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.

Yeah, this makes sense to me

Good Things to Come

Good Things to Come

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:

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.

Activities that scare me but must be done

1. Going through the sock drawer, matching everything you can, and getting rid of the rest. Where do all those socks go?

2. Reorganizing a closet. Throwing away/donating clothes, and whatever else is just taking up space (this does not include things like my index card filing drawer which is incredibly useful).

3. Scrubbing the bathroom floor, this also includes the shower (and all of my shampoo bottles, yes sometimes soap needs cleaning too).

4. Choosing which washer to use (in the community laundry room) depending on how many bugs have crawled down there with no sign of leaving. (I've started using a scale like, those little green leafy looking bugs are more likely to share the washing machine with my clothes as opposed to anything with eight legs...or beetles).

5. Cleaning out the vacuum. Some how it all goes in looking different and then while inside the filter transforms to a gray-linty-sticky-dusty concoction that has to be carefully contained while dumping out as to not asphyxiate whomever takes on this task.

I guess thats it. Windexing, Lysoling, 409ing and organizing everything (including thumb tacks) all give me great pleasure.

Needless to say I am at peace because my apartment is perfect and I now I can lean around the corner every now and then and just bask in the cleanliness.

Call me crazy, it wouldn't be the first time.

I like my house

I'd probably be happier if I felt like this.