Habitat for Humanity

I'm generally not a patient person. I try. I really do try. I try to keep my mouth shut but my frustration is usually written all over my face whether I want it to, or not.

My whole office took a day to work on a local HFH project. The "regulars" are a bunch of retired folks who dedicate a couple of days each week to build new homes for families in need. This is their life. This is just one day of my life, so I tried to keep it all in check, while standing around for hours doing nothing.

The boss man, ex-preacher, charismatic loud guy, looked all the females directly in the eyes when he asked for volunteers to sweep the floors in preparation of the tile laying. He had no idea what a crappy job I do of sweeping. I leave trails and tracks everywhere, but I obliged and grabbed a broom and pushed dust all around in a cloud.

When he later asked who had experience laying tile, only me and another female raised our hands. You could see the old tile guy's lips crinkle as he scanned across all the men hoping for some testosterone-driven salvation. His salvation never came.



After sweeping, the seasoned males spread the glue across the cement foundation, then we all pretty much stood around and watched glue dry. [Yes, we were laying crappy commercial linolium tiles--not ceramic!] We females were relegated to keeping dust from blowing in. I guess our wide birthing-hips made us good candidates for this task--blocking the dust blowing in the windows and doors.

After the glue dried, the seasoned males laid the first lines of tile in two directions for us to follow. The lead tile guy, lovingly known as the "old coot" chose to focus his attentions on my work. The third time he snapped at me, I walked away. He snatched tile after tile out of my hand and did it himself, so I let him. When he later started critiquing the other female's work, she quickly pointed out that the work he thought was so flawed-----was his own.

I went outside to play in the dirt. I spent the rest of the day helping to sod the yards of two homes. We were wiped out at quitting time. My boss treated us all to drinks and appetizers at a local eatery, then I headed home, showered, and went to bed at 6:00 PM. I did not get up until the next morning.

I know we did good work. I know the old coot does good work. It was just a little disheartening to be scolded so much while trying to do good. Oh Well. I always wanted to do Habitat, so now I can check that off my list.

I've worked the soup kitchen downtown, I've spent a day with Habitat, and I've donated gallons of blood. Of the three, I think I will stick with the bloodsuckers. I don't have to tell people they can't have more food, nobody yells at me, I still get to save a life, and I get a cookie in the end. I'm sure there are other worthwhile causes still out there for me to try, but for now, hemoglobin seems to best fit my lifestyle.

Cousins Camping - Beuscher State Park, TX 11/2/2007

Here's a riddle: What do Sominex, a microwave, and Starbuck's all have in common? These are all required elements for a Cousins Camping trip. Not your usual camping gear, we know, but they make all the difference in the outcome of our excursions.

We prepared for a bitter cold weekend, but got a little toasty instead. Pushing into the 80s on Saturday, we were literally trying to chill. Some new features for us were an owl screeching all night, lots of raccoons rummaging through stuff, and an extremely large and heavy-footed armadillo terrorizing us around our tents. Our only defense - a flash light!

The campfire is always the main attraction--good for cooking our steaks, making s'mores, or just hypnotizing us into a relaxed state. At one point, the kids and I played with a new technique I learned to do with my camera--we ghosted them out of long exposure photos. The guys took a shot at fishing and caught a variety of inedibles, and played with snakes. Then Dean found what we believe was a turtle egg. He gently placed it back in its nest and we left the area in case it was not a turtle, but something more aggressive. ;)

With all the craziness in each of our respective lives, getting away for a weekend got more challenging than usual. The Hobsons came in a day late because Nick had Homecoming to attend. We left for a couple of hours on Saturday to attend a family reunion (an unfortunate double-booking of our schedule), and the Riojas and Hobsons had to leave early Sunday to get back to jobs. The weekend went by much too quickly, but we had fun with the time we had.

Bob & Melanie's Chili Cook-off/Pumpkin Carving Party

A recent tradition is to go to Bob & Melanie's house the weekend before Halloween to participate in the Chili Cook-off/Pumpkin Carving Party. So this year we headed over on October 28th and joined them with their friends and neighbors. Their buddy, Steven was finally knocked from the first place position in the chili cook-off, but he still placed; as did Bob. The winner had a version of chili that scorched my taste buds.

The kids have a blast carving pumpkins, eating sweets, and getting soaked while bobbing for apples. Suburban bedlam at its best. What a great bash!

Wanna feel old???

Just walk into an Apple Store. No, not the fresh fruit that keeps the doctor away, I mean the funky, youthful operation that keeps us happy with the coolest technology toys. I've never felt so old. I recently fell, face first, into a deep and unsuspected generation gap when I attempted to get my iPod repaired.

This brightly-lit store has several workstation tables, as well as counters running the length of each side of the store, set up with numerous versions of all the Apple products on display, fully functioning, and available for anyone to try out. Each table has an employee monitoring use and answering product questions. Every product was occupied by either one person, or a whole mob of people trying out the features together. The place was packed and just buzzing with activity. One young girl was taking pictures of herself with her cell phone camera, and using the blue tooth technology to send the picture to the Apple laptop in front of her, then sending the picture to a friend, via the live internet connection, then talking to her friend on that same cell phone about the picture she just sent.

Being OLD, I was looking for a customer service desk, or even a counter with a cash register. I aimlessly wandered through a sea of busy teens and YOUNG adults who apparently, intuitively knew exactly what to do and where to go in this blinding white, futuristic-looking store. Finally finding a young man in a boldly contrasting black shirt, with a lanyard around his neck, I approached and explained about the sad face icon I received on my iPod and asked if he did repairs. Being a literal kid, he answered no (he personally does not do repairs) and stared at me with a big smile. He offered no additional information. We just stared at each other. Stunned, my grouchy old lady persona kicked in and I passive-aggresively turned to my husband and stated "Oh, obviously I am an idiot and they don't know what I am talking about." With that, the man pointed me to an unoccupied laptop and began clicking to the technical assistance screen then asked me to enter my personal information. No signage or explanation, the next generation just knows that if there is a free laptop around, sign in for service.

We needed to schedule an appointment with the Genius Bar (a.k.a. technical customer service) for diagnosis. Unfortunately, the Genius Bar was booked until 4:00 the next day. We could not leave the iPod, but had to return at 4:00 the next day, unless we preferred the 4:15 appointment. hmmmmm

The next day, full-bitch attitude intact and ready for deployment, we walked into the store, headed for the back and accidently noticed the Genius Bar to our right, just as my name and appointment time appeared on a display screen above the bar. Four o'clock on the dime. One of the young men, with his Genius title embroidered on the chest of his black shirt, called my name. I approached and explained the frowning face icon, he plugged my iPod into his laptop, checked the warranty registration through my iPod, clicked a few buttons, then turned around, unlocked a cabinet and handed me a brand new iPod. Thank you very much. This whole transaction took about five minutes, max. I don't believe I have ever witnessed such an efficient warranty experience in my life.

It took me 5 months to get my new computer working--being bounced to every international tech support desk around the world and always starting with the infamous script question "is the unit plugged in?" Five months!! AND I WORK FOR THE COMPUTER COMPANY!!! Obviously, I don't work for Apple. Too bad.

Lesson learned - Quit being such a crabby old bag, go with the flow, and enjoy the fruits of this new quicker, better, NOW kind of world.

Tony's First Photo Shoot

On September 23 we went to the State Capitol building to participate in a portfolio model shoot. Tony was able to pose for several photographers, including me (I took all the ones with the sunglasses). I also took photos of several other models and posted their pics on a new blog http://www.cynpip.blogspot.com

Tony was just invited to participate in a Stock Image shoot this Friday, so hopefully we can start building his portfolio in quick fashion. If all we get out of this is some great photos and maybe a confidence boost for Tony, then it is all good.

Take One for the Team

September 1, 2007
Nah...not really. Towards the end of summer, Tony was ready to cut his hair. The maintenance had just become too much for a young teen to handle. We decided to wait until school started, knowing that the wrestling coach would probably require him to cut it anyway. He did.

So I made an appointment with someone who specializes in curly hair and is proficient with men's cuts. I took so many wonderful photos, or so I thought. My new Digital Canon Rebel is having problems. The preview screen quit working while we were in Padre and I have not wanted to let go of it long enough to get it repaired, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that I did not have a flash memory card in the camera and without the preview screen, there was no way for the camera to inform me. My bad. Ugh! Fortunately though, I did take couple of pics with my phone, to send to Gio during the cut. So while I don't have all my wonderful before and after shots, and the impressive cutting off of the pony tail, and the first cut of the seven inch long hair she held over his head as she took it down to an inch, I do have these, lower quality phone pics: