dental story

It seams like everyone has a dental story... and now I do too!

The small piece of tissue connecting my bottom gum to my lip was not quite small enough and started pulling my gum tissue down (okay... my gum was receding at alarming rates). So I had to have periodontal surgery to cut that tissue and then graft some gum tissue over the now largely exposed tooth (you see, the tooth below your gum isn't as protected as the tooth above the gum, and is more subject to decay so it needs the protection).

Well - the procedure was easy due to nitrous gas (honestly I was having a ball the entire time)... and the rest hasn't been painful - just a little annoying for two reasons. First I wasn't allowed to have any crunchy food - since it might tear up the sensitive new tissue and thus my diet has been limited to soup, bananas, and pudding. Second, I wasn't allowed to look at the healing progress- since it might cause the stitches to come out, and me lose my new gum layer. But, then I'd have hints of it all the time: the stitches floating around, the weird new item I feel at the bottom of my lip... and I would swear it wasn't right.

So after being clueless for about a week - I got in to the dentist and he reported that it was mostly right. Good news is nothing was lost. Bad news was there was a slight tear in my graft, leaving a V shaped gum over the tooth. But it's not too big of a deal, hopefully in the next couple of months the new gum tissue will just grow into place. If not, it can be moved back up... just have to re-do the no eating solids and no peaking rules!

The Perfect Day

Today was the most ideal day I could imagine. We woke up this morning just as Space Shuttle Discovery launched out of our atmosphere, and got to watch the action from under the covers. This is the next great thing about today: the weather has finally cooled off here - and it's cold enough to use the blankets! Today we didn't have to go into work - so we spent the next hour in bed, reading mail & surfing the internet. After that Paul made a mushroom omelet for me and sunny side up eggs for himself. Then we cleaned up, bathed, and found ourselves back in bed reading again - catching up on some books. Finally at about 2:00 we decided it was time to face the world, so we took our bikes around the block for some exercise. We then made it downtown to the museum district (a little too late to see the exhibits - last entry at 4:00pm but in time to see a planetarium video on the evolution of life on Earth) and after a beautiful stroll through Herman park wound up at the Zoo. The Houston Zoo was fun (not as big as the Milwaukee Zoo - but definitely worth going) and a great place for an additional walk on a perfect day. After dusk, we managed back to find our car and then took off to rice village for dinner at Mi Luna, a tapas restaurant. Then to top off the night, on the way back home, we stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond to scope out the items we want for a gift certificate coming our way (possibly new sheets, my china soup bowls, or Port wine glasses for Paul). And now I get to tell you about it (back under the covers). The best news, is that we're both well rested and ready for the adventures of the mission ahead of us. Go Discovery!

Opera and Sushi

Tonight was our first opera of the season! It was a hit - Verdi's "A Masked Ball." Verdi happens to be my favorite composer - so there was no way it wasn't going to be great. But the Houston Opera put on a great production. Other Verdi Opera's we've seen - Falstaff and Aida (my favorite Opera of all time is also one of his - La Traviata - but it hasn't come to Houston yet).

Afterwards we went to out to eat in midtown for Sushi at The Fish. They have some of the best specialty sushi rolls we've had in awhile - adding avocado, onions & jalapenos to their spicy tuna and ell. If you go, definitely get the cheeseburger roll - sounds crazy - but it's awesome!

Movie Reccomendations

We broke down and signed up for some movie services - Netflix & Blockbuster rewards. Netflix for the selection (we get 2 per month + 5 hours online movies) and Blockbuster because for $10 a year you get 1 movie a month. That means for $7 we can get 3 DVDs plus watch 3 movies online.

So far so good.

Which brings us to this month's movie recommendations:

First - the more well known movie: The Motorcycle Diaries. This movie opened us up to the history of Ernesto "Che" Guevara & also takes you on a motorcycle ride across Latin America with all the exciting stories you'd expect along the way.

Our next recommendation: The Great Happiness Space. An incredible & fascinating documentary about the Japanese "Host Clubs." Since I won't do justice to the topic - check out the synopsis from the web page (linked in the picture).

Beautiful Weekend

Well - sandwiched in between two weeks of the over night shift at work I got the most beautiful weekend free! Although I tried to sleep through the best parts of the day, luckily I couldn't, and instead we spent a bunch of time outside. We got to catch a block BBQ our neighbors threw and also went bike riding through Brazos Bend.

The block party was fun! I made chocolate chip cookies - which to my disappointment - flattened out - I can't get them to fluff up since I've been in Texas. But every one still loved them. The best part was the mom's yelling at their kids not to eat any more!!

And Brazos Bend was just awesome. If you have a bike - definitely take it there!! Even though I've been to the park just about 10 times, we'd never seen half the trails before. Plus the alligators are less scary when you zoom by!

Cruisin'

This last weekend I went on a cruise with the girls - 7 of my favorite sorority sisters from school!! We went on a Royal Caribbean adventure to the Bahamas and had a great time...

Here was our BIG boat!! 11 decks total!! We slept on deck 6 in a tiny room with no windows - I forgot to take a picture - but there was really no room too!
Here is me at the helm :)

Me at the aft of the boat - it was really neat! The boat really moved! I didn't expect it so much - but we rocked all over the place... couldn't really ever walk in a straight line. It was really fun - in fact I'm still moving!!
Us girls on the cruise

All of us girls for formal night! Aren't we good looking :)

obviously me! This is a group of us getting ready to snorkel at Nassau. It's always fun to snorkel - but the spot wasn't too great (I think it was too close to the port). I saw a bunch of brain coral (not a technical term :), and the best part was when the guides feed the fish and about 40 fish swarmed around. It was neat.
Having fun at Senior Frogs - a dance club in Nassau after the formal...
Me at the beach :) This was at Coco Cay, an island owned by the cruise line. It was pretty awesome - there were chairs and hammocks all over. This was me 90% of the time, applying SPF 55 sun screen - I did really well - and am only 3% tanner than I was before I left!

Hountsville State Park

What's at huntsville state park?

Over an hour worth of great bike riding! Thanks to Paul's lesson on shifting I made it - maybe that's why I didn't like it all those years!!

You can also swim or rent a canoe and hang out - definitly a great picnic spot!