15 Days Until Christmas

This is where I go to get fed, right?

Today we made sure to attend the 11pm Mass at Sacred Heart. After Mass the blessing of the new Co-Cathedral's great bells was scheduled, along with the last tour of the new church prior to its opening in April 2008. The bells, named after the founders of religious women's orders in the Houston area, did not arrive on time - held up at customs in the Port of Houston. All 4 bells weigh about 2-tons! As Father Troy said - it was not so much a problem for the clergy, the scheduled bishops or the parishioners as it was a disappointment for the 100+ nuns who came! The tour was great. Most impressive so far were the 2 installed statues - click here to see the Shrine to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ - a painted wood statue with a gilded gold rippled wood background. The picture does not do it justice!

After Mass Barbara ran the YMCA Jingle Bell 5 mile run - Christmasy, but 85 F and humid!

Who needs lead contaminated Chinese toys when I can have tennis balls?

Yesterday Barbara and I finally played tennis, after talking about it for 6 years. "Played" would, however, imply something like a volley back and forth. Usually the ball got to my side and was either 1) missed, 2) hit awry or 3) hit back to Barb but out of bounds. At first she thought I was trying to be funny - she finally became convinced that I have no eye-hand coordination whatsoever - the truth! The fact that I just switched form -7.5 to -8.0 contacts just supports her conclusion. Basic web research shows that -8.0 means I see the same thing at 20 feet as a "normal" person sees at 1,000 feet. Yikes!

Sean loves the tennis balls in a can!

Nemesis II

Today we finally broke down and bought a new Roomba 560. Our old 3rd generation Roomba's, Nemesis and Dr. Doom, were starting to show major signs of old age. This 5th generation Roomba rocks. It is much quieter, navigates obstacles even better, and even slows down before it bumps into things. Amusing: because it sounded different Barley followed it around with her claws unsheathed for quite a while!

Welcome to Houston

The new Roomba's "lighthouses" require C batteries, something we have no other use for. I went to grab batteries from our battery storage unit in the garage and found the above (excuse the out of focus picture.) Apparently storing batteries for 2+ years in a garage in Houston is not a good thing - 7 out of 8 were bad.