I love Pike.

Day 14- Jeremy was able to get off work early on Friday so we left around 3pm to try and beat traffic. We ate at Jeremy's favorite, Matt's El Rancho, with Amanda where there was no wait (seriously ever other time I have eaten there it's at least a 30 minute wait). Jeremy and I treated ourselves to some Amy's Ice Cream before retreating to our freezing cold hotel room (which I refused to complain about because at least there was a/c!).

Vat of queso!! Yum!

At Matt's El Rancho

Day 15- Saturday we slept in then met Sarah and Thomas at Thomas's tailgate - the food was incredible!! I love that smoker! :) The game was a great one to watch and once the sun went behind us, it was very pleasant. Jeremy can probably comment more on how UT played, but I know we played well, beating those stinky hogs 52-10. We had dinner at Moonshine with Jeremy's friend Zach and his wife Carrie, who just found out they're expecting their first baby in April! It is always fun to catch up with them, and we got to see their new house. We also saw the blonde drummer from Foo Fighters at Moonshine (I totally called it!). He sat down near us with his wife or girlfriend and their baby, but then they left 5 minutes later. Boo! Probably good though because I think Jeremy would have stared the whole time!

Day 16- Sunday we slept in again, ate lunch with Amanda at EZ's then headed back to reality. We returned home from Austin to find the wonderful crews from Pike in Georgia put new poles and transformers down our street and at 8pm, they turned our power back on! Many neighbors had gathered on our street and it was great to be able to witness the lights coming back on! We hugged and screamed when we saw our neighbor Matt's porch light come on! We were a little worried about our 30 year old a/c unit coming back to life after 16 days, but sure enough it kicked right on, as did all our lights, TV's and fridge. Our cable had been ripped from our house (I think really from Centerpoint cutting the tree off the lines in our backyard, not from the storm) but Jeremy was smart enough to contact Comcast last week to get that fixed, so we even had cable and internet up and running. It felt amazing to sleep in our own bed after 16 days, and to have all our clothes and stuff back in one place. I swore up and down I would not clean anything last night, I only wanted to bask in the glory of electricity, but I broke down and vaccuumed and Pledged all of our stuff in the living room. Other rooms will have to wait, but at least one is (fairly) clean and back in order. Today I'll pick up the dogs from the kennel and then I'll need to do some major grocery shopping since all we have left in our fridge is Coke Zero and beer.

Yes, our yard is trashed from tree removal.

Next up - planning our post-Ike block party!!

A Fortnight

14 days. 2 weeks. No power. We're all at the end of our ropes. The good news is we're dropping the dogs off to be boarded and heading to Austin this afternoon!!!!!!!! I can not WAIT to shower and blow dry my hair in the light and to do laundry at my sister's apartment (thanks, Amanda!). Knowing us, we'll probably get power back once we get on 290, but I don't even care. AUSTIN, here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!

In Case You Were Confused - Part Dos

The quote "Great Scott" at the end of Jeremy's post "You Sound Like You're From London" is from the end of Michael Scott's movies on The Office. He says that quite a bit now.

The post title "You Sound Like You're From London" is from the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a quote from the awesomeness that is Paul Rudd.

I know explanations defeat Jeremy's purpose, but sometimes they are obscure.

In Case You Were Confused

You Sound Like You're From London!

So, my wife decided to post my 'music'. If you are going to listen to it, allow me to put some disclaimers out there. First, it is recorded on a terrible old IBM computer about 5 years ago, using a terrible mic, and a terrible singer. These little acetates were recorded so i could listent to selections of songs i had written and make changes to them. Nevertheless, they are Jeremy originals. Recorded by me, performed by me, written about you.

Day 13 without power. I'm going to write a song about that, or steal a line from Beck, and hang myself with a guitar string. Which is the lesser to two evils....

For everyone else who doesn't have power, you probably deserve it. I've seen how you are. Always flaunting your electricity before, paying by the kilowatt hour. It was bound to catch up with you sometime.

Great Scott!

The 12 Days of Ike...

Yep, Day 12. Centerpoint isn't even using a map anymore because it just depresses everyone without power. I did book us a hotel for the whole weekend in Austin and I made reservations to board the dogs, so we at least have a fun, relaxing, electricity-filled weekend there! It will be nuts because of ACL and the football game, but I don't care, I just want to get out of Houston!!

I also wanted to brag on my husband...when we started dating way back in 2004 he was playing bass for a church in Austin, but he also writes and records his own stuff (or used to). He finally uploaded it all onto a site and I forgot how much I enjoy it! (I am ashamed to say I haven't listened to it in a while...sorry babe!) He constantly amazes me with his equal amounts of creativity and business-minded thinking (you should see his spreadsheet skills!), and his music is just another way to show his creative, artistic side. I love him so much!! He's my rock star. :) If you're interested...
http://www.jukeboxalive.com/jeremyhamblen
How anyone can compose original music is completely beyond me - and I do know a little about music (piano for 2 years, y'all!). And just like with other parts of his life, Jeremy has always been quietly modest about his musical talents. So I hope those of you who read this and know him can appreciate his beautiful music! My favorite song on there is "Only Hope."

Oh Em Gee, 2 posts in one day!! One might say I was bored at work...or just enjoying the Internet at my fingertips until I go home to a house with no power...either, or. Anyway, 2 things:

1. My mom's neighbor text messaged her this the other night: "Noise ordinance is still in effect." Yes, text messaged her. And yes, her neighbor is an adult, not a 13-year-old girl. This was in regards to her large generator, which she's borrowing from a neighbor who has power, that is powering half her house, including her A/C. Isn't she lucky? Houston has just been through a fairly awful hurricane and is now basically in a crisis! (Sidenote: I sleep about 10 feet from our generator, and granted - I have a kind of loud fan, but it never keeps me up and it's pretty much white noise.) Now, Sally (my mom) is no dummy. She's also a realtor, so she looked up a "noise ordinance" and one does not exist in unincorporated Harris County. There is one for the City of Houston, which clearly does not apply. So above that, you go to the state law, which only provides a noise ordinance for construction zones (85 decibels, FYI) and this can be at any time of day or night. I think my mom was too kind in sending Tyler to stay with my dad last night and turning her generator off, but I think we convinced her to turn it back on today because it's too hot! I also immediately thought I would love to see someone pull that with Jeremy. Not only is he exceptional at witty responses, but he also has no time for ridiculous crap like that. His response was 1) "I'm going to egg her house. You think I'm kidding. It gets dark at night." and 2) "Have you measured my decibels? Please respond."

I think the mystery has also been solved as to the author of a typed, unsigned letter my mom received regarding leaving our old dog Banner outside overnight. It was addressed to "Lonely Dog Owner."

Clearly, Mrs. Annoying Neighbor on Stockport, someone has WAY too much time on her hands and is not well-versed in how to have a conversation with your adult neighbor.

2. Here's a video of Blaine Irby's knee injury from the Rice game on Saturday. Awful!! (We didn't watch the game due to the wedding we attended.)

Samesies

Day 11. I will continue to post daily until we get power back as a form of protest, and once we get power I'll be way too busy laying on my couch enjoying the air-conditioning to blog. So there, Centerpoint!

There is good news:
1. Centerpoint cut the tree on and tangled in the power lines yesterday, so we hope that means power very soon. I emphasize HOPE.
2. We found out although my in-law's still are without power, they did get cable back! That means as long as they plug the TV and Tivo into the generator, we might get to see some TV this week!
3. Our favorite neighborhood Tex Mex joint, Juanita's, was open last night. We happily binged on cheese enchiladas and chips! It's the small things really...

Some sad news - the new season of Dancing with the Stars started last night and I missed it. AND I have been unable to complete our "Team Julianne" shirts due to lack of power for my iron (I'm ironing on the letters, duh).

Day 10

Yes, we're on Day 10 without power. Same with Jeremy's parents, where we're currently staying. Same with my mom. Thankfully my dad got power back on Friday evening but had no running water until yesterday! We worried what the already long commute would be like from the 'burbs, so we opted for no power but a 10-minute commute for me! We found out in Tony & Judy's zip code, only 23% are still without power. In our zip code about 65% or so are still without power. We can't decide which group might mean a faster fix!

Yesterday we tried to find anything to do outside the house because it was so warm, so Judy and Tony (Jeremy's parents) and Jeremy and I ended up at the Mad Potter in River Oaks. It was 2 hours in the a/c with cold drinks and I think the guys really did enjoy their arts & crafts time! I made a vase, Tony painted a cute piggy bank with wings, Judy painted a small plate with a landscape of their streets and a sunset and it said "Goodnight Ike", and my creative husband painted a picture frame in remembrance of Ike, complete with our nosy neighbor peering over the fence, fallen tree in the front, chainsaw, and broken power lines. It's a real masterpiece! Judy took a cute picture of our art that I will try to steal and post later.

Also this weekend, on Saturday, we were able to escape the heat by seeing one of my oldest friend's Adam Fryfogle get married! It was so special to see him start a new chapter in his life! The wedding was beautiful and so much fun - funnily enough it was similar to mine, at Northwoods Presbyterian then reception at Champions. It was fun to see lots of people from high school and family friends I haven't seen in a long time! Unfortunately I suck and took no pictures. Ooops!

Funny story about our house - Jeremy went by after work on Friday and called me asking if I pulled the hose out in the backyard to use it, and also that our back gate was open. Since we do have a tree through a fence and power lines in the back, I assumed Centerpoint needed access and maybe used the hose to fill up water bottles or something. Later that night Jeremy got nervous because he couldn't remember seeing our grill in the back, so he immediately thought the gate was open because it had been stolen and the hose was out because the theif cleaned it off before stealing it (obviously a grill theif would want it clean!). We went back by the house later in the evening and I chatted with our neighbor while Jeremy check on the grill. I explained why Jeremy was there and our neighbor said he could explain it all! The night before, about 1am, Centerpoint turned the power onto those lines which set the tree on fire! Our neighbor heard a noise and saw flames outside his window, so he called 911 and the fire department and Centerpoint came. They used the hose to wet down the area and I guess the gate was left open inadvertently. (The grill was in its place, no worries!) Since then Centerpoint has been back to mark the gas line that runs under the power lines with flags and paint but again, we can't decide if this bumps us up in line or moves us way back! According to the news, both our area and Tony and Judy's should have power by Thursday. Here's hoping.

FYI - Still no power

But Jeremy saw power about 5 streets away, so maybe we'll get lucky this weekend! Here are some Ike photos:

Our uprooted pine tree

Another view

The debris pile to be picked up

Our neighbor's tree going through our back power lines and into our back-neighbor's shed

What a TEASE.

My dad just called and I was desperately hoping it was to say he had gotten power at his house. Nope...he's at the East Texas State Fair in Longview and wanted me to know it's run by the same people that do the Houston Rodeo carnival and that he had the best funnel cake ever.

WHY???????

Our First Hurricane

Yes, despite both of us being native Houstonians, this was our first hurricane. I was born after Alicia in 1983 and Jeremy was out of town on a family vacation then, I think, so we didn't know what to expect. I was around for Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 and thought it would be similar - some people would be flooded and lose power, but I was at the movies right after, wondering why cell service was so spotty. No big deal, right? Ummm, wrong. I got off work early on Thursday and was off Friday also to prepare. Due to the massive number of pine trees surrounding our house and that we live in a flood zone, we decided to hunker down at Jeremy's parents' townhome near Memorial Park. They have a huge generator, just in case we lost power, and Judy had done her fair share of grocery shopping. I hit Randall's just for some snacks really and I grabbed a box of water just because it was one of the last ones left. I baked all afternoon on Thursday while my oven still had power. We moved furniture away from our windows but that was mainly all we did to prepare. I even packed some cute outfits to go hunker down because I really thought by Sunday we'd be at church and having a nice dinner out. Again, I was so wrong. The storm actually wasn't too scary for me - yes, the wind was loud, but that's kind of it. We stayed up watching the news and playing Scrabble until around midnight and I had to get some sleep, I was exhausted! So I dozed and Jeremy watched the news until around 3am when the eye wall was near us. The power blinked on and off for a while and we saw lots of blue flashes outside from transformers blowing, and we finally lost it for good around 3:30 or 4am. It was warm without a/c, but we fell asleep again. Then we woke up the next morning to something I have (thankfully) never experienced...no water! I didn't even know that was a possibility after a hurricane! Sure enough, we had to use buckets to flush the commode and bottled water to brush our teeth. Tony and Judy got the generator all set up, so we were extremely lucky to have fans, a fridge, a lamp and TV with rabbit ears so we could at least see what was going on. Jeremy's cousin Amy, her husband Chris and their daughter Katy came by around lunch, so it was fun to play with the baby! Judy cooked us some great meals too - we had sloppy joe's for dinner one night and a roast for lunch! We also got to survey the damage at our house. Praise Jesus, our house did not flood, leak or have any other damage! A large pine tree was uprooted in our front yard and another one was sheared off about 20 feet up, but nothing on our house or on our neighbor's. A small tree was uprooted in the backyard and knocked over a portion of our fence and a neighbor's tree fell through the other side of our fence and knocked down the power lines in our backyard. The two things we thought we might lose - the back fence and a rickety old potting shed - stood like there wasn't even a storm! Our whole block was very lucky, actually. Only one house had damage to the back, and our neighbor lost his carport. The past 2 days we worked in the yard to clean up all the debris, stood the left fence back up, and removed the back fence (it was rotting anyway). Yesterday we had the sheared-off tree taken down and they cut up the uprooted tree. We still have a huge root system/stump, but that can be taken care of later. We're waiting on the electric company to take care of the back tree since it's tangled in lines.

Our house still doesn't have power and I've been told it took 2 weeks to restore power after Allison, so we're not very optimistic. There's also a tree ominously hanging over our house that fell from a neighbor's yard 2 doors down and is wedged against another tree. Tony and Judy and both my parents are still without power too...I sure hope one of us gets it soon! My mom's house fared well but my dad has a tree on his house. I don't think it's leaking though, so that's good at least. He and Heather took all the kids up to Longview and my mom and Jim and Charlie (the dog) went up to Austin. Jeremy and I went back to work today, and it is nice to be in a/c and have the internet back! I also saw Starbuck's at Post Oak and Westheimer is open, so yay! It's the little things!

A few positive things from Ike:
1. When we were waiting to be seated at California Pizza Kitchen, we spoke with a older woman whose power was also still out and we got to talking about how we're so lucky and some people don't have running water ever, etc. and she said that when she feels sorry for herself she thinks about her friend in India who is preaching the Gospel and has been beaten 14 times, the last time landing him in the hospital for 10 days. We can just go to church and talk about our faith without a thought in the world, so that made me feel not sorry for myself anymore!
2. We have gotten to know lots of our neighbors from this and it's been wonderful! They're so neighborly and caring - one brought ice back for people from Austin, one is sharing a generator and cooking for other neighbors. It's been a blessing! I can't wait to get through all this and plan a post-Ike block party!
3. The gorgeous weather! What would be we doing if it was 95 degrees and 90% humidity?? The tree guy from New York didn't seem to think it was a blessing but us Houstonians know better! God has truly blessed those without a/c and who have to be working outdoors right now!

Please pray for those who have lost homes, cars, etc. in Houston and for those in Galveston and along the coast. Their experience has obviously been far different from ours and our hearts break for those who have lost homes, family and pets. We're also thinking about all the city workers and those who have come in to help from elsewhere - frustrations are high right now, but we know they're working 24/7 to take down trees, clear debris and get water and power back to everyone!

We'll post pictures soon!

A Tribute to Vince Young

Are we a little obsessed?

Now for Matthew, Camila & baby Levi...

Thank goodness for the "godzillatron" letting me capture all the pictures!!

Our Weekend in Pictures

Finally I am posting pictures from our first football game against FAU! The weather was great (much, much cooler than in past years) and the stadium was looking fresh and clean. We played well, according to Jeremy! The games and driving Houston to Austin round trip in a day are exhausting, but I always love this time of year!! We'll see what Ike has in store for the game this weekend...we're supposed to go, along with Jeremy's parents and brother and sister-in-law from Arkansas.
This flag is flying at the Texas State Cementary, where our first Austin date took place - we took a walk around the cemetary on a lovely January afternoon!

UT Sailing Club!
The new north side of the stadium - very fancy!

Presh.

I will post more pictures from our weekend, including about 9 million of Vince Young from the UT game on Saturday, when my computer at home decides to start connecting to our wireless network. For now you can enjoy this one that my sweet husband found & sent to me!

Matty, his baby mama Camila and baby Levi!!

Robin Sparkles

If you watch How I Met Your Mother, you know what this name means!



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