Christmas 2005

Christmas was a busy day for the Pastas' as it is for many. We started at the Pasta parents' house down in Clear Lake. They generously invited Dave, Barbara, Ted, Kathleen, and Tadd down for breakfast, present opening, and lunch.









After unwrapping great gifts and sufficiently stuffing ourselves, Ted, Kathleen, Barbara, Dave, and Tadd headed back to D&B's to get ready for dinner. As the guys worked on getting an extra table for the meal out of the garage, Barbara and Kathleen worked on dinner--beef stroganoff, spinach madeline, and stuffing along with many delicious sweets.

Nick, Heather and Elissa joined us to open presents. Dave and Nick reacted like little kids as they unwrapped the light sabers Tadd had gotten for them. Elissa didn't seem to excited about all the activity and Barley enjoyed hiding in the presents under the tree. Dan, Margie, and Joanne joined us for dinner.

Brazos Bend State Park

Barbara, Ted, and Kathleen checked out Brazos Bend State Park today. Dave, unfortunately, had to work. It was a Texas beautiful day, the kind that makes those 90 plus degree days in August worth it. Our original intent was to test out Ted and Kathleen's bird watching skills, but we ended up seeing several other species that make their homes on the ground. We saw armadillos, snakes, and many alligators. Typically, the alligators are hard to find in the winter at the park, but since it was such a nice day, many were out sunning themselves. Fortunately, they were far enough away that we didn't have to make any mad dashes to the car. Our final count was 19 alligators of varying size. We recommend checking out the park. There are several trails and a planetarium which is open on Saturday nights.

2005 Christmas Ale Tasting Party

A fun time was had by all at the Annual Christmas Ale Tasting. We had several out of towners including Denver friends Eric, Anida, and Daniel Wheatley, along with Barbara's brother Tadd and dad Ted.

As in the past, guessing the correct beers proved to be quite a challenge. In the end, Dave identified the most, four out of fifteen, and started the White Elephant gift exchange. A wide variety of interesting, one of a kind gifts were brought. A Freedom Pack, Terrorist playing cards, a Got Beer belt buckle, and a special body "improvement" fund were all up for grabs.














After the gift giving, receiving, and stealing was over, many went outside get some fresh air by the chimnea. At this point, all flammable items were up for grabs. Several candles, bottles, and other objects unfortunate enough to be near the chimnea met an untimely, fiery death.



We hope everyone has a great a time as we did and we look forward to seeing everyone back here next year for the 2006 version.

Merry Christmas everyone!

'Horns going to the Rose Bowl! Dave went to the game with Greg and J.J. We biked from the 'Hood, running the gauntlet of car dealership helium balloons on I-610. We sat in the endzone, 9 rows up. UT-70, CU-03 - and we stopped playing after 2.5 quarters. Our 2nd string QB kept making 3rd downs so we put our 3rd string in. The ceremony for the Big XII trophy was cool, and then a rep from the Rose Bowl made the invitation. The players ran around the stadium high-fiving all the fans. Quite an experience!

Barb and the girls (including a special guest appearance by Beth) spent Sat. at Dickens on the Strand and then seeing the Fantastick's. Sunday was scrapbooking day for them, light hanging for Dave.

Thanksgiving w/o Photos

This year was Thanksgiving and the Boyce family compound with the Carroll's from Nacogdoches. A very peaceful visit. The trip up was great in and of itself as it took 4.5 hours, not 9 like our last visit as refugees from Rita. Kathleen set quite the spread for every meal throughout the weekend.

Friday we met up with Beth and spent the afternoon in Boerne. The first day of Christmas shopping was in full swing and the Boerninians were busy preparing for a nightime snow party. Happy hour was spent at the Dodging Duck Brew Pub.

Saturday we me Beth in Bandera, my first time to spend any time there. We took the long way from Kerrville and the fall colors on display in the Hill Country were great - much more vivid than usual due to an ongoing drought.

After lunch at the Old Spanish Trail Restaurant we went hiking in the Hill Country State Natural Preserve. It has some pretty sharp uphills and downhills that would have been really tough at 10,000 ft., not too bad at 1,500 feet.

After hiking we stopped for a couple of beers at Arkey Blue's Silver Dollar - a great hole-in-the-wall bar in Bandera.

Entertaining signs in Bandera:
-On Law Office door: "No solicitation, except for tamales"
-On repair shop bay door: "No spitting in work area"
-On gun shop door: "Attention gun buyers: do not point guns at clerk!"

Electricity Cost 2000-2005

 

Happy early Halloween

Here's Elissa in her very first Halloween outfit. She seems to be quite a night owl according to her parents. Every time we are over there, she is sleeping sweetly. As the night wears on, say around 1:00 a.m. or so, she wants to be awake. Nick and Heather hope to change her ways, but she's so cute sleeping, even if it is during the day, that it's hard to wake her.

They're home

Heather and Elissa made it home on Monday. Everyone is getting to used to the new situation. Enjoy the picture of the proud parents and grandpa Boyce.

Gasoline 10/19/05

 

Announcing Elissa Nicole Boyce!!

We are so excited that Elissa Nicole has finally arrived! She made her debut at 12:32 a.m., Friday, October 21, 2005. She weighed in at 7 pounds even, 18 3/4 inches. She has dark hair and looks just perfect according to everyone in the family. Here's a look or two.
She took her time getting here. Heather went in to be induced around 10:00 a.m. on Thursday morning and ended up delivering by C-section. We got to visit with Heather's mom and sisters for several hours, which was fun. Heather has been a trooper. She was moving around like nothing major had happened 36 hours later. Dad was beaming with pride as were all the assembled relatives hoping to get a closer look in the nursery.
We are now answering the phone, "Pastalaniec house, home of Aunt Barbara and Uncle Dave."

Denver, Part 2

We went back to Denver to visit with the Wheatleys and for a friend's wedding. We enjoyed great weather. The wedding was in the mountains which was beautiful. Our friends Amy and Jason from Dripping Springs joined us at the wedding with their two kids who entertained us all.



































Daniel has a second tooth coming in, although he's a little shy about letting anyone see it. He has become a big fan of drinking cold water out of a straw.

Longhorns, Corn Maze, Aggies, Astros, Italian Fest, Art Fest, and Astros again! Oh My!

The Pastas had a very busy weekend. Saturday started at noon watching the Texas-OU game. It turned out to be a great day for Horns fans as they won 45-12.

Next it was off to the Corn Maze in Brookshire outside of Houston. Dewberry Farms has a petting zoo, lots of animals, a pumpkin patch where you can hand pick your own pumpkin, lots of photo op shots, and even a duck race. We had a great time enjoying lots of the festivities. Next year we will have to return with some kids so people don't wonder why 4 adults are running through the corn maze without any munchkins.



















Next we were headed back to Houston for more sports. The Aggies vs. Colorado and the Astros vs. the Atlanta Braves in game 3 of the NLDS. Needless to say, the Aggies had a bad game. Hopefully they will figure out what the problem was before next week. For some reason, no one approached me for the last half of the game. Could it be the scowl on my face? Or perhaps the possibility of a primal scream coming out at any moment after another missed tackle or dropped pass? I'm not sure.

The Astros, on the other hand, were great. They won 7-3 and took a 2-1 lead in the division series.

Sunday we headed over to the Italian Festival in west Houston. We sampled artichoke casserole, eggplant parmigiana, Italian cream cake, and some sort of bread with garlic, spices and even some sardines. It wasn't bad. We washed it down with a glass of chianti. Like the beerfest, we decided the Italian fest would be better at night.

We stopped briefly by Nick and Heather's to check out the new floor in the baby's room. Very nice. Brenda and Diann were hard at work finishing up the last bit of painting. We saw a little of the Astros-Braves game watching the Astros go down 6-1 early in the game.

We then headed to the Bayou City Art Fest downtown. Lots of great art although nothing that caught our eye. We did keep seeing groups of people clustered together, but not looking at any art. Hmmm... It turned out someone had a radio and the Astros were coming back. We decided to head to the Flying Saucer to watch the end of the game. We were then headed to the gym and church. We didn't make it to the gym or church since the Astros and the Braves played the longest post season game in history. The Astros finally won it 7-6 in the bottom of the 18th inning. Yes, folks that's right, 2 full games in one. The place went crazy. I can't imagine what it was like at Minute Maid. Greg and Cory joined us for an early dinner and then we headed home. Whew!! We needed to get back to work to get some rest.
Next up, St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday. Go 'Stros!!

Back from the Beerfest

Howdy everyone! We've made it back to Houston after a great weekend in Denver. We joined our friends the Wheatleys for great food, beer, and fun. We have decided that Daniel gets cuter every time we see him. I'm not sure we'll be able to handle it much longer.







At one point, Daniel thought enough wine had been consumed so he decided to take matters into his own hands or feet. A karate kick later with his cast and it was goodbye wine glass. Dave points out the lack of stem on the wine glass as Eric re-enacts the action with Daniel's green cast.






Saturday we tried the afternoon session at the beerfest, but decided that we will stick with the evening session from now on. It was a good experiment, but we came to the conclusion that we needed to save the great Colorado fall daylight hours for hikes and save the beer drinkin' for nighttime. It becomes a little disturbing when we are the youngest people anywhere which we were on this occasion. Also, when we were finished with the beer tasting, it was only 5 p.m. How would we pass the night time hours?




We couldn't have asked for better hosts or a better weekend. If this continues, we may have to look for work in Denver. Sunday we did the Race for the Cure in Denver with 65,000 of our closest friends. It is the largest Race for the Cure in the U.S. We can vouch for that. After finishing the race we headed back to the house to relax before our flight back.

Gasoline Prices 9/28/05

Daughter of Rita the Post

Things are getting back to normal. Only half the stations had gas on the way to work this morning, probably 80% had gas on the way home.




















This is a map from Houston Transtar showing traffic speeds for 1:30 am(!) on Thursday morning. Transtar uses signals from toll road EZTags to estimate overall speed for a road. The stretches in gray on I-45, I-10 and 59 outbound mean "no data" - the speeds were so slow that the system would not register them! See all the neat things on the website http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/layers/ or on your mobile device at : http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/mobile/ - you can see real time pictures from all freeway cams and see what each message sign displays.

Now for some lack of damage pics. We were just sideswiped by a hurricane and I am watering my lawn as I type!














Minor twigs, etc., on the front lawn...














One bigger branch on the side...














Rough looking back yard. A neighbor moved the chiminea into the corner - I had left it alone with the though that if the chminea moved the house would have already moved.














Here you can see of the classy window boarding jobs we put up in Willowbend. I am talking with Jewels and Todd about having a window board making day when the weather cools down - cut to exact diminsions and sized for window clips.

Rita the Post Part IV

Posting this for the second time - post at 10am did not go through. Most of Houston lost cable and cable internet last night right when Pittsburgh was completing a pass play at the end of the Steelers/Patriots game. Barbara and I met Kerry at one of the few open pubs in town for dinner. They had 1) 1/2 pound burgers, or 2) chicken breasts.

Houston was quiet. Downtown was almost like the late 80's, nobody around on the weekends. Only about 10% of restaurants open between home and downtown and almost no gas stations with gas.

Rita - The Sequel

Just a short post to let everyone know we are back in Houston. Absent the lack of a reverse-evacuation plan this morning all the Pastalaniecs left Kerrville. We headed south to Victoria, NE on Hwy-59 and then cut east by Brazos Bend park to avoid the traffic. The unenforcable staggered reverse-evacuation plan will be a disaster! We saw only one station with gasoline within 100 miles of Houston. Houston was a ghost town. No paper has been delivered in two days, and all stores are closed. Channel 2 interviewed the crowd at an open HEB, where one Katrina refugee commented on the lack of "lootering" here.

The house was fine and Barley was glad to be home. We had dinner at the Johnson's with the Carters - all in the 'hood was well.

Just now got the computer hooked up and running, more and pictures tomorrow.

Lovely Rita - Post 2

When the going gets tough, the refugees get pedicures! Barbara, Joanne, Margie and Kathleen went and got evacuation pedicures this afternoon. We had a nice lunch of hamburgers, dinner at the new Mamacita's and then settled in to watch the storm come in.

Right now we are all watching on KHOU, a Houston station that has been put on a Time Warner Cable channel. Talking to the folks sitting the storm out, our neighborhood has yet to see rain or much wind. We plan to stay up until the eye hits - more or less.

Lovely Rita - Flight to Kerrville

Howdy from Kerrville

Barb and I and my parents and sister are all Rita Refugees in Kerrville, TX at Barb's parents house. For those of you who don't know, Kerrville is located 60 miles NNW of San Antonio.
















After spending most of Wednesday helping to secure my plant I left Texas City around 2:30pm. This picture shows all of the Safety and Envr. files, moved out of our trailer office, into drums and into ISP's main bldg.

It took 5 hours for me to get from Texas City to our house in SW Houston taking back roads. I-45 was completely jammed packed with folks leaving Galveston for higher ground. I burned almost half a tank of gas driving 50 miles - gas which was quickly becoming a precious commodity.

Wednesday night late Rita was upgraded to a Category 5 Hurricane and was forecast to hit Galveston. Barb and I decided to leave. We set out in both cars at 9am on Thursday morning, got onto Hwy-90A and made it almost to the Beltway before traffic just stopped. We hung a u-turn over the median, drove to Hwy-521 and headed south, almost all the way to Angleton, and then zig-zagged NW and SW staying off 90 until Halletsville. We saw are share of dirt roads and gas lines. The trip, which normally takes 4 hours, took 9 hours. But, we fared much better than those on I-10 and Hwy-90 closer to Houston.

Barley was miserable for the first 2 hours and then only agitated for the next 3. The last 4 hours she slept on my lap with her head tucked between the seat and the door.














My parents and Joanne left Houston about 1:30pm on Wednesday headed to San Angelo, however their hotel reservations were cancelled so they came to Kerrville. Their trip took about 11 hours.

Master Bedroom Redone

Last Sunday things got out of control fast. We went on a mission to replace my 11 year old Gallery Furniture (Mattress Mack really will Save You Money!) mattress. We ended up buying a Restonic viseoelastic foam mattress - essentially a Tempurpedic mattress knock-off.

Then, there was a thought to buy an actual bed frame. We headed to The Dump and found a bed we loved but that came only in a set. We went to many other places and did not find one we liked as much, and, in fact, most solid wood frames cost almost as much as the set at The Dump. So, we bought the set and matching chest of drawers.



Original dresser and bed












New, supersized, "nightstand"











Old bed, no frame












New bed with sleigh style frame












New chest of drawers












New dresser with mirror

Wild Beasts in the 'Hood

This morning on the way to church Jewels spotted a 2.5 foot long dead bobcat about 0.5 miles from the 'hood.

(Picture slightly edited to render it more palatable.)



The fearsome hunter and his father plan to preserve the skin of the wild beast.