7/30 - Say cheese, Z!

Grandmother and Aunt Patty hanker for a hunka cheese.  Everything's bigger in Texas, right?

Z tried to chat up an old bird, but Rooster was not impressed with the antics of today's youth.

He took an armadillo ride while I packed for the airport. Giddy up!  We are on our way home.

Z wonders if we'll go by steampunk spaceship.  We saw this contraption at the Austin airport. Cool, right?  I'll call from my layover in PHX. Love you!

We liked the airplane carpet at PHX.  Snazzy!

There was a "meltdown on the luggage carousel" at OAK, but we eventually got my suitcase back and are now home again, home again, jiggity jog.

7/29 - Z and I say Zzzzzzzzzzzz

We had lunch with Toody (aka Mildred) today.  She says, "Hola!"

Later, we got a few sundries at Big Lots.  Beware the tiki!  (Don't worry -- Z was OK. It was a supervised mauling.)

Martha stopped by to check out Grandmother's new digs and really liked the new place.  She helped us find the guest towels and made a big dent in the living room boxes.  AND she has the same name as our favorite talking dog.

Here's Z hanging out in the Lamp Ghetto.

Ironically, Grandmother hates this little DIY bar, but I tricked it out with her knick-knacks anyway.

I'm declaring victory on the living room.

Dining room is soooo close.  All that's left are the hall closet and Grandmother's room.  (I consider the garage out of scope.)  I will also take full credit for making her computer almost fast enough to be considered contemporary.  And now, at 2am Austin time, I'm going to keel over.  Goodnight, moon.

7/28 - Z gets domestic goddess lessons

Aunt Patty stopped by with ridiculous amounts of food (thank you!) and some presents for the twins. 

Z got some housekeeping lessons from Grandmother's resident Domestic Goddess while we continued unpacking.  My goal was to get the kitchen done today, Texas heat be gol-darned.  (Tip: Avoid crawling into kitchen cabinets to clean and line them, if at all possible.)

Here is a shot of some of our unpacked boxes.  Normally, I would have tallied the sheets of paper we unwrapped from Grandmother's treasures and smoothed and refolded for giveaway, but let's just agree to call it "a lot."  OK?

I am calling victory on the kitchen.  We have 90% of it put away and have multiple clear surface areas.  This is better than my house any day...

5/04 - Breakfast time for Sadie

Sadie (formerly known as Zebra or Little Z) loooooves the granola we made last weekend.  She's used to eating oats and grains, but all that dried fruit in there made her do some kicks!

We took Rosemary out for a belated dinner at Souley Vegan.  Stunningly good.  Then we had a drink in what is now my all-time favorite bar ever (not pictured).  All in all, a most excellent night.

12/27 - Little Z thinks cleanliness smells like red velvet cupcakes

Wonderful Wanda left me some holiday goodies that included this hand sanitizer gel.  It really does smell like red cupcakes!  (I think -- my nose is still stuffed up!)

This is the alley on the way to/from the Japanese restaurant.  We're having vegetable donburi and seaweed salad for lunch.

11/23 - Zebra sees someone that says "Ho ho ho!"

Zebra found a stripey-tailed friend in the window of the art store.  We waved hello, and then went in to work.

Guess who we saw at the food court today?  I guess even Santa gets hungry.  He left in a black limo driven by an elf in a Santa hat!

3/24 - Zebra stripes are everywhere

Zebra was so happy I didn't forget him this morning!  We saw a striped trash can on the way into work, with up and down stripes.

Adelina was wearing her zebra dress today!  What luck!

At the food court, we found stripey trees, if you please!

3/19 - Mommy forgot the toy!

Somehow, Zebra did not make it into Mommy's pocket this morning!  Mommy is sorry.

[Not for kids:  Mommy also almost got hit by 2 cars on the way into work and then decided to have cookies for breakfast.]









Mommy saw a nice palm tree at lunch.  The weather was so nice, she did not want to go back to work.  Or stop talking about herself in the third person like a weird reality show person.

11/18 - Z and me

Today, Z(ebra) and I had a very big day -- 6 meetings and a party!  Here he is helping Liz take notes and appreciate the view from the conference room.

 

 

Later, I got a little smooch (awww) and measured Z up to make sure he was big enough to go to an arcade with me.

Fun was had by all, and the twins were thrilled with the Mardi Gras beads Z brought back for them.