Weekend Plans

Fall is definitely here. That means that the temperature is actually pleasant when I go out to get the paper in the morning. This is a great season to live in Houston.

Our weekend plans are as follows: father and son golf, lunch at a restaurant next to a railroad track, and a Texans game.

In household news, Matthew is going home with a friend after school. This is a big deal for him.

In local news, Continental Airlines keeps pestering me to support their effort to get a route to Shanghai. Competition must be pretty stiff, as they have never done anything like this before. For some reason, they keep asking me but not Kevin, their golden customer.

In state-wide news, our governor's race is a joke. It's at the California level of absurdity and that's saying a lot. We have a barely tolerated Republican incumbent with bad hair, an independent candidate who bills herself as "one tough grandma," another independent who is a Jewish cowboy/author/singer guy, and a Democrat who is MIA so far on the local tv mudslinging commercial circuit. Is it November, yet?

Everybody have a great weekend.

Edit to answer a comment: My plans for this weekend are market and laundry during the father/son golfing, then lunch at the railroad restaurant and a Texans game. It's exciting, I know. Everyone try and contain your excitement. (4:51CST)

Wall of Fame

Matthew made the Wall of Fame last week. Each kid filled out a profile and had his or her photo taken (second row, third from right):



Matthew's profile said:

When I'm not in school, I like to: update my website.

When I grow up, I think I might like to: drive a train.

If I had one wish for today, it would be: to visit the White House.

My hero is: my mom because she loves me and does things with me.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Only a week late, but here are the pictures from the Texans home opener on September 10th:

The world's best tailgater:

Reliant (glad we didn't name it Enron) Stadium in all its glory:
Despite the Texans annual suckiness, this is a great place to see a game:
Look! The Texans are winning! I had to take a picture because I knew it wouldn't last.
Told you so. This grassy area used to be Six Flags Astroworld.

Vacation, part 8

We also took a day trip to Antwerp, Belguim. It was a spontaneous trek. We did no research. Maybe that shaped our opinion of the city.

The train we took was old without a/c, but the station was nice.

McFeast. It's true that they use mayo like we use ketchup. Giant white blobs on friend fries. Yuck.
Antwerp is a weird city. There are a lot of ugly buildings. It looks like a former Communist city with no charm. Next to a classic old building, you'll find a glass office tower that's run down and in need of repair. Of course, we were on foot, and maybe we totally missed the pretty part. Here is one building.
The train station leads to this pedestrian street full of stores. I think people from other countries take the train to shop here. We ended up eating lunch, walking a little bit, buying some Belgian lace, then hopping another stinky, hot train for home. Doesn't anybody use deoderant over there? Apparently not. Here is another train signal picture for Matthew. Final verdict: the Belgian countryside is prettier than Antwerp.

Vacation, part 7

Wow, Blogger wants to work today. Maybe it will take less than an hour to post these.

Here is the high-speed train we took to Germany. Total travel time from Amsterdam to Cologne was about 2 hours.
I took some train station pictures for Matthew.
The view on the way home.
This picture was for Matthew, too. Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a railroad crossing from a high-speed train?
Countryside. Germany is really pretty. We want to go back sometime.