Houston

So here I am, a week after arriving here. Here are some thoughts on this place:

I'm not liking those Texas size cockroaches. I've only seen two, but that was two more than I needed to. One was dead and in the house, the other living in my garage.

I could seriously get used to this weather; it's heavenly. Remind me of this next summer when it is hotter than hell and wicked humid.

This community has rules about EVERYTHING. What you can plant in your front and back yards, what types of decor you can have in front of your house, the types and colors of shutters or blinds in the windows. But they don't have hours for trick-or-treating. Amazing.

This place also prohibits soliciting. I called the Information Center to confirm that. This was after some strange man rang my doorbell and wanted to sell me some amazing cleaning products. I got this same spiel 5 yrs ago when B was a baby, although the men who came to my door then looked like they were still wearing their prison jumpsuits. The man today was at least well dressed in a business casual sense. A few hours after I sent him packing, along with the only brochure he seemed to have (he couldn't leave it with me), his partner, a young woman, rang the bell. She was all, "hey I'm from " and I was all "I could give a crap." She wanted to know if I'd heard of the product and I told her her partner was already here. "So how much did you buy?" "Nothing. I'm not interested." So the Information Center lady told me that if I felt threatened I could call the police. I'm really more annoyed. Hell, if they can have someone drive around to spy on the houses here, and send reminders that your front planting areas need to be weeded, shouldn't they have some Johnn Law wannabe who can tell these creeps that we don't need their stinking cleaning products?! Seriously, do they think people here actually do their own house cleaning??!!

Lunch at B's school costs $1.25 per day. I gave a check for $15 on Monday. I've received two calls this week that she owes money; the first call on Wed, the second one today. Before receiving the second call I called the school to inquire about her account; I was told she had $6.50 in her account. Now I'm no math whiz, but if B is not buying breakfast or snacks, and she told me she only bought lunches, she should only be out $6.25, which would leave $8.75... Where in the heck is the rest of that money??!!

The Astros gave it a good try. I felt a little less homesick knowing that the home team was in the World Series. The rush for WS merchandise, the news blurbs on stadium security, store signs rooting on the home team, all made me feel like I was near NY.

Speaking of Astros, tomorrow is my one and only trip to Astroworld; the amusement park is slated to permanently close effective Monday. Developers are buying the land. Oh well.

HEB isn't that bad. They carry Boar's Head brand deli meats so I can get yummy salami like I grew up on in Brooklyn. Plus HEB has some pretty darn good bagels to boot! Now to find a NY style pizza place...

Which brings me to the place the family ate dinner tonight. We let B decide where to go, since we were going out to celebrate her first week of Kindy now that DH was home. She again wanted pizza. We tried going out for 'za on Monday night, but the place that she, DH and I had eaten at in August was closed since they hadn't paid their rent. It was still closed tonight. So we drove down the street and stopped at the next pizza place we passed, CiCi's Pizza. For less than $17 our family of 5 ate dinner! Can you believe it?! The place was one of those madhouses, similar to Old Country Buffet, where you stand in line to pay, get a plate, cup and tray, then make your way down the buffet. Sit, eat, get up, get new plate, more food, repeat... I lost count of how many plates DH and I had on our trays, but we kept going up for one or two slices of pizza for the kids or ourselves. It's not the world's greatest pizza, but it certainly was fantastic for $17.

The kids that sat near us tonight were angels. Behind us sat a couple with a young boy and another on the way. The boy was so adorable, a miniature version of his father, and so well behaved. Across from us was a little girl, toddler age, and her infant brother in a carrier. These kids were so quiet, I swear you'd never even know they were there. Then there are my kids. B, who was pretty good tonight, though she probably freaked out the other patrons in the restroom while we had a deep discussion about death and heaven. S who shrieked every damn time DH tickled her; ear piercing shrieks. And A, who decided to grab the expetant mother's behind while she was putting her DS in his highchair. I had to apologize to her for his "flirting". Thank God she was so cool about it! LOL! Just like his father...