Happy Birthday Andy!

Di arrived yesterday afternoon for a weekend of Halloween partying!

We went out to celebrate Andy's birthday at his favourite joint, the Ginger man Pub :) It was chilly outside and so Di and I nearly froze, and she is from Denver so it must have been really cold :) Another two friends of Andy's joined us, also expats! We let Andy choose where he wanted to go to eat and he decided the Turkish place around the corner, where we had been for a hookah a little while ago. The funniest thing was when we arrived the waiter greeted Andy as a long lost friend - Andy admitted he had been a couple of times since our first visit!! Di enjoyed the Turkish wine, which was actually pretty palatable. Di and I went for the special, which the waiter described as a lamb rolled in a flat bread then sliced like sushi!! Anyway it was lovely and both of us ate way too much.

I took my pumpkin in for the office pumpkin decorating competition. Mine was the most simple, however , I had skillfully cut it, unlike more of the others that we painted and with things stuck on them - example photos given. I didn't even take a photo of the winning one because it was okay, but not great! Well next year I know what standard I need to reach.


This morning I got up at 0630 to go swimming leaving the others in bed. It is the most beautiful morning, clear blue skies but just 12 degC! We have just had a yummy breakfast having all of Stuart's different breads - rye sourdough, pumpkin bread and whole grain. Hot yoga now :)

Pumpkin Decorating

Crazy at work just now, but today was the big meeting day so tomorrow maybe a little quieter before it all starts again next week :( It certainly makes the days fly past!

I went and got my hair cut tonight, only the second time since I arrived. But I have gone back to the same lady as the last time. She somehow remembers me and my stories very well. Either she does this with everyone or maybe I am a bit 'different' but we had a good chat - more interesting that the usual holiday chat at the Aberdeen hair dressers!

All it has done today is rain, it was so bad that I could see out of the window most of the day. Now tonight there are flash flood warnings coming up on the TV for this area. The pool is brimming!!! The thunder and lightening has just started again and the windows are shaking again.

We have been busy carving our pumpkins. We didn't cheat by using a template but did use other peoples ideas! Our tools were the drill and a filleting knife. Stu's pumpkin is biting down on a wee pumpkin-ette, mine just has big teeth and horns! There is a pumpkin decorating competition at work tomorrow the for the whole office building - I think I am going to take my one on for a laugh. Stuart said I should say 'Emily aged 6'! and then maybe I would be in with a chance of a prize :)

Floods

After a couple of days off of the bike I had an itching to go for a cycle today. I first fixed my new speedo, which had snapped before the race on Sunday and then cycled to the bayou and headed for George Bush park. The weather was nice, dry and cool, but deep within the park the creeks had burst their banks and had flooded the paths. I managed to get through the first couple of floods, but the third was way over my shoes.

This afternoon was filled with lots of cooking bread, pumpkin, etc. I also prepared another pumpkin for our Halloween decorations, but they won't be as impressive as one of our neighbours.

Squash!

This morning was a little struggle to get out of my pit when the alarm went off at 0530, however, no ill effects from the cycling a little tenderness in the saddle area but totally manageable.

Stuart was very sweet saying he was proud of me on last nights blog, and not telling you about my sugar low moment and hence serious grump about mile 28 yesterday! He made me sit on the edge of the road and eat a gel pack, essentially liquefied sugar, plus an energy bar (look at the photo of me sitting down on yesterdays blog - just look at that face!) . Both are disgusting, but within five minutes I was back on the bike and go for the finish line! I seem to have an issue getting my food intake right with cycling all I know is from my heart rate monitor it said I burnt 2200 calories in the 4 hours, and when I had my slump I certainly hadn't been replacing any of it - no wonder Lance can go faster he just knows when to eat :) Nothing to do with fitness and skill!

Just as I got to work the heavens opened and the black clouds came down. We had no light until about 3pm this afternoon and they predicted some 4 inches of ran to fall during the day. For once this happens on a Monday, after a spectacular weekend, so all in all I wasn't bothered. Poor Stu at home, just gt to watch it out the window only managing a short trip to the supermarket to buy a second pumpkin so we can each make a lantern for Halloween.

I forgot the UK clocks had gone back at the weekend so surprised Mum and Dad by ringing an hour earlier than planned. Our clocks don't go back until the first Sunday in November so I will have to remember we are only 5 hours difference just now!

Tonight I arrived home to a surprise. I had moaned about not being able to get diluting juice here and when Stu arrived, he found you could order Robinson's sugar free diluting juice from Amazon. Six bottles of orange squash have finally arrived (over a month later!), and I enjoyed a glass with my dinner :) But I am going to have to ration myself as these will have to last me the rest of my time because Amazon have removed them from their website!!!

Peddling for a cure

After our "spelunking" yesterday we headed off into downtown Austin to wait for Emily's friend Sarah and her family for dinner. We were walking down the main street when suddenly the police cordoned off the side roads and a parade proceeded towards us. At first we thought they were celebrating Halloween, but once it got closer we realised it was for Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead). It took over 20 minutes for the full parade to pass. A lot of effort had been put into the costumes and it was quite different from Halloween.

Another early start today at 5am to get to Dripping Springs to start the cycling event. The car park was pretty much full at 6am when we got there and we had to cycle along the highway in the dark, however the police had cordoned off a lane for us to get to the start line. We had a little while to wait before the start and saw this man harnessing his poodle to his chest to take it on the cycle ride. The dog looked quite happy and we did see him afterwards and again the dog looked quite happy.

At 8am the race was to start and all 4000 of us were in line to start. However because of the sheer number of riders it took half an hour before we were off. We did manage to catch up with Em's friends before the start line so all 6 of us managed to cycle off together. The countryside around Dripping Springs was quite hilly but it wasn't as steep as our Scottish hills.

At our 25 mile "power stops" Lance Armstrong and some others came flying past at about 40mph. They had done 70 miles in the time it had taken us to do 25 miles. Their police escort was struggling to keep up as the road was quite narrow and was filled with other cyclists. We finished within 4 hours and I'm proud off Em as this was her longest and fastest ride to date. Thank-you to everyone who has sponsored us this weekend. Your donations will go to help the fight against cancer.

Running in Austin

Last night after work we left to go to Austin for our weekend of activity. It only took 2.5 hours with the sat nav giving us about two directions - turn left on I10 then go straight for 55 miles followed by turn right on highway 71 for another 55 miles!

We booked ourselves into a motel just of the Interstate so we could take the bikes into our room. Both of slept like logs not disturbed by any partying in the rooms above us or the traffic - not bad for $45 per night! It was an early start to get into the centre of Austin to register for the 5km, starting at 8am, and for tomorrows bike race. Guess what I have ended up with a large t-shirt - I don't think I have ever got a good sized t-shirt from a charity event. I tried it on and it is a night dress!


There was definite nip in the air even when the sun came up just at the start of the race. There were 3200 runners/walkers and a couple of dogs. A wee dachshund had a trolley with his fluffy bed to lie in!

The route was down, up and around downtown Austin. At the starting gate the only way forward was by walking but then we were off. Stu did really well and no pain from his knee. Just coming into to the finish line Stuart accelerated, well not enough as I steamed passed him! He just said I was typical Ferguson never wanting to lose! We finish in the top third!

We have just had breakfast at an American diner so pancakes and waffles but it was no way near as good as the Egg and I in Houston. Plus we had a really annoying bloke and his mother - he can only be described as fat and ignorant with no volume control! We left sharpish before I got up and hit him over the head with his plate (from the all you eat buffet!)



Off to see caves now :) the caverns we went see were called Inner Space just 20 miles north of Austin. There are lots of limestone caverns along the Gulf Coast apparently. Brad, our guide, was absolutely mad but entertained all the kids on the 75 minute tour. There were some impressive features not only from the calcite precipitation - so all the stalactites and mites but also from the water that had gouged the out the caverns.

We will meet up with a fellow cycling mates tonight for dinner, including Sarah from back home and her family. But it won't be a mad night as another early start for our cycling tomorrow.

Thank you

I cant thank you all enough. In just two days, with all of your generosity, we have raised $255 for Livestrong. Having now studied the elevation map it certainly not a piece of cake and I am quite sure I will be feeling the pain for sometime after. Stuart and I have also signed ourselves up for the 5K walk/run on the Saturday morning. At least it will keep my trainer happy that I am doing some exercise!

Stuart is out this evening with the sailing crew I had my trainer this evening and decided to come home as work is a nightmare just now and I am feeling sleep deprived. It also manages to give me a moment to write this even if I have nothing terribly exciting to say!

It was raining at rush hour this evening which resulted in more traffic than usual, not to mention an accident on the freeway pushed everyone on the feeder roads that run up the side of the freeways. It is amazing the chaos a little bit of rain can cause on the roads here. Most people have their window screen wipers going 'billy-o', I don't know about you but that always makes me really dizzy :)

Stu and I haven't been in the pool for many weeks now, but I learnt this morning my fellow Brit at work is still going in every evening, although he admitted this morning it was getting a little parky and maybe the last week he does it, except on the odd day when the temperature gets into the high 80's.

Pumpkin Power

Thankfully we haven't had any sunburn effects today from yesterdays sailing so it must have just been wind burn.

Emily got into work this morning to hear a really loud sound like a washing machine. The office upstairs had a water leak and had flooded some of the offices below. The noise was from the de-humidifiers and blow heaters trying to dry out the office. Luckily Emily's office was nice and dry, though work was a 'little' hot today.

Emily has been wanting to get a spooky lantern for the front of the house since everyone else has already started decorating their house for Halloween weeks ago. So today I bought a medium one. I cut the top off and scooped out the flesh to make a Caribbean dish of spicy pumpkin and shrimp. We still have lots of pumpkin for other meals including the seeds which I will dry roast for snacks. Since we don't want to put the pumpkin outside quite yet, I've wrapped it in clingfilm and put it in the fridge to stay fresh.

We are sailing .......

An early start phoning home this morning got me out of bed and as soon as the sun came up I went for my weekend run along the Bayou (well I haven't done it for a while!). It was really cool this morning, actually my car sad 59F on the way there, so I had to run a long sleeved top!

We then drove to Clear Lake, near Kemah. It is south east-ish of Houston towards Galveston and passed NASA. It is the first time either of us have been that far south. We were going there to go sailing! One of Danny's friend kindly invited us on half a days sailing. He chartered a 38 foot yacht and we set sail at about 1230pm into Galveston Bay. We had ten of us on the yacht and I was given task of competent crew/second in command!

There are some amazing houses lining the water way and you pass Kemah Boardwalk, which looked like a small Blackpool. The weather couldn't have been move perfect with blue skies and light winds - enough to sail leisurely without scaring everyone on board. The bay is pretty big and there were lots of other yachts out along with a number motor boats (and gin palaces). In the distance we could see the main shipping channel with really big tanks. There were oil rigs, or rather just unmanned production platforms, dotted about the bay. The water was as murky brown as we had been warned to expect, most of it sediment from the Mississippi delta.

I was the unfortunate one who managed to block the heads (toilet) - typical. In the end the heads had to be bailed out and thrown over board because the pump stopped working. It was bucket only after that!!

The highlight of the trip was two pods of dolphins that came and played around us for nearly 40 minutes. They were doing huge jumps out of the water and occasionally coming into the boat to have a look at us - doing that thing of swimming on their side with one eyeball looking up towards the boat. They didn't swim in our wake as by that time we were going downwind very slowly! My photos are pretty poor of the dolphins but someone else on board had an SLR camera and managed to get some good snaps that we will get a copy of.

We are both feeling a little warm in our faces from both sun and wind burn - I think we will be sleeping well with all the fresh air! I cant wait to go again :)

A furry friend

As Stuart said we went out to the Gingerman Pub last night. I tried to talk him into driving because when you are 17 all you want to do is drive after you pass your test! Anyway, I couldn't talk him into it, so I drove. We ended up at a curry house with some others in Rice. Weirdly one if the guys we met at the pub last night was at Aberdeen Uni doing a PhD when I was there. He, and his wife, had been in Houston for six years and are soon to be moving to Calgary.

We got home at about midnight. So, as with all Saturday's, we have hot yoga at 11am so we have a very gentle morning, getting up, having breakfast, and drinking plenty of water to hydrate before sweating it all out again!

I am still needing suitable bedding for all our spare beds, as I am sure guests don't want to sleep under feather duvets! We went off to Target (I think Target is like the home and stuff section in Tesco's), but could find anything either of us liked. We tried other places, but in the end decided to wait - I might have a look online. We managed to some other shopping, including Stuart buying some new toys for his bike, and to be fair he also bought me some toe straps in preparation for next weeks cycling.

Stu fitted the bikes with their 'new toys' so we could go out and practice. While he was fitting out the bikes I heard a dog barking very close by (most of the dogs are very quiet around here), so I went to investigate and it was our neighbours dog who had spotted Stu through the fence, anyway, I opened the gate to find him right there, but he was not ferocious at all. We had a pat and started talking to our neighbour forgetting about the dog who by this point was in our back garden! Well, we found him in the house having a good noise about (I don't think he cocked his leg)! We did an hours cycle along the Bayou before dark, and saw Andy returning from a big cycle in George Bush park. Stu and I had a wee race up the cul-de-sac, only, our friendly dog was returning from his walk and I nearly fell off the bike trying to avoid him! Anyway, he is now our friend, he saw us and went running between us wagging his tail! I think the neighbours wife was amazed!!

Tonight, we went off to try a Teriyaki place around the corner, unfortunately it has obviously changed hands and was empty, so we decided to walk back to Sushi Jin, where we have been before. Once again it was very good, although eating the fish head was a little too adventurous for me! However, I have to tell you about the couple that were sitting just over my right shoulder. I noticed they weren't really talking when we arrived, but they didn't actually mutter a word between them the whole meal. They were sitting in a booth at far opposite sides and not looking at each other, let alone talking. Stu and I decided that he had told her he was having an affair when they got to dinner! It is amazing what you can come up with, I just cant imagine what their journey home was like in the car!!

I passed!

Yesterday was the day of my Texas driving test. Another frustrating but interesting day. I turned up at 6:30am because Em had told me the car park filled up quickly and the queue would be enormous. However there were only about 30 people in the queue by the time that the test centre opened. While we were waiting outside we were entertained by people practising their parallel parking, with one driver reverse parking into the space instead of parallel parking. The first hurdle was a women who asked what we were there for and what documents that we had. My passport and visa were fine, but I was told that I needed a recent letter from Ems employer. Nowhere on the website did it say that I needed that. So I had to drive home and ask if Em could organise a letter quickly so I could try again. After a couple of hours, I picked up the letter from Ems work and headed back to the test centre with dread that the queue would now be enormous. I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of a queue. The best quote of today was when I was filling my application, I overheard a man from Louisiana saying to the women at the front desk, "This ain't our first rodeo" when he was being told what to do by her. After the form filling, I stood in another queue to check all my documents and pay before sitting at a computer for the first of the test. You can skip questions and come back to them later and I felt a little cheated that I had skipped a few and the computer had ended my test saying I had passed at 91%. I'm sure if it had let me go back I could have improved on that :) More queuing. The next available driving test was at 2:30 so I decided to come back rather than wait. The driving test went really quickly and I didn't have to do an emergency stop or reverse, so Em felt hard done by. Anyway I am now a proper Texan with my driving license. In the evening we went to the Gingerman pub in Rice to celebrate with a few beers.

Practice makes perfect

Sorry Campers! I, we, have been tardy in writing the blog. Since Stuart's last posting chores you will be happy to hear I am fine again, I only had a headache from hell from starring at seismic all day! Relaxing on the sofa and an early night meant I was right as rain the next day. However, I have used it to my benefit and excused myself from gym going for two days :) Last night Stu and I went for a walk along the Bayou before sunset, (and revenge of the mosquitoes), which although a little humid was quite pleasant.

Stuart has been very busy around the house, even though this is a rental there still seem to be things to do. He had a very sweaty day cleaning all the gutters and the flat roof over our sit-oot-ery. Now we have a ladder and some implements it is far easier than me with my wee steps and the handle of a rubbish broom! He also washed down the back of the house that seemed to be getting dirty with every rain shower. The house is covered with panelling that looks wood effect so very easy to clean with the scrubbing brush. The reason I know he was sweaty? Well, he showed me his shirt he was wearing and it was dripping - eeeew! That went straight into the washing machine.

We are due for another cold front this weekend but hopefully not as much rain as last weekend. I am hoping we can go for another long cycle in preparation for Austin the following weekend - which reminds me I haven't pursued you all for sponsorship as we both got our letter saying if we didn't raise $250 each then we couldn't take part! So once again here is the link to our fundraising page (it does work for the UK my Dad has tested it!!).

I am not sure whether I told you about my fly (aka zipper) experience the other day in the gym. Well, it decided to stop working just before I had my trainer and I ran around the gym asking all the staff for a safety pin, and succeeded. Well this evening wearing another pair of shorts, because I still need to get the other ones fixed, I realised, only when getting undressed after my hour session with the trainer, than they have ripped just below the flies! I hope he didn't get to spot my underwear - I will have to mend it. What is the reason for my shorts falling apart? Oh yes, I haven't said it for a while, but it is the evil washing machine, and that is with my clothes in laundry bags!!!

For the last two nights Stuart has been studying hard for his driving test. He has to get it by the end of next week because the insurance company wants the number within 30 days of taking out the car insurance! Obviously they have not done this themselves as the process is long winded with getting his social security before getting his licence! Anyhow he has been taking example online tests for the written part of the exam and then this evening we went to practice parallel parking. Both of us can do it back home but the first time you do it while driving on the other side of the road it feels really odd. Well on the way to the test centre, after the gym, I was following Stu and realised one of his lights was out. Because he needs to be at the test centre very early tomorrow to beat the crowds, he is going to have to do the test in my car. There were many other people practicing this evening between the poles, if you remember from when I sat mine back in June. As I said back then, it is great sport watching people making a complete mess of parallel parking! Stu did it easily, so I captured him after the event standing by the car! He drove my car home to get used to it, but not before I took him on the driving test circuit so he had an advantage for tomorrow.

Fingers crossed he manages to get it done, because I am quite sure there is going to be some documentation that he does has to satisfy them but we can only try. I'm certain he will pass with flying colours.

Oh and on a final note we finally managed to transfer money between our bank accounts, but not easily and with a $25 charge - which we are going to claim back for all our troubles!

Chores

The hot weather came back again today, but along with the rain. I took the rest of the packing boxes to the recycling centre again along with some damp boxes from the garage left over from Emily's container. There is now a strange 'fusty' smell in the car. A few more chores and then I ended up on Westheimer near the Phoenician Market which I have been planning to visit for a while. It is a speciality supermarket with foods mainly from the Mediterranean and the middle east. There was a huge selection of olive oil and got a large tin to fill our Demijohn tin.
Em isn't feeling too good tonight and is lying on the sofa.

Haar in Houston

Oh Monday's! I never want to get up on a Monday morning but a lass I pulled myself from the comfortable bed. I had the weirdest dream that I was taking part in a play (Shakespeare) and I hadn't learnt my lines - my character was called Roccanti (or something like that) and I was dressed as a soldier!! Maybe it was the result of what I had eaten the night before!

It looked just like Aberdeen haar this morning, the 13th floor was in the clouds! The clouds then cleared away for a mixed day of sunshine and rain, and with that the humidity has increased.

It was Columbus Day today. We didn't get it off, but apparently the schools were off. It also meant we didn't get any post. Our next holiday is not until 11th November - Veterans Day.

I think I will be feeling the effects of my trainer tomorrow - we did a lot of the step machine and he had me doing a sort of kite surfing manoeuvre on one of the weights machine, which was very hard on my forearms. I don't think I have too many sessions left and between you and me I an looking forward to finishing for a while at least. I have had enough of his nagging about what I eat!!

I see Stuart has just turned on Star Trek to pass the evening!

Packed weekend

Late on Friday night I setup the new bread machine to come on for breakfast with a rye and caraway bread. At about 6:30am it started beeping to let us know that it was half way through its cycle and we could add more ingredients if we wanted. However it was so loud it woke us up and then teased us for the next 2 hours with the smell of cooking bread. When it was ready it was really yummy.

Hot yoga this week was really busy and we had a different teacher. We were pretty tightly packed. Thank god everyone was sweaty as our noses were pretty close to everyone elses feet. The style this week was Hatha yoga and the poses were a bit more energetic.

In the afternoon we took all the packing cardboard boxes to recycling on the way to Ikea. We were only picking up a couple of things, but we exited after 2 hours with sore feet and tired.
We met Laura and Chris at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate Laura's birthday and then went onto an outside bar for a couple of beers. The temperature has dropped to about 18 degrees Celsius and everyone (apart from me) is complaining about the cold, hence the brazer at the pub.

Sunday was spent cycling for 20 miles in the rain, tidying the house and pizza for dinner in front of the TV.

Soggy Squirrel

As you can guess from the name of today's blog it has been a rather wet day. This morning when I left for work it was dry and still a bit humid but this evening we are currently 62F and raining. I am freezing, but Stuart is loving it. It looks like it is going to be like this for the weekend - unfortunately!

This morning Stuart spotted this poor damp squirrel sheltering out of the rain, apparently he was hanging upside down from sometime. He must have got some head rush when he ran back up the tree.

I got a wonderful surprise walking out of the garage this evening to see Stuart has put up all my fairy lights under the veranda/ sit-oot-ery. It looks magical. We need a pool party when the weather improves again.

We are both suffering from a hard session at the gym. Stuart tried the cross country skiing machine - well it is that sort of skating motion and it kills the inside of your legs. I am suffering also :) Tomorrows hot yoga will either puts us back in to shape or make us worse!!

Sofa's

How exciting! The container turned up outside the house at 8am this morning. I got an email from Stuart saying it had arrived but no one to unpack it! About an hour later four men and a lady apparently arrived and emptied the container very quickly - well with a women bossing four men around I guess it was like a military operation! They were all gone by 10:30am and I got another photo of Stuart sitting on the sofa's! My excitement about the sofa's is because all I have had in the living room for five months is a chair and bean bag!

The house is now looking packed - we have so much stuff it is maybe a good thing I got such a large house. We can now sleep at least people with all the beds so I think a party is required sometime soon! Mind you I first need to go and by top sheets for all the new beds as I don't think our guests would appreciate feather duvets! This weekend will be sorting out the house I think!

Stuart has just finished getting his point across, strongly, to Bank of America! They have some really daft rules anyway the guy put the phone down on him in the end. However, Stuart will get his revenge at the bank tomorrow. Maybe they are going to be the new BT for our customer service complaints!!

In addition, to all our nights activities, the sink with the gobbler has now got blocked, so Stuart will have to take apart the pipes tomorrow - eeeuw! I hope they is nothing too foostie stuck down there :)

Chopping wood

Today I had to drop some more documents at the attorneys for my work authorisation. So it is progressing, but could still be up to 3 months. On the way back I went via the freeway just as a thunderstorm opened right above. The visibility went right down, but at least the traffic slowed down to 35mph.

This afternoon I cut up the tree branch that fell from the big oak outside our house during the thunderstorm on Saturday night. It was hotter work than the hot yoga we go to on Saturdays. I've kept the logs to dry out for the fire (not that I think we will ever need it) and hopefully the bin men will take the branches next week.

My container arrives tomorrow morning, so at last we will have sofas. Bliss.

Here is a photo Em captured on her way home tonight. She thought it was a lorry at first, but it wasn't even a truck, but a little flat bed. Once she saw what it was she got out of the way quickly.

It was the Port's fault!

Well as you will have realised we missed another day of the blog, because we were partying until late, again! Last night was the monthly wine dinner I have started going to. I had to cancel my trainer (not telling him the reason of course!) and we went off to the dinner. The group were all excited to meet Stu as I have been keeping them updated on his arrival for the past couple of months.

The dinner is held at the same restaurant each month, Churrasco on Westheimer, but the menu is varied and so is obviously the wine. This month all the wines were from Chile, from a vineyard owned by it present owners for 50 years - so really not that long. They only had the distributor there representing/presenting the wine and he was a man of few words! Sometimes the winery puts a real effort in to describing the wines. The first wine we got, a Sauvignon Blanc, was my favourite and it wasn't even from the winery we were tasting - because they had run out of stock!!! The second wine was a very yellow looking Chardonnay and I kind of new it was not going to be my cup of tea, and it wasn't. Too my exceptionally well refined taste buds I think it had been aged in Sherry barrels!!! Next, we had two reds and finished off with a Port to accompany dessert - not something I would usually drink with a sweet pudding but it actually wasn't too bad. The food was very good as always.

It is sensible, but boring, to go home following the dinner but there was no way I was going to let that happen so we made a move to the usual pub down the road to drink some less posh wine - but too be honest the taste buds don't care by that stage. It must have been midnight when we left - time just flew. Once again my handbag was filled of the mints from the restaurant and the pub - hence the rather strange looking photo. When we arrived home and of course the keys were under all the sweets. Stuart, not very delicately, emptied my bag and contents at the back door! I have taken the supply to work and left them out for the gannets, but it could take them sometime to get through because there are hundreds of them!

As you can imagine this morning was a wee struggle, but I was at work for 0730 as usual. Although I was very jealous leaving Stuart in bed, who continued to snore right up until the time I woke him to say bye! Too much to do at work to sit around feeling sorry for myself so I just grinned and bared the headache, which eventually went away by lunchtime! - I blame the Port :)

Stuart managed to get out and about in the afternoon and went off to the Hong Kong Market in Bellaire - something discussed at dinner. He said Chinese supermarket was huge - it must have been so big that it put him off buying! Also following on from last nights conversation about the fruit, Dorian, yes the smelly one that apparently has flesh that tastes like heaven!, he managed to find it in the freezer section. Fortunately he did not bring it home - yet!!!

To make up for my naughtiness I said to Stu I was off to the gym and did he want to come too. I actually didn't feel like it, and neither did Stu. However, we did it, and I stayed on for Hot Yoga at 7pm. It was a really hard session and I sweated lots, however on the plus side I am managing to touch the ground without bending my legs! I am so amazed watching some of the other girls who can bend in phenomenal ways - maybe one day!

We have just had some of Mum and Dad's favourite dinner - Sushi and it will be off to bed soon!

And the rain keeps falling

We woke this morning to rain. Although rain is not unusual here, it is unusual to have it rain for a prolonged period of time. Since I have been here I have only experienced seriously heavy rain for a relatively short time or just over night. Anyhow, it seemed like it had been raining since we left the party last night until this afternoon. I had to go out in the rain to clear our drain, and got to wear my waterproof jacket for the first time, however it was a little sweaty!

We also woke this morning to find a large branch from the big tree at the front. Stuart dragged it off the road and it is now on the front lawn for us to deal with somehow. If we are really lucky the men who come to pick up the garden rubbish might come and take it away!

We just had to go and deal with all the recycling I had been collecting and after a search on the Internet you would be shocked at how few places there are to recycle glass, paper, cardboard and plastic in one location. In the end we had to go to the Heights, about 10 miles away. It is all done but since it is a special journey I think we will have to collect a large load again to make it worth while and not defeat the purpose by burning too much fuel or gasoline!

Even though the rain had stopped the humidity was up really high, certainly too high to want to walk around in it. So we went to the cinema and saw 'Surrogates', a sci fi movies. It was OK unfortunately the films I wanted to see were on at the wrong times. Stuart saw this sign - it is like 'Catch Phrase' can you work out what it says?!

Just a quiet evening tonight before the week begins again!

Golf

I was driving last night, so no hangover for me this morning :) Later in the morning we went to Hot Yoga again at the gym. Emily was feeling the heat today instead of me and thought it was harder than last week. It is still a good workout and leaves you feeling relaxed and tired at the end.

In the afternoon, I took Ems to a park nearby us and said we were going to play golf. She was very confused as my clubs haven't arrived yet and we didn't take hers. When we got their I then told her we were going to play disc golf. It has the same rules as golf, but played with frisbees. I had bought each of us a driver, mid-range and putter disc. Each of which have different characteristics. Apart from a big slip in the mud for me and mozzie bites for Ems we had good fun and will look at some of the other courses in Houston as most of them are free.



The evening we went to Cecelia (one of Ems work colleagues) and Eric's engagement party at their new house. It was a great mix of people and we chatted for many hours.







I don't know what this is, because it is a little early for Halloween, but it appeared on a front lawn near us today.

Nothing better than a Friday

Corrr!!! I felt sleepy in the morning. I had been up wandering around the house at about 0330, after been woken by lightening first, and then the thunder. The sky was almost day light with each strike of lightening and rain was coming down like cats and dogs .... and sheep for that matter! I like getting up to watch the storm and also to check we have not got a blocked drain in the back. The pool level is only about two inches from over flowing! My normal route to work was blocked due to the rain - I am sure my car could have waded through, but there were obviously others that hadn't make it and so were blocking the road.

Last week has ended with a complete list of tasks completed - well for Stuart. Last Sunday we had decided by the end of the week we needed to pick up the new car, get him a social security number and sort out a bank account. As you know about the first two from the blogs, we went to the same bank as me and got him an account. We had decided a shared account would be good while out here, however, the bank lady, who I have used since the beginning, talked us out of it! For no particular reason, but it does mean what is mine is mine :) So Stuart has just 25 bucks in his account (as all the rest of his money is still in my account:)) Since we did it during my lunch break I rushed back to the office for my chicken sandwich in the office, but to my surprise it was make your own sandwich day, which means there are other cold meats on offer, as well as chicken!!!

I took Stuart the Hobbit Cafe in Midtown. I had been there with Danny and Di many months ago. It is quite a nice bar with food in what looks like a wooden house where you sit out on the veranda. Since Stuart's appetite was finally back after nearly a week of not eating much, we had a burger and shredded carrot. I am sure I said this the last time I went to the Hobbit, but shredded carrot with your burger is far nicer than chips or soggy lettuce and coleslaw! Plus, you can find the car in the dark afterwards! Actually, talking of cars I drove our new one for the first time last night. It feel much sturdier than my thing (less rattly) and it has posh leather seats to get stuck to in the heat! and a seat memory setting not that we have got that 100% sorted out yet.

After dinner at the Hobbit we met Danny at his local - The Harp - an Irish bar just around the corner from his house. It was pretty quiet for a Friday night. The temperature was very pleasant with no humidity making sitting outside on the picnic benches very pleasant. In the bar a couple had a Springer Spaniel, and it looked a bit like Freckles only skinnier. The guy saw me looking at the dog and gestured that I could have a pat! So I did, I cant resist saying hello to nice looking doggies. I said my family has spaniels and he said where are you from, I said Scotland and he said he had lived in Aberdeen! Oh, I said, that is where we have come from. He said why are you in Houston - work! He said that is why he was in Aberdeen - so guess he worked in the oil industry!!!

I forgot to say my mini lemon and poppy seed muffins went down well for the morning breakfast along with the bread and cheese, always a winner.

We have had notice of the imminent arrival of the container so not long before we have sofas and a kitchen table, plus many other things I have been missing. If it doesn't take too long to clear customs, I expect we should have it delivered towards the end of next week. I should think the minimalistic house will start to look full!

Standing in line

Got up early this morning to get in line early at the Social Security offices to apply for my number which you need for everything here. The queue wasn't too long and it wasn't long before my number was called. However the women then told me that she needed to see our wedding certificate. Nowhere on the application did it say I needed this. So off I went home again, a good half an hours drive and then came back. This time I had to sit over 2 hours to be seen. I did have a good chat with an American man who was in to get a copy of his work history. We chatted about Mexican food and his time in the navy. I should now get my Social Security number in a couple of weeks.

Danny at Emily's work told me where I could by at 220v step-up transformer, since I will need it for my PCs, etc. The place is in 'Little India' a quite large area of Indian business and I saw some other places to try for curry.

On the way back home I stopped off for an ice-cream since I hadn't eaten yet today and am still don't have an appetite. I bought two and surprised Em at her work with one.
Since I'm still not a 100%, Em has had to make the food for her department's Friday breakfast. She made Lemon and Poppy seed muffins.