A Little of This, Some More of That

Eating lunch outside reminds me of a Disney movie. Picture a girl sitting on a park bench and slowly all these animals start gathering around her. Birds perch on the tree branches above, squirrels assemble in the bushes nearby, and she sits on her bench taking it all in. Should she burst into song and dance about? Or should she be afraid the vermin are going to gnaw at her ankles?
A couple weeks ago I was reading a book on a bench enjoying the shade. Out of the corner of my eye I see this squirrel coming towards the bench. Usually the animals poke around for crumbs at a safe distance from those of us on the benches. This little guy stretched flat out on his belly and laid in front of me. At first I thought this was comical. Who sees a squirrel on his belly? I looked at him, he looked at me. I swear we looked each other straight in they eye for at least 3 minutes. Then, all of a sudden the squirrel gets up and starts walking right towards me!
I was alarmed! He looked like he was on a mission, and my cheese crackers may be an integral part. As he drew closer I moved my leg to try and shoo him away. He would move to the side, but you could tell he was not going to deter from his goal. I kept moving my leg trying to scare him away, and every time I did the squirrel's tail would get bushier and bushier like he was getting agitated. The lady sitting on the bench with me told me to stop kicking at the rodent because she thought I was upsetting the squirrel and it might jump on us. Well duh! The whole reason I was kicking at it in the first place was because I didn't want to share my bench with Alvin, Simon, or Theodor!
The lady switched benches, leaving me alone to fend for myself. I kept moving my leg, and the squirrel kept trying to come towards me. Finally, I was freaked out enough to just leave. Forget my book! Forget that I still had 20 minutes left before I had to be back to work. Forget it!
As I walked away I turned to see the squirrel dart under my bench, and grab a enormous walnut and run under a nearby bush. Well shoot, if I had just known that was all he wanted, I could have saved myself a lot of energy. All that kicking and flailing and looking really dumb for what? A walnut?
If this had been a Disney movie, I would have understood the squirrel, and I by allowing him to retrieve his precious nut, I would have been rewarded with a pumpkin coach or pretty princess dress. Instead my tranquil afternoon lunch ended with me scared of squirrels and my cheese crackers uneaten. But a happy squirrel in the end!
I'll let you decide on the moral to this story!

I love sunset pictures so I was delighted to see that TX does have some stunning sunsets and sunrises. This was on our way to our outdoor play earlier in May. It was also our first taste of Austin not really cooling down in the evenings.

When Paul's friend Nathaniel came to visit, we took him to down town Austin. On the UT campus we found this thing with tubes hanging down ( I can only assume it was a piece of art). I really don't know what the purpose of the tubes were for, but we had a good time walking around in them. We even had a good laugh when we saw a bicyclist ride through and run smack into one of the poles. I hope he didn't mind too much that we were laughing at him.

That same day we stopped to see the botanical gardens of Austin. Notice Paul's scraped knee. Earlier that day he had a bike accident and reopened a soccer wound.

We will have to go back when we have more then half and hour to walk around and we don't have to worry about the staff chasing us out.
And finally the pictures of the San Antonio Temple.

If I had been thinking we would have taken pictures from far away, but it was late and it had already been a long day.
Coming soon pictures of things I thought I would post but never did.

Can't type....too hot.
Just kidding! I really can't complain about the heat too much cause I am inside experincing a whole new kind of weather. Non stop air conditioning. People here at work make fun of me cause I have a sweater on or have my blanket drapped around me. They question if I really came from Wyoming. I tell them in Wyoming we only use the air conditioning maybe 3 months out of the year.

A few weeks back one of my coworkers said that in the summer, TEA allowed their employees to wear jeans. We waited and waited for the e-mail to announce the beginning of our relaxed summer attire. Sigh. My coworker must have been dreaming, because TEA has never allowed its employees to wear jeans all summer long. It was only recently that we were even allowed relaxed Fridays.
My heart sank when I heard the news. I miss wearing jeans, I miss wearing comfortable shoes, I miss a non stuffy work atmosphere, I miss the respect my old boss had for his employees, I miss laughter outside my office...I miss the fire dept.

I knew as soon as we left Wyoming, some kind of disaster would hit! I told Lori and Cindy that the big one was coming since I was leaving. It seemed like every time Paul and I left for a weekend or went on vacation something would happen in Laramie. Freak snow storms, murders, car chases, ice storms, and now TORNADOES!
GRRR! I got a text from my old boss with a picture of a car with its windows busted out from the tornado, and then I got e-mails from my friends in Laramie telling me all about it! Where was it last year, or for that matter 5 years ago!
This has just made me realize that I do indeed love disaster work, and that I really do miss being in the loop with all the exciting stuff that goes on in town.

I guess I should go find the Red Cross here and start volunteering again!

See what I missed!

Here are some pictures of the damage (Sorry about the various sizes in pictures, I am still learning about this software)

And this is what I saw when I looked on line after I heard what was happening:

DANG WEATHER!