Goings On

Here are a few of this week's happenings in So Tex:

--I've been trying to buy a 2008 wall calendar. Tried Barnes & Noble and Quips N Quotes; both said they were out of stock until November. Office Depot had some kitten and puppy calendars and some wannabe Asian art; I wasn't about to pay full price for that. Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena stocked calendars year round, so I never thought it would be a problem to find one here in February.

--A local guitar teacher/music store owner was charged with raping a 13-year-old guitar student on Valentine's Day. Two days later, another front page story said he'd been accused of raping a 10-year-old relative.

Last year, I interviewed the same music store owner/accused rapist for a Valley Girl article. Mike remembers him being suspicious when I said I wrote for the newspaper, but I don't. I do remember not wanting to write about the place once I walked in.

--I took our recycling out to the bin and saw huge piles of debris along the drainage canal. The canal banks and bottom had been bulldozed and all the cattails and other plants from the canal were piled up dead on the banks. There's trash floating in the brown water. I saw that the gnarled Mesquite tree growing by a paved area of the canal was gone, too.

I'd seen turtles sunning themselves on the cement by the Mesquite tree. Occasionally, I'd see a white Heron looking for a meal among the cattails. We'd find toads in our yard that I'm sure spent their tadpole days in the canal. Whenever I'd walk along the canal banks or go down by the water for a closer look, there was a vibrant ecosystem at play: butterflies, dragonflies, minnows, birds, plus the turtles and frogs.

I know the drainage canals have a job to do, and they seemed to be handling runoff just fine. I'm sad that someone thought it necessary to denude the banks and canal bottom and scatter (if not decimate) the ecosystem it had become.

Politically Active

The Texas primary isn't until March 4, but the Democratic candidates are campaigning hard. Hillary's made a couple of visits to South Texas and spoke this week at the Dodge Arena. (Sadly, I couldn't go).

Barack's on his first swing through the RGV and he's speaking at UTPA this morning. Students lined University Drive waving placards and cheering when motorists honked. Half the campus is fenced off and I was lucky to get a parking spot at 8:15 am. Heaven help anyone who's trying to come to work now.

They'll open the gates at 9:30 but Barak isn't scheduled to speak until 11:30 am. Since I have actual work to do, I'm not going to stand in line or on the quad for 2 hours. I'll wander down about 11:00 and see what I can get.

Not planning to vote for him, but it is exciting to see people really energized about politics.

On a lighter note...

My college friend, Rob, was in town last week for a birding conference. (Everyone in the birding world seems to have heard of McAllen/Rio Grande Valley and they get to come here for conferences when the weather bites elsewhere).

Rob, his dissertation adviser and a couple of his birding/blogging colleagues had gone to dinner and we met up with them for dessert--and were introduced to a decadent concoction called almond tacos. Mousse-y vanilla and chocolate cream, chocolate drizzles and berries served in a crisp, sugary almond bark "taco" shell. Drool...

Rob has a little more facial hair now than he did at the Y; otherwise, the years have been kind to us both:




Also for your amusement, this is what happens when the sweet potatoes aren't done roasting when you have to leave to go visiting teaching and you forget to tell your husband to take them out of the oven in another 15 minutes and you come home 3 hours later:



Papas del carbon. They were orange once.

Question

After a conflict, if you pinkie swear with someone to let bygones be bygones, can you still blog about it? Or would that be not really letting go?

I would have blogged about the fracas when it happened, but I was swamped with all my Super Sunday assignments: sac mtg talk, SS lesson, making cupcakes for RS. And I stayed out late Saturday night seeing a college friend who's in town for a birding conference.

Now that the situation is supposedly resolved, is it fair to do a crabby write up as I would normally do?

Happy V-Day!

Our supervisor gave all the gals in the office yellow roses for V-day and our admin left boxes of tart Necco Sweethearts on our desks. FYI: the tart Neccos taste infinitely better than the old school, chalky Neccos of yore.

The favored treat in these parts: chocolate dipped strawberries. Students sell them as fund raisers, bakeries and grocery stores hawk theirs and you can't open the newspaper without seeing ads for them. When they're done with quality chocolate and ripe berries, yes, they're good. But is all the swooning necessary?

Mike's teaching until 10:00 pm, so our V-Day celebration will likely be another night. I'll hit the gym, come home to watch LOST and debate whether to make calzones or defrost the buffalo meat for a late night carnivorous dinner when Mike gets home.

Turned out to be a loaded week. I'm teaching SS this week and I'll also be speaking in Sac. mtg with the rest of the RS presidency. Our text: another talk by Julie Beck. Each time I've been asked to speak in this ward, it's based on one of her talks. Enough already! I'll also be bringing the cupcakes for the February RS birthdays. I will likely spend the afternoon catatonic from sugar and overexertion.

Before wrapping up, I want to tell mi querido supernovio, husband and partner that I love him body and soul. Even though the road isn't always smooth, there's no one I'd rather have riding shotgun. Besos, amado mio.

Goin' Back to Cali, Cali, Cali

We'll be in town for Sunstone West March 14-15 at the Claremont Graduate University campus.

Check out the preliminary program here: http://sunstoneblog.com/?p=286#more-286

I'm excited to be part of the panel discussion on What Women Know and to take another dive into the topic of Mormonism and immigration.

Hope to see some friends and eat some great Thai/Malaysian food while we're there!

Tool Time Girl

Last weekend was all about outdoor home improvement projects. I pulled my body weight in weeds from the tomato garden, around the base of a still sickly looking Meyer lemon tree and back behind our BBQ turned jungle.

I also got a bee in my bonnet to work on the front entryway, so I pulled more weeds there, dug deeply enough to remove three pernicious hackberry saplings that had taken up residence and turned over the soil.

While in front, I also wanted to get rid of the dead ficus. I gave the trunk a test push and was pleasantly surprised when it MOVED. Once Mike got up, I enlisted his manliness in toppling said ficus. He chainsawed it into pieces while I scooped up its dead leaves for the compost bin and to use as mulch. I transplanted some succulents and spider plant-like plants along the front walkway and envision the now ficus-less space with a bench flanked with flowering vines.

This was the weekend of long forestalled indoor home improvement projects.

Mike took down the hideous living room ceiling fan (all brass filigree and fluted lamps) and installed the new brushed nickel/linen-look lampshades ceiling fan we bought in January. I handed him tools and parts. LOVE IT! It looks sleek and chic. Mike put the old fussy fan in the alley and I bet him it would be gone before dark (but I haven't gone outside to check).

While we were fixin, I asked Mike to raise the chandelier over the dining room table. The previous owners hung it so low that you'd bonk your head standing up from the table.

The chain connecting the fixture to the ceiling was doubled up, so Mike took out all but two links. He also tucked some of the wiring into the electrical box that was previously twisted around the chain (classy!). I washed the lampshades/bug cemetaries. When we rehung it, it was about 10 inches higher than before.

Just those two changes made a huge difference! The new ceiling fan is quiet and stylish and the old chandelier looks great and is no longer a noggin safety hazard.

Juggling

Incoming Fall reports.

Audit findings on Spring reports (60 or so).

Audit findings on Summer reports (83, or 1/4 with errors). [Eeek!]

Scanning and emailing all the problem reports to people who can help me figure them out.

Keeping track of errors resolved/pending (involves 6 spreadsheets so far).

Trying to keep up with incoming email, phone calls, interoffice mail.

The need to eat, drink, take potty breaks and occasionally look AWAY from my computer monitor.

Gym attendance to save sanity and figure from stress eating.

All things on the home front in various states of neglect (laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, vacuuming up tufts of cat hair).

Church stuff--Sunday school lessons, RS newsletter, missionary meetings, presidency meetings, updating RS rolls and attendance data, trying to control eye rolling during open mike Sunday.

Is it any wonder I have little energy left to blog?