Happy Birthday (Nov. 26) Leo!!!

Leo and I have been married for almost 20 years now, and although we generally don't make a big deal about birthdays or other holidays, this is the FIRST TIME we've been apart for one of our birthdays. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. In retribution (although it is not Leo's fault) I am going to share some things that I know about Leo with you all. :-)

Leo was born on November 26, 1948 in the hospital in Harlingen, Texas. His mother was 42 at the time, and his father was 53. He was the 2nd surviving child in a LONG line of pregnancies and his arrival (and survival) was much hoped for by his parents. Leo's mother had a condition known [back in the day] as an "Rh negative factor". The first child survived (typical for the condition) but a dozen or more during the intervening years were carried almost full-term then lost to complications caused by the condition. By the time Leo was born, doctors had begun giving blood transfusions to save the newborns. Today, the condition is handled by simple medication given to the mother. At Leo's much anticipated birth, he was given his father's first name, but also a middle name (so he is not a "Junior") and was born Leonardo Enrique Amaya.

With a sister some 13 years older than he was, Leo was "mothered" by the two women in his family as he grew up. While he loved these women fiercely, it is when he talks about his father that he speaks with deep love and admiration. Leo adored his papa.

Leo grew up in a small frame house in San Benito, just across the street from the church his family attended. His family spoke Spanish at home and Leo did not learn to speak English until he began attending school in 1954. This is actually surprising since he has only a slight accent and many people do not even recognize his Mexican heritage in his speech or looks. Leo's father was a barber in the town, easily remembered still by many of Leo's age because of his nature and the fact that he had lost a leg as a child. According to Leo, his father and an older brother had taken some sheep to town to be sold when they were young, living in northern Mexico. The boys heard what they thought were firecrackers and went to investigate. It turned out to be a fire-fight between Pancho Villa's rebel forces and the local authorities, and young Leonardo was hit in the leg. A local doctor amputated the leg and Leo claims that his father always told the story pointing out how worried he was that his parents would be angry that the boys took so long in returning home.

Leo attended parochial school until High School, then attended San Benito High School, graduating in 1966. (Note: It was just a few months after his graduation that I started the first grade in Pasadena, Texas.) After graduation, he took some college courses at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, but found that he was not really interested in attending any more school and chose to go to work instead.

I didn't become part of Leo's story until he was nearly 40, but boy have we made up for all we missed together. He is the love of my life, my soul-mate, and the man that I depend on and adore. With little more than a week left before he comes home to me, I am nearly beside myself with anticipation. We are not always the loving couple it sounds like here as we are both opinionated and stubborn enough to fuss and fight on a regular basis. But we are firmly attached at the heart and have shared so much together that even a few days apart gets us "off-kilter". I can't wait for my sweetheart to get home to me!

Happy Birthday Leo!!!

50 Down, 3000 to Go

Rebecca came to work for me this weekend, and we really had a good time. We actually tackled 2 projects, 1) cleaning/organizing the pantry, and 2) finishing the guest bath. Okay, I know it's only 50 square feet of work down and 3,000 more to go, but hey...it's a start!

Check out the finished product on the guest bath. Remember, when you come to visit, this will be your bath! :-) Anyway, we also accomplished some planning and scheming, decided on some furniture choices (guest room) for down the road, and looked into LOTS of options for different parts of the house. I'm not getting ahead of myself here; I definitely expect the house to take another full year to complete. But it does feel good to start chipping away at the piles of rubble and make some parts of the house actually complete. So much fun ahead! Next weekend's plans? Boxing, labeling, and stacking. Ooohh. What fun!

Prayers Requested

Like Leo, I hesitate to even post this information, but I think it is important to share with friends and family. Besides, I am hoping your prayers will work to keep Leo and his co-workers safe.

Yesterday, Leo's facility was under attack. No one on his side of the battle was hurt, although it is believed there were casualties on the other side since two of the 10 attack boats were sunk. Leo loves his work, feels very safe there, and worries much more about my safety in Houston than his in Nigeria (to put some perspective on it all). Still, it will be nice to know that you are all praying for his safety and for peace in the area.

Instead of trying to describe the events to you, I'm going to post some links below so you can read about them yourselves.

JTF Repels Attack on Chevron's Escravos Facility

Nigerian army repel gunmen at Escravos oil terminal (reuters)

Nigerian Army Repel Gunmen at Escravos Oil Terminal (rigzone.com)

P.S. Leo's Birthday

Just wanted to remind everyone that Leo's 60th birthday is coming up. On November 26, he will celebrate in Nigeria with his friends. When he gets home on December 5, he and I will have another celebration as well. In our emails, we both agree that missing Thanksgiving together will be harder than the birthday thing, but at least we have Christmas.

There is one caveat, however. Things have gotten a little rough in his neck of the woods and plans to leave the country are never a sure thing but more of a chancy attempt. We are hoping for the best as I miss him so very much.

Anyway, to wish Leo a happy birthday, feel free to send him an email at the following: leo dot h dot amaya at gmail dot com. (Sorry for spelling it out that way, but putting an actual email link in a blog is like handing out your address to every spam-bot on the internet. We're trying to fool the bots here!)

Thorough House Cleaning Coming Up

Two weeks until my sweetheart comes home and the house is an absolute wreck. Well, that's really to be expected considering all the construction that's been going on there. I had hoped to have wood floors in before he got home, but the delivery has been postponed (back order) until mid-December. They wanted to know if I wanted to pick a different one. "Are you crazy? It took us WEEKS to settle on that one! No way we're going to start over!!"

So, my daughter Rebecca is going to head my direction on Friday and give me a hand trying to get the place in order. We had so much fun visiting last Saturday that I am GREATLY looking forward to her visit, even if it is so we can get a lot of work done. I expect that it will take several weekends to get the job accomplished, but that's okay...we can handle it.

I hear from Leo every couple of days, via email, although I haven't heard his voice in WEEKS. He claims that the phone reception over there is poor but I think he is often too worn out at the end of the day to spend time trying to get a phone call in. It's okay though. As long as I get news from him SOME way or another, I'm good.

We are at the "hump" now with a few more days behind than in front of us. It seems like such a long time since he left, so much has been going on. I believe that our original game plan of doing this for 3 years in order to REALLY get ahead may be squashed after the first term (1 year) is over. He likes the work, I like the money, but neither of us likes the separation. Six visits to Nigeria and I'll be ready for him to give it up. I can make enough of a living for us after that!

My New iPhone

Believe it or not, I have had very little interest in the iPhone since it came out. Although I do like tech toys, I generally don't like to get them just because everyone else is. The iPhone is loved by many people because of the fact that they can enjoy tunes and videos on it as well as making phone calls. Well, I have no desire to listen to music or watch videos on my telephone, so I've been skipping over the iPhone.

Last week I went to the ATT store to look at the Blackberry Bold. I have loved Blackberrys for a long time, and I really wanted this sleek new phone. I was startled to learn the price for it is currently $349. Yikes! That's a lot more than I was hoping to pay. So, I looked around. When I took a look at the iPhone and tried out a few of the commands, it didn't take me long to decide to take this "second place" offering for $199. Well, it turns out that the things I can do on my iPhone other than listen to music and watch videos makes this machine really cool. The best thing of all for me is getting my email and being able to read it on my screen. Although my Blackberry was [admittedly] an old machine, I was still surprised at the clarity of the iPhone screen. Anyway, I won't bore you with further details (unless you ask) but I will admit that I was wrong to shy away from the iPhone. This is definitely a nice addition to my geeky product arsenal.

Thought I'd share a couple of photos I took on the phone:

This is the first image I took. It looks quite grainy when viewed in a large image but on my iPhone screen, it looks really decent. I took this from the parking lot that I use when I'm working downtown.

I took this photo of the moon rising over the water from my back porch when I got home that night. Again, it is not a perfect shot, but it is not bad for something I just whip out of my pocket, and point and shoot.

I took this one on Saturday when my daughter Rebecca and I spent some time looking at good ideas at Ikea. Since Leo couldn't be there with us, I snapped off a few pictures of things I am interested in for the house. This photo shows a computer work station positioned right up against a storage unit which makes a lot of sense to me. This is the kind of setup I would find really workable in my office. I hope Leo likes it as well since the more I think about it, the more I like it.

This last shot shows a set of bookcases that I'm thinking of as well. The nice thing about these is that they have glass doors on the front of them which keeps things a bit "tucked away". I also like the way that the units are lit from the front and am seriously thinking of mounting a light source over the door on each of them.

Anyway, just thought I would share how my new little addition to my tech-toy family is already contributing to my play time!

Home from Austin

Drove home this chilly morning and found a beautiful day waiting for me back in Port Lavaca. I had a WONDERFUL weekend spending time with my daughter Rebecca on Saturday. We went window-shopping together ALL DAY long (something unusual for both of us) and really had a lot of fun chatting, scheming, planning, and just spending time together. Now I need to schedule some of the same "together time" with the other two girls!

I have a project that needs to be done by morning, so I may be working through the night. It's one of those where I've worked through the coding in my mind, but haven't typed it in on the computer yet. There is always the risk that I can't create what I see in my mind, but I really think it's doable. I really did want to pop in a minute though and say hello. Hope you are all having a beautiful weekend as well!

Cool Weather Has Arrived

I hate it when a busy week comes along and I don't have time to post anything. It just means that when I finally get the time, I really don't know what to post. I mean, do I try to catch everyone up on everything or do I just hit the highlights. Gee...can I even REMEMBER the highlights!?

The week was good as far as Leo is concerned. He had a couple of chances to interface with me (quick emails back and forth) one night, so it was almost like he was back in town. I hope he "needs" me again sometime soon as I need that kind of interaction to stay in touch and feel connected.

On Friday morning, about 8am, Jess called to tell me the big 10-point buck was out in the yard feeding. Although we seem him on a relatively regular basis, seeing him come out in the bright daylight with people still milling around is a bit unusual. The buck was there for a while, so we all got a good look at him. (What a beautiful animal!) Once he was bored with the feeding at Jess' house, he decided to stroll across to the neighbor's. Jess got on the phone again and called Judy to tell her and Bro. David to take a look as well. When he passed the information on to Judy he tells me she got really tickled about the whole thing. The source of her amusement? She said, "David's been down at the deer blind since before sun up looking for this guy, and here he comes strolling through the yard!!"

[Jess took this photo from his kitchen window!]

I still don't have a computer hooked up at my new office in Houston. This means that I have to drive back downtown, to another site, and use one in a common area there. What it really means is that I am not able to stay as "connected" with projects as I like. I'm really hoping that computer shows up on Monday...I REALLY need to put some time in on a couple of difficult projects! That has also thrown a "kink" in my plan of working hard through the month of November in order to take off most of December when Leo is home. I am just not sure this is possible any more. Still, I'll do the best I can.

I am looking forward to spending a nice, quiet Thanksgiving with Jess and Grace (and I'm hoping Jess' sister Barbara will come as well). For Christmas, we will be headed to the Austin area to gather at the home of my older brother and his girlfriend. We never actually schedule this holiday gathering ON Christmas since there are so many other family commitments. It also serves to spread out the gift-receiving for the little ones giving them time to enjoy things a bit more.

I hope you are all well and will be able to spend quality time with your families and friends over the holidays. We still have a goal of hosting SEVERAL holiday get togethers in December 2009 as we are still hoping to have a "finished" house to show off. When the time comes, you'll definitely be hearing from me. Of course, I want you ALL to come for a visit!!

Another Weekend...Gone

I've got my last load of washing ready to go in now, have prepared my food for the whole week and packed the truck with all my "goodies". It's time for me to head back to Houston and it feels like I didn't even get a weekend.

Tomorrow night my sis and I are going to the University of Houston to listen to a lecture. The speaker is Thomas L. Friedman, author of The World is Flat and The Lexus and the Olive Tree, two books that I THOROUGHLY enjoyed. He is speaking about his latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded which is not really one of my favorite topics. I'm one of those who thinks a little too much has been made of the global warming trend. Still, I disagreed to a great extent with him on other books, but found myself coming around to his way of thinking in the end, so I'm really curious how I will view this latest work. I am quite excited about seeing him in person.

I have a lot of work waiting for me in Houston as the end of the year always generates work for me. I am going to try my best to squeeze 2 months worth of work into 1 as I want to take as much of December off as I can to be with Leo. I picked up a new project as well, so it should be a hectic 4 weeks!

On Friday I head to Austin to attend another presentation along with a cocktail reception and dinner. The topic of this one is "What It Takes to Get Funding" and is part of the Alumni Conference series from UT. I'm hoping to see some of my old classmates there, so I'm really looking forward to it as well. I'll spend the night with my daughter Rebecca, then head home late on Saturday. It should be a fun weekend.

I continue to get the occasional update from Leo, but it is always short and sweet. He's doing fine, but the "new hire" honeymoon is over and he is really being put to work. I don't worry about his safety as he is in a very secure location but would still like to hear from him on a regular basis. While separation may make the "heart grow fonder", it's a heck of a way for a married couple to live!

Well, now that everyone is all caught up on my latest goings on, perhaps you'll drop in a comment or send me an email and let me know what you are up to!

Leo Has Internet Access!

Yes, that's right. In the crazy world of Nigerian plant start-ups, the powers that be have seen fit to provide Leo with a way to keep in touch. Now, I wouldn't start thinking of sending a bunch of emails to him if I were you as having access is not quite the same as having TIME to access it. But still, don't be surprised if you find a random email from Leo all the way from Nigeria.

I had a really long and eventful week in Houston, so I'm ready for a restful weekend. I will definitely post again soon, but just wanted to send a shout out so people will know I am home, life is good, and Leo and I are "connected" again. Yippee!!

Change of Venue

I was slightly disappointed to find that the voting for my precinct had been moved from the County Barn (my absolute FAVORITE place to vote!) to the K.C. hall. Still, two sweet little old ladies and four cardboard voting slots were still the voting method, so the casting of my quaint rural vote was still a good experience. I have avoided all television coverage of the election (definitely no longer "unbiased"!!) contenting myself instead to read up on candidate speeches and legislative records. Today I exercised my right to vote and tomorrow I will convince myself to support the new president.

I talked to Leo at 3am while he was in Germany. I spoke to him again about 6pm while he was in Nigeria getting ready for a little sleep. He has one more flight in the morning (his morning) then will be back at work. I will drive back into Houston and get all set up for the rest of my week as well.

I'm starting at a new location tomorrow and looking forward to it. I don't think I have a computer there yet, but I'll be able to get some work done anyway, I'm sure. I'll hang out there until Friday, swing by Danbury to catch the nephew's football game, and be home by midnight on Friday night. Only a few more months of "toughing it out" I think, then we'll be making so much progress on the house, it will feel like a real home. I still think it will take until next Christmas to get everything done that we're wanting to do, but a LOT of the looks of the house are changing already. I'm still holding out hope that the floors will go in before Leo gets home as that will make an INCREDIBLE difference in the look and feel of the house. After 15 years of walking on CONCRETE, wood floors are going to be the ultimate luxury!

I can see that I can only get 5 hours of sleep in tonight, so I guess I better hit the hay. Hope everyone is doing fine and that you are ALL making plans to come see us in the next 12 months. We can't WAIT to have visitors in our home and not be embarrassed about it!!!

Traveling Again

Well, he's well on his way now. According to the flight tracker, Leo is well past Newfoundland and still has another 4 hours to go before arriving in Frankfurt. We left home at 10:45 this morning and drove to Houston. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Chili's, near the airport, then I pulled up and dropped him off at about 2:45. From there I headed to the apartment to pay the rent and pick up some cables. I talked to Leo from there since he was still waiting on his 4:30 flight to leave. After that I drove to my sis' house and visited with her a bit, then back home to Port Lavaca. It was a long day for me, and a long drive, but NOTHING like the trip Leo is taking. I definitely got the short end of the stick on this one.

Of course, I miss him already and wish he was back home, but I guess that's really silly since he's only been gone a few hours. He's promised to call from Frankfurt, so I'll sleep with the phone by my side tonight. Although he was not ready to leave me yet, he was actually looking a bit forward to getting back on the job, seeing all his new friends, and getting back to work. His schedule keeps him really busy, and I'm thinking that makes the time pass more quickly. Now I can start counting down to December 3 when I can pick him up at the airport once again. I'm REALLY looking forward to a very FUN December...if I can just make it through this dreary November!!!

Tears Tomorrow

It was so wonderful having Leo home for a few weeks, but it has come to an end. I will take him to the airport tomorrow, and he will be in Germany by Tuesday morning. Although I keep telling myself it will be better if I don't cry tomorrow, there's no way for me to know what will happen. For those of you who don't know me well, the truth is, I'm not much of a crier. Sad movies don't do it for me, fear and anxiety don't drive me to tears, but embarrassingly, I have no control over the tears that show up when I'm angry. Occasionally, something patriotic or touching (like Leo's story of how some of the security guards pray together at shift change) will take me there as well. But my hubby leaving town for a bit? Sheesh...what's there to cry about! I cried like a baby when he left last time.

Work is continuing at a hectic pace for me, so it's not like I'm going to have a lot of time to be "lonely". I have plans to visit my mom, visit my daughters, take care of a lot of odds-and-ends, and earn my PMP (Project Management Professional) certification while he's gone, so perhaps the time will pass quickly. I was also hoping to get new wood floors installed throughout the house before Leo returns in December, but it looks like there will be no break on the shipping. I'm guessing he'll be long home before it shows up ready for installation.

Still, we had a really nice month together. Leo spent a lot of time visiting with Jess this week, and enjoyed it all thoroughly. We sat in the dark late Friday night and watched the deer feeding in the yard. The way we have it set up, we can observe them really close up although they can't see us. The biggest herd was last night, when I saw 10 does and fawns in a group. They are really beautiful creatures. I'm guessing last week's visits from the bigger bucks won't be repeated. I doubt those beauties will make it through the first weeks of hunting season.

The picture I'm sharing with you is one I took earlier in the week. I was walking down to the pier when I noticed this large flock of pelicans flying overhead. Wow! Don't forget to click on the photo to see it in a larger version. [Note: We have a bit of a joke about carrying cameras to the pier. It always means we are expecting the fishing to be so good we'll want to take pictures, but just like the proverbial rain that comes when you wash your vehicle, we almost NEVER have good luck when we bring the cameras along! So, a nice shot of a pelican flock on a beautiful day is like a concession prize.]