Jay and the Giant Cauliflower

I grow cauliflower for two reasons. First, I like to eat it. Second, I love taking pictures with the giant heads that I grow. These lovely heads were a complete and welcome surprise. Between work, grad school and the remodel I had completely forgotten about my little fall garden. I came home from A&M on Feb 4 and saw that I needed to harvest some broccoli. When I went out to the garden there they were. Huge and beautiful and ready to be pulled. So, I brought them in and started taking pics. The big one has already and made Sally and I two meals. She took one to her friend Beth and Whitney got the third one. I really think it is as much fun to give things from the garden away as it is to eat them myself!

Foam Crown Molding

Sally and I went to Waco Friday night. Our stated purpose was to install the foam crown molding that we bought for Gran for her Christmas/Birthday present. An added benefit to going this wekend was that we got to see Jessie and Mary Davis. Friday night Sally, Jessie Gran and I stayed up late talking. Saturday we (Sally, Jessie and I) got up early and took Mary to mass. After that we went to breakfast at Cafe Cappachino. We then took Mary to Dollar Tree and HEB. Sally ran in and saw her old hairdresser Betty. Then we went to Lowe's and got the stuff to hang the foam molding. Let me tell. FOAM CROWN MOLDING IS FABULOUS!!!! This was the easiest home improvement project I have ever done. With Sally and Jessie's help, we hung both bedrooms and caulked it. It was so easy and it looks so good. Gran still has to paint it, but I know it is going to be beautiful.

We left on Friday evening and returned home to a VERY COLD house. Seems all the missing windows in the Living Room, Dining Room, kitchen and porch allowed way too much cold air to come in. So, I was up till 11:00 (with Sally's help of course) closing inthese windows. I had to modify the studs in the wall so I can put up the bead board later. Then we had to block in the holes with ship lap. Finally, we insulated until we ran out of insulation. Sunday, we taught CCE and then went to see MiMi and Pa. MiMi seemed to be having a good day. herb took us to Olive Garden. When we got home, we were back to hole patching. Here are some picks of our accomplishments:

Also, here is a bonus pic. Our new porch!

It is finally hapening!!!!

Well, the remodel is on! Full on! Johnny's Construction showed up last Wednesday and they have been going full tilt ever since. The house is level. There is a new window in the kitchen, an old kitchen window removed, a new bathroom window, a new porch in the back and matching siding on the whole back of the house. This week they will level the porch floor and close it in for the new bath and the HVAC closet. We are so excited. Sally and I worked all weekend priming and painting and cleaning out and organizing! We are tired but so so happy.

Here are a few pics:

This is the view from Sally's big new window.

Here is an idea of what it will look like painted all white

Notice our blue porch roof! Sally and I spent Saturday doing this.

Gran's BDay

Sally and went to Waco this weekend to celebrate Gran's 70th birthday!!!! It turned out to be a really nice trip. We arrived Friday night around 7:00. We kept Gran up until 11:00 visiting. We got up early Saturday morning and took Mary to Mass and then out to breakfast. She really enjoyed it and it was great to see her. After breakfast, we did home repair things for Gran. then we went to Salesman Sample and bought me a ton of really lovely clothes. After that, we went to the new mammoth park. that was WAY COOL!!!!!! Finally, we finished the day with Mexican food at Gran's favorite Taqueria. megan, John and the kids came. It was a really pleasant weekend and I think Gran really had a good time.

BRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well the new year is officially off to frosty start. Can you believe these temps! It got down to 22 last night. Tonight is suppossed to be even colder. Thank goodness I worked from home yesterday. I tried to cover/move all of the plants. It will be very interesting to see what survives. Sally and I planted a cypress and a plum tree last Saturday. I really hope they make it. Monday was a pretty big day for me. First, Lime Pie started acting up again. That really depressed me a little. Then, come lunch time, no one wanted to go to lunch with me. So, I decided to go and buy my iphone. What a good decision that was! I truly love this silly little thing.

Sally and I am off to Waco tonight to celebrate Gran's birthday. She is the big 70! I hope she has a better year that she did last year. I am taking the tool box to do some home repair for here plus we got her crown molding for two rooms.

Some sad news. I am officially looking for a new contractor. do not know what I did or said to Charley but he never showed up and he stopped taking my calls. Really have no idea what happened. I had one guy come out yesterday and then two more are supposed to come today. We will see what happens. The way things are going I am going to be a very old man before ever get to live in an attractive house again.

Belated Christmas Post

I cannot believe that it has been three whole weeks since I made a post. I guess that is a testamnet to the busy-ness of this season. Sally is officially out of school for a while. I took the week before Christmas off and Sally and I had a lovely time. We went to the theater with Lucille and Dr. Bill Welch, finished cleaning out the house for the remodel, tore down the man room, attended a lovely party at the Pickles' and prepared for Christmas. Whew!!!! What a week! We spent a lovely Christmas day with MiMi and Pa at The Forum. Chris and the Hemann's joined us and we gave MiMi a very spirited sing a long Christmas. Jessie, Heather and Whitney joined us on Saturday. Gran finished out the list of visitors on Sunday. Very lovely week. Very relaxed and enjoyable first ever literary Christmas at the nest!!!!

Wonderful Winter Weekend

Well our first little cold front brought some snow and a pretty fabulous and romantic weekend to Brneham Texas. Sally and I started the weekend early with a date night on Thursday. We didn’t actually plan a date night but it was sure nice when it happened. We went to check on her car after work and it wasn’t ready. So, we decided to go to our favorite Italian place in Brenham (The Coliseum). We followed that up with a trip to the movies. We saw “Blind Side”. It was very good. Friday brought the snow and the collards mentioned in the previous post. Saturday, we got up and started decorating the house for Christmas. We cooked breakfast, lit a fire and stayed in our PJs all day. The house looks better than it ever has. We even had a VERY exciting sideline. While we were making the bed, I threw a pillow up against a heater. We didn’t notice until the smell of smoke let us know something was wrong. What a close call!!! It reminded us that life truly can change in an instant. Anyway, we got through it. We finished up decorating around 4:00. We got ready for Sally to take part in the Downtown Brenham Christmas Parade. It was so much fun. Finally, Sunday found us at a church festival with our CCE class celebrating St. Nicholas’s saint day. Big time! After that, we loaded up the truck and headed to Carmine for steaks at JW’s. They were closed so Sally suggested we try the Brazos Belle in Burton. OMG!!! Turns out the Brazos Belle is a 4 star restaurant. Very yummy! After our tummies were full we went home and had a many hour grade-a-thon. All in all, it was a very nice, cold and snuggly weekend with the girl of my dreams!