CleverDonkey.com …Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel

I just have to say, I’m constantly amazed by anyone with artistic vision and a drive to create. The person that amazes me most often in this capacity is my mother — she is a non-stop creative force with endless energy and strength.

In her life, my mom has created wood carvings, jewelry, stained glass, etched glass, oil paintings, watercolor paintings, custom tiled bathrooms, tile and glass mosaics, furniture out of copper pipe, and custom wall collages. Not to mention children’s books. Oh, and she runs a Bed & Breakfast in the Texas Hill Country that’s filled with her signature custom touches, so she’s learned to be a master chef lately as well. Her latest artistic obsession is concrete — specifically, architectural concrete. For the gorgeously flowering and beautifully decorated entry way to her B&B, she decided to create a couch. Out of concrete.

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Iron Mountain Resort and Marina
134 Iron Mountain Marina Drive
Arkadelphia, Arkansas 71923

For reservations call:
(870) 246-4310 in state
(800) 243-3396 out of state
http://www.iron-mountain.com/

This is the second summer that we’ve vacationed at the Iron Mountain Resort on DeGray Lake just west of Arkadelphia, Arkansas. We discovered Iron Mountain last summer, when we had originally scheduled a vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama, but Hurrican Dennis caused us to change our plans at the very last minute. We were driving from Houston to Indianapolis so needed something that was roughly on the way, and we knew we wanted to swim and spend time in the sun, so figured that a lake would work. Plus, other than the Gulf Coast (threatened Dennis) there isn’t really any other options for swimming between Houston and Indianapolis other than inland lakes/rivers.

So we furiously researched lakes located in the states between TX and IN, and we started with the

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The Devil Wants Starbucks

So we went to see The Devil Wears Prada and it was really good. Meryl Streep gives yet another amazing performance as the head of the world’s most influential fashion magazine. She plays the character as a cross between Cruella de Ville, Vito Corleone, and Margaret Thatcher. The movie is very biting and very funny. I’m not sure I’m 100% on board with the message, but I’m at least 75% there.

The movie tells the tale of a young, earnest, pretty, smart, normal-sized girl (Size 6, maybe?…normal-sized by Hollywood standards is what I mean). She shows up for an interview for a low-on-the-totem-pole clerical opening at the world’s leading fashion magazine, specifically the assistant to the assistant to the editor in chief. The girl is very well played by Anne Hathaway (who?), and

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Dragon Bowl Asian Bistro

1221 W 11th St

Houston, TX 77008

(713) 426-2750

http://www.dragonbowlbistro.com/

Dragon Bowl Asian Bistro is a new restaurant at the edge of the Heights, at the intersection of N. Shepherd and 11th. We’ve been watching them build out the space for it in the strip center and have been anxiously awaiting the opening of another nearby food choice. It finally opened recently and today we finally made it in to try it out.

All three of us got bowls, and they were pretty good. Mine was shrimp, vermicelli, assorted veggies in a citrus sauce and it was quite tasty. I had steamed dumplings as an appetizer and they were okay. The rest of the group liked their food as well, but there were no raves.

There were two issues that detracted from the dining experience. The first is that we waited over 30 minutes from

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4/6/2006

Today is the first day of our quest to install HardiPlank siding on our house. We aren’t going to actually do the installation, but we will be identifying local contractors, putting out for bid, hiring someone, managing the process, and posting the progress here along the way. Currently I’m looking for recommendations for a local HardiPlank contractor in Houston, so if you’ve had some work done by somebody you’d like to recommend, please drop me a line at engineerboy@cleverdonkey.com!

Our current siding is in sad disrepair. There are several rotten places and several places with loose boards, and it just looks crappy in general. We’ve wavered at the cost of HardiPlank, but have determined that it’s a worthwhile investment. We don’t want to simply replace with wood siding, as we’d still have all the potential rot/termite problems of wood, and vinyl is just…well…vinyl. It seems like the high-end vinyl isn’t bad,

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