Santa Rides a Big Ol' Harley

A great song about people living the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas Yard

This was the first year during Lights in the Heights that no one tried to steal our snowdomes.

Introducing

Pancho	Lefty

Thanks for taking the time to vote and share your opinions on what to name our new puppies.

Here's a video with Townes on how he wrote the original song that inspired their names:

Pancho and Lefty

Townes Van Zandt on the Great American Music Shop in 1993. Yes, that is Nanci Griffith introducing him.

The First Thanksgiving

Published on November 27, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Universal Press Syndicate

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We hope you have a great holiday with family and friends.

David Stoddard is a good friend of Rouse House concerts. He wrote the following tribute to Thanksgiving. Click on his name to hear more of his music.

Help Us Name Our New Dogs

We have two new six week old pug puppies. Both are males. We just brought them home. Here they are.

Deb is so happy, other than the poop on the floor.

Now we have to name them, help us pick. The survey will be open until Midnight Wednesday.

Other names we considered:

• Romulus and Remus
• Brooks and Dunn
• Shake and Dana
• Keith and Mick
• Calvin and Hobbes
• Cheech and Chong
• Crockett and Tubbs
• Flatt and Scruggs
• Castor and Pollux
• Bagwell and Biggio
• Apollo and Starbuck

Memories of Brennan's

Deb and I were deeply saddened by the burning down of Brennan’s last weekend. Although not our favorite restaurant or the best in Houston, it seems like every time we wanted to celebrate a momentous occasion we would go there.

Sunday brunch on our first anniversary with Deb’s best friend. The chef’s table with another couple on our fifth anniversary. The advantages of being married on Halloween – reservations are easier to get. For some reason they discouraged us from wearing costumes that night. For my 40th birthday, we invited ten friends and had the wine dinner.

Two years ago, Deb’s partners gave us a gift card to dine at Brennan’s as a token of appreciation for my helping them negotiate the buyout of their firm’s founders. It sat in a drawer as we waited for the right night to use it. Three months ago, we found that night. We celebrated my 50th birthday with seven friends at the Chef’s table.

Layne	Deb	Greg
Stacey		Abigail
Tony	Cathy	Charlie

It is one of the most memorable dining experiences I have had. Not because of the food, which was excellent, but because of the group. The nine of us sat around for four hours, ate great food, enjoyed fine wines, received outstanding service. We all wore hats, because Deb says it is not a party without hats, and told stories about each other, some of which were true. We were the last patrons to leave, but never felt rushed.

Tonight, Deb and I are going to Divino’s and Radio Music Theater with Charlie and Stacey, and Greg and Sara. To start the evening, we will raise a toast to Brennan’s for all the great memories it holds for us. Brennan’s, you will be missed.

Hurricane Ike

Compared to others, we fared well during Ike. Our house did not lose power until Saturday afternoon around 1:00 pm. We think Centerpoint had to turn off the grid in the Heights to repair major lines. Unfortunately, we had given away our dry ice and power supplies about two hours earlier. However, after the power went out, we went by Deb's office on a lark to check on it and it had power. We stayed there until Monday afternoon when the power was restored at our house.

That evening, we had a dinner for our friends and neighbors who did not have power. Through the party we met Lindsey from the Houston Dairymaids (http://www.houstondairymaids.com/). She brought cheese. She is our new best friend :-)

This is a view from our back yard:



Down the street from us, this tree fell, and fortunately, into the street instead of onto the house.