I'll be reading Growing Up with Tamales for story time at Blue Willow Bookshop, in Houston, on Thursday morning, May 15. Tell everyone you know with kids in the Houston area. How do you find and support local indie book stores like Blue Willow? By going to Booksense.
On Saturday, May 17, I'll be in Dallas, reading and signing at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, for the 13th Dallas Children’s Book Fair & Literary Festival.
On June 22, here in Houston, I'm going to do a poetry workshop. It's free and open to the public, y'all, and they're having one every Sunday in June, taught by local poets I love and respect. So come on down.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
what's going onWe went to the Rockets vs Miami Heat game, because one of the peeps at my job gave me last-minute free tickets, and I was like, "Let me do my duty as a single mom to boys and take my kids to this free sporting event." It was fun.
We went to the FFA rodeo carnival in Renee Zellweger's home town, and I'm happy to say that I'm all carnivaled out and won't have to go to another one for at least two years. Also, the funnel cake underwhelmed us.
We walked along the Buffalo Bayou to see Houston's new skate park, under construction, and then kept walking all the way to Sam Houston Park, which is very awesome. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and it's increased in awesomeness since then. They have all these historical homes that they picked up and plunked down in various spots, and you can call on your cell phone to hear a recording about each home. And, maybe it's just because I'm getting older, or because I was steeped in Houston civic pride (jingoism) at an early age, but I really enjoyed hearing the recordings while scoping out the houses. Most were about people who showed up in Houston while it was still being made, who busted ass until they made enough money to buy themselves houses, and who, usually, eventually, became rich. And had streets and opera houses named after them, and the like. Very inspiring. Plus, the houses are pretty. You should check it out.
Then, in the Heritage Society Museum, they have a model general store which is awesomeness deluxe. Just the medicine section, full of boxes of Screw Worm Remover and Dr. Thatcher's Swamp Root Laxative, is worth poring over for days.
Then, they had a big old display about Jesse H. Jones, about whom I used to know nothing except that his is the name of a local high school who beat my high school in basketball all the time. But we learned all about Mr. Jones this weekend. Him, his wife, and their penchant for Art Deco furnishings. His granddaughter, Audrey Jones Beck, who looked a lot like Stockard Channing in the picture they showed us, and whose name is all over Houston's art museums.
Sometimes I want to learn all about Houston's philantropist tribes. But I want to learn it incidentally, you know? As a matter of trivia, not of study.
We walked to a man-made lake and looked at duck-made ducks.
We went to a salad buffet. I bit into brocolli slaw and my temporary bridge cracked in half. I went to my dentist, my brother-in-law-to-be, and he said it was time to get a real bridge. I tried to lie to him and say I was only eating brocolli. He expressed surprise. I said, "Brocolli with peanuts." He said, "It was a peanut." I felt ugly, lying to my b-i-l-2-b like that. But I wanted him to have a good impression of me. You know? 5:55 AM #
Comments:
*sigh*See what I'm always saying to you? You are such a freakin awesome Mom, I never think to take my kid to a historical museum of the local area....of course I dont really live by any here in the desert but I should scope out the closest ones. No...instead; I take my kid to a local bands ska/punk concert and watch kids whirring each other around and doing something called "the pit" where they bang into each other and jump up and down....
You are THE BOMB!
# posted by
Pixielyn : 11:25 AM
This is what I like about your posts. Fun stuff, fun stuff and oh, by the way my bridge broke in half, too. It's just so deadpan and awesome.
(Also, I read too fast and so thought for a minute that you took your kids to see the Rockettes.)
I'm definitely checking all that cool historical stuff out if I ever make it to Houston.
# posted by
jam : 3:34 PM
Genius in sentence form: "We walked to a man-made lake and looked at duck-made ducks."
# posted by
apbllg : 5:41 PM
I LOVE that park too. I love walking from house to house and peeking in the windows. I always say I'm going to go on the day that they do tours and the day I did go I was too late for the last tour.
# posted by
ShoeGirl : 1:18 PM
Pixie: Really, did you? That's pretty cool. I always want to take my kids to concerts, but mainstream ones. Which I can't afford, of course. Not at $50/ticket.
Jam: Thanks. And yes, you should come down here and check it all out.
apbllg: ;) Thanks.
Shoegirl: I don't think you're missing much. The day we went, the tour guides weren't very friendly.
# posted by
Gwen : 8:33 AM
Yes I did! But *sigh* it was all local bands not a mainstream concert. I wrote about it under the title "Raising a Teen with love and ska " on my blog. It was AWESOME.
I took my son to see Daughtry last year. He was so in Love with Daughtry that whole American Idol season and we suprised him with tickets. But the thing with mainstream concerts? You cant see unless youre in the front seats. You can watch a big screen and the concert we went to? People stood on their damn seats and we just watched BUTTass the whole 2 hours. He sang like a maniac tho and put on a great show but we couldnt see jack.
Local concerts are usually max 10 bucks but usually around 5....
They are fun and you can stand RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. :-)
Do you guys like ska music?
ok why is this comment sounding like an email. Please forgive.
# posted by
Pixielyn : 10:04 AM
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