Well, here we go. The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season 2010.

Living here on the Texas gulf coast, I pretty much have weather.com opened up on my computer screens daily during hurricane season. Yes, I am a Weather channel junkie too.

I watch the storms closely. At some point we have to make the decision to ride it out or evacuate. Danny and I have a plan for both instances. If we evacuate, we know what is going with us and what to do to the house to prepare. If we stay, we have a stock of water and supplies as well as a generator and gas to run it. And we have good wind storm insurance and flood insurance!

Making the decision whether or not to evacuate depends on many factors like the category of the hurricane, whether we just don't feel like making the drive to the in-laws in Arkansas, etc. The category of the storm is a pretty big deciding factor but we've had mere tropical storms here that did much worse damage than a hurricane.

So for now, we sit and wait and watch.

My dad died of cancer 3 and half years ago. So I can't tell him Happy Father's Day today. But I'd like to thank him for a few things. These are just a few. I have a whole lifetime of thank you's for him but they wouldn't fit in a blog post.

• Thanks for working so hard when we were kids. Many times you held two or more jobs. You taught me the value of good work ethics.
• Thanks for teaching me kindness and generosity. Many are the times I witnessed you paying for a poor elderly person's groceries at the check out line when you knew they didn't have much money.
• Thanks for keeping my crazy 1979 Fiat X19 running while I was in high school. That car was a maintenance disaster but you uncomplainingly spent many hours fixing it every single time it broke down.
• Thanks for helping me build a telegraph machine out of an old phone and some wire for my 6th grade science project.
• Thanks for teaching me how to install a light fixture, how to use just about every woodworking tool in existence, and for explaining what exactly a plumb bob is.
• Thanks for taking us to Disney World when I was 10, even though there were six of us crammed in a 1977 Chevy Nova and we were cranky as hell and suffering from Florida-beach-sunburns on the 12 hour drive home to Mississippi.
• Thanks for teaching us that the entire family should get in the kitchen and help prepare the meals. Those are some of the best memories I have.
• And speaking of food, thanks for making the best barbeque ribs on the planet.
• Thanks for loving my mother and being married to her for 39 years.

Today I was driving out of Houston on the freeway. I was cruising along at about 70 mph in the right hand lane. A truck eased up beside me in the left lane. I glanced over at it as it got level with my vehicle. It was an Old Guy with a cowboy hat on and he was smoking a pipe. But not just any pipe. This pipe was bigger than normal, everyday pipes. It was quite ornate and looked like something out of old-world Germany and it was about three times the size of a normal pipe.

In a moment a Texas State Trooper car with all lights on and every siren blaring came up behind the Old Guy. But the Old Guy didn't speed up, slow down, or in anyway show that he knew they were back there. After a minute of this, I slowed down and eased back so the trooper car could maybe get in my lane and go around. I didn't know if they were trying to stop the Old Guy or not.

The trooper car came up alongside me and I looked over at it. The car was filled with troopers. There were two officers in the front seat and two officers in the back. I think that is all that will fit into one of those cars since Texas troopers wear large cowboy-style hats. It looked unusual because the troopers around here usually only have one officer per car. I guess they decided to carpool today and save the taxpayers some gas money. The two troopers on the passenger side of the car both turned their heads and looked right at me. I smiled. One of them tipped his hat at me. You can't say the state troopers aren't polite in Texas!

The trooper car then passes me and starts to move into the lane right in front of me. All this time the sirens are going crazy and lights are flashing on their car. Just as they start to change lanes, the Old Guy finally sees them behind him. So he eases over into the lane in front of me. It takes him an inordinate amount of time to complete this maneuver considering he was going about 70 mph also.

The trooper car swerves back into the left lane and finally passes the Old Guy. As they pull alongside his truck, the Old Guy takes the pipe out of his mouth and uses it to wave at them. They actually waved back! And then they took off down the freeway at a really fast speed. A few miles down the road I come up on them. They have a car pulled to the side of the road and they are all four out of the car and speaking to the driver of that car. I wish I knew what all that was about. I am crazy curious about some things and I want to know just why so many state troopers were crammed into one car like clowns at a circus.

One of our crepe myrtle trees in the back yard is blooming beautifully this year. Some years it is only so-so. But this year it is covered with purple blooms:

And continuing on with the house theme, I present a picture of my dining room. The horns on the wall in the far background are watusi horns we picked up at an amazing little shop in Mena, Arkansas. The wave painting is by California surfer artist Ashton Howard.

Since we decided to sell our house, I am going the non-traditional real estate route. I am not using a real estate agent to sell my house. I am using a combination of social media and other avenues. Here is what I am doing:

• Facebook - I posted on my wall that my house is for sale and a picture of my house.
• Twitter - I announced on Twitter today that my house is now for sale. I don't have very many followers but perhaps one of them may know someone who knows someone who wants to buy an interesting house.
• Blogging - I am using this blog to advertise my house and write about it.
• BlogHer - I am a member of BlogHer and I put links to my blog/website on there.
• Email - I have emailed all of my friends and family to let them know we are moving and the house is for sale.
• LinkedIn - I am going to look into whether I should announce to my LinkedIn network my plans to sell the house and move.
• Craigslist - I will list the house for sale on Craigslist.
• ebay - I am listing the house for sale on ebay.
• ByOwner.com - I plan to use this service.
• Word of Mouth - I am using this extensively to market my house. I have told my neighbors, friends, and family in this area. And I asked them to spread the word.
  
  My house description:
  
  
  5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms
  3,267 square foot living space. 630 square foot 2-car garage with an additional garage space for motorcycle. House sits on .77 acre lot in one of the best subdivisions in the area. The neighbors are fabulous except for this one elderly lady who is, well, grouchy. But she has only spoken to us three times in three years so she is not a major problem. This is a non-smoking household. And the house is not haunted either.
  
  This house has been a joy to live in. It is roomy and spacious with soaring ceilings and plenty of room for when the in-laws come to visit. The house is filled with light from the many windows and skylights. You just won't believe the amazing laundry room. I am not joking. The laundry room will convince you to buy this house!
  
  In-ground heated swimming pool. This pool is a salt-water pool and the entire pool/patio area is enclosed by a steel beam and screen enclosure to protect you from the ubiquitous Texas mosquitos. The screen enclosure was replaced with new screening during spring 2009. All new exterior siding and painting completed in April 2010. Interior painting updated in June 2010.
  
  Formal dining room with custom lighting. Large kitchen with breakfast table area. Ample storage in kitchen and adjoining mudroom with built-ins. Fifth bedroom currently being used as a home office which includes 1 wall of built in cabinets/shelves. Always wanted your own library? This house has a wonderful library room with shelving and cabinets ready for your book collection. Gargantuan living room with brick fireplace, recessed lighting, and custom window shades. A master bathroom and closet that will delight and inspire you. Have a large shoe collection? This closet will accommodate easily. Built in drawers and shelves throughout the supersized closet.
  
  This house was custom designed by the architectural firm Munson Associates of Houston and built in 1977. Local real estate agents call this one of the most famous houses in the area. Mature landscaping surrounds this property which includes large oak and pecan trees. A wonderful bamboo forest perfect for panda bears and such sits at the back of this property.
  
  Please fill out the contact form on this site to make arrangements with me for a viewing

   

My father-in-law and I spent the better part of the day yesterday working on the landscaping on the front of our house. It needed a freshening up before we put our house on the market to sell. And tomorrow is the day it goes up for sale. We already have two different people scheduled to view the house tomorrow evening. We may have a fast sell on our hands here which is fine with me. Of course, after selling, we'll need to move.

I hate, hate, hate moving. I got plenty of that while I was in high school and my dad worked for the Army Corps of Engineers. We moved every year that I was in high school. I was not happy with that.

And in addition to the moving, we have to find another house to buy. And in the midst of all that, I have to keep working my job full-time and Danny works his job which is more than full-time. He typically works 70-80 hours per week when his company has him on a busy site. It is not going to be easy. But then, most things aren't.

So yesterday was hot and muggy. Our heat index was 104. I took three showers. Cold showers. I drank copious amounts of water. I kept getting too hot working in the yard and I would come inside and take a cold shower, cool off, change clothes, and go back out. It was one of those typical south Texas days were you can walk outside, grab the air, and give it a hug. I am talking serious humidity. I grew up in northern Mississippi where you get to experience the Southern summers. But I had never encountered such intense humidity until we moved to Louisiana. Oh My God...the air there is so thick that it defies explanation. South central Texas is just the same!

Here is one of our newly landscaped front areas. Photo was taken standing on the front porch area:

I am taking this opportunity to give a shout-out to Dell Computers. They have come through for me amazingly well. Here's the timeline:

8:00 am Monday, June 7: I accidentally dumped a cup of hot coffee all over my open laptop.

8:26 am Monday, June 7: After a near nervous breakdown, I had an on-line chat with a Dell representative using my daughter's desktop computer. I find out my Advanced Service package from Dell will completely cover the damage.

9:12 am Tuesday, June 8: An empty cardboard box arrives at my house via Fedex from Dell. Into this I pack my laptop. I go to the local OfficeMax and send it back to Dell via the Fedex shipping area.

10:01 am Friday, June 11: I receive an automated call from Dell that my computer is fixed and has been shipped to me.

10:37 am Friday, June 11: The Fedex guy rings the doorbell and hands me a box containing my fixed laptop.

10:39 am Friday, June 11: I turn my laptop on. It works perfectly. Remarkably, I did not loose any data or files. No programs had to be reloaded. The keyboard doesn't smell like Kona coffee any longer.

We have 7 computers in our home. Six of them are Dell computers so you could say that we are definitely a "Dell family." And we will continue to purchase Dell computers after the great service I got from them this week. For FCC purposes, I need to reveal here that this post is not sponsored by Dell. Dell has not provided me with anything free or paid for in exchange for me writing about them. I am just a very happy customer and want to say it right here!

The first serious injury I ever had in my life was from coffee. I was three years old. It was a Sunday. The family was gathered around the table in my grandmother's kitchen. I was kneeling in my chair and I decided to raise my spoon way up into the air for some reason. At that exact moment my grandmother was leaning over me to refill someone's coffee. She used one of those old metal percolator pots and boiled her coffee on the stove until it was black as tar.

The boiling coffee rolled down my little arm and burned me quite badly. All I recall is being carried out of the house and put into the back of my dad's GTO. After that they tell me we drove to the hospital and my arm was treated for the burns. Remarkably, I bear no scars from that incident.

Yesterday was the second serious injury by coffee. But it wasn't to me. It was my laptop computer. I had fixed my usual tall cup of fresh hot coffee with cream and sat down in front of my laptop. My dog Max came bounding over for a petting and my elbow grazed my coffee cup sending the majority of the contents onto my open laptop. Despite my screams and hurriedly turning my computer upside down, drying it with a towel and cans of air, praying furiously, it appears to be toast.

Luckily I had one of those full-service plans from Dell. They are picking up the computer today and I will have it back in about two weeks completely fixed. But in the meantime, I may have to get a new desktop computer because my current desktop has a blown hard drive and several other issues. My older laptop refuses to communicate with the internets. I work from a home office and cannot work under those conditions. I guess I should have replaced the desktop long ago but I was fairly content using my newer laptop.

Funny thing, just Sunday evening I read about Mom to the Screaming Masses laptop/iced coffee incident and I was thinking "oh, that poor lady and her laptop!" then darned if it didn't happen to me the very next morning. Now hopefully I won't read about someone driving off a cliff today and think "oh, that poor lady driving off a cliff" because who knows what could happen to me next....

Back in April, my uncle Stanley passed away. Danny and I were talking about how Stanley will never be around again to make everyone laugh. And boy, could he make every one laugh. He seemed to remember thousands of jokes to re-tell over the years. Danny shared his favorite story told by Stanley. And it wasn't a joke. It was true.

Stanley and his wife built a new house some years ago. They did almost all of the work on it themselves with the help of some of their friends. One day Stanley had to crawl under the house to repair a leak. He got his tools and went into the crawl space under the house. He had a flashlight and was making his way toward the leak when he came face to face with a snake. A water moccasin, no doubt.

Stanley was greatly afraid of snakes. But apparently he was less afraid of them than me because there would be no way on this earth that I would be crawling around under a house unless maybe my child was stuck under there. I mean seriously. I would hire someone to fix the leak or it could keep leaking until a lake formed and the house was swallowed up. No house is worth messing with a water moccasin.

But on with the story.

Stanley froze in place. He admits that he may have screamed in a very high pitched girl-like manner but there were no other witnesses so he couldn't be sure. He began inching backward at a swift rate. He left the tools and flashlight behind and got out of there as fast as humanly possible.

He burst out from the crawl space opening and ran into the house. Without saying a word to his wife who was standing in the kitchen, he went to the liquor cabinet and took out the bottle of tequila and a shot glass. He commenced to taking tequila shots. And shaking. Really badly shaking. It was only mid-morning so his wife was greatly concerned to see him taking shots of tequila.

It took awhile for him to catch his breath and tell his wife what happened. He never went back under the house. His wife called someone else to fix the leak and retrieve Stanley's tools.

The story isn't quite as funny when I tell it here. But when Stanley told it, the story took on his special brand of story-telling magic. He had a soft southern drawl and he would act out the parts of the story. We will miss him so much in the coming years. But you know, I guess Stanley isn't really dead...he just went home.

For the most part I am optimistic. I am happy and think the best will happen. I look for the best in people.

But then I have those days like today. When things just won't go right. And to top it all off Rue McClanahan dies. What will the world be without the woman who made Blanche Devereaux famous?

A synopsis of my day:

It was my daughter's last day of school and there was much excitement this morning. Then she freaked out while we were driving away from the house because we left 2 minutes later than we normally do.

Prior to us leaving the house this morning, I think Toot must have watched the YouTube videos of Poker Face and Bad Romance about, oh, I don't know, 33 times. I have Bad Romance seared into my brain in a never-ending spool.

I have been working at the kitchen table for the past three days since there is intense painting going on in the room next to my office. But the kitchen table is at the wrong height to sit and type on my laptop. So I have a very painful neck and shoulders. I'll move back to my home office tomorrow.

Got some crappy news at work today.

Did not get enough done on my to-do list here at home. Feel pretty darn overwhelmed by it all.

Spent too much $$ at Lowe's over the past month. Home improvement is expensive!

Oh, and the pile of unsorted mail continues to reach Sears Tower proportions because I hate, hate, hate to sort the mail and file/dispose/deal with it. I pull out the bills when the mail comes in, pay them, and let the rest sit. Until it threatens to topple onto an unsuspecting dog or child and then I deal with it. Yes, I do.

But on a brighter note, we finished up the day with an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. Ice cream cakes are known to cure lots of things. That, and a Guiness. Magic.It is always best to end the day on some sort of bright note. Even the small things can help pull me out of the doldrums.

Let your taste buds do the polka and register to win a free Shiner t-shirt on my food blog.