long time no post....

as you can tell from the pictures a bit has gone on the last few weeks.... for ease of posting i have gone to photo blogging, more details in the future!!!!!

Some friends from San Antonio were in town for the weekend to get some Hermanninn lovin' we packed it in - from movie to beach to BBQ to train � you name it!

after the train ride this morning, some big smiles...?
 

before the movie, Ice Age 2.... interesting.... 

Alison at mass at St. Andrews (outside). Jake in the isle was in monk mode for most of the celebration... 

Enjoying the day, um after the mall:)
 

dad and i at the baseball game (he really had his eyes more open the rest of the game!) 

Recovering Sunday at the beach - easiest way to soak the paint off:)
 

breathe.... augh! 

covering up our sanding errors:) 

Hard at work... cant get anything done without wearing some pink:) 

Lunch break... the picnic table pre-improvement! (see the work in the background?!?!?)
 

Last Saturday... yard day, mom oiling one of the chairs we sanded down.
 

work in progress... mom working on the purse that she let me help create for a friend's 65th b-day. 

mom heading to the parte' 

Tres genios

This weekend was definitely a weekend of shinning starts! Some shone on stage while others twinkled before our eyes….

It was "Opera Weekend" and beside the absence of Tasha it was a best ever!!!!
My mom and I extended the weekend into a mini-vacation leaving Friday morning.

Our first goal was lunch at Berryhill and we should have realized it was going to be a grand weekend when we hit our first mark! To start, moments before devouring one another or finding some place else, we discovered a Berryhill in Sugarland (outside of Houston - Corpus Christi side) and it was cinco de mayo… so the fish tacos were only $1.50 and the margs were $2 – we were refreshed and shocked!
One good thing lead to another when we checked into the Downtown Hilton without traffic. The hotel was extraordinary. The beds were so fluffy and the downtown view was grand!

mum at the Hilton on the crazy couch...!

We dragged ourselves away form the comfort of our new home to stop by the student art exhibit at Rice, we shouldn't have been surprised – it was great!
Next we hopped over to the village for a little shopping before once again growing hungry and finding a Dim Sum restaurant. In the village!!!! Not only was it there. It was alacart (instead of circling carts) so you got EVERYTHING you wanted fast and fresh!
The shrimp dumplings, the lotus fluffy dumplings, the sweet rice, the red bean filled sesame balls, the… I have to stop before I start to give away the amount of damage we did:) ! only downfall was they had my all time favorite the hairy taro things, but since it was Friday and they had pork it was a no go… exhausted by the wonderful day we returned to the hotel.
I knitted while my mom started to snore:) (before 10!) . like I said the beds were fluffy and we were both a bit dazzled and pleasantly surprised by our sleeping ability at 10 the next morning!



So refreshed from our night and the fresh coffee we started our day with a swim in the indoor rooftop pool. We aqua jogged and swam and listened to the wonderful music until it was time to unify the Opera Family – Jason was on the WAY!!!!

Just as we were finishing getting dressed Jason arrived, full of life, enthusiasm and ready for fun as always. I was blessed with the best Opera Bro! Starving from the drive or swim we went to Mai's to feast on the most wonderful Vietnamese food!

Our next adventure allows mom the genius title! We had decided to visit the Body Work 3 exhibit at the Science museum, but when we arrived the line for a ticket was hours long. My skillful mother noticed that there wasn’t a line at will call, so we found the number and I purchased tickets over the phone and picked them up immediately. In the time it took the operator to answer the phone we had tickets, no line!
Now for the exhibit…. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Worlds as strange as it sounds it is an exhibit of human body parts. Upon the donors consent the human body is injected with a chemical that basically turns it into plastic (I was able to touch some and it really feels just like plastic). Anyway it is done as a research/training method since the body can be segmented, separated and displayed. It was incredible. Some of the more striking things in my mind were seeing the entire web of human nerves and blood vessels independent of their body. We were able to view all the organs individually and within complete bodies. My mom was a wiz with her science background, but it took Jason and I substantially longer to make sense of what we were looking at – who knew what a liver, kidney, nerve, diaphragm etc looked like? It was also interesting to see organs and body parts of diseased patients – lung cancer, emphysema, Alzheimer's, etc. although a bit disturbing it was an awesome to see!


Mum and Jason at the museum

My genus was soon to come, and not surprisingly it came in the area of picking restaurants (Mai's) or packing drinks…. Happy hour at the hotel as we geared up for Carmen.

Happy hour with my knitting....


Carmen was unforgettable! I am sure it is my favorite opera of all times! Lively music, exquisite voices and a fabulous story. It really had the winning combination of lyrics and characters – a gypsy temptress, and infatuated soldier and a smitten bull fighter! I was sucked in!
We ended our first full opera day overlooking downtown Houston from the top of the Hilton at the Skyline Bar & Grill! Unbelievable!

Sunday was equally eventful! My mom and I spent some of our first moments in the pool (I aqua jogged until the bottom of my toe blistered) while Jason, a truly valiant opera brother was Hunter and Gather.
By the time my mom and I were dressed and caffeinated Jason was in his room with breakfast.

Sadly after breakfast it was time to leave the hotel for good….
We attended mass at the Cathedral downtown, beautiful church and wonderfully expressive priest. I learned a few more details on sheep herding then I needed:).

It was time for a traditional lunch at Mingalone's and then The Coronation of Poppea!
In my opinion, Poppea is the only opera that is capable of sharing a weekend with Carmen . I was a little nervous about an almost 4 hour opera after colorful Carmen, but the combination of Jason's moment to shine (getting us into the 4th row!) and some of the most notable operatic voices made it four hours of joyous entertainment! The music was extraordinary not to mention pure with the absence of a full orchestra (there were only a few instruments, several harpsichords, some strings, a few mystery instruments and no winds). I still prefer the storyline and pizzazz of Carmen, but Poppea did have a wonderful story and was a truly breathtaking performance!

Since it has taken me so long to write this, I will save the details of the return and readjustment to corpus!


Jason and Mum outside the Wortham center

Tasha's Birthday!!!!

sharing an special apple:)


Although we couldn’t celebrate with her, we celebrated for her!!!!!

As many of you know, today was Tasha's 28th birthday and since my parents are actually the ones who did all the work… bearing, birthing and bring her up, we celebrated their fine effort!

My mom and I did it to the hilt at the Buc Days carnival! We even had the carnie men rejoicing in Tasha's life, no surprise with my mum's contagious enthusiasm. Long story short, we were thrilled on a ride, well nourished with a turkey leg and candy apple all before meeting my dad at the Hooks game!
Tasha, I did continued the celebration with fries and a very colorful snow cone! Unfortunately the Hooks didn’t get the memo and lost….

Their lack of skill was counteracted with my new trade…. knitting. I am in the process of knitting a dish rag. I learned to knit yesterday and have found it alarmingly addictive… needless to say I was the only one at the ballpark with their knitting needles.

So Tasha, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! I love you!

The battle against the turkey leg.... 

damage done! 

mom recovering in front of the ride we just dragged ourselves from. the carts we road in were round and spun around too. (i am still trying to figure what was worse - mummy's screams or the ride:))