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.

Gasoline Prices 2005-08-22

Colorado Black Canyon

On July 13 we visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We made the hike down - 1 mile one way with an 1,800 feet elevation drop, no picnic normally and it was 100F. Only 5 other people made the hike that day. The views were awesome.




The Black Canyon of the Gunnison












On the way down












Finally at the bottom - wait, we have to back up!












Tired, dirty, but at the top

Colorado Pictures 1

Finally! 3 Weeks and $1,600 later the pictures from the trip to CO are recovered from the crashed hard drive on Dave's laptop. So, here is a sampling of some flower pictures from SW Colorado.








Rosy Paintbrush












Mariposa Lily











Red Columbine












Alpine Lily

2005 Gasoline Prices 2005-08-03

New Pastalaniec 4Runner

Three views of the new Pastalaniec 4Runner (i.e. Barbara's Vehicle)

We finally got rid of the lemon Honda (Izuzu) Passport and moved on - luckily before it died.

P.S. Photos and blog enteries from the CO vacation are waiting on data recovery from Dave's crashed hard drive...

2005 Colorado Part I

Colorado 2005 Vacation Part I - pictures waiting to be recovered from Dave's crashed hard drive...

Friday the Pasta's arrived in Denver at the Wheatley residence. The rental Dodge Stratus was quickly proclaimed unacceptable and a swap for a 4X4 Jeep Laredo was arranged. Visitation occurred Friday night on the new Wheatley garage patio, complete with homemade brew and white Christmas-like lights, very nice. A mellow weekend followed, with 10-week old Daniel providing the weekend entertainment while playing, sleeping, griping, feeding, etc.

Gasoline Prices 2005-07-07

Barbara's B-Day and Grill Christening

Pasta's house after hoursNick training Dave at the new grill and kids galore

Papa Pastalaniec and Abagail Johnson

Daniel visits the Pastas

In late June Anida and her and Eric's new son Daniel came to visit. All eyes were on the baby....

June Backyard Exercise Part III

Oh yeah! Here is the other 2,200 lbs of granite!

Special thanks to Ginger and Bill for letting us use their truck!


Blast from the past: April 2003

June Backyard Exercise Part II

30 Mats of St. Augustine do not go a long way!


Blast from the past: April 2003

June Backyard Exercise Part I

June Backyard Exercise Part I

3,000 lbs of crushed granite moved from the Heights to the driveway to the backyard. 800 pounds or so ended up here.


Blast from the past: April 2003