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