Neighbors

On a Bad Day, Anyone Can End Up in Jail

February 2012
It doesn't matter how good a person you are if you break the law. (Photo: ##http://istockphoto.com/LeggNet##istockphoto.com/LeggNet##)

After a night in jail, two Rice University juniors, Will and Simon, approached a county judge. They couldn’t deny that they had broken the law, but their lawyer had a trick up his sleeve. He would read their academic transcripts:

“3.95 out of 4.0 in Electrical Engineering, with top grades in Digital Logic Design, Quantum Theory and Advanced Linear Algebra.”…

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A Rodeo Sisterhood

February 2012
Sharleen Walkoviak, Paula Robinson, Pat Mann Phillips, Laura Kent and Debbie Adams (from left) won the Houston rodeo’s highest honor for volunteerism. (Photo: ##http://www.hartphoto.com##www.hartphoto.com##)

Their presence commands attention. These are five women who know just about everyone walking the second-floor corridor of Reliant Center – headquarters of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

They’re all smiles, each wearing fancy cowgirl duds for this photo shoot. What is also clear is that each of them would be just as comfortable in a pair of Wranglers …

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Not So Smitten – At First

February 2012
It may have taken some effort for Brad Sondock to convince Deborah to date him, but their marriage has stood the test of time. (Photo: ##http://www.hartphoto.com##www.hartphoto.com##)

Not every love story begins the same way. Plenty of happily married couples would not have bet that, after their first meeting, they would want to spend the rest of their lives with each other.

Here are some neighbors’ accounts of rocky dating with smooth endings.

Noga and Steve Tobias
Married 25 years this April with three girls (Sharone, Leore …

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Buzz About Town – February 2012

February 2012
Wining

Birthday wining
Girlfriends Margie Cooper, Lynne Marion, Rhonda Van Liew, Yoosun Sharma, Elizabeth Curry, Jan Jong (pictured, from left) and Ann Stahlings celebrated Marion’s birthday with five days of sightseeing, shopping, wine tasting and hanging out in Napa Valley. The friends stayed at Marion’s house, which includes a backyard vineyard.

Merry Swissmas
The Polocheck family – Jeanne (pictured above), Layne,

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From Crawfish to Cowboys

February 2012
Former New Orleanians Emily, Ellie and Andrew Webster (from left) host an annual Mardi Gras crawfish boil at their Houston home. (Photo: ##http://www.hartphoto.com##www.hartphoto.com##)

Celebrating February in Houston

Although it’s the shortest month of the year, February is one long celebration. From the all-American Valentine’s Day to Chinese New Year, there’s something happening all month. But in Houston, two events – Mardi Gras and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo – dominate.

Emily and Andrew Webster, who retreated here from New Orleans after Hurricane …

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Back Porch – Real Love, Every Day

February 2012
Amy Koppel loved her many fans, most notably her husband Rollie and their five grandchildren: (from left): Aliza Koppel, Miller Van Hanken, Lucia Ann Van Hanken, Max Koppel and Asher Koppel.

This column was in the back of my mind as I sat through the funeral for the mother of one of my dearest friends. I had been trying to think about love – the theme of this month’s Buzz. And while a funeral is  the last place I expected to find inspiration for a light story on Valentine love, …

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Rumor Has It – February 2012

February 2012
Cynthia Bigelow, Rosemary Schatzman, Anne Siller and Gina Gaston Elie (from left) shoe-watch at a high-heeled party.

Step carefully. “I wish shoe will attend this High Heeled event” is how the invitation read for Rosemary Schatzman’s celebration for her friends from schools, charities and life. She mingled in Jimmy Choo golden-glittery shoes while guests savored the shoe-tini drinks made with Godiva white chocolate and ate other delicacies. Fancy shoes were in sight everywhere. Striking and hairy were …

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Buzz About Town – January 2012

January 2012
Rogers

Rogers revue
Stratford High School student Will Lynde lassoed a plum role. He plays Will Rogers in the Stratford Playhouse presentation Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue, which opens Jan. 26.  The cast spent six months preparing for the show and trained with “Cowboy Doug” Whitaker to learn rope and lasso tricks. Pictured (from left) are the “Cowboy …

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Back Porch – Cultivating Happy

January 2012
Suzie Barber's aunt Barbara's daily emails and her photos spread happiness. This photo came with the quote: “A person of strength, like a waterfall, channels their own path.”

Every January, I just know I’m going to become a better person. I’ll be more organized, more intellectual, more productive, more focused. I’ll live more in the moment, appreciate more, sweat not the small things. I’ll set lots of goals, which, ultimately, if I accomplished them all, would culminate in one end result: a big boost of happy.

I’m not …

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Midsection, Midlife and Motivation

January 2012
A midlife move to finally get in shape requires many kinds of motivation. Grab one – any one – and ride it, says Greg Hassell, who started on an elliptical and recently discovered indoor cycling. Photo taken at Trotter Family YMCA.

Midlife motivation to start exercising takes many shapes and burns at different intensities.

For me, a looming 50th birthday was a powerful reason to whittle away at a waistline that had expanded without much notice from me – until I saw pictures on Facebook. I had been aware enough to realize that my energy levels were flagging and feeling good …

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Long Live Libraries

January 2012
Alexandra Van Doren takes 4-year-old Max to West University Library every Tuesday to socialize with other mother-and-child pairs and pick out a stack of books and DVDs. (Photo: ##http://www.lawellphoto.com##www.lawellphoto.com##)

At 4 p.m., teenagers from nearby Pershing Middle School invade the McGovern-Stella Link Neighborhood Library, their voices clawing at the silence, bleeding out of the contained space created for them.

In the commotion, sitting at a small desk surrounded by friends, is Sam Herman, an eighth grader at T.H. Rogers Middle School. Herman could go home after school, but he …

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How Newcomers See Our Hometown

January 2012
George Jordan, originally from Atlanta, actually prefers the Houston freeway system. (Photo: ##http://www.hartphoto.com##www.hartphoto.com##)

When we moved to Houston, I toured a house with our real-estate agent. It had what was, to my New York City eyes, a good-sized room off the master bedroom. This room had windows but also, oddly, shelving on all of its walls.

“What’s this?” I asked.

After a long, searching pause, my agent answered, “Why, bless your heart, darling. …

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It’s On The List

January 2012
Keith and Ilse Rassin love checking off to-do lists. (Photo: ##http://www.hartphoto.com##www.hartphoto.com##)

People are passionate about their lists. Ask them to describe the ways they organize their lives, and they’ll detail the intricacies – or lack thereof – of personal systems built through the years to safeguard against tasks falling through the proverbial cracks.

One West University woman in her early 40s who works full-time as a doctor while managing two elementary …

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Rumor Has It – January 2012

January 2012
The first Crystal Awards Fashion Event to support Spring Branch ISD’s upcoming March 2 gala was attended by 348 enthusiastic friends. Moms of SBISD students are (from left) Cathy Derrick, Patty Busmire, Wendy Moreland, Kathy Wiggins and Kristie Stewart.

It was an Oscar-worthy affair. The inaugural fashion event to raise money for the upcoming Crystal Awards Gala, to be held March 2, was sponsored by the Spring Branch Education Foundation. The fashions from Dimensions were sparkling, and the moms of SBISD students had fun on the fashion runway. Some of those beauties were event chair Wendy Moreland and Cathy

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Rumor Has It – December 2011

December 2011
High on life in Peru, friends taste alpaca carpaccio on the way to Machu Picchu. In the front row (from left) are Emma Cohen, Sonia Smith and Dollie O’Day. In the back row (from left) are Nora Ackerley, Mary Powell, Liz LaPorte and Lisa Kline.

Girls trip to Peru
Mary Powell
and friends Dollie O’Day, Liz LaPorte, Lisa Kline, Nora Ackerley, Sonia Smith and Emma Cohen journeyed 3,100 miles to Peru for a week. High on the agenda was Cusco, which is 11,300 feet in elevation, and Urubamba (Sacred) Valley. Their guide, Fernando, invited them to his home for “tea” and a surprise dish of …

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