Biking around Lake Jackson

I went on a ride with Paul from Lake Jackson, through Brazoria, and around the prison back home. It was nice getting out, but not our best ride ever. As you can see from the photos, it's not particularly picturesque around here, even when you disregard the surprising number of beer cans on the side of the road. The biggest problem we had was with a few dogs. These guys wanted to protect their territories from us evil bikers intruding on the streets in front. Three of them, at separate houses, weren't tied up and chased us, to the point where we were sprinting away seriously thinking we were about to get bitten. The first one took us by surprise, and as we were talking about it coming down from the excitement, came the second. We didn't hesitate to book it from that one. The third was kind enough to not leave his yard, unlike the previous two who had chased us until they realized they wouldn't catch us. I've never been chased like that before, and hope I don't again. I didn't have that problem last time I went on this ride.

Aside from the dogs, we had a good time getting some fresh air and exercise.

From Bike ride Lake Jackson-Brazoria loop

From Bike ride Lake Jackson-Brazoria loop

From Bike ride Lake Jackson-Brazoria loop

From Bike ride Lake Jackson-Brazoria loop

Replaced by a cat

It's about time we introduce those of you who haven't heard to our newest cat, Gypsy. We saw her at a pet store a couple weeks before I came to Texas, and Aimee instantly fell in love because Gypsy tried rubbing her face up against Aimee's hand through the glass. She warned me that if I went to Texas, she may have to get a new cat to keep her busy, and that's what she did. We were concerned about how the other cats would get along, but they're doing great. Ruby and Gypsy play together and groom each other, and Echo, well, she doesn't act any differently which was the best we hoped for. Yesterday morning Aimee read in bed with one cat on each side and one in her lap, so everyone seems quite happy with the new addition to the household. The first weekend I met Gypsy when I visited, she was still shy and hid a lot under the bed. I can't wait until the next time I'm up there and get to see her in her full affectionate glory.

From Gypsy under the bench

Oh, and special thanks to Ray for helping me construct the bench that Gypsy is standing under. He let me come to his place a few times, showed me how to use all his woodworking tools, and let me borrow them to finish the bench. I haven't had time at home to stain it yet, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Alligators!

Yeah, that's right, alligators. As in, when Aimee was down here in Texas for Valentine's Day weekend, we went hiking at the nearest place worth hiking- Brazos Bend State Park (an hour away, and a fairly small park to boot). The only thing I heard about it before going was, "If you want to see alligators, go there." I guess we wanted to see some!

Aimee and I had seen an armadillo a couple days earlier but didn't have the camera on us. Now she says I can't come home until I get a picture of an armadillo. Google Image search, thanks for the help.

From Brazos Bend State Park

From Brazos Bend State Park

From Brazos Bend State Park

From Brazos Bend State Park

The yarn box is finished!

Aimee and Dave have been making this box out of an old mahogany headboard Dave and Lucy had years ago. They planed the wood down to 1/2 inch thickness, cut it to size, and sanded it over the last many years. This past trip home, we finished assembling the box and drove it to Michigan. Aimee and I a couple weeks later stained the entire thing manhogany red and put a coat of varnish over it. Now look at how beautiful it is! Aimee already has it filled with yarn. The cats were quite interested in it when it was empty. You can imagine how they love trying to get in now that all the yarn is there to play with.

From Finished, stained yarn box

From Finished, stained yarn box

From Finished, stained yarn box

Biking in Texas

I went on a nice 25 mile bike ride yesterday afternoon. I forgot the camera, but will add some photos next time. It was a loop around some of the local highways, from Lake Jackson, southwest into some headwind about 5 miles, turn right at the prison, northwest into more headwind, right in Brazoria, right again on a nice county road into even more headwind, and back to the apartment. Most of it was barren and next to farms, but the county road was nice. It has big rural homes and some interesting looking trees that I am trying to find out what type they are.

Here's a photo of someone who greeted me outside my apartment the first night I moved in:

From Moving to Lake Jackson, Texas

And last, I made a prosciutto loaf from the Bread cookbook. I did a lot of cooking the first few days here but realized I can cook a lot faster than I can eat, so I'll have to pace myself from now on.

From Bread baked

Moving to Texas

For this rotation in my RAP program at work, I made a last-minute decision to spend the next three months working with Epoxy R&D down in Freeport, Texas. I only made the decision last Thursday, then left Wednesday for the 3-day drive down here. I made it to Texas last night, where I stayed in Texarkana right on the Arkansas border.

From Moving to Lake Jackson, Texas

The drive was fine thanks to taking 3 days instead of 2, and thanks to some audio books I had to keep me company. They made it much more entertaining than just listening to music. I moved into my 1-bedroom apartment a few hours ago. It's a pretty standard apartment. Notice I've already got my keyboard set up and my (and Paul's) bike in the closet, both of which were the reasons for driving instead of flying.

From Moving to Lake Jackson, Texas

From Moving to Lake Jackson, Texas

From Moving to Lake Jackson, Texas

Aimee stayed up in Michigan to keep her job and to take care of the cats. Thankfully, Dow has a shuttle between the two sites that we can basically take for free, so we'll get to see each other every 2-3 weeks. I'm planning on going back in two weeks, and Aimee's coming here for Valentine's Day weekend. If you're free and want to spend some time enjoying cold winter outings, Aimee would certainly love visitors. If warm sunny weather is more your thing, I've got a couch you could crash on too.

Christmas vacation fun

We went home for a week and a half for Christmas and New Year's. After a lovely day spent waiting in airports, we finally arrived early Christmas Eve. We got a little sleep that night, then had a great dinner at my parents with our neighbors from across the street. Christmas Day was a big get together with the whole Ginley clan and my parents. It was a blast, with great food provided by Ron and Gab.

From Christmas 2008

From Christmas 2008

From Christmas 2008

From Christmas 2008

The next day, we met up with many friends from high school, thanks to David gathering us all together. Had some beers, reminisced, had a great time.

From Christmas 2008

From Christmas 2008

After that, we got a good day of skiing in at Loveland with Max, Kate, Kim, Rick, and John. It was freezing cold, with a few of us getting some minor frostbite, but we took enough breaks to stay warm. The slopes were empty (everyone was inside where the wind chill wasn't -17) and the snow was good.

From Christmas 2008

Things slowed down a bit after that. We played a lot of Wii, visited more with family, and finally finished a chest Aimee and Dave have been working on for quite a few years. It's made of mahogany from one of Dave and Lucy's old bed frames. You can see it's large enough for Aimee to fit in, but she's going to keep it filled with yarn. We just got it stained today and plan on putting on the sealant tomorrow.

From Christmas 2008