The Dutton Family of Houston, Texas

Went to the Galleria. There is a little museum of illusions in the mall. We took the tour and took some pics.

Ivy’s head on a plate

Holly and Ivy went away for the weekend to visit a college campus. I’ve got the house alone. Oh yes. Gonna just relax and clean up after no one. Nope!

All goes well until…. about 1 pm saturday I begin to feel a familiar pain. It doesn’t stop. Gets worse. Crap. I know what this is: it’s a friggin’ kidney stone.

The pain is unbearable by 7 pm, so I finally decide to go to the ER.

This will be the 10th time in my adult life that I’ve had to deal with kidney stones. I know the routine. (1) You’ll be admitted to ER. (2) They’ll study you and take some xrays or cat-scans (3) give you some wonderful pain medicine that stops all the pain and you can lay there in the hospital bed in bliss for awhile (4) then about 6 hours later you’ll be given the option of leaving the hospital or continuing on have surgery to remove the stones.

In this situation, the process took almost 12 hours: I felt the pain about 1 pm., wrestled with it, finally gave up and went to ER around 7 pm., got the cat-scans and pain meds around 9 pm, and then finally at around 1 am the doctor recommended that I go (be transported by ambulance) to a bigger hospital where they’ll immediately admit me for kidney stone removal.

The option depends entirely upon whether the stones are small enough to pee out (less than 8 mm), or if they’re too big to pee out and must be surgically removed. In this case, it was right at about 8 mm. So what do I do? Bail out and go home and hope it doesn’t hurt anymore? Or take a ride in an ambulance and deal with another 24 hours of torturous waiting and surgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital?

I chose to bail out. At that time, though (1 am) I was totally exhausted. The thought of going through another round of treatments for another 12 hours (or more) sounded sickening. So I bailed out. I requested to be released. The doctor ok’d it. I left the ER and returned to the house about 2 am.

I enjoy Rodeo Houston, even though I’m getting older and a little less tolerant of all the noise and carnival hype.  It ran from March 4th to March 23, but I only went one day.   This time I took my friend Miguel.  He had never seen a rodeo of this size before.   He seemed to really enjoy it.  We rode several big thrill rides including that one in the photo above (I don’t remember the name of it).  It was pretty intense.  

Okay, off we go another cruise out of Miami.  This time on the MASSIVE ship Icon of the Seas.   Our cruise was from Miami to Coco Cay  and Saint Thomas Island and back from March 9th – 16th  

Although there were plenty of good moments, this time around we had lots of bad moments to overcome.  First off, Holly was suffering severe problems with walking (this is pre-hip surgery), and I was suffering major back pain from this awful School Bus I’d been driving.   So literally getting to Miami (flight), and walking through the airport was torture for both of us.   But we did it.    Once on the ship, we settled into our cozy cabin and proceeded to indulge in all the food and fun. 

It took 2 or 3 days for us to get over our pain and discomforts, but we did eventually.  By the end of the trip I was trying out ever waterslide and watching every show.  The Wizard of Oz 4D theater was pretty nifty.   The Ice Shows were good as always.  The show in the big dome was outstanding… full of robots and acrobats and water splashing everywhere.   They must’ve sunk a million dollars into that show.    The food, of course, was fantastic.  All the time.  The buffet in the Windjammer Buffet was excellent.  But I quickly found a couple of other little cafes that were great including the Solarium Bistro and the Park Cafe.   Healthy foods!  Salads and sandwiches.   

I really enjoyed our stop at Coco Cay Island and indulged in some snorkeling.  It was surprising vibrant and LOADED with fish, even though it is an artificial reef.  The water was a little chilly being March and all, but it wasn’t bad.  Once you got in the water it was fine.    This is NOT my video, but it gives you an idea of what the ship is like.  Going on a cruise, it’s not so much what you do off of the ship… the ship itself is often the main source of entertainment.  This one delivers!  

Don’t ask. Big blow up between Jose and Miguel. Ends up with a brick being thrown through a window, and the police coming to make an arrest. I’m just posting this here for posterity’s sake.
The event occurred on the night of June/2024 and one of these guys ended up in jail until September/2024.It was an exhausting expensive experience. I’ve tolerated some crazy stuff from these guys, but this one crossed the line. This time I was ready to just say FU and get deported. Hated every minute of it.

The Rolling Stones launched their World Tour here in Houston on April 28th.  But a few days before, Mick Jagger was spotted in various places around town.  It turns out he visits places around town before he does a show, and often he’ll show up at a bar or restaurant or some odd venue and dance around to his own music… completely unaware by the musicians and patrons.  He seems to enjoy the prank.   Well, for reasons unknown, Mick Jagger decided to take this photo at Burns Bail Bonds which is just about 1/2 mile from our house (we’re at the 1600 block of Houston Avenue), and directly across the street from the Police Station.  Why a pic there??  I dunno.  Maybe he was bailing Keith Richards out of jail?  lol.    

Another Christmas and another round of visiting family! This time we head to Branson, Missouri My sister rented a HUGE house with like 20 bedrooms and a hot-tub and swimming pool and lots of amenities nearby. So some of my family flocked in for a few days from Joplin, Missouri as well as Little Rock, Harrison, and Fayetteville, Arkansas, and of course ourselves all the way from Houston, Texas. Everyone got a room and bathroom, and we all pitched in on preparing dinner in the kitchen. There was plenty of space to escape the crowd out on the porch peacefully overlooking Table Rock Lake. Plenty of fun and games ensued, and lots of food (and wine and beer) was included as well. We even had an exciting moment when smoke from a hot skillet set off the fire alarm. The alarm was unbelievably loud and summoned a Fire Truck from the Branson Fire Department. No damage done, though. We cleared the air and carried on with the party. The condo-rental came with some discounts and freebies, so I took advantage of a couple of those deals. One was riding the really fast go-karts at Extreme Racing Center Xtreme racing Center  (Ivy drove a go-kart by herself for the first time and crashed twice).   We also rode the Branson Mountain Coaster which was faster than I expected.  But the best time was spent Ziplining through the trees at Adventure Zipline of Branson. Adventure Zip Lines of Branson!  Honestly, the zipline was more scary than I anticipated.  I was nervous taking that first step, and then I was certain Ivy wouldn’t do it at all.  But nope! She did EVERY zip-line (7 in all).  We did every zipline and enjoyed the heck out of it. Our guides were fantastic, helpful, and inquisitive.  They were supportive every step of the way!  I appreciated their humor and even dealing with awkward situations (lines uncomfortably squishing private parts. lol)   I totally recommend this place if you ever visit Branson….  not my video, but a good glimpse of how it goes…. our experience was very similar…