Hail in Austin Area

Yesterday we had a crazy hail storm here in Austin. Unfortunately, I wasn't at home when it happened. I was tucked safely in one of the bays at a car wash in Pflugerville. When I heard the first hail stone hit my car, I quickly got out of the line at Popeye's where I was hoping to grab some dinner and headed for the nearest cover. By the time I managed to get across the street and in to one of the bays it started coming down like crazy. The size of the hail ranged from pea size to ping pong size in my area, but some areas reported as large as golf ball size hail.

This was Riley's first storm like this and she handled it just fine. In fact, after it was over we let her outside to see what was going on and she thought those cute little white balls were for her to play with and eat.

I didn't get any pictures of the storm, but here is a link to see some pictures around the Austin area.

Spotted Dick

Have you ever tried Spotted Dick?

Okay, now that you have pulled your mind out of the gutter and stopped laughing; it is a bread pudding from the UK. When we were in World Market the name caught my attention so I had to purchase one. It is made by the Heinz company and comes in a can. It was really easy to make in the microwave - just pull it out and steam it briefly. It is not like the bread pudding my grandmother used to make; which I honestly never liked. This has a strong cinnamon flavor and overall was really good. The can was a little too much for two people, but it didn't look like it would store well so we were forced to eat it all.

If you have never had it before, you should give it a try.

No More Pansies

The home builder put pansies all around our house, but I am not a fan of pansies. I spent too many years in apartment management looking at pansies every day and just don't want to look at them any more. Every day when I would pull in to the drive way I would think to myself how much I disliked those flowers. Today was the day I liberated the flower beds of those pansies. It felt so good to see them gone. Now I just need to decide what should go in their place. I'm not a fan of delicate looking flowering plants, but am not sure what I should put in. I really like the sago palms and found some really cool looking grass plant that is a deep red color.

What type of plants do you think makes a house look nice when you drive by? If you could plant anything you wanted in your front yard, what would it be?

Little Buck

Few things instantly make me angry, but abusing children and animals is an instant hot button for me. I found out this week that my cousins 2 year old son, Buck, was beaten to death by his ex-wife's boyfriend. The child was beaten so severely that some of the organs couldn't be donated due to the damage and some of the wounds couldn't be covered for the funeral service. The boyfriend was charged with capital murder and today the brilliant judge lowered the bail.

This is not the first time this man harmed children. We have learned that he wasn't allowed to see his own children because of his abusive nature; but the mother of little Buck had no problems letting him be around her child. I truly believe that if the mother would have allowed my cousin to see his son, he would have been able to notice signs that Buck was being abused.

Every time I read something about it in the Mineral Wells papers, I get even more angry because they are not telling the whole story.

The only good comfort in this whole mess is that Buck will not have to endure the pain this man was putting him through any longer.

Hairy Armpits

Have you seen the Boost mobile commercial with the girl and guy riding the bike, her hair is flowing behind her and it even occasionally hits him in the face? I had to watch this commercial a couple of times before I realized that was her armpit hair! I love it when commercials do shocking things to get my attention, but this one just grosses me out. I have no idea what the girl is saying and had to rewind the commercial to catch that it was for Boost Mobile. Just the thought of all of that hair hanging from her armpits, getting a sweaty and stinky is too much for me.

Do you have a favorite commercial or one that just repulses you?

Kimberly Stone.... Please Pay Your Bills

When we moved in to our home a month ago, we had to get a new phone number. I wasn't thrilled about a new number, but since we moved to a new town we had no choice. On our first day in our new home we found out that our new number was previously held by a lady named Kimberly Stone; and she apparently owes a lot of people money. We get no less than 5 phone calls a week from different collection agencies looking for her. We have told them all that she no longer has this number, but they don't believe us. We have nicely asked them to remove this number from their database and they still call. We have told them we are going to report them to the FTC, Attorney General, and FCC and they still call. It is to the point where we are going to have to file a complaint and are considering changing our phone number to escape all of the crazy calls. If I could locate this individual, I would give the collection agencies her new number. I know times are tough, they are tough for most people, but it is not right to have someone else be constantly burdened by someone trying to dodge their creditors.