Grandmother & Granddad

They're celebrating sixty-five years together!

Martins celebrate 65 years of marriage

Meet Min

Min appears to have taken up residence under our house. "Min" is short for "diMINutive MINstrel" because he sings CONSTANTLY. I have been able to coax him into being my friend and he's a sweet little thing. Anybody need a kitten?

A special gift!

My kitty-boy brought us a trophy last night. Apparently the trophy wasn't *quite* expired when he brought it in, but he eventually did dispatch it. The living room looks like a pillow fight happened, and in the midst of the flurry of feathers is a dove carcass.

Good kitteh.

[heading off to get the vacuum]

A Texas pilgrimage

There's a little creamery in Brenham, Texas, where they make the best ice cream in the whole world. It behooves every Texan to, at some point in their lives, make a pilgrimage to this hallowed spot.

Last Saturday was the day we set aside every summer to get up long before dawn and set out on a southerly trek to pick up Miss Alice at Camp Spike 'n Wave, located at the Camp For All grounds in Burton, Texas. Burton is very near Brenham, so after we picked her up, we went to visit the Blue Bell Creamery there.

The grounds of the creamery are impeccably groomed, and we were delighted to see that there was a bronze statue depicting the same little girl leading a cow that's silhouetted on every container of Blue Bell Ice Cream. See up there under the name? That little circle? That's the one.


Of course, we had to go in to the gift shop, where we were elated to see that they sell individual scoops of every single flavor they produce. YUM! I can't have any, of course, since I haven't found any major brand of ice cream that isn't made with corn syrup. But that's okay; it was fun to see Mom and the girls enjoying theirs. Plus, Mom got me a Blue Bell Ice Cream t-shirt instead.

The drive down there was spectacular, even though I was about as tired as I could be (thanks to Mom for doing most of the driving) because we've had lots of late nights with the play and I had to leave my house at 3:30AM just to get down there in time. This year they've had plenty of rain, unlike previous times I've been there, and the fields and roadsides are lush and colorful and juicy-green and gorgeous. We even saw the largest, thickest stand of Mama Alice flowers (Ipomopsis rubra, or Standing Cypress) that either of us had ever seen in our whole lives... just amazing. Some of the stalks had to have been eight feet tall -- I do not kid. We didn't even know they grew that far south, but according to the web site at Lady Bird Johnson Center, that flower is specifically native to Central and East Texas (although it has spread sporadically to other states). In any case, they were magnificent.

Ripening goodness

[slurp] Oh, hey... didn't see you there... [wiping chin]... just, hehe, enjoying some of these tasty treats growing in my backyard here...

Happy Flag Day, Y'all!

Best. Commercial. EVAR.



Heh.

Outta here

Miss Alice left for Camp Spike 'n Wave (camp for kids with epilepsy -- get it?) this morning. She has been worked-up about it all week, counting down the days, checking to be sure I packed her toothpaste, etc... she always has a rollicking good time down there in Aggieland and I am grateful to whoever sponsors her (I suspect it's her own neurologist, but we will never know) because there is absolutely no way on earth we would be able to send her there otherwise. And I don't know of a kid who deserves a week at camp more than Sweet Miss Alice.

I packed her clothes in individual ziploc bags by day, with all the stuff she needs (I'm an obsessive mom, I know, you don't have to bring that up), along with a little Note From Mom. I remembered the fiasco last year where I woke up the next morning after she left and realized she only had the one pair of yucky shoes she was wearing when they drove away... and I subsequently was completely consumed with worry ALL WEEK LONG about it... so this year she has the pair of tennies she has on, plus another pair, plus a pair of slip-ons for the pool.

Please, God, keep her safe and let her have a week of complete bliss and delight.

Run, Isaac, run!

Isaac ran his first 5K race this morning: the I Like Ike 5K in Denison, Texas (birthplace of President Eisenhower). All summer he's been running with the cross-country team, even though he's not old enough to formally compete in school stuff. The cross-country coach told him he could run with the team anyway. I have been SO PROUD of him; he gets up on his own every morning and walks down to the school and meets the group and runs with them. Coach signed him up for this 5K today and he was totally stoked when it was over. "Maybe I can do a marathon someday!" he exclaimed.

Rosa virginiana

This wild rose is about as wild as I get on a Friday night these days...

It's Hair Appointment Day!

[happy dancing]

I have my regularly-scheduled hair session with the awesomest hair artist EVAR this morning at nine a-m. I used to live in the same town with her, but she moved one direction and I moved the other... but you know, once I find someone who GETS ME and GETS MY HAIR (plus is just plain fabulous and hilarious) and who is a real artist, I don't want to make a switch. So I drive an hour to her salon every eight to ten weeks. It's worth it.

Catch y'all later.

Vitex agnus-castus

Around here we call it the Purple Vitex Tree. Some folks call it a Chaste Tree. It's in full bloom right now here in north TX, and it's quite lovely.

Echinacea purpurea

Mom's got a nice, healthy crop of purple coneflowers this year. Aren't they lovely?

News of the weird

Okay, this is probably the weirdest thing I read on the intarwebz today:

Calvin Klein cologne attracts wild cats and other animals

"Jaguars are highly elusive creatures and for years WCS researchers struggled to develop more effective methods for estimating how many jaguars were in the forest, hidden amongst the ancient Maya temples,” said Roan McNab, WCS Guatemala Country Director. “Now, due to the fact that jaguars love Obsession for Men, WCS field conservationists are getting more precise estimates of jaguar populations.”

Based on the photos released by the WCS, the cologne also attracts pumas, ocelots, tapirs, peccaries and coatis.

I can only imagine what CK's new ads will look like now. Rowr!

So thin...

...your in-laws will NEVER come back!

I should Google that to remember just what commercial that came from.

[returning] Nope. Nobody else remembers, either. Lots of people remember the phrase, though.

So I get this unexpected gift in the mail the other day from a dear friend who happens to be an aficionado of kitchen tools and gadgets, and I figured I'd try it out.

Just a humble Royal Gala apple... crisp and cold from the fridge. Yummy on a hot Texas day in a non-A/C house. It's a nice apple, but take a gander at the awesomeness that is a Chicago Cutlery Santoku knife.

Innit purty?






Soopah-thin slices... nice feel in the hand... yeah, I like my new santoku. A LOT.

Mystery flowers

I haven't yet been able to find an identification for this little vivid blue flower. If anyone else has better luck than mine finding it online, or if you already know what it is, I'd sure appreciate knowing what this is. It was photographed in central Oklahoma.

Mama Alice Flowers

My regular readers may realize that my daughter Alice was named for her great-great grandmother, Alice Lewis Poindexter. She never met Mama Alice, but I grew up knowing my great-grandparents and wanted to honor their memories.

On my way up to the Poindexter family reunion this weekend, I noticed a large stand of Ipomopsis rubra, or Standing Cypress flowers. These were Mama Alice's favorite wildflowers, and they always bloomed right around her birthday, so we always tried to stop alongside the road and pick a bouquet of them to take to her. We never knew their scientific name or anything, we just always called them Mama Alice Flowers.





Aren't they gorgeous? They're not terribly common and seem to prefer the poorer, rockier outcroppings... we don't always see them, but we love it when we do. I was glad all the way down to my toenails to see this batch on the highway north of Tishomingo, Oklahoma.