Day 61

38 photographs later, I think I got one shot with a black dot in it that resembles the two dolphins that were playing in the water about a football field away from my deck. A few hours later, I took this photo of a boat cruising along the coast toward Galveston Harbor. Read the Houston Chronicle and The Galveston Daily News today and fought with this computer and it's opressive need to have picassa in charge of all my photos. I wanted only the Microsoft Gallery and Doug helped me delete picassa and we reinstalled the galleria for my rebel camera, but then it wouldn't download. Only my small pocket camera will download into microsoft galleria...It is madenning. So half a jar of peanut butter, one chocolate avalanche bar, and one half sack of ritz crackers later, we decided to play like the Beatles and let it be. We going off to the Cinema later to see Avatar and eat a ton of popcorn!

Day 60

Fabulous day! Slept until 7--that is late for this 5:15 am girl! We looked to the beach and the tide was the lowest we've ever seen. So before heading off to breakfast, we thought we would walk to the water's edge and pick a few shells. OMG. The angel wings and cockle shells were everywhere. The weather was deceptive. It was frostbite city near the water with wind chill of 22 degrees according to our sources especially with wet hands from picking up shells. I suggested I go to heat up the car while Doug grabbed a few more. Called Mother and checked on Dad while waiting for Dougiggles (his pet grandfatherly name so named by Amber the Beautiful). When Doug came to the car it took 15 minutes to warm his hands. Seriously, we worried about the big Frost. Drove to The San Luis Hotel and Resort along the seawall passing shrimp boats in the distance. We had a delicious brunch and I surprised Doug with a "Duck" (for the Oregon Ducks) mardi gras necklace from the gift shop. Checked out the Heated Pool before passing the old bunker where during the Civil War the Confederates shot cannons. Came home for a few hours and then made it to my afternoon mardi gras mask making class at the historic Moody Mansion. It was downstairs in the huge kitchen and most of the ladies were my age and 5 were retired teachers and one elementary art teacher. We had a blast and I made 2 masks. A young adult artist had passed away after Hurricane Ike and her parents donated her entire craft supplied to the Galveston Art League. We had trunks of feathers, sequins, braiding, etc. It was a marvelous time. Stopped off afterwards at a thrift store and bought a coffee table "Wolf" book for 25 cents and a small statuette of a wolf for 99 cents. Great purchase. Arriving at the beach and Doug had finished the swinging doors on the new storage area he built under the deck. Took pictures of the multitude of shells and the wine painting that I had finished a few nights ago. So much still to do.

Day 59

I missed the lightning and heavy rainstorm. But my students did not. Kids were coming in soaking wet. It was dry and windy by late afternoon when I headed home. Stopped on 61st to take a photo of the fish shack advertising on its chalkboard. The beach had excellent surfing waves because of the offshore winds. Doug took me to a Japanese Restaurant and we had Goza appetizers and hot tea. Then in search of Chinese rice noodles, we headed a few streets over to the Happy Budda Restaurant. Doug ordered hot and sour soup and veggie chow mein with rice noodles and I enjoyed the favorite broccoli and beef with sticky rice. My fortune says people enjoy my leadership qualities. Doug's fortune was in spanish....something about amore sus padre....loving your father??? We did see a pink roseate spoonbill and egrets when we were out. This egret photo looks like a bunch of white plastic sacks stuck to bushes, but in reality it is the birds with their heads tucked into themselves to avoid the wind.

Day 58

The hormones were raging in the schoolkids today. So I was stressed on behavior management. Came home and finished the background of my Great Egret painting. It's looking super! Took a few photos as I battled the winds on the beach this afternoon. The tides are very high as we have offshore winds and a rainstorm and canadian cold front is coming in tomorrow. Picture made today. Leaving this blog with my "Budda at the Beach" photo I took yesterday.

Day 57

It was gorgeous back home on the beach this afternoon. I'm thinking of playing hookey realllllly soon from school. It is going to be hard when spring happens to be away from here at work.

I created homemade vegetable beef soup for dinner with real oyster crackers. Thinking about painting the bird I drew a few weeks ago. Just sighed because I know we will listen to the O man's state of the union address. Did you know there was a Negro American Anthem? Our school is going to have someone sing it during our B.H. Month. Sigh, again. Decided to just look out at the waves and not think about anything else. Oh, I did photograph the GIANT marble/granite rocks that are being placed along the seawall to reinforce it from the IKE damage....and found another photo op at the end of my sandy drive.

Day 56

Happy Chinese New Year! I wore my crazy dragon vest to school and told all the students about the asian custom. One student wanted to know if I was Chinese. Ha. I received my first payment for leasing the McKinney house today minus the deductions for carpeting fixing from the plumbing problem as the couple moved in. Okay...maybe being an investor/landlord might really work.

Here's the photo from my ride home as I reached the Galveston seawall today. Fixing Flounder and a big salad for supper. Then grading papers and watching NCIS.

Day 55

Amazing skies...brilliant colors...no, vivid colors. Here is the view at 6 pm and then the same view about 6:15. It changed....that's a duh to all science majors, but still incredible to nature lovers.

Having baked potatoes with chili for supper. Then starting to read the Idiot's Guide to Foreclosures. Planning on real estate investing in my future!

Day 54

It took 5 hours to drive from south of Austin to Galveston Island. We did stop and eat at the Blake Cafe on main street in the WaterMelon Thump Capital of Texas...Luling. They had a mean grilled catfish, scratch mashed potatoes with creme gravey and awesome pecan pie a la mode. Yum! This trip I was into taking photos of water towers...and a wonderful photo of a creek on the way to Driftwood. Note: It was a bit windy during the trip... My ESP Bag Stablizer went off on my Dodge Nitro warning me that the car was being blown around and not stable. Arrived home about 4 pm in time to catch the last of the jets game. El gato was very happy to see us! The tide had been high while we were gone.

Day 53

Day 52

Played and played with Kyla. She's the star of the show. We took her to the Salt Lick Restaurant in Driftwood outside of Austin. She was quite the well mannered lady. Had bbq chicken, ribs, tater salad and coleslaw. Then the best blackberry cobbler I had eaten in a looooong time. Drove around The Hill Country from Dripping Springs to Lake Travis and then back to Wimberly and home to Seth's house in Kyle. Played a mean game of Poker Saturday and was winning when everyone else wimped out and headed for bed!

Day 51

TGIF. Doug picked me up from school and we headed to Austin by 2:00. Leaving H-Town before it gets clogged. Stopped at "Three Dudes Winery" outside of San Marcos for the sweetest red and Texas white. Arrived at my granddaughter's house in time for Amber's stir fry. (still thinking food) Seth, Doug and I played Texas Hold Em until after midnight. I didn't even stay up that late on New Year's Eve. Took the infamous naked baby pictures in the bathtub that I'm saving to show until she is 18 and I can embarrass her. Ha! Kyla is 8 months now and gotten so tall and skinny. She is crawling slowly and mostly trying to reach the doggie bowl. She loves dog food. It could be a problem. Image is Kyla with Dougogles(Amber's endearing nickname for Doug).

Day 50

Shorts weather is here! It was hot on the beach today. When I arrived home, people were walking on the beach in shorts. Spring is right around the corner. The beach was pink and blue reflections at 5:30 this evening. I shall rename it Pastel Beach for today. Doug and I left my car at the tire center to plug a nail hole and dined at the Rainforest Cafe on the Seawall. We ate Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos while watching the swimming saltwater aquarium fish. Delicioso.

Day 49

Loved the Faculty Recital last night in Texas City. It's amazing how talent is everywhere. There was an awesome Phantom of the Opera duet and some self written songs played and sung on the piano by a principal. Classical piano and classical guitar filled the air...along with the French Horn and Violins.

Cooked a Venison Backstrap with roasted potatoes and carrots for supper. I don't really admire the taste of deer. Doug ate it. Included one of my student replicas of van gogh's starry night...along with today's image of my beach in front of my house in which the horizon disappeared...finally, seth sent this picture of Princess Kyla.

Day 48

1st day of second semester means the school year is halfway through. Yippee. Beautiful sunny day until afternoon. By the time I returned to the island about 4 pm, there was sunny and thick haze surrounding the incoming fog from the sea. Erry.

Made fresh chicken salad for a green salad and then Doug and I are off back to Texas City to see the Faculty Recital of all musical members of the TCISD staff.The art faculty has original artworks displayed. I also put up 18 student works on the wall. My two are the only ones up when I took this photo. I declined to play due to no time to practice and wanting to avoid stress. Oh...we made from scratch tropical pizza and apple pizza last night. Yum.

Day 47

Resisted the strong urge to bake cookies today. Still thinking about jumping straight to baking a cake. ha. Feet or no feet forced myself to do a 30 minute brisk walk on the beach today. No picking up shells allowed..must get the heart rate up. Great day. MLK day with no kids or school.

Gessoed a board and about to start a new painting. Struggled with whether to repeat a fish theme or return to my beloved horses, but decided to paint an egret from a fabulous photo I took a month ago. Work in progress to post later.

Great sunset last night. So many photo opps down here. So little time.

Day 46

Glorious day at the beach!!! Shells were washing in as fast as you could pick this up this morning. No kidding! Met a neighbor named Tammy (who is from Galveston, but once lived in Eugene Oregon). Small world again. So many kids,dogs, people, helos, kayats and horses on the beach. Sunny and warm as the day went on. Doug continued to work on the storage. A neighbor gave us wood from their deck that was being remodeled. Still great lumber, just not new. Crazy not to recycle. The neighbor was from Vermont orignally. Very interesting to discovered where and how people get here.