Sheep Guarding Llama

It is another very, very hot day in Texas.  For the most part the heat doesn’t bother me too much but it starts getting incredibly inconvenient when it is this hot and it disrupts so many things.  It wouldn’t be nearly so bad if we had a different living situation that did not involve a five minute walk outside to get to a garage that is twenty or thirty degrees above the air temperature with zero air movement.  No matter how cool you are before you start, no matter how cool it is outside, the moment that you set foot into the garage here at our apartment it simply takes your breath away and your car is as hot or hotter than if it had been sitting out in the sun all day.  It is completely ridiculous.

Today is Brian’s last day with us down in Texas.  He has spent almost two entire months here so far this year and we know that he is coming down to Houston and Austin in October at the very least.  It is becoming like a second home for him at this point.  He is flying out of DFW early tomorrow morning to head back home to Philadelphia.  Then tomorrow evening, after work, I will be driving down to Lake LBJ to get the girls and bring them home on Saturday where, I truly hope, I get to stay for a little while before needing to go anyplace else.

Pretty much a normal work day.  Nothing really to report.  I’ve been doing lunch at home all week because of Oreo.  He is such a good dog.  He has never handled being left home alone very well and he has been doing great this week.

Work was pretty much normal, nothing to report there.  I’ve been driving to and from work since returning from New York as it is just so hot here now.

After work I went back to the apartment and found Brian playing Oblivion on the PS3 – his favourite pastime.  We packed the Ralstons’ “Wii Care Package” into the BMW and drove over to the UPS store to ship it out and discovered that the UPS Store closes at six thirty – it was now ten ’till seven!  Argh.  I seldom get out of work before six thirty.  That is really annoying that they are only open during prime working hours.  I can get out early to go there but I should not have to.

We needed to meet some people at The Ranch just up the street so we drove up there.  We had a few Shiners and Watson came down to join us and we had dinner there as it was just too convenient not to.

After dinner we went back to the apartment and hung out for a little while.  We worked on making nLite packages which I had never done before.  That was relatively interesting.

It was quite late when we finally managed to get to bed.  Tomorrow is going to be a really long day.  Brian’s flight out of DFW is at six so we need to be up around three to get ready and get out the door to get him to the airport!

Today is definitely a hot one.  The raw temperature was one an even one hundred in Las Colinas but the heat index was a full one hundred and fourteen degrees!  It was both hot and sticky.  Even in the “cool” of the morning you walk out to a wall of humidity.  Not pleasant at all.

The worst part of the Texas heat is the lack of cloud cover.  It is nearly always bright sunshine, as the state’s name would suggest, and that sunshine takes quite the toll on you and your vehicle should you be so unfortunate as to be out in it for more than a minute.  The cars get so incredibly hot.  It really has to be experienced to understand.

As Jeff said today after getting me coffee from Starbucks: “It’s bad when you set down the burning hot coffee and then touch the roof of your car and realize that the coffee feels cool in comparison.”

I am very excited that I am beginning to, if only slowly, get caught back up on SGL.  There is a lot to be done.  I hope that I do not get stuck traveling again anytime soon.  I need some time just “at home” to get life back to normal.

After work I ran home, shaved and changed quickly, then Brian and I drove over to La Cima to meet up with Maggie and Judi for pasta night.  We had seven o’clock reservations but arrived a little early so we hung out in the lounge and had cocktails before going in to dinner.

Dinner was very good.  Tonight’s special sauce was a lobster cream sauce which almost everyone got.  It was very good.  We hung out after dinner for a while and didn’t get back home until quite late – probably around eleven.  I fed Oreo then Brian, Maggie and I had a late call to Arizona but that was pretty quick.

I ended up being up until three in the morning having a conversation with Melbourne, Australia.  I am going to be dragging tomorrow!

I got up at eight and got in to the office.  I was up pretty late last night and was dragging this morning pretty seriously.  I am home alone today – Oreo is still visiting with Maggie and Brian is still down in Houston.  So I have the house to myself.

Work was fine this morning.  I went home at lunch to take care of some errands and whatnot.  On the way back to the office I swung into Jersey Mike’s to get a sub to take back to the office.  I just ate at my desk.

My allergies are really bad today – at least I am assuming that it is my allergies.  I am sneezing something horrible but that is about it.  No other symptoms.  So it seems like allergies to me.

Maggie was originally going to bring Oreo over this afternoon but she had to work late and with traffic at that time of day it just didn’t make any sense.  So she is going to bring him over later on this evening after dinner.

I worked fairly late, since there is no one to go home to, and then went home to figure out what to do for the evening.  I caught up on emails and thought about heading over to The Ranch to join Brian for a beer – he had gone straight there from the drive from Houston.

The timing did not work out, though, as Maggie was party way to our place by that point so I decided that I just needed to stay in for the evening.  Once Oreo was home I knew that I could not go out anywhere because we would need to spend time together.  He can’t come home to an empty house this evening after having been away for days – he would be most unhappy.  So my plan is doggy snuggles all evening.

When Maggie and Oreo arrived I met them out in the hall.  Oreo was so excited to hear my voice that his whole body was wagging.  He definitely had a really good time on his little vacation but he is glad to be home too.

Maggie only hung around for ten minutes or so before heading back home.  Then Oreo and I went for a walk and settled down on the couch to spend some quality time together.  He is having a hard time remembering where all of the furniture is located in the house since we had just rearranged everything on him just before he went away for several days so he isn’t sure where he is going to run into something and where he can jump up onto the couch or whatever.

Brian Watson ended up meeting Brian Souder at The Ranch and they said that they would bring me dinner later.  So I made myself a bacon buttie to hold myself over as I was starving and then Oreo and I settled in to watch Hannah Montana: The Movie on BluRay which we have had for a very long time and that Dominica had watched without me at some point.  It was the only movie in the house that I had not already seen.

About halfway through the movie “The Brians” arrived with my ancho Caesar salad and fried catfish dinner from The Ranch, which is just around the corner.  They had thought that I had been kidding when I had Twittered that I was watching Hannah Montana, but I wasn’t.  They mocked me but they both decided to sit down and watch it as well and seemed to really enjoy it.  It is a cute movie.  Not bad at all and you really don’t have to have watched the show to understand it.  There are some references that only make sense if you know the show but for the most part it is so disconnected from the show that it doesn’t matter at all.

It was still early at that point and Brian Sounder wanted to watch Transformers so we watched that too.  I have only seen that once before.  It is a good movie.  Not great, but good.  Sometimes you need a pointless action movie and it fits the bill well and it shows off the BluRay as well.  I want to get the sequel too but have not been buying movies recently so have not gotten around to it.

We made a big dent in the two boxes of wine that Brian and I had picked up from Target last week.  I am hoping to have them finished off before Dominica gets back on Saturday as we will need all of the counter and fridge space that we can muster as her family is coming to visit for the weekend and we are very space limited.

Everyone fell asleep or pretty much fell asleep during the last movie.  Apparently Transformers was not as engaging as Hannah Montana: The Movie. Oreo was very happy to snuggle next to me.  I had my arm around him all evening.  He has definitely missed his daddy.

Oreo is staying with me until Friday evening when I will be driving down to Lake LBJ.  I am going to drop him off at Maggie’s again on the way out of town so that he can enjoy a mini-vacation again rather than having to ride in the car in the heat all of that way just to turn around and drive right back.  And it will get him out of the way while the Grices are staying with us as we will not have much space at all and Oreo will just be in the way and unhappy.  So we will pick him back up on Sunday afternoon when everyone heads back down to Houston.

Pretty much just a normal day planned for tomorrow.  Work and then Pasta Night at La Cima.  Nothing else planned, for a change.  I need to get busy on house cleaning too!

Brian left first thing this morning, around four or five in the morning, to drive down to Houston.  He is working down there all day today, spending the night and returning some time tomorrow evening.  So I have the house to myself for the day.  Oreo is not here, he is staying with Maggie until tomorrow so I truly am alone.

I put in a long day at work today.  Little reason not to.  I just went home for lunch but didn’t get to do much of anything.

Today I returned from Lake LBJ on my own to spend the week back at home working while Dominica and Liesl spend time with her family down at the lake house.  I will be returning to get them on Friday night.  We will be home next Saturday afternoon.