Things you won't hear in the U.S....

Having conversations with many different people over here from taxi drivers to co-workers, I've run into the following phrases/things that you won't hear or see in the U.S. (some have taken me a little off guard):

• Having some cracks. (I think it's actually spelled craigh, but with the Irish accent it's hard to tell)= translation- having a couple of laughs. You have no idea what was running through my head when I heard this one....
• Drinking Budweiser or Miller Light on ice - really... it's cold over here and these folks put beer on ice.
• The ladies get really dressed up to go to the pubs (and there really is at a minimum one pub per block). Short dresses, no tights, heels.... Again... crazy it's too cold for that
• The art of pouring a Guinness. The bar tender poured the beer, and like any good American my co-worker grabbed it instantly. However we learned that you must let Guinness settle, then tip it backwards and top it off. (my co-worker almost had his hand slapped by the bar tender for this behavior)
• The use of "Ye" in conversation- yes it's used in everyday conversation. "I'll be sure to get back to 'ye' in the morn"

I'm half way through my time here, so I'm sure I'll have more to add to the list by the end of the trip.

Ireland living....

I just wanted to give everyone and update on how things are going from Ireland, since I made it through week 1 of work here. It has been a great experience, but with any international travel there are a few things that stick out. First of all the weather is so different, and it's taking some getting used to. In the mornings in typically been very chilly with a little bit of drizzle, and then all of a sudden the sun comes out. Then wait about an hour and it's pouring again. Needless to say I've been the American in the office who wears two layers of clothes at all time because these folks are used to this chilly weather. Secondly the people at Dell Ireland are very regimented in their daily activities. The teams tend to arrive by 9, and go for exactly a 15min tea break at 10 AM. Everyone heads down to lunch right at 12:15, and 30 min later they are packing up their things to head back to their desks. They are so precise on the 30 min at lunch, you can truly set your clock by it. At 5 PM everyone is heading out the door, and the other night we didn't get out until 5:30 and the parking lot was empty. Third, driving on the left hand side of the road, no matter what the right hand turns paired with the round-a-bouts still scare me. Fourth, there are more pubs than eating establishments, really. You can eat in some of the pubs, but there are a limited number of restaurants here. Finally, the people are so helpful and nice here. No matter who you strike up a conversation with your taxi driver, the people at lunch, the people at the pub everyone has an opinion, and everyone will spend the 20-30 minutes to give it to you.

This weekend my co-worker and I have hired a driver to take us to Killarney, which should give us a peak into rural Ireland. Everyone in town has described it as "brilliant" or "lovely", so pending the weather holding out we'll be in for a treat! More to come...

Fall fun...

In less than a year of marriage, I learned that Patrick should never be sent to the Halloween store without supervision. We've been struggling with our costumes for this year's Halloween party, so we began to brain storm last weekend on our way to Dallas. Despite about using half of the trip to brain storm, we were stumped. While out shopping with my parents, we bought Brinkley a hot dog costume and Ranger a chicken hat. You can only imagine how thrilled our dogs were to be dressed up as a hot dog and a chicken. Since the dogs had their outfits, Patrick was inspired....


So tonight I come home to this:





No your not seeing double, but Patrick and Ranger both have chicken hats. Here's Ranger side profile, if you don't believe me:

Patrick was so proud of his purchase, and he couldn't believe that Party City had this hat for three years ( I can't imagine why.... ). So of course my response was "did you get a good deal on it?" The answer was no... he paid full price for his chicken hat. I give the hat 2 weeks until some way some how the hat will experience the wrath of Ranger. Just like the 2 office chairs, 3 doggie doors, 3 couch cushions, and numerous stuffed dog toys, this too will just be a $22 dog toy at the end of the day.

Even More Stuff For The Kainers!!

It would be an understatement that say that 2009 has not been eventful for the Kainers. We now have something brand new and huge to add to our list of unexpected 2009 activities. On Monday afternoon, when I (Patrick) was at work, I started to feel some slightly sudden and partially severe pains in my belly. I have been experiencing multiple gastro-related symptoms for the last couple of years, so I am never shocked by any uneasy feelings that I may experience. The pains stuck around a bit, but I still felt good enough to go to the gym and try to swim a few laps in the pool. The pool was extremely crowded, so I just sat in the hot tub for a little while and then made my way towards the house.

When I took my first few bites at dinner, the pain came back and became much more unbearable. My doctor has been telling me to go straight to the Emergency Room if I ever experienced another "attack", as I have felt pains similar to this in the past. We packed up a few personal items, and drove towards the familiar St. Davids Hospital.

Naturally, we picked one of the busier nights at the ER to greet the staff with our presence. Multiple folks were wearing masks, so I immediately suspected swine flu was in our general vicinity, but luckily neither one of us have any symptoms of that. There was one slightly violent man experiencing a drug overdose and multiple other patients brought in by ambulance. One of our friends, Heather, is a paramedic and Kim saw her at the hospital when she dropped off a patient. She said that she dropped off several folks that night.

A few hours later my name is finally called and we get to wait in an actual patient room for approximately an hour before a doctor has a chance to come visit with us. Once the doctor arrives, he decides that an abdominal cat scan will be the best course of action, so I was wheeled into the cat scan room once the drug overdose patient was finished in there. About another hour passed and the doctor finally comes back into the room. He said the gallbladder looked fine (that is what we have been suspecting the issue to be); however, the appendix looked large and inflammed. The center of my pain was not where the appendix is actually located in our bodies, but he said it is not uncommon for the appendix to produce referred pain a little higher in the belly.

Come 3:00 AM, the hospital admits me into an overnight room. Kim heads home, takes a quick shower, lets the dogs out, and comes straight back to the hospital. By this time, the pain has worsened severely, and the nurses start treating me with morphine. I have never experienced morphine through an IV, so I was not ready for the feeling it creates as it enters your system. Although it provides pretty quick relief following the introduction into the IV, I temporarily felt like I was getting a lethal injection.

With the pain, mixed with morphine, regular staff visits to take vitals, and the fact that I was in a hospital bed, I managed about 1 hour of sleep on Monday night. The assigned surgeon came into the room mid morning on Tuesday and scheduled a 3 PM appendectomy. The surgery went well and I was rolled back into my room for recovery. Following the surgery, I was experiencing terrible pain in my shoulder of all places. The nurse was not sure what was going on, but treated me with strong pain medication once again. Finally, the surgeon stops in for one more visit before she goes home and informed me that they have to pump air into your body prior to the visit. The air collects in your diaphragm and refers to the shoulder. I am not sure how our nervous system works, but that sounds very strange to me. She said it would be gone within a few days, and I am barely even feeling it at all right now.

I then spent Tuesday night in the hospital as well. My good friend Larissa came to visit me, but all I really remember is saying hi and bye to her, so I slept while her and Kim talked. Per my request, and luckily without much opposition, Kim was willing to go sleep at home on Tuesday night. The last thing we need is for her to get sick too. She was an unbelievable help to me during the process and situations like this really make you realize how special your spouse really is. I would attempt to do for her as she did for me during this situation, but I do not believe I could ever be as amazing as she was.

I was scheduled for a release on Wednesday, but we had to wait until 5 PM before we were able to finally get out of there. My boss from my new job stopped in and dropped off some forms that would enable me to be provided paid time off, rather than taking unpaid time (I have only been at my job for a little over a month). It was quite a gesture and then a plant arrived from my new group at work. It was so wonderful to get home on Wednesday, although I was so sore, I could barely accomplish anything. Another set of great friends, Jeremy and Molly stopped in on Wednesday evening for a nice little visit. Luckily, I was able to talk to them a little more than I could for my other visitors.

So now it is Friday and I have been home for a couple of days now. My belly area is still black and blue, but most of the pains I was experiencing have subsided and I will just need a little more time to get better. We don't know if this surgery will make me all better or not, as only time will tell that. For now, if nothing more, it is so clear in my mind that I am surrounded by such awesome people and I will always recognize this. I am praying that I will simply be better after this surgery, but will not be discouraged if something else comes along.

In conclusion, for 2009, we have now experienced the loss of a precious grandparent, a major surgery, a minor surgery, a car accident, a job layoff, a brand new job, and a new job within the same company. All of this has happened in our first 9 months of marriage. I guess we cannot say that it has not been exciting so far!

That is all for now--hopefully the next blog will come much sooner and will be of a much better subject. Until then, have a great weekend!!

Our little graduate

Tonight was a momentous occasion in the Kainer household... Ranger graduated from puppy school, even though that doesn't include keeping him from chewing everything. Ranger can now sit, stay, leave it, sit pretty (I know he's a boy, but he's still pretty), come when called, but Ranger is still eating us out of house and home.

So far he's chewed: the office chair, the dog pillow, 3 doggie doors (Steve & Marcy's included), more stuff animals at Ritsy's house than we can count, soaker hoses in the back yard, hoses for our watering system, a couch pillow, and the chair cushion for our outdoor patio. We are really glad that he's so great at all the tricks, but what we really want is the chewing stage to be over!

Some People Are Just Not Very Smart!

Kim and I went to see a movie yesterday. After we parked our car and started walking towards the building, I witnessed a small car side swipe a Chevy truck as he backed out of a parking space. The truck was parked and the owner was not present at the time. I decided that the proper thing to do was walk over to the car to make sure everything is ok. The driver saw us walking towards him and we noticed that he was writing down something in his car, so we assumed that he was taking appropriate action and documenting the incident, along with his insurance information to leave for the driver of the Chevy truck. Since he was doing this, we started to walk towards the movie, but still did not have the best feeling about the situation. We walked up a few rows and documented his license plate just in case. We never saw him get out of his car, so we prepared a note of our own with my cell number, the license plate number, and our account of the accident. As I purchased the movie tickets, Kim walked back to the truck to put our information on the truck owner's door. She noticed that no note was left by the guilty party.

We were angry at the driver of the small Kia, but were happy that we documented his information. As the movie concludes, we notice that the Chevy truck was still parked in the same spot, and the owner of the truck got there the same time we did. We approached him and his wife as they approached the truck. Both of them were extremely kind and appreciative that we provided them a note and gave them a recap of what happened. As we left this conversation and made our way back to our car, Kim happened to notice the very same Kia that hit the truck parked a few spots down from us. We verified that this was the correct car by looking at the front bumper with fresh white Chevy truck paint smeared the approximate distance that the paint was missing on the truck itself. I ran back towards the Chevy truck and asked the driver if he wanted to see the car that hit him. Similar to our feelings, he could not believe that the car was still in the parking lot. He walked around the Kia with us and I told him again to call if he needed anything.

A few minutes after we got home, my cell phone rang and it was the Austin Police Department at the scene of the accident. She asked a few general questions and I provided as much information as I could recall. Unfortunately, I was not able to give a description of the driver, but she said that there was plenty of information to take care of the truck owners.

Kim and I were both thrilled and excited that we not only witnessed the accident, but we were able to provide the necessary information to the police and to the truck owners. This kind of stuff angers me so much and I actually have a warm and fuzzy feeling that the Kia owner will be getting in even more trouble than necessary. I realize that this is a tough financial period, but people have to take responsibility for their actions, and this Kia owner did not. I guess he thought we did not actually see the accident since we did not walk right up to him. Unlucky for him, he had no idea that the Kainer detectives were on the case!!

Season of Showers

It's that time in life when friends are expecting babies, and the rest (like us) are just now getting married. My mom & I threw a shower for a dear friend that I've know for 23 years, and I just wanted to share my cupcake creations from the shower which matched the invitations:

Fourth of July

We spent the fourth of July with the Kainers in Houston and had an exciting time. For the evening of the third we visited Pappasito's to celebrate Patrick's dad's birthday. I took the liberty to teach the nieces how to make masks out of tortillas, and I do have to say they were naturals....For the fourth, we spent the day relaxing and selecting fireworks that wouldn't scare the 9 kids we were going to have at the house that evening. We spent $35 and made the fireworks last a little over an hour, and like a typical boy Patrick taught the boys how to stain the concrete with a smoke bomb. However, Patrick's Roman Candle shooting ability definitely needs improvement. Here's a picture showing the stains Patrick created on his mom's street paired with an attempt to make his Roman Candle shoot higher than mine. What can I say.... all I can say is that I think I won our competition by a unanimous vote.

Brylan's Austin trip

What happens when my (Kim's) 12 year old cousin, Brylan, from Colorado comes to stay with us in Austin and our 100+ degree weather?

Last week Brylan came to visit us in Austin, and we had blast doing all of the touristy things around Austin. After starting with a pedicure (Patrick was not with us-for the record), we headed down to south Austin to watch the bats fly out from the Congress bridge. On the way to see the bats, we had to stop at Hey Cupcake to get a quick sugar fix.

Despite the facial expression, she was full of sugar and hyper as can be 30 minutes after consuming the gigantic cupcake. The sugar started to wear off just in time for the bats to take over the area. I'm always amazed at just how many we have living under the Congress bridge (1.5 million to be exact). If you don't believe me, here's the cloud of bats as they are flying out to feed for the evening.

For day 2 we headed down towards San Antonio and visited the snake farm, Natural Bridge Caverns, the Alamo, and the Riverwalk. While at the Riverwalk, we wandered into the mall to cool off, and Miss Brylan could not walk past the candy store without browsing. She came across this pixie-stick sugar dispenser that people can buy a straw and fill them with different flavors. Patrick and I couldn't believe this thing, so I took a picture of Brylan getting her sugar fix once again.

Needless to say after eating about 1/2 of it before we got in the car to head to Austin, she took a small nap on our way back to Austin. We did wake her up to make a stop at the outlets in San Marcos, of course.

For day 3, we decided to head down town to take the Austin Duck Tour, and everyone on the boat received duck whistles. These whistles' purpose was to "quack" at anyone and everyone, in hope of receiving a good 'ol southern wave in return. Needless to say Brylan passed this test with flying colors. After the duck tour, Brylan was starting to melt in the heat, so we headed for lunch at Hut's then to Barton Springs. We warned Brylan of the 68 degree water, but she didn't believe us until we felt it for herself. This Colorado girl went from melting to teeth chattering in 10 minutes. Told you so.... Is all that I could say. After the quick dip in Barton Springs we continued the afternoon sugar rush trend at Cookie Lounge where Bry made a massive cookie with the max number of mix-ins paired with a glass of whole milk. Again on the way home she crashed....

I have to explain one thing because it sounds like took her on the whirl wind tour of central Texas and spoiled her rotten. Well we did... This is because our grandmother ("Granny Bess"), who Brylan never got to meet, did the same thing to me every summer when I was growing up. So it is now my duty to make sure that she doesn't miss this part of life's experiences.

Clam Chowdah

Hello all,

Kim and I are back from an interesting, yet very fun trip to Boston and Cape Cod! I would first like to say that our visit was quite nice and the people are quite nice, but the roads are absolutely horrible in Boston. Our driving experience was probably the worst I have ever imagined and our next trip out there will involve only public transportation. Many brilliant people came out of the New England area; however, I do not believe any of them were city planners or road developers. In addition to the terrible roads of Boston, our GPS decided that we were still in Texas and near Madisonville, approximately the same spot that we turned it off following our last trip to Louisiana.

Our trip started with a walking tour of the Freedom Trail, where we were able to visit the cemetery where Sam Adams, Paul Reverre, and John Hancock lay. We followed that tour with a visit to the Paul Reverre house and a lunch date in Little Italy for some authentic (and very good, I might add) Italian food. Kim has a very special place in her heart for anything Italian, so this meal was a special treat for her. Following our historic/Italian tour, it was time to get on the "T" for a trip to Fenway Park. The train was so crowded, that I actually had to wedge my body on the front stairs of the first car and we could not have arrived at Fenway soon enough.

Arriving at Fenway was simply awesome! As many of you know, I love baseball, and this was one historic stadium I have always wanted to visit. Lucky for us, we were able to purchase two tickets to the game and this game was against the bitter rival Yankees (a team that I have always strongly disliked). I have never really cared for the Red Sox either, but I am much more of a fan now after this experience. Basically, we approached the stadium and they scanned our tickets out on the street. The Red Sox Nation is so into baseball, multiple blocks are shut down for the game. Countless t-shirt, beer, and food stops were on these city blocks and the fans were already cheering for the Sox. Their accents were fun as the letter "R" is removed from most words and is even more emphasized when they are cheering for the Sox. We stayed on the streets for a short while and then ventured to our right field bleacher seats because I wanted to see the field. The beers were expensive, but I did not see a person in the bleacher seats with an empty cup the entire game. The passion for the Red Sox lies worlds ahead of many other teams, including my Astros. Fenway is a getaway for many folks and they splurge when witnessing a game. We were able to see David Ortiz, who Kim coined the nickname, "The Big Papa", hit a high flying homerun over the famous Green Monster. Please google David Ortiz and you will find his real nickname. Besides the dreary and rainy sky, our Fenway experience was fantastic.

The following day, we toured Harvard, a most beautiful campus, and then made our way towards the Cape. I was slightly overwhelmed with the amount of people in the Cape, but it was such a pleasant place to be. We stayed at a nice little condo in Mashpee, but visited Falmouth and Hyannis as well. We enjoyed a nice seafood dinner on the water after touring some of the most ridiculousy sized houses. We attended a fun little wedding on the beach, which was quite meaningful, and flat out crazy at the same time. As much as it hurts me to say, people in the north can out-party us Texas folks.

In conclusion, our northeasterly excursion was quite memorable and I sure hope that we can go back again in the future.

More to come.....

Patrick

Coast to Coast

Well, we knew that June was going to be a busy travel month, and it has definitely begun.

We kicked off the first weekend in June with a trip to see my relatives in Louisiana, and it was refreshing to see kids entertain themselves for hours (yes, hours) with an Igloo cooler. The game was between three brothers, and they would crouch down into the cooler while the other filled it with water. Yes, it sounds dangerous, and it probably was. We couldn't resist watching all the fun....

The second weekend was a girls trip to Los Angeles to see our friend Charis. My dear friend, Lyra, and we got on a plane Friday afternoon for our trip. We were really looking forward to great people watching, and what Charis refers to as the "tragically hip" crowd along with the newly coined fashion trend of the homeless pirate. On Saturday morning, Lyra and I needed coffee, so the girls packed up with baby Micajah in tow to get some caffeine. To our liking we saw our first homeless pirate in the front display of Chanel:

We continued our trek around the Hollywood area, and I was able to get my yearly H&M fix. After filling only on bag at H&M, putting our hands in the stars hands in front of Mann's Chinese theatre, and watching all the tourists get pictures with locals dressed as popular movie characters, we decided it was time to take a walk into Beverly Hills, and we spotted the Govenator a street over from Rodeo (where Charis told us the stars 'actually' shop). Here's a shot I got from across the street, as I try to be a paparazzi....

Finally in one of our final stops down Rodeo, we decided to pop into Tiffany's. They were a little slow, and our new friend let us try on rings that cost 3xs Patrick and I's house. Here's the biggest of them all:

After walking around for about 4 hours, it was time to head back to the apartment to rest and figure out what we were doing for dinner. For dinner that evening, we headed to a little pizza shop right off of UCLA's campus, and we followed it with a fabulous cookie sandwich from Diddy Riese. Diddy Riese has the most incredible concept: pick your cookie of choice (you can even pick two different kinds) and pick your ice cream, and viola you have a personalized ice cream cookie sandwich. For my masterpiece, I went with chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies with butter pecan. It was so heavenly, I had to snap a picture.

Next weekend is Boston, so I'm sure we'll have plenty to blog about. Stay tuned...

All Kinds Of Changes And Stuff Going On!

Hello blog followers, it's Patrick. My wonderful wife has done a much better job at posting on this blog, but I promise I have all intentions of improving! Basically, 2009 has been an interesting year with many ups and downs, but regardless of anything that has happened, life is great! Kim and I are enjoying our first full year of marriage together and that could not be any better. She is an incredible wife and has been unbelievable supportive in my down time this year. We have been blessed by a crazy little dog, Ranger, who is extremely active, and has become best buddies with Brinkley (our older and more sophisticated dog). We got back from a great trip to Louisiana this weekend, where we visited with Kim's grandfather among other family members. He has lived 94 awesome years and still has the mind of a young adult. I can only pray that I have that quality of life. We leave for Boston next week, where we will witness the wedding of good friends, Dan and Jamie. Before the wedding, we will take the time to boo "A-Rod" at the Red Sox/Yankees game at Fenway Park!

As always if my life, there is so much more good than bad, but 2009 has brought challenges and stress to both Kim and me. I have experienced more doctor's visits, procedures, and scans that I have ever cared to, only to find out very little about what has been going on in my body. We did find out a few details and the are under control now, so hopefully, that is all we will have to do. Since all of the time I have spent at medical facilities and a few pills, I have been feeling pretty good. I sure hope that it stays that way. If you want more detail on what has been going on in my crazy body, just ask, and I will provide. Not too long after my medical adventure proceeded to a slowing point, big changes occurred at my place of employment. In this tough economic time, many companies are being forced to handle tough decisions and my company was sailing in that same boat. Due to a long history of financial success, my company has never really had a reason to make significant changes, including pay cuts and employment status changes, and that was quite apparent in how the situation was handled. Right now, I will not going into any detail on that, but I am currently a temporary employee at my company and I am only authorized to work when projects become available to work on. Since the unexpected change in status, I have been busy on a fairly large project. I am not sure if more projects or different employment will come my way, but I am excited to see what God has in store for my career. Regardless of what happens at my current company, a few individuals (current employees) have worked so hard and fought for me to stay, and that is something I will always remember and associate with this company. Finally, to put a little more icing on the cake, I was involved in a non-injury car accident this week. A man in a gas station parking lot was not paying attention as he backed out of his spot. With his lack of attention, he backed right into my car and caused approximately $1900 in damage. Lucky for us, he has good insurance, and my car will be repaired within 3 weeks. I hope that my rental car will be slightly fancier than my car!

With the mix of positive and negative events so far this year, I have felt more blessed than ever with great friends and support. My relationship with God, Kim, family, and friends has grown so much stronger. I cannot wait to experience whatever God has planned for the upcoming chapters in my life.

More posts will come in the near future, I promise!!

Patrick

First Harvest

We planted a peach tree about two and a half years ago (it was the first home improvement project we did together with my parents), and this was the first year that the tree bore fruit. I had no idea that such a young tree could produce a wheelbarrow full of peaches...

I absolutely love peaches, but our first batch was a disappointment. The peaches were small and not too sweet. We were attracting wildlife into the backyard, and I knew that it was time to pick the peaches when the grackles were following Patrick as he mowed the lawn last weekend. Next year, I hope that a peach cobbler is in order.

A Detrimental Sports Day in the Kainer House

Who knew that someone could get so worked up over a basketball game. Well Patrick did after this final score:

I retreated to the study to work on school, and I hardly heard anything from Patrick until the fourth quarter. At the end of the fourth, the Mavs made a huge come-back, and this is where I started to worry about Patrick. His face was red and he kept repeating "I just cannot believe this"... "I just cannot believe this"..." This is just ridiculous".."I just cannot believe this"...

This game really stressed him out. He started to calculate in his head who and where the Rockets would be playing in the first round of the play-offs, and he got even more worked up.

But what tops everything are the quotes from Patrick that followed the game:

1. "That was the dirtiest, I mean the dirtiest, NBA game that I have ever seen"
2. "Cuban just sat there with his wallet open"- in reference to how the game was called
3. "The Mavs just play dirty, Yao is just too nice of a guy to play against people like that"
4. "It doesn't matter they will all end up in jail anyways (like a typical Dallas player)"-in reference to how the Mavs played
5. "The Rockets played clean, but the Mavs played like they were at the hoop-it-up tournament"
6. "That little Barea guy is just as dirty as Dirk"

I'm afraid that if Patrick keeps this intensity up into baseball season, we'll have him on blood pressure medication by September.

Latest creations

I just wanted to share some of my latest cake creations for friends in the Austin area.

Curious George cake:

Dr. Suess themed baby shower for twins (Thing 1, Thing2):

Massive cookie cake (yes the "30" was pure chocolate)

Sorry for any of you who read this before lunch...

My Field Work

I realize that it has been WAY too long since I have posted a blog on here, so I thought I would write about my field work today. For those of you who do not know, I am employed as a Natural Resources Specialist. With this title, I am blessed with many opportunities to work in various areas around the country, but I primarily stay in Texas. Today, I conducted a field assessment on one of those only semi-enjoyable sites south of Houston.

After we parked the truck along an isolated dirt road near the western boundary of my job site, I opened up my mapping software on my laptop and studied the general layout of the land surrounding the actual site. As I started my pedestrian survey within the actual limits of the site, I initially noticed a decent amount of poison ivy along the dirt road. I am quite allergic to poison ivy, so I attempted to avoid this dreaded species as much as I could. After I crossed the welcome mat of poison ivy, I journeyed through multiple thick patches of dewberry, which is a vine that I consider to be slightly evil. This vine that basically extended across the entire limits of the site seems to actually grab your arms and legs with thorns that seem to tighten once human flesh is first touched. I have worked around dewberry enough to actually be used to the bodily impact that it creates. Once the field reconnaissance was coming to a conclusion, I attempted to bush whack my path through this thick site. As I found a fairly accessible trail, I soon noticed that I was pushing my body through large poison ivy vines. I believe my long sleeve shirt and jeans protected me enough from poison ivy's itchy sap and I made a strong effort not to touch my face until I completed the survey.

At this time, all I had to do was find two more corner points, take a few notes, take several pictures, and then vacate the area. I found another opening (without poison ivy this time), but the area was thick with dewberry, lantana, and honeysuckle (which actually smells quite nice). I could even see my fence line and road that marked the finish to my day of field work.

As I am waiting on my co-worker to finish taking a few notes, I looked down within the honeysuckle. I noticed something dark that appeared to be reptilian in nature. This long dark object made a slight move and a head raised up on it's end. I was probably less than 2 feet away from this creature and then noticed that this specimen was a Cottonmouth, a famous venomous Texas snake species. Luckily for me, it was slightly chilly outside at the moment, so the serpent was not moving too much. I calmly inquired with this three foot long venom filled species if it would be appropriate for me to back up a few steps. No response was provided, so I took a few small steps backwards. I wanted to snap a photo of this great species; however, the vegetation was quite thick and I was unable to get myself into a position to capture any worthwhile picture. Please enjoy this attached picture of a Cottonmouth taken by one of our contract biologists.


I promise to try to be better about posting blogs in the future. Have a great day!

Patrick

The IKEA Adventure

Patrick and I were in the market for a new entertainment center and decided to go through IKEA to see if they had anything that would fit our needs. We walked about 75 feet into the store and found exactly what we needed and so the adventure began. First task was sifting through the crowd on a Sunday afternoon, and second was ensuring that this new 65'' long entertainment center fit into Patrick's car. We got through items one and two just fine, but we knew the most difficult task was ahead. We learned very early in our relationship that we should never attempt to put together IKEA furniture together. Regardless of moods, it always leads to a fight. I always have my set idea on how the furniture should be put together, where Patrick likes to take his time to read the instructions. So this time, I left Patrick with project. He kept complaining that this piece of furniture had more parts than anything else he had ever put together. (please remember that Patrick is an extreme exaggerator) Here was the first thing that Patrick showed me, and I actually started to believe him....

As he was about to take a break, he mentioned that he couldn't believe that he had to put 37 nails in the back of this thing. Sure enough, 37 nails were required:

After a day of hard work, the entertainment center looks great, and I learned not to be so quick to think that Patrick was stretching the truth.

Urban Farmer

Just wanted to do a quick post on Patrick and I's new garden. We were inspired after seeing peaches on our peach tree for the first time:

And going to the home & garden show where we learned that we could grow a garden in our backyard. So being the typical type A person that I am, we set out with a plan. Patrick is learning about my "do-it-now" habbits, and he came up with a diagram of what it was going to look like and an estimation of what we needed. After just two weeks, we have our mixed greens and carrots sprouting. Here's the first look at the garden (yes that's Ranger's butt in the picture- It's hard to keep him out of there right now):

Puppy-hood

Apologies for the delay in posting, but we've been busy as I (Kim) work to finish school and Ranger continues to keep us very busy. I did want to post an update on Ranger's most recent mischievous act. When Brinkley, who was adopted by me from Town Lake Animal Shelter in Austin, was adopted, I found that she had a habit of digging in my couch. Yes, you read correctly, she dug holes in my (previous) couch, when left unattended. Seems that Ranger has continued the trend in tearing apart furniture....

Exhibit A: (our chair in the office)

Yes the culprit (Ranger-shown below) was caught red handed digging and ripping through the seat portion of our chair, and he was having a blast doing it. After he got in trouble with Patrick, you would have thought Ranger's world had ended. He would not even get close to Patrick that evening. Needless to say, after one evening he is back to his normal self of viciously barking and terrorizing the neighborhood, but I do think we can officially say our dogs have a furniture fetish.

A new addition

This weekend we adopted a new little puppy, and we would like to announce Ranger Kainer that we welcomed into our home weighing a whopping 7lbs. The first night we adopted him, he slept in his crate for 7 hours, and I thought that it was too good to be true. Well it was, since Ranger is only 3 1/2 months old, it was a fluke that he was able to sleep that long straight through. Saturday night after 45 minutes of crying he went to bed at 11PM and proceeded to wake up at 2AM, 5 AM, and 8AM. So far he's enjoying getting to know Brinkley, but the feelings haven't quite been reciprocated, as Brinkley is learning how to share her toys in her toy box and deal with something that's 30lbs smaller than she is. After lots of play time, he snuggled with Patrick for a nap as they both watched football. I snapped this one just as Ranger was waking up this afternoon.
We are enjoying the new puppy, and learning how to constantly keep a watch on him. He's already taken a nose dive from the couch to the coffee table, pulled the bathroom rug completely out of the bathroom, learned how to bark (it's a tiny bark) back at Brinkley, and pull every single toy out of the toy box. I know that this is just the beginning, but we're enjoying the moment!

Christmas a learning experience (by Kim)

We departed for our first official Christmas as the Kainer's with our first stop in Dallas. We had a great time spending time with my folks. For years I wrapped all of my dad's Christmas presents to my mom, but as I got older he began to attempt this task on his own. Ever year dad gets a little better at wrapping the gifts, but this year I noticed something strange. Dad had picked up the birthday gift tags instead of the Christmas tags, so I couldn't help but capture this. All the gifts that he wrapped to us and my mom had some form of birthday tag on it. Here's an example of what our gifts looked like. With Christmas wrapping paper, everyone of them had a Happy Birthday tag. After a good visit with my parents in Dallas, we loaded up the car and headed to Louisiana to visit my 94-year old grand father.
My grandfather was always know for finding new uses for everyday appliances around the house. Despite being in a retirement home, we realized that he still has his touch. We first noticed that he had replace the switch on his desk lamp because the switch was getting too hot, the second thing we noticed was he had twisted a hanger into an over the door hook for his clothes.The third thing we found was that they use was the chains used by the dentist when you get your teeth cleaned make great napkin holders to make a bib. At lunch my grandfather put his on, so that he wouldn't get anything on his shirt. Little did we know that he had one for each of us:
The final thing that we learned from my grandfather was that the bungee cord that my parent's gave him for Christmas could be used for a belt. I actually gave him the idea, and the next day when we came by, he was using his new bungee cord as a belt. Notice that the bungee cord actually comes above his waistline, but it still does the trick. We had a great visit with family, and are excited about spending many more Christmases together!