A Birthday Celebration...posted a bit late.

Cleveland turned another year, but swears it's his last. He doesn't feel like he needs to grow any older. Not that he's hoping for some sort of tragic interruption of the rest of his life, but rather that he feels he just doesn't have to turn another year. Lucky us: we got to celebrate Cleveland's last birthday with him. We managed turkey burgers, carrot cake (a birthday token from Sylvia Hollingsworth), and a very impressive display of candles that burn a flame the color of the wax. Very impressive.

Mira La Luna

We woke up at 6 o'clock this morning, hoping to see this:


A Partial lunar eclipse. I found out about this celestial wonder from the nerdy newsletter I subscribed to sometime during my sophomore year of college: Sky and Telescope: The Essential Magazine of Astronomy.

We spent the early Saturday morning hours winding our way around buildings, to the highest points in Houston (the overpasses), and into the open bayous. But we never saw the moon. She must have been just out of sight: Houston should consider growing some mountains.

Aloha. Ohana. Mahalo.

Sister Bears.
Hiking Stairway to Heaven

This is the hike: I didn't make this video, but the SAME music was playing in the background as we climbed the stairs...weird.



Buddha.

Maunawili Falls.
Three Tables.


I spy...a baby growing in that belly.

Waimea Bay.

Josh in a wonderland of bamboo after hiking Stairway.

'
Hawaii was the best time either of us can remember having, maybe ever. Sugary shave ice topped with even sugary-er sweetened condensed milk and ice cream; hiking (and Josh being attacked by poison ivy. gross.); sneaking past the guards to hike Stairway to Heaven; sleeping on Mary Lou's deck, overlooking the ocean; and all the other lovely things that accompany a trip to this island.

A Challenge for Our Forthcoming Progeny

We have some ideas for what we want our child to accomplish:

Enjoy that record while you can, kid.

Ketchup. Catsup.

This should be the last round of catching up. Lots has been left out, but if everything burned and all my unbacked-up files were lost, and I came down with a serious episode of amnesia, cyber world would save a bit. And I'd have access to some memories. I'm all about a Plan B.


Houston has a very serious soccer team. They thrashed Salt Lake City. We're sporting these hats as a symbol of us washing our hands of Utah, and fully embracing Texas.

A quick visit to Utah for a wedding: our favorite Salt Lake City place. The Beehive Tearoom is where Josh proposed to me over lavender ice cream and ginger tea...I would like everything in my life to be as fantastic as the tea room. I'll start with my own house.

Over the winter we dabbled in some P-90 X. Josh is practicing the pose: you can't be serious unless you know the pose.
Salvation Army Singing Group at the coffee shop across the street.

Oh, Texas...


Anniversary ride in Austin.
Followed by this new jazz wonder, Kat Edmonson. Such a fantastic discovery. You can listen to some of her music on her website.

The Hollingsworths threw a birthday party for me! 25.
And we went to Austin again to ride. And enjoy a Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration:

Two stripes means baby.


Mexico vs. Angola game...Mexico won and made a good 95% of the those attending very happy.



Josh turned 29.



Our friend Anne made Josh a dream cake.


Other things we are still doing in Houston:

• Tolerating a very small, very weird apartment that doesn't get circulation. Because the windows don't open. So when I lend my very attractive vintage cake dome to a friend, and she returns it because it needs to be aired out because it's sitting in our kitchen (which is the worst of all non-circulatory rooms), my frustration over this casita escalates. Because she's right! However, thanks to another of our dear friends who keeps our best interest constantly in mind, we signed another contract for a new place to move into on July 1. And it has a screen door AND a fan in the kitchen. What a luxury. July 4 will be a true day of independence and liberation for the Downs.
• Josh started a new job. Which is a very, very good thing. He's more independent and has his very own office: something he missed while touching shoulders with every one of his previous co-workers in their shared sardine-like office. This job is better for a million reasons.
• I was offered a job to teach at a local high school for the upcoming year. And I'm thrilled. All those wretched days of substituting have paid off, and while many are battling the chills of a wild hiring freeze, I'll be warm and cozy in my very own classroom. I feel very lucky.
• And our baby's coming in November. What a fantastic thing. We should find out tomorrow whether it's a nina o nino. I can hardly wait...Christmas is bad enough! These surprises are killing me.

And that's it for catching up. I'll try to be more responsible about posting so the very few of you who look at this don't have to deal with months of our lives tossed into one semi-lengthy post.