Hard Drive (almost) Disaster

The hard-drive on Matt's laptop crashed. Yes, the laptop he's been doing all his research & disertation work on for the past 2.5 years. After driving to the Apple store in Dallas and taking it to a data recovery place it was obvious there was no hope. Matt took it like a champ though. He quickly focused on the fact that most of the REALLY important things he needed are saved in his email account and scattered on papers in the apartment. That to say, for 3 days straight he's been typing & working up a storm like a, umm, well like a 5th year PhD student who just about lost everything. Thankfully it shouldn't interfere with anything major. He just has to keep persevering over the next few days to meet a paper deadline & hope for no hand cramps. Poor guy. In the meantime all I can do is make sure there are plenty of cold sweet tea refills to be had. But I guess that part isn't much different than any other week. :)

Birmingham Baby & Buddies

One day after this past Christmas I was wondering through the mall looking for a 1/2 price winter coat when I recieved a phone call from Sarah. After recovering from complete shock when she said Santa brought them a baby for Christmas... we almost immediately started planning when I could fly out for a visit after mystery baby was born! On August 6th Patrick McCay was born and last weekend I was able to leave work early to spend a fabulous & long weekend over in Birmingham. This being the first baby born into my long-time core group of friends, I was excited about how the introduction would go (laughter, tears...?) As Sarah's car pulled up at the airport I was quickly informed there was a very unhappy baby inside! She hopped out, my bag was thrown in the trunk, I was thrown in the backseat and 30 seconds later without any hugs we were off! It was the perfect whirlwind meeting representative of their new lifestyle. :o)

Whitney also came into town from Atlanta & we had a great time ooohing & aaahing over the cutest little 6 week baby we had ever seen. Saturday we took a chance and went out to lunch (Allison Moore got to go with!) at the Purple Onion where we had DELICIOUS gyro's. From there it was on to the carwash & then a little shopping at Target. Mac did sooo good & let the three of us enjoy a wonderful afternoon out & about. Later in the afternoon we drove out to the Beverly's Sunday school teacher's house to eat BBQ and watch the Auburn game. While there it dawned on us that my Mom was only 3 hours away, so after a quick phone call she made last minute plans to drive up the next day! Sunday morning I was able to get up with Mac & do all the fun watch-the-sunrise things with him (diaper, bottle, spit-up...) while the others slept. He was such a good baby! Mom got into town later that afternoon & we had a wonderful visit on thier back deck. Later on she took Sarah, Patrick & me out for supper at Ted's Montanna Grill. Mac slept & slept while we enjoyed a fun and long meal. Monday, after Sarah went to her PT apointment & Mom left mid-morning, I got good Mac time in & took some cute pictures. My flight didn't leave Birmingham until 6:00pm that evening so we had a full day to visit and ponder over their precious miracle that is on the verge of smiling & laughing and before we know it, rolling over & riding bikes. Thankfully, I can say the weekend didn't leave me with "the itch" but it did make me want to go back as soon as possible. :o)

:o)

This past weekend was a goodie.  (I almost don't like saying that because it was horrific for so many down in Houston & especially Galveston.)  But it unfolded as such... 

Thursday, engaged buddies Thomas & Kayla evacuated Houston & set up camp here in Waco.  We had a good couch visit with them & then Kayla headed to her sister's place while Thomas stayed here.  

Friday we went to the Dollar Theater (really the $1.75 Theater) with Brock & Stefani to see Get Smart then to a pizza parlor for supper & to watch some of the Baylor game (they actually won!)  Next we headed back to our place for ice cream & Brian Regan's newest stand-up skit.  The guys love him. We stayed up late & finally hit the hay after seeing the bad weather was going to miss us (but we all had flashlights just in case!)  

Saturday Matt & I worked out a wee bit at Gold's & then got ready for our Football & Fried Chicken party!  Auburn played lousy (so I was told?) Thankfully there were better things going  on in our apartment like Bush's fried chicken & fixins and 10 friends to visit with!  Later on our friend Jason from Austin showed up.  He frequently has to come to Waco for work (a.k.a. Baylor's Sing program).  

Sunday was church, leftover chicken, and lounge time.  Sunday evening is also when Matt gets together with some guys to hang out.  They've been doing it for almost 3 years now, so that's usually my grocery store or girl time.  Last night Stef & I went to Starbucks before she drove back to Dallas.  OH MY GOSH!  Caffeine really IS a drug!!!!!!!  I was bouncing off the flipping walls an hour later!!!!  Evening coffee is soooo much more powerful than the occasional midday DDP.  Phew.  

Today, Monday, was an absolutely GLORIOUS day.  Sunny blue sky, warm but cool.  I could smell Fall on it's way & tonight it's supposed to dip down into the lower 60's!  I love it.  I turned off the AC and opened our windows after work.  The cool fresh air is so wonderful.  After supper I went outside and laid on our front sidewalk to watch the sunset.  It was such a simple pleasure to feel the temperature drop, watch the stars come out, and hear the crickets.  Unfortunately the mosquitos interrupted my moment and a retreat indoors was necessary.  

Now the kitchen is crumb-free, sink empty of all dirty dishes, tomorrow night's menu is planned for our weekly meal with friends while watching Lost, Lucy is laying belly-up on the floor, Matt is productively working on the laptop, and I'm meeting Mac Beverly on Friday.  I can do anything but complain :)

Ike

Despite predictions for the Waco area, Hurricane Ike didn't make much of an appearance around here.  For the past few days the weather forecasters have been mentally preparing us for flash flooding, high winds and tornados all day Saturday.  Since Ike leaned a bit more to the East we just got slight wind and drizzles.  

Last night we stayed up until 1:00 watching The Weather Channel to know if we were in for any last minute bad weather surprises and got an even bigger surprise... a streaker ran through the background of the live program!!!  Thankfully as he made his way into the camera frame the Weather Channel logo was in just the right spot to block out, umm, "him."  We definitely got a good view of his white bootie 2 seconds later though!!!  Did anyone else see that???  SO SHOCKING!!!  Silly guy.  

 

Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend we went camping for 2 nights at Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg with friends Mandy & Jacob.   We pitched our tents, put up a tarp, made jiffy-pop, smores and enjoyed eggs & bacon for breakfast.  It was great!  The park area has a lot of hiking trails and rock climbing that we all enjoyed.  Fredericksburg is a German influenced area so we went into town for Jagerschnitzel, spatzle and brautworst at the biergarten one night(spellings?). On our drive home Sunday we happened to stumble upon an awesome swimming hole in the middle of no where called Hamilton Pool.  It is a collapsed cave turned natural swimming hole that sometimes has a waterfall - SO COOL!  (We later found out it is ranked #3 on the top natural sites to see in Texas and Enchanted Rock happens to be #1.)  It was a fabulous weekend spent outside!  Here are some pictures:   

New Look

I'm trying to come up with a new look for the page... there are waaaay too many options!  This one is way too busy for me, but it's a start...