Who goes there? Please leave comments so (An Aries Knows)!
…but we are having a VERY active palmetto bug breeding season which, for those who don’t know, means ginormous flying nocturnal roaches.
Dear Snow Haters: Tropical climates have drawbacks.
Where’s Mark G-is-for-Gallant Harris when I need him?
Hopefully I can get something beautiful and palmetto bug-free posted for Earth Day sometime on Tuesday.
The first palmetto bugs of spring are freaking HUGE.
Sorry, Lindsey.
All right, I’m going to start earlier today for those of you who live in other parts of the world. If you want one of 14,000 things to be happy about:
please give me a page number from 1 to 612 and another number between 1 and 30, and I’ll tell you what the book says.
Want to know why I’m happy?
One of the photos I took on my downtown jaunt with Lindsey last fall was published in the second edition of the Schmap Texas Guide. Thanks, Schmap, for finding and publishing the photo!
If you’ve seen this month’s banner, that’s Guinness looking sad about her worn-out collar. While you’re all trying to find hairstyles for Lindsey and Jandy, why don’t you Google some dog collars and show me what you think would be a good one for Guinness? It must have red in it (her red leash is not worn out). It must be of the nylon variety.
Topic change: I spotted this house in West U yesterday and thought it was photo-worthy.
I was up until five this morning getting all our tax paperwork together. After four hours of sleep, I showered and left the house to give it to our accountant. Afterward, I bought some Chicken McNuggets (for some odd reason, these are the only thing I want to eat anymore) and rode to the grounds outside the Menil Museum to take in a little nature and appreciate the exterior sculptures in the small park between the Menil and Rothko Chapel.
I paid attention to a man with a Jack Russell terrier only because JRTs now make me think of Dash. I smiled as he–the JRT, not the man–sat at the bottom of a few trees and barked at squirrels. And then, I KID YOU NOT, the dog climbed a tree! It’s a tree whose trunk is angled toward the ground, and he went right up it to a little resting place where the tree began to branch out. I thought maybe I was sleep deprived and hallucinating–and who knows what’s in those nuggets–but after his man coaxed him down and walked him a little, he went up it again! He was at least eleven feet off the ground and would have climbed higher except his man asked him not to. So he just stood in his little crook and watched the world go by for a while.
I think Lynne’s Minute should go to this place, because no dog ever wanted to climb a tree more than she does.
Today was the nineteenth annual AIDS Walk Houston, hosted by AIDS Foundation Houston, sponsored by Chevron, and partnered by other organizations as listed here.
Tom has been volunteering with AIDS-related organizations for thirteen years. First with the NAMES Project, then with a transitional care facility where people with HIV/AIDS lived between a hospital visit and the time they began receiving assistance to live independently. He’s been a volunteer with AIDS Foundation Houston for about six years, and this is his third time to participate in the AIDS Walk. Interestingly, the job he took this year brought him full circle, as he helped oversee a group of Quilt panels that were on display.
According to Tom, around fifteen thousand people participated today, and they surpassed their fundraising goal of one million dollars. So many people walk together with groups of coworkers, and many of their companies offer matching funds. It’s truly a community effort that involves countless volunteer hours and cooperation from many agencies.
One Houstonian is infected with HIV/AIDS every eight hours. Many thousands of Houstonians are here to offer assistance to ensure their quality of life and be there during times of illness. I’m proud to be married to one of those who helps.
You can see the full set of Tom’s photos here on Flickr.
Current Photo Friday theme: Surreal
Last year I toured Houston’s Holocaust Museum with Tom, Rhonda, and Tay. I took a photo of this bit of earth from the Dachau concentration camp. My mother visited that camp when she was pregnant with me. It changed her, and ultimately, it was part of shaping who I am. While I stared at and photographed this, I felt dizzy and disconnected from myself–in a word, surreal.
Saturday night, Tom and I went to a retirement party for our neighbor Jason. Jason has worked in the medical district for many years, and about 35 of his friends and coworkers showed up at the Churchill Room of the Black Lab to wish him well. We had a blast listening to people roast and toast him. His last day of work was made his day officially by a proclamation from Houston’s mayor for the many ways Jason has benefited our city over the years through the fine example he’s set as a citizen and through his volunteer work.
Jason is an avid reader–he plans to do a lot of that with his free time now–and he also wants to write a mystery (he said he’s started one, but it’s a bit racy, so he’ll let Tim read it but not me). He’s always been a big supporter of Timothy James Beck and of all the writing Tim and I have done, together or solo. Actually, I reminded him tonight of one of my favorite Jason moments. In December of 2006, I heard a knock on my front door. I opened it to see Jason, and he gave me the biggest hug and said, “Thank you!” When I asked why he was thanking me, he said, “I just finished reading A Coventry Christmas.” I understood. I wish I could hug every author whose work has felt like a gift to me over the years. (Well, not the deceased ones, of course.)
Tonight also reminded me of why I’m baffled when people place limitations on the right to marry. See, Jason and Jeff, his partner, have been together twenty-eight years. They are wonderful people who have enriched so many lives just by being who they are, as individuals and as a couple. Theirs is a relationship that I respect and admire and look to as proof that couples can forge a life together through good times and bad, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. It is a marriage.
