HOUSTON

So far, I have nothing witty or wild or special to share about Houston.  The whole experience has been nothing like MN.  Nothing like this to report.  I, SHOCKINGLY, like Houston.  Quite a bit.  The heat is ramping up and we'll see how I feel after the summer, but so far, it's been a pleasant surprise all around.  Our place is tubular.  The landlord painted it after we got here which made moving in slightly impossible, but that's all a distant memory these days.

Dave is already working like a freakin' dog and we don't see him much.  We expected that, and I'm used to it, but it's more obvious these days.  Less access to a car, less access to Dave.  As much as I want to get up and get Dave to work at [insert any time between 6 and 7am], I think I actually DON'T want to do that.  So  we wind up stranded most of the time.  We did take him to work one day so we could take advantage of the free zoo afternoon.  

HEY, EVERYBODY: if you ever come to Houston, skip the zoo on the afternoon of the first Tuesday of the month.  It is absolutely, positively NUTS.

It was, quite literally, a miracle that we got a parking spot, after we sat in the traffic just to get to said parking lot.  I was seriously prepping Miles that we weren't going to be going to the zoo after all.  We circled the small-medium sized parking lot along with the other 20-30 cars again and again.  And then it happened.  The miracle.  The parking spot.  

And apparently, this post is turning into a post about the zoo.

It was hot the day we went.  And humid.  I was wearing a skirt with one of those fold down waistband thingies.  You know it-- wet with sweat in the front, wet with sweat in the back.  Aside from the ridiculously sized crowd and the especially comfortable heat and humidity, I thought the Houston Zoo was neat-o.  They had the biggest crazy variety of birds I've ever seen.  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but here's a few (OK, five):

The two pictures of birds I have are absolutely no representation of the insane birds you see at the Houston Zoo.

 Don't know what this is.

This, ladies and gents, is a giant stork.  Or something.

 This was also my most successful viewing experience of elephants.  It was the closest I've ever been and they did all kinds of fun stuff while we watched.

Maybe I'll wait until... October to go back to the zoo.  November?  Whenever it's cooler.  And we'll just swim all summer long until we turn into fish!  Hooray for Houston.