Happy Father's Day

Major props for probably my best Father's Day ever. Gran and Jessie (and Sassie and Josh) came to visit. We had a great time. Before they arrived, Sally took me in her arms and said the most romantic thing she has ever said to me. She said "Since it is Father's day we should do something you REALLY want to do. Let's take down the dining room wall!!!" Is there any doubt as to why I love this woman. So, Saturday morning I got Jessie up early and we harvested the garden. She got to pull the first watermelon (more on that later). Then, we went to work! Jessie had such a good time tearing down the wall. She and Sally were great carpenter's helpers. I was was so proud of how hard they worked and so excited to get this project on its way to complete. As a reward, we took Gran and Jessie to see "On Golden Pond" at the Unity Theater.

Sunday was very laid back. I worked on finishing up some loose ends on the wall project. Sally and Jessie got lunch ready for the grill. Sally also finished MAKING PLUM JELLY from the plums off of our tree. I grilled hamburgers, tatume' and corn. Jessie gave me a gift certificat to Lowe's. So she was fully invested in the wall project. She provided capital and labor, thank you very much! Sally gave me an oscillating sprinkler on a stand. This is awesome. It makes it so much easier and better to water the garden. After a fabulous lunch, Sally told me to close my eyes for another surprise. She stuck something very sweet into mouth mouth. It was our watermelon. But that wasn't the surprise. The surprise was the color of the watermelon. It was yellow and it was awesome! What a wonderful way to end a very wonderful weekend.

Going Green With God

Last weekend started with dinner and a show. Sally and I went to see "On Golden Pond" at the Unity Theater in Brenham (http://www.unitybrenham.org/). For me, this was the most enjoyable production we have seen. Dinner was also very enjoyable. We actually meet two couples that are our approximate age!

Saturday morning found us on our way to Waco. We met Heather and Lucy Petter at Ruby Caroline (http://rubycaroline.net/) to observe a wedding that was being set up. this was to prepare us for the set up of Heather and Jared's upcoming nuptials. It was very lovely and I thoroughly the trip. After that, we went to Sam's and bought the non-alcoholic drinks, plate, napkins, cups, etc for the big day. After that we headed back to Gran's where we met up with Whitney and Kristen Schuetz. Gran fixed a lovely dinner. Megan, John and their kids showed up. We all had a lovely time. After that we ran over to the Litteral's for drinks with Andy, Tracie, Gary and BeBe. Shaun and Katie Jo were in. She is so pregnant! We had a great visit.

Sunday found us at St. Louis for Father David's last mass. It was kind of sad. He is really the only priest I have ever known. Sad as it was, it was very good to see all of our old friends. You don't realize how important some things are until they are gone. We really do miss the community that we had in Waco. After mass we ate with the girls. They gave me a lovely garden book for Father's Day. After lunch we headed back to Brenham so Sally could start Vacation Bible School. This year's theme is "Going Green With God". She is helping for the whole week. She talked me into giving a talk about composting. It went well and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. After the talk I visited with Father Ivey. He is a very interesting man. His under grad is in Horticulture from A&M! Whoop!

Memorial Day Weekend

What a wonderful and busy Memorial day weekend! It started with my first horticultural article being published on HortUpdate (http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2010/may/potager.html). This was a very exciting event for me. I was at A&M when it happened and everyone there was so complimentary. Sally was truly over joyed as well. I am very happy about this and I look at it as the first step down the road to my next career. After work, I went home and Sally and I mowed and edged our property. It was hard work but the house and yard are really beginning to look very nice.

The weekend really started on Saturday. All of Sally's siblings came to our house for breakfast and a discussion on where to bury MiMi. It went well and everyone had a lovely time. Kim and Mike both suggested hosting these get togethers more frequently. Everyone liked the changes we are making to the house and they loved the garden. Before the got there I picked 26 pounds of beans, squash and tomatos. They all took food home. After they left Sally and I went to the dump and got a load of mulch. We mulched our beds. That really made a diffence. Everything looks so nice. After that we went to mass and then just chilled on the porch.

Sunday was the annual "100 Days of Summer" festival at our church. We worked the "Trash to Tresure" booth. Sally was awesome! She worked so hard and sold so much junk that I was truly impressed. After it was over we were beat. We went home and crashed for an hour or so and then we started grilling. We cooked corn, hamburgers and calabacita squash. We washed our meal down with Diet Cokes with a splash of lime. Very refreshing. The whole meal was awesome, but the squash gets some extra praise. I will definately be growing this squash variety again.

Monday found us in the row graden by 7:00. We built the beds for our purple hulls and okra. We also finished mulching the potatos and we laid down the soaker hoses and newspapers between the rows for weed control. We also worked on cleaning up the mess behing the cedar fence. After this we showered and ate wonderful leftovers. We then took a holiday nap. Once we got up we went to DQ for a sundae. After that we rode around in the country for about an hour. Then we hit the yard again. We planted the plants Sally bought for me as a present for getting published. We also planted all of the plants that we got at the palnt booth at the church picnic. All in all it was a lovely, lovely, long weekend.

May was a blur!

May has flown by!!! I have been so busy at work that I have not had time to blog. This should tell you how busy I am as I really do enjoying blogging. Lots of big things have happened this month so I will try and catch up on them in this one big post.

Julie Heman's wedding - Lovely wedding. Fun had by all. Very interesting ceremony. Julie had two male bride's maids. Not sure what you call them - attendants? Anyway, it was lovely. Julie looked lovely, all of her brother's participated. They all did great but I would like to give special props to Kevin. He did so well with the reading. He also did an excellent approach to the alter. Reverant, with a bow to the eucharist. Very proper! Way to go Kev. St. Thomas taught you well. The reception was awesome. Thanks Buddy and Kim for a fabulous party. Also, thanks to the Liu family for adding their cultural traditions as well. Everyone LOVED the dragon dance. I wish the bride and groom much success and happiness in the future!

Heather's Grad School Graduation Round 2 - Who is beautiful, talented, accomplished,EDUCATED and DEBT FREE all before age 24? Heather, that's whooooo! We all traveled to Denton (except Sally, see next comment) to watch Heather accept her second master's degree. Of course the weather was horrible but it did not rain on the day (pun intended). After the graduation, Gran and I met the graduate, Jared, Whitney and Debbie and Sal for a very lovely dinner. All in all it was a great day and a great celebration.

Bob Rue died - After 83 years, Bob Rue finally found peace. The last couple of years had been hard for him. Chris did such an amazing job standing by his grandfather. I am so proud of him for standing up and doing something very hard that he did not have to do. Chris, I am proud of you and I admire the way you handled a very tough situation for such a long time. Since his memorial was the same night as Heather's graduation, Sally went to San Marcos to be with her kids as they said good bye to their grand father. By all accounts it was a lovely service. Katie and Moose kicked in and helped Chris put together a lovely and fitting farewell to a man who had been a huge part of their lives for the past few years. Thank you to all of you for doing what needed to be done. I am proud of all of you.

THE HOUSE IS PAINTED!!!! - After four months of hard work, set backs and frustrations, the house is finally painted! I cannot overstate what a big deal this is for me! I still have touch ups, the old deck and window scrapping to go, but it is such a relief to have the whole house one color (and it is a color I like).

The garden is coming in - Again, I have been so busy that I was actually surprised by this. I had been watering and I knew the things were growing, but the other day we went into the garden and BAM! Vegetables everywhere! The tatume squash is awesome. Huge vines and tons of squash. Also tons of tomatos and beans. We are going to have watermelons this year! The purple peppers are great as is the eggplant. We have been eating out the garden for about three days now.

Relay for Life

Our weekend started with Sally participating in Brenham's "Relay for Life". She stayed up ALL night with the team from St Paul's and walked to raise money for cancer research. She did not get in until 6:00 am Saturday morning. They had an 80's theme this year and St Paul's was "Let's Get Physical". They all made costumes and and had a great time.


Since Sally was so beat, I snuck out without her Saturday morning and went to a plant sale at an individual's house in Brenham. OMG! She had a regular nursery in her yard. I bought three, 3 gal containers of variegated shell ginger, a coral salvia, a jasmine and a russian sage. Sally and I spent most of the rest of the weekend painting. I am so tired of painting but so glad for all of Sally's help. After this weekend I am actually beginning to see a littlle light at the end of the tunnel. Painting this whole house has been an unbelievably difficult and time consuming undertaking. Note to self: NEVER DO THIS AGAIN!!!! I cannot wait to finish this so I can move on to smaller and more rewarding projects.

What's RIGHT with America

There is so much negative press right now. All the news reports tell us what is wrong with America. I have stayed away from politics in this blog and I intend to stay away. But let me say this, things aren't as bad as everyone seems to think. America is a great country. It is too big to be destroyed by one Presidential Administration. I just believe everything is going to be alright.

I went to an event this last Sunday that confirmed that for me. It was the confirmation of Sally's aide's son, Cody Kunckle. It was such a lovely event. A small country Luthern church, a beautiful day and three really good kids taking part in a tradition that has held since Martin Luther split with the Catholics. I like tradition. I like knowing that the good from the past will continue into the future. Church, family, parties with home made wine and sausage-the celebrations of life. In the end, this is what matters and what we leave behind; connections and traditions. These kids are the real hope for America. They will be the doctors and farmers and mechanics and horticulturists of the next generation. They will make the same mistakes that we have all made but they will also have successes that will be bigger than we can now imagine. And they will pass on traditions. We live in a great country and it is full of outstanding young people. Because of this, there is a bright future ahead for America. I am glad to live in a country that can elect a black president and provide dreams to countless millions. May God continue to richly bless our Union!

MS150

It has been over a week and I am just now getting a chance to blog about my MS150 experience. Let's get right to it. I DID NOT FINISH!!!! OH SHAME!!!!! I made the first day. 100 miles in 8.5 hours. It hurt! I had a flat, threw my chain and got knocked down by some hot shot. It was very hilly and my poor old body was just not ready. I was very happy to see Sally and Jessie when I crossed that line in La Grange! The St. Arnold's tent was nice. The food and the beer were very good. I had a hard time sleeping in the barn. I was tired, but I had a hard time falling to sleep. then, to top things off, my air mattress went flat! So, Sunday morning I was tired and sore. JP, KP and I snuck out at 5:00 am. I rode the 26 mile to the park and decided to throw in the towel. I was spent. Sally and Jessie came and got me and we had an enjoyable rest of the day. All in all, if you take out all of the pain, I enjoyed myself. I am a little sad I did not finish but I am going to try it again. I learned a few tricks and I will just have to train more.