The Greening of Houston

Being from the wonderful Pacific NW, I have, for all intensive purposes, been recycling my whole life. Recycling in WA state is a normal, no questions asked thing you just do. Why wouldn't you just put recycling in one place and trash in another? Like why wouldn't you put a seat belt on your child? It's painless and it just might save the world.

So moving to Houston was quite the culture shock 7 years (really, that long) ago when I actually had to FIND a drop off for my recycling AND it was 10 miles away. For reference, I dropped my recycling off on my way to work to not waste the gas to do it. A few years ago we got curbside recycling in our neighborhood and it was one measly bin. Since I actually recycle the bin was a joke and I had to call and get more of them to cover the 3 bins worth of recyclables we produced. Plus, no curbside glass pickup, so I was still keeping that separate and taking it to the drop off.

Now, no kidding, I have a 90 GALLON recycling wheelie bin of awesomeness!! It is amazing!! I am literally a happier person knowing that Houston is doing something NICE and environmentally friendly. Not only that, but they now take glass and we don't have to sort. Just like what we had in Seattle 10 YEARS AGO!! So here is is our wonderful new Houston recycling bin on the curb for the first day of the new pickup. Note: It is actually still the same size as our enormous garbage can which we never fill and don't even put out weekly. So my only hope is that one day, Houston will take away the big garbage bin. Thereby forcing people to recycle since they can't stuff all the crap in a small can. One day, baby steps for Texas.



p.s. When we thought we were going to move to Friendswood, I was actually sad to realize I would have had to give up my new recycling bin. Added bonus for not buying the other house! :)

Vegas Baby! Vegas!

Last weekend we skipped out Friday morning and flew to Vegas for my somewhat belated 30th birthday celebration. We were supposed to go two weeks ago (like for my actual birthday) but I got assigned to a big meeting at work and couldn't go sneaking out that Friday.

The morning we flew in and checked into the Venetian for the weekend. Very nice. I am now officially a fan of the Venetian hotel since it is all suites and very nicely done. I enjoy having the extra space in the room to relax, which is the point of the trip, instead of a normal hotel room where the only place to "be" is on the bed whether it is watching TV, eating, or sleeping. Friday night we went to dinner and then saw the Blue Man Group, tickets included in the hotel package we got. Love the recession, great vacation deals. Blue Man Group was awesome, as a former drummer, I enjoy any percussion type show. My other comment about BMG... random. The show as a whole is neat, but just has a serious of random elements strung together.

Otherwise, Sat we did some gambling and shopping and spent most of the day relaxing. I started out good on the blackjack table the first time we sat down but, as is always the case, we lost that later in the day. But at least we had some of their money to lose and it was less of ours. Sunday morning we had an excellent breakfast delivered to the room and it wasn't just a lame hand you a tray room service. The guy came in and made up the room dining table with linens and everything and set the table with food. Good food too. Then sadly we had to pack up and head to the airport.

Quick trip but it was fun and it was nice to get away for a couple days at least. Plus, we got to trade what was apparently a crappy, rainy Houston weekend for a sunny and 70 Vegas one. I'll take it.

I'm sorry, they did what to the roof?!?!

Well we thought we were going to buy a new house, but it turns out that is all it was. Friday after work we had the home inspection completed. At first, it wasn't so bad. Some minor problems you'd expect, a slightly more serious one that none of the external outlets were on GFCI circuits... and then we got to the attic.

Holy Cow. We actually spent a lot of time up there because the inspector had that many photos to take. The first major issue was that some of the structural supports that should have been 2x8's were really a 2x4 attached to a 2x6, 2 extra inches of support right? Whatever. The next major issue was that about half the roof rafters were cut anywhere from 1-3 inches short and scrap lumber was used to scab it all together to reach the ridge line. No kidding, one rafter even had a piece of wood wedged in between the end of the rafter and the ridge for those extra couple inches to nail to the ridge. Then the last major problem was that the actual ridge board was cracked across 3/4 of the house. And a no joke crack I probably could have put my pinkie finger through in places. I know this house survived Ike, but if I lived there I'd be worried every time the wind blew.

So whew! Best $425 we've invested in anything. The inspector we used was the same one from our first house and obviously we think pretty highly of the guy. As he is only a home inspector, per protocol he recommended we "get a structural engineering inspection" in his report. Totally doesn't matter though, we've both been 'engineers' long enough to know what's wrong with the construction and really you don't need to be an engineer to figure that out. So anyone buying a house in H-town and needs an inspector, do we have the guy for you.

Well now, this is the reason we didn't yet have our current house on the market. We are pretty tired of going to look at houses that only half meet our criteria and have decided to participate in the recession by staying in our current home for now instead. Maybe we should have a house 'reheating party' for our current place.

Vote Colbert!

I think Steven Colbert is awesome and since he loves NASA so much he deserves this. He does more good PR for NASA than anyone else, so he should get the module named after him. Write in Colbert for the name of Node 3 here!

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For your birthday... a house!

Ok, well it isn't really a birthday present, but John and I found a house over the weekend and put an offer in which was accepted after some negotiation. So there it is, we are moving and will close Mar 27th. Crazy times have began as we now try to get our current house ready to sell (neutral colors booo!) in addition to getting inspections and financing in order for the new house. So busy, busy birthday (which is today).

Over the weekend though, we did go out Saturday night for a repeat event of a long standing tradition of going to Hooters and then playing Bingo. This started when I was in college by Mona and is still a heck of a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who came and I hope we've converted a few people to the joys of bingo. The only sucky parts were that out of our huge table of 17 or 18 people no one won and we were totally being unfairly blamed for "making too much noise for the called to hear the Bingos." We were totally getting a talking to by the bingo noise nazis and were trying to tell her that we weren't making that much noise and it was the other tables around us and they she shouldn't just assume a table of young people (as in not 60 years old) were to blame. A table of regulars near us even had to jump in and defend us because she wouldn't believe us. She finally went away and chastized the right table, what a joke but still had a good time.

Time Spent Training

I hadn't gotten a chance to update the blog, but I've got a couple minutes for a brief update. Last week I was in Herndon, VA for a whole week of new employee training (a.k.a. brainwashing). The first couple days weren't so bad consisting of here is how the company works, timecards, etc. The second couple of days though were absolutely awful. They lump a lot of people together for that and I was in the same training people fresh out of college take. Which means, they taught me how to make powerpoint presentations, the do/don'ts of presenting, how to interview a client, etc. It was TERRIBLE and generally insulting that I was there. I took a week off from my actual job (putting me behind on several tasks) to go learn how to make powerpoint presentations? Really? As if all my previous work experience didn't do that enough. Overall, I'd say it is a poor use of company money to fly me to DC to take a course in powerpoint.

The upside of the trip was getting to meet new people and hang out with some old friends. Matt and April along with Nicholas were kind enough to pick me up one night and we got to catch up on old times over dinner. I also met a ton of work people from all over the country. There were several folks from San Antonio and Arizona there and I hun gout with them a bunch. Good times and only their shared disgust over the powerpoint training kept us from hurting someone. We were the "bad" kids making jokes in the teachers very serious class. Oh well.

I arrived back in Houston just in time for Jaime's (not still a) Surprise birthday party. Happy B-day!

Birthdays and V-Days

As an annual tradition, we had a birthday party Friday night. In fact we had 10 birthday parties on Friday night. Among our group of friends, there are 10 of us with birthdays between Jan, Feb, and March (with those March birthdays being the best). Instead of actually trying to have that many "birthday" parties, as if we were short of excuses to hang out, Erin and Cory hosted the big joint bash for everyone. If actually was Erin's Friday the 13th birthday and we all had a great time. Here is the photo of everyone celebrating their birthdays. This preceded the cops breaking up the party for being too loud. Not bad for a bunch of old farts like us anymore.

Following the massive Friday birthday party, was Valentine's day and a day obviously for just two. John had roses delivered Saturday morning to the house for me (what a sweetheart!, love you!) and we went out to dinner at Tommy's Saturday night. It was of course busy but someone must have said they were "John M" and stole our table seating so we waited an extra half hour or so instead of just an hour. But no bother, the manager bought us a round for the delay which is pretty good considering John was drinking 12year scotch and I was drinking Grey Goose. Still and great dinner and a good evening with the hubby.

We spent most of the rest of the weekend house shopping. Given the economy we might take advantage of the mortgage rates of a lifetime and upgrade while there are deals out there. Nothing much to report on this front yet. There *may* be a house we want (that actually meets ALL of our criteria) but no calls yet. Sunday afternoon I finally had time after house hunting to make John his Valentine's present, a German Chocolate Cake from scratch, frosting included.

Ike-tastic Remodel Complete

Finally, we have finished putting our house back together from the Ike damage. The major work in the study was complete in November and we primed and painted the ceiling a month ago. But we finally agreed on a color, painted the walls in the study, hung a new ceiling fan, and got new window treatments for the new room. The only thing left is hanging pictures but the study is complete and is now the brightest and cheeriest room in the house.

Corporate Excess Can Be Great

One of the perks of John's job (never Nujoud's since government contractors get squat) is the perks he gets every once in awhile from their contractors. Saturday night, we both got to go to the Rocket/Timberwolves basketball game in a luxury suite. Having never had the pleasure of a luxury suite before I was very interested to see what they looked like. Gotta say, pretty sweet suite!

We showed up and the contractor had a full bar and the food service included a BBQ brisket carving station in the living room type area. So we chowed down on food and drink and enjoyed the game from some super plush seats, wish all stadium seats were that nice. The contractor also had 4 or 5 seats on the floor, so we also spent the third quarter on the floor in the 4th row and mid-court. We confirm, Yao is a tall mama-jamma. Anyway, nice night, good game, and the Rockets won.

Ferry-Tale Wedding

Just a quick post with the weekend recap. Mona and Shaun got officially hitched Saturday night at a beautiful wedding on the Skansonia Ferry which is in permanent morrage on Lake Union in Seattle. They totally lucked out with some fantastic weather and we even got beautiful sunset shots from the boat before the ceremony. I was freezing my used-to-hot-Texas buns off all weekend but it was definitely worth it.

I was extremely happy to be at the wedding and celebrate with my sister. I got to see some old friends of Mona's who I've know forever too. And also got to steal my BFF from high school Andrea away from her job for a long lunch in downtown Seattle Friday. Saving the environment can wait another hour and a half! John had a good time too getting to hang out with my brother for a day while I ran around Seattle even.

Overall it was a great weekend and the wedding was beautiful on the vintage ferry. I don't have many pictures seeing how I was in the ceremony and running around but here are the good ones I did have. Congratulations, Mona and Shaun! Love you two both!