Goodbye and Good Luck

Tonight we said farewell to our friends Jason and Barbara (and baby Austin) who are moving to Houston for a year. We will miss them! Pictured left to right are (front row) Laura, Stacey, me and Todd, and (back row) Beverly, Jennifer, Barbara, Austin, Jason, Karen, Jep, Dave and Rick. (Photography by Chris.)

...One Margarita at a Time

Solving the world's problems has always been easier with a round of margaritas and some chips, so a bunch of us got together tonight at La Cazuela. Pictured from left are me, Gail, Carol (partially hidden), Rebekah and Caron. (Photography by Kelly.)

Brick - The Movie

We saw this movie with Jake and Melissa tonight, and liked it. We'll have to see it a second time with subtitles in order to get all the fast paced dialogue, but it was cool. By the way, Melissa is our new 'houseguest,' to put it in Big Brother terminology! Welcome, Melissa!

'Brick' Movie Web Site

On the Border

Diane, Julie and I feasted at On the Border Tuesday night after visiting the baby. We proudly shut down the restaurant yet only had one drink between the three of us.

DH Jr.

Some of our closest friends, Bev and Dave, became parents Tuesday of D.H. Junior, pictured here enjoying one of his first meals.

You Say Tomato

This is just a fraction of the results of our backyard tomato crop....before it was made into homemade salsa...yum.

My New Pet

I am so excited about my new Roomba floor vacuum - received Tuesday as a gift. I had been begging for one for about a month. We have about 2500 square feet and mostly wood floors, and this enables us to clean them often without the drudgery. It's GREAT! Todd says he has been supplanted. The makers of the Roomba have done their best to make this thing cute. When it hits a bump or stops for some reason, it makes a little "uh-oh" sound until you come and rescue it. I find myself talking to it, telling it, "it's okay" and "I'll be back to check on you in a little while." Then I remember it's a robot.

Roomba Web Site

Oscar Wilde Plays

I recommend for a quick, enjoyable read the selected plays of Oscar Wilde. I am slogging through a longer novel, Caleb Carr's Angel of Darkness, and reading this was a pleasant diversion.

Thunderbird

I have finally come into 2006 with RSS feeds. I downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird and am now subscribing to the RSS feeds of Anderson Cooper's 360 blog, the USA Today money and CNN money section's feeds. I recommend all three for current events. I welcome suggestions of other blog feeds...

Laying Ceramic Tile

Todd has completed his first ceramic tile project at a great little Fondren house. Here he is laying the second-to-last tile.

Lemontini T-shirt

One of my favorite bloggers has this great t-shirt on her spreadshirt.com page

Lemontini T-shirt

Browse the Everything and Nothing T-shirt Shop

Awesome Yogurt

My new obsession is Stonyfield Farm yogurt - specifically the Chocolate Underground flavor.

Stonyfield's Web Site

They even have a cool blog about their cows.

Biltmore Estate House

Day 3 of our weekend vacation (Sunday, May 28) Todd and I visited Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C. Todd is obsessed enough with houses to take photos of the gutter downspouts, and I took dozens of the gardens. I am proud to note that we did not fall into the carefully-laid Biltmore tourist trap - we did not purchase any kitschy souvenirs at all.

Blue Ridge Parkway, Mt. Mitchell

Day 2 of our weekend vacation (Saturday, May 27) we visited Mount Mitchell, the highest spot east of the Mississippi River - elevation 6,684 feet above sea level. I took this photo from atop the observation tower of the Blue Ridge Parkway below.

Grove Park Charm

Also day 1 of our weekend vacation (Friday, May 26), at the quaint Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C.

Stone Mountain

This photo was taken on day 1 of our weekend vacation (Friday, May 26) - atop Stone Mountain, Georgia - height of 1600 feet above sea level.

Best Bathrooms

There were several great bathrooms on the tour today. The most elegant was this one (bottom) with the blue glass tiles, and the most unique was the one featuring this river-rock tile floor (top). Again, at the Township at Colony Park.

Best Kitchen

The best kitchen we saw at the new homes tour was this one with cabinetry painted slate gray and walls painted pale blue, to great effect. The light fixtures were lagniappe in this terrific room.

Todd's Birthday

Saturday was Todd's birthday and several of us went to Cinco de Mayo restaurant in Ridgeland to celebrate. I forgot to take the camera, so the only picture we have is a faded Polaroid featuring a closed-eyed Todd wearing a sombrero, taken by the waitress!

New Home Tour

We visited some newly constructed homes in the Jackson area today at Township at Colony Park. This photo is of two homes on Harper Street in the $500,000 range.