Texas Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus Emergency Information System

This is a fantastic resource which I only found out about this morning. When we evacuated for Hurricane Rita, we were competing for hotel rooms with the population of the Houston and Galveston area which were also evacuating. All hotel rooms were booked all the way to Dallas.

Click here to see hotel room availability in Texas during emergency situations. I can't vouch for the accuracy, of course, but I'm going to assume it's a good indication of room availability.

Update on our evacuation plans: My mom, dad and sisters and I are staying put. My aunt and cousins in Port Arthur are going to Dallas. I don't know, yet, what my cousins in mid-county are doing. My guess is they won't be evacuating either.

In case you're wondering about my hurricane plans...

My son, daughter-in-law and grand fabulous daughter have evacuated with my daughter-in-law's family to a safe location.

Tomorrow, I'm going to my mom's with my sisters to help her and dad get things off their patio. Mom recently had back surgery, so we're hoping we don't have to evacuate. A mandatory evacuation has been ordered for our county, but we'll see what happens overnight. At least this time, they're letting us use Interstate 10, which should help matters tremendously...I hope.

If we leave, we'll be going to Dallas where we have family and a few hotel rooms booked. I bought a laptop, but updates after Monday night will depend on power and internet connectivity issues.

Hurri-Schizo-Cania

As a coastal dweller, when a hurricane is headed toward the Gulf of Mexico my brain begins to split into several pieces. The biggest part of my brain doesn't want the hurricane to go towards my little piece of the gulf coast and fuck up my life for weeks or months or, possibly, years.

However, there's another part of my brain that feels bad when I realize that wishing the storm doesn't hit me equals wishing it will hit someone else. I justify my wishing the storm on others by knowing that they are also wishing the storm on me. Bastards.

Then, I also have a part of my brain that enjoys the anticipation of the small storms so I can miss a day or two of work and hang out with family and friends watching the wind and the rain. Of course, when the small storm turns into a big storm I feel guilty for having accidentally willed the big sunovabitch into existence.

I also have a mental double standard when it comes to weathermen. If the forecasted path of a hurricane is away from me, then I think the weatherman is a genius. However, if the path looks like it's headed straight toward my front door, then all weathermen are assholes and don't know what they're talking about. I believe in staying in denial as long as possible.

Hurricane? I don't see no stinkin' hurricane.

New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina - Three Years

Lifted from Tim's Nameless Blog. Read his blog for a first hand look at New Orleans after Katrina.

Hold on to your ass

Click here for details.

Japanese Waterfall

This is crazy!

Shut My Mouth

As I was walking into my office building this morning, I noticed a construction worker type guy looking at me. I smiled at him and thought he looked familiar. He smiled back and I suddenly realized why he looked familiar and stopped myself just before I said...

"You remind me of my gynocologist!"

Guess what I found at Kroger

I have a friend currently living in England who did a fabulous post a few months ago about Marmite (click here). While my friend and her dog (the fabulous Trudy!) didn't like the Marmite, the ingredients, description (salty, oniony, soy saucey, savory, caramely, beef boulliony) and nutritional information sounded intriguing.

My friend sent a jar back to the states through channels which got clogged at the BFF Jack juncture, so we agreed to meet for lunch sometime when my friend is home for the holidays.

Though I still hope to keep the lunch date, one less item will need to be packed for the trip home. While shopping at Kroger Friday, I didn't have a list so I went up and down each aisle. As I walked up an aisle I seldom travel, my eyes were drawn to the bright white letters on the red background that you see above: MARMITE!

As luck would have it, I have my son's dog Oakley here with me for my Marmite tasting experiment. Don't worry Cory and Jamie, I only gave him a small taste...in the interest of science.

• The experiment began on a questionable note when I opened the jar and the Marmite jumped out of the jar, ran down my hand and onto my kitchen counter. Evidently, it made the trip from England upside down.
• I carefully leaned over the jar and took a cautious whiff and thought, "Mmmm...smells good."
• Oakley, who rarely stands on his hind legs, danced around the kitchen with his nose in the air intrigued by the savory goodness.
• I dipped my pinky finger into the jar and took a little taste and thought it tasted interesting: color of soy sauce, texture of melting caramel, taste was salty, beefy and yeasty. Not bad.
• Oakley was beside himself with excitement.
• I toasted a couple of pieces of bread and spread a tiny bit of Marmite onto the bread.
• I tasted it and...uh...yuck. Something about the heat from the bread caused my Marmite experience to take a turn for the worse. All the things I thought I liked about the condiment were now multiplied by about 200 percent and not in a good way.
• I gave Oakley a tiny taste and he ate it. No problems there. He is part Jack Russell after all. Isn't that a British breed?
• After two pieces of turkey lunch meat, three grapes and a strawberry and thirty minutes later, I still feel the Marmite in my throat. I'm not kidding. Some of it is clinging desperately to the back side of my esophagus and won't let go.
• Not only that, I still taste it and can't get the smell off my hands from when the stuff originally jumped out of the jar at me.
• Since I paid $6 (!) for the tiny jar, I put it in my refrigerator so that my guests can be amazed at my sophisticated tastes.
• I put it right beside the Coors light and a jar of salsa.

"Just a Plane Ride Away," I hope we're still able to keep our Christmas time lunch date, but we shall never speak of Marmite again.

Little Girls Will Do Anything for a Stuffed Animal

The countdown begins

Exactly five weeks from now, I'm going to New Orleans with my cousins Zina and Kara and some other people I've never met. We're going to do one of these...



and we're going to do one of these...



and I'm going to do a couple of these...



and probably a few of these...



then, I guess I'll come home.

Dammit.

Earworm(s)...sort of

This is the pic I used for the Yearbook Yourself Post

This is the pic I used for the "Yearbook Yourself" post below.

Yearbook Yourself

You must do this immediately. Click here to "Yearbook Yourself."

Ning!

I do realize that I keep going on and on about this high school alumni site I joined, but this post isn't about that site specifically. This post is about the fact that you can create your very own social network.

Go to www.ning.com and check it out. Family reunion? Friends from previous jobs? Cousins you want to keep up with? Start your very own MySpace-type network. Everyone can upload pictures and groups and discussions can be formed on specific areas of interest.

I haven't created my own network, so I'm not sure how simple it is to do that. However, based on the ease of use as a member of a Ning network I'm pretty sure it's a snap to set up your own space.