Shelter In Place

listen cowboy, when's the last time you had a big steamy bowl of texas hurricane hysteria? Well then, that's too long.

as i write, Hurricane Ike is swirling it's magic concoction in the gulf .... and Galveston sits there like tina turner just waitin to get smacked.

we live in ft. bend county. suburbanites nestled in our planned community about 60 miles inland, it is one of the best places to live in the US... but we'd suggest you make your visit another week.

i spent 7 hours on the road in the nightmare that was
running from Rita back in 2005

we're not bugging out for Ike. sometimes you gotta hold your ground. we're done runnin.

the really horrific traffic experience of Rita motivated the cities to rework a hurricane gameplan, and it does feel like the politico had a decent meeting at some point (miracle) and made a good plan. Unlike Rita, where they told us evacuation was "voluntary," (and we see how well that worked out) this time, everyone from the police chief to rick perry was telling ft. bend county not to leave. we are a designated Shelter In Place community. stay where you are. get some water, huddle in your closet. hunker down. btw..if i'm supposed to be hunkerin down, where is my hunk?

so me and my girls are hunkering. we're sheltering. we are in place. and like all good texans, we are prepared for a party. seems assured we'll lose power, so i've got provisions. there's pop tarts back there. oh yeah. desperate times call for serious sugar.

here is our liquid refreshment. my kids are happy with the dr.pepper. but mom needs something a little stronger if she's going to be sleeping in a walk-in closet with two hyper-nervous children. you can see i've stocked a variety of possible beverage needs from a casual pre-storm long neck to the stiff belt from my great friend Tito's during the brunt of the storm. and what says kick back and relax like a glass of wine? white or red. i've got that.

So what to do while we wait? we're chicks, man. when we're nervous, we cook. i rocked the crock to use the roast for sandwiches and also it's the only thing in the freezer that can't go on the grill.

this is what is supposed to look like. eat your heart out bejewell.

also we bake brownies.

we play computer.

we paint.

we wait.

we laugh at the weatherman with his hurricane chubby.

we're boarded up.

filled up.

cleaned up.

(and you will never see my backyard this clean again, short of a category 4...seriously. never. ever.)

and now we're ready. lay it on me ike, hit me with your best shot.

as we say in sugar land: shelter in place. i'll see you on the other side.