CSI - Rockport

The other day I was leaving the house and saw my cat Brotherboy laying in the culvert of the ditch behind my house. No big deal; that is his hangout.

His back was to me, so I rolled down the window to talk to him. He just laid there and then looked back over his shoulder and started talking.

Crap! Cat's don't do that....just lay there I mean...in a ditch.

So I got out and crawled down into the pit to find my BroBro couldn't move his legs on one side.

He was filthy and smelled like a ditch. He told me all about it.

I called the vet and she was heading back to Rockport from her holiday. Six hours later we met at the clinic and she determined Brotherboy had been shot in the neck with a pellet gun.

Now he is being pumped full of steroids and we are hoping when the swelling goes down and he heals that he will one day walk again.


I took this picture last week, at the time, I did not know it would become a crime scene. If you look close....you can see Brotherboy in the pipe.

I just have one question: Who shot my cat?

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am.

I Heart Home Ec

Today Laci and I went to the store and pre-shopped for her next food lab. Laci has to buy 250 eggs in the morning. I don't miss that part of my job. You see, I taught home economics for 15 years and LOVED it. My favorite subject was Food Science and Nutrition.

I grew up before Food TV and used to watched Julia Child every Saturday with my mom. Mom had a lot of cookbooks and was always trying things out she read about or saw on television. She and my brother Bill like to talk and read about food. They go to grocery stores for fun. I do too.

Now that my friend Laci is teaching Food Science and Nutrition at Rockport-Fulton High School, I get to go up there and help out. I recently got to show her how to make biscuits from scratch. I had to laugh when I was showing her because I slipped back into teacher mode. It was just me and her but I was talking like I had a class of 30 sitting there in anticipatory set. Demos were my favorite.

Right now they are learning about eggs and cheese, so naturally an omelet lab is in the works. I used Julia Child videos (along with my demo) but Laci is using the more hip and trendy Alton Brown DVD. Same technique just a little more appropriate for this Food TV generation.

My friend Stacy teaches junior high home economics in San Antonio. We talked today, at length, about omelets. She told me about a very successful lab she used with her 8th graders....Omelet in a Bag.

I was hooked and had to try it. If I were teaching I would soooooo do this in class. First they would do it the classic way (French/rolled) and then the wacky, mad scientist way. Man, where is a classroom when I need one?

For a copy of the Omelet in a Bag recipe please, click here. I encourage/dare you to try this at home, and if you do tell me about it. As Julia would say, "Bon appetit."

Noodle Returned to the Earth

Well, this has been an odd month. First of all, my apologies for being absent from the Twelve Days of Catherine. I didn't post once about it, or even publish my annual Wants and Needs Birthday List (which, by the way, is still available if you're interested).

In my defense I was VERY busy with the Young Life Fish Fry fundraiser. It being an all consuming fry makes it hard for me to get into the spirit of Catherine. I wasn't bummed, just too busy.

Then there was the Noodle factor. Her health slowly deteriorated until I decided on the night before my birthday that the next morning I would take her to the vet and have them pull the plug. Instead I woke up at 3:30 a.m. thinking about her and decided to go check her status. I scratched her ears and she kicked her leg a little. I said her name and she opened her eyes. Then she took a deep breath and left me. It was 3:58 (I got that from watching ER).

I got flowers for my birthday, so after a day or two I took them out and put them on her grave.

Carlos and I have formed a support group.

Noodle

Being that it is Halloween, I thought I would dedicate this post to my black cat named Noodle. Why? Because the clock is ticking. She is 17 years and 7 months old and basically a fossil.

Her best friend is Carlos (another black cat). Carlos loves her very much and they have both lived out in the garage for years, but when Noodle started getting feeble I brought her inside. Soon Carlos moved in to help take care of her. I'm serious. He guards her, grooms her, and sleeps near her to keep her warm.

She tells me things, but I don't know what she is saying. She is really sweet.

Salisbury Steak

I have such fond memories of school cafeteria food: corn, Salisbury steak, fish sticks, pinto beans, turkey and dressing (OMG), so many good things. Attending school in Brazoria County, we got great meals served to us on mobile steam carts. You could buy a lunch token (red) or get lunch for the whole week (5 tickets). You also had the option of buying an extra milk token (white). We ate them right in our classrooms. They would also put a big bowl of pinto beans with extra white bread in every room during lunch. Then in the afternoon we all got a carton of chocolate milk.

Recently I told my friend Laci, the new Family and Consumer Science teacher at RFHS, to email me when Salisbury Steak was on the school menu. There are only three places to get this kind of a meal: TV dinners, hospitals, and school cafeterias. So today I had Salisbury Steak, cabbage (with corn in it) and potatoes au gratin. I love that stuff, but you have to eat it before it cools off because then it gets rubbery. :)

Parting Shots

No one seemed too curious as to why I had blood work done a few weeks ago (remember that's how I found out I had high cholesterol). Well with the blood work I also had an EKG and wore a Holter Monitor for 24 hours. We are trying to figure out why I am having heart palpitations. I ignored the symptoms for a week or two until I started having numbness in my left arm. DANG! One or the other isn't bad, but those two symptoms together are ALARMING.

As symptoms would have it, the minute I go to the doctor, they [the symptoms] disappear. Regardless, I will follow these medical precautions to the end. I said all that to say this:

I went to the cardiologist Thursday and he asked me if I drank coffee. I said yes, but wasn't forthcoming about the quantities. He somehow knew, because he gave me this look, and I caved. I confessed my addition and asked if I could just go half-caf. He said, "How about all caf?" What a HACK! So I told him I would quit on Saturday because Starbucks was closing in Rockport for good on Friday.

Gina making my last latte. As always she made it with love!

Susan was my most frequent Starbucks partner.

I told the manager about my pending heart attack, so he gave me a free lb. of decaf. I drank some last night....it's like drinking brown water.

Baristas I love and will miss.

Above: Jamee (straw in nose) always had a joke of the day when I went through the drive through. He got them off his Laughy Taffy. The girl in black is named Glory....just like my sister. That is rare.

More baristas. Aaron (blue shirt) came back from school for the customer appreciation party.

Goodbye Starbucks drive thru.

Good-bye to the best Starbucks EVER! :(

Private Bander

Rockport, Texas is a pit stop for the southern migration of hummingbirds. Where they are going I am not sure, but during September they are swarming this town like gnats.

My good friend Susan is a certified bander of hummingbirds and has a back yard filled with feeders. She was scheduled to do demonstrations during this year's Hummingbird Festival but it was canceled due to the pending hurricane.

I work with the Odyssey After School Enrichment program and we collaborated with Susan on a field trip to her house for a private banding session. I have lived in this bird loving town for 15 years and have never seen anything like this. It was great. Here are some pictures.

Merritt Madelynn

While I worried about what cats to take with me during my Ike evacuation, my friends Anne and Seth had a more complicated problem. Anne was on the brink of childbirth.

They evacuated to Austin where Anne gave birth to their first baby on September 12th. You can see a video of the news coverage by clicking HERE.

Merritt Madelynn

9.12.07 ~ 4:43 a.m.

20 inches ~ 9 pounds ~ 14 ounces

Ike SIKE!

The following is Catherine's Ike Chronicles:

Tuesday of last week I was aware that there was a hurricane named Ike headed for the gulf. At that point the only thing I had heard on the Weather Channel was: "Once it gets into the Gulf, it's got to hit something." This prediction was not alarming because the Gulf Coast is expansive and the odds of it hitting me were slim.

So I left the house and went out into my community, where all hell was breaking loose. There were long lines at the gas stations, the grocery stores were over crowded and people were boarding up. Then I heard they cancelled school for the rest of the week. They even cancelled the Hummingbird Festival. All this and Ike wasn't even IN THE GULF yet.

By that evening Ike was in the Gulf and had left in his wake a path of destruction over Haiti, Cuba and part of Florida. All models had him heading straight for Rockport/Corpus Christi. I started having heart palpitations.

Wednesday morning Shane got my window's boarded and I went to the store to by a gallon of water for me and a gallon of water for my dog. I bought Twix bars and Dr. Peppers. I got some extra cat carriers from a friend. My friend Amanda found a kennel in Wimberly that would take 11 cats. I was ready to go, but decided not to leave until Thursday morning.

Thursday I wake up to find that in the night Ike had taken a turn and headed up the coast to Freeport/Galveston. I was safe, but now my mom and all my brothers were not.

Saturday I watched Ike crash into Galveston. It was terrible. And yet, in Rockport we didn't even get one drop of rain.

My mother and brothers fared well also. No one lost their home and power was restored in a matter of days instead of the weeks they had predicted.

In conclusion, I came to one very dramatic realization. I am no more prepared for a hurricane than the man in the moon. How can you truly prepare for something like that. How much money would you have to save to be able to take care of yourself in a crisis like Ike?

You can never fully prepare, that is why community is so important. My thanks to all the people who called me and offered shelter from the storm. Thanks to Shane and Addrian for boarding my windows. Thank you to Amanda for finding a kennel that will take 11 cats at a seriously reduced special evacuation rate.

Regardless, I still need to buy flood insurance and maybe a van for transporting cats.

Perspective

I love life, living and all things about being alive. That being said, I would also like to say that life and living and being alive has it's annoyances. So today I want to write about perspective.

I am frail and physically weak. My whole life I have been very underweight. I was so skinny that I have been accused of being anorexic (always behind my skinny back mind you). My struggle with weight is closely linked to having cancer as a child and all the treatments I received to free me of that disease, but people don't know that when your 30 years old. So, as long as I have memory I have been encouraged to eat any and everything. I have never really thought about my diet other than JUST EAT.

I got a call from Dr. Haun's office this week (I had blood work done) informing me I have high cholesterol. REALLY? ME? I have been extremely annoyed by this information. All week I kept thinking of all the modifications I will have to make to my eating habits. While laying in bed last night thinking about how I was going to write you about the cruelties of cholesterol it hit me:

Three years ago I was on life support, and it looked grim to say the least. Today I have to give up corn dogs. Now how is that for perspective?

Isn't life GREAT! :) High five everybody!

Addiction's Bad Attitude

Alright, before I wax philosophic about the local Starbucks closing, I think I need to address an issue that has popped up a few times in my comment section. It has been implied more than once that I might have an caffeine addiction problem.

First of all, you can't tell me anything. I am fully aware of my addiction and frankly, do not consider it a problem. The problem (as I see it) is I don't care that I have a problem.

Sure, from time to time, I think about my health and wonder about making positive lifestyle choices. When I get on this vein of thinking I will list the reasons why I should stop/cut back on drinking coffee, they are:

1. The only fluid I consume is coffee (or some other form of brown, like Dr. Pepper or tea). I'm sure that can't be good.


2. I only have one kidney and at this point I'm sure it's mocha colored.


3. My resting heart rate is 120 beats per minute. RESTING! The doctor prescribed a Beta-Blocker to get it down some. I take the pill every morning with a cup of coffee. Ironic?

Knowing all this, I still don't care. I will just drink the coffee. No need for an intervention. I will fight you. Dr. Drew can just step off.

Starbucks Rockport is Getting the AX

When I read that Starbucks was closing 600 corportately owned stores nationwide I was not worried. Why worry, our local Starbucks is the only coffee shop in town. Even when I learned that they were closing stores that opened after 2006, I still wasn't worried.

I am a niave fool.


Word began spreading Monday that Rockport Starbucks was shutting down (Portland Starbucks which is 30 minutes away is not). Two of the four in Corpus Christi are closing, as is the Kingsville store. Last night in the drive through Aaron said they have 60 days at least.



I want to write about this some more and probably will, but right now I am experiences all of the stages of grief at once (except of course acceptance). So to my brother David, as many times as you have asked me: How can Rockport have a Starbucks and Lake Jackson can't? Now you know. Obviously we can't.

Happy Independance Dog

July 4th in Rockport is a lot of fun. There are all day activities on the water and at the Beach Park. We have an annual Art Festival that brings people in from all over Texas and beyond. Of course, it always rains for a portion of the day making us all wonder if the BIG SHOW will go on. The BIG SHOW I am talking about is the fireworks show, and I'm not kidding, it really is a BIG SHOW.

Here is a picture of Cookie and me watching the spectacle (Cookie was so well behaved). I regret the fact that my camera cannot capture the "magic" of the show, so just take my word for it.

The funniest part of the evening is the RACE to your car the minute the show is over. Everyone is trying to beat the traffic jam that is about to ensue. No time for good-byes or hugs, you just run like a maniac trying to be the first one on the road. So to the people I sat with tonight, I bid you a belated adieu. And to the pedestrians I may have "clipped" on the way out.....here's to a speedy recovery (pun intended).

Billy Thomas

My dad was named Billy Thomas Hanna, but he liked to go by B.T. Last week I meet a Young Life kid named Billy Thomas. He too goes by B.T. In my whole life I had never run into anyone with the same name as my dad, but on the day I did, for some strange reason it made me happy.

Here's a picture of my dad looking rugged.

I never new this dad, because by the time I was born, my dad was older. He sat in a recliner and watched T.V. while smoking Eve cigarettes.

My dad did laundry. When I brought my laundry to his house while I was in college, he repeatedly instructed me to change loads during commercials. To this day I still don't have the hang of it.

My dad liked to have Bar B.Q.s. I can picture various members of our blended family there in full 1970's style apparel. [Right now I would like to insert something about the difficulty of being in a blended family.....always on their "turf", always with "them". But I will restrain as I don't want to be a kill joy.....uh oh too late.]

My dad mowed the yard in cut-off shorts. He would roll the legs up and the waste band down until it looked like a blue jean Speedo. Thankfully he did this when he got to the backyard. As embarrassing as this may sound, today I do not care and would let that nut case mow my yard any day of the week.

Happy Father's Day to all.

classmates.com

Back when I first started enterwebbing, I logged on to classmates.com and registered. Nothing happened much back in those days of the www, so I never got in the habit of checking out the site.

About a week ago I got an email from classmates.com saying there was some activity on the site that I would interest me. Being a curious cat I went to look and saw that someone I went to high school with posted a "shout out" on my personal profile page, so I responded. She wrote me again and is now waiting for my response. How nice is that, to reconnect with high school friends? So I spent some time updating my profile.

Well, now classmates.com is telling me I have another person who signed my "quest book". So I clicked where instructed and ended up on a page inviting me to become a GOLD member. In order to see who signed my guest book I have to subscribe: two years for $59.00, or 1 year for $39.00, or I could satisfy my curiosity for a mere $15.00 (3 month subscription).

Couldn't this be classified as a "bait and switch"? WELL I'M NOT FALLING FOR IT!!!

So if you are the one who signed my quest book I will never know, but thank you anyway.

Frog Blog

I had a broken terracotta pot. and I noticed I had some toads.

So I turned my broken pot upside down and made a terracotta hut: a frog sancuary if you will.

They moved in and it makes me happy.






This beautiful vine (Morning Glory) is killing my Azalea.

I must now kill the Morning Glory.....again!

Who Do You Remember

Memorial Day is a day to remember those who serve in the armed forces so that we can live free in a country such as ours. So today I remember Jeff Nelson, a former student, who is serving now in Iraq with the United States Army.

Today I remember B. T. Hanna, my dad, who served in the Construction Battalion of the United States Navy. Pictured below on the right.

I remember my brother Bill who served in the United States Air Force in Korea.



I remember Garrett McLead, also a former student, who served in the United States Army. He was killed last summer with 17 other soldiers when the Black Hawk he was in went down in Iraq.





Today and everyday is day to remember those who are serving or who have served. It's also a time to remember that sacrifices are made by wives, sons and daughters, moms and dads every time a soldier puts on his uniform. Freedom is never free and should never be taken for granted.

Not a Square to Spare

The unthinkable has happened: I ran out of toilet paper. Two and a half years ago for my birthday I asked the YOUniverse for a year's supply of toilet paper and I have been using that TP ever since.

So imagine my surprise and COMPLETE SHOCK when today I looked under the bathroom cabinet and found nothing but cotton balls. Talk about girl interrupted (vague movie reference).


I just got back from buying a 12 pack at the store.....and tomorrow I may go back and actually buy the toilet paper. :)

Bowling for Gasoline

Tonight was the annual Young Life Bowl-a-Thon. This year the committee participated in order to raise money to help defray the transporation costs of each camper.

I had the standard flat rate sponsors. Those are my favorite because my bowling game doesn't affect the donation. That being said, I bowled the worst game ever! Forty nine pins the first game. GUTTERS GALORE! Then 70 pins the second game. I redeemed myself a little in the second game by hitting a strike. There was no third game due to fatigue and shaky muscles. It was like someone kept coming over and trading out my already heavy, pink ball for an even heavier, pink ball.

And yet, there are those sponsors, who insist on paying per pin. I wonder if they are trying to motivate me into playing the best game ever, or instead have they sized me up and are banking on my deficiencies?

The baristas at Starbucks (5 of them) sponsored me. They didn't have a hat to spare (pun) so they gave me an apron to wear. When I arrived, one of the campers said, "I didn't know you worked at Starbucks." I replied, "I don't, they are my corporate sponsor."

Cyndea, Shane, Bobbi, Catherine, and Ryan.

Patti, Cat, and Leslie.

I'm telling you now that bowling BEATS having a rummage sale any day.

Googled and Found

I have some announcements:

1. I just googled "generation perplexed" and we showed up in the top 5 hits (number two to be exact). Oddly however, it was a post I wrote called "Recipes from the Crypt". I read it again and then read your comments. You guys are funny! It was like looking at a photo album but instead of your faces I saw your words.



2. I had a person make a comment on my blog a few times and so I went to read his. He is funny and weird. So I check out his blog from time to time. I noticed in his "links" in the sidebar he has a link to my site. How friendly is that? I will return the kindness and put him in my links.



3. My pastors (see my links) write interesting/funny blogs. Pastor Scott recently wrote one about music. I think I will investigate what my iPod says about what I listen to now that he has brought it up.



4. Did y'all notice I didn't Mother's Day post? What a rotten daughter. By the way Mom, your card wasn't locked in the YL office after all. I found it today in my garage. David, Glory, and Bill really do love you the most.....so PLEASE start loving them as much as you love me.

This concludes our evening announcements.

Get the RAID!

My mom and dad were militant roach exterminators. My dad use to hit them with his bare hand. My mom sprayed them with Raid until they were swimming (backstroke) in the stuff. THEN she would put the can on top of them because it (the can) was concave. This gas chamber technique was mainly used to prevent the "enemy" from dragging its Raid soaked body up your leg as you later sat watching TV.

I don't have roaches (or flies). If one does on occasion show up, it isn't long before one of the cats gets it. I only have to watch and make sure they don't leave it for me on my pillow as a gift.

When I woke up this morning I saw sitting on my beautiful wall by my beautiful cork board a hideous roach. I have checked regularly and he has remained there all day. Until recently, while typing this blog, he moved to the picture on my cork board (pictured above....can you see him?) I WILL NOT hit a roach (my weapon is a broom) when it is over my head. Are you kidding me? They fly like like kamikaze and I am always their target. UGH! So I am waiting for my cat's to step up and I hope before bed.

Then this afternoon I got an email from Martha Stewart with a picture attached and the subject "Our Best Spring Party Plans". I like lanterns and I like butterflies. As a matter of fact I ran into a butterfly last week with my car and was REALLY upset about it. But in light of what I have been dealing with today this picture creeps me out. Too many insects in one spot maybe?

How realistic is this decoration in South Texas? June Bugs, Cockroaches, Woolly Worms, Mosquitos now that is what we have down here this time of year. So how funny would it be to make these lanterns and glue fake cockroaches to them?

Come to think of it, not to funny. I would run screaming from that back yard party like a crazy women looking for a broom.

I wish I was like my mom or dad.

Punch List

In the construction biz they have what's called a "punch list". I don't know how I know that, probably HGTV, but the punch list is made up of all the tiny details you have to complete before a house is ready to move in to. My punch list has things on it like: switch plate cover, lamp, plant, metal rings for curtain, etc. I am going to Lowe's today with Anne to buy all the things I need to complete my list. The Closer (pictured below on right) is coming Wednesday after work to make sure I did what I was suppose to do to finish the room. So, even though the project has a few loose ends, I still wanted to put up some after pictures. Isn't it lovely?

The crew: Marsha, Jeri, and Joanne.

Gratuitous cat picture.

The bedding will arrive in increments through the summer.

I made the curtans. And plan to put bamboo shades behind them.