weekenders.

we managed to venture out of the apartment for a few hours today and visit a nearby museum, the Menil. it was not terrible. they had many impressive works from many impressive names, though my favorites were a couple polaroids of andy warhol (they were hilarious), and the 3 joseph cornell pieces they had, which i was pleasantly suprised to see.

there were 2 exhibits not quite ready to open, and several satellite buildings on the grounds which we didn't get to because it was pouring rain by that time, but luckily it's free so i'll definitely go back.

mom: no more iodine injections for you!
miki: i'll be thinking about you a lot this week. heal fast! heal fast!

and the most exciting thing of the day: erinroddy.com is finally a real website! this is a day i've been anticipating for over a year. whew!

jeff went to his first houston critical mass last night. this is a nationwide club, sort of, of bicyclists who ride throughout the city in droves and cause as many traffic jams as possible. it sounds as if they accomplished their mission last night.

silly confederates

favorite quote from work today:
"taxidermy's really come a long way."

on a different (yet exactly the same) note, we've been working with a lot of confederate portraits lately. they had some seriously different ideas about facial hair back then. we started separating them into "neck beard" and "non neck beard" piles. and by neck beard, i mean they don't have any facial hair except from below the chin line down. some even have specially designed shirts! one guy has only shoulder length sideburns.

it's disgusting and beautiful all at the same time.

also, some of them have back stories. one poor fella "accidentally" overdosed on strychnine.

overdose. right.

heck yes!

today was the first day i've walked without pain! hooray for muscles!

autumn, postponed.

the first day of fall felt more like the first day of summer.

we went to a grad student picnic last night at rice. free food, free beer, cotton candy, lots of dogs and babies. good times all around. posted a couple of pictures on flickr.

watching a head explode.

the 16-year-old son of the owners at work is obsessed with steve jobs. the poor boy can think of nothing but steve jobs steve jobs steve jobs. did you know steve jobs is an alien? he has his own planet. he can travel through time. plus, check out this list of his super powers.

well, well... guess who called us up yesterday at the gallery and ordered a print of the roman empire?

that's right.

engineers playing dress-up

anyone interested in a good laugh should watch the rice vs texas football game saturday. espn, i believe. we're so proud of our little owls. haven't won a game yet!

i like the ham.

cars are for suckers.

the walk today was a tad sweaty, but overall very very good.

we have a restaurant called La Strada right across the street from us, whose name becomes a curse word on sundays when they have their "brunch" (cramming twice as many drunk people into a building than should actually be there and blasting techno from 11-6). they take all the parking spaces in a 5 block radius, so poor jeff is usually stuck at home all day with the rattling windows. anyway, i happened across something called the "westheimer block party" on craigslist. turns out one of their 5 stages (think paseo art festival times 20) is in the La Strada parking lot. oh goody.

car is healed! now she gets to sit in the garage for a few more days...

new rule.

it's taken a few little nudges recently, but i've decided to start walking to work. it's 2 1/2 miles, so it shouldn't be more than a 45 minute walk, i hope. and walking 5 miles a day, i think, could do nothing less than make me feel better. which is something i've been searching for.

the first reason for my decision is that i'll be out of a car for a few days anyway, while it's in the (very reputable, according to car talk...) shop. secondly, i just finished reading emma. those ladies in early 19th century walked freakin everywhere. EVERYDAY. if they can do it in their bustles and petticoats, then so shall i. perhaps, even, with bustles and petticoats.

i gave very little thought to riding my bike to work. it would be much faster, but i see no reason to get my bike stolen like all the others in our parking lot. besides, this way i'll be able to take pictures along the way :)

sticky.

i wish it wasn't so hot out. i'd really like to ride my bike for a bit. i took out some recycling earlier and the 80% humidity (and 90+ degrees) immediately overpowered my prescription deodorant. it's unfortunate.

edit: finally able to take a quick ride this evening. yay!

humberto!!

tonights forecast

"Squalls associated with Tropical Storm Humberto will move onto the coast this evening. Winds will gust to 40 mph and intense rainfall will reduce visibility to less than a mile at times. Rainfall amounts through 830 PM will average between a half and one inch with isolated totals between 3 and 4 inches along the immediate. Isolated tornadoes will also be possible as these feeder bands approach the coast."

too bad it's going to completely miss us.

but at least there's this:

www.geostationarybananaovertexas.com/

view the gallery, if possible. the cowboy is our favorite.

things. and stuff.

i should be using this time to repeatedly call all of you and tell you how much i miss you. ugh. so much. and that's just how it is.

so.

texas frickin sucks. with a capital f. any illusions we had in the first few weeks here about it not being "that bad" have vanished. completely. granted, we are probably in the 2nd most tolerable part of the state...but it's still texas. people are still idiots. it's slightly uplifting to know that the american public has succeeded in herding all of the "unwanteds" into one state. solidly packed. but nauseating to be stuck in between them.

anyway. enough of that. we had planned on starting a little tour of houston last weekend- there are countless museums and galleries and just really weird things to check out. there's also a bike co-op that jeff wants to start going to. unfortunately, i got food poisoning and spent 3 days in bed. good times.

i've been really bummed the last few days seeing the weather in oklahoma and colorado. i keep hearing, "it feels like fall!" and here, we just want to know when it's going to dip below 90. we did get a cold front today, which was phenomenal. rain and wind and temps under 80. if only for a few hours. we are reeeeeally looking forward to our trip to OK in november. real fall! i've never in my life thought of oklahoma as having a real fall, since it's always so short. but i'm guessing those 3 days of november will be the coolest weather we see until we make it back to colorado (next year???).

jeff is all school school school right now, which is good. he's taking 3 classes, TAing one, and still doing research. it's keeping him very busy. we still try to ride bikes in the evenings when it's not unbearably hot.

my job is becoming less annoying every day, which is a relief. i've started doing some photography for their website. it's a nice change. i've been on the lookout for some freelance work lately, too, to try to help with our upcoming travel expenses. ugh. rental cars. all of a sudden i feel much more like an adult than i ever have. i really don't like it.

again and again, i'm sorry if i havent written or talked to anyone in a while. there isn't much excitement to report. please enjoy some < 80 degrees for me. bottle it, if possible. send directly.

did i mention how much i hate texas?