Nan's Notes

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Luke, Zach & the BrewZoo

We had a good day with Jason, Melissa, Luke & Zach on Monday of that week ~ highly recommend the Shrimp 'n Stuff for a little "fried on fried". Can't beat those shrimp po-boys & hush-puppies! We also had a fun outing to Mario's Pizza later in the week.

Ike REALLY enjoyed the boys spending time with him ...

Elvis ... not so much!

Little got in on the action with both Luke & Zach. Denny was probably baking himself on the balcony since he didn't make it into any of the photos.

Watching Scooby-Doo with Grandpa ...

"Happy Birday, GrrraNan"

... well, that's how Brady says it anyway!

After my July 11th Kelsey-Seybold event, Jerry and I packed up the cats (all 4) and headed for the bay. With Jason, Melissa, Luke & Zack in Galveston for their second week of vacation we had hoped to get in some "grand-kid time"! As it turned out, the Dallas crew had guests for most of the week and I worked a lot. I did take some time to enjoy my birthday with Jerry, Jeff & Brady at the Country Club.

Sun's coming up over West Bay ~ it's going to be a beautiful day!

Brady trying a pool-side Pina Colada ... VIRGIN Pina Colada for those of you headed for the phone to call CPS!

Brady likes to "get you" and play "ticka, ticka" when bare feet are within reach.

It's always best to practice your yoga "tree pose" before jumping into the pool!

Fun with Grandpa ...

Squirrel Mania

You guys may have wondered why I haven't posted to the blog in a while (or not!), but I've been working, working, working. That's a good thing when you're self-employed! Anyway, here are a few snaps to bring you up-to-date on the Trianon Street Wildlife activity.

One of our squirrel friends eating birdseed from the feeder.

The Velvet Elvis Squirrel Hunter

As you can see, our squirrels are quite comfortable snacking away while Denny paws furiously at the window.

They're even comfortable enough to come look in the window to get a good look at who is watching them eat!

I'm sure there are 1000 reasons why I shouldn't be feeding these squirrels, but they're too cute and ~ unlike the bats next door ~ they are content to STAY OUTSIDE!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Long Road Back

It has been quite a journey recovering from Hurricane Ike and as you scroll through the photos you'll notice that there are NONE from the outside. Still missing walls ~ attorney going to court as the settlement offer wasn't acceptable. More on that when there is some progress.

Elvis did NOT get involved in any of the work this weekend!

Little hung out on the patio and gave himself heat stroke on Saturday. He and Denny LOVE the balcony ~ they don't care how hot it gets.

The kitchen looks brand new with the new dishwasher (works great ~ very quiet) that kicked off the counter top replacement. When the 25 year old dishwasher finally died, we learned that the last idiots who installed the tile floor just tiled across in front of the old dishwasher. When it went out they had to cut the legs off with a metal saw to get it out of the hole. New counter top had to be raised so the new dishwasher could slide in once they tiled underneath it. There's some real quality work going on in Galveston ~ I'm always amazed.

Woo hoo ... check out Jerry's new TV! It's on the wall and now when you come up the stairs you don't bump into the old BIG TV stand. Also replaced the "almost new" fireplace tiles because they were cracking off the wall from the storm. Or possibly from faulty installation because the same guys installed the kitchen floor ... ;)

Love these 1x1 tiles ~ they're a mixture of travertine, frosted and clear glass and some little decorative ceramic ones. Connected by mesh so they should hold up. Took a gamble and ordered them off the internet for 1/2 price ... gotta love that.

Furniture moved around to accommodate the TV over the fireplace. Had to give up the tile work under the bar because of the kitchen counter tops, but it looks nice without the old wall covering ~ it's just textured and painted sheetrock now.

Denny was recovering from his heat exhaustion earlier in the day. Both he and Little fell asleep for several hours outside and when they woke up they could barely walk inside they were so weak. You'd think they'd be smarter than that!

Several improvements made to the 2nd Floor bath ~ removed the wallpaper and textured/painted the side wall, also removed the old rusted medicine cabinet. Replaced the mirror with a framed one from Target (looks pretty good) and designed a special enclosed cat box/pass through from the bathroom to the master bedroom closet. More on that later as it's not finished out yet.

Master Bedroom painted blue and, as an added benefit, the missing chunks of the water facing wall have been repaired.

Jerry's "office area" in the extra bedroom ~ no changes.

New queen-size bed to replace the 12 year old twin beds. This will be much more comfortable for guests. We do plan to move the art around so it's in the right place ... and straight!

Never mind those "leopard look" walls ... they'll be painted one color very soon!

Ike just kicking back and enjoying his beach weekend too. He seems to enjoy looking out the window at his old stomping grounds in the comfort of AC.

The Cheeto Incident clean up ... in the new kitchen sink.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Nature's Own Fireworks

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July ~ here's an image captured tonight from the newly replaced "Brewer Bay Cam". Like so many things, Bay Cam #1 fell victim to Hurricane Ike.

This was another WORK WEEKEND in Galveston, but things are dramatically improved. I am not exaggerating when I say that I cleaned, scrubbed, scraped, polished, vacuumed, moved furniture and re-hung art from 2pm Friday until 1pm today without stopping. Juan and his band of El Salvadorian workers have finally finished the inside repairs and I can't even begin to describe the mess.

Sheetrock repairs to walls and ceilings, replacing ceilings, painting, replacing wet/rusted electrical outlets, installing bathroom vents, replacing kitchen countertops and tile work can make quite a mess. Not to mention our stuff was EVERYWHERE. Without being down there to move things from room to room each day, the workers did it themselves. You can imagine!

Not a very enjoyable weekend, but everything is back in place and the majority of the work was completed to our satisfaction. Jerry will be calling Juan tomorrow about a few things not up to par. The only way to be 100% sure things are done exactly as you want them is to take time off from work and go stay in Galveston regardless of the dust and debris. Lesson learned.

It took me 30 minutes to figure out how to reprogram the TV in the extra bedroom so that the menu and commands are back in ENGLISH. I'm fairly certain that the installation of Jerry's new flat panel in the living room delayed job progress. LOTS of soccer being watched on the big screen!

AND there was a freak mishap last night. After pre-heating the oven to 400 degrees, I opened the door to pop in a pizza and discovered ~ much to my horror ~ that the workers had stored a bag of cheeto-like chips INSIDE THE OVEN. They "exploded" to a surprisingly large size and burst open what was left of the melted bag. If you heard a string of expletives flowing from the direction of Galveston about 8pm last night, I'll confess right now it was me.

Jerry and I both thought they were some kind of sausages until I stuck one of them with a fork and it turned to powder. This took a while to clean up, using tongs and very carefully pulling an entire bag of "cheeto-sausages" one by one out of a 400 degree oven. I guess it goes back to lesson #1 ... don't let anyone into your house when you're not there to watch them. Special thanks to Jerry for scrubbing the melted plastic off my oven rack this morning ~ I was busy vacuuming dust out of the living room furniture and probably would have thrown the #%$^! thing over the balcony.

Seriously, who leaves chips in the oven?

I have lots of photos of the new and improved Brewer Beach Box, but don't have the energy to download them tonight. Check the blog again tomorrow for updates ~ Nan

PS: We have a new, new garage door ~ with a lock ~ but no walls around the outside. I had to laugh when I saw those keys dangling from the lock. This is actually post-Ike garage door #2 ... the first replacement wasn't installed correctly so the Association is having them all replaced again. Not entirely sure why that took priority over EXTERIOR WALLS, but maybe I'm over simplifying things. It's laugh or cry at this point!

Friday, June 26, 2009

My Michael Jackson Story

MANY years ago I managed a performance incentive program where the top 10% of TCB employees meeting specific sales goals were rewarded with an amazing travel experience. Each year, I would do site inspections with our travel agency to select the destinations and work out all of the details before bringing the group in the following year.

I think it was 1996 when we planned the trip to Nice and my friend Marilyn and I were in France & Italy for 5 days with a ground supplier who was responsible for ferrying us around and helping us communicate. We were staying in Nice, but had decided against the Negresco as our destination and were working to move the program to Monte Carlo. So our cranky ground supplier arranged a tour of the Hotel Hermitage.

Upon arriving at the Hermitage, we hear that MJ is staying at the Hotel de Paris next door rehearsing for the World Music Awards. So Marilyn announces that she is friends with MJ's head of security and wants to go to the Hotel de Paris to see him. For anyone who knows Marilyn (colorful but conservative) this seemed like an interesting revelation ... but off we go to the Hotel de Paris.

I don't remember the man's name, but Marilyn called his suite from the hotel lobby and he was happy to hear from her. We all went up to the suite and they had a great visit, talking about people they knew in St. Louis and in the travel industry. He gave us autographed photos of MJ & I'm sure it's here with my TCB/Chase files somewhere.

We didn't see MJ, but shortly after our arrival he called Marilyn's friend asking for something so we left ~ didn't want to interfere with his security duties. What I remember most about that strange visit was that the living room of the suite was FILLED with toys and stuffed animals. We asked about it and he said that fans would send gifts to MJ everywhere he went and that they always donated them to local hospitals.

We all said we wouldn't want that guy's job for all the money in the world. Can you imagine? Our ground supplier perked up after this unexpected detour because he got to see Elle MacPherson in the lobby as we were leaving. Ha!