See, I do have a life!

1. Greg Abbott’s pathetic plea for attention. It’s one part wish fulfillment and one part right-wing pornography. It also has a certain “be careful what you wish for” element to it, specifically with the proposal that only a seven-justice super majority can invalidate a “democratically enacted law”. You know what would still be on the books if this were already in place? Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. And while it was a 7-2 vote that struck down the portion of the Affordable Care Act that would have coerced states into expanding Medicaid, the rest of the law would have never been in any jeopardy if seven votes had been needed to kill it. Even I don’t think Greg Abbott is dumb enough to have not realized these things, but it would be nice for someone in the media to have made mention of them. For that matter, it would be very interesting for someone with more time and expertise than I have to review some landmark Supreme Court cases to see which would not make the cut under this, and ask Abbott about them. Or we can just treat this like the joke that it is and ignore it. Either way is okay by me.

2. The new accounting standards that make Houston’s financial situation look worse. I’d advise everyone to scroll down to the part of the story where a couple of accounting experts basically say that it isn’t telling us we didn’t already know. I myself plan to wait till Mayor Turner proposes some concrete actions on the city’s finances before I get all worked up about it.

So what did I do this weekend instead of blog about these things? My weekend involved putting away Christmas decorations, watching football, finally accepting a nudge from Microsoft to upgrade my PC to Windows 10 – I’d done it before on my laptop and it was a disaster, but that was months ago and the PC is a newer machine, so I was less worried about it, and it went through smoothly – and about 97 loads of laundry. How was your weekend?

UPDATE: This analysis by Ian Millhiser in ThinkProgress of what Abbott’s constitutional fantasies would mean in reality is exactly what I’m talking about.

Apparently, this is a pretty busy week for blogger birthdays. Tuesday was Elise Hu and Stephanie Stradley; they both got cool presents befitting their bloggy stature to help them celebrate. Yesterday was Atrios‘ turn; I have no idea if he got any presents, but he does have his own Wikipedia entry, which is nice. And today is mine. (It’s also Justine Bateman‘s, but as far as I know she’s not a blogger.) I have it on good authority that there will be some baked goodies for dessert tonight, so I’m covered as far as presents go. One of the things I’ve learned by having kids is that it’s not really a birthday if there isn’t cake involved. Good to know I’m doing it right.

There’s a slightly belated 51st birthday party being thrown for Rick Noriega tomorrow at Marbella’s Banquet Hall, 6632 Harrisburg Boulevard, just off of I-45 and Wayside – here’s a Google map for you, and you can look at the invitation (PDF) for more details. Come on out and wish Rick a Happy Birthday and thank him for all he’s done as a public servant.

So a few months ago, I noticed that when I put recyclables out to the curb on Sunday night, the bags with paper – mostly newspaper, but with other stuff as well – would be gone by Monday morning, before the trucks arrived. I further noticed, and subsequently confirmed with a neighbor, that I wasn’t the only one to whom this was happening. So, being slightly paranoid even though we routinely shred anything that has identifying information on it, I made it my habit to put the non-paper out on Sunday night, and the paper on Monday morning before I go to work.

Which is what I did this Monday. And then, while herding the girls out the door to go to school and work, I saw a gray pickup truck stop in front of my driveway, and an older guy in what looked like a vintage yellow Houston Rockets “Clutch City” t-shirt get out and start to pick up the bags with paper in them from my bin. What the hell?

I stepped out the back door and said to him “Excuse me, what are you doing?” He made some lame excuse about needing the paper for his nephew, said he wouldn’t take the paper if I didn’t want him to, and drove off. Sadly, I didn’t get his license plate number.

Anyway, Tiffany wound up calling the city’s 311 line to complain about this, and was transferred to the HPD non-emergency line; an officer came by awhile later, and explained this wasn’t a crime. Which we already knew – we just wanted to let the city know this was happening, since presumably it would affect its ability to make money off of recyclables if some “entrepreneurs” were getting to them first.

I have no idea what this guy was up to. The market for scrap paper isn’t exactly robust right now – if he’d been lifting the aluminum cans, I’d have understood. The most likely explanation would seem to be that he was fishing for identities for some kind of scam or another. Which at least justified my paranoia, however annoying it may be that his actual action wasn’t illegal. We may wind up dealing with the paper recyclables separately as a result of this. Like I say, we do shred, but why take a chance? Regardless, I thought I’d put this out there as a warning to folks in my neighborhood, and to anyone else who might be interested. Has this ever happened to you? Let me know.

It wasn’t a hallucination.

Falling snowflakes glimmered in streetlights, so wide that they billowed to the ground like parachutes, and so tantalizing that even awestruck adults reached out their hands or stuck out their tongues to catch one.

By Wednesday evening, the flakes were big enough to hold their shape for a moment on the street before melting into the pavement, and a dusting had collected on parked cars in some parts of town.

The flurries tied a record for Houston’s earliest snowfall ever and warmed the hearts of winter weather lovers who have pined for snow since it last made an appearance on Christmas Eve 2004.

“I’ve got a pot roast in the Crock-Pot, and I’m going to go home, change into my warmest pajamas and eat pot roast and enjoy what may be the only real winter day we have all year,” said Tina Arnold, an Illinois native who took advantage of the wintry backdrop to pick up Christmas presents Wednesday at The Woodlands Mall.

Since 1895, records indicate, snow has fallen this early just once — on Dec. 10, 1944.

And now it’s happened twice, though if you didn’t see it last night you probably missed it altogether. In that spirit, here’s a couple of views from my back yard, plus a picture from the last time it had snowed in Houston. Click on to see the images.

(more…)

Dateline 1988, somewhere in San Antonio. The shaggy guy in the green shirt and ever-so-fashionable glasses is me.

Ten years later, at the Class of 1988 reunion. Tiffany and I had been married for all of three weeks at the time.

We’re at the 20-year reunion this weekend. Photos, memories, adult beverages, introducing the next generation to each other, all with (mostly) better hair. It’s a beautiful thing.

While we were up in Portland, we asked my talented and indefatigable sister-in-law Cathy to take some family photos of us. She has professional equipment for the task, and a great eye. You can see a sample of the results here. Thanks, Cathy!

It’s been too long since I’ve posted a picture of the girls. So here you go:

That photo was taken one morning as I was herding the girls into the car to go to preschool. Audrey was going through a phase of demanding to wear sunglasses before leaving the house. What can I say, some people are just born cool. We’ve just realized that later this month, Olivia will officially start pre-kindergarten. One more year, then she begins her journey at Travis Elementary. That was more than a little weird to contemplate.

Anyway, hope you like the pic. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Olivia and Audrey and I spent a little time this afternoon at the public library grand reopening. It was fun for all, as they burned up some energy in the kids area that they otherwise would have expended at home, driving me crazy in the process. The only downer of the day was with the parking. We parked at the 1100 Smith Street garage, which was a very reasonable flat $3 fee for weekends, but almost didn’t make it out of the lot. The exits are unattended on weekends, which is fine, but the payment machines didn’t take credit cards or bills larger than $10. One poor woman had pulled over and was asking everyone if they could break a $20 – I think she finally got a taker as we were queued up.

Then it was my turn, and though I had a $5 bill, the stupid bill reader wouldn’t take it. After several failed attempts, I got out and swapped bills with the car behind me. That one still wouldn’t take, and I was contemplating how much it would cost me to just bust through the swinging arm when one last try finally worked. Oh, and it paid change in quarters; if there was ever a time to use dollar coins, this would seem to have been it, but no go.

So, my advice to you, the downtown weekend adventure seeker, is to avoid the 1100 Smith Street garage (located between Massa’s and Pappas Barbecue) like the plague. If someone from that garage reads this and is offended by my characterization, all I can say is that I’ve spelled out what you can do to make this right. All I know is I’ll be using the underground parking by Bayou Place next time. It may cost a bit more, but if so it’ll be worth it.

UPDATE: For more about the library itself, here’s Dwight’s review.

So last week, as I was about to chase Olivia off to bed, Tiffany stopped me and said “No, wait, there’s stargazing on the Esplanade tonight. Why not take Olivia out for a few minutes and let her look through one of the telescopes?”

(I’ll pause for a minute to explain that our neighborhood contains some amateur astronomy buffs, and when conditions are favorable they sometimes gather on the esplanade on our street and set up their equipment to look heavenward. This was one of those nights.)

Olivia, of course, was amenable to this – hey, anything to delay going to bed for a few minutes. We got outside, and I pointed out the big telescope to her, and she was excited about looking through it. Her preschool class had been talking about the solar system that week, and so she could name a couple of planets, one of which was Saturn, which just happened to be visible that evening.

We were the first people to wander over and ask about using the scope, so Olivia was able to get a crack at it right away. There was a stepladder that we moved over for her to climb up so she could peer into the eyepiece, and once it got good and dark, she had a great look at Saturn, which she thought was very cool. She chattered about it quite a bit afterwards.

Oh, and did I mention that there was a reporter for the Houston Chronicle there as well, doing a feature story on neighborhood “star parties” like that one? And that she had a photographer with her? And that they and the telescope dude just about fainted at the prospect of photographing a cute little girl in her pink Minnie Mouse nightgown as she looked at Saturn through a big telescope?

Here’s the story. Scroll down a bit to see the picture.

I should note, by the way, that the Chron reporter asked me a few questions as well, but none of that made it in. Obviously, we can tell who has the real star power in this family.

Today is my forty-second birthday, which I feel should bring me one step closer to understanding what life, the Universe, and everything is all about. If I get any blinding insights, I’ll be sure to share them. As always with my birthdays, the truly important things to note are that I share the date with Justine Bateman, and that I’m exactly one day older than Cindy Crawford. I mean hey, with references like those, how can I lose?

Today is also the first day of early voting in Texas for the March 4 primary. Those of you in Harris County, you can find early voting information and locations here (PDF). I highly recommend voting early this year, as turnout projections are incredibly high, and I wouldn’t want to get caught in the chaos that’s sure to occur on the fourth. Of course, that means you have to figure out who you’re voting for once and for all. I’ll post an incomplete list of people for whom I’ll be pushing the button tomorrow, for what that will be worth to you. Some choices are easier than others, but they’re all important. Please make sure your voice is heard.

Here’s a sorted list of the candidate interviews and Q&As I’ve done for the Democratic primary. I hope this helps you make your decisions. Thanks very much, and go vote!

Interviews:

US Senate – Rick Noriega

US House, District 10 – Dan Grant and Larry Joe Doherty

Harris County Judge – David Mincberg

Harris County Sheriff – Adrian Garcia

Harris County Tax Assessor – Diane Trautman

State Senator, District 11 – Joe Jaworski

State Representative, District 27 – Ron Reynolds and Rep. Dora Olivo

State Representative, District 140 – Armando Walle

State Representative, District 145 – Carol Alvarado

State Representative, District 147 – Rep. Garnet Coleman

State Representative, District 148 – Rep. Jessica Farrar

Harris County Commissioners Court, Precinct 3 – Dexter Handy

Written Q&As:

State Supreme Court, Place 7 – Sam Houston and Baltasar D. Cruz

State Supreme Court, Place 8 – Judge Susan Criss and Judge Linda Yanez

80th District Court (Civil) – Larry Weiman

125th District Court (Civil) – Jim Wrotenbery and Kyle Carter

174th District Court (Criminal) – Ruben Guerrero

190th District Court (Civil) – Bruce Mosier and Andres Pereira

215th District Court (Civil) – Fred Cook and Steve Kirkland

Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, Place 1 – Harold Landreneau

It’s possible I’ll get some more responses – I did send out more Q&As than this – and if so I’ll print them when I get them.

Today is Audrey’s first birthday. She is very mobile and active, though not quite walking yet. She is basically fearless about climbing on furniture, which points out to us just how little actual baby-proofing we had to do with Olivia. We’re starting to hear some recognizable word-like sounds in her babbling – she got a little plastic baseball and bat for Christmas, and she clearly says “bah” and “baw” to indicate one or the other. Like her older sister at that age, she eats just about everything (avocadoes are a notable exception), and in truly awesome quantities. She fights taking naps with determined fierceness, but usually goes to sleep at night without too much difficulty. She loves her big sister Olivia, and the feeling is mutual. She also loves us, as we do her. Our lives are more complex with her around, but they are also far richer and more rewarding. We are blessed to have her in our family.

Happy birthday, Audrey!