Picture a Door....

Yesterday we went for a little drive around town. We had to run a few errands in north Houston, and thought that while we were there, we'd explore a bit to see what we could see.


Little did we know that we were on a one-way street.....to Suburbia Hell.


We drove down a main street that suddenly, without any warning, turned into a residential road. And not just any residential road, but one with a fancy signpost that let us know we had gone TOO FAR. No longer were we on Smith Road or Baker Street. Oh no. Now we were on Majestic Oak Trace and Riverbend Landing Drive.


We frantically turned left. And saw.....

We turned around, drove a few more miles, and turned right. And saw....

No matter which way we turned, we were surrounded by McMansions with perfectly groomed lawns, row after row of the same exact mailbox, and neverending brick-encased signs for Summerwood Landing and Alta Forest Park. We gasped in horror upon realizing that despite the names, there was not one single old tree anywhere to be seen.

For a full 30 minutes we drove, turning this way and that, with the dawning realization that we could never escape. No matter how hard we tried, we could not leave. The Izod shirts breathed down our necks and Lincoln Navigators crept up with their leather interiors and high gas mileage.

Then, thankfully, we escaped. Yuppiedom would have to find other hapless victims!

We celebrated our brush with Fancy-Pants-ness with Mountain Dew and beef jerky.

As a side note, I'd like to say Thank You! to all of the lurkers out there! I love that you enjoy the blog and am thrilled when you comment. :)

Baytown Revisited

Hi all!

We're back in Baytown, TX (on the outskirts of Houston). It looks like we'll be here for about a week or so.

Funny - whenever we come back to a big city, we're reminded of how much we like the countryside. :) It's nice to have lots of shopping and restaurants nearby, but the traffic! And the annoying people! So aggravating. At least it's getting warmer. No more frozen pipes for us! Sigh.

So far we've gone out to eat at Outback (mmmm...bloomin' onion!) and did a little shopping since we have shops here that we haven't had near our recent campgrounds (read: Michaels for knitting needles) and window shopping for fun stuff (hunting gear, etc - obviously for Noel since I can't even watch Wild Kingdom without crying).

Crafty Update: I've opened up my own Etsy shop! Etsy is a website where artisans can sell their handmade items. My shop is at www.savvyneedle.etsy.com. So far I only have 1 hat up, but I'm working on making some more stuff to put up for sale. Hopefully I can help subsidize my yarn addiction. :)

Sorry this post isn't very amusing - I'm suffering from a lack of caffeine, and I have a warm kitty sleeping on my legs so I'm just feeling so cozy and relaxed, that I can't come up with anything funny to say.

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

Yesterday Noel and I had a productive day. Remember those cowboy boots Noel bought a while back? Well, they've gone to his head, and he's now changed his residency to Texas. (Actually there are good logistical reasons too, but I think the boots had a lot to do with it.)

First off, we had to drive to Livingston, TX to get a new mailing address (through an RV club we belong to). Then we had to go get the vehicles inspected:




(We don't have to get the RV inspected yet, thankfully!)



Then he had to go to the vehicle registration place, and then the driver's license office. Here's the proud new Texan hugging his new truck tags:

I asked him if Texas issues a gun with every driver's license. He wasn't sure. :)

We then went back toward our little house, but along the way stopped for gas at a big gas station/travel center called Buc-ee's (as in, a Beaver).

They had an impressive store! Check out the entrance to the bathroom!!

(Sometimes people think it's weird I'm taking pictures of the bathroom. Whatever. I can't help it if I'm more easily amused than they are.)

They also had the requisite Texas stuff (which I guess Noel is now qualified to purchase), including a wooden cutting board like the ol' Lone Star flag:

The furniture in the store was really impressive though! Check out this leather chaise lounge:

The rustic furniture was nice:

And this Bull Horn chair is awesome:

And these stools, made out of old tractor seats (they were incredibly comfortable!):

One of my favorite things were the leather rugs. They still had the hair on them, so they were really lovely. This one looked like a star.

They had racks and racks of different designs, and they reminded me of quilts. So cool.

Buc-ee's also had various woodland creatures with whom to be photographed:

Buc-ee himself, with Noel

And a bear & cub (NO, they weren't taxidermied animals, they were stuffed fake ones - I love them! But they wouldn't fit in the RV.)

They also had some reminders that we are indeed in the southern part of the country:

An outdoor double deep-fryer. Oh my. Forget the grill. FRY that steak! Can't you just feel the cholesterol?

And to go with your camouflage beer? Camo popcorn. So the deer won't steal it, perhaps? Are those hidden calories? HA.

It was really cold yesterday. We had to bundle up big time.

(Please note Noel is wearing his Christmas hat this time. And he was so worried.)

When we got back home, we realized we had to make an emergency propane run. The inside thermometer:

Yup. 46. INSIDE. (No worries - the kitties were fine. Basking in the sun in the front window, as usual.)

It got extremely cold last night, and this morning I went outside to find this:

That's one big icicle!!! We weren't aware of a leak here, so...well, now I guess we know.

Tomorrow morning we head back down toward Houston for the next job. We'll be staying in the same campground we stayed in the last time we were down there. Fairfield has been a nice town, and we've definitely enjoyed our time here. Maybe we'll be back!

BRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

It's 26 degrees out right now, with a windchill of 14. FOURTEEN.

Tonight's low is supposed to get down to 15 degrees.

We have propane (newly filled - planned ahead for this one!) and not one, but TWO, space heaters. And my requisite heating pad. ;)

Stay warm everyone!

p.s. Oh, and yes, the water is set to drip. We will not have frozen pipes again, if we can help it.

Cat in the Loo

It's cold here. A couple of days ago, after I diligently did laundry and took pictures of the room where I did said laundry, it got very cold.

Every night before going to bed, I make sure to protect the pipes by turning on the faucets to drip. We don't have insulated hoses that go to the outside spigots, so it's important to keep the water flowing.

On laundry day, I folded and put away all the clothes, knitted, worked on some writing, etc, and then started to get ready for bed. First task: dishes! I turned the faucet and....


Nothing. Not a drop.


And then I knew I had messed up bigtime. So I bundled up and went outside to the water hose, which was hard as a rock.


Oops.

I called Noel to see if he had any suggestions, and he even had a coworker who was at a nearby restaurant on his lunch break come by, to see if he could help too. He managed to unhook the hose, only to realize that the water in the spigot was frozen too. So nothing would help. We'd just have to wait for it to thaw out and hope the damage wasn't too bad. Again, oops.


So! No water! No dish washing! No showers! No flushing! Fun stuff!


It did finally thaw out at around 10 am the next morning. At which point we realized that the piping repair we had to make under the toilet? Was no longer repaired.


So we got to fix it again! Yay! It's a nice big roomy space, as you can tell.

Spacious!

Noel got it repaired, water was enjoyed by all, The End.

Except it wasn't. See, our tiny little toilet room (I like to call it the Water Closet) has no heat vent. Which means in the depths of winter, going to the loo is like the sanitation department's equivalent of the Polar Bear Plunge. Except you're not really going voluntarily. And can't really rush things.

Noel was worried that if it got that cold in there again, we might have another problem with the pipe (although I really think he just likes the idea of a seat warmer than -7 F.)

So we left the water closet door open to let some heat in. I walked past a while later and noticed something had gone awry:

Who could have possibly done such a dastardly deed?

Ah. Of course.

I tried to fix it (waste not, want not!), but was somewhat unsuccessful.

I'm starting to think that Loki might not have been alone in perpetrating this dire crime though.

Little troublemakers and their tissue destroying ways!

Takin' Care of (House) Business

Today was a day of housework! Hurrah! (Ok, so it's not really all that exciting, but it must be done.)

This included the Favorite Pastime of Vintage RV Owners...

Caulking.

Here's a little life lesson about RVs. Once they reach a certain age (say, around 7 years or so, as a rough guess) their composition begins to change. They're no longer held together by bolts, screws, and reinforced...whatever. It starts innocently enough, with a little duct tape here, a little sealant there. Then, before you know it, half of the RV is held together by caulk and the other half by Great Stuff (Noel swears by it - it's an expanding spray foam - it's magic).

Anyway, so there comes a time when you end up having to do a fair amount of caulking. Even new RV owners do it - especially on the roof. I guess with all the sun and weather exposure, even the toughest rubber roof will start to crack.

All that to say, I caulked the front windshield today to make sure to seal up where the gasket isn't as tight as it should be. It's hard enough to keep this little house warm on really cold days, and we're expecting COLD weather in a few days (lows in the teens!). So any cracks need to be sealed up!

And Noel's taught me how to do it in style. ;)

Note: That hat is one of Noel's Christmas presents (I borrowed it). He was so worried I was going to Bogart his hat, that I wanted to clarify for everyone and publicly declare that it is indeed his hat and not mine. Even though I did make it. That gives me borrowing rights. :)

After all the caulking (Noel was busy putting a new battery into McBertha, the Celtic Cycle, while all this was happening!), we sent him off to work all bundled up and ready for the cold. I went to do the next big chore of the day:

Laundry!

The laundry room is quite nice at this campground. First, they have a parking space right beside it, so you can drive your laundry over (which is nice when it's 27 out and nighttime, and you've got 8 metric tons of stuff to wash).

Some people put their clothes in the washers and leave them there. I personally don't trust people. Plus it's easy to amuse myself while waiting. I take either the computer (like last time) or my knitting (like tonight). It takes me about 3 hours to get everything washed, dried and folded, so I can get a lot of knitting or writing accomplished.

They have a magazine rack there, where we recycle our old magazines and sometimes the inexpensive paperbacks we buy at the goodwill or thrift stores once we've read them (well, once Noel's read them - he reads so much!). Other people have done the same, which is nice! That way we can switch out books, and I get to read Oprah magazine. :)

So not only do you end up with clean socks, but more focused goal-setting abilities and suggestions for wearing scarves 10 different ways!

Still Resolving!

Hi all! I hope your 2010 is going great!

So far, ours has gone fine. Noel has been diligently working (still on night shift, unfortunately). it's been pretty chilly, but he's bundled up and wearing the ninja mask I made for him sometimes. We don't know how much longer we'll be here in Fairfield. As soon as we know where we're going next, we'll fill you in!

I've been working hard on my resolutions, and so far things have gone pretty well. I got another article published today, this time about knitting:

http://knitting-patterns-techniques.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_use_double_pointed_needles

Fun stuff! I'm contracted to write 8 more for them in the next 2 months, and I've promised myself a fun reward if I get them all finished by the end of January. I wrote this one today, from start to finish, and did errands and such in the middle too. So it seems very doable to get the rest of them done in 4 weeks. That's just 2 per week. Totally doable.

We took down our black Christmas tree yesterday and all of the vinyl snowflakes too. It's just as well - Loki was turning into Ebenezer Scrooge. He would get up on his rear paws and scratch them off of the shower doors and mirrors. I guess he just wasn't in the holiday spirit. Meow Humbug! I have a feeling we'll keep finding a few of them that he squirrelled away far into the summer months.

Some people leave their Christmas decorations up for a while, but I like to take them down on New Year's. Some might think I'm cutting the holidays short, but to me it feels like a fresh start. Especially when you live in such a small space as we do! It's amazing how much room that little tree can take up! It feels like we've gotten a lot of our living room back now.

The holidays aren't quite over though - there are still a few more Christmas presents to be made (yes, Rachel, including your sweater!). Better get to it!