some pics from this year's trips

Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris, early spring):

View of Las Vegas from penthouse balcony (August)....

Texas Vehicle (summer)

a "shoe garden" in San Francisco (September)...

Brooklyn patio party (July)...

Vegas, San Francisco, crafting...

Check out my Romer-O-Rama page on Etsy.

I sell draprons and use the page as a bit of a "confessatorium."

Useful Ameri-advice for Euro Travellers not explained in guidebooks

Installment 1: What to drink

Get used to drinking mineral water, coffee or booze. "Still" or "table" water is often served in a caraff that looks like it hasn't been washed since the days of Napoleon. And it's served at room temperature.

Don't even think about ordering a coke. Once by the Louvre, in a bistro lousy with tourists, a 1-liter plastic bottle set us back $17 USD. Yet my glass of wine was a little over $3 USD. Welcome to Europe.

Keep in mind Euro Fanta tastes like Orangina (even less floursecent orange in color), and Orangina practically flows from the fountains in the public squares. In fact, all food (think ketchup) and beverage contains less sugar.

One of the best things to drink is mineral water with a shot of exotic (by U.S. Standards, anyway) fruit juice. I urge you to partake of the juice of the kiwi, the mango, the gooseberry.

Oh, feel free to buy Evian. No longer cost prohibitive on this side of the Atlantic, it's cheaper than Dasani or Ozarka. Go Evian crazy.

Romero confession

confession:

I don't know my home phone #. Arturo finds this shameful. I'm kind of proud of this, sort of like how I've never eaten grits.

Paris!

Wow, have I not posted that long? The last post is from another freakin' year, for chrissake.

Here's a pic from our last trip to Paris in March. I miss it already. I hate summers in Houston. My hair won't feel dry for the next...oh...four months or so.

Post-Ike: I am speechless

Exactly 2 WEEKS after Hurricane Ike blew through H-town, we FINALLY got our electricity back. Yes, our house went 2 WEEKS without electricity. We went through 2 WEEKS of schlepping ourselves back and forth between the burbs and the city, wasting much gas and many hours sitting in traffic.

But now we are back home...in HALF-ELECTRICITY. Our A/C and half the outlets don't work. Something having to do either with the transformer or our house's connection to the power lines. We're not sure. Regardless, we're so relieved to be back home.

2 WEEKS later.

Butch, R.I.P.

P9130038
Originally uploaded by Romero-Rama

I'm sad to report we lost a member of our team last night: Butch, our koi fish, passed away after battling water filtration problems that began after we lost electricity. Totally sucks. So tonight we're having a family funeral for him. Butch was about 8-9 inches long, and a little over a year old. He is survived by his uncle, Cletus, and the rest of the clan. Services will be held tonigth at our house, with a burial at the back of the house before sundown. A small wake will follow at sundown.

On a lighter note...
never thought I'd say this:
Glad to be back at work. Work has electricity, which we still don't have at home. They also have food services, so I now have the guarantee of a convenient hot meal at the dorms today. Very excited.

Our neighborhood zip code is still 100% without power. I'm sure this is due to the trees.

midnight.

Still have power. Surprised.

FWD:Last hot meal

grilled cheese and beer

Wind

Last call at the grocery store

Arturo's a real bread-winner: He grabbed the second-to-last loaf of bread at Kroger.
I snapped a photo with my crappy camera phone:


There seemed to be an "idiot surge" going on.

Ronnie and Chris were nice enough to help us drop our car off downtown at Arturo's garage. We noticed the homeless are taking cover from the storm in various garages downtown.


It's 6pm now, and the wind is really picking up. We checked out a website that told us to expect 80 mph winds. ouch. Given our abundance of trees, I expect we'll lose power sooner rather than later. Then it'll be all up to the shortwave radio and a laptop to keep us connected to the rest of the world.

Friday: The Eve of Hurricane Ike

It's Friday morning and Hurricane Ike is less than 24 hours away. We woke up briefly at 6am to see if Ike was still coming right at us. it is.

The news cameras are all aimed at Galveston, showing the first signs of storm surge, with water already crashing over the 17ft seawall. It's funny how you theoretically talk about this "thing," you view radar depictions of it, prepare and shop for it, change your behavior and schedule for it, etc., but somewhere in the back of your mind you can't really believe it exists until you see it with your own eyes. This is also exactly my dilemma with religion.

Anyway, the word for the day is "surge." Influenced by the talking heads' incessant use of the term "storm surge."

Today we've got a list of serious chores, as well as a couple of pre-storm social gatherings. Let me explain: Suddenly finding yourself free from the usual workday commitments presents you with the oppourtunity to have a "mental health" break before we're all forced to hunker down and endure hours of shack-wackiness. The social gatherings become therapeutic and necessary. Plus the booze helps take the edge off the next few hours.

On the agenda today:

• Boarding and taping up windows.
  
• Picking up potential projectiles around the yard.
• Picking a "safe room" and how we're going to handle the cats.
  
• Small gathering at Ronni and Chris's.
• drinks with Tina.
• hunker down.

Time for me to initiate a "coffee surge" before I embark on the day's chores and social events.

p.s. My birthday kind of sucked. yeah, I said it. This just means next year's will be better.

Cindy's birthday present: Ike

Looks like I got a hurricane for my birthday this year. Shoes or a purse would have made a better gift, but whatever. I think we're as prepared as expected.

So we're hunkering down over here. I'll post more over the course of the next couple of days.

El Cozumeleno Beach Resort

El Cozumeleno
Originally uploaded by Romero-Rama

Cindy's Cozumel weekend.
View from our hotel balcony.
What I did on my summer vacation:
naps
booze
food
swimming

No chupakabra sightings.

New travel project: Bible Art

You know those bibles you find in hotel nightstands? Well we've decided to start stealing them...and decorating them as an art project! Misc. ephemera will be collected while visiting the bible's hometown specifically for the purpose of bible adornment. this can the form of notes, fliers, pics, anything. We'll be posting pics here before we hang them over the couch in the living room in lovely little rows. Check back for pics.

Sew Crafty Houston

Coming Soon:

"Houston's First Craft Studio and Sewing Lounge"

Sew Crafty Houston...

IONE: My old NOLA home

IONE: My old home
Originally uploaded by Romero-Rama

We celebrated our 3rd year anniversary of our unholy matrimony by visiting the place where it all started: New Orleans.

I got to visit my old home, the IONE building. Poor Ione's nametag has been removed from her facade. I blame identity theft. My residences no longer proudly display names.
**SIGH**