James and Claire

Today got off to a good start for me. Nicholas woke me up (at the insistence of his mother) and I was informed that we were out of milk and needed some immediately. So I threw on a hat, t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops and headed out. I had not shaved in two days and was a mess...but who was going to see my this early in the morning. As the elevator doors opened, there were four college girls who, if someone forced me at gunpoint to notice, were very attractive. As I stepped into the elevators, one of them said 'Rough night, huh?'. Stunned by the fact that they had even noticed me boarding the elevator, all I could come back with was 'Yes, it was a rough night. And I am not young enough to get away with it, apparently.'

It is one of my general life observations that, under normal circumstances, I am completely invisible to women. They can see me only peripherally. But what I learned this morning is that if I am in such disrepair that I reach a certain threshold of ugliness, I enter their visible spectrum.

We headed to the hotel pool this morning, where the water was ice cold and the Texas sun had not yet come out to play. With all of this pool time, Nicholas has really evolved into a water creature. I was surprised when he said 'I want to jump', which means that I throw him as high as I can and let him come splashing down in the pool. Each time he goes under for a full second. He loves it. It seems abusive, but he really loves it. There is a photo of Christy tossing him in today's pictures.

After swimming, we went for lunch at the outdoor patio restaurant next to the pool. Nicholas ordered chicken tenders. When they arrived, Christy commented on how good they looked and took a big bite. A few minutes later, as Mamaw was cutting them up for Nicholas, it was discovered that they were raw and uncooked underneath the yummy breaded coating. Our household has been rocked by food-poisoning several times the last few years, and Christy was freaking out. I made up some statistics to make her feel better and re-assured her that I was practically raised on raw chicken, but her lunch was over. Thus far, there have been no ill-effects.

After lunch, we all took naps....except Christy, who was relaxing alone.

When we got up, we packed up our gear and headed to Oskar (an old friend and co-worker of mine) and his wife Frances' house. They have a really cool place about 15 minutes from our hotel. In our brief tour of the upstairs, I learned a few things about Oskar. His 'small woodworking hobby' that he seldom mentioned at work turned out to mean that he built most of his furniture himself...including a four-post bed, nightstands, dining room table and chairs (see photo), and a massive dining room side-piece (I do not know the actual term). It was amazing. And his 'small interest in art' meant that he had a basement studio and hundreds of amazing paintings that he painted. Their house was beautiful and full of cool things.

We then got changed and headed to the backyard pool. We arrived at the backyard pool at about 4:45, right when shade from the house and the giant trees was overtaking the patio and pool. There was a light breeze. It was perfect. Nicholas, Oskar, and I headed right into the pool...Nicholas armed with his awesome bathing suit and Oskar and I with cold beer. Frances, Christy, and Mamaw sat on the patio and chatted.

Their backyard is extremely private and the water temperature was perfect. We were in the pool for a long time.

Frances had prepared a gourmet meal for us. There were shrimp kabobs, linguini pasta salad, and fresh bread. And poor Frances had to do extra work because I am a bonehead. Oskar had asked me if any of us had any dietary restrictions a couple days ago and I said 'No'. He then sent me an e-mail yesterday with directions to his house and indicated that the dinner was going to be shrimp. It never crossed my mind that my mother-in-law is allergic to shellfish...including shrimp. Somehow, Frances got wind of that and whipped up some delicious chicken too...and my plan to rid myself of Mamaw once and for all was foiled. The meal was amazing. We all ate several helpings until we were full.

After dinner, we were informed that dessert was Peach Cobbler with Blue Bell ice cream. When Christy heard this, she got very excited. Blue Bell is an ice cream that is local to Texas and she had not had it since she was living in San Antonio (I won't mention what decade that was). Blue Bell comes in these little cups (see photo of Nicholas holding one). Today was my first taste of Blue Bell and it was very impressive. I am going to go buy some of these cups tomorrow and put them in our hotel room freezer. It tasted especially good on top of fresh Peach Cobbler.

Oskar and I were having fun swapping war stories and I was filling him in on what has/has not become of some of our old co-workers. But eventually we had to leave because Nicholas was nearing bed time and Christy and I had to get over to see the twins. We hope to hook up with Oskar and Frances again before we leave...

Christy and I visited the babies this evening. Christy got to feed Claire while I played with James. They are definitely getting bigger. James is now 6 pounds and Claire is just a shade under 5. All things continue to look good and 'two more weeks' is still the answer.