Waco Late At Night.......
......the witching hour

Sometimes A-Ron's baseball tournaments start early...and here in Central Texas, early means Friday night. So the team, along with Grandma J, and the rest of the extended team heads fifty miles up the road to Waco Texas for their first two games....back to back, starting after 7 p.m. It's important to squeeze as much baseball into each day, because 7th grade boys, who start school before eight in the morning have no business slacking off before midnight.

Once again, Grandma J is amazed at the beautiful diamonds that the boys are privileged to play on. There are at least eight of them in this complex.

Scores? First game, our Texas Tribe wins 14-1. Second game, Tribe loses 10-6. No doubt the Tribe will come back strong, just like last week in Round Rock, where they took second place.

By the time the coach had his pow-wow, and everyone loaded up their vehicles, it was time for some of us to get some grub. Right about now Grandma J would like to send out a prayer petition for a more diverse menu Sunday...McNuggets doesn't agree with everyone after midnight.

McD's it was....a very busy location right off the infamous I-35. But Grandma J was encouraged by this sign......

Inside, not so much....there was one line....a very long line. This poor child was having a rough time.

Her manager was definitely a team leader wannabe. There were orders no one was claiming.

The manager kept double checking the screen trying to make sure they had the orders right. Hello.....Grandma J shouted under her breath maybe they got tired of waiting and left.

This guy? was getting very impatient waiting and started to fidget and rumble a bit.

Michelle #2 befriended him by asking him if he wanted to follow her on Facebook. Michelle #2 is such a people person.




We finally got our food...just coffee for Grandma J, and decided to sit outside. Three ball players, two moms, one sorry he came dad. How do you spell fun?

Grandma J got home at two in the morning, read one blog then hit the hay.

It's a rainy Saturday in Texas, but we are up for more games tomorrow, back in Waco. Maybe we can eat at Rudy's BBQ.

IF IT'S SUNDAY.....

......then this must be Saturday....part II, III and IV

It's been one of those days when you don't stop from sunrise 'til sunset.
Like floating down a lazy river in Texas. Because, if you remember, rivers are the infrastructure of choice when it comes to travel in Central Texas.

Here is where it begins and ends......


I have highlighted my travels this past Saturday for you on this River Map of Texas.
That's home there in Killeen, and after my early morning book signing trip, see Saturday, Part I, I headed to the City of Lampasas for my granddaughter's basketball tournament. The population of the town of Lampasas is about the same as one basketball team with four alternate players.


The family wouldn't miss a tournament for the world.

Neither would this guy...who doesn't have a horse in the tournament. He likes basketball, any basketball.....plain and simple.

We watched my granddaughter shout orders to her teammates on the court...

and from the side lines.

After traveling back home...I changed clothes and headed out to a birthday party for one of my neighbors in the Compound....Donna. Donna invited everyone to her daughter's home to celebrate. She is one of the Aqua Aerobics members, and more specifically, Donna is the one who said Theodore Kaczynski, the Una bomber, was her pen pal.

Donna gets two birthday cakes...one huge one to serve to the 85 guests, and one small one for the candles. It seems last year Donna blew so hard she ended up spitting all over the cake...and no one would eat it.

After Donna opened her gifts of cigars, booze and bath salts, I bid her farewell and best wishes....even though the sun was setting, my day wasn't done.

See here on the map? I headed north on the faux river known as the I35 corridor past the city of Waco to Bellmead Texas, which is really still Waco.

I arrived just in the nick of time to watch the first of two baseball games for my grandson.

This one, with the goofy smile!

And remember the basketball player?

She was there too....to talk on her cell phone cheer on her brother.

The last game was yet to be played, and it was after 9pm. Since it would be after 11 PM when the game would end, and the next game was early Sunday morning, the team parents decided to get hotel rooms so they could party make sure the boys got a good night's sleep.

I had other priorities.......

Making sure He didn't spend the night alone.

SLEEPING IN THE PRINCESS ROOM

***Big Brother Update***
It was fantastic last night with April leaving! She can't wait to party with Libra...right! While I still like Renny, her actions and bold moves, like asking Dan, Keesha and Memphis if they would be pawns was a bit unsettling. Right now Dan is my favorite to win. That can change, but I don't think so. Does anyone else notice the close alliance that Michelle and Memphis have? I don't know if it's apparent on the show, or just from watching BBAD. The both are up to no good. The Head of Household comp was long! I won't give it away because several of you get totally ticked, so you'll find out Sunday night....not a word out of my lips...ummm blog.

Before driving up to Temple, the city between me and Wacko, home of the Dr. Pepper Museum.... for my sleep study, I joined a couple of my fellow inmates here at the compound neighbors for a late afternoon swim. (yes I'm the queen of run-on sentences) We weren't in the water ten minutes when the sky took an ugly turn...



You've seen those "Life comes at you fast" commercials? Well, that's exactly how storms come at you in Texas!

That was my cue to get on the road and head on out to my sleepover. I arrived right at 7 PM, and was met by Gary, my technician.

He escorted me to my room...the Princess Room. The other side of the room had a dresser, TV and my very own thermostat for climate control, and a nice big private bathroom. The ceiling had a smoked glass dome that encased a 360 degree camera. Gary told me that he could not see me in the bathroom....like I trust him.

Yeah, like I was born yesterday......I guess he didn't see my Big Brother tote bag!!

After a snack of fresh fruit, and filling out paperwork, waiving my right to sue the Hospital or Gary if I got hit by lightning or electrocuted, I was wired.

Is this not the scariest creature you've ever seen on a blog? I had Gary take this picture in the event my next of kin needed documentation. I had a zillion electrodes screwed into my scalp, my face had about thirty thousand wires taped to it, and things were shoved up my nostrils. My inner thighs were wired...and I had a laser light on my right pinkie.

I had no problem sleeping. The mattress was part memory foam and I could have stayed forever. In the morning Gary brought me a croissant and a cup of coffee. I love Gary, so I'm going back in two months.