Butterflies

I took some pictures of pretty butterflies at Como Zoo last weekend. They are on my Flickr site. Any help identifying the little suckers would be greatly appreciated.

Don't Send Flowers; She's Allergic

My car, Fiona, is going to the hospital. It's been a little over a week since the transmission started acting up... a long, stressful week. First I was told that I needed a tranny rebuild. At 90k? Ridiculous! Then I was told just don't drive it when it's hot out. Um, I live in HOUSTON. Next I was told there was nothing wrong, it just needed a tranny flush... oh, and just ignore those lights on the dash that are coming on. Uh-huh. After that I was told to come on in and have those lights checked out fairly soon, but go ahead and drive all I want in the meantime.

Current status: the tranny is toast, but Honda is paying for it. I suppose that is the best I could hope for at this point. I would rather not have a transmission problem at all, but apparently with an early-2000s Honda that's not an option. So I'll be grateful it didn't happen 10,000 miles later, when the warranty would be expired.

That Could've Been Worse

Dolly has moved on, and I have survived my first hurricane. I got wet taking a walk, and I didn't have to water the yard for a while. Sounds like a pretty fair deal to me.

I Have a Lot of Photos of Rocks

... and most of you aren't terribly interested in them. But for those of you who are, I have made a page on Flickr so you can see them.

There's other photos there, too. Right now there are some pictures of Plants I Like.

There will be more photos, probably this weekend.

Good Things About Houston, Part II

I have not forgottened my intention to find some Good Things about Houston. It's been hard... really, really hard... but today I managed to discover two Good Things about Houston. Here is the first one:

Yes, it is a six-pound can of tomato sauce. I haven't seen one of these in years. I think I still ate meat last time I saw Mom make sauce with an enormo-can. Today I made a batch of sauce using only one can of Hunt's, instead of the three or four I have had to use in the past. The size of my batch of sauce is now limited by the size of my biggest pot (thank you, Mumsy, for the big pot) instead of how many cans I could open before I got bored (thank you, Grandpa, for the impatience genes).

Ok, now for the second Good Thing:

It's bread. Or at least, it was bread about an hour and a half after this picture was taken. It took only about an hour for this blob to double while sitting out on the porch, in the sun, with a damp cloth on. The second rising took less than half an hour.

Go, porch.

House of Toast Report

Thursday: HoT closed before I got there. V. sad. Guy said they ran out of toppings anyway.
Friday: Wheat toast with hummus, garlic, and tomato. Mmmmm.
Saturday: White toast with Nutella, Cap'n Crunch, and sprinkles. Also mmmmmm.
Also Saturday: White toast with cheesy artichoke topping. Say it with me: mmmmmm.

Ahhh, House of Toast...

Sorry, I've Been Busy

Where were we? Oh, yes:
27.5 hours until House of Toast!!!!!!!

WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!

44.5 hours until House of Toast!!!!!!!

WOOT! WOOT!

57 hours until House of Toast!!!!!!!!!

WOOT!

70 hours until House of Toast!!!!!!!!!