Estoy Nueces

Happy Alamo Day! I began reading the Gates of the Alamo this weekend (by Stephen Harrigan). I gave it to my dad for his birthday a couple of years ago. I mentioned this weekend while I was with them that I was going to borrow it back. Mom picks it up and finds a card (like a magazine insert card, it seemed) inside and commented that that was probably as far as Daddy got when he read it. Daddy said, no, he hadn't read it at all. We talk further and Mom has that card out and, from across the room, I realize they were stamps! I'd given him a whole sheet of stamps as part of his gift and they had never even been discovered. sigh.

I had a great weekend with my parents. I went up Saturday and enjoyed the drive and listening to my CDs. I stopped at the HEB in Waco and got a couple of birthday cakes (chocolate and carrot, yum!). Went all the way to their house and then we went back down to meet with my sister and her husband and one of her boys for celebration dinner.

Dad's neck is looking better. He does still have a couple of big lumps that are bruises, the doctor says, but the incision itself is healing nicely and is hardly noticable now and will be even less so when the healing finishes. He seemed to be happy and spirited.

Sunday we had coffee from the new coffee pot I got mother for her birthday, but it still tasted crappy. I even used Starbucks coffee. I decided that their coffee tastes crappy because of their water. Next time I go I'll have to bring a gallon of water, too, I guess.

We had no plans for the day yesterday so I suggested we drive over to Chico and see my great-great-grandfather's grave. I had never found it before, but I've become reinspired lately about genealogy by corresponding with a cousin from this family so I wanted to see it. And I so seldom have done anything with Daddy's family that I wanted to go with him to search for graves, too. We did and it was so fun. We found the cemetery after a little street confusion in the BIG town of Chico (ha). The website I had used had exactly what row the graves were on so it made it easy to find. It is fun to search in a cemetery for a grave, but with two elderly people and short time, this made it better. It was a very nice headstone. They both died in the 1920s. Next to them was their daughter that never married. I took a photo of the whole area and noticed a grave of Morrows nearby. Didn't think much of it and then I got home and found that another one of their daughters married a Morrow so I bet that was an aunt and uncle that I could have noticed if I had known. Well, I can get their info from the website I'm sure.

We came back and ate lunch in Decatur and then came on home and I got on the road late in the afternoon. Another quick trip that didn't bother me much and I was home in the evening.

I watched all the Academy awards and enjoyed them. Especially on fast forward through the speeches. I was surprised I had seen four movies up for awards. I didn't realize the Squid and the Whale was up for a writing award. It didn't win. I was glad Brokeback didn't get best picture. I was happy with Ang Lee getting director and the other awards were fine, but I just didn't think it was that great. Groundbreaking, sure.

Mark was at work last night when I got home and he didn't come home until way after I went to bed at one or so. Don't know how late he was there. I'm not waking him up this morning. I know he needs to sleep. SXSW is going to be a bear next week. I'm not really looking forward to it at all. I need to get curtains put up before he starts that weird all-night schedule.

Today we should get a little rating trend at work. It will be interesting to see if we can stay number one another month. I know the first month of the last book was really good and that's the month we're going to lose in the trend, so we may not be number one. We'll see and it doesn't really matter except to my ego.