...before we went to Conroe...

A couple days before we went to Conroe, a day before Patrice was coming to visit, our AC went out!

Ho NO!  What are we going to do!?!?!

This was at the beginning of our stretch of 100deg plus days... a couple of weeks ago... It was HOT and still is HOT!  So... when said AC unit wouldn't come on this morning when Mikey was getting ready for work... we knew we had a problem... Houston? Houston? We have a problem!

When I wake up,  Mike trying to get some service online with the home maintenance insurance people to no avail.  So, Mike has to leave and I get the job of arranging service via telephone with the said service, as their online link was no help, thank you very much.

After 30 minutes on hold, I get a human to talk to.  I assure it is an emergency and they need to get someone out here 'cause it's gonna be 100 degrees and I have doggies here I'm not leaving alone in the hot house.  Granted it wasn't that hot in the house YET, but baby, it's coming!  Long story long, They can't get anyone out here until the next day.  The silver lining?  They will pay $125.00 towards a hotel room.  BOOYA!  So, I get online and am looking for a hotel that will allow doggies when it occurs to me to call the Belmont Hotel... And they allow dogs in three of their rooms, which one was available!  YAY!

So, we pack our shit (me, bags, two doggies and all their stuff, which ain't easy as the dogs were wired when they figured out they were going!), and head out to the Belmont Hotel around 3 that afternoon at which time the temp in the house is 87.  UGH!

Here is Luke in my rear view mirror... if you look closely, you can see him.

...and Ruby doing what she does in the car, sleep.  No. Matter. What.

So... The Belmont Hotel is an old motor court motel from the '40's that was in poor shape when it was purchased by some smart fellow who re-did it and made it wonderful!  It is on the edge of Oak Cliff on Ft. Worth Avenue, which used to be the only road to Ft. Worth from Dallas before the interstates were built.  It's really, really cool!  We stayed in room # 52.  ... as you can see.

Next to each room is a little patio area.  I guess these used to be little garages?  Cute!

...aaahhhhhh!  Air conditioning!  Sweet air!  Plus fan!  Luke's chilling...

Mike joined me just in time for pool time!  He had to finish work and go home to get his bag before he could come enjoy the sweetness!  Here he is in the pool area...

They have this nice little lawn that overlooks downtown Dallas.  They even do concerts at the pool during the summer, on this very lawn.  Nice...

Here is the pool.  Love it!

These shots are from our walk back from the pool.  It's really pretty, in an old school kinda way, which I love!

They are very green here.  Parking is either valet or off the lot so there are lots of plants (especially hedges of rosemary which is wonderful!).

Here's another shot of our room.  Love the iron work!

So... We headed back to the room to freshen up and go out for drinks and dinner.  YAY!  Our first stop, the Belmont Bar, which also overlooks downtown Dallas.

This is the indoor sitting area.

...and this is the view from the outdoor covered patio bar, which is really AWESOME!

And... here is my babe!

Oh... I got a shot of myself!

Mikey and I!  Good times!

Here's the marquee.  Nice!

So, after a drink, we head to 'Smoke', which is their restaurant on the property.  They specialize in home cooking done fancy.  It was so good... I forgot to take pics of our food when it came out, and I didn't think you'd want to see our pictures of our half eaten food, so long story long, again, here's my family as I checked in for the night...

Sweet dreams!

More later... it's been a wild and crazy summer of travels... got more... BOOYA!

-P

my studio... yo!

Well... after Mother and Sister left a few weeks ago, my next step in the reincarnation of Mikey man cave #2 into Pagiey studio #1 was to really turn it into a functioning studio!  YAY!

First I had to get the wood to make the canvass topper for the desk that resides in the room.  It's solid and well built, just at the right height for me to work, however, I cannot work directly on wood with my clay.  I need canvas, and I didn't want to staple canvas to the desk.  A removable topper works very well.  So, off to Home depot to get the goods.  I wear a cute sundress... just because I like wearing sundresses in the summer when it's blazing hot, like it is in Dallas right now.  I got great service!  They retrieved the wood for me, cut it to my exact measurements (from my head), loaded it in my car, helped me get my car out of the loading dock... I mean, really great service!  Got the goods home, and I had forgotten the measurements.  It's too fucking short!

Whoopsie!  Well, I guess we're donating a $17.00 piece of plywood to the school 'cause I had them cut the wood wrong!  (**nertz!**)

So, in my embarrassment, I go to BLowes to get the plywood cut the correct way.  Really, the service at BLowes is not the same as Home Depot.  Not. at. all!  I mean really???  I asked for help cutting a piece of 8' x 4', 3/8" plywood and the guy says, 'You got the wood?'  Really??? I'm a 40 year old petite woman weighing 125 lbs... I can't carry that on my own!  That's why you help me, Sir!

... Anyway... Here is the finished product.  The wheel is borrowed from school, so it goes back in August.  We'll figure out another alternative when the time comes.  It's working though!

Here's the wheel ready for workin'...

In this shot, you can see my ware cart ready for work, and my nice canvas topper on the desk, ready for work!

Here's another shot!

...And, ladies and gentlemen... here is the fancy, super fancy, swivle chair I got at Big Lots!  It's even got flames coming from the seat!  (Not my flames coming from my seat, thank you very much!)

Finally, Here are my clay balls.  I threw several mugs and a couple experimental vases that I finished last week.  Things have been crazy busy so I haven't thrown much more, but I will!

More to come on my other adventures... It's been interesting!

Stay cool!
-P

korean taco

A couple of weeks ago, Mike and I went to this Korean Taco joint near Harry Hines and Inwood, right by the big Salvation Army store.  We had to check it out.  Really?  Korean taco?  Hmmmmm... could be really good!


Here is Mikey in front of the joint.  It's a drive through kind of thing that also has a counter to order from.  These little drive through thingies are the closest thing we've got to food trucks around here.

Here is a shot of the menu.  You order the kind of meat (or mushrooms) you want, order either tacos, burritos, tortas, or bowls.

...and custom the sides to your liking.  You can get em Mexican style or Korean style with gimchee.  The meat is Korean style though, a little sweet and a little savory with that Asian flair.

After we looked at the menu, Mike thought it would be better to get back in the car and drive through.  The car had all the comforts of air conditioning, which I couldn't argue with him since it was probably 97 to 100 degrees at around noon.

Here's the bag after we drove through and found a shady-ish place to park and eat.

...Me holding the bag.

Me holding Mike's big-ole-burrito.

My chicken tacos, Korean style, of course.

... and let me tell ya,  They were REALLY GOOD! Yo!  Tasty!

-P

abuela and gabey eat cookies

So... Gabey really likes this 'oat crunch square cereal'.  He calls 'em 'cookies'.  So, when I was shopping for food for the Mother, Sister, nephew, doggie visit, I made sure to purchase a box of said 'oat crunch square cereal' so Gabey can have some 'cookies'.  One afternoon after swimming, and Gabey needed a snack, I brought out a bowl of said 'cookies' for Gabey to munch on.  I've found that munching toddlers = happy toddlers.  So, Gabey was sitting on Abuela's lap he wanted to share his 'cookies' with his Abuela.  ( I think he really does love her!)




Here's Abuela admiring Gabey as he eats his 'cookies'.

Here's Gabey shoving a 'cookie' in Abuela's mouth...

Here is Abuela 'pretending' to smile about having the cookie in her mouth!  She immediately spit it out and daintily placed it in an ash tray... without Gabey noticing.


He's so proud of himself!

... and afterward, everyone's happy!  They area so cute together!

Awwww!  I loved my visit with Abuela, Liz and Gabey!

-P

visit with Liz, Gabey, and Abuela!

Well... This week I had Liz, her precious son, my Nephew, Gabey, and my Mother, Abuela come visit!  We had such a good time entertaining, eating out, fixing food here, and having pool parties!  What a good time was had by all!  I have some good video spots to share with ya...


This one is Gabey 'drumming' in the water... He's so cute.  He likes the bubbles he makes in the water and the train that goes by the back of my house (DART train that is...).

This one is Liz and Gabey talking about the doodle bugs that came out after we got the really sweet rain the night before (like 3 inches, YO!  YEAH!).

...And here is Gabe with his Abuela (Miss Margaret), eating hummus dip together.  They are so cute!!

So... I seriously hope the videos come through... and just know that I had a truly wonderful visit with my family!  Love you guys!

-P

my project

As I mentioned last week... I've been doing some home remodel of sorts this week, turning the old paige's room for her crap/'guest room' that had no guest facilities into a real  guest room!  It is done and I have the pictures to prove it.  If you remember, and if not, I turned Mikey's man cave #2 to paige studio #1.

So here is what I started with after I moved all of my stuff into my new studio.

Floors full of staples.  I had to remove 100's of staples out of the original 1958 cork floors.

Then there is the wallpaper.  OMG!  This used to be a child's room when we moved in 10 years ago this summer ( I can't believe that one either!).  We didn't want to deal with it when we moved in 'cause we had a lot of other painting to do in the rest of the house, and frankly comparatively, the purple walls and jungle motif was at least livable.

We had to remove it all... but look at those fine re-finished cork floors!  Nice!  Really Really Nice!

So, wallpaper is gone...  and we now have a nice blue accent wall.  I like it.

Here is the purple about to become white.  'White Clay' to be exact.  It's the same color as the studio walls.

I painted this beam the whole length of the house now, in three different colors.

Looking good!

Nice!

And the Murphy bed is now blue...

So once we've finished painting we went to IKEA to get the furniture.

Here's the goods after we checked out.

And... Here is the recycle waste from the packaging after I spent 5 hours assembling the bed and two side tables.  I'm a little banged up and bruised now...

Here is the room as it sat Wednesday night at 11:00 after I finished all my work.  Looking good!

New lamp too... but I forgot to get the right bulbs.  UGH.  IKEA.  I'll be back!

So, Friday, I go back to IKEA and get the bedding, bulbs and a shelf thingie for the printer and UVERSE router, cause this room is the UVERSE hub.

Today, I hung pictures and assembled the shelf thingie for the printer, et cetera.

Looking good!  Got some good pics up.  Dad's in there, as well as Floyd, my grandfather that died when I was 11.  I sure do miss him.

...See, Here's Floyd.

Another shot of the room.

And... This painting is of my by C. Vail, when I was 3.

And the finished bed...

So, Now the guest room is REALLY a guest room.  It's ready for Mother, Liz and Gabey to come visit tomorrow, and it really looks like a real guest room that adults have in their houses.  We've come a long way, Babe!

Happy Father's day to all you Fathers out there in the millions of people reading my little 'ole blog...  Have a great weekend...
-P

dog walk

So... I took the dogs for a walk earlier this week while I was working on my 'project'.  It was a big work day at the house, so I didn't go work out, 'cause I was working out at the house!  Being said... I wore my 'project working shorts' rather than my 'go work out shorts'.  Point... I had a pocket.  I could take my iPhone.  I could take pictures of my dog walk.  Not that that is an easy feat, mind you... Not easy at all.  Keep that in mind.


Here we are as we start our walk...  I find it's easier to take the dogs on the tandem leader when walking them alone.  This allows them to pull each other rather than having 120# of dog pulling independently.

Here's Ruby pulling away to sniff something.  What?  I don't know... she sniffs a lot of stuff that I have no idea what the heck she's sniffing...

Here is Ruby again.  She is eating this plant on the corner that she loves to chew on.  I don't know why.  She does it every time we walk the dogs.  It's her thing.  Can't be too tasty!

So, after we round the corner... like clockwork. Luke has to do his business.  I mean EVERY TIME!  He just had his first press at the house earlier on the pool deck.  This dog has some serious shit issues!  Be it pool deck, neighborhood entryway boxwoods, doesn't mater. but it's gotta be good!

So, now, I've gotta bag this shit up.  I use the little blue bags and that's all.  I mean, REALLY???? Why double bag this shit??? Everyone knows it's shit he's carrying!  (and, yes, he's gonna carry his shit.  I'm not!).

So, now we have the dogs smelling stuff... they do that.

The home stretch!

Almost done...

...And we're done!!!!  They are happy dogs!!!!!

So... Dogs like their walk... however it's HOT here... Like really really HOT!  So, we either walk early or late.  They love it though!  When we get home, Luke goes to the fan, Ruby gets in the pool. They know what's up when it's HOT!

More to come tomorrow on our 'project'... Good times!

-P