Monday, June 21, 2010

Ode to Harry E. Butts


Yes, that is totally what H.E.B. stands for, Harry E. Butts.

Anyway, its hard for me to describe how much Rob and I love HEB, so let me give you some of the reasons why and maybe you can understand.

*Rob's #1 reason: it beats Wal-Mart

*Every now and then they will put up a piece of poster board that says "FREE (blank)" (maybe its Oreos or something) and then underneath there will be a big table of Oreos. Why are these free? Who knows. Why does the poster board look like it was written by a child? Probably was. Does management know this is going on? Its unclear there is any management.

*Or they have these deals where you can buy a certain product and then get a completely unrelated product for free. When we go I usually lose Rob minutes after entering the store because he is searching for deals down every aisle. His favorite example, "Buy creamy creations ice cream, get 20 AAA Batteries free." What? Who cares, that's awesome. Do we even use AAA batteries? No, but it just doesn't matter. Maybe I'll run out and buy something that calls for AAA just because its so awesome.

*Giant tubs of assorted colored T-shirts for $.50. $.50 teal v-neck T, yes please.

*But today, well today I found the gem of all gems while shopping at HEB:
Buy 9 lbs seasoned pork for $10 get...Guacamole, sour cream, tortillas, 2 L soda, shredded cheese and tortilla chips for FREE. Whaaaat.

Just another reason Texas has won over our hearts.

Friday, June 18, 2010

There we have it

Initial flow estimates had the leak at 25,000 barrels a day, revised estimates now say its twice as much. This is what it looks like:

Friday, June 11, 2010

Yes I'm still here

We really have been busy the last three weeks, thats not just an excuse for not blogging.

-Rob's parent's came out for graduation and oh yeah, he graduated! Now he spends his time studying like 8 hours a day for the Bar. Awesome.

-We flew to Denver to have Rob's uncle the orthodontist make us some sweet, horribly painful retainers we get to wear all day

-We flew to Durango and drove to Monticello where we hung out with the family. We played games, saw Shrek 4 (and yeah, it was pretty crappy but they kept it short which helped its cause), went to a canyon where Rob convinced me (well really bribed) me to go rappelling. I managed not to throw up the entire way down, which was a struggle in and of itself. By the way, the gnat bites I got that day were so swollen a week later I couldn't put any pressure on them without agonizing pain...is that normal?

-Rob and I took the train into Provo (which I actually really enjoyed...my favorite line of the conductor's narration, "You know, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid just were not as bad as people think!") to meet up with Pete who was lucky enough to take us to the airport the next morning at 4am in a thunder storm.

-The next day my mom had arrived in town and we spent the day watching movies we've seen a hundred times, which always seems to be a favorite amongst us.

-I took my parent's to hike the greenbelt and although we told my mom it would only be about 4 miles I think we ended up hiking more like 7. My dad ran off and I thought I would sprint to catch up with him but it turns out I went the wrong way after him and just ended up sprinting for my life for about a mile and a half, panting up this hill saying, "Have you....seen....an older man....running.....in khakis?" So that was fun.

-We went to a friend's semi-pro soccer game where the coach got kicked out and Rob was almost hustled by a potentially unblind-blind man.

-We rented a boat and headed out to Lake Travis for tubing and wakeboarding. It was a perfect day.

-We took my dad and sis paddle surfing out of Lake Austin and luckily the winds were blowing so hard that my small little sister had to paddle with all her might to get to the other end of the lake

-We went to the Blue bell factory which was obviously delicious, because its Blue Bell. Rob got a scoop of the ice cream that is apparently a fan favorite amongst the kiddos since its yellow with neon colored chunks of stuff

-And finally, we ate some delicious crepes made by our favorite chef.

Now its back to Rob studying, reading books, hanging out by the pool, and eating all the food left over by my parents. So life is good.