Wednesday, July 18, 2007

hufflepuff

I've decided to retract what I said previously about Hufflepuff. I wouldn't mind being in Hufflepuff. Tonks was a Hufflepuff and we suspect that Lucy might be in Hufflepuff if she were to get sorted.

"You might belong in Hufflepuff, where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil;" ~ the Sorting Hat

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

mission accomplished!

We have actually done everything on my list of things I wanted to do before we left Texas:
  1. hike up Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas - completed 7/01/07
  2. take some pictures in the Texas bluebonnets - this was done in the spring on 2 different occasions
  3. see Nickel Creek in concert again before they disassemble - seen at the Meridian on 4/20/07
  4. go to an Astros game at Minute Maid Park - went to 3 games! (2 were free. I think we may have lost all 3 of those games...)
  5. explore the George Bush Museum - I'm going to say that we did this. We went to the Museum on July 4, but I forgot that the entire main exhibit is closed until November, but we did see the miniature White House and both of us had already seen the main exhibit at some point previously.
  6. visit the Houston Zoo to see our old friends one more time - completed 7/14/07
  7. fully appreciate Whataburger, H.E.B., and Blue Bell - we are kind of still doing this, but I consider it done. :)

"Time is making fools of us again." ~ Albus Dumbledore

Monday, July 16, 2007

we say goodbye...

It seems like we have had a lot of goodbyes lately. First to my parents two weekends ago; then to our Bible study group when we met last week for a game night (we learned how to play a card game called Nertz); then to my boss (He's heading off to law school. The College of Geosciences paid for our lunch at Abuelo's and I truly ate an amazing amount of food.); and finally to Adrian's parents.

We spent this past weekend with them in Houston and went to the zoo Saturday. It really was the perfect day for the zoo. It was overcast the entire morning we were there with a few spots of slight drizzling. It was a nice temperature, and it made some of the animals a little more active. We rented the movie, The Holiday, which I thought was kind of cute - maybe a tad long - definitely a chick flick. Occasionally, when Cameron Diaz would talk, I would think, 'She sounds like Fiona...' Then we spent the rest of the time trying hard to find a DVD/VCR player that would work with his parents' connections. 2 hours and 4 stores later, we found one!

We got home in the evening Sunday night and prepared to make another goodbye - to Adrian's old blue Malibu. We made the sale, and the Malibu drove away. We are officially a one-car family now.

"You're supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, for God's sake!" ~ Kate Winslet, as Iris, in the Holiday.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Harry Potter

We went to see Harry Potter at 12:05 this morning with Michelle and Neal. It was packed - with some people in Gryffindor outfits. If I were not a muggle, I would most want to be in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. And then I think that I might prefer Slytherin to Hufflepuff - it just seems like Hufflepuff kind of gets all the leftover people who are not distinctive - although, it is true that Cedric was a Hufflepuff...

Anyways, I think the movie did tell the overall story, but I had just finished rereading book 5, so I noticed so many differences. They cut out a lot (I suppose they had to), but some of the deletions made me sad. They also changed some things, mostly for the sake of simplifying and shortening, but there were some changes that really bothered me. I won't say anything specific so I don't inadvertently ruin the film for someone, but I will say: Harry and Cho's kiss in the movie was way more involved than in the book...

"Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily -- weak people, in other words -- they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!" ~ Severus Snape (I really like Alan Rickman as Snape - he's cool.)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Our Corpus trip!

We went to Corpus this past weekend to see my parents for the last time before we move to Utah. It was weird and kind of sad to think that it may be awhile before I go to Corpus to their house again.

We all went to the beach together on Saturday - and Lucy swam for the first time! There was a deeper area in the water separated by a sandbar where we deposited Lucy in. Then, she swam to shore. She looked so cute swimming. I think it gave her a little of a high because after she swam to shore, she was so excited and ran around everywhere. She swam 3 times.

re-run of our Logan trip

I found this post as a draft and thought that I would post it, before I post the pictures and video (of Lucy swimming!) from our Corpus weekend.

We flew into Salt Lake on Tuesday a little after 4. By the time we picked up our rental car and drove through rush hour and construction, it was about 7 or so when we got into Logan. We ate dinner at Taco Time and settled in at Priya's house. She allowed us to stay at her house for the whole week even though she wasn't there!

Wednesday: We spent the morning walking around Logan.
Here is the Logan Temple.

Logan is on a grid system, and most of the streets have sidewalks, so it is really easy to walk everywhere. They also have these above ground irrigation canals that are interesting - some have ducks. We met with Andrea, our real estate agent, and looked at houses. We found two that we liked - we called them the little house and the big house. The little house was a bit farther away from campus and had an offer on it already by that afternoon. We decided to write an offer for the big house.

Thursday: We received a counter-offer that morning and submitted a counter-offer of our own. Then, we drove all the way through Logan Canyon to Bear Lake in Garden City. It is really a beautiful drive, with lots of hiking, climbing, and fishing opportunities along the way. We ate raspberry shakes in Garden City and hiked a short, easy hike in the Canyon - the Limber Pine trail. We went back to Priya's and learned that our counter-offer had been accepted, and we were under contract!

Friday: We went back into Logan Canyon and hiked to the Wind Cave, which was a fun, steep hike.
Wind Cave

Then we went back to our (hopefully) future house for the inspection. It is weird to think that the house is 108 years old!

For the most part, it seems in pretty good shape although there are some things about the house that aren't ideal. The good thing is that we are looking at the house as a place to live for 4-5 years, not a life-time, and that helps me not freak about things. Plus, the price we are paying is more than fair, and from what we have seen of the real-estate market in Logan, we don't think that we will have trouble selling it - unless the house falls apart... We also love the location, and we figured that our mortgage payments plus taxes and insurance would equal what it would cost to rent.

Our house! It's a little plain in the front. (incidentally, I have no idea why this is underlined...)

Half of our kitchen - look there's a dishwasher!

The living room

The backyard

Saturday: We met with Andrea again to add in more things to the addendum for the seller to fix before closing. We stopped by the Farmer's Market, which was really cute and fun. Then we headed back to the Canyon for the Mt. Naomi hike. This hike took us to Tony Grove Lake, which is beautiful. We even encountered several snow drifts on the hike!


Sunday: A full day of traveling to get back to College Station at around 10 pm.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Guadalupe Peak

This past weekend, we took a short road-trip out to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The goal - hike up Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas before we move to Utah.

It was a fun, Texas-filled trip. On our trip out there on Saturday, we stopped briefly in Fredericksburg and walked down Main Street and browsed in the 10 cent store and in a fancy dog shop. We also stopped in Junction to eat Cooper's famous BBQ.

We got to the campsite at Guadalupe with plenty of time to set up our tent, eat a quick dinner of sandwiches, and make the campfire talk that night. The campfire talk was filled with children who kept interrupting the poor ranger while he tried to give his geology talk, but I suppose it is good that they are inquisitive and interested about the area - even if their questions had nothing to do with the subject on hand.



at our campsite before we put the tent up


The next day, we woke up after a strange night's sleep. It was somewhat loud in the campsite - with a group loudly discussing the merits of wedgies at 10, a group of guys barking loudly at 3 in the morning, and a car alarm incident at some point in the night (though, I actually slept through this, but it sounded amusing from Adrian's memory).

We went to the visitor's center to stamp our passports, buy a magnet, and ask a few questions about the hike. The girl working the desk was Class of '05. :)

Then we set out on the hike. It was a good hike. It is somewhat strenuous at the beginning, then gets easier, and then inclines steeply again until you get to the top. The hike climbs 2,950 feet to reach the 8,749 foot peak. It is cool, because as you climb, you can see how the vegetation changes - from desert plants, like agave and sotol, to ponderosa pines and junipers.


agave


the Texas madrone - one of my favorites

cholla!

At the top, there is this metal triangle symbol that denotes the peak (complete with the American Airlines symbol). There is also a log book where you can record your ascent to the top. :) We ate lunch at the summit and enjoyed the views for a spell. We met an SCA crew throughout the hike as well.


Here we are at the top. In the second picture, you can see El Capitan in the background.


We made it back down for a total excursion of almost 7 hours. We headed back to the visitor's center to complete our tasks for the senior ranger program. :) We earned our patches and headed back to the campsite, where we looked at the clouds, talked, and read for a spell until it was time for bed.

The next day, we left somewhat early to start on the 10 hour trip back to College Station. We stopped at a peach stand outside of Fredericksburg to buy some fresh, locally grown peaches. Then we stopped at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Site outside of Johnson City. It was very pretty there with lots of wildflowers and cute walking trails along the Pedernales River. We didn't really stay too long, but we did get another stamp in our passports, and were able to see-saw in the adjoining playground area.

It was a fun road-trip, and I am glad that we were finally able to hike up to the highest point in Texas. It was something that I have been wanting to do for a really long time, and I am glad that I was able to do it with Adrian. :)

"I'm king of the world!" ~ Jack in Titanic (although, in this case, it's really king of Texas, perhaps...?)