And Another Month of Not Much Has Happened

The early weeks were very quiet.  I played cards and won (!) then came in second the night we played at our couples’ group that meets in homes.

We met with camping buddies Tommy, Susan, Stella and Jay.  Our venue for lunch was Saltgrass and once again I got burnt food!  Last time was a slab of burned bones posing as ribs.  This time was a bloody filet  that came back as a black ball!  We need to find a better restaurant at the half way point!  We all miss our RVs but agree that it gets a bit harder as you age but we don’t forget our friends!

Our new king mattress finally arrived and I decided the blankets and bedspreads in the twin room needed to be replaced.  We had been sleeping in that room waiting for our new mattress to arrive.  The blankets and bedspreads are so heavy I could hardly handle them anymore.  Not sure why but making a bed sets my back acting up.  Christine our cleaner happily left with the bedclothes and 5 blouses.

I attended Newcomers “Breakfast Out” at House of Pies.  They have really good breakfasts.  There were only about a dozen of us but a smaller group makes it easier to converse with everyone.  The following week I was asked to sub in a Shanghai group.  Craziest thing, I put the address in my GPS and when I stopped it said 117 but I was looking for 119.  There was no 119!  Marleah pulled up and pointed to the 117 house.  On the curb it said 119.  Whatever!  I guess removing the stone numbers is too much trouble for builders!!  I didn’t win.

The next week we didn’t plan much because we had been told we were going to be deposed.  But they moved it to the third week in March.  We played our regular Tuesday night cards at the country club and I went to my 6 month routine check up at my PCP.  All is good!  Ted had a doctor appt. to keep an eye on a nodule on his thyroid that has not changed in a year and a half.  Hopefully it still has not.  He has a sonogram scheduled next month.

Our Sustainer outing this month was brunch at Little Hen in downtown Houston.

followed by a visit to Houston Fine Arts Museum.  A Lourve Couture presentation was presented along with a Freda Kahlua expedition.

No travel plans until we get this lawsuit settled.  They move things around and if we have to go to court we don’t want to be away!  

Into February

Seems the wreaths were put away just in time for the hearts to come out!  And Mardi Gras right behind. Not a whole lot going on but we did both get dressed a bit warmer than usual for our two week “deep freeze.”  Today is 2/6 and finally it has hit 76 and sunny!  Hooray!

We had dinner and played Shanghai at the country club on our usual first Tuesday evening.  I think Ted won but I didn’t.  Ted has been shooting skeet a little bit with a new group.  It has been 1.5 years since he was hit by the truck and is just feeling enough stamina to complete a round.  Sporting clays allows him to sit in the golf cart between stations but skeet is 8 stations on one field so everyone stays close.  He puts his gun in a rack and leans on something.  However, both cause him to miss out on a lot of camaraderie with the fellows.  He still walks very slowly.

I found myself double booked on Thursday that first week in February.  I was to help at Continental Breakfast and bring a French toast casserole.  I was also signed up on a CWJF Sustainer outing!  Yikes!

I offered to make the casserole and bring it over that morning before picking up my friend Pam to go on the Sustainer outing.  It worked!

Our outing was to Houston’s historic Glenwood cemetery where many of Houston’s founders and famous residents are buried.  Our guide was excellent and told many stories about Wm. Hermann who has a hospital conglomerate named after him.  There are Memorial Hermann Hospitals all over Houston.  In fact, it is the one we use here in The Woodlands.  Hermann Park remains a very popular place in downtown Houston.  He was philanthropic and at one point accepted some useless land as payment for a cart he had built for a man.  It turned out later to be the Humble oil field.  One of the biggest finds to this day.  

There is the Rice family plot with quite a true story about Mr. Rice who funded Rice University.  Very interesting!  There was also the Allen’s, 6 brothers, 4 of which were very successful businessmen and helped settle Houston.  Allen Parkway exists to this day.  

The most popular deceased is Howard Hughes.  

It was a 4,000 step, 1 1/2 hour stroll through gorgeous gardens and many beautiful monuments.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  

Then it was off to Annabelle’s for lunch!  Such a lovely place with excellent food and service.  We were told to wear our fancy clothes.  Some did, some wore nice, and some came as they always do!  However, everyone was welcome.  

The entire ceiling is covered with silk flowers.  Two Valentine teddy bears graced the entrance.  The food was delicious but it was a long day and I was very tired when we got home.   Poor Pam had to turn around and go out again to the country club!

Boy Oh Boy!

The whole month of January has slipped by and I had little to write about.  Forefront now is doctor appointments, taxes, insurance renewals, cleaning out files, and making a trip to Destin, FL.  Ted’s brother Kevin rents a house in the Destin area each year.  They invite friends and family (in an orderly fashion) to join them.  We were offered 1/18-25.  Terry and Carol joined us from Alabama but both their Cincinnati sisters were unable to come.  

We played Shanghai the night before with our regular group before our 7:30 departure Sunday morning.  We tried a new way to go a bit north, then east, but we didn’t like it.  Taking I-45 south to pick up I-10 takes you way south to bring you back up north.  So coming home we took our normal route which is picking up 105 out of Beaumont, TX straight west across to I-45.  

We arrived a little after 4:00 as expected.  Barb had a pot of chili and hotdogs ready for dinner.  It was chilly so no beach weather all week!  We caught up on family news, played cards, took walks, sat around the pool with jackets on and ate - a lot!  Barb made breakfast each morning and put out things for lunch.  She is the Energizer Bunny!  Ted had brought 6 filets and his sousvide appliance to prepare them.  This is a French tenderizer of sorts that cooks the meat slowly to tenderize it before a final finish on a grill.  They were spectacular.  Baked potatoes, salad and garlic rolls we also brought, filled out the meal.  Barb’s peanut butter pie finished it off.  

The next three nights we ate out.  First was McGuire’s Irish pub that serves 18 cent bean soup.  The recipe is one used to make it for the Senate cafeteria at the original price from decades ago.  It was ok, I like mine better and it was not hot!  Corned beef and cabbage, fish, burgers and an Irish based salad were all enjoyed.  There are dollar bills stapled to the ceiling and estimates are $3 million is up there.  

Barb and Kevin walk 5 miles each morning.  I joined them one morning with the understanding I would go part way being sure I could make it back to the house.  I got 1.5 miles and my impinged nerve at the base of my spine had enough!  So they continued on and I walked back ok.  I used to do 3 miles three times a week with my friend Gerre until she moved!  That was before two impinged nerves became hitchhikers - the one just mentioned and one at L4.  Getting old sucks!

Second night we ate at a Mexican restaurant we visited two years ago.  I think most of us got tacos and margaritas. It was all good.  

Our last night was a fancier place The Ocean Club.  The food was very good and I think everyone had something different except Ted and I both had chicken parm which I can never finish.  So it was lunch the next day.  The strange thing was the spaghetti was served naked!  Ted asked for sauce and they brought a small bowl to the table which was enough.  Never heard of such a thing!  

We had been watching the weather and towards the end of the week we knew we had to leave two days early or stay 3-4 days longer.  We left on Friday early and drove straight through arriving just as it got dark and started to rain.  Whew!  We dodged a bullet.  The temperature tumbled and everything froze overnight.  We made it to church at 5 on Saturday while the temp was about 38 counting on it to not drop below freezing by 6!  We just made it.  Church was packed, just like at Christmas.  No place to park or sit hardly.  They said very few attended Sunday morning!  

The weather stayed below freezing every night for a week.  It is 46 today and the forecast is on the upswing.  By next week we are scheduled for high 60’s and mid 70s, our normal winter weather.  I will be able to move my succulents back on the patio table.  

They are finally scheduling depositions for Ted’s accident when the semi T-boned him a year and a half ago after the truck crossed a solid yellow line in a no passing zone and the driver was cited.  It means we cannot make travel plans until they stop moving the dates and actually do them.  

I hope everyone had a great Holiday season and are not now suffering through crazy weather!

Happy New Year

We returned 12/27 after an enjoyable week on the NCL Viva.  There is a relatively new ship.  Kids love it!  There is a race track, miniature golf, pickle ball, darts, splash pad for the little kids, two 10 story drop water tubes, escape room, arcade, etc.  We enjoyed watching the kids, deciding not to partake of anything that moved too fast!

After being disappointed (in that the specialty restaurants on the Dawn had not been any better than the Main Dining Room in our estimation), we skipped the $60 surcharge for the specialties.  There were lots of places besides the main dining room and buffet to eat and we enjoyed all of it! 

“Beetlejuice the Musical was their Broadway entertainment!  And we hated it.  No intermission so we lost 1 hour and 45 minutes of our lives that we will never get back.  However, their Icons show was fabulous!  They had two comedians, both funny but the one we saw three times (by accident) and it was the same show each time.  He performed with the other fellow two times who did different stuff so that’s how we were roped into three times of the same jokes.  Getting a good seat in the theater was never a problem.  

I had a ton of laundry when we got home, four loads and I have a huge washer!  Then there was the mail.  New Year’s Eve we went to dinner at a restaurant across from the movie theater and saw Song Sung Blue that I thought was spectacular!  Of course I am a huge Neil Diamond and Patsy Cline fan!  The music was just what I like.  But I didn’t realize it was a true story of a legend singing couple until the closing credits.  It’s a “don’t miss” in my book!

We attended Mass New Year’s Day and had breakfast at the Waterfall Cafe (complete with fresh squeezed OJ) and then after Mass on Saturday evening we had Italian at Adriatic Cafe.  

New Year’s Day evening we had neighbors in for snacks and drinks.  Enjoyable evening to end our Christmas season.

I really missed being with the kids on Christmas even though we FaceTimed Christmas Day and the following weekend when they were all together.  I am pretty sure we will go to Michigan next year unless they come here.  That would be great!