Fun and Fellowship

Our sweet office Sunshine Committee and their helpers (mostly paraprofessionals) decided that we needed some fun and fellowship, so they planned a Friday tailgate lunch. The professional development room was decorated in team colors (mostly maroon and white…yuck lol) and everyone brought a dish. We had wings, hot dogs, chips and dips, all kinds of salads, and absolutely delicious deserts. I brought drinks. (It’s hard to cook when your refrigerator is cold one minute and hot the next. We have to order the frig, so it will be about a week and a half before we’re back to normal…or until something else breaks!)

Kandy, my ex-secretary. I cropped out the gig ‘em sign! Fanny, Julie, and Kandy

Julie, the boss’ secretary and Diana, my secretary (she was also one of the planners of the party).

 

Louise

Diana, Sandra, the big boss’ secretary, and the big boss, Susan B.

The spread…you’ll notice there is a strong aggie presence in Klein! We need a little more burnt orange!

 

Another shot of the aggie faithful…Hook ‘em horns!

Anyone for dessert?

A Thankful Heart

Well...I'm trying something new. Leah of South Breeze Farm is encouraging people to count their blessings during this Thanksgiving season. So...everyday she is asking people to list one thing that they're thankful for. I've decided to participate so I've attached her button on the sidebar and have started my list. Let me just say that I got up this morning and my refrigerator was as dead as a doornail and all my frozen goods were limp and soggy. However...when I got home this afternoon the refrigerator was running like gang busters and the ice maker was making ice. I do believe that the Lord heard my prayer!

Kitirik

I have obviously got too much time on my hands this afternoon, or am in a really nostalgic mood. As I was posting about my granddaughter and Halloween (Katie was a kitty), I thought of Kitirik, a television personality here in Houston in the 1950’s. All of us watched her every afternoon. We (both boys and girls) wanted to have our birthday party at the television station. It was a really big deal back then. I think either Judy or I actually did have a Kitirik party.

The show was on Channel 13, KTRK. They came up with the name by putting the letter i in between the station's letters (KiTiRiK). Kitirik's real name was Bunny Orsak and she was 23 when she got the job in 1954. Her mother made her cat costume. The show had a studio audience but if it was your birthday you got to go on stage and meet her.

There is an article on Kitirik here: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=resources/inside_station/station_info&id=3300775

I didn’t realize that the show continued until 1971. I’ll have to look for our picture with Kitirik.

Trick or Treat?

I rushed back from Dallas so that Dan and I could accompany Katie to the FBC fall festival. On my way back home, Amy called and said that she was sick, but that Chris was still going to take Katie to the church. Halloween is not one of my favorite “holidays,”  (see the posts here and here) but I like the fall festival idea that churches and some schools have. I loved the fall festivals we used to have in elementary school – bobbing for apples, the fish pond, etc. However, this year because of the amount of illness and flu, I wonder if churches should have just cancelled the party. Katie was really sick last weekend and was still not herself last night. I’m sure others looked at her and wondered why she was there. She did look really cute! She also made her Grandpa’s night. Chris and I were standing across the street from Dan. She saw her Grandpa across the way and pointed at him and then started waving. Mommy wanted us to take lots of pictures…not a problem.

This looks interesting!

Is that my Grammy?

Can you say Kitrick? That was in Grammy’s day. (Can you tell that she hasn’t been feeling well?) I don’t know about this petting zoo thing. Those animals are stinky!!

I don’t know about this… What time does the game start?

Help! I’m being attacked by a llama!! 

Whew! That was a close one…

 They can have that place!

I’m glad Daddy’s enjoying himself…

What’s Grandpa saying??

I’m not so sure about this…

 

Where’s the barf bag????

 Grammy…make it stop!

Where are we going next?

 You’re supposed to throw the balls through the holes?

Moving on… Let’s find the fish with the star on the bottom.

  Did I win?

Candy’s good…

 

 

 

This looks like fun!

 

 Um…Let me see here. How does this work?

 

I can do it myself! Just give me a minute…

   I did it!

A kitty’s got to eat…

 

Until next year…

Home again, home again…

This is my last day in Dallas, and what a gloriously beautiful fall day it is…proof that the leaves also change here in Texas. Actually, as I was driving home this afternoon I saw areas along I-45 that had gorgeous displays of fall color. This picture was taken outside of North Park Mall. I stopped there on the way out of town. (Incidentally, I saw so many Dallas police officers inside the mall. They were stationed at every corner. Is that a sign of the economic times? For those of you who don’t know, North Park is in a very upscale neighborhood of Dallas.)

Yoga in the mall atrium… Must be nice!

This is the hotel room that I left. Does it look like $600 a night?

On Friday night I was tired of breathing hotel air, so decided to take a little walk before it got dark. I can’t remember the name of the building, but do know that it is a museum.

The original Neiman’s… It reminded me of the old downtown Battelstein’s of my childhood. (I am really aging myself.)

I had to get on the road back to Houston right at noon in order to be home in time to accompany Katie to the fall festival at their church. But on the road home I had to stop at the “mother of all Buckee’s! Buckee’s is a gas station/tourist stop located in Madisonville, TX. We always stop at Buckee’s in Giddings on the way to Austin because of its clean restrooms, but were unaware of this huge new and improved model. People are going to come to Texas just to see the gas stations. Ha! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

This is just one of the buildings. It is a grocery store, meat market, cafe, and gift store rolled into one.

This is the side entrance, not the front.

This is the outdoors/home store. This is going to be a boon to the economy for Madisonville.