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...