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.