We went to see the latest Shrek movie yesterday afternoon. We liked it! We like all of the Shrek movies. I won't write one of those reviews that spoils the plot for everyone else. I'll just write a review of, say...the movie theater experience.

We bought our tickets on-line ahead of time because we thought it might sell out for the 5:10 pm showing. We gathered Toot and a couple of her friends. We got there half an hour early and we were the second people in line to get into the theater. We got the best seats ever. I cannot stand to get into a movie theater that is already crowded and have to be stuck with seats way down front so that you are forced to crane your neck upward to view the giant screen. Our seats of choice are in the very top, back row, center of the theater.

We ate too much junky theater food: popcorn, hotdogs, nachos, sodas, Skittles. And we spent far too much money on that junky theater food but we were all starving when we got to the movies so, well, it was all impulse buys. You know what would be a cool idea? If movie theaters offered some healthy options also. Seriously. I know that the whole movie "experience" always involves popcorn slathered with fake butter and sodas filled with high fructose corn syrup and preservatives. But I think movie theaters could offer a couple of healthy options without ruining the movie experience.

The theater filled up, the movie started, and we laughed. The end.

If you want to read the movie spoiler plot: Shrek Forever After on wikipedia

We have a couple of frogs who hang around the side patio of our house. Toot thinks they are the same frogs every night but I am not so sure. Last night when we walked out with the dogs, the frog became alarmed and then squeezed himself down into a crack between the patio and the house foundation. He peeked out at us with his beady eyes:

We have a lady who is helping with some of the interior painting in our house this month. She told me about her mother-in-law who lives in Brazoria. Apparently this MIL cannot stand any kinds of bugs, frogs, or lizards to be anywhere around her house. She keeps cans of Raid around to kill all these things. If she sees a frog on her front porch, she sprays it down with Raid and kills it. That is just all kinds of wrong to me. First, she is contributing all those chemicals to the environment. Second, she has no concept of the fact that the amphibians are already vanishing. I see nothing at all wrong with letting these creatures hang out on our porches and patios. They are harming nothing. I guess this really made me angry and I wish there was something I could do about ignorant people like this MIL.

Last night my sister sent me a message that she was taking her cocker spaniel Daisy to the emergency animal clinic. Daisy is very old and has been having some serious health problems. Awhile later Daisy passed away. I wanted to tell Daisy's story as we know it.

Our family used to own a restaurant in Sweeny, Texas. There was a black cocker spaniel that kept hanging around the front of the restaurant and didn't seem to have a home. After a few days of this, my sister took the dog home and named her Daisy. We didn't know how old Daisy was but she appeared to be a fairly young adult dog.

My dad never allowed animals in the house. But he let Daisy live in their house. He loved that dog. When he was a little boy, he also had a black cocker spaniel whose name was Inky. He was always partial to cocker spaniels. One day I went by my parents house to visit and my mom led me upstairs. She motioned for me to be quiet and then she pointed through the open bedroom door at my dad taking a nap on his bed. And Daisy was lying right beside him with her head on the other pillow. Oh how I wish I had a picture of that right now but I had no camera with me at that time.

About a year after Daisy came to live with my sister and my parents, I was pregnant with our daughter. My sister would bring Daisy over to my house to visit and Daisy would get in my lap and wrap herself around my belly. It is as if she sensed that there was a little person inside me and she wanted to be as close as possible.

Daisy lived all these years with my sister and was her constant companion. She was there when my dad was dying of cancer. She would get in the hospital bed with him and guard him from something we couldn't see.

Oh Daisy, we will all miss you terribly. I hope you are now happy and pain-free living in doggie heaven. We will bury you in Mississippi in the family cemetery next to my dad.

I braved the swarms of mosquitos to take this picture in my backyard. It rained here recently and the mosquitos have hit us pretty hard. No more leisurely walks around the yard for me until I can get it sprayed for those pesky flying biting blood-suckers. I am looking at getting some cedar oil spray that is all natural and avoid the use of more chemicals in our environment. That may not make much difference anyway since the county sprays us down liberally from an airplane with mosquito control substances that they claim are not "harmful."

Canna Lily. Grows wonderfully in our tropical climate here.

I use Google Analytics to track the metrics for my site. I have always been interested in statistics and numbers so Google Analytics definitely delivers on that. One of the metrics that I find interesting is where in the world my blog readers live/work. Here are the top ten places I get my visits from, in order from most to least:

1. United States
2. India
3. France
4. Canada
5. China
6. United Kingdom
7. Japan
8. Guam
9. Bulgaria
10. Greenland

Now the last two really have me scratching my head: Bulgaria and Greenland. Apparently they are interested in what I have to say!

I have always been an extremely light sleeper. Any noise, any movement, I wake up. It is ridiculous.

Last night was a typical night with many wake-ups. I don't use an alarm clock or even have a clock in my bedroom except for my cell phone so I have no idea what times I woke up.

I fall asleep pretty easily. Soon though, a thunder and lightning storm moves in and the thunder wakes me. I drift back to sleep.

A huge boom of thunder caused the dogs to become alarmed and they jumped up on the bed. I wake up briefly then go back to sleep.

Another boom of thunder causes our dog Max to become more scared and he decided to burrow under my pillow to hide, thereby waking me again. I finally get back to sleep.

Toot has an ear ache so I lay down in her bed with her. I fall back asleep.

I dream about my old friend Scott from high school. He isn't really my friend any longer since he married and his wife doesn't allow him to be friends with very many of his old friends. I wake up. The dream has upset me. I go back to sleep.

One of the dogs develops an itch and scratches it. His tags on his collar jingle and wake me. I remove the dogs' collars so they don't jingle. I fall back asleep.

We have some brief, hard rain that hits the windows. I wake up. I readjust my pillows. I go back to sleep.

I dream about a botanical garden that I visited in Daytona Beach in 1998. I wake up. I look at my cell phone to see if it is time to get up. It is 5 am. I lay there and doze back to sleep. I dream about San Francisco. My cell phone alarm goes off at 6 am. I get up.

I just finished reading The Vincent in the Barn: Great Stories of Motorcycle Archaeology by Tom Cotter. I also read one of his previous books, The Hemi in the Barn and loved it. This book is no different. The Vincent in the Barn is a collection of tales and stories about finding and restoring great old classic motorcycles. Now, I am more of a car nut myself although I do love to look at, read about, and visit motorcycles. But I am must admit right now that I have never driven one by myself. I am a wee bit scared of motorcycles. There is nothing between you and the pavement at 60 miles an hour if you have an accident.

This book takes you all over the world in search of elusive and rare motorcyles. From Russia to Saigon to Italy (where some of the finest motorcycles have been made.) This is a book about barn finds: following tips and clues to old sheds and barns around the world that contain hidden treasure in the form of motorcycles.

A book like this would not be complete without pictures. The pages are filled with pictures of motorcycles in all states of repair and dereliction. The stories include interesting details like descriptions of previous owners, prices paid originally, values of the motorcycles now, and even conversations between motorcycle enthusiasts and the people who are looking to part with the old cycles in their barns.

Motorcycle archaeology is quite an art and a science. The people who know, and I mean really know, the history and details of motorcycles are amazing. You can read about their knowledge and excitement about motorcycles between the pages of this well-written and illustrated book.

Just reading the stories in this book made me want to go right out and buy myself a cool old motorcycle. To put on display in my living room, of course. I wouldn't ever ride it!

And Tom Cotter: you can keep the stories coming.

For your own copy of The Vincent in the Barn click here.

FCC compliance: this book was provided to me by the publisher, Motorbooks.com, for the purpose of review.

Late yesterday afternoon Toot and I went to Brazoria to a birthday party for a friend from church's daughter. It rained cats and dogs on us as we drove there. Thunder and lightning was crazy. But soon after we got there the rain stopped for a bit. We feasted on Dominos pizza and Rotel dip.

Then we worked on the big project of making tie-dyed t-shirts. I have never made tie-dyed anything but it turned out to be remarkably easy and amazingly messy. Toot, of course, loved it. She loves anything arty and messy. Here is her finished shirt:

Pretty good, huh? But wait, there's more. These are her hands. Because she "forgot" to put on plastic gloves. Now, the next day, her hands still look this way. I suppose I will have to make some sort of attempt today to get the dye off her hands. Meanwhile, I am making my S'Mores Cupcakes to take to a Girl Scout party we are attending this afternoon.

We have decided to move to my hometown in Mississippi. We are putting our house on the market to sell at the end of this month. It is going to be crazy around here for a little while as we throw ourselves into this big move. And of course there will be some things that I will desperately (or not) miss about living away from the 4th largest city in the US (besides all my friends here):

• I will go from living in a metro area of 5.7 million people to a county with only 19,000 people total. The town I will be living in has a population of 3,000.
• The closest Starbucks is an hour away in Jackson, Tennessee.
• The closest Whole Foods is a 90 minute drive to Memphis, Tennessee.
• The town has 2 red lights so I probably won't have to concern myself with grid-lock traffic anymore!
• Since we are moving away from the Texas coast, we won't have to flee from hurricanes any longer. Oh yeah! I just realized we won't have to pay for costly windstorm insurance either. Woo hoo!
• No more quick runs to the beach only a few miles away. In my new home I will be 7 hours from the nearest beach.
• The closest Target store is 45 minutes away in Florence, Alabama.
• But I guess the biggest thing I am worried about is food. Because I love to cook and try all sorts of recipes from Bon Appetit and Epicurious. It is going to be fairly hard to find the plethora of ingredients that we take for granted here in the Houston area. But I'll figure it all out. Eventually.

I just finished reading Moon Pies and Movie Stars by Amy Wallen. It is a tale strung between Texas and California and involves Winnebagos, Trans Ams, and lots of bowling accouterments. The principal character, Ruby Kincaid owns a bowling alley in Devine, Texas and is raising her grandchildren after her daughter runs away.

Oh, and one of the best parts is the dogged determination of Ruby's sister Loralva to get on the game show The Price Is Right. Loralva memorizes the Sears catalog for prices while charming every male they meet between Texas and California. She gets on the game show and does a stunning job at winning.

I like that this book was not merely about one character but has many interesting characters fleshed out in its chapters. And the references to all things 70's were spot on. And finally, Ms. Wallen includes the actual names of the cars! You see, most books just have generic cars. But in Moon Pies and Movie Stars we actually know that Ruby drives an El Camino, Loralva gets a real Smokey and the Bandit (one of the best movies ever!) Trans Am, and the motel owner drives a Gran Torino. Those are the kinds of details I like in a book! I am a bit of a car nut so I like to know what everyone drives.

It would be great if Ms. Wallen comes out with a sequel to this book. I would like to see where the characters end up.