This and that

The Texas weather forecast is as dependable as the belief that your hips will always be the size and firmness as when you were 16 years of age. The heat and humidity here are so wacky that it’s a topic of daily conversation with the populace. Apparently hot and humid is the norm for the majority of the year – oh joy and rapture! I comfort myself with the knowledge that all that humidity will be good for my skin, at least I won’t dry out. I have the weather site on my bloody Browser Bar to check several times during the day and still they get it wrong – I know, I know, it’s the bloody weather, but Crimey get it right once and again eh? Looking out the window doesn’t work here because Texas is so huge that the weather where you are and the weather where you are going? – could be totally different. It’s an adventure.

For two years while I lived in North Africa there were many men with small machines and large picks digging huge holes outside my door in the Oudayas. Since my arrival in America in October 2008 there have been many men with large machines and no picks digging multiple huge holes in front of my house, and on the corner, and at the end of the block – in all directions! A new transportation tube between Texas and Morocco? An attempt to find China and see what they are really stealing from the Dalai Lama through cyberspace? Made up work because they were bad? You tell me!

My ongoing attempt to find some long, flowing skirts in to wear during the nine-month summer season in Houston continues with no joy so far. What do these people wear in the heat? Of course I have been warned that the a/c is such here that everyone carries a sweater or jacket about in the hottest months. Allrighty.

J and I have decided against a house because we just don’t want all that room, and yard, and house-falling-apart-stuff that happens, and would like money left over for travel, and thus are happily looking at townhouses. We found one we were mad for, but it went while we were still angst-ing over house vs. townhouse. However we saw another last week that we liked all right, made a bid for it, and as the days pass we are liking it better inside our heads. The tiny but lovely garden that is out back would be just outside my office, so I love that. It is three stories, giving everyone their own space, so we like that. On the down side, the washer and dryer are in the garage – yes, I don’t know either but it’s not a deal breaker, just a bit odd. There is a corner in the parlour that will not fit J’s huge (ooh my really) plasma television and assorted electronic paraphernalia and where they put these horrid holes in the bookcases. I mean I get it, they put them there to make the shelves adjustable, but yuk – so that corner will have to be torn out and re-done, but that is the only major re-do we both have, all the rest is making it ours and we can do that with our “stuff’. Until we get it done we can put his toys there and I can find some huge books to hide the holes… Oh, and there is a fireplace. A fireplace? I can only assume that when one longs for winter, one turns up the a/c enough to light up the fireplace? No? Then what?

The present owners made a bid back at almost the original asking price so at present we are holding firm at our original bid. After years of haggling in Morocco my skills are well honed and we are prepared to walk away which is the real key. J says the location is great. I have no idea; I’m still acclimating to being in Texas! The wedding is 7 June and we would like to be in by then. His two children (14 and 17-years old) will be travelling and visiting about for most of the summer so that will be a good time to get things moved and situated. I’m hoping that Q will stay a while after the wedding. I have not seen much of her since her wedding as she is hard at work on her Master’s thesis.

My big problem is that I love my little tree house apartment so much I don’t want to leave, but no way there is enough room for all of us and I cannot have a cat here.

My tree house apartment 4/3/09 10:33 AM

Click on the photograph and it will take you to the album.

Yes! I am expanding our family. A took my Chen for the year Q and I were in Africa – he was already enamoured of that cat and I think I knew I would never get him back. By the time Q returned to America those two were best buds, and I had decided to stay another year in Morocco…. If you remember Q rescued a kitty from the streets of Fez and took him back to America with her. MC Solar and Chen have become fast friends in spite of their different backgrounds.

Chen Klong Pa and MC Solar

Again, a click on the photograph will take you to the album.

Therefore – I get a new cat. I’m very excited. I have been looking around at breeders and fortunately there are several within driving distances. I have decided to get another Ragdoll – a puppy in cat’s fur. The one I am hoping for (fingers crossed because they go so quickly) is a flame point. I’ve never had a cat to match my hair before…. He will be ready (12 weeks old) right around when we are planning to have the new house so that is perfect.

On my recent birthday one of my very old friends sent me a new electronic toy – a FLIP digital camcorder. I have never had one of these things – in part because they were so cumbersome but this little beauty fits in my hand. It’s barely bigger than my I Pod! I have been playing about with it a bit; I shall post a movie soon!

That’s it for today. Ciao