My Favorite Picture of Ellie

Ellie asked that I post this. It's my favorite picture of her.

My Child Has A Mohawk

Need I say more?

New Years, New Jeans

For Christmas, Cait got us a gift card to Texas de Brazile. For those of you that have never been there, or anywhere like it, you really should go. It's not like any restaurant I've ever been to. Once a year is enough, due to both the food and the cost. They have the most incredible "salad bar". It has heart of palm, artichoke hearts, cheeses from all over the world, roasted peppers, fresh asparagus, olives, goat cheese, mozzarella balls and the list goes on. You first serve yourself at this bar and then when you return to your table, you have a little disc that you flip. Green is for "bring on the meat", red is for "hold up on the meat, I'm about to explode". They have eight different meats each night; lamb, garlic sirloin, parmensan crusted chicken, filet mignon, Brazilian sirloin, etc. These gauchos go around with the meats on a skewer and cut it for you at your table. They serve garlic potatoes at the table and marinated bananas to cleanse your palet (spelled?). Oh, and they also have lobster bisque on the salad bar. When I made the reservation, I requested to be seated downstairs, due to Saxon's knees and upcoming knee replacement. Upon arrival, we were told that there was seating available upstairs and they do have an elevator. Sounded good. Last time we went, there was a salad bar both upstairs and down. This time, only downstairs....
We were seated and sent the boys ahead to peruse the salad bar. When they returned, we took the stairs down to the salad bar. All was going well, I selected my wonderful assortment of goodies and was on my way to the stairs when I remembered the lobster bisque. I made the comment that I was not looking forward to going back up three flights of stairs with food in each hand. Little did I know.... I got my bisque and proceeded up the first flight. About the second step, I felt the back of my pants begin to slip (I somehow have managed to lose 30 pounds and apparently the jeans didn't shrink). Get a mental image here. By the fourth or fifth step, I felt them down around "see level". There I am, a bowl of bisque in one hand, a plate of food in the other and my pants precariously slipping down. I'm thinking that if I don't do something quickly, they will be around my ankles. This is bad enough, but I can also feel that my underwear are slipping with them. What to do, what to do! I stop on the landing, keeping my legs together, hoping that will keep my britches up. I cannot go any further if I want to maintain any semblance of modesty. I cannot bend over to set either plate or bowl down, the pants would surely hit bottom. The stair railing is wrapped in festive garland. I turn and look for my friend that was supposed to be behind me. She is nowhere to be seen. There is a man seated on the lower level, eyeing me. I'm hoping that he's not fixin' to see more than he ever wanted to. I manage to get my bowl of bisque settled into the garland, pulling my pants up all the way around, with one hand. Ok, I can do this. Up the second flight I go. Oh no, there go the pants again. I feel that they are becoming looser with each step. Again I make it to the landing, again my pants are at "see level". This goes on for all three flights. By the time I get to the top, I am about mortified and my underwear have pretty much fallen as far off as they possibly can. So, the picture that you see above is the "before" picture. I totally forgot to take pictures at dinner and I damn sure wasn't going to take any "after" pictures. And the man seated at the bottom of the stairs, probably scarred for life....

Introducing Liberti

So Sax comes in from the fire station last weekend. Cait had not told him about the latest addition. She figured that once he saw this tiny girl, he couldn't say no! I guess we looked guilty cuz he says "why is there another dog in this house"? We tried to look innocent, guess it didn't work. He got mad and went out to check the pool. Cait got Liberti and took off after him, to try and convince him that YES, we do need six dogs! A little later I looked out and they were sitting by the pool, Liberti all wrapped up in daddy's jacket. When they finally came in the house, she was in his pocket. I'm guessing that means that she's staying. She is a mini doxie, her mom is a slick hair and dad is a wire hair. She has the thickest chocolate coat and under her neck, has teeny tiny little white long hairs starting to come in. She is soooo cute! And besides, we've never had a chocolate weinie dog!

Koby in Kuwait

Koby (Cait's boyfriend) has landed safely in Kuwait. We're getting to see a lot of very interesting pictures. The other night, they slept outside with a herd of camels. This is a picture of him on the Humvee that he rides in; the local Taco Bell; the great Texas flag on the convoy and last but not least, what he refers to as his "sexy pose".

Heeelllllp

Does anyone (excluding Elle), know how to change my blog back to just a basic background. It was changed to this lovely(?) purple argyle, (by Elle). Purple is just not my color. In changing it from basic blog colors, someone (Elle) lost my entire sidebar and it was a real itch to get it back together. So basically, I'm looking for someone to log in and and fix me (not you, Elle). I love the LeeLou blogs but I need something I'm capable of doing (unlike Elle). Some people (Elle) can make theirs look very cute, but mine seems to suffer.

What a Puss!

Today at lunch, Donna and I went to the library. As we were walking in, she noticed the prettiest little bug. He was about an inch long, a very vibrant orange, and fuzzy. Doesn't everyone want to pick up a fuzzy caterpillar? They're just so cute. So there we are, both of us bent over with our butts in the air. I had a piece of paper and was trying to pick it up. Puss was having none of that. He didn't like my paper. I reached down to push him, but Donna thought maybe we shouldn't touch him.

This is what her in depth research found: The best known flannel moth and stinging caterpillar in Texas is the puss moth caterpillar, Megalopyge opercularis, commonly called an "asp". This is one of the most toxic caterpillars in North America.

Puss moth caterpillars are teardrop-shaped, and, with their long, silky hairs, resemble a tuft of cotton or fur. Their color varies from yellow or gray to reddish-brown, or a mixture of colors.

Puss moth caterpillars can pose a genuine health hazard. Intense, throbbing pain develops immediately or within five minutes of contact with the caterpillar. Symptoms can include headaches, nausea, vomiting, intense abdominal distress, lymphadenopathy, lymphadenitis, and sometimes shock or respiratory stress. For severe pain, morphine is suggested.

I'm thinking, if we'd've touched him, maybe we wouldn't've had to go back to work....