The Life and Travels of Maurice - The Space Cowboy

Having a stiff one after a long day in Maranello.

We have two cats, and one of them - Gracie - absolutely loves those little furry mouse toys (George could care less about them really).  She has gone through hundreds of them (and I literally mean hundreds - I bought her a box of 100 once on eBay).  They disappear all the time and she assassinates them with extreme frequency.  Drowning seems to be her preferred method of disposal.  Whenever they get too battered I throw them away and she moves on to torturing new ones.  

From the Department of Redundancy Department.

 

Gracie playing "Prison Camp" - George just waiting for something to eat.

If you stay in a bathroom long enough, you will start getting visitors under the door - one after the other.

For the most part, as long as they still rattle, Gracie isn't partial to particular colors or even if they still have a tail or not....with one exception:  Maurice - The Space Cowboy. (I named all twelve from one of the early batches for some reason.)    

Maurice has managed to hang tough for years in spite of being Gracie's favorite "playmate".  Sadly, he's been drowned at least a dozen times this week and his fur is finally starting to come off which means.....

Maurice has looked better.

It may be time for Maurice to head to that old cheese factory in the sky, but I thought I would take a minute to memorialize a loyal and tough mouse who has literally been around the world and back.

Maurice and his buddy (Wiggles - pictured here) stowed away in our luggage on more than one occasion - I'm sure with some help from Gracie.

Checking out the Matterhorn in Zermatt!

They built a snowman in the Swiss Alps!

On a Chandelier in Fussen.

Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.

Riding a summer luge!

Outside the BMW Museum.

Dinner at the Hofbrau House.

Doing a little spelunking in Slovenia.

Flying down the Italian Autostrada.

Checking out the Lamborghini Museum.

A romantic gondola ride in Venice!

Saying goodbye to Venice.

Tiny mice in the tiny Republic of San Marino.

Making a new friend courtesy of our waiter.

On the island of Capri!

Literally being "church mice" in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.

Roman holiday.

Au revoir Maurice, au revoir.

1998 Lexus GS400

1998 Lexus GS400

I was heading up to visit my parents in Wichita Falls and decided I'd just make my life a little more complicated and fly from Houston to Dallas, go to the Dallas Auto Auction, buy a car, and drive the rest of the trip.  Buying a one way ticket to a place to buy a car really isn't a good idea if for no other reason than you feel like you HAVE to buy a car.  Also, hitting the road in a car you just bought is risky as well.  You never know what kind of problems the previous owner decided they didn't want to deal with anymore.  That said, I've done it many many times so do as I say and not as I do.

I actually bought a Range Rover earlier in the day but wasn't sure if I was going to get it or not so I bought this Lexus a little later.  Dealer auctions aren't like the auctions you see on TV.  At Barret-Jackson, Russo, etc.. you know as soon as a car leaves the block if you own it or not.  At dealer auctions, sometimes a car doesn't meet the reserve but you're still on the hook for it if the seller decides to let it go for the high bid price.  That's not really a problem for giant car dealerships, but as a dude just playing around that can create some issues.  I've come home with more cars than I meant to on more than one occasion.  

After buying both cars I determined the Lexus to be the better bet for road tripping and had the Range Rover shipped home.  As soon as I left the lot I started to wonder if I had made the right choice.  The car a had number of problems but made the two hour trip to Wichita Falls without any real issues.

 
I did quite a bit to this car.  New tires made the biggest difference, but I also added the factory rear spoiler and did a little paint work to touch up some scratches.  I also did all of the major maintenance work including a new serpentine belt.  After I was done fixing it up, I really loved it.  It was a joy to drive and I basically used it as a daily driver for quite some time.

The GS400 is a perfect sports sedan for Houston.  The V8 has lots of torque, and the car is very tight but also rides as smooth as you would expect from a Lexus.  It really does shelter you from the outside world.  It's a car I could drive every day - if I had to own only one car.  I eventually sold this car to a local guy from Pearland just a few miles away.  It was a long time ago but I wouldn't be surprised if it's still on the road today.

Guest House Construction: Part 1

Finally! - A Shovel in the Ground...sort of

We're doing a construction project at our place so I thought I would start updating the progress via blog so anyone who cares about us (or more accurately, cares about my wife - I don't think anyone really cares what I do) can follow along.  We are adding a guest house and quite a few garage spaces as well as extending the porch off of the back of our main house (and building a sort of "Bat Cave" / office for me...but that's a whole separate post).  We're also extending our driveway and adding some more covered porches and walkways.  It's a big project, and we've been working on it for months.  The first steps were having everything designed by our architect.  It took some time, but we finally got everything worked out and over to our builder.  Our builder's name is Bill.  He built my property in Seabrook years ago and did a great job with that place so he was the first person I called for this project.

People have been asking me if we've started building yet and I always have had to say "We got everything approved by the HOA, and now we're just waiting for the engineering drawing, but we haven't put a shovel in the ground yet."  Well, not any more!  

Technically not a shovel, but we did dig a hole. As part of the foundation engineering, we had to sample the soil.  I know, it's not much, but it's the first tangible thing that's actually happened so we are pretty excited.  The guys from Coastal Testing came out and dug down about 20 feet to get a sample to test in their lab.  I don't have the results yet, but the guys who took the sample said our soil looked "great" and we had nothing to worry about.  

  
The guys actually filled the hole right back up and you can't really even tell it was there, but I know!  We have officially stuck something in the ground.  More to come....soon I hope.