This is the cake that Savannah and I made for my friend Linda’s fortieth birthday party. It was made with Duncan Hines dark chocolate fudge cake mix, a sweet cream cheese filling, frosted with chocolate ganache, topped with chocolate dipped strawberries and a chocolate shavings border.
To date it was the easiest and most elegant cake to make. It was a great present for a wonderful friend.
Did I not mention that we are busy folk around these here parts?
We’ve had birthday parties, karate, a trip to Wichita Falls, AT&T TV & Internet installation for two days, PTO Meetings, Curriculum Nights, cakes to make (for the b-day party mentioned above) and a million other things I’ve probably forgotten.
We have pictures of the cake (of course) and pictures of Gabby (of course) but the camera is downstairs and I’m upstairs so I think you’re S.O.L. until tomorrow. MBM wants to show off her latest culinary creation so I’m fairly confident she’ll be updating tomorrow so you all can tell her how great her latest cake looks. I had a bite or 10 and it tasted as good as it looks.
In other news, the cake class MBM is enrolled in will start (again) tomorrow night. Keep your fingers crossed that the teacher actually shows up this time. If not it will not be pleasant around the Little household tomorrow night.
More importantly… Savannah went on her first date Saturday night. Her boyfriend Aaron came to meet the parents Saturday afternoon before we left for the birthday party. He seems like a nice lad. MBM talked his head off, Gabby cried, Justin bugged, and I sat there quietly and didn’t say much like a good dad should. Of course they talked about us that night and he doesn’t think I like him. I think my silent treatment did the trick. Anyway, they went to dinner and then to a friend’s house where the boys played Guitar Hero and the girls probably sat around and giggled like… Teenagers. She had to be home by 10:30 and they rolled in at 10:29. We’ve asked if there will be a date two but the Mouth of the South hasn’t decided. I’m thinking there will be. I’m thinking if there is I might have to borrow a shotgun or two from Poppa so I can be sitting downstairs with them pretending to clean’em and I do my Dirty Harry “Do You Feel Lucky Punk” routine. Should be entertaining.
Rocky the dumb dog is barking at a mosquito. Gotta go put him up for the night. Pictures and such tomorrow. I know… I said that last time. Maybe you all should start your own little sites and then you’ll see it’s not as easy as you think!
Later haters. 
Ok, so I’m back home and we’ve been busy. Very busy. Extremely busy.
The day I landed we had to hit HEB to grab some groceries since all of our food was lost during the hurricane. We didn’t have power at the house for about 4 days so the stuff that didn’t get taken and used by our friends had to go to the dump. HEB was the only store in the vicinity that had grub.
Sunday we went to church.
The kids finally went back to school today. They were out for more than a week. We noticed that we did get some water damage in our kitchen on our lovely hardwood floors. Gotta get the insurance folks involved in this one. We’ve cancelled our Comcast high-speed internet service and cable since they are awful. The internet only works when it wants to and it gets really old when your 6,300mi away and trying to talk to your wife and her internet keeps going out. So, AT&T will be out this Thursday to hook us up with better internet and cable. Hopefully better. We got free installation and all that jazz and the monthly charge is about the same for more services. Comcast bites.
I also switched our home phone service from Comcast (they bite) to a VOIP line from Vonage. It’s only $25/mth and we get unlimited local and long-distance calling to anywhere in the USA and some other places we’ll never call.
Then I got a quote on a fence to keep Rocky contained. It’s not cheap. Hopefully I’ll get that done before I leave again.
Today we went to IKEA to get furniture for the boys room since they have virtually no place to put their clothes and toys. We walked out of there with two dressers, one big multi-drawer thingy for their toys, and a couple of cool lockers for their room. Now I have to put them all together! That’s not the worst part though. The worst part is that IKEA had no air-conditioning so we had to shop in the 90deg heat. I was not happy. Not only that, the store is laid out in such a way you have to walk down every single aisle to get to the check-out counters. EVERY SINGLE AISLE and the place is huge. The prices might be right but the layout pretty much stinks when there is no A/C. I understand their selling tactics but I don’t like’em.
Gabby is being Gabby. Pretty and prissy and happy more often than not. I’ve taken a few new pics that I’ll put up on her site tomorrow (hopefully). In the meantime, you can see a silly video I took by clicking here.
I found a tiny little snake outside last night. Picture below.
Carolina is at her latest cake-making class at Lonestar College. The class was supposed to begin at 6pm and the instructor is nowhere to be found. It’s now 6:21pm. There are other people there waiting with her so she has the right day, time, and class location. Lonestar College bites too!
And… We’ve started our running routine again. We ran last Friday and today and plan on running 4 days a week for 3 to 4mi per day. Hopefully I’ll get it back up to 5 or 6mi again soon. I need it.
O’yea, the boys have also started back with Karate and Savannah is rehearsing for her play after school. The play will run from Oct. 15 - 20. Expect video of that when the time comes. I’m hoping to embarass her royally when she gets on stage.
Ok, baby momma is away so baby daddy has to go scrounge something up for din-din. Poor children don’t know what they’re in for with my cooking!
We’ll start posting regularly again… Assuming we can find time!
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| From POTD's |
Okay, so many of you know that I almost did not leave my wonderful H-town during the hurricane warning. I was like, yeah, yeah, been there, done that, own the Rita t-shirt. BUT, after much persuasion from my in laws, I decided it was the thing to do. Besides, electricity is worth the drive.
My friends and neighbors chose to stay behind. If is was not for them, I would not have had so much foresight on what to expect and do before we came back home. My wonderful friend and neighbor,Susan, kept me updated on the whole situation, plus watched over our home. My friend, Laura, cleaned out my refrigerator for me! It was sparkling clean when I came back home. Everyone informed me what was for real on the news and what to do for sure before coming back home. Weezer and Papa took great care of all us while we took refuge in their home. All in all, we were very lucky. Others, weren’t.
Coming back home, I was not sure what to expect other than to be sure to fill up hours outside of Houston, because gas is scarce here. Also, to buy groceries, because most stores are stilled closed, and if they are not, then they sell out quickly. I guess Weezer said it best when she said how it was hard to believe how such a big city could be made immobile. Then, my friend, Linda E, said another best, that next to electricty, gas and groceries were a hot commodity.
Here are some videos that Savannah took while we came in. Video One is of two lines (North Bound and South Bound) of utility workers in a caravan on the Sam Houston Tollway. Video Two is some of what we encountered driving near our subdivision; gas lines (Chevron), packed restaurants (Johnny Carino’s) and closures (McDonald’s). While our area did not suffer as greatly as Galveston, it sure took a beating. Trees were uprooted. Roofs torn off. Fences blown into other yards (our back fence fell and some shingles stripped from our roof). I went running today and saw pile after pile of debris lined up around the neighborhood yards. I have never seen anything like it. Like with Rita, I will never forget the grid lock on the highway and the chaos and mad panic at the grocery stores. Ike will hold new memories. Like encountering signs on I-45S saying that the town had no gas or food, move on. This time, I came in and saw areas pitch dark spotted with areas of light, just to hit more areas stretched out into the darkness. Normally when I drive into Houston, all I see are bright lights. I will also remember seeing lines of cars stretched out for a mile into the streets just waiting to gas up. I will also remember seeing giants closed, like McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, and unusually packed restaurants that reopened, like Burger King and Denny’s, with lines and jammed parking lots, people just waiting to get some food, any food. I saw all of this driving in on a Tuesday night.
I will also remember that the people of Houston once again all pulled together to help each other out and that today on my run, people were going out of their way to say hi to everyone.
So tomorrow, I will venture out with my hubby to see if we can buy some food at a recently opened HEB. We are working on slim pickings at the house. We have no meat! Slowly, but surely, businesses are reopening. People are starting to trickle into work. Most ISDs are out until next week. My kids see this as an adventure, as many others do. As I write this, 1.3 million people are still without electricity, with no assurances of having it turned on any time soon. Gas is at a reasonable price, considering. The Dallas Cowboys are 2-0. And my hubby is on his way home!
God Bless Texas!
My relief finally decided to show up. I’m going to Lagos to meet him and do a handover. That’s good because it gets me out of Port Harcourt 24hrs earlier than expected. It doesn’t get me home any quicker though since my flight to Germany doesn’t leave until late tomorrow night.
I’m sitting in the Port Harcourt International Airport, typing this out on my oh-so-trusty iPhone. I’ll be in Lagos before you read it though because there is no wireless connection here. Big surprise.
Even bigger surprise… They have George Jones music coming from somewhere behind one of the counters in the picture. Strange.
Okay, the family and I are getting the heck out of dodge. Weezer and Arnie are putting us up. I did not get around to taking very many pictures. Last nite, it was so serene, balmy, and breezy, that it made it very easy to get complacent. The neighborhood was quiet. It is almost five in the morning and we are all packed up (due to strategic measures) and ready to go, at least physically. It is hard to leave the city and our friends and neighbors. Hopefully, it all goes well. It already seems that the storm has lost some of its thunder over nite. It seems. I have just checked out the trafffic and the flow seems to be going steady. We will head out on I-45 N and catch I-35 to OKC. I will keep my trusty camera on hand to take any potential pics of interest. For now, here is the local site I have been using to stay updated. There are some great pictures and such from yesterday. Wish us luck.
Damn Hurricanes
**EDITED by Gabe. I added the picture and caption. **
To me, hurricane evacuation warnings in Harris County have become to me what tornado warnings were in North Texas or car alarms, “Chicken Little”-esque in nature. Since Hurricane Katrina, the sky is always falling here. The last time I packed my family to evacuate, it was during Rita. I will never forget the long lines I waited in at Wal-Mart for supplies and gas. It is hard to forget mass mania, frustration, and exhaustion. It took us ten hours to evacuate to Wichita Falls which normally takes 6 hours, as if taking the trip was not bad enough. Only to find out that after all that chaos and misery I put my family through, every thing was fine in Houston. Once bitten, twice shy. So as of now, the family and I are staying put. I will take pictures and update them as the story unfolds.
Since this morning, many gas stations have been packed with cars. Many of the highways are now becoming parking lots. Galveston, our sister city, was mandatorily evacuated which created havoc on I-45. Highways I-10 and 290 are following close behind. Tankers filled with gas have been ordered into the city. Right now almost all schools have been closed for tomorrow with school activities canceled today. Home Depot and all grocery stores are jammed pack. I have not even attempted to go in. Neighbors have started boarding up their windows. i will take pictures of that later when they can not see me. The wind continues to pick up and the clouds darker. The tollways are FREE right now. Of course, people are buzzing and you have those who are really over reacting, in my humble opinion, and those who are like the people in Noah’s time (read the Bible, Genesis, Sunday school pays off).
That is all I have for now. I am sure I will have more later. I will try to get on the scene shortly to take more eyewitness pics.
Today is 9/11. Remember where you were or what you were doing this time 7 years ago? I was on my way to work in 290 traffic. The day was very pretty. I was listening to my talk radio show on KPRC, Pat Gray. He was being goofy and then said, “This just in, a plane has crashed into the Twin Towers”. I remembered he laughed with confusion on how someone could run into the Twin Towers. I thought while he said that the pilot must be drunk. Then, minutes later the second Tower was hit, then we knew something was wrong.
This is what happens when the boys feel like being mischievous!
