renafox1's Blog

I got the call yesterday morning.

Suzie Q was killed in an auto accident. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.v
iewprofile&friendID=29466710 her and her boyfriend both. 

it's so hard to stop crying right now, she was only 23 and such an alive and oh so talented soul!  (and yes, people at such age differences can not only be friends...they can be good ones!)

it was bad enough I had to leave my hippies...but to loose one that was so talented is devestating! I do love these kids!

here is her poem to a couch monkey we all knew. the girl she is writing about goes from place to place, staying until she can't anymore and moves on to another couch.

it's the hippie way of life ya see. and she captured it so deftly with her words of wit.

i love you Suzie Q and I hope you find a place where the road goes on forever and the party never ends! I also hope it is at the very least...as colorful as you are!

An Ode to a Former Couch Monkey

by Suzie Q.

The battles we fought.
The wardrobe we shared.
The secrets we told with noone else there.
A priceless person with a scattered life.
I cried on her shoulder.
She threw out the knife.

I lost my couch monkey
(She never paid rent.)
She’d fry frozen taquitos
and listen to me vent.

As quickly as I took her in,
away from the drama and the house made of tin,
she left.
Without occasion or celebration,
the way in which she was most accustomed,
and most deft.

A girl with no family,
she lived without roots.
To hear her story
would wear tread off your boots.

She wandered into Houston from South Central L.A.
Found a good home for her son,
and continued on her way.

I lost my couch monkey.
(She took forever to get ready.)
She kept me stable.
I kept her steady.

We’d be roomates on Montrose!
We had it all planned out.
Between the booze and the acid,
I guess she discovered some doubt.

I lost my couch monkey.
(She took two hour showers!)
We walked through Herman Park,
feeding squirrels and taking photos of flowers.
A close friend of three months,
she sees through all lies.
She puts up no fronts.
I lost my couch monkey,
and though this all sounds contrived,
she made me stronger than ever
and gave me inner contentment that thrived.

Sweetest couch monkey,
you angel in disguise,
your memory immortal
and advise so wise,
could never have reminded me effectively
every angel flies.

[...I’m still working on it... And, yeah, Darla moved out.]

The girl ended up living with my son before she wandered off to Austin for a party.

I"m going to miss my Houston Hippe Suzie Q. I love ya girl and I hope we can party and dance until we drop again sometime in the future somewhere! 

hugzzz,

Rena

aka momzzz

We just got back from a trip through ohio, indiana and illinois. we were checking on some corn and soy beans and taking pictures of fields of them for his work.

We got to go through the Lincoln garden Stephen Sargent Farm on july 23, 2008 and take pictures of them both. we had fun walking around in 1845. luckily for us the weather was perfect for pictures!

the farm seem to be doing great this year despite the excessive rain the area has had and the bunnies. we actually saw one and it wasn't scared of us at all! that was so neat!  he wasn't interested in posing but did let us get one good shot of him.

the bees were busy with the flowers and the chickens were all having fun posing for the camera, well, except for that one shy one, and the sheep and pig weren't coming out. it was just too hot.  The apple trees were a treat for me, i've never been close to a real apple tree. it's a pretty good smelling tree actually.

the herb garden is growing like wildfire and Lil Bit had fun smelling everything in sight.

They have a interactive display and really good information on the area and it's history.

we bought tickets for a quilt raffle made right there on site by some of the local ladies. Keep your fingers crossed for us to win it, i'd love to win that quilt!!!

there are people on site that are dressed in period clothing and it's fun talking to them about the farm and how they do things. you can even churn butter for Mrs. Lincoln. how cool is that? the inside of the cabins are restored to the period and they actually use the tools from 1845 to do things. it's quite an amazing place to visit.

http://www.illinoishistory.gov/hs/lincoln_log.htma> 

for some wierd reason i have pictures of several people's broken toes.

some are of my own toes, some are mr's. (he is good at breaking his!)

a couple are of my brother's when he got mad and kicked the bottom of his bed.  they found out he had broken it previously too.

funny how karma answers temper so fast, lol.

i also have pictures of my friends knee after her surgery. the skin got these huge gross blisters. those are gross.

i got one of a guy that got shot in the leg and was sitting in the er waiting to see the docs. that one is wayyyyy gross!!!

wanna see?

go look at the album named "Broken toes and wierd owies".

it's gross.  really.

hugzzz,

Rena

I have a buddy that works with kids. she watch's them play to see if they are being abused or in need of help.

she brought her toys to my place and let me play. it was a sand box with sand and all sorts or people and toys to play with in the box.

she told me to put whatever i wanted to in the box.

if you'd like to see what i put in it...the album is called "Play time" too.

in the end we decided i had escape issues as in i want more then one way out and or away.

all i put in was temp stuff like the tent and ways of escape like the cars the horse and the helicoptor...which was the toy i put closest (spellever) to the tent. (to me it is the fastest so...)

so now i'm working on the escape issues in my poor over active brain.

lucky me. isn't play time fun? lol.

hugzzz,

Rena

I miss Houston's resturant's!!! just go look at what people are being forced to eat out here in the wilds of middle America! seriously, look at how awful and pitiful those things are!

it is supposed to be tamale's with chili and queso.

it ended up being frozen tamale's overly microwaved with shredded cheese.  they had hot dog chili if we wanted it.

and we PAY for this!  can you believe that?

you should see what they do to the beans here. it's so gross i just can't tell you, i can't be responsible for your reaction. bad enough i showed you the tamale's.

don't you feel sorry for us?

send help! before i starve.

by the time our 2 year plan is through i'm going to look like nicole ritchie, lol.

hugzzz,

Rena

I found this in Arkanses.  Go take a look in the photo album named "Pretty sitter".

it was just so pretty i had to share.

hugzzz,

Rena

I keep telling you'll about the art the Houston Hippies have done.

well, if you take a look in my photo album named "Houston Hippie Art" you'll get to see some of it.

they are so very talented it is amazing what they do!

just give them something to draw with and on and step back, ready to be amazed.

i gave them chalk and warehouse floor space.

check out the peace symbol. to me it symbolizes the peace process...the symbol is there, it's just lost in it's own face.

look what they do with scrap metal. see the seesaw made from a kitchen chair and a desk chair.

don't ya just love hippies? i know i do!

hugzzz,

Rena

ok so i had another cooking disaster. well, it was baking...but isn't baking cooking of a sorts?

see, i had this big plan to make banana nut muffins out of the 6 large black bananas we had sitting on the counter next to the fridge.

 i knew star trek started at 3 pm and if i started at 2 pm i'd be ready to do the switch between batch's during the commercials.  the show would be my timer. the oven has one but i haven't figured it out yet and i shoudn't have tried.

so, i take everything out of the cabinets and put it on the island.  which is not close to the counter next to the fridge where the 6 large black bananas were.

flour, sugar, baking soda, vanilla, pecans from freezer, nut chopper, 4 eggs because it's a double batch, buttermilk, (which will spoil if you leave it out too long and you can tell from the smell, really.) sugar crystals for the top, salt and bowls and mixer.

right in the middle of mixing all the stuff up the doorbell rings and i end up distracted.

so i get finished signing for something from the mailman and putting it in the office and go back into the kitchen, finish mixing the stuff up, do the tops with chopped nuts and sugar crystals and bake the first batch of small muffins and put in the next batch which is larger ones. 

that's when i noticed the timer again and thought surely i can figure this thing out!  

 let me tell you this right now, timers on oven's were invented by those Rut  Roh's over on Meadow's Lane!   they are evil.

i poke at the flat surface with lines drawn and see different things happen on the screen. i poke at it a few more times and decide not to bother with it because it seems to be making it worse and without the book i am lost.

i start watching star trek and let the just out of the oven muffins cool.

the show is 1 hour long. i know the muffins won't be but around 30 minutes. so i figure it'll be the 2nd set of commercials before i need to go check the muffins, afterall, i am baking the larger ones now.

so, the 2nd set of commercials start and i get up and go look at the muffins and when i peek through the door the middle is sorta caved in and the edges are not browned.

i also don't get blasted in the face with heat when i open the door to peek at them.

that's when i realize that that annoying beeping sound i heard when i walked into the living room was the oven turning off because i had somehow set the timer despite my confusion as to how.

ok, so i turn it back on and wait because i am not sure how much time to leave them for since the oven turned itself off.  so now not only am i staring through the window at muffins i'm pretty sure aren't going to bake themselves right, i'm missing star trek.

i really shouldn't cook.  and baking, as you can tell, is becoming iffy. at least i'm not burning buildings down, lol.

when i can smell the muffins i take them out and see that the middle isn't going to be fixed and the batch is a loss.

ok, i put in the last batch in the oven, the small sized ones and go fold the clothes that the dryer just buzzed for instead of trying to figure out what is going on in the show.

i've already missed too much to be able to understand. 

while i'm putting up the clothes i notice that my closet needs some straighting up so i re-arrange a few shelves, move the old purse with stuff still in it to a different shelf, drag the chair from the bedroom into the closet and put a couple of boxes on the top shelf, move a few shoes into the now open space and smell the muffins.

as i step down from the chair of course the dog is there.  ever at my feet devoted Lil Bit.

luckily for he and i both i've got quick reflexes and disaster is avoided.

well, for the most past. the muffins were baked a bit too long. just to the point of darkish brown bottoms and dry beyond belief, not black though so i am improving. and the tops looked awesome, lol.

i did try one, the top tasted good and the bottom almost choked me.  i drank half a glass of milk to get  just that one bite down. 

i did think they tasted funny but i thought, honestly, that it was how dry it was. i had actually drank the milk so fast i didn't get a real taste.  and the top was covered in chopped pecans and sugar crystals so crunchy sweet pecans is about all you taste when you eat that part so...

later mr. comes into the kitchen and says "how many am i taking to work?"

as i go to bed after packaging some of them for mr's office tomorrow, i tell him to taste them in the morning before he takes them. i thought they tasted wierd but can't figure out why so would he?

he agrees. thankfully.

we wake up and go for that first oh so tasty first cup of coffee and see, still sitting on the counter....6 now even blacker bananas.

yep folks i forgot to put in the bananas.

as i stand there staring at the black bananas, listening to mr. pour the coffee into the cups i had set out, i'm thinking, now how did those get there...they were supposed to be in the muffins...oh no the muffins! crude!

now, at that moment in time the thought that mr. is going to take some to work today and everyone is expecting them, they are in fact sitting on the counter ready to go.

i look at them sitting there so pretty and yucky.

damn, i've got to tell him i wasted the whole day baking muffins even the bums wouldn't eat...and shouldn't.

he sees me staring at the black bananas and ask's...nonchantly, so, is that the bananas that you baked into muffins yesterday?  he takes his first sip.

i reply of course they are.  and take my first sip.

we both ended up laughing so hard we couldn't stand up and Lil Bit was hoping around us on the floor wondering what was going on.  it was awhile before we got our second sip.  i put the bananas on the island first today. see, i do learn.

and today i spent repeating yesterday except the bananas did make it into the muffins today.

and they do taste good. 

and we'll have some for our upcoming trip and the office people will get to have breakfast tomorrow.

finally, lol.

huzzzz,

Rena

it's sad that people are out there selling their votes and using them as weapons instead of using them for what they are meant to show...the will of the people they represent.

what happened to that idea?

how did we go from the signing of the paperwork in 1776 to having people openly sell a vote (and that guy should loose his right to vote for awhile!) and people admitting they will vote as a dem when they are rep so they can mess up the vote and what it is supposed to show...who we want in charge from the people standing up for the job.

it's shameful.

Rena

Around Easter poor Parsnip Pete got sucker punched by the RutRoh's from Meadow Creek Lane.

I know it was them because Pete and Lil Bit were riding with me from Houston to Memphis when I had to stop for gas.

Lil Bit was sleeping in the back in my robe, as usual, and Pete was sitting on the passenger seat when I went into the store.  When I came out of the store, poor Pete was laying on the floor board of the truck, package slightly torn and his lil face all smashed in.

The surprise attack was also witnessed by Lil Bit, whom chased them off with his ferocious bark before they could attack me.

So, Lil Bit’s a hero, at least he is mine, and Pete didn’t make it to the Easter Basket. Instead, he got crumbled and put into ice cream.

Poor ol Pete, maybe next year buddy,

Hugzzz,

Rena

("Our team will respond accordingly to your submission.")

I just wrote to the Houston Fox team in the hopes that they will want to do a new video with me for the Garth Brooks song "The Thunder Rolls".

I hope they don't hurt themselves laughing.

I mean, they could laugh themselves silly and be unable to do the news reports.

 or, they could laugh themselves right into gut busting! how mad would you be if you had to clean that mess up?  and then, how would they look on tv with no gut? just a spine showing through the clothes.

and, what if one busts his gut laughing while another laughs his buttocks off? how would the doctors figure out who's gut is who's and who's buttocks are whose? it could get really messy ya know.

or, worse yet...they could say no.  it's simply too funny for tv.  it hurt us, look at that guy over there with no buttocks and no gut and he's silly to boot!!! we can't go around making such funny videos that people hurt themselves watching them.

Wish me luck with this project, if I can get it made it will be one of the funniest ever seen.

hugzzz,

Rena  

I've got pictures! of what?

well, first there is Lil Bit's nose sticking through a hole in his chewed up old americian flag blankie. he loves that blanket and rolls himself into everyday for his nap. yesterday afternoon he managed to end up with his nose sticking through a hole he had previously chewed into his favorite blankie. the pictures are in his folder.  

then there is Lil Bit meeting some of our new town's members, some even elite! We went to the town square friday evening to see and hear the bluegrass music played by anyone wishing to pick up an instrument and play and sing. He got to meet several of the people walking around including the lady whose idea it was to invite the blue grass players to the square every friday when it's warm enough and not raining.

It's really neat to walk around and meet everyone. It's so different then what happens in Houston. People come up to you and say hi, i'm so and so and welcome to our lil town and ask if they can meet our Lil Bit. The kids listen to you when you tell them how to meet Lil Bit. (you have to let him smell your palm down hand, then he's fine with you touching him.)  

You never feel like they want something from you, you never feel in danger or threatened in any way by them.  You never feel like anyone around you is going to get too drunk and fall down over after tossing up dinner and  you won't see anyone using the local plants as the bathroom.  (which, yes, i did see that happen in houston.)

it's really nice.

of course the story is different when we visit Memphis, that city feels more like Houston. Which you would think I would feel better in wouldn't you?

you would be wrong.  the small town I am in is much like Sugarland. a sorta cross between Sugarland and Friendswood. It has stores galore....more shopping then can be done in a week. even a walmart is less then 5 miles from where i sit now. the speciality shops are great!!! and the hardware store has some of the neatest stuff in it!!! i spent 2 hours just looking around in it, talking to the people that work and own it.  (and yep, they even let Lil Bit come in so they could meet him too.)

but even with a walmart so close by, the small town feel is still prevelant and it's nice to soak in as you drive around, shop or simply take the doggie for a walk.

and walking Lil Bit is an adventure in meeting the neighbors. I'm not sure if they really want to pet Lil Bit or are wanting to get to know who just moved in but...it is fun to take him walking and meet the people around us.

and the garage sales!!! WOW!!! people don't put out old dirty junk here...oh no!!! not when anyone coming by could know you! (and they do...or will!)

yep, we are enjoying the small town flavor of life offered here. friday we will be taking picture of the Memphis Bar B Que "Smoke on the Water" cook-off.

so friday i will have pictures, probably of me, with bar b que sauce, hopefully, dripping down my chin! and yep, Lil Bit will get a lil bit....and hopefully he too will have sauce on his whiskers and chin too.  (he only gets a few tiny pieces, just enough to say he got to share in too, we take good care of our lil buddy!)

and speaking of careing for our lil buddy, it's time to call the vet and let him get to know Lil Bit. (look for his pictures of meeting his new vet coming soon. he'll probably refuse to look at him, lol.)

hugzzz,

Rena

we are having so much fun watching Lil Bit try to chase the squirels and birds that wander into our backyard. (it helps to put out pecans from texas, lol.) there is no way the lil guy could ever catch any of the wild life...but it is fun to see him jump from his perch in the sunlight coming through the open door and run like he's after saten himself to the fence. He's so short the squirels stop about half way up the trees to turn around and tell Lil Bit to bug off.

This mornings show included a squirel making a pigion take off out of his tree! they were almost at the top so i had a really good view of the arguement going on. the squirel was chittering and shaking his tail while the dove just stared. i guess he got bored with the noise and finally took off but it took over 5 minutes. and the whole time...Lil Bit was doing his stand on his back legs trick. he eventaully just sits down on his butt and watch's. i will get this on video and post it on his myspace page.  it's just too funny to see him sitting in the middle of the yard watching the wild animals like they are a tv show for him to enjoy.

it's even funnier when he jumps out the door and the birds all take off from the feeder hanging from the eave of the house while he runs around barking, trying to get a few feathers for his hat. it's sorta like watching a kid try to reach the cookies on the fridge. he jumps and jumps and begs and...nothing, the cookies stay there and he never gets one. poor doggie, lol. (at least i hope he never does, do you know how strong those wild animals are?)

it's been fun for Lil Bit, (i think) even spending the days bored with me unpacking hasn't been alll bad, especially when i find some of his toys buried at the bottom of a box you would never have thought would have a dog toy in.

which is another reason to not hire hippies to pack for you, lol. they pack like they live...freely and with abandon.

hugzzz,

rena

the closet organizer battle!!! I WON!!!

 have you ever tried to put one of those things together? I did it yesterday...and won the battle.

well, after 3 tries i won anyway.

at first, i had it all laid out nicely, not from the box, that was thrown out when we bought it and put it in the loft last year.  along with the instructions. who really keeps those once you get it all together?

and it is easy, just a bunch of metal shelves and 7' poles and black plastic clips, how hard can this be since I was the one that took it down? right?

so first, i put the poles together, just screw together, ok done, no problem. 8 long poles, done, check.

then, put the poles through the 4 corner holes in each shelves and put a black plastic clip on each of the poles where you want the shelve to stay. just the bottom, the rest will slide down from the top. which is 7' tall and will require you to step up onto a chair each and every time you wish to add a shelve. or remove one, lol.

ok, got the first shelve on on both sides, put more black plastic clips, slide another shelve down the pole after standing on a chair to put the shelve over the poles.

so, i'm going up and down the chair, putting black pastic clips all over the 8 poles and sliding the shelves down onto the clips when i notice...the metal parts that will hold the poles for the hangers to hang on.

off come the shelves and clips until i get to the bottom again so i can have multiple shelves as well as multiple places to hang clothes.

and i'm being smart about it, really. despite having to start all over i'm planning a closet that people dream about!

I'm going to have a whole pole just for hangers...all the way across the closet...as well as 2, count them, 2  rods for clothes to hang from all the way across the closet and at the end of each of these was going to be even more space to hang empty hangers. yep, i was going to have the bestest closet ever!!! (and yes, i did have that many empty hangers...i don't now...the hippies got some. thankfully)

until.

once i got it all together i noticed that the clothes from the top rack hung down onto the rod i had planned to have all my spare hangers hanging from. you couldn't even see it except that the bottom of the clothes were all bunched up on top of the pole under them and the bottom clothes sorta hit the ground.

so, this isn't going to work.

i took a break, looked it over, thought about it while Lil Bit cuddled on the couch with me...which was nice because we haven't had a couch in 3 years now so it's really nice to have one to cuddle on now. you just can't imagine how much you miss one until you don't have one.

and viola! the solution came to me...turn one side around and move the 3 pole attachments higher so the clothes won't be on the ground. maybe.  this included moving the shelves around them as well so now i'm banging the bottom of the shelves to get them loose, once they are loose, i'm holding the shelve with my shoulder while i'm trying to move the black plastic clips with my hand that is not wanting to pinch and making sure I don't drop anything on Lil Bit, who is trying to "help" by sniffing my legs with his ice cold and wet nose.  my only advice is to never put together a closet organizer in a robe and fuzzy pink house shoes that your doggie thinks are toys.    it's just not a good idea.  

and that worked sorta. I ended up removing the middle pole, the one just for empty hangers. I have a space for them at the end of the pole that the clothes hang from, just not the whole length of the closet like I had planned.

 so, I won, mostly. the clothes are in the closet and the hangers aren't hitting the wall and today I get to open the boxes named "Rena closet" and empty them.  Yay me!

i have found just opening them and leaving them by where you want the stuff in them to go does not make the stuff in them want to jump up and run to get in it's place. you do actually have to put the stuff up. it won't do it itself.

much like a teen, lol.  

hugzzz,

Rena

I finally figured out how to upload the video of Lil Bit stuck in the arm of my robe while we drove through the snow in TN.   http://www.myspace.com/bestdoglilbit  be sure to check out his pictures too.

We had stopped to let the lil guy take a break and do his "business" when he was hiding from it all under my robe in the back seat of the truck.

when we stopped, he tried to jump through the sleeve of the robe and got stuck.

it's a bit dark but if you look closely...you can see his lil face sticking out of the arm.

hope you enjoy it.

Rena