Time flies

Ahh...Memorial Day weekend. This year is flying! The Denver trip was soo much fun. Goofing off with cousins that I last saw when I was a pre-teen was fun. We were all giggly the whole weekend.
Mothers Day was a great weekend. I designated my nephew as my companion for Southwest. Since the spouses of married couples get free flights as a benefit, SWA allows single employees to designate a lucky someone for that privilege. Mike has a busy year this year so I figured plane tickets would come in handy for him and be an incentive to visit his dad and grandparents. Well, it worked!
I was driving down with Max to San Antonio for the Mother's Day weekend. My mom didn't know I was going down there, it was a suprise. I had been on the phone with her the previous week when she asked if I was going down to SA for that weekend. I said "No, I hadn't planned on it" Her response was "Whatever..." and she continued with the conversation. My mom does not say "Whatever" ...ever. So there I was on the road, Max stretched out on the back seat.
I was on the road about an hour when I get a call from Mike telling me he got the tickets. We talked about getting together some time in Seattle or meeting somewhere. We talked for quite a while and then at the end he says something like, "I can go to San Antonio right now, if I wanted, right?....Well, Yeah! So by midnight central time, we had arranged his flight the next morning from Phoenix to SA to see all of us. Not only was I a suprise for my mom, Mike was the big suprise!!
I broke the suprise about me to my mom on Saturday morning when I called her and found out that she had no plans, just running errands all day Saturday. She said that the reason they weren't going to cook out was because I wasn't going to be there. (Isn't that sweet!) That would not work into our plan for the suprise so I told her to run only one errand, be home when we got there and that we'd stop off at the store to get fajita fixings because we had another bigger suprise.
I think she thought my sis was going to announce she was pregnant! -=Sorry Mom!=-
Long Story short....lots of crying, laughing, hugging, reminiscing. and picture taking. I have a pic of Mike with his 3 brothers taken about 5 years ago, he was towering over them and they looked so tiny. We took another picture in the same spot. Maybe we'll make that the tradition.

He's still tall, but they're catching up! Mike is 20, Keith and Kyle are 9 and Samuel is 8.

Mike said he wanted to go upstairs and mark his height on the bathroom doorway. LOL. I wonder if he did.

Dub-a-Dub-Doggy

Living alone with a big dog is one thing. Deciding to give him a bath is either stupid, adventurous, or, as I went into it thinking, being a good momma.
He used to be pretty okay about it because being allowed in the bathroom was exciting in itself. and we could hold him in.
These days, since he can't be trusted for a short period of time in a home with socks, I have him hang out while I am in the shower everyday. Once I am done blow-drying my hair and feel completely done, then he's allowed out. Seldom can he go unsupervised.
So last night, I took him into the bathroom and tried to get him into the tub. Darn, if I didn't I forget to put his collar on him, I needed some kind of grip on the guy when he attempted, successfully, to jump out. He got away and huddled on the other side of the bathroom near the door willing it to open. I placed a treat on the edge of the tub. Nothin' doin'.
But, he is a dog, after all, so he was eyeballing it. I decided to herd him to the tub. Brilliant! I got him out of the corner and got him all the way to the tub, when he tried to get the treat, I grabbed him and tried to lift him into the tub. No Way. He got away again. Then I did get him into the tub, only to realize that I still had to turn on the water and the shower head/nozzle in order to wet him down. He got away when he heard the noise of the water to shower transition (you know the sound).
After many more tries, I was breaking a sweat and he was doing the fear aggression thing. There was only one thing left to do. I grabbed the Shower-Massage, adjusted the temperature...and aimed in his direction. It reminded me of a scene from a movie where the police are shooting water at rioters. Okay, so he was finally wet and I chased him around putting soap on him, he was more agreeable for that part.
Now, for the rinse. I wasn't going to spray down my bathroom any more than it already was, so he did need to get into the tub. It took less tries and as I got going, he tried to jump, I reacted quicker and little Max's neck was now stuck between the side wall of the bathroom and my leg. He stopped struggling (yes, he was breathing) and he was more cooperative. luckily, my leg was in a comfortable position to finish off the rinse. I checked his face and he gave me a lick. Although the look in his eyes gave such a grim message of defeat.
Whew!!! I let him loose and he shook it all out. As I was towelling him off, he jumped up to look at himself in the mirror and kept looking at the hair dryer. Man, I love that he loves the hair dryer! I wish he felt the same for the vacuum, but maybe in time. Anyway, I dried him off as he turned this way and that so I wouldn't miss any spots.
Gawd! I did a quick rinse on myself and waded out of there. When I stepped out after him, he was rolling on the living room floor. geesh!
We were both exhausted so when I woke up this morning, I walked into the bathroom only to find it still had a thin layer of water as well as all the wet towels and throw rugs.

-=sigh=- I was hoping time would have dried everything off.

Amaaazing!

Okay, I had to share this picture. Looks like an ordinary car parked in a garage, right? Nope..well yeah, but the difference is that my friend parked very close to the pillar. I mean very close. We had to get out and stare at it for a while.
She did not, and I repeat, did not touch the pillar or the bolt or metal strap on the wall. Really, she didn't.
I think you could have fit a few pieces of paper between her bumper and the screw, but it wasn't touching. Not touching!
This is a girl who pulls into a parking spot and commits. She pulls in and turns off her engine. She doesn't adjust her tires or back up and stuff to "fix" the car in the space.
We pulled in, she threw it into Park, turned off the car and pulled out the key. I started walking to the stairwell, but she was just stopped and stared at her bumper car. Amaaazing!

Graffitti

I have a new link on the side for my tabblo of pictures of Deep Ellum that I took last year and a link to Banksky's website.

I don't know what it is about graffitti, but I've always been fascinated. Not by the ones that are vain vandals (writing names in gang script) but the real artists. The ones that when you drive by you look at graffitti and go "Damn, someone would pay big bucks to have that in their living room."

Maybe it's because I can't bring myself to deface a public building. But maybe that's why it's done! I think I'm jealous because I think I can do work like that, I just don't because I have issues with breaking the law, defacing architecture...and getting caught.

I'd like to learn how to make the stencils too. I'm sure a computer program does it these days.

heh heh...be on the lookout for stencils of a psycho dog on brick wall near you!!

huh? wha? come 'ere...no, go away...check it out!...never mind!!

I redesigned the template for both this and the question of the moment site and ended up losing the links through my lack of foresight.
So now it's just about total recall of what it looked like. Both sites were pretty straight forward so it's not killing me. just lost links to blogs I liked -- considering my ADD, I probably lost interest after I created the link on the page. ; - P
The only constant in life is change.
Gotta go, shiny lights on the other side of the room that I must explore!

Gone to Denver

Oh my goodness.
Getting ready to go to Denver has been exhausting. It's this THING that's been on the calendar of my life with a big red circle around it.
Now it's approaching too quickly.
My aunt and uncle are celebrating their 50th anniversary by renewing their vows so if you notice that south Texas has less Mexicans this weekend, ....we're all in Denver. I'll be seeing cousins and assorted relatives that I haven't laid eyes on in about 15 years. I was less nervous for my high school reunion. The only reason I'll recognize some of them is because I've seen their Xmas cards at my parent's house over the holidays.
I was so focused on making sure my parents could get their flights straightened out and have them ready to go online and get any documents they might need that I didn't end up taking care of my own reservations at all.
I have a Must-Fly pass that I received from SWA when I was working with TB and not a SWA employee. I planned on using that pass and since no money is being exchanged, I wasn't in a rush. but Damn! the trip is Friday! A little too much procrastinating. So I called and made reservations this morning before work. Check.
I needed to look for a nice outfit to wear for the wedding part of the weekend. I did buy an outfit over the weekend, but it was a quick decision. and I don't think it was a good one. I had put it off all weekend. On Saturday, Max and I napped the day away and at 5-ish I decided to see if the sun was shining. I rushed over to the Avenue and found nothing even presentable to wear - all much too casual. Shortly thereafter, Gerri called and we ended up taking a walk at Arbor Hills and then sitting down and having dinner. I think the meal cancelled out the walk. On Sunday, rather than shop for the perfect outfit, Gerri and I went to the FtWorth Main Street Arts Festival. When all was said and done, I ended up at Catherines and bought two blouses and a suit in about 30 minutes, right before they closed for the day.
I think I'll take back the suit, but the blouses might suffice. I need to make reservations to board Max and I think that'll be it besides how and what to pack.
Whew! ...and as a plus, a guy in the building next door might buy my entertainment center. I finally advertised it. Hopefully, he'll come up with the money. We'll see.