The Rest of the Weekend

So here we are a week later, and I'm finally finishing up with last weekend just as a new one is about to start. But by now, I don't really feel like it. I'd rather go on and on about the books I've been reading. But I won't, since that's not where everybody's interest lies. It is mine though. During the summers especially, I have always devoured a book or two a week (just ask poor Jared - who luckily likes the Wii almost as much as I like books). However, Michele pointed me to this website that apparently tons of people are on called goodreads.com. I like it because I always want to know what to read next, and now I have tons of suggestions from everybody I know. There is a certain book I am quite excited about getting my hands on this weekend. Anybody who is a Stephenie Meyer fan should be running to the store as her 4th book in the whole vampire series is coming out today at midnight - I have it pre-ordered, so I don't need to worry.

Anyway, enough about that. I said I wouldn't go into books. Back to the point. This past weekend we also stayed at the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Now, I've heard that San Antonio and a little north of there has landscape similiar to Italy's. And this riverwalk is on (who would of guessed?) a river. So while we were there, I told Jared I was pretending to be in the Venice, Italy - which is one of my big dreams. But Italy or not, it was still really nice. They had great music playing, good food, and a really cool atmosphere. I hear in December they put up lights everywhere. I bet that is even more beautiful.

If you look really closely, you can see the water behind us at the Riverwalk. And a restaurant to the right.

And, of course, we had to stop by the Alamo. Because what would a vacation to San Antonio be without the Alamo? Jared didn't seem to see why it was so important to go and tried to talk me out of it. But it is sort of the "symbol" for Texas. And if you care nothing for history or the fate of the men who died there, then the least you need to do is glare at it. Since it is the biggest tourist site in the state - San Antonio has a lot more things (Sclitterbahn, Six Flags, the Riverwalk, Sea World, the wax museum) that might have been given to Houston since it's much larger (and closer to the ocean) if the Alamo wasn't so famous. So we went and listened to a speech and looked at it. There was one building we didn't go inside because the line for it wrapped around 2 blocks. But it was still pretty nifty. Everybody says that they are always shocked by how small it is. But I think it just has unfortunate placement - it is smack dab in the middle of the city with huge, tall motels and buildings - really it just seems small by comparison. Because it's really not that small of a building. It seemed to accommodate a LOT of people in fact.

You can almost tell how hot it is.

Sea World

This year for our anniversary, we (well, actually I - and Jared went along with it) decided to go to San Antonio. I really wanted to check out the Sea World here. I've been to the San Diego one a couple of times and loved it. So we went this weekend. For those of you who haven't been - I highly recommend it. There are a lot of cool shows and even roller coasters. It's amazing what they can get the animals to do. Jared's personal favorite was Uncle Max. He is in the show with Clyde. Unfortunately, Clyde himself decided not to participate in the show about halfway through despite prodding. I'm not sure whether he forgot his lines or is just sick of showbiz, but he just jumped in the water and starting swimming around and completely ignored the trainers. More than likely, he was actually sick. Because after the show he did some rather gross things to the pool.

Clyde before he decided to quit for the day.

I really don't know if I'm allowed to show you the video we took of Uncle Max. But he's a pretty humongous walrus. I think Jared thinks he identifies with him because he's been complaining about being a walrus himself. The internship he is in feeds him free (and expensive) meals constantly - and if you know Jared, you know he's not very good at resisting food.

Good old Uncle Max.

I love all of it, but one of the more fun things we did was feed the seals. Here they are - you can tell why the the chunky ones are fat. They fight dirty for their fish. Sometimes they sound like you think a seal should, and then sometimes not.

Anyway, here some more random pictures of various other things we saw.

A shark ready to bite my head off

Jared with a Budweiser Clydesdale

Of course, we also saw dolphins, penguins, otters, the Shamu show (OF COURSE!), etc. but I have a tendency for my blogs to fill up entire pages, so I will leave those out. I have to include a blurb about the western show we saw though. They don't have this at the other Sea World and basically they save animals and train them to be in this show. It's was pretty cute but what Jared and I were really interested is how they trained the cats. Having these guys ourselves (and for anybody who has a cat) training them seems impossible. Though we did notice the cats did seem to have the hardest time sticking to their task in the show (they were so interested in the audience).

A good example is this cat who usually "square dances" but he was looking straight at us and was so distracted by the audience, they couldn't get him to do ANYTHING. However, they were successful with all the other cats (and skunks, pigs, dogs, and geese).

It was definitely a good time though it was so hot and humid and FULL of people. But it's the summer, so I didn't expect anything else. I'll give you an update on the rest of our weekend later.

Call for Fishing Experts

Okay, so we have been fishing twice now. Jared has been three times. And all we've caught so far is a few of these.

Michael Judd with his "catch".

What is sad is I think Jared is starting to get a little envious of the people that are even catching sticks. Last weekend we went to Lake Conroe (which is a much bigger and better lake than Lake Houston). We bought a fishing license for me and even a guide to help us figure out where the fish were. But it didn't help. Of course, we didn't realize Conroe was for people on water skis and huge recreational boats on the weekends. That probably doesn't encourage the fish. But our bait sure didn't either - not even a bite. Right now, I'm thinking our cats may have an easier time with getting the fish.

Even funnier, Jared is now building a gate for a boat trailer he doesn't have. He's become pretty obsessed with this boat thing. It's pretty much all he talks about. One really cute thing he's doing is naming the boat after me - The Berms. Now, I don't know how I feel about an old, scratched up boat with many, many years behind it being named after me, but I'll take the good with the bad. After all, Jared spends 90% of his time thinking about it, so maybe somehow that trickles down to me since its named after me.

Jared building the boat gate. We had to rip up all the plants right there in front to do it. I'm sure two gates (one being a double gate) will help the resale value of our home. ;) Ha.Ha.

Symphony

So we have now gone to a symphony twice (well, 2 and a half times - one was a Disney thing). For those of you who know Jared well, that is quite a feat in and of itself.The first one we went to was a couple of weeks ago - an outdoor symphony. Houston has these free outdoor symphonies every week where you bring a blanket and sit on the grass and enjoy the music. There were people there with wine, fine cheeses, and sushi. So apparently even outdoor symphonies are classy. Or snobby, whichever way you look at it. One of the good things about living in a big city is there is always something going on (when you find them that is, we stumble on them once and a while, but being new we miss more than we hit). While we were there, I noticed that Jared seemed to pay more attention to the dogs than the music, but I guess that's good enough.
He looks like he's enjoying himself, doesn't he? That's probably because it hadn't started yet.

I look like I'm trying to fit in with my bun and nerd glasses.

Then Sarah, one of our friends, invited us to go to a 1 dollar concert the Houston Symphony does every year. So we went to that too. They did Beethoven 6th symphony and they had this wonderful cellist playing. It was pretty amazing. Some of you may know, but when I was younger I played the violin. Then I moved to Willcox and the nearest violin teacher was in Safford, so I gave it up (my choice - I don't want Mom feeling guilty:) But I certainly do have a respect for those that play so beautifully.

Before the indoor one - apparently you're supposed to be a little more snazzy than with the lawn ones.

Then we also went to a Disney one - outdoor as well. They had singers and dancing this time. The singers didn't do a great job at singing, but I was singing to myself the entire night. Jared told me later he was about to go to the other side of the lawn. I just told him I was doing a better job with the singing and I certainly knew all the lyrics. No, I really wasn't that loud. But the evening did make me realize how much I absolutely LOVE Disney. Especially the music. But pretty much everything about it. I told Jared maybe next year I'll tryout to be a character at Disney World. Wouldn't that be a great summer?

Oh, be sure and check out the 4th of July post because I added some pics.

Our Anniversary

Married for 4 years today. The award goes to Jared for putting up with a stubborn redheaded wife - it isn't as easy as it looks. In fact, when I was in college, my friends and I made a list of who we thought would get married first. I was last on the list along with the words referring to when I would get married - sometime..maybe...if ever. So it took me by complete surprise when I found somebody I wanted to spend my life with at such a young age. I was somewhat devastated about the whole thing - but also very in love. So I married him - much to the distaste and/or worry of a number of people. We've made a number of mistakes mostly due to being so blasted young, but I'm still in love with him (even more so now)- and I realize it everyday I live. Since I am promptly getting too sappy, I will quit now before my loyal readers throw up over their keyboards (all 3 of you:)

Oh and more to come on the 4th of July, Jared has stolen the camera for the upteenth day in a row (he's on a field trip until late tonight- which is typical behavior for our anniversary - we haven't actually celebrated one anniversary together, but thats another story) , so I still can't post about it - but I have some great butterfly footage for those of you that are into the Discovery Channel. Yeah, I know. Now you can't wait.

4th of July

What a weekend! I'm just now starting to get some sleep and even have the desire to do a blog about it. Mostly, we ate. And I mean ate - I think I consumed more than a normal person should consume in about a week's time. Barbecue, Mexican, burgers, pizza, ice cream -you name the junk food - I had it. But back to the beginning. This week Jared's family came down (except a missing brother) and spent the weekend with us. On Friday, we went to Galveston and rented a surrey. For any of you that has been lucky enough to ride on one of these bad boys, its quite the experience. Lucky me, it wasn't my first time. One of my close college friends actually OWNED one of these things, so I have many good memories of surreys. With bruised up knees and skirts flying up, we had a good time knocking over people near the beach before deciding to check out the less crowded side of Galveston (dirty alleys, old houses, and such). We even raced around a parking lot where I promptly knocked the chain off somehow and Jared had to get his hands all greasy to put it back on.

Jared being the chauffeur with,Mike, Kelly, and Stoney riding in the back. I have to say that Jared did pretty good, but when we were racing around the parking lot - Stoney beat his time - he knows how to cut the corners.

Then we went to eat and watch the fireworks from the beach. Now, I've seen some great firework displays in my day. Willcox's fireworks were always something to behold...since quite a few of you have been lucky enough see those - I will spare you the details. It's sufficient to say that a 5 minute speech went along with each and every firework describing exactly who donated the funds for that particular firework. What would have taken grand total of 5 minutes, took an hour. So, these Galveston fireworks were quite the event. I couldn't believe some of these things they are capable of doing with fireworks these days. Of course, you can't go to a 4th of July celebration without being grateful to be in America - and what is more - now I'm a Texan which gives me about 150% MORE pride than I already had.

At the beach around dusk - waiting for the fireworks.

The next day we went to the science museum which has some pretty cool stuff. But, I have to say the best part for me was the butterfly exhibit. I hadn't been to it before, and for the first time ever I witnessed a butterfly coming out of its cocoon. Mike, Jared, and Stoney before heading into the museum.

Also, they had a "jungle" with live butterflies flying everywhere. I couldn't remember how much butterflies pooped, because I've had bad experiences with going into these places and coming out with suspiciously nasty white stuff on my head. But I figured my chances were good, there didn't seem to be that many birds. Instead, I got a little footage of me harassing a butterfly who was just minding his own business until I butted in. And then this happened.

Try to ignore how annoying my voice is on video. I have a bad history of being incredibly dingy on film. Some of the first films I'm in have me jumping around and squawking like a chicken for no apparent reason. Literally. Of course I was probably 9 or so at the time, but as you can see, I haven't changed much.

As you can see, while I was messing around, I made a friend on my arm. He stayed with me for quite some time and I was getting quite attached to the little fellow when he finally flew off.

To end the weekend we ate yet more food and went swimming in a little pond. It really was a great weekend and I enjoyed myself immensely. Next time, maybe I won't eat 30 lbs of food.

Meowfish

The weekend before last we tried to take Meowfish out on a leash. I bought the thing in December, but soon discovered it wasn't going to fly with Meowfish because he about pawed Jared to death when he tried to put it on. But we decided to give it another go, now that he is ever so much more wise and mature.:) Well, he had matured because we were able to get it on him. However, when we tried to leave, this happened.

Jared and Meowfish in a tug-of-war death match (Meowfish is winning).

This was followed by a jump over the head towards the door once we were outside. I took it personally and complained to Jared that we had broken his spirit. He used to be so adventurous. When we first got him he was pouncing in the grass and generally making a nuisance out of himself constantly. And now he's scared to go outside. I comfort myself that he seems happy and he will be much healthier inside. And of course, there is the occasional twitch of the ears, paw punch, and quick nip that shows us that frisky cat is still in there somewhere.