Dove Hunt

Tomorrow is opening day of the dove hunting season in Texas; my brother, my father, and my grandfather are going to be out in their "dove lease" before the sun comes up tomorrow morning. Those crazy heteros and their bird hunting. I can't think of anything less fun than waking up at 4:00 AM to go sit in a field and hunt beautiful little doves, however, they are excited about the event...I bet my father has a hard time sleeping tonight.

Dear Frito Lay

Dear Frito-Lay,

I do enjoy Santitas. They are great with salsa or queso or hummus or any other dip. I do not enjoy burnt Santitas. Next time, please do not put burnt Santitas in my bag.

Sincerely,

Me

More Wood

We love our 1980 house. We love the floor plan. We love the closets. We love the location. We love our 1980 house, and we're looking forward to enhancing the home with our own style. We've mapped out a home improvement plan for the next 18-months. The first step was completed this week; we've added more wood, because more wood makes everything better. The very talented carpenters added chair rail wood paneling in the dinning room, wooden planks to the slanted ceiling of the breakfast nook, and trim in the rooms without trim. I am so excited!

The next step is to paint the entire house- everything - trim, walls, ceilings, cabinets, doors. We're letting our checking account rest for a bit (Uh, wood is expensive) and then we'll start the painting after the holidays.

I love PGT!

I love pickled green tomatoes. In the heat of the summer there is nothing quite like the sweet-tanginess of cold pickled green tomatoes to add a zip to any meal. I don't know how green tomatoes, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper becomes such a delicious combination - it might be magic- but I eat them all the time. Yum!

Like a Whore in Church

A couple of weekends ago I was honored to stand along side one of my beloved friends, Clint, as he married the woman he loved. It was a beautiful wedding, and the reception was heaps of fun. I've been a groomsman many times, but this was a different event entirely. This was the first time I'd been asked to be a groomsman in a Catholic wedding with full mass.

During the whole 1.5 hour wedding I became uncomfortably familiar with the old saying "Sweating like a whore in church." The Catholic church is not subtle in its opposition to homosexuals, and there was an odd tone in parts of the ceremony. In addition it wasn't my A-game as a groomsman because I got lost during the whole: Stand up. Sit down. Kneel down. Stand up. Turn around. Kneel down. "Cross your arms because your not Catholic" event.

Clint loves me and my husband without hesitation, and he does not think the love he has for his wife is any greater than the love I have for my husband. Clint pulled me aside after his wedding to apologize for the anti-homosexual tones in part of the ceremony. I appreciated his thoughtfulness.

If Clint, a devoted practicing Catholic, understands that all love is the same, then how much longer will it be before the Catholic church figures this out? I guess Jesus will have to come back to get the Catholic church to change. Oh, well...

Shriver Mansion

I read today in the WSJ that the 16,000 square foot Maryland estate of the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her husband sold for less than $8M. The Real Estalker blogged about the estate last October when it first hit the market with a $11.8M asking price. So put yourself in the Shriver family's elite shoes: they listed the house for less than $12M and it sold almost a year later for "only" $7.81M. Oh, well...it's only one year later and $4,000,000 short.

Also, I really like this floor plan. They built this house in the mid-1980's, but it looks like it's from Gone With The Wind. It's a great floor plan with large rooms, lots of storage, and I love those second story balconies. Mrs. Shriver and her husband had over 20 great years in this beautiful home. That's glorious! I hope me and my husband get 20 great years in our dream home.

A New Meat-Eating Plant Discovered?!

Just this past spring I discovered a new plant at Home Depot- I had never seen the yellow colored knock-out rose before my discovery in their garden center. However, I think this is different.

A botanist discovered a meat-eating plant- forget that this plant eats meat- the real surprise is that botanists (biologist specializing in the study of plants) did not know this plant existed on earth before the discovery. It's not like this plant lived at the bottom of the ocean. It was growing on land. How long has man lived on earth? And we still haven't seen it all? That's embarrassing.

Happy First Birthday Owen!

Why not pay Paula?

I am a fan of American Idol. I enjoy watching a good competition, and I like the live anything-can-happen-vibe of the show. This past season I was on "Team Adam" while my husband was on "Team Kris." He won. I lost. Life goes on...

Here's the deal. Last week Paula left the show because they would not increase her salary from the $4M a year she was making to $10M a year. American Idol judges have the undisputed easiest job in the entire universe- they get paid millions to speak their mind a few days a year- how hard is that?

Part of me thinks Paula is a fool for turning down any amount of money to do this job, but another part of me wonders why their wasn't more outrage from women last week? American Idol can pay the men mega millions, but why can't they pay the women mega millions?

I know, I know, Paula can be a train wreck, but she's been unpredictable since Kelly Clarkson won, and Paula's craziness is part of the anything-can-happen-vibe that I like about the show. The Paula and Simon cat fights are fun to watch, and Paula is the only nurturer on the show.

Randy is still under contract, but Ryan's getting paid $15M a year, and Simon is getting paid $45M a year; why couldn't they pay Paula $10M a year?

Staycation 2009

My parents and their two dogs spent the weekend with us. My uncle spent Friday night, my 18-month old niece spent Saturday night, and my husband’s parents spent the day with us on Saturday. It’s always fun to hang out with the ones you love.

The excitement included:

• Eating dinner at Hibiscus
• Presley taking a nap on my chest
• Having` four dogs in one house
• My husband, my husband’s father, and my father taking the boat out and crashing it while racing Thomas Crown Affair style – and by crashing I mean a rope broke but on a sailboat ropes are important and by Thomas Crown Affair style I mean we have 45 year old Thistle sailboat not a $145K sailboat. Is there a difference? Oh.
• My parent’s Jack Russell Terrier biting my husband’s mother on the leg, twice!
• Presley wanting to eat queso with a spoon
• Presley wanting to eat salsa with a spoon
• Shopping at Dallas' Farmers’ Market
• Having six adults being completely entertained by one baby girl
• For breakfast, scrambling up the eggs from pasture-roaming hens, which proves happy chickens make better eggs. I am not an egg snob I am a chicken lover!
• A summer rainstorm
• The many games of Hearts we all played and my husband won