor!" He laughed and asked us over for a final glass of wine.

Doreen had already gone upstairs, so I had to get to her before she got undressed. (Or course, there being neighbors we have had drinks with them in our lounge wear in the past) I managed to get to her with only her shoes off, so we ambled over.

They had a big fire going in their outside pit fireplace (remember the weather) and we enjoyed a final bottle of wine with the two of them.

A nice end to a busy, sad, happy day.

Moby Dick

Oh! many are the Fin-Backs, and many are the Dericks, my friend.

-Herman Melville

A foot

Came out to the porch this afternoon and saw this foot sitting on our ottoman.

We have a lot of feral cats in the neighborhood right now, so I guess someone was having a snack.

But they left only a single foot.

Monday in Los Angeles

We had a wonderful evening Sunday night with Doreen's friend Michael, his partner Jeff, and their son Patrick. They live up in the hills towards the north of town, in a spectacular home.

Monday morning, we got up again and had breakfast at the hotel.
 

Then we decided that we were going to rent a tandem bicycle and ride over to the Intellegentsia Coffee Shop in Venice Beach. They are quite famous (though their HQ is in Chicago) and I wanted to try their espresso.

So we wandered on over to the bike rental place, where I made an idiot of myself, and almost broke my nose.

We picked out a tandem, and I since I am pretty tall, I wanted to see how bad it would be to ride it. I tried to get on it like I do my regular bike. I put my left foot on the left pedal, get the bike gliding, and the swing my right  leg over the saddle. The first time I tried, my foot hit the back handlebar.

At that point, both Doreen and the rental guy said, "Stop, you can't do it that way"

But of course, I knew better. I just had to swing my leg higher. I tried again, and the next thing I knew, the concrete bike path was rapidly coming at my face. There was nothing I could do to stop it, so I broke my fall with my nose. It crunched.

It also bled, both inside and out. And I stubbed my toe, skinned both knees, and got road rash on my right hand.

It was painful, but I learned a valuable lesson. When Doreen tells me to do something, I have to do it immediately and without question.

Eventually, we did rent TWO bikes (easier) and made it up to Intelligentsia. The coffee was good, but I think mine is better. At least it tasted better with the residual taste of blood running down my throat.

We then drove to LAX
 

and flew home.
 

It was a nice trip:
   

except for the tandem.

Los Angeles, Day Two Morning

We woke up the next morning late (for us, and for our time zone). It was easily 8:00 AM before we got down to breakfast.

The hotel looks like this from the beach:

From Los Angeles

The breakfast room is off to the right.

We had a busy day Sunday, and we got started right away.

The La Brea Tar Pits was our first stop. I have been reading about this since I was a kid. It was sort of odd to see in person:

From Los Angeles

There really is tar (asphalt, really, though my ChemE family members would have to say what the difference is) oozing out of the ground. Yipes!

From Los Angeles

They had a life size Giant Sloth. Doreen took my picture with the sloth. I am the one on the left:

From Los Angeles

The Tar Pits are right next to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

You might recall a year or so ago this big rock made news, as it was moved from Riverside to the museum:

From Los Angeles

From Los Angeles

From Los Angeles

From Los Angeles

It is called "Levitated Mass" and the artist is Michael Heizer

From Los Angeles

It was something to see.

Flying into Los Angeles

We spent last weekend, MLK weekend, in Los Angeles. Doreen had wanted to see a show of early medieval art and manuscripts (lots of Giotto) at the J. Paul Getty museum. So that was our excuse.


We flew over on a United Boeing 757. An old 757. But, it got us there just as quickly as a new 787 would have, with a lower potential for bursting into flame over Death Valley. Interestingly enough, this is probably our last flight as "Global Services" invitation only frequent flyers. As far as I know, it is the highest level on United - though there just may be a super-duper secret level that I am unaware of. They let you get on the plane first, but that is about it. Oh, well. The rest of this year I go back to a 1K (100,000 mile) level.

We found LA quite easy to navigate. Now, that does not mean that we did not see traffic. But Doreen
 
was a great navigator, and we got where we were going in every case.

The show at the museum (above) was pretty good. I am no medievalist, but Doreen (who is) seemed to enjoy it. The museum itself was probably worth the trip, just to see how over the top it is. There are hundreds of thousands of square feet of galleries, and the grounds are also amazing.

They don't charge you to get into the museum, but you have to pay $15 for parking. (15 minutes or 15 hours, it is still $15) Then you take a tram up to the museum. If you ever need to kill some time in LA, take The 405 up to the Getty. It is worth it. (and why do they say "THE" 405? we don't say The 610 here in Houston.)

 
After the museum we ran into a little traffic as we were getting back to our hotel (view from the bar, above) in Santa Monica. It is a cool building (see next post) and it used to be an old folks home. Beachfront was not valued in 1926 the way it is today (when you fly out of LAX if your flight path is right, you can see an oil refinery and a sewage treatment plant right on the beach. Oh boy!

We had dinner that night (our fanciest dinner) at Fig, quite a nice place.

We started off with Stuffed Honey Dates (stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts). We followed that with their Chicken Liver Parfait, a chopped salad, and finally the meat loaf.

We had a bottle of a nice Oregon Pinto Noir, and then walked home.

We walked past the Santa Monica Pier, which is the end of Route 66. We liked that (not the beginning?) but thought that few people younger than us would even know what Route 66 was.

Then we went to bed.

Los Angeles Sunday Afternoon

From the Tar Pits, we went to pick up Doreen's friend Tim Naftali. Tim was, until recently, the Director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

I grew up politically under Nixon. I am not now, nor was I then, a Nixon fan (or Nixonian, as Tim calls them)

I will not dwell on the trials and tribulations of Tim's work at the museum (I am sure that there will be a memoir in there somewhere) but show some photos.

The museum was nice. Here is Tim and Doreen in front of the entrance.


Nixon wanted to show his interaction with international leaders, so they had theses life-size sculptures made, and put them all in a room. I will try and do this from memory: Zhou Enlai, Mao, Brezhnev, Kruschev, Sadat, Golda Meir, Churchill, de Gaulle, Adenauer, and Kijūrō Shidehara



They had a good sized moon rock:


and this, which is the most poignant:

Every Presidential library is allowed to re-create one room from the White House. Every other President chose the Oval Office. Nixon chose the Lincoln Study. He spent a lot of time here. Alone. During his re-election, he was getting updates on the election from his son-in-law while sitting in this room, alone.


Tim is responsible for all the Watergate exhibits. They are tremendously detailed, and you can listen to any of the tapes you want. Tim also interviewed many of the people who are still alive who were involved.

Nobody can come away from this very fair exhibit and believe that Nixon was innocent.

 

But, I am not a crook.

A Mast Year

This has been a "mast" year for acorns in Houston.

This means we get a real lot of them:


This is a shot of our back alley. It is almost covered with acorns, and it has been blown clear every week for the past month.

The local naturalist say that it is because of our drought last year. The oaks respond by producing many more nuts than they usually do. I understand that pecans are responding the same way.

Oh, and I took a new job. Executive Chairman of TerraSpark Geosciences.

Wish me luck.
 

On the road

Doreen and I will be in Paris for a while.
I should be posting (sporatically) here.
We'll be back soon!

Cooking Moroccan Food

The other night we had Paul over for dinner. It was great seeing him here in town.

Paul is making much better use of his sabbatical than I am, having been to a retreat in the cascades, taking a class at Oxford, and celebrating the 50th anniversary of his little childhood church.

But we did cook a spicy shrimp tagine.

So I had to wear my fez.

Photo link: http://bit.ly/P6cikG -- via http://bit.ly/picasa_tool

Brazos Bend

Doreen and I drove down to Brazos Bend state park today.

We saw a garter snake. We also saw a couple of alligators, lots of lizards, a turtle, and many birds.

It was warm, but that didn't really bother us.

There was a lot of water this year

There is an alligator in there if you look real closely.

You can see him in an unedited video. I will try to edit it down to something more reasonable.

or here:



Then we drove to Alvin to eat Bar B Que at Joe's. It was OK.

It is always fun.