Tag: photos

Dylan, Etc.

Sunday I had my MTM Barbie post to prepare, and it was great going into downtown Houston. There was little evidence of the damage done by Hurricane Ike; that may be because I couldn’t really look around since I was driving. I did see downed trees piled under overpasses, cut and waiting to be picked up, like this:

Houston lost thousands of trees (including more than 3500 in city parks and golf courses), but Tim made me aware of a program the city has already planned called Million Trees . Trees are a vital part of keeping an urban area healthy, because as Mayor Bill White said, “[T]hey absorb carbon dioxide, aid in flood prevention, provide shade and serve as buffers against violent winds.” Such planting efforts have made positive changes in other cities including Chicago, LA, and NYC.

In addition to the trees the city intends to plant, the mayor is encouraging Houstonians to plant trees privately. Another suggestion is for people and businesses to honor friends, family members, and employees by giving trees as “gifts.” How lovely to know that someone is planting a tree in your honor that will be around to provide shelter, shade, and beauty even after you’re gone!

As a treat after my outing yesterday, I stopped at Starbucks so I could read while enjoying my usual mocha frappuccino. In one of those happy coincidences, I met a couple who has fostered dogs through Scout’s Honor Rescue, Inc., the organization who brought EZ into our lives. The couple (whose names I never asked for!) talked about some of the dogs they’ve fostered (and adopted), and it gave me hope that one day, EZ will find the perfect forever home. She’s such a delightful dog that it’ll be hard to let her go, but I know she needs to be an only dog with someone who can lavish her with time and love.

Although I failed to get my fellow Starbucks patrons’ names, I DO know the name of their three-and-a-half-month-old puppy:


Dylan, a Rhodesian ridgeback. Look at those paws!
He’ll be about a hundred pounds when he reaches adulthood.


A photo Lindsey took of EZ pretending to be languishing in jail.
Don’t let her fool you. She’s a happy girl.
You can check out her information here.

LJ Runway Monday, Final Collection, Part 1

On the most recent episode of Bravo’s Project Runway, contestants were sent home from New York to work on their final collections. Among their assignments: Include a wedding dress as part of the collection. Style guru Tim Gunn visited the designers in their homes, then they were brought back to Manhattan to face one new elimination challenge before Fashion Week: Design a bridesmaid’s dress to go with their wedding dress.

LJ Runway Monday producer Heidi Gunn decided there was no need for the Runway Monday designers to spend our time on a bridesmaid’s dress, since all of us are showing final collections. Although she was unable to personally visit each of us as we worked on our final designs, she did send her Fashion Ambassador to check on us. Who could possibly know more about fashion than our producer and judges?

Click here to find out.

Making it count

Apparently a few Mattel Top Models were concerned to hear that the High Priestess of Plastic, Mattel Top Model Barbie herself, was looking for them backstage at Fashion Week. No worries. She’s joining Tyra Banks, creator and executive producer of America’s Next Top Model, to promote the web site declareyourself.com. On Declare Yourself, you can find your state’s guidelines for early voting; how, when, and where (including online deadlines) you can register to vote; and information about issues.

No matter what your political leanings, it’s important to be part of the process. Voting is one way you use your voice. Fashion is fabulous and dolls are fun–but the Mattel Top Models (plus Alan) agreed to model my design challenge winners and pose with Barbie’s Uncle Sam to remind you that:


ONLY YOU CAN SILENCE YOURSELF!

Thank you, Lynne, for Uncle Sam.

Photo Love

Tuesday is Jess’s birthday–happy birthday, Jess! Since Tim is housesitting and Tom was dead on his feet after hours of clearing a second round of tree debris left by clean-up crews, I represented The Compound at Green Acres (where I was HIDEOUSLY and UNJUSTLY denied a win at cards, by the way) on Sunday.

While I know Jess is grateful for every gift, good wish, and loving friend who came to his party, I’m pretty sure he’d agree that the two best gifts of his life so far are pictured right here:


Lila and Laura.


Minute thinks Lila is pretty special, too.

I suspect it won’t be long before Lila can give us a Lucy Van Pelt-like,
“Blech! Dog germs!”

LJ Runway Monday, Challenge 12

On Bravo’s Project Runway, contestants took cameras to New York Botanical Garden, where they shot photos as inspiration for evening gowns for their models.

Heidi Gunn asked the Runway Monday contestants to do likewise. Here’s the photo I chose, from a field trip I took last year in Houston.

How did I transfer this photo to fashion?

Saturday’s coffee cup

I wrote this post Saturday afternoon and forgot to post it. I blame a good evening with friends.

I got this cup when I went to the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock in August. It turned out to be Rhonda’s designated coffee cup during Hurricane Ike. It was well used.

I like the quote: Nothing big ever came of being small, as I’ve always felt that small minds and small hearts will never give us big ideas, big dreams, big actions, and big solutions. I could go on and on about that, but I’ll spare you.

Saturday was a real TJB kind of day. While I was talking about politics, dogs, and suspenders to Jim on one phone, Timmy called on the other, and Tom told him I’d call him back. As Jim and I were finishing our conversation, Tim and Rex showed up, and Tim and I made a quick trip to High Fashion. Afterward, I returned Timmy’s call and had one of those conversations in which we both giggle a lot (and he promises cookies).

October is one of my favorite months in Timothy James Beck history, because (1) by this month in 1997, we’d transitioned from strangers into a group of four friends in the chatroom where we met; (2) our first novel, It Had to Be You, was released on October 1, 2001; (3) a large group of diverse friends and acquaintances came together in Manhattan to celebrate that release with a party that lasted into the wee hours of the morning, followed by breakfast with a big crowd of friends; and (4) this is the month that Tim moved from Manhattan to Houston and made writing the rest of those books in my right sidebar a lot less complicated.

Big friendships. Big dreams. Big happiness. Thank you.

Stupid Human Tricks

I got an e-mail from my sister-in-law (the most devout Auburn fan ever) this morning asking me to go to this site:

Battle of the Bands

and vote for the AU marching band’s version of the Indiana Jones theme song. This was no problem for me, because I enjoy marching bands and I’m all about Auburn, as long as they’re not competing with Alabama. They are competing with Clemson, LSU, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and USC. The winning band gets a $25,000 donation from Paramount Pictures and LucasFilm Ltd. If you can bear that theme song seven times, it’s fun to hear the different arrangements (and see the ways some of the bands paid homage to the Indiana Jones movies). Texas added their own little twist at the end that cracked me up, and the LSU dance team’s outfits are clever.

When Tim is gone and I have the care of EZ, life becomes a weird juggling act. Last time, I spent the nights in his apartment with EZ, and set up my laptop over there so no matter which house I was in, I could access my LiveJournal because that’s just how important you all are to me. This arrangement left me feeling guilty, because wherever I was, it meant somewhere, dogs were spending long hours alone.

I realize that most of you leave your animals alone for eight to ten hours a day, and they’re fine. I know mine are fine, too. In my head. But The Compound dogs are used to two people who work on the premises. They can say, “Hey, it’s time for me to take a bio break,” or “Sweet mother of God, the mail carrier is back to kill us all,” and feel reasonably sure they’ll get a reaction. They have their routines, and we all like it that way.

EZ doesn’t play well with others, so I can’t just have all three dogs running crazy in the same place. Since I want to sleep in my own bed, and I have some plans for Tim’s apartment (I’m renting it out to these nice chemists, Tim–at least, they said something about a “lab”), Tom brought EZ’s crate over here. I’ve set up all three dog crates in the dining room (in my line of vision) for the duration of Tim’s stay at Rex Camp. In theory, I can crate EZ and let the girls frolic, then switch out and let EZ wander the house while the girls are crated.

What actually happens:

Guinness paces through the house wailing for no apparent reason.
Margot claims EZ’s crate as her own and never wants to leave it.
EZ is at Tim’s, alone, after being fed.
I feel guilty again.

I decided to take the girls out for a run around the grounds then crate them, then bring EZ back to my house. I wanted to get back inside quickly, because I was still in my nightgown. But when the girls and I went out, there were about a dozen mourning doves just outside the gate. I was so happy to see them–the first time I have since Ike blew through–that I decided to refill the empty birdbath to lure them back home. Then I noticed the flowers in one of the beds looked a little wilty, so I started watering. Which is when the mail carrier came. Other than the fact that I looked like a madwoman wandering the grounds in my nightgown, this was an absolute joy for me, because the second my dogs began barking at her, I sprayed them with the hose. Sweet justice!

Unfortunately, things went downhill after that. WHY, when I’m trying to roll up the hose, does it always catch on something, slowing down the process long enough to allow my neighbor Jason to walk by and see me IN MY NIGHTGOWN? Then three huge utility trucks came down the street and parked IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE, and I had no choice but to trudge past them IN MY NIGHTGOWN to get inside.

This could be why Tim doesn’t wear a nightgown.

Disgruntled prison bitches:

Oh, save your pity. They’re all three snoozing and happy, full of dog biscuits. I’m going to shower and dress now.

This used to be my playground

I just made myself thoroughly homesick by looking at photos of my alma mater on flickr.


Photo by briggsaustinb

Those triple windows on the upper left of Manly Hall are where my office was. I’d sit up there for hours and research and write papers, grade papers, meet with students, read, and mostly just stare out the window, because I could see so much of the campus I loved while I daydreamed.


Photo by Dystopos

Behind Manly is Woods Hall, the art building. (My father was an art student at UA some twenty-five years before I first went there as an undergraduate.) These were among the first buildings built after Union troops burned the campus to the ground in April 1865. The burning included the library and all its holdings, although Union Colonel Thomas M. Johnston pleaded with his commander, General John T. Croxton, to let him spare it. Ironically, General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox less than a week later–just days too late to have saved the university.

Four buildings which survived the fire exist now:


Photo by wes4ua
The President’s Mansion (built in 1841)


Photo by Diamonduste
The Gorgas House (built in 1829, the oldest building on campus)


Photo by bnicol
The Little Round House was built in 1859 as a sentry box and now houses, as best I recall, historical artifacts that are part of the library’s holdings.