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.