OK...so it's not really a Tivo. It's a DVR from Direcway, but it works very much like a Tivo. I set it up to record tv shows that I want to see but can't watch at the time they're on.

For instance, I love the show "House, M.D." It is in its second season and it's an absolutely awesome show...catch it if you can. It's on tonight as a matter of fact! But because we're supposed to have company tonight, I won't be able to watch it...so Tivo to the rescue!

Now I'll share a secret with you....don't tell anyone else...*looking around*...

I am a junkie...a soap opera junkie. I love General Hospital and One Life to Live and have them both set up on the Tivo to record every day. Granted, sometimes I'm running 6 weeks behind, but then I let Scott know it's time for a marathon weekend and he lets me veg in front of the tv all weekend.

I love technology and this little device is one of the best ones ever designed, in my book!

Well, other than some wind gusts of nearly 50 mph, we didn't see hide nor hair of Rita! From all the data I had at my disposal (which was considerable), the storm was headed in our direction and missed us by about 5 miles, then moved north and east.

It never once occurred to me to check and see if the new house was getting any rain! DUH! But we're sure hoping it did...the lake was really low when we were out there last Sunday.

Anyway, glad that's over!!

By the way, if you'd like to take a look at the lake house, you can go here. If it asks for a password, use helen.

Well, we've seen no rain yet, but our winds are currently 14-22 mph, with gusts of 38. Weatherbug advises me that we're formally under a flood watch. The sky starting to get darker. We'll stay online until it becomes unsafe to do so, or we lose our satellite connection - whichever occurs first.

Since I started typing this, our winds are now 18-22 consistently...I guess it's coming!

Scott's outside, doing some last minute nailing down and clearing. Some of the trees are bending pretty good...I'm hoping none come down, because it'll either be a car or the house that they hit! (And I just got my car back last Monday from the accident...argh!)

We live outside of Dallas...about 40 minutes southeast, and we're about 90 minutes west (and slightly north) of Tyler. We're definitely going to get some "weather" this weekend - it just remains to be seen what that weather will entail. For sure, some rain.

We get hit pretty hard out here in the country when there's a good storm over Dallas, so my worry is possibly flooding. We're in a mobile home, in a valley, and for some unknown reason, all of the neighborhood's culverts drain under our driveway and into our yard (hey, we're just renting, so please don't think we planned this crap). We're the standard 4 feet off the ground, so it would take a lot of water for us to get officially flooded, and I don't think we'll get that much. But, it wouldn't take much rain for us to get to 5-10" deep...NOT fun.

We have discussed what we would take if we decide we need to bug out - obviously the birds and Misty, some clothes, food and water, both computers and two drawers out of our filing cabinets, because they hold very important papers, and, if possible, the karaoke equipment. We figure we could be out the door in an hour or less.

I'm guessing we'll probably lose our satellite internet and our satellite TV, since both dishes point to the southern sky.

Scott's on call this weekend. I'm hoping he doesn't get any calls, but several of the company's accounts are condos, apartments and hotels...not much hope he won't. I'm just hoping everyone else is off the roads he's driving.

I noticed tonight that next week (Sept. 27), this blogger will be a year old. I’m not sure that I’m accomplishing anything with my blogging, but since I never had a clearly defined goal for it, I guess it’s just become a place to hold some thoughts and memories. Since I’m worried that I’ll end up with Alzheimer’s, someone please lead me to the computer, pull up my blog, and make me read.

Sometimes I read blogs that make an impact on the internet community. There are those who digest the news and state their opinion on it – and I find those interesting, but doing something like that just isn’t me.

There are those who aren’t afraid to put out every aspect of their childhood (or adult) traumas for the world to see. My own childhood (and adult) traumas were pretty significant and I don’t mind talking about them, but I don’t think I could put them here on Life in Texas…because I have a lot of people visiting these days that I’m not prepared to share these stories with. No offense if that statement strikes a chord with you – there are very few people that I can share them with. Maybe, someday, I should start a second blogger just to deal with those traumas.

*sigh*


Eh…enough of that for tonight.

OK, so tonight we’re testing out Blogger for Word. Supposedly, you can publish right from Word, so we’ll see.

I’ve decided to write about Ozzie tonight since she’s been the most persistent of the birds lately.

Ozzie is a Senegal Parrot, sex undetermined at this time, but we call her a “her”. I truly suspect that she’s a he, but we won’t do her DNA test until after the first of the year. She will be 2 years old in March.

We picked Ozzie out when we got to our breeder’s house to pick up Lucy, who we had already committed to buy. Ozzie was in her own cage next to Lucy. I leaned down to say hi to her and she kissed me – and it was love at first sight for both of us. ;)

As far as the noise level goes, Ozzie is the quietest of all the birds. She frequently does “contact calls” when I’m out of the room, wanting to know where I am at all times, but her “voice” is pretty quiet. She doesn’t talk, other than “Hi Sammy”, which she has picked up from the Sammy the cockatiel (who also says “Hi Sammy”…and nothing else). She has, however, starting imitating sounds around the house like the microwave beep and the refrigerator door squeal, Sammy’s chirping sounds, and she makes kissing sounds…all of which have only appeared in the past 2-3 months.

Ozzie LOVES her mommy! She doesn’t want to have much to do with Scott and only quietly tolerates him holding her or feeding her. But where I’m concerned…I’m the bee’s knees! As mentioned above, she whistles contact calls to me all the time I’m out of the room. Her favorite place to be is on me or on my desk chair while I’m working. On a daily basis (and several times a day), she quietly manages to get off the cage she shares with Lucy, and walks across the floor to my desk. If Scott sees her before I do, he’ll do the shark-getting-ready-to-attack theme from Jaws and I’ll know she’s coming my way. But more often than not, I’ll hear a peep (or worse, feel a touch on my foot…she’s gone flying more than once!!) and look down to find her under my chair, looking up at me and waiting for me to pick her up and put her on my chair.

Last night, Ozzie managed to get from her cage to Sammy’s cage. She figured out how to open his door (NOT an easy trick!) and was sitting inside his cage…she’s a pretty smart little girl ;)

Ozzie is definitely the most picky of all the birds, as far as food. She has no interest in pasta, chips, crackers or bread, and she despises fresh fruit and vegetables. She wants only her seed mix, peanuts, and the occasional pistachio.

If you’ve ever thought you’d like a parrot, a Senegal is a good place to start. They can be bought for $250-$300, and are a medium sized bird – larger than a cockatiel, but smaller than a cockatoo. There are some Senegals who are very good talkers, and some who never talk, and I don’t think there’s any way of determining who will or won’t. If you can live with the fact they may never talk, they’re very sweet companions, and I wouldn’t hesitate to get another Senegal.

I read constantly. Words are food for my brain and it's always hungry for more. My list of blogs on the left side of this page continues to grow and I've found a new one. Opinionistas is the blogger of a female Manhattan associate attorney who writes about her ongoing struggles working for a large NY megafirm...it could even be the NY office of the firm I work for, who knows? I've been reading her for a couple of months now, and with each read, renew my thanks that I evaluated my life years ago and decided that, despite the encouragement of family and friends (who no doubt looked forward to free legal advice), working as an attorney was not my cup of tea.

Anyway, those of you who may be legal minded in some form or another may enjoy her blog and therefore, I pass it along to you.

I mentioned several months ago that one of my bosses (the male) and I had had a falling out. At the instigation of several of my work friends, I finally, last month, made the first move, being open and friendly with him, and he responded in kind, so things have gotten much better. But at the same time, it always felt like the other shoe was getting ready to drop, and I've tried to block it out of my mind because I have enough to worry about right now.

When I arrived at work this morning, I opened my Outlook and there was an email from one of our human resources people, informing me that I had been reassigned. I would keep my two female attorneys and pick up a new associate that just started today, also female (not that it really matters...or, hm, maybe it does), and the male attorney would be paired with someone else.

This made for an utterly wonderful day. I like this boss as a person, but our work styles are so vastly different that it was very frustrating for me to work for him. He's one of those that you ask "what time is it?" and he proceeds to give you a two hour dissertation on how man realized that some method of keeping time was needed, followed by how watches are made, before finally telling you it's 3:15. But then, if I needed instructions on how to do a project for him, he couldn't give me more than 5 words on the topic. I think I'll be a much happier employee now :)

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Judging from my stats, I'm starting to get a few more visitors these days! That's kind of exciting for me. I know this blog isn't a hotbed of information, and most of what I blog about is probably pretty boring. But I do appreciate everyone who spends time here visiting. Feel free to leave comments!

It's a little scary sometimes, inviting people from different places to come to a karaoke party. You're never sure whether the blending of personalities will work to create a fun time or not. We also are never entirely sure how many people are actually going to show up.

But it worked well. We ended up with a good group of people, and Scott and I cooked up the fish that we caught Mother's Day and the weekend of Scott's grandmother's funeral.

I think everyone had a decent enough time ;)

Was able to put $325 into the savings account this week. That was a good feeling, and now brings us up to $1,000 in savings. Now I only need another $7,000-13,000 for the closing costs...LOL. I wish I didn't have to put out $500 for my deductible on my car next week...I want to bank it!!

After brawling with Verizon for several days, they have agreed to reduce a $262 bill by $150. This occurred after Scott's cell phone was stolen and we didn't know it for 3 weeks. (Yeah, he used it a lot! LOL) Every little bit helps!

The man we're using to clean up our credit is definitely getting some good results. There were about 10-15 duplicate accounts on our credit records, and they've been eliminated...I'm dying to see our current credit scores, but I've been advised to wait a month to see them. Time is flying by...I'm still terrified we won't be able to get enough done to get a decent interest rate on our home loan! Only 6 weeks till escrow closes!!

While I was at Verizon Wireless today, preparing to fight with them over Scott's stolen cell phone, an older couple came in, and were talking to me while we all waited in line. They were from New Orleans and had lost their cell phones in the flooding and needed new ones. They appeared to be having much better luck with Verizon than I was, and were rapidly issued new phones. I hope they find people to call.

They told me they were staying at Reunion Arena, where most of the Katrina victims in Dallas are being housed. The woman told me they're just bored beyond belief - that there's nothing for them to do but wait. They told me they won't be going back to New Orleans...ever. There's nothing for them there.

They also told me that they were very grateful for everything that is being done for them and that they've been getting the supplies being donated. These were the first victims I had spoken with face to face, and it did my heart good to hear that the supplies are actually getting to them. I have some serious concerns about the Red Cross and their "give us money" line and not accepting any supplies. The Salvation Army has been accepting supplies and they're getting delivered...weehaw :)

Dallas has had several 100+ degree days this summer...considerably more than last summer. I've noticed that the past few days have had that "Autumn" smell and feel to them...despite being 95 degrees.

I checked out the 10 day forecast this morning on weather.com and happily, there's not one day showing higher than 95 degrees. In fact, we have a storm coming in next weekend, which our yard desparately needs - with gas going sky high, watering the lawn and raising the water bill is very low on my list of priorities! My outdoors plants are looking pretty grim and I don't think many are going to make it.

Back in California, when I left there, kids started school after Labor Day. I don't know if that's still the case - my kids have long since graduated. Here in Texas, they start the middle of August. It's always seemed a little inhumane to stick them in poorly air-conditioned rooms when it's still 100 degrees outside, but hey, nobody's died so I guess it's ok.

September is always calming for me...cooler temps, the occasional storm, the smells of fall coming in...the lower power bills ($541 last month kids!). September this year means another month closer to closing on our house. Trust me, a 90 day escrow is not fun! But now we're down to 55 days. Packing has begun in earnest. I can't wait until the move is complete...and watching winter settle in on the lake :)

The Oxygen Network is giving a dollar donation to the hurricane victims for every person who signs up at this site! Just name and email and zip code and AGE. Please go and sign up! It only takes a second and it will be meaningful to a lot of people! Click on the title link of the post.

Today a friend of mine posted this link http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor. It is the blogger of an employee of DirectNIC.com, located in NO. He rode the hurricane out and is still holed up at 650 Poydras, giving commentary on what's going on there. It's a pretty interesting look at Katrina from the inside.

Just the fact that they stayed online through all of this is a testament to the company itself!

Scott, his daughter and I went shopping today (thank God for plastic). We spent about $200 on socks, diapers, razors, tampons, individual snack items, gloves, flashlights, etc. and then drove down to the American Airlines Center where several of the radio stations were camped out, along with the Salvation Army.

What started as about 50 people quickly grew as one out of every two cars that came to deliver supplies stayed. All the goods had to be sorted out, and then loaded into a truck.

Because it was hot, and I'm so susceptible to heat stroke, we could only stay a couple of hours, but what a great feeling to be helping in some very small way to the relief effort. A true drop in the bucket, but each drop adds up.

We're beginning to think that this tragedy in NO is going to affect us more personally. As the gas prices steadily increase, we're coming to the realization that we may not be able to afford to live 45 miles one-way from work. Riding together is quickly becoming mandatory, rather than the option it once was.

FindKatrina.com is another site set up to help locate missing victims of Katrina.

Please check these boards if you can - someone may be looking for you, or you may know the whereabouts of someone who is on the missing list.

NowPublic has set up a missing persons board to help victims of Hurricane Katrina find those who go missing during the storm.

If you want to publish the photograph of someone you are looking for, please go to http://www.nowpublic.com/node/17228.