Memorial Day

It started raining in the pre-dawn hours and didn't finish until six inches of rain came out of the sky. Much thunder and lightning before the sun came up. Just like with hurricanes and earthquakes, Matthew slept through the whole thing.

As you can see, we still got our holiday meal cooked. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it was raining very hard. The second picture shows a little bit of flooding. We needed the rain, but it made the pool cold again. Temp should be back up by the weekend.

Hope everyone had an easy-going holiday. Unless you're in Canada, then it's just happy Monday to you.

School's Out for Summer

Already? Yep. They get out in May here. Does this look like an incoming third grader to you?



Matthew got to pick where he wanted to go for lunch after school today (last day = half-day). He chose the grocery-store deli counter for chicken strips and potato wedges.

Here's his final report card:

Reading - 92
Comp/Grammar - 94
Spelling - 96
Math - 94
Penmanship - S
Science - E
Art - S
Social Studies - E
Music - E
P.E. - E
Health - E

Days absent: 0
Perfect attendance! Not bad, huh?

P.S. If you're going to comment, include your name. Thanks. Comments won't show up right away because I have to manually publish them. Keeps out the spam.

Goode Weekend

We went to Goode's BBQ for lunch on Saturday. That's definitely on the list of places we'll take you if you come to Houston.

We watched Chicken Little for "family movie night." Matthew liked it.

Sunday the men got haircuts then played in the pool.

All in all, a pretty low-key weekend.

What Would Earl P. Think?

I saw this sign just outside downtown Houston and had to take a picture of it:
Halliburton
On the Run
Collect Billions
Duncan Oklahoma
May 17

I wasn't sure what it meant at the time, but now I know it was related to the relocation of Halliburton's annual shareholders' meeting.

Halliburton was founded in Duncan. My grandma was from Duncan. Now I wish she would have told more Earl P. Halliburton stories back in the day. She knew more than she shared with us. I coulda been a Halliburton.

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love

Today was the second grade Living History Museum. Each kid picked a famous person, did research, wrote a report, memorized the report, then dressed up as the famous person and gave a speech.

Matthew was Elvis Presley. We decided to go with "skinny Elvis" because we couldn't secure a size 8 polyester pants suit or get Matthew all bloaty in the short time frame. Matt's hair was too short to do much styling. He was supposed to have a guitar, but he wouldn't hold it.


At school, the kids stood by these red dots. When parents stepped on the dot, the child would give their report as the famous person. "Hi, my name is..." It was fun to go around to each kid and listen to their stories. Matthew did well, but got tired about halfway through the 90-minute event.

There was a trend in choices. Boys tended to pick athletes. There were lots of baseball costumes, 2 Tony Hawks one Vince Young (rolls eyes) and 3 Dr Seuss. Girls picked slutty celebs or athletes (gymnasts, 2 Michelle Kwans and a Mia Hamm). My favorites were Bill Gates and Lucille Ball (played by our adorable red-headed neighbor).

I took a mini-video of Matthew's speech. I can try to email it to you if you want.

Orno Mustache

Forbes' "Best Places for Business and Careers" list has Houston at #3, thankyouverymuch. Suck it, Dallas!

Saturday we went to see the Houston Dynamo play FC Dallas. Our soccer team (which was the San Jose Earthquakes until this year) plays at the University of Houston. Here's a pic of the view from an earlier game in the season:


Two weeks ago, we saw the Dynamo play Salt Lake. Our hooligans taunted their goalie by calling him "Porno Mustache" over and over. This past week, I heard Matthew doing the same taunt in the bath tub, only he was saying "Or No Mustache." Fearing he would say this cheer on the playground, I told him the crowd had been saying "No More Mustache." He bought my fib and a recess crisis was averted.

Pool Watch

Pool pre-season has begun! The water temperature is at 81 degrees right now. That means you get in somewhat slowly, but are fine after a few minutes. Unless you're my mother. Then it's still too cold for swimming.

Unless the outside temperature goes too far below 70 degrees for a while, the pool should be good for swimming until October or so. Make your reservations at the ranch now. We provide towels, chairs, XM Radio, and a kid you can throw in the water at no extra cost.

We got the pool replastered in March. Here's before, after and a close up of the surface.

Before:


After:

Surface close-up:

Howdy

In the tradition of Viva Tallahassee!, this little ditty will be used to remind everyone that we didn't die, we just moved away. It happens sometimes.

Feel free to forward the link to other relatives/friends who like reading about nothing.