...so it is now nearly 5 days since Ike took a stroll through South East Texas on his way north. Texas is still recovering with downed trees and limbs still lying on the side of the road as they have been cut up and moved out of the road in most situations.

People are still going a little crazy, queueing up all over the place for ice, food, and especially gas. People either were really not ready for this, or they are completely incapable of surviving without power and A/C.

We still do not have power at home and with the latest status being that the power company is going round making the quick large fixes they can then returning to trouble spots later, we may be without power for a while. The other night, when Angel and Nora spent the night at a family friends house, I stayed at home. Around 2:30am the power came on for about 30 seconds to a minute, went out and then came on breifly again. The second time we heard a bang which sounded oddly like a transformer blowing out, and since then nothing. Not even much signs of the power company... that makes us think we are in the latter situation of being a 'trouble spot'

Given that the world around us is still ongoing I needed to get online to get some work done, and we have a raft of electronics that needed to be recharged. Hence trekking up to highjack an office in the Cy Fair Cancer Center. On our way up we had a funny encounter. With power out the traffic lights are out too so intersections become more crowded. On Kirby there is a filter lane for people to turn left on. This guy went through the lights in front of us then wanted to take a left, but instead of going into the filter lane he was in the left most active lane.

I then honked at him as he was blocking my lane then I went around him.

He proceeded to jam on the accelerator and pull up beside us on our right (I guess he was not in a rush to take the left).

There was a back and forward were we were telling him to use the filter lane and he was shouting at us that it was an emergency (hence why he followed us I guess) and proceeded to swear at us before calling us an 'arrogant individual' before peeling off to move to the lane where he could take a left again. There is more to it, but that is the jist of it... just a very weird reaction... and a symptom of how some people are acting after the storm. Overall the community has really pulled together, but some seem to be unravelling at the edges... lets hope either power is restored or that they go and jump off the closest bridge into the Bayou!

I will have photos online soon... probably tomorrow, but don't have the memory card with me! Lets hope that power comes back although it has not really bothered either Angel, Nora, Cammie nor I too much, but having a working fridge and freezer would be nice!

Came inland just East of Galveston Bay, south of Houston on Friday night. We started to get the wind in the afternoon and it got steadily got worse over night. We finally lost power at a little after 4am.

Our area had minor damage, none serious structural damage, and no broken windows in our house or any in the complex that we know of.

Anne is out of town, but her house has power and she was kind enough to let us stay here tonight... Nora was getting fussy.

Updates and photos when I can get power at home.

Yesterday, Nora and I met Mary and Kio at Memorial Park and enjoyed a pleasant two hours snapping photos of the baby's First Park Outing. Once it got a tad too warm for comfort, we dropped the pup off at Crooms and headed over for Nora's First Starbucks Trip.

She was miffed she only got coffee cake secondhand.

Soon, baby, soon.

Also, she wore a teeny baby camp shirt from Uncle Sherwin and accompanied me to PetSmart for her First Cammiefood Run.

In the afternoon, I tossed the kiddo back into her dad's furry arms, jumped on the motorcycle for the forst time since we saw two pink lines (so good to be back!), dropped off a fecal sample at the vet's (Miss Wazz's innards are parasite-free), and went to MD Anderson, where I got my return-to-work plan set up (October 10). Long day!

While up with the pretty baby monkeybutt wiggleworm, I wrapped up some of my nonprofit work and sent off two painfully long emails (I was trying to explain so, so, so much without creating more miscommunication) as follow-up to an upsetting incident from the board meeting earlier that night.

What I really wanted to write was, "Dude, WTF?"

Or maybe, "Perhaps if you told your doctor about the produce lodged in your rear, he or she could do something about it so we could all get along better. Meaning... so you could not act like an insecure and hypersensitive, crotchety donkey."

But I didn't write that at all. I wasn't even thinking the latter thoughts when it was all happening. I was just stunned at the vitriol.

Whoever wants specifics will have to call me in person. Only if you don't know any of the other parties involved will you get juicy details. See? That's how good I'm being.

Got the all-clear to resume exercising (despite strong urges, I haven't managed to yet), motorcycle-riding (I'll wait until I've gotten more fit, just in case), and intercourse (uhhhm...errrr...ahem...right) as well as taking the pill (not needed jussst yet) from the doc, with a caution to watch my own limits.

I've gotten my first haircut since the wedding and had my annual vision checkup. Also should have some spiffy Rx sunglasses on the way.

The wee one is about 10 pounds now and has outgrown her smallest NB (newborn) size outfits, although the size 0-3 month ones are a little bit roomy yet.

Looking forward to the long-postponed CPR review class tomorrow.

Mister Mike owes the bloggity an update from Sherbie's visit. Also got a new computer.

The exterminators came out today, represented by a contrite, white-haired man with a be-casted broken ankle using a walker (because of his build and age, perhaps crutches were not an option), who has had a recent spate of rough-ish luck (wife needed heart surgery, but the operation went well, and she is out of the ICU as of a day ago).

I brought him down some of the critters I'd "saved" on our bathroom floor to keep him from having to hike upstairs. After much examination, he wasn't sure if we had ourselves termites or ants, because although he thought the bodies were termite-like, the wings were far too short. I offered to fetch him some more samples on tape and paper, and he accepted. When I came back downstairs, he had decided.

What I thought were "swarmers" are actually "breeder" Pharoah ants. The good news is that this type of ant is easy to control, and the breeders of the species don't bite. The bad news is that they are breeders. (They are SO into breeding that they don't even care about food or water.)

He will come back to spray the side of our home they probably entered on, and he left behind a spray and some traps that he said work really well. Blobby-daddy will be arriving home a few hours earlier than expected, so he will take care of that.

I will go clean up the danged mess I made when I berzerked on the bugs. Camila will be very pleased.

EWWWWbles. Last night, I found a whole scad of winged grossibles in the master bathroom. Apparently, when we have heavy rain, these subset of the termite population seek dry shelter. I'm supposed to be reassured that these aren't the termites that actually eat wood. Regardless, they do crawl around and give me the willies.

Cammie won't eat them, even if they are juicy and, despite their wings, prefer to run around on the ground. Silly cat.

The management company for our townhomes called the exterminators 12 days ago (internets say the presence of these "swarmers" indicates a colony of actual damage-causing termites are trying to breach the perimeter somewhere), but no word. So I called them this morning and said we have them again.

EWWWWWWWW!

Breastfeeding isn't coming easily for Noragirl and me. We're working it out, but there's not much good sleep going on since I have decided to restart trying to feed her directly from the breast.

Poor Wazzles. She doesn't enjoy the crying like I apparently must. Cruel ma.

As some of you may know Angel was entering the 38th week of the pregnancy yesterday and has been ready to pop for a little while. I was up in new Jersey all week, getting home at 10:30 Thursday night. We were in bed before midnight but up again just after two am... Angel's water broke!

After an exhausting 20 hour plus labor Angel gave birth to a healthy baby girl at 22:42 CDT on July 25th 2008. Both mother and daughter are doing well and will be returning home in the next couple of days. Before you ask, no we have not decided upon a name yet, but will do soon.

I will be spending most of my time over the next day or so at the hospital and can be reached on my mobile at 832.277.5211

Here is is a photo of a young, very curious girl, who as soon as she was born was able to make solid eye contact and who was intrigued by all the big folk looking in on, and looking after her...

Certainly a lot of photos to come in the coming days, weeks, months and years.

First of the weekly appointments was today. All is well.

Also, today was SciPubs' last day in the HMB. We will be in the new faculty tower now, and although my office will not have the detritus of decades ground into the carpet and walls, I will have a less interesting view. Mike took some shots that illustrate my point.

Nonetheless, the natural light is what I value more than the view, cos we -are- talking about an office where I -will- get work done.

Or at least where I will try really hard to get work done until Blobby makes that impossible.

Good night!