marsphoenix

i've been following one of the mar's rovers for the last couple of months on twitter. it appears phoenix is finally shutting down. i feel a little sad. its just a robot on mars 35 million miles away. rest well little robot- your twitter updates will be missed.

lyle

well- we all knew it would happen. lyle left us a couple of weeks ago. she was spotted in australia livin' large. click here

halloween!!!!

this is why daisy doesn't trust me.

spider update

so, i named the spider, lyle. he's kind of scary looking but ultimately good for something. i've been turning on the backyard light for a couple of hours to help him catch some bugs in his web. he currently has 2 wrapped up bugs. i saw him munching on one this morning when i woke up. he's been working on his web- its about twice this size it was thursday morning. when chris gets home this evening, i'll take some more pix and post them. (chris has the camera- that is why i have to wait for him to get home.)

ike update from mom

i got an email from my mom- as of 5pm today they have electricity.

ike update from mom

still no electricity.

spider

this is not a halloween decoration. this is on our bedroom door. i think i will be sleeping in the guest bedroom until chris gets home.

ike update from mom

they are still without electricity.

debate night at the alamo

debate night- live at the alamo drafthouse south lamar. i wonder if this will go on or not? i kind of want to go. i wish chris wasn't out of town. am i lame if i go by myself?

lego taj mahal

this reminds me that sometimes legos are more for adults than kids.

ike update from aunt

i got an email from my aunt yesterday with some pix of her house in galveston. looks like it will be okay! there is no damage on the outside. there was water in the basement area that might have affected her duct work. we thought there might have been some roof damage after looking at some aerial photography but there isn't any. she doesn't know if the water rose enough to get into the first floor. her house is built up a few feet so if there was water, maybe a foot or less or none at all. i know she was relieved to see pix.

on another note, i read on a friend's blog that hisd (houston school district) is suspended indefinitely. that sounds so weird!

ike update from mom

i talked to mom this morning for the morning ike update. i think my parents are doing ok. sounds like they are hanging out with the neighbors a little more. since they have a generator my mom has been washing clothes and hanging them out to dry. she is guessing they will have power by the beginning of next week. i can imagine it does get a little boring- especially at night. even though they had to wait about 30 minutes to get gas, they were able to fill up my dad's car and extra cans of gas for the generator. the grocery stores are open and so are most restaurants. things are slowly getting back to normal. i got a voicemail from my aunt. she sounded really tired and frustrated. we think her house in galveston sustained some wind damage to the roof but was spared from first floor flooding. she has not been able to see it for herself and i know that is wearing her down. fortunately the weather has been really nice since the storm so i think that is helping to keep people calm. our a/c has been off for the whole week! it has been nice sleeping with the windows open. i know this won't last forever though- i'm sure that next week we will have temps close to 100. i will enjoy it while we have it!

ike update

my brother emailed me an aerial photo of galveston that was taken either sattrday or sunday. looks like my aunt's house will be okay after some repairs are made. there appears to be some shingles that are blown off and i'm sure there was some flooding. the house still stands, even though the 2 houses catty-corner on the next block burned. across the street from those burned houses is where a house burned down during rita. i would stay away from that corner during all storms!! it is an evil corner ruled by the fires of satan himself.

video from helicopter in galveston

houston population

wow- i got kind of curious about the population of the houston metro area. if houston was a state, it would be the 23rd most populous state.

houston
states

ike update from dad #2

dad called this morning about 9am to say they made it through the night just fine. they had to wake up about 2:30am to fill up the generator. they didn't have to add too much gas this morning so he was feeling hopeful about the gas consumption. he also said that they had some thunderstorms roll through because of a cool front. he said the weather was cooler this morning and drier and that will make a big difference. my sister's family was able to go to a friend's house that already has power restored. still no word on my aunt's house in galveston. i saw a quick shot of st mary's church on the news. this church is a couple of blocks away from her house. the water appeared to be ankle deep at the street level. i have a feeling that maybe her house was spared from the water but we have no idea about any wind damage.

ike update from dad

just got off the phone with my dad. the connection wasn't very good- he dropped out 3 or 4 times. the local fire dept came by to clear the pine tree and street light of out of the road and also got their driveway mostly clear. he said my aunt is doing fine at the houston apartment but still doesn't know anything about her house in galveston.

Hurricane Ike Weatherman Blown Away

i kind of laughed a little when this happened.

Geraldo Rivera gets Ho slapped by Hurricane Ike

this never gets old, although, i can't get the image of geraldo taking a lickin' out of my head. gross!

The Weather Channel, Streaker in Background During Ike

omg! this cracks me up! i love bad storms and rednecks!

12 of 12

just posted my 12 of 12 pix for september. hmmm. . . i wonder what the top story is?

houston

yet another reason why i will never move back to houston.

ike

hey mom and dad, i just the path of ike. i'll go clean up the guest bedroom. . .

red vs blue

to me, this is the difference between republican and democrat this time around.

post vacation blues

this past week at work was long even though it was only a 4 day week. i had the post vacation blues. on wednesday we went to stubb's bbq to see the toadies play. i love that band. i had a great time and drank just 1 beer too many. i went into work 2 hours late on thursday. even though i didn't feel all that bad the day still felt long. even though it is still really hot here i am making the transition from summer to fall. we could still go swimming if we wanted to but football is starting up, i'm starting to think about halloween, what to do in the yard, how to finish up some home projects. i went geocaching on saturday. it was pretty hot but i'm ready to start finding some caches again. i logged 2 finds- not very impressive but i went to a park i had never been to before.

i'm looking forward to checking out the rockin' 354 democratic family picnic at our neighborhood park. i'm taking the camera so i will post some pix later. our local democratic representives will be on hand to field any questions we might have. there will be live music and food. i like the democrats because they know how to have a throwdown. in the end, that's all that really matters anyway. right?

vacation- the day after

all the laundry is clean. the house is clean. we are all unpacked. all the pics are uploaded. the blog caught up.

i guess it is time to go to the grocery store. :(

vacation day 9

today we woke up at 7am. we had just enough time to take a shower, get dressed, drink a cup of coffee and say goodbye. i was sad to leave but i am also ready to get back home. we dropped off the rental car, got into the airport, got our bags checked, went through security and then we were in the air. after a quick layover in phoenix, we landed in austin about 3:45pm (central time). we grabbed our bags and got to the car. it started up with no problem! last time we went somewhere and left the car at the airport, the battery died. it rained a little on the drive home. jessica and taylor brought daisy over so she was there when we got home. i was so happy to see her! i think she was happy to see us. chris always does a great job of getting us unpacked. we actually managed to get all the clothes washed and dried! we went through all of our junk mail and paid some bills.

this was a fun vacation. we got to do a little bit of everything. even though there were some stressful times (chris losing his ring, getting lost in salt lake city. . .) we had lots of time to relax and enjoy the scenery. we had a lot of fun hanging out with will and katie. (will is chris's cousin). i got to see a whole section of the country i had never seen before. chris got to visit some of his childhood. all in all, we had great time.

vacation day 8 pix

harry's little feet

vacation day 8

alright- this is the last full day of vacation.

we all slept in until about 9am. it was tough sharing one bathroom for 4 adults and a baby but we all managed to get showered and dressed and packed up by 11am. we checked out of the cottage and hit the road.

will and katie followed us to promontory, utah to the golden spike national park. this was where the final railroad spike was driven into the ground that connected the first railway from the eastern half of the u.s. to the western half. wow- it is out in the middle of nowhere!!! the only other thing around there was a top secret looking rocket test range. golden spike n.p. has a smallish vistor's center. outside of the building is the original track with 2 replica train engines. there are a handful of actors dressed in costume that re-enact all the speeches and the ceremony of driving in the last spike. i thought they did a pretty good job. i really did try to imagine what a big deal this was back in 1869. this railroad allowed people to cross the u.s. in 2 weeks. now it only take a few hours by air travel! or, nanoseconds by email! we were at the park for a couple of hours. i picked up a benchmark pin and smooshed a penny.

we got back on the road and stopped in ogden to eat. we made another stop in kaysville at katie's parent's house. we watched the rest of the utah/ michigan game and picked up the dog. another 30 minute drive and we were back at will and katie's house in salt lake city. we didn't do too much- we just hung out and chatted. chris and i knew we had to get up early to get to the airport so we really just wanted to relax.

vacation day 7 pix

view from our hotel room. i thought the screen effect looked pretty cool.

sometimes you really can't ever go home again.

jackson hole valley behind chris

view of the teton mountains from idaho

teton dam break museum

vacation day 7

we slept in this morning since we stayed up late doing laundry and watching tv and repacking. we had our last michael phelps breakfast. i think we piled the food on a little more this morning because we know we won't have it this good for a looooong time! we got checked out of the hotel, loaded up the car and got on the road.

we made a quick stop in wilson, wyoming. this is where chris lived in 6th and 7th grade. it looked the house he lived in has been recently demo'ed to make way for new construction. chris was shocked at the number of new houses he saw. the garage where he lived was still there. the elementary school that tony went to is in the process of being converted into a community center/ city building. the general store was still there but was no longer the general store.

after a quick pass through wilson, we wound our way up the mountain pass. we pulled over and stopped at the scenic overlook and took some pictures of the jackson hole valley. i never get tired of looking at it! from there we drove into idaho. we got to see the teton mountain range from the other side. still beautiful! we drove through several idaho towns and stopped in rexburg. i swear, napolean dynamite was filmed there. i looked it up when we got home and it wasn't but it looks just like the movie. anyhoo- we stopped in rexburg because that is where chris was born. we went through the rexburg museum. the main feature was the teton dam break in 1976. chris doesn't remember it but he had relatives that were affected and also helped with the cleanup. from rexburg we drove on to lava hot springs. well, we did make a stop in pocatello. hmmmm. .. i know there are a lot of trashy towns in texas but pocatello is about has bad as it gets. i will leave it at that.

we met up with will and katie at our little cottage in lava hot springs. we unloaded the car, changed into swim suits and hit the town. by hitting the town, that means we drove down the street to the tube rental place. chris, will and i tubed down the portneuf river. i was expecting a lazy river ride. this had rapids and waterfalls! we were having a great time until chris flipped over backwards, scraped his back and lost his wedding ring. his back was mostly okay but he was pretty mad and upset about losing his ring. we tried to find it but the current was too strong. that put a real damper on things. we got out of the river. will got the car and we drove the tubes back to the rental place and met up with katie at the pool. the pool was fun. chris and will had fun on the water slides and will jumped off one of the platform diving boards. we left around 7pm and went back to the cottage to change into clothes. we walked down the street and grabbed some burgers and some misc items at the grocery store. we went back to the cottage and hung out in courtyard next to the little fire pit. we made s'mores and talked and looked up at the milky way until we ran out of fire wood.

there really aren't any pix of lava hot springs because most of what we did was in or near water. also, chris was really, really bummed out after he lost his ring. he tried to have a good time but i know deep down he was feeling bad.

vacation day 6 pix con't

pika!

hidden waterfalls

this was the highpoint of our hike!

we cheated and took the ferry back to the visitor's center.

vacation day 6 pix

first catch of the day

my little fish

chris is such the fishing stud!

snake river scenery

chris and me at jenny lake

vacation day 6

believe it or not, we still have 3 more days to go!

today we woke up super early and went fly fishing on the snake river. we met our guide in the hotel lobby and walked over to the rec store to get our single day wyoming fishing license. after that our guide drove us through jackson to an entry point on the snake river. he launched the boat and we were off. it was still pretty cold (in the 30's) but it actually felt pretty good as long as were in the sun. cpt johnny miller gave us about an hour of instruction and were off! chris caught an 18" cutthroat in no time at all! there was a lot of drag time and then he caught a 19" cutthroat. i caught some really little ones and we caught 2 at the same time! that was pretty exciting! we called it a day about noon and the guide drove us back to the hotel. chris and i cleaned up a little, packed our backpacks and headed out for teton n.p. we went to the jenny lake center for some provisions and took off for a hike in the woods. it wasn't so bad until we hit the mountain slope. we hiked and hiked and hiked and finally made it to inpiration point. it was very exhilarating but also very tiring. our original plan was to hike around the entire lake. we made it about half way and opted to take the ferry boat back. the hike was right around 5 miles and took about 3 hours. we drove back to the hotel, took showers and went out for dinner. we went to pica's- a mexican food place that the fishing guide recommended. it was okay. i think more than anything we are just really tired.

since we got back from dinner i have been doing laundry and working on this blog. tomorrow we will check out of the hotel and hit the road for idaho. we will be driving through rexburg to see where chris was born. that will take us through idaho falls and chris also promised that we would go to the sand dunes that were featured in napolean dynamite. we will meet up with will and katie in lava hot springs for some fun in the sun and water.

vacation day 5 pix con't

we have some video but it needs a little editing.

gunfight in jackson square! but there was also dancing and singing.

the sun set just before the rodeo started so i didn't many pix.

vaction day 5 pix

chris is taking a pic of me when i take a pic of him!

it was cold and windy! approx elev. is 9500 feet.

riding the lift for the alpine slide.

vaction day 5

today we rode horses, took the gondola up the mountain, went into town for the alpine slide at snow king resort, shopped around in jackson and bought hoodies, watched the gunfight in the town square and topped it off with a trip to the rodeo. the only thing of note is that the girl chris had a major crush on in middle school was riding in the rodeo. the love was unrequited so he didn't want to say anything to her.

vacation day 4 pix con't

bmonkey at old faithful

seriously, we walked for like 500 hours just to get this pic.

sunset over the tetons.

vacation day 4 pix

chris at jackson lake lodge, grand teton national park

we finally got to use our little flexible tripod at lewis falls!

yes, i am a geography nerd.

chris is using his mind powers to bend this spoon.

vacation day 4

we kind of slept in this morning. we had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. it was actually very good and like most buffet meals, it turned into the michael phelps breakfast. we decided that today would be the day to drive through teton and yellowstone national parks.

i have been looking at the map for teton n.p. for the whole summer. i had it tacked up on my office wall. what i thought was a highway running through the park is a two lane road that is dirt at some points and has a max speed of 35 mph. we made a few stops going through the park. mostly it is a lot of spectacular views of the mountains- it never gets old though. we stopped at jackson lake visitor center and colter bay visitor center. the lobby at the jackson lake stop had a great view of the mountains from its floor to sky sized windows. the colter bay center has a museum area dedicated to the arts and crafts of native americans. i was most impressed with the bead work pieces they made. we couldn't take pictures but i doubt they would ever show the true detail of the beads- it really is something you have to see for yourself.

we got back on the road and headed up to yellowstone. we made a lot more stops. we got out and walked up a path to see some waterfalls. i got so winded walking uphill. i guess a difference of 7500 feet in elevation can make a difference on my cardio-pulmonary system! we finally made our way to where old faithful is located. the area is under construction for a new visitor center but it was all still very impressive. we ate at the cafeteria there- it wasn't super great but we were pretty hungry so we would have eaten anything at that point. we hung around and waited for old faitthful to blow. i have to say- i thought it would be bigger. maybe iceland spoiled me. we did walk around and look at the mud pots, hot springs and geysers. we made a super long march out to see the daisy geyser. the things i will do for that dog. . .

we spent a lot longer at old faithful than i thought we would. by the time we got back to the hotel it was after 9pm so we decided to eat at the hotel.

vacation day 3 pix con't

wyoming towns love the antler arches

chris at the snake river in the targhee national forest

antler arches in jackson, wy

not all cheney's are dicks

vacation day 3 pix

leaving slc

entering wyoming with daisybones and bmonkey

chris with the cow tail hat

wyoming/ idaho

vacation day 3

today we drove from salt lake city to jackson, wyoming. this trip took longer than i thought it would but we also stopped a lot and we had some trouble getting out of salt lake. it amazes me how we can have not 1 but 2 gps units and still not be able to get to where we want to go. the gps wanted to send us the route we didn't want to go. once we figured out we were not going where we wanted we decided to turn around and also try to find a place where we could pick up a couple of items (a flexible tripod for the camera and an aux cable for the mp3 player). an hour and a half later, we were on the road. we drove i80 east through park city and north out to wyoming. we hit evanston, wy around lunch time. we stopped at a little thrift store. the lady running the place had a sprite bottle but i think it had more than just sprite. she wouldn't let us leave the store until we took a picture of chris with a super gross cow tail hat. we ate next door at a place called michaels. not bad sandwiches but there were weird naked lady pix on the bar side and weird surrealism circus pix on the table side. we got back on the road after lunch and drove in and out of wyoming and idaho. we hit the edge of the national forests around 2:30pm and the scenery changed dramatically. my ears started popping as we drove up and over the mountain passes. we stopped and took a few pix on the banks of the snake river. we got to jackson around 5pm-ish. we got checked in to our super sweet hotel room, unpacked and then drove into jackson proper. there was a lot that chris remembered about living here but it is also very different- a lot bigger and a lot of new places. we did some souvenir shopping, walking around and had dinner at the million dollar cowboy bar. it was kind of a fancy pants place. our waiter was really nice but no matter how hard he tried, we did not get dessert- we were stuffed!

pix vacation day 2

vacation day 2

we slept in for a little bit then when everyone was awake and dressed we ate breakfast at a place called park house. i got pancakes and chris got the full breakfast. it was all very yummy! my pancakes were as big as the plate!

by the time we got done with breakfast (okay- it was really brunch at the point) we went back to will and katie's and put harry down for a nap. we chilled out until about 3pm. once harry was awake and fully functional we drove up to park city to go ride the alpine slide. now that was a lot of fun! you have to ride the ski lift up to the top. that took forever! i'm sure that when you are all bundled up and have on skis that the slow movement is a good thing. chris and will went first and then katie and i went. katie is very petite so she flew down the slide- i was just a bit slower. plus, i didn't realize you had to push the handle all the way forward- otherwise the breaks are still engaged a little. even though i came in dead last, i still had a good time.

we went to wasatch brewery to eat dinner. it was good- we had some fresh brewed beer and fish and chips. harry was doing great until the very end. i have to say- i am really impressed with this kid. we strolled down main street and did a little shopping and picture taking. at one point chris and will were each holding one of harry's hands and flipping him around. they looked like the perfect modern couple. katie and walked behind them and laughed the whole time!

salt lake bees!

vacation day 1

i stayed up super later late friday night trying to finish packing. i ended up going to sleep well after 1am and got up right at 5am. we were out the door by 5:40am. we got to the airport with no problems. a shuttle bus was right there at the stop after we parked the car. we got our bags checked and headed to security. i went right through after i had to show the metal detector guy that the id checker guy did in fact sign my boarding pass. then chris went through. and then 4 different people got called over to look at the xray machine. and then the supervisor came over and made the executive decision to pull chris's backpack. they go over to the special check area and the guy starts pulling everything out. flipping through books, feeling through things, he swabbed the bag and then pulled out chris's little plastic compass.
"why do you have this?" he asks.
hmmmmm chris thinks to himself- how do i answer this without being a jerk. . ."umm that is a compass"
"i know it is a compass, why do you have it?"
"so i know what direction i am going?"
"fine"
the dude takes the compass and a couple of other things to the xray machine and everything gets cleared. wow. i love the tsa.

so, after that we got some really gross breakfast tacos and got on our flight. we had to do a layover in vegas. the flight was full of people going to vegas- including 2 bridal parties. even at 7am these people were ready for vegas. so, what happened on that flight, stays on that flight!

the flight from vegas to salt lake city was uneventful. we got our bags and picked up the rental car. it is a super pimp altima with a rf clicker. no key for the ignition- you just push the start button! it came equipped with the hertz neverlost gps. it is a pretty nice car- except for the smokers that had it before us. . .

so we got to will and katie's place with no problem although chris almost missed the hairpin turn- again. we also turned down the wrong street for their house. "neverlost"- more like "most of the time you know where you are but we can always guarantee that statement".

we hung out for a little bit and got cleaned up. we headed out to the ballpark about 5:30pm. we saw the salt lake bees play the tucson sidewinders. salt lake won 6-2. we stayed after the game to watch the fireworks show. i gotta admit- the fireworks were super cool. unfortunately, i have no pictures. i forgot the camera in my backpack.

pre vacation

so it is almost midnight- am i completely packed? of course not. at least i have everything out of the dryer!! since we are taking the laptop with us, i am backing up all of our pix to dvd and i accidentally picked the slowest speed possible- i mean we are talking late 1990's speed. i need to be awake in 5 hours so we can get to the airport by 6:15 am. why did i let us pick such an early flight? what was i thinking??? i think i miss daisy already.

equality

this now equals the number of posts i made in 2007.

wookie

hmmmmm.. . . it's amazing how much faster the water drains out of the tub now that i evicted the slimy wookie living underneath the drain trap.

jesus at the gym

starting last april chris and i have been waking up at 6am and going to the gym. we really try to stick to a monday- thursday schedule. monday and wednesday are cardio and tuesday and thursday are weightlifting. when we first started going the guy that worked the front desk was nice enough, not really engaging though. however, a couple of months ago, they hired a new guy. his is a nice looking, clean cut young man named jesus. he says hello to us every morning, asks how we are doing, what were doing today, he lets me go through when my keytag thing won't scan correctly. we have developed kind of relationship with jesus. we really like him. if we wake up feeling like it isn't going to be a gym day- we say to ourselves- jesus will be disappointed in us if we don't go. so we make ourselves get out of bed and go to the gym. we always feel better when we go- even if we didn't want to in the first place. so, i guess it is true, jesus saves.

i ain' hatin'

if you do a google search for "how to make a pimp cup" the tyler family blog shows up around #43!!!! i love sitemeter. thanks gould family!

crochet

so, here is a link to what i hope to be able to do someday. Creepy Cute Crochet.
here is where i am currently:



If money was no object, I would probably purchase all the books published by quirk- starting with lawnscapes and gnome and garden.