He's My Favorite Jesus

I was listening to Christmas carols today and heard "Away in a Manger."

Away in a manger,
No crib for His bed
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head.

That's when I realized that Baby Jesus is my favorite Jesus. So little. So sweet.

Adolescent Jesus seems like he was a handful, running off and hanging out with teachers and all, and the Jesus who kicked everybody out of the temple scares me.

Of course, the Jesus that turned water into wine and whipped up all those loaves and fishes would be cool to hang out with and the Jesus who calmed the storm would come in handy here on the Gulf coast.

Jesus on the cross makes me sad and resurrected Jesus makes me aware of my unawesomeness and I would always be averting my eyes around him.

But, Baby Jesus. Ah, yes. Baby Jesus. I could hug him and squeeze him and run with him and make him laugh.

Baby Jesus. He's my favorite.

Ava's First Trip to the Houston Zoo

Click here for all the pictures and a few videos.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Thanksgiving!

Click here for all the pictures and a few videos.

I hate this f*cking commercial...and I've seen it at least 25 times tonight.

Dodge Ram commercial: "I am full..." Seriously. WTF?

Oakley Anderson | A Dog Named Christmas

Click to vote for Oakley!!

Oakley Anderson | A Dog Named Christmas

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Congratulations, Elliott and Maritza!!

My sister Terry's son Elliott married the beautiful Maritza Saturday afternoon. There's a slideshow below. I didn't get pictures of everything, because I was helping with the gumbo and the cake, but I think I got lots of good shots.

You'll recognize the Grand-Fabulous-Ava and the Amazing Cory and the Incredible Jamie. The Incredible Jamie not only performed the ceremony, she made the punch. Now, that's what I call multi-tasking.

Longneck Road CD Release Party

CD Release Party
My friends Longneck Road will be having a CD release party this Friday, November 27th. The party will be at The Pacesetter here in Beaumont. About the show from the Longneck Road website:

Friday, November 27, at The Pacesetter Lounge in Beaumont! Longneck Road's CD Release Party for its debut album "Texas Rock" will be held at The Pacesetter Lounge the Day After Thanksgiving! The music starts at 8:30 p.m.! Longneck Road will hold drawings to give away band T-Shirts, CD's, and stickers. In addition, at the end of the night, the band will give away a guitar that was autographed by Charlie Daniels on November 5, 2009, when Longneck Road opened for The Charlie Daniels Band at the "Hats Off To Industry" event held in Winnie, Texas. Come out and help Longneck Road celebrate the release of "Texas Rock"!

Traveling with Longneck Road - Longneck Road World Tour!
Click here for a fabulous slideshow of the Longneck Road Texas Rock World Tour. Buy your copy of the Texas Rock CD, take it with you on vacation, take a picture and forward it to the band. It shall be the biggest "World Tour" of all time!

You can buy the CD on CD Baby (click here) or at the Logon Cafe in Beaumont. You can also download the individual tracks from CD Baby, if that's how you roll.

Video: "The Way She Walks"


Don't forget to go to Radio Free Texas to request Longneck Road songs to keep them #1 on the charts!

Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines at Courville's

Tonight we saw another terrific show at Courville's. I know what you're thinking. Does Laurie ever eat a disgusting meal in a lousy restaurant or go to a bad concert? Yes, I do. However, unless people are mean to me, you won't read a bad review here. You'll have to find those places on your own.

That being said, I've never had a lousy meal or seen a bad concert at Courville's. Tonight was no exception. The gumbo was hot and delicious and the music was fantastic.

The opening act was Erik Ellington and Spencer Marks of Beaumont. They play around town a lot and you should definitely try to catch their shows.

The main act consisted of Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines. The crowd was much smaller than the usual Courville's crowd and all you people who stayed home missed an incredible show. Terri and Lloyd are amazing musicians and Terri has one of the most amazing folk/blues/jazz voices I've ever heard.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Check out the Courville's calendar and go to their concerts. The food is always good, the music is always terrific and nobody is ever mean to you.

This and That

Happy birthday to my beautiful son!!! I love you!


I love getting a new big fat book and being excited about the world I'm about to enter.

I get all warm and bubbly as I read the first sentence.

Then, as soon as I can, I find the character I will identify with throughout the story

and that I will play in the movie version of the book.

Casting directors can reach me through this blog.

I'm cheap.

Kyoto Japanese Restaurant

I've finally gotten my hands on a menu from the Japanese restaurant in the Kroger shopping center on Phelan. I've had takeout from there a couple of times and the food is delicious. For a small restaurant with only one cook, the menu is incredibly varied.

Kyoto serves sushi which is quite good. We've had the crunch roll, California roll and spicy tuna roll which were all delicious. We've also had the Tom Yum soup, hibachi scallops, hibachi chicken and chicken fried rice which were all great. Their hibachi vegetables are also excellent.

As you can see by the menu above, there are lots of things we haven't tried, yet. I plan to try the spring rolls and hibachi shrimp soon.

The restaurant also serves beer, wine and sake. However, since I've only had orders to-go, I'm not sure about their beer and wine selection.

Kyoto Japanese Restaurant
3851 Phelan Boulevard
409-838-9888 or 409-838-9882

Monday - Saturday
11:00a.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Guess the Breed

My friend Carly bought the puppy you see in the pictures below. She isn't sure of the breed, but lots of people are guessing St. Bernard.

For around $100 a person can send their dog's DNA to be tested. Carly and I considered having a contest on my blog and charging people $1 to make a guess as to Lily Faye's breed. The $1 would be used toward the testing and the winner would receive a lovely Major Award. We were going to donate any money over the cost of the DNA test to the local Humane Society.

However, I have discovered that I'm too lazy to create a PayPal account. Maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, what kind of puppy mix do you think Carly bought? Lily Faye is 6 weeks old.

Excuses, Excuses

I was going to do a blog post tonight about the fact that I like the new television series "V" and that I'm going to be really pi$$ed off if the network cancels the series without having a final episode leaving me hanging like Swingtown and Invasion and Deadwood and Jericho and about how as of right now I like all of the aliens better than I like any of the humans, but then I started playing Bejeweled and Farmtown and Plants vs. Zombies and then dug out my Nintendo DS and played some Guitar Hero on Tour all while trying to watch Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters Academy, so I didn't get to do a blog post.

Sorry.

Did I mention I got 2nd Place in the costume contest?

I guess I still haven't posted my lovely tutu Halloween costume pictures. I also guess I forgot to mention that I got second place (to the lovely bride...Debbie Howard Tamez) in the costume contest.

Click here for all the Halloween pictures.

Tutu to you

I bought a hot pink tutu to wear with my Halloween costume this year and I love it. It's so girly and fluffy and pretty and fun that I wish I could wear it every day all day long.

Yesterday, my friend Jennifer asked, "Don't you have a tutu?"

"Yes, I do," I said.

"May I borrow it?" she asked.

"Of course," I said.

As I carried my lovely pink tutu into work this morning, I wondered which of the following is more strange:

• that someone needs to borrow a hot pink tutu,
• that a 54 year old woman has her very own hot pink tutu, or
• that someone who needs to borrow a hot pink tutu actually works with someone who owns her very own hot pink tutu?
  

This and That

• I realized when I was putting my jeans into the washer that I never use my back pockets. Seems like a waste of two perfectly good pockets.

• On A&E and most of those other "Discovery" channels, before a program is shown which pertains to psychics or ghosts or the supernatural, a disclaimer is shown stating that the views of the program are not necessarily those of A&E or Biography or any of those "Discovery" channels. Why do they feel the need to disclaim all things paranormal? It's not like the programs advocate murder or mayhem or marijuana. It's just ghosts for corn's sake.

• That being said, you should be watching Celebrity Ghost Stories on the Biography channel (disclaimer notwithstanding).

• When my sisters and I were little girls, our mom used to "let" us brush her hair. Notice I said "let" us, like she was doing us a favor by giving us the privilege of brushing her hair. Now, I "let" my grand-fabulous-daughter brush my hair. Trust me, if you ever have the opportunity to trick someone into brushing your hair, do it.

• I met some friends for dinner tonight at Cheddar's in Port Arthur and had a fabulous waitress named Christina. Christina actually works in the bar, but when she noticed we hadn't been waited on, she went out of her way to make our dining experience pleasant. Amazing waitstaff should be acknowledged and, Christina, this little paragraph is for you. So, everybody, go to Cheddar's in mid-county, ask for Christina and tip her well.

Coming soon: an updated post on the Japanese restaurant by Kroger. It's called Kyoto and I haven't been there since shortly after they opened, but had takeout from there the other night with Cory and Jamie and Ava and it was wonderful. I'll be picking up a menu (and food) again later this week and I'll post the menu here.

Longneck Road Meets Charlie Daniels...and vice versa

My friends in Longneck Road opened for Charlie Daniels last night and had a great time playing their music for a huge crowd. Longneck Road is Dick LeMasters, Robert Arena, Miles Sykes and Ron Arceneaux.

You can request their music, and I wish you would, on Radio Free Texas (www.radiofreetexas.org).

You can also buy their CD or download their songs individually by going to CD Baby (click here).

Their next show will be Friday, November 27, 2009 at The Pacesetter here in Beaumont for their CD release party. You should go. In fact, I insist.

The Pacesetter
6358 Phelan Blvd
Beaumont, Texas 77706-6159
(409) 866-2100

Something I Stumbled Upon

Wandering the Internet Today

***Click the pictures to make them bigger.***

"Duh" headline of the day...

"Abundant" sunshine? What's tomorrow's forecast? "Inadequate" frost?

I loved today's "Google"...

I have a cold...and a plan.

I have a cold in my nose. It's just starting, so I'm not too snotty, yet. I'm in the early stage where the eyes feel warm and the head feels fuzzy and the body yearns for something soft and cushiony.

The Plan

5:00 p.m. - Leave work.

5:07 p.m. - Enter Kroger.

5:29 p.m. - Leave Kroger.

5:35 p.m. - Enter garage.

5:38 p.m. - Put away groceries.

5:41 p.m. - Go upstairs, put on pajamas, wash face.

5:48 p.m. - Go back downstairs, lay on couch, insert arms into Snuggie.

5:49 p.m. - Sleep

No Facebook. No Farmtown. No blog post.

Wait.

This is your blog post.

Enjoy.

The Fun Theory

Volkswagen has the crazy idea that by making things fun, people can be trained to do things that are good for them. I'll drink to that.




Click here for more information.

Pictures! Pictures!

I realize I haven't finished all my postings for Dannielle's skydiving competition and I just uploaded tons of Halloween pictures. For now, here are slideshows with all the pictures. I'll have stories later. The slideshows have some little videos in them, by the way.

Click here for skydiving competition slideshow.

Click here for Halloween slideshow.

Click here for all my uploaded pictures.