Ike Update #1

It is still calm here in Houston. We've seen on the Weather Channel online, and heard from friends who are still in Galveston (dummies), that the surge has come in so far that the waves are slapping over onto the Seawall. Seawall is the main street that lines the beach in Galveston and is about 15 feet above sea level. The west end of the island, and the Strand (historical district) is already flooded. Where we are, in southwest Houston, there is barely any wind yet. There is an occasional gust, but that's about it. Jacen assured us that this area is fairly high, so flooding shouldn't be a problem. It looks like a lot of people in the neighborhood are riding the storm out with us.

The landlord of the house we are staying in is supposed to be putting up more plywood today, but I'm hoping he leaves a little window exposed so we can see what's going on out there. Our friend Jacen, and renter of this house, has left for his weekend trip and won't be back until Sunday. He was gracious enough to leave us free reign of his home. We couldn't be more thankful.

The only hurricane damage we've seen so far is a broken full bottle of Jager. It cracked in half in the cooler during the "evacuation". Travis realized it was broken when every beer he pulled out of the cooler last night smelled like black licorice. Yuck. I'm not a big fan of the stuff, so I'm okay with it. JR said that the liquor store near here was more busy than the gas stations. Ha!

I slept VERY well last night. Jacen is letting us use his bed, which is so great. He has one of those memory foam pillows that I am taking full advantage of with my sore neck. I was supposed to have a chiropractor appointment this evening. I probably don't even need to call to cancel that. Ha. The only trouble I had sleeping was this morning when Jacen got up to leave for his flight at 5am. Callaway thought it would be necessary to bark everytime he made a sound. Eventually Travis dragged his ass outside, where he stayed until we got up this morning. Damn dog.

Yesterday before he left, Jacen showed us how to use his espresso machine. We have our very own in-house Starbucks! It was a little tricky, but we figured it out this morning. The only downfall was we couldn't find any sugar! We opened a can of sweetened condensed milk which will have to be enough for now. We are going to the store after I take a shower to buy a replacement can and also some sugar, since we'll be here for a few days. I hope it's still open.

Not sure what we'll do today. I'm hoping to get out of the house a little, maybe go visit JR and Sara, since we will most likely not be able to do that tomorrow. =( We brought a bunch of DVDs, but I don't want to watch them all before the storm hits. Jacen doesn't have cable, so we've been keeping up with the storm via the Internet. We're kicking ourselves for forgetting our radio. I'll keep you posted...

"Evacuated"

Travis gave into my pleading and we "evacuated"!! I put quotations around that because we only made it into Houston, which I believe has a mandatory evacuation in itself. We are staying at the house of a friend of a friend. We've met him before and Travis was seemed slightly more satisfied with the idea of going an hour away as opposed to the 8 hours to David and Stephanie's (even though we'd LOVE to visit them). We made the decision to come up this morning when it looked imminent that we should be directly in the path of the hurricane. I had to go into work this morning, so I got there early. I did what I needed to and then we covered all our equipment up with plastic.

When I got home, we loaded up the vehicles and Chris and Alexa dropped off their dog, Godiva. Alexa and Blair are going to fly with Chris to Aspen, Colorado (he's a pilot) until Sunday. For the most part, the drive here was not that bad. Of course, we didn't really go all that far. Travis and I drove separately so we could bring the generator we borrowed from Chris and Alexa and then all the food we bought to survive this storm. We are expecting the power to go out and we will still have hurricane-force winds here. According to the news, it should be down to a Category 1 by the time it reaches Houston. We found out that Sara and JR (our neighbors) may be evacuating to just a few streets down from where we are!

Here are all the people who were on the road with us.

These signs line the interstate and give pertinent information to whatever is going on in our area. Stuff like, elderly disappeared in a gold 4-door car; suspected child kidnapper spotted in a red pickup truck; OR:

Really? We hadn't noticed.

Getting Nervous...

It still looks like Ike is going to hit just west of Galveston - meaning we are going to get a shit load of wind and rain! They are saying now that my area will experience hurricane-force winds. Yay. If you read Sara's blog post you can read the same exact conversation that I had with Travis last night (minus the kid). I do not want to stay, but I have to at least until they let us out of work. Which as of right now is 4pm for me. And that's only because I came in an hour early to get things started. I'm hoping they'll end up letting us go early. Otherwise I'm going to be sitting on my ass staring at a bunch of equipment in bags all day. *sigh*

This whole evacuation thing seems to be a hard decision for everyone to make right now. None of my friends have made the choice just yet. Travis and I will most likely be staying at home. Our neighbor across the street, Cowboy Willy (yes, that's what he goes by), said that he was here when Hurricane Alicia (Cat 3) hit in 1983 and that barely flooded the ditches in his yard. Flooding is what I am most worried about. I'm not directly on the water, so it's not as big of a deal. I guess then I start thinking about the gigantic tree in our front yard and the fact that our roof could blow off at any moment. Aren't these normal things people worry about?

The one thing I am VERY grateful for is that my sister Ariel will be out of town during this storm (meeting Robert's family in west Texas). She is really bummed she's going to miss it, but I worry that she would do something stupid, like hang out on the beach to watch the storm come in. Now I have one less thing to worry about. Phew!

Totally unrelated... When I left for work yesterday morning I was locking the deadbolt on the back door, like I always do, when the key snapped in half! With the "working" half still in the lock. Super Nikki!! I had a momentary freak out when I realized I could no longer get into my house. Granted, I didn't need in until I got off work at 5pm, but I REALLY don't like the idea of not being able to get into my own home. I decided that when I got off I would pop into Sara's and get the key we leave with her. By the end of the day, Ariel had decided to leave her car at my house in case the storm does hit. It floods by her apartment when it rains too hard, let alone a hurricane. Lucky for me, Ariel has a key to our house on her key ring! I got right in after work by using the front door. I paid the bills and when Travis got home he pulled the other half of the key out of the lock using pliers, then we headed to the grocery store. It was pure chaos there. Foresight?

Fickle Ike

We are still awaiting the arrival of hurricane Ike. It's at a Category 2 right now and is expected to be a 4 before landfall. Since landfall is somewhere between Houston and Corpus Christi my work has given everyone Friday off. Travis has tomorrow AND Friday off. We are debating if we are ready to evacuate to David and Stephanie's house. I really do not want to evacuate. I don't know if I have emphasized this enough in past posts, but I am serious here. Rita was a disaster and I have no desire to relive that. But that may be our only option. Don't get me wrong, not having to go to work and partying with friends is always a blast. The expense is what gets us. Travis and I are having a "family meeting" tonight to decide what to do.

Either way we are going to the grocery store to pick up supplies. We probably have enough canned goods and water to last us 2 weeks without power, but it feels wrong to not be panicking with the masses. Our gas tanks are already topped off. Tomorrow we are prepping the lab for the hurricane.

Here's what the monster looks like right now. It is the same size as the fricking Gulf of Mexico. Awesome.

Here we go again!

Post-Worm Trauma

On the way home from work yesterday I decided to stop by the gas station. I like to be prepared for possible hurricane evacuations. I pull out onto the main street behind a police truck. And what do I see? po-LICE written on the back of the truck. I had worms on the brain! Even as I was leaving the gas station (thank you Randall's card for $3.05/gal!) I was quick to notice the bait and tackle stores that line the bay. Ugh! I was finally starting to feel about normal as I pulled into my driveway.

Just in time to check my cabinets for more worms! Sure enough, I found another worm hanging out in the bottom of a bag of chocolate covered peanuts that I bought in bulk from the grocery store. I'm thinking its going to be a little while before I can look at trail mix the same way...

I started this post off today hoping to mention a few things from David and Stephanie's last Sunday in town, but I kept thinking of the worms. Anyhoo, we had another lazy day, lounging around the house. There were pro-football games on TV and Stephanie was craving wings, so the guys grabbed a case of beer and some Wing Stop. Chris was out of town on a flight, so Alexa and Blair came over to hang out too. Stephanie threw some pj's on Wednesday so she could crawl around without getting rug burn, but I think it ended up being more of a hinderance. She was sliding around everywhere. Look at this concentration:

I decided to make a fruit pizza, something that my mom used to make every summer when I was a kid. When we made it for 4th of July, we focused on fruits that were red and blue. Brings back the happy memories of my young childhood. =) The "pizza" was delicious - we at the whole thing in one day! It was so pretty, Alexa recommended taking a photo. Great idea!

Wriggling Feeling

SO. I just wanted to throw this up really quick because it is totally blogworthy. I was just taking a break with Rachel and we were sharing the trail mix that I had brought in for this week. We take turns bringing in a batch and the one we were nibbling on happened to be the remnants of last week's bag. Rachel was telling some very entertaining story when all of a sudden she stops, stands up and says, "don't eat your trail mix" as she's walking over to the trash holding her hand under her mouth like her food is about to fall out. The two Russians we occasionally break with, and I, instinctively looked at the pile of trail mix that was on the table in front of where Rachel was sitting. AND THERE WAS A LITTLE WHITE GRUB WORM INCHING ITS WAY ACROSS THE PAPER TOWEL!!! A WORM!!! IN OUR FOOD!!! THAT I HAD JUST FINISHED EATING!!!

Ugh, I feel nauseous.

We both immediately downed what was left of our drinks. We contemplated drinking disinfectant from our lab, but decided the result would be worse than what we would face otherwise. Unfortunately, I downed my coffee. So now I'm trying to decide if it is the caffeine upsetting my stomach or the sneaking feeling that I have a million little worms squirming around in my belly.

We still can't remember what story Rachel was telling.

Ugh, I still feel nauseous...

Blair and Wednesday

Saturday was a lazy day. We were all a little hungover from staying out so late the night before. Travis originally thought he had to work all day, but they ended up letting everyone off at 3:30pm. The rest of us sat on our butts and watched TV and a movie (Singles). David took a nap at some point. Wednesday took several.

We made plans for that evening to go up to Chris and Alexa's. The boys all went wake boarding on Chris' boat and the ladies hung out while the babies played together. I have to tell you that was the sweetest thing I've ever seen! Blair is two months Wednesday's junior, but they got along very well. Blair is just beginning to sit up so they were able to interact easily. It was funny because Blair would get distracted by a toy, but then notice Wednesday again. She was so interested in him and I think they each really liked the other ones clothes.

Blair looks totally taken aback by this small child invading his space.

Again, put into a trance by the red-eye reducing light on my camera. Wednesday had just finished her baby biscuit, hence the food face.

Wednesday has just learned how to give kisses (which actually consists of open mouth touching your cheek). She was attempting to give Blair a kiss, but she was too far away to reach. When Stephanie scooted her closer I'm pretty sure Blair was saying, "Look Wednesday, you're cute and all, but I just don't think this age difference is going to work out for us."

After playtime, we went to the lake for dinner at a bar and restaurant that serves the best wood stove pizza in the area (according to us anyways). I sat in the back of Alexa's car with the kiddos. It is amazing how quickly babies quiet down with a car ride. I need to remember that...

The guys took the boat directly to the restaurant. They were running a little late, so we helped ourselves to some "pizza chips", or as Papa John's calls it, "cheesy bread". Delicious. Wednesday looked smashing in my sunglasses. Don't you think?

Before our plates came, Kai headed off for the night, which meant there was an open seat in the boat. Stephanie wanted to experience life on the lake, so she went home in the boat with the boys. Alexa and I took the babies back to her house. Wednesday and I played while Blair got a bath. They both really seemed to enjoy a Baby Einstein video that Alexa put in (another item I need to bank in my memory). Stephanie had a relaxing ride back with the guys. That area is so beautiful - the houses are huge on the water! I remember how amazed I was the first time I went out there in Kai's boat.

We were all exhausted still from staying up late the night before, so we went straight home after everyone got back and the boat was in the garage. I think my head hit the pillow at 10:42pm and I didn't wake up until 9 the next morning. It was some much needed rest. I just can't keep going like I used to. And I'm only 26!