A sticky subject

Janice sent me these pictures of her cacti garden in their courtyard in San Antonio. They have such mild weather almost anything grow there!

A Real Treat!

Do you remember your first real piece of jewelry or your first bottle of real perfume? I do! In the early 70s, my oldest brother Tim was in Marine boot camp in Quantico, Virginia. He sent each of his three sisters a necklace and (probably the next year) a bottle of perfume. The perfume I got was L'Air du Temps by Nina Ricci. I bought a bottle of this yesterday, just for old time's sake. It smells so good.
The necklace pictured is the one that I received. I don't remember if we got to chose which one we wanted or if they were marked. I may have chosen this because I liked the color, but it is Janice's birthstone.

Thanks Tim for thinking of your little sisters, all those years ago!

Sunday Scribblings.

If you like to write or read creative writing, check out this blog. Once a week, there is a word given and everyone writes a poem, a paragraph, or a story using that word as a topic. Sunday Scribblings

Ouch!

Here are a few pictures of the Terrible's 250 in Primm, Nevada this weekend. Pictured is Adam Lunn's buggy. He built it himself!

Ryan and Jared were in his pit crew. Unfortunately, he lost oil pressure and had to forfeit the race after 50 miles to prevent his engine from blowing up.

The guys got home around noon today (long road trip of 17 hours). They had lots of fun and it was good PR for Rock and Roll Offroad. If you are interested in seeing pictures of more buggies from the race, the pictures shown here were taken from this site.

The Last Lecture

I just finished reading this book last night. Many of you are already familiar with Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor who is fighting a battle with terminal cancer. The Last Lecture can be seen on this site or you can read about the book. It features Randy's insights on how to live the remainder of your life, no matter what time you have left.

Life is fragile and we do not know our expiration date. How would you live, if you only had a few months left? Randy decided to spend his time living, instead of getting ready to die.

I feel vindicated

For years, I have been telling my doctors that one of my allergy medications causes insomnia. The doctors, my allergist and my internist told me that Singulair is best if taken at night. When I told them that I discovered that was the cause of my insomnia, they told me that insomnia was not a side effect of Singulair. My internist even told me that he takes Singulair and he didn't sleep well, but he thought that was probably a side effect of his job, not the medicine. I told him that he should discontinue the Singulair for two weeks and see if he sleeps better!

Now the FDA has issued a warning. Not only does Singulair now have a listed side effect of insomnia, but also of suicide.... But if you go very long without sleeping, you DO feel suicidal, don't you! When my allergies get bad, I now have a prescription for the child chewables of Singulair. I still have to be careful and take it early in the day.

So there Merck and doctors! Listen to your patients!

Read all about it!

The Rock and Roll Offroad Baja racing team made the newspaper. You can read all about it here. Best of luck guys!

Out with the old and in with the new!

The rock fireplace is getting a face lift at Kara's house. (They should have the closing this week or next)

Joey stripped the wall of the rocks and he saved me some of the rocks for stepping stones.

Kara is thinking about putting tile on the whole front of the fireplace for a contemporary look. I think she should do a more traditional look but still with some contemporary feel, with a smaller tile or marble outline to define the wood burning area. She is also concerned about what would be more likely to help with the resale value, not just her own taste. What do you think she should do? I know it is her house and she will do as she pleases, but what would you do? Vote in the poll and let us know.

Disclaimer: If she is anything like her Dad, she will not pay the least bit of attention to the result of this poll and she will do her own design.

Terrible's 250 Race

Ryan, Jared and Adam are headed to the 'Terribles 250' race in Primm, Nevada near Las Vegas. Adam will be racing the buggy that he made. They also have a photo shoot with 8-Lug Diesel Truck magazine. They are excited about the publicity that this will bring to their shop, Rock and Roll Offroad.

Ryan said he plans to be Adam's co-pilot for a few races, so say a few prayers for their safety on the road and on the track.

Sucessful shopping trip

Just got home from our shopping trip to the Dallas area. We stayed at the Nylo hotel. Their rooms are like New York Lofts, hence the name. The rooms we stayed in were long and narrow with concrete floors, walls, and ceilings. We would have enjoyed our stay more but our room was above the courtyard bar on the fourth floor and it was very noisy until after midnight.

We did, however, shop til we dropped and as the saying goes, 'that doesn't take as long as it used to'. The loaded trunk pictured is evident of that.

Saturday night we met up with Janice, Kenny and Julie who were in Arlington for an Esthetics and Spa Conference for Julie. We met at Uncle Julio's Mexican Restaurant and had a nice visit.

Great getaway, but it is always so good to get home!

In her spare time.....

Valerie has started selling Mary Kay Cosmetics. When she finds the time in between her full time job and her photography business is beyond me. If you like their stuff and need anything, check out her webpage.

~ ~ ~ In spite of public opinion ~ ~ ~

Mike says he is 'in heaven' since he picked up his new Harley today. Now he is making room for it in the garage. It is a 2004 Dyna SuperGlide Harley made into a low rider. (I don't know when he will have time to ride it since he will be remodeling Princess' house. )

Retro pink

Mara asked Kara to keep the hall bath pink 'for old times sake'. Since that probably won't be happening, here is a picture of how it looks now. We have been at Lowes checking out flooring, shades, carpet, faucets, etc.

Any one planning to show up for the family work day?

Mara and Nik

I stole this picture off of Mara's blog. I thought it was so cute of Nik in his 'American cap' and a great picture of Mara. Her caption to the picture says the 'monasteries behind are Varlaam and Great Meteora'. What great scenery for pictures. It sure beats the barren scenery of North Texas.

So happy to see that Nik is thriving since his surgery.