Question to all of you web/internet/marketing/computer/analytic/advertising specialists…How do I take a local blog and build a business where back-to-school stores pay for advertising?

The blog’s intended viewer is local parents who need information and tools they can use on the internet to assist them in preparing for the back-to-school season.

Please apply with serious advice. 

Random Picture of Wal-Mart in Katy, Texas

You know all of the those self-help books that say that “do what you love and the money will follow”?  Well, I am doing what I love…staying home with my kids, not dealing with people and just being.  But I do wish my husband did not have to work so hard.  It is hard standing in the background and not bringing in money.  I wish there was something that I was good at.  You know, the kind of good where people pay you to be just you.  Without any effort.

I believe in the philosophy of “The Secret”.  I believe what you want you create…directly or indirectly.  I always have wanted to be at home with my kids and that’s what I am doing.  Being with the people who appreciate me is what I always wanted.  Somehow I have created this situation.  What do I have to complain about?

I would just like to contribute somehow to the household coffers but I think that I have a touch of Aspergers Syndrome even though the Dr. denies this. 

I like laughing and talking to people.  People say that I am funny.  But at the end of the day it is really about how you choose to feel.  Don’t take anyone else’s opinion into your head. My kids are so wonderful.  I appreciate you even when I am yelling.  I appreciate you even when I have to take something away from you. I am teaching you to love you

People say that I am strong.  I will not be a sheep for anyone or anything.  This little attitude of mommy’s has cost her jobs, friends,  money….  I will not be a “yes” woman.  I don’t care for being a challenger or crusader.  I live a clean life.  I teach you kids to say “yes, ma’m” and ”excuse me”.  I attended church for 20 years of my life.  I volunteer many hours at your school. I’m smart enough, fast enough and gosh darn it I like me because I want to

Today I spent $110 for groceries at Wal-Mart. My biggest splurge was the $5 milk and the Land of Lakes mild cheddar cheese at $5.98. I think that the economy in America is starting to get on track with the rest of the world and that really we have nothing to complain about. We are very lucky to live here in America.

Sometimes I do worry about finding a job in the fall. All I really know how to do is keep house, cook a good steak, paint a nice room and type on the always awake internet.

The interenet is the addiction that never goes to sleep. It is always there waiting on you with the big monitor eye open for the world.

I am reading the book “Dreams From My Father”.  Go get it!  You will understand Obama better.

I read the book in two nights but that is just because I paced myself.   The book is not that long.  Get it on audio if reading is not your thing.   I think that Obama will be able to bridge our American culture with the culture of the world.  He talks about Rev. Wright in the book.  You will learn that the title “The Audacity of Hope” is from one of Wright’s sermons. 

He did use drugs and experiment with alcohol like most teenagers.  The book was written in the 90s long before he had any polictical ambitions.  His father and grandfather both have strong character. 

Now I understand why the media and his enemies cannot find any dirt on Obama.  The book throw everything out there for the world.  I think that when the U.S. elects him as president we will be showing the universe that the U.S. is still willing and able to contribute to the world.

I am still processing this book.  Obama was not a braniac in school but he did attend one of the most prestigious schools in Hawaii courtesy of his grandfather’s boss.  The relationship he has with his white grandparents is very touching.

The last part of the book covers his trip to Kenya.

Yesterday, I commented on an article in the New York Times entitled  “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”.  The author referenced the research of Robert Putnam the same as I did in my earlier blog entry.  The article was touching and heart-warming but I could never imagine spending the night in my neighbors’ home.  Perhaps the writer, Peter Lovenheim, lives in a neighborhood where everyone looks like him and grew up in the same type of culture as he.  That makes his experiment less daring but still his point is understood.

The one thing that really touched me was the part about the elderly man.  There are no elderly in my neighborhood.  It is almost like something swooped down and took everyone away somewhere who has reached the age of 50 years in my community in Katy.

My kids need to see the elderly.  One day I will be old and so will they.

The elderly are really the cornerstone of a great community.  Who do you think will watch your house when you are at work?  Who will look out for your children at play when you step inside your house to quickly grab an item before resuming your watch in the front yard.

My great-grandmother, great-aunt and grandmother raised me.    It is because of them that I learned how to can fruits and vegetables when I was a child.  It is because of them that I picked blackberries last month with my kids and that we made jam. They have passed on and I miss them very much.  I miss their presence in my kid’s lives.

Maybe the elderly not being in the neighborhood is why so much of what is needed here is missing.  Maybe every home builder should look into placing a retirement community in each new subdivision.  Maybe the home builders do not understand what makes a community.

Two summers ago, my family and I stopped in Fredricksburg, Texas (a beautiful place!) for the night on our way to California.   We spent the night in a park with an RV section.  We don’t own an RV but we did park and sleep in our van that night.  The next morning as we unrolled ourselves from the van an elderly man approached my husband and asked if he would like a hot cup of coffee.  My husband told him that as soon as our 3 year-old and 5 year-old awakened we were going to head into town to try some of those German pastries the city is known for.   A few minutes later, two elderly ladies walked by and greeted us and asked where we were headed.  They offered us advice about where to get the best breakfast in town.  The memory brings a smile to my face.

My husband and I were amazed at their kindness.  We are so used to neighbors running away.  We said to each other “I wish those people lived in our neighborhood”.

I think I know what’s missing in my community.

I made eight jars of blackberry jam today.  I heard the tabs pop.  I do not know if it set well.  I will let myself know tomorrow.

Here is the creepy cloud in Houston last week.  The local news station reported on the strange cloud.  I think it was a plant gas release in Pasadena.

I have not posted on this blog.  I have been far too busy with my other blog.  For once I can talk or give out information and no one give me a strange glance or look.

I miss this blog because this is the blog where I get to share my opinon.  On the other blog I am just generic and non-complaining.  Except I will always complain about the heat here in the south.

I think those fried green tomatoes look scrumptious.  Too bad I have not traveled out to the farm.

This is heaven to me and to those of us familiar with fried green tomatoes.

Recipe:  Yellow Corn Meal, Salt, Pepper, Frying Oil of Choice, Fork

Let me know if you love fried green tomatoes!

The Picture Above is Not My House on the Header

The house is located at Highway 59 and Crab River Road in Sugarland.  There are a lot of properties on 1-3 acres out there.  I think I could tolerate Houston a little better if I lived in the house above.

There are inexpensive homes everywhere in Houston, TX for $105,000.   It is almost like there is no recession at all.  Where are all these people coming from?

Check this link here which is Houston Agents and Realtors house searching page.  

Houston has cheap, cookie-cutter homes.    There are no trees.  They cut all the trees down before they build the neighborhood.   For landscaping some people plant  ugly prickly sago palms or palm treesin their yards which really provide no shade whatsoever.

In Houston you will not be able to grow veggies but you will be able to cultivate fire ants and huge flying cockroaches which like to cruise around your kitchen at night.

 know how it feels to own a house in a safe neighborhood.  A house with 4 bedrooms, a game room, a living room, a breakfast room, a formal dining room and 2.5 bathrooms.  So, I have no reason to discourage you from your dreams.  I know there are places that are much worse….LA for example.

The traffic is agony.   You will spend at least 1.5 hours in your car a day so make sure you get that XM services and make sure you get a newer model car.  You big ass will be sitting in that car alot.

Jobs.  Oil and Gas.  If you are not working for one of the drilling, offshore, oil, engineering companies, then you are part of the working poor.  The life those O&G people lead is not what you will lead.

 If you do not have some type of advanced, specialized and field experience you better learn how to speak Spanish because that is what you have to do to get a job.  Otherwise you are competing with the rest of us for service jobs at Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, or at the many temp/contract agencies where they enjoy letting you know how woefully unskilled and not worth more that $10 an hour as an employee.

Do not be deceived by the reported weather temp.  The temp may say 87 degrees but with the humidity it feels like 105.  The weather is hot/humid/dry or hot/wet/flooding from May until the end of October.   It is literally so hot you will run from your car into any air conditioned building.

 Your electric bills will run well over $200 at least.   So add that to you cheap mortgage.  My water bill is $35  a month and I don’t even have a sprinkler system or pool.  The house insurance on a 5 year old house with no claims and not located in a flood zone is $1200.   Forget cable.  There is no $99 special.

If you do move to Houston, Texas please make sure you love Tex-Mex or Asian food (tai, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc) or the type of food that they concoct on Top Chef.  Otherwise you go to Boston Market, Sonic, KFC or get a rotisserie chicken from HEB. 

  If you are from a small town like me do not expect to ever find a restaurant that serves really good BBQ, Fried Catfish, Meatloaf, Chicken and Dressing, Peach Cobbler, Pecan Pie or good ice tea.  Day after day a new tex-mex or some shabby  taquiera truck parks on the corner throws up some cheap portable table and sets up some unhealthy pit stop by a gas station.  In every restaurant, the cooks will be Hispanic who really are only familiar with their food.  They would not know how to make yams or biscuits if you gave them a $20.

If you do live out in the “suburbs”  or anywhere that is not in the medical center area, heights, or the village  your commute is hella long.  It does not matter if it is 290, I-10, 59, 610 or the tollways (which you pay about $8 round trip for the privilege of sitting in the same traffic everyone else does)  you will sit in your car with AC running for a long time.  It does not matter if it is day or night, yo will sit in traffic.  Construction crews are always fixing some imaginary hole in the street which will back up traffic for miles.

Forget about pretty parks and family picnics.  The only parks we have here are called shopping malls.  Miles and miles of  malls and strip malls.  In fact, 60% of the newly built strip malls sit empty.  Just a big concrete pile of nothingness.

The only way to make friends and form some type of social capital is to go to one of the two million churches in the area.  Forget Lakewood. [more about Lakewood later]  If you want a job, friends, a social network, a date, marriage….. join a church.   Not just any church.  Try First or Second Baptist if you are white and have lots of money and social standing.

Forget about neighbors.  They are paranoid and could give a hot damn about saying “good morning”.

Katrina People…I will save this bit of information for later.  Beware of houses that are up for rent.  Guess where they are moving.  I in no way are saying they are not great people.  I am just recording my personal observations shaded by my own personal experiences.

If you do  move to Houston, try to find some type of gated controlled enclave where you never have to travel down highway 6, Bellaire, Bissonnet, Fry Road, Westheimer or anywhere downtown Houston after 6pm unless you are attending some game (in that case you are okay as long as you haul ass after the game). 

There are too levels of people in Houston.  Those who work in O&G and like it here because they do not have to deal with the working class, no church attending people like me.  By the way,  I did attend Baptist church for the first 20 years of my life for at least 5 hours each Sunday.  So, I am not an atheist.

Use this advice if you think that you want to move here for the cheap house prices.  Be aware.

There are no old people in Houston, Texas.  I don’t know here they are but they are not here.  I was raised by people over 60 so I have a special place in my heart for older people.  I wonder where they live?

When you do buy your big 2400 square foot house just remember we  have the most polluted air in the U.S. and that we are fortunate enough to have the best cancer hospitals in the entire universe.

Note:  I have never met a parent whose child is not on some type of inhaler or allergy product.

I got a $1450 check for 2 adults and 2 kids.

Please tell me why I did not get my $1800.

I think I will email my state senator.