Tag: houston

It’s raining!

Finally. We got a little bit of it yesterday, mostly a light drizzle for a while, but right now, it’s REAL rain. And thunder. Which means that some quivering little thing has tucked herself into the smallest space possible between my feet and my desk.


Poor Margot.

Today’s breakfast wasn’t very exciting, but it was healthy. I even got it FROM the health food aisle. Raisin bran with half a banana added. Longtime readers may wonder why Mark G. Harris never provided photos with HIS updates.


Do banana slices look like they have little emoticons on them to anyone else?

Cats! Murder!

Tuesday night I went to Murder By the Book to join a packed house celebrating the release of Dean James’s new mystery. Writing as Miranda James, Classified as Murder is the second in his “Cat in the Stacks” mystery series. The first, Murder Past Due, was a New York Times bestseller. I am delighted for his success, because I’m not sure anyone I’ve known has done as much to support other writers with good advice or book promotion than Dean. Though he’ll be the first to admit that the cat pictured on the cover is not exactly Diesel, the Maine Coon in the novel who is librarian/amateur sleuth Charlie Harris’s sidekick, I agree with him that the covers are engaging.

Long live cat mysteries! I feel sure the marvelous Mr. and Mrs. North novels by Frances and Richard Lockridge were among the first I ever read, and I’m glad Dean’s cozies have joined that group.

Tax Night

After I left the gym tonight, I went by the downtown post office as I do every year on tax night. It was a madhouse, as usual, but I didn’t shoot any photos this time. The traffic lines were not conducive toward being able to pull over anywhere and park. Wouldn’t you think with three extra days people might have been a bit more timely with their returns?

When I promise an armadillo….

….I deliver.

This is my meager store of armadillo lore.

Armadillo is a Spanish word meaning “little armored one.” Its fancy name is “Dasypodidae” and it’s part of the “Cingulata” order. I added that last part for the benefit of Kathy S. The Brides will understand.

I read a novel one time in which a little boy called everything a “rattlesnake,” including an armadillo who peed down his daddy’s neck while in the little boy’s grip. Then the little boy stumbled over a real rattlesnake. The child lived. No memory of what happened to the armadillo.

I once dated a man who gave me the phrase, “There’s no such thing as a live armadillo in Alabama.” That’s because the only way we ever knew there were any in the state was when we saw them four-up next to our roads.

Lynne’s husband’s aunt once painted a pair of ceramic two-stepping armadillos. They were…interesting.

There’s the red velvet cake in the shape of an armadillo in the movie Steel Magnolias. Lindsey baked some cupcakes last week that had the same effect on the inside. On the outside, they looked like this. I wish I had one now.

When I got to Texas, I learned that it’s against state law to keep a live armadillo in captivity. I have never broken this law.

Then there’s the Giant Armadillo Who Watches Over Kirby Drive. My first experience with this guy was when I went to Goode’s Armadillo Palace back in 2007 to hear presidential candidate John Edwards speak. We all know how that turned out, though as far as I know, Giant Armadillo wasn’t involved in any baby-daddy scandals. It took me a while to find information about GA, but then I read this article. Apparently Jim Goode and his son Levi bought the concrete-and-mortar armadillo from its former owner, a Wyoming restaurateur, and after obtaining wide-load permits, had it transported to Texas.


The armadillo is fourteen feet tall and twenty-two feet wide.


It’s not a tall tale that everything’s bigger in Texas; it’s a long tail.


Not just any armadillo, of course, but a longhorn armadillo.


When they say the eyes of Texas are upon you, sometimes they mean red glowy eyes.

Oh, there’s also a Giant Seal!

Kidding.

Out and about

Today I went to Murder By the Book because Leann Sweeney was signing the third book in her “Cats in Trouble” mystery series. Here are a couple of photos. I also shot a photo of the Giant Armadillo Who Watches Over Kirby Drive, but I’ll save that for another time.


Leann Sweeney, author of The Cat, the Lady, and the Liar and the Yellow Rose Mysteries.


Photo of her new cozy in front of one of the paintings I’m currently finishing. I like the colors together.

Random


It’s been a while since the table looked like this on Craft Night. Lindsey was Bedazzling a Shake Weight for use as an honorary “reward” for a group in Rhonda’s office. (Apparently one becomes temporary owner of the Shake Weight of Shame after a screw-up.)

Here it is in an unfinished but still glam state:

Meanwhile, I’m working on a new series of paintings that will hang at Té House of Tea during the month of May. More on that as it develops. =) In between bouts of painting and cooking and gym going and other things, I’m weeping copious amounts of tears over “Brothers and Sisters” on Netflix. I love family drama with a good ensemble cast. I’m in Season 2 now.