Windows On 40

We rounded out February with a small celebration (per request) for a big birthday! The previous weekend we celebrated with siblings and wives at St. Arnold's brewery on a cool and cloudy afternoon. The itinerary was simple: drinks on the patio and a brewery tour. (Thanks to Uncky Dan for many of these photos!)

Here's the birthday boy's portrait. Isn't he handsome? I think the glasses really help counter the necklace to create a nice balance.

It's nice to get baby-sitters during the day! We should do this more often!

The brewery tour was pretty standard stuff. No samples?! I guess this ain't Budweiser! Good times channeling our inner hipsters, nonetheless.

Nothing like a mid-week birthday to keep it small. We tried to go to Pappasito's on a Wednesday night at 6-ish, but the wait was crazy! So, we ended up next door at Pappadeaux's for our kids first seafood restaurant experience. Meh, they were not impressed since most of the food was spicy and kid's portions were too small for Owen. Anyway, back home we went for presents and cupcakes!

I should have presented these camouflaged cupcakes on a different surface. Oh well. Happy birthday, love! I won't tell anyone how old you are.

The kids' school had a silent auction, and we got a good deal on some symphony tickets. So we ventured downtown for a fancy Wild West matinee show. The conductor was dressed as a rodeo clown, and they had a couple of kids' performing groups to help with lyrics and story-telling, since it was a family show.

Their school also had a 'wear your college colors' day, so I had to document them in their burnt orange! Hook 'em!

February was also good for our windows. We got uniform, clean, new white blinds on all the windows in the house! No more cat-peeping windows with sun-faded, wood-colored middles, or mini venetian blinds upstairs, or 12-foot long tilt rods hanging precariously from the second-floor foyer window: before and after. Ahhhh.....

A few weeks later, we got new windows installed on the backside of the house, since the front ones have solar shades. The windows were probably original to the house: single-pane, drafty, and several could not stay open. Hopefully, these changes will help our house be a little more pleasant come summer. Before and after.

Here's a side by side (old on left). The new ones have a thick, sturdy frame that is supposed to be hurricane-rated and are double-paned for extra insulation. It was quite a process to watch them remove the old windows, involving large triangles of glass and blowtorches! We had to contend with rain stoppage, but they got 13 windows replaced in two days around the rain showers. Not too shabby!

We also added some picture windows, figuring them to be cheaper and more energy-efficient, and who opens windows that much in Houston anyway? It's hard to tell, but I had to do a few double takes once they were installed because it looked like there was no window! I like them and hope we can enjoy them (and keep them clean)!