Tropical Storm Harvey

Floodwaters: Houston, Texas by Mike Mitchell
Based on a news photo, created with Akvis Sketch.

Very sorry for the delay in my blog updates. Tropical Storm Harvey hit the city with a force unlike anything I've seen in the 21 years I've lived here. And this from a guy whose home was destroyed in 2001 by Tropical Storm Allison and suffered severe damage to his home in 2008 from Hurricane Ike.

I've seen flooding in Houston before. It's sad to say, but it's part of life here in this part of Texas. But I've never seen it so widespread as this. And based on what I've heard from the lifelong residents (like my wife), no one else has, either.

I actually fared very well during this. Some property damage and my power was only out for a day.

We had stocked up before the storm, so we were well provisioned when the storm hit, and we rode it out in comfort until the very end when a tree knocked down the power to our house. Fortunately, we could go to my in-laws' house and chill there.

At any rate, I am taking a short break, but will start posting the rest of my Noir Comics tutorial next week.

In the meantime, if you can afford to, please give a small donation to the American Red Cross: www.redcross.org

Books: Back to the library

I used to haunt the library in Mineola, Texas. As a kid I was desperate for any sort of escape and the library was a great place to find it. For a small town, it had some interesting stuff. A bit weak on sci-fi and I doubt there was a single tome by H.P. Lovecraft, but there were books by HG Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and others.

In general, though, I prefer to buy my books. It keeps them around for when I'm in the mood to actually read them. You see, I might pick up a book and leave it on the shelf for a year or more before the mood strikes me to read it. Those moods are frequently striking me at 2 a.m., so the library really isn't the best option for me.

However, my wife has recently started listening to Books on CD during her commute. Since she's in the car about two hours a day, that means she's going through those CD Books pretty fast. About one a week, in fact. So, we've gone to the local library to get some new ones.

The Barbara Bush Library is fairly near our house, so that's where we go to pick up and drop off our stuff. And to browse a bit. You see, you don't have to "prowl the stacks" any more (as old grad students used to call it) to find what you're looking for. You can just go online, select your stuff, and they'll pull it and have it waiting for you when you get there. There's even a self-serve line to check out. It's all pretty cool.

Now, I just got a library card, too. I'm starting to do some research on a topic for a book I'm working on. Now, usually I prefer to have my research books on hand, but in this case I just want to skim them. So, in a way I'm using the library as a "try before you buy" system.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the library.

Today is my 10th wedding anniversary

Wow. July 3, 1999. This time back then, I was soooooo nervous. I think Murphy was crashed over at Paul's house with Eric and they were actually out, around this time in the wee hours, hitting Wal-Mart to buy the stuff to "decorate" my car. I still owe them for that! At least Murph insisted on writing this on the side: "She got hers, tonight he'll get his!"

:-)

Our wedding was followed by a GREAT party. DJ. Keg of Shiner beer. Margarita machine. We all danced the night away! It was awesome! One smart thing we did was stay in town the next day so I could have brunch with my grandmother and family, visit with her folks, and take our time packing. Then we flew out the next day. Seeing everyone outside of the service and reception was nice, and I'm glad we did it.

As for the marriage itself? Without doubt, it was best danged thing I ever did.

Today I've got a few neat gifts for her, including one she only slightly suspects. I digitized our wedding videos and have put them on DVD. This will make it much easier for us to watch them, considering we retired our VHS player about two years ago. Right now our plans for the day are to enjoy some romantic time together. Then we plan to hit The Melting Pot restaurant for some fondue.

We definitely plan a nice, lazy day with each other, just enjoying each other's company.

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm having a good birthday weekend. Friday my wife took me out to dinner at the restaurant of my choice (I chose Donarake's @ 1960 & Champion Forest). The food was great, and so were the two margaritas I had (with Sangria, of course).

Giftwise, Donna got me exactly what I wanted. The Shine On book that covers the history of my favorite beer, Shiner: http://www.amazon.com/Shine-100-Years-Shiner-Beer/dp/1933979208

She also got me the Star Trek Communicator Phaser two pack: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DXFEJK
This is a very cool reproduction of the phaser and communicator from the original Star Trek series (and yes, the Mark I mini phaser detaches to form a separate unit!).

When I told her what I got, my sister asked, "Oh, you didn't get any Spock ears to wear with those?" Heh. To which my wife replied, "Of course not. He's Kirk."

All in all, a great weekend (and so was today -- we just stayed in and got a little romance going).

Incidentally, my birthday was June 26.