Planting and Gardening

Once winter moved on, we decided to try to spruce up the yard. We know that we'll never be able to grow grass; we don't get enough sun and it isn't sustainable over time so we are going to plant as many plants as we can.

We couldn't really afford to go out and buy plants but we had enough friendly neighbors, friends and co-workers that we got many donated plants. What we did spend money on was bricks to line the old planters. We got both red and tan bricks for both planters.

When we got them home we found that we had 72 tan and 24 red, 96 total. It just so happens that there are exactly 25 prime numbers between 0 and 96. So all of the red bricks are prime numbers in succession from 1-96. We were one short so we used one of our Butler Bricks.

Practical Math.

Of course, those pictures were taken in April. Here is what the planters look like today:

Stolen cactus/Pretty flowers

Much better even if it hides the math.

It is over; empty; finished

I finally get to throw out one of the most frustrating gifts of all time:

When I got it last year, the countdown started at about 385. Some days it was painful; most days it was just annoying to have to be reminded of the ex-president everyday but I did because it made November 3rd and yesterday all that much sweeter. And now like it's subject will it be tossed out with the day's trash never to be seen again.

Twelve Dollars and Fifty Cents of Sweat

After 10 years of collecting, starting with Delaware and ending today with Hawaii, M and I completed our commemorative book of statehood quarters.

The dogs were thrilled

The decade of hard searching ended when I found Hawaii in the till at work. I swapped Hawaii out for a duplicate Nebraska and filled the last hole in the non-archival, but quality crafted book.

Over the years I've been surprised at the odd interest that the book generated amongst our guests. If you'd like to see the book (with your eyes, not with your hands) and bask in its glory, our viewing schedule is anytime that we are at home and not sleeping.

Fun with leaves and dogs

This is the first full weekend that I have had off in over a month. There is much to be done to get ready for the holidays but there is also football on. I am currently watching the Alabama-Florida game and is as good as the hype (Which is why I am blogging?).

M went out with friends to lunch...that was 4 hours ago. I told her I was going to spend the day watching football but then that inexplicable urge to organize happened. I reckon that may be I am in the profession I am in.

The yard has been piling up with leaves since they started falling in mid-October. So off I went and in a hour I had this:

UPDATE: Yes, there are dogs in these photos; click on the photo to see proof. Yes, we do need a better camera. We are accepting donations

Google Chrome

Hey Mom, you like Google so much, they're coming out with a new browser.

Check it out, there is a comic book that goes with it explaining how it works and why it may be better than firefox (gasp!). Skip part two.

Should be on "Headlines"

Gotta love the new Kerrville Library.

What I did on my Summer Vacation

Three years ago we went down to South Padre Island with my family as we had the year before. We wanted to make it a tradition and we thought, "to hell with Hurricane Emily." Before hitting the Yucatan peninsula, Emily was a Category 5. By the time it hit SPI, it was barely a Category 1 Hurricane.

Everyone deserted the Island with the exception of us and some other fools. The fools won out that day as Emily came and went with some wind (matched by my Dad) and little damage. The rest of the vacation was great as were the huge waves generated by the storm.

This was Hurricane Emily before hitting SPI:


So this year we thought it would be even less so considering that Hurricane Dolly started out as a tropical storm BEFORE hitting the Yucatan. Obviously, we were wrong:

In case you can't tell, Dolly is tighter and more dense. You can look at the eye for scale.

Dolly stalled out in the Gulf some 30 miles off the coast and just sat there gaining strength and then moved in slowly as a Category 2. By that time, we didn't have power and didn't know enough to leave. We were also asleep at the time.

Here are some of the things we saw on our way off the Island after the storm had passed. The sun even came out for a bit that morning.

The Stripes will never be the same again. This happened to every single Stripes on the Island and every gas station that used the same tin, umbrella-like roof.

I've never seen a traffic light on the ground, it was big.

This was not the only power line pole that was snapped like this.

More power line poles. Electricity is not supposed to be restored to the Island for weeks. That is the only reason we left.

Don't let the light fool you, it had stopped raining by then. I was too hungover to worry much, but after we got passed the bridge, Port Isabel and State Highway 100 with no problems, we figured we were solid.

Sadly No!

US 83 was flooded in Weslaco, which is about 20 miles East of McAllen. To make matters worse, the dumbasses were turning traffic away into flooded frontage roads with no detour. Luckily, my parents, who were headin up this convoy, figured out that Business 83, which ran along the railroad would probably be safe so they tried that. Because of spotty cell phone reception, we didn't get the message for some time so we were 5 miles East of my parents. We drove through 2.5 feet floodwaters in our Toyota Camry with water splashing onto the windshield from slow moving school buses going the other way. That was the end of my hangover.

Today, I barely even remember the perfect 3 days we had before the storm came. Maybe better luck next year. Until then, I'll leave you with an image that will convince you never to take a dog to the beach (which we didn't do).


This is from our backyard.