Mouse in Nashville

Mouse and Dad took a week off for Thanksgiving, but now they are back on the road again.  Dad has not even had time to post pictures from Thanskgiving in Kerrville (and, yes, there was a giraffe involved!) They flew to Nashville this afternoon and are staying at the Union Station Hotel - an old railroad station that was converted into a hotel!  Mouse had very little time to explore this evening.

 Mouse checks out the Christmas tree in the lobby, the old passenger arrival area

Mouse goes to bed early (he is still digesting all the turkey from Thanksgiving!)



Mouse's Day of Safety

Mouse could not go to the safety conference again today.  Dad has to take Mouse tomorrow or he will miss out on all the fun!  Dad asked Mouse to spend the today inspecting the fire safety equipment at the hotel.  Hotels are built to be very safe, so they have lots of things to protect people from fires.

Mouse inspects a pull station.  They are located at every exit on every floor so that hotel employees and visitors can alert the entire hotel if they see a fire. 

Mouse inspects a fire hose.  The hotel keeps fire hoses in many places to help firemen put out fires. 

Mouse inspects a smoke detector, emergency light, and fire warning strobe light.  Every hotel room has a smoke detector to warn of any sign of a fire.  If the hotel employees want to warn people about a fire they can just press a button and lights and alarms sound to tell people to evacuate. 

Mouse inspects a sprinkler.  Every room in the hotel has a sprinkler head.  They have a liquid filled fusible link (bulb) that bursts if it gets too hot.  When the link bursts, it allows water to spray out of the sprinkler head and into the room to extinguish the fire.

Mouse's Day at the Pool

Mouse spent another day at the hotel while Dad was at ISP.  Dad promised to take him to work the next day.  Mouse decided to check out the hotel pool.

Mouse slid down the railing to get from the 3rd floor, where Dad's hotel room is, to the 1st floor, where the pool is.

The pool had lots of pool toys to choose from. 

Mouse checks the water temperature before diving in.

Mouse checks out the life saver ring to make sure it is in good condition in case he needs to rescue a swimmer.

After a full day of swimming, Mouse was too tired to climb the stairs, so he took the elevator back to Dad's room on the 3rd floor.

Mouse's Day at the Hotel

On Monday Dad went to a training class at ISP.  Mouse decided to take the day off and stay at the hotel.  Mouse spend a good bit of time at the hotel gym, working off the blue cheese he ate yesterday.

Mouse gets some fresh air 

Mouse tried the exercycle, but could not reach the pedals 

Mouse used a weight ball to exercise his stomach muscles 

Mouse used a dumbell to do some chest muscle exercises 

Mouse then went for a run on the treadmill

Mouse Visits Aunt Izia

On Sunday Mouse and Dad drove to Amsterdam, NY to visit Aunt Izia.  Aunt Izia took them out to lunch at Charley's.  Both Izia and Dad ate the Meatloaf Mountain (yes, it is actually called that on the menu.)  Mouse sipped on blue cheese dressing.

Mouse spent time with Aunt Izia. 

After Dad gave up, Mouse helped Aunt Izia program her phone. 

 When they left Amsterdam, Aunt Izia gave Dad a bag of treats to take home, just like Grandma gives to Sean.  Mouse got into Dad's treat bag at the hotel when Dad was not looking.

Mouse and Dad after a long day of driving (340 miles round trip.)  Mouse set the camera up to take the picture using the camera's timer function.

Mouse goes to NJ

Today Mouse headed off to New Jersey with Dad.  When he heard that Dad was headed to ISP's headquarters in NJ and to visit Aunt Izia, Mouse decided to tag along.

Mouse waiting for the plane.  Dad's plane was over an hour late getting to Bush Airport and then sat on the tarmac for over an hour before taking off.

Mouse spent the wait time watching the planes take off and land. 

 Mouse helps Dad look for his luggage at the airport in Newark

Mouse takes a break when he gets to Dad's hotel room 

Mouse watches the Texas OSU (the other OSU) game while Dad has his head buried in a pillow

New Kitchen Counters

We finally took the plunge and had new counter tops installed in the kitchen.  The original concrete counter was cracking and discolored.  Along with the counters we installed new a new stove, sink, disposal, and faucet set.

The counter top stone is "blue pearl granite." It is actually not granite, but larvikite - named after the city of Larvik, Norway, near which much of it is quarried.

Former Cement Counters and Stove

New counters and stove

Happy Halloween!

 Sean and family had a great time  this Halloween.  Last weekend we trekked over to Stevenson park and took part in this annual Friendswood party.  This Saturday we headed to the Heiders for a party and to see all of our friends' kid's ghoulish costumes. Sunday we were out for the real thing.

All Dressed up and looking for a neighborhood to terrorize

Sean and Gnome

Sean and Ike the Dragon try to take down the man!

Baby Dylan

Heather with the cool tricked out hair

Greg and Yoda

Chilling with the family