Hi everyone! Thanks for the offer to take Samson in, Shanna! We're a little worried to even try - he likes to scratch & bite, and we're working on breaking him of it. He's doing better, but he's stilla smidge vicious!

Although you can't tell it by this picture:





So cute. And also apparently very tough. :) Poe & Loki are getting used to him, which is good.

But we do plan to visit Austin!

My work colleagues and I went out to lunch recently at a neat Vietnamese sandwich & noodle house in Houston. So tasty! Also, the interior was awesome!






It's a wall sculpture built out of 2 x 4 boards. Very cool!


Anyway, life here is good - full of kittens and Vietnamese sandwiches. And very limited rain. We have had a little bit of precipitation, but the drought here is still very bad. Our little garden is doing ok though - it's starting to get so hot that the garden is fading fast. That's ok though - we'll be planting a fall garden too!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! Noel & I like to take a few minutes on each major holiday to think of what we're thankful for. Here are some things on our list this year:

1. A deep well - we're in such a terrible drought, but thanks to our well, we can still water our garden!

2. A great job - I'm also thankful to live in a country where, as a woman, I have the freedom to work outside the home and make my own money.

3. Our home - we live in a country where we have the freedom to move around, to decide where we want to go, and when we want to go there.

4. Texas Secessionists - even though I think the idea of the Republic of Texas doesn't make a lot of sense in this day and age, I'm thankful our country allows people to have their own opinions - one of the most important founding principles of the U.S.

Also, in case you didn't know, there is in fact still a contingent of people who think Texas should secede. We saw one of their billboards today. Craziness.

In cat-related news, Samson is growing like a weed! We actually introduced him to Poe & Loki today for a few minutes. It was....not a total disaster. Loki just sniffed a lot at Samson and tried to smack him , but Poe hissed and hissed. Then hid under the bed. So that's...not exactly great, but better than total carnage. We'll be doing the same type of introduction session nightly until everyone can get along just fine. It's a hard adjustment for them, but what else could we do?

Anyway, here are some updated pics of Samson. He's about 6 weeks now, and loves to play!

So cute! :)

Happy 4th!

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for your kind thoughts as we dealt with the loss of Noel's dad.

I'm glad to report that Noel is back! He actually has been for 2 weeks almost. I have been a very negligent blogger.

Anyway, on the drive back from Tennessee I stopped to celebrate the return to my new home state:

This is at the Texas state line welcome center. I like it. :)

Also spotted this awesome retro RV:

Fabulous! I mean, this thing is straight off of Charlie's Angels.

My daily commute is about 55 miles into Houston, and sometimes there are interesting things to see. For example, a few weeks ago, I saw this at the underpass by my office:

Please note that the truck trailer is jammed up diagonally against the underpass. OOPS. This truck had stopped traffic going under that part of the underpass, so we all had to divert around.

Now you think they'd warn truckers about this kind of danger, right? They wouldn't just allow hapless truck drivers to think that they could go into this really tight U-turn without causing major damage, would they?

Because frankly, it's irresponsible to let this kind of thing just happen.

Oh wait.

(Um, in case you can't see it, that sign to the right? Says 'NO TRUCKS IN U-TURN.' But this moron did it anyway. Well, tried to.)

Our garden is coming along really nicely!

We've had to water it a lot, since we're in a severe drought. But it's been paying off!

SQUASH!!

You know what else we found in the back yard?

A poor little orphaned kitten! Apparently the mom of the other kittens that are now mostly grown (and still living under the house) had more kittens. But this one she didn't want, and had put him in the shed out back (she had 3 more under the house - we just saw them for the first time yesterday). When I came back from Tennessee, I went out into the backyard to check the garden, and this little guy came crying and running up to me. I ran to the store, bought some kitten formula, and we've been taking care of him ever since! He was tiny and so hungry. Right now he's living in the garage until we can get his shots done, and then we'll start introducing him to Poe & Loki.

His name is Samson! He's so sweet and purrs all the time. He's yellow and has blue eyes. :) And he's growing like a weed!

Say hello Samson!

Kindness

Thank you, everyone, for your thoughts and emails. We really appreciate your kindness.

Noel is still back east, taking care of all the paperwork that comes up. I'm back in Texas after spending a week in Tennessee with Noel and his family.

Noel and the rest of his family are doing well and coping with the loss.

Thanks again, and we'll start posting again soon.

Passing

We're very sad to report that Noel's dad, George, died this past weekend after a long battle with cancer. George had a wonderful sense of humor - dry and sarcastic, combined with a fantastic sense of timing. He was always cracking everyone up.

And he was a cute kid!

It seems appropriate today, on Memorial Day, to point out that George was also a proud veteran, serving in the Navy for 20 years. He always told fun stories about being stationed on the island of Diego Garcia (and all the trouble he and his buddies would get into). He worked on aircraft carriers during the Vietnam War, stationed on the USS Ranger in southeast Asia.

This picture was taken in Japan:


(I think he looked like Johnny Cash, with the dark hair!)

George also had a love of pretty much anything with 4 wheels. Including some really fab cars he owned in his lifetime:

We've been doing a lot of traveling back and forth to Tennessee to help George out from time to time, while he got treatments for his cancer. Noel made the drive from Tennessee to Texas several times. We were glad to help though.

We'll miss you, George.

My Very Own Slice of Town!

We went sight-seeing to a nearby city called Brenham last weekend, and lucked out! They were having a German heritage festival, complete with local cloggers:



And lederhosen!

It was a gorgeous day, so we took a walk downtown, around their historic square and courthouse, and saw some fantastic vintage cars:



This Bel Air had an awesome interior:

And this truck had a stylin' grill.

Love the complicated mechanics that went into their restoration too.

There was a gorgeous house in Brenham too. I think it's a bed & breakfast.

Know what else is cute? Little panda cookies from China!

On the way back, Noel took me by a place had found that he thought I'd enjoy (that he said kinda creeped him out a little, to be honest). Welcome to....Kelliwood!

And literally the next neighborhood over? Nottingham Country!

Wild, huh? Noel thinks they should award me an honorary home there (which would be nice - it's a high dollar neighborhood!) :)

Time for a Farm Animal Update!!

Noel decided to try befriending some of the natives:

Meet Agnes and Blanche, the farm's guard donkeys!

Now, some people might assume that it would be the bull's responsibility to protect the herd. That's not necessarily the case. Although you wouldn't know it when you see 2 bulls staring each other down on either side of the road. It's the donkeys who do a lot of the alarm-sounding and kicking.

(Speaking of, we saw some coyotes the other day! )

Anyway, we do have a big HUGE bull on the farm. I named him Brad, but we found out from the landlord that he already had a name. So now I'd like to introduce you to....

Brad. Wilson. (Hey Brad! I cracked up when we found out his real name!) :)

He's a hefty piece of cow. Seriously, this guy is ALL MUSCLE. We don't mess with him. Obviously.

And in indoor animal news, I did some sewing the other day, and got a tremendous amount of help from Poe when cutting out the pattern:

How did I ever sew without him?

Lions & Tigers &.....Tapirs?

Last weekend Noel and I went sightseeing in downtown Houston. It might surprise people to know that downtown Houston actually has some very pretty areas - lots of trees, parks, fun architecture, and neat little neighborhoods.

We didn't go there to see the architecture though. Where did we go?



The Houston Zoo! Isn't it pretty? This is the reflection pool in the middle of the zoo.

It's a nice zoo - not too huge, but impressive exhibits. They had lots of fun stuff there, like poison dart frogs!



And seriously scary birds. This is a SCARY BIRD, y'all. It was huge, red eyes, and a massive beak. I think it might have been a pterodactyl.



There were white rhinos!



(Note: this is only one of the many pictures of rear ends that I managed to take. I don't know why every animal in that zoo wanted to show me their backsides. I started to take it personally.)

So cute - these are red pandas!



There were playful otters:



And just for you Rachel - a tapir! (And its rear end).



Here's the meerkat sentry - looking for danger!



Ok - snake phobic people, close your eyes. Here are some pretty green snakes:



And a not so pretty and extremely scary poisonous puff adder:



Eek.

Oh! Flamingos!! I love them. They're fabulous!



Here are some cows. Now, before you say "Um, Kelli, you guys have cows in your front yard," let me point out that these guys have HUMONGOUS HORNS. We think they might have mixed these with the cows we got pictures of a few years ago (the ones who could hardly lift their heads up!)



How do they carry those things around? Do they have headaches?

Here is an African Wild Dog:



And here are two sleepy cheetahs:



You might notice a theme here - it was HOT that day. Hot and sleepy.

Ok, here are my favorite pictures though. Elephant babies!!! (And elephant baby 'tocks).



A white gator! (He's fabulous too).



A sleepy cougar. Gorgeous!



Jellyfish! I love jellyfish. They're just amazing to me. This picture isn't upside down - they're swimming that way:



These are moon jellyfish. This picture turned out really cool - psychedelic!



So that was our trip to the zoo! We have lots more pictures to show from the past week or two, but I didn't want to put them all in one post!