Taking my lead again from Travis Erwin’s My Town Monday post, I decided to write about a famous someone born in Houston. Despite being late to the game, I caught up earlier this year and am now wanting to re-watch the first seasons of Gilmore Girls. So…I give you, Alexis Bledel, a.k.a. Rory Gilmore.

Kimberly Alexis Bledel was born in Houston, TX in 1981 to an Argentinian father and Mexican mother. (I never would have guessed!) Her first language was Spanish, and her mother encouraged her to join community theater to overcome her shyness. Too bad my mom didn’t do the same…

Bledel is the adorably witty Rory Gilmore as well as the calm and collected Lena Kaligaris in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies, the next of which is scheduled to be released this August.

I couldn’t pinpoint a great quote, but I understand that while on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, she indicated a fondness for Wendy’s, saying that their Hi-C Fruit Punch was the ‘perfect chaser’ for their chicken nuggets. How can you not love her???

It’s hot. And humid. Welcome to Houston and its six months of summer…blech! Usually we try to arrange a summer vacation that involves us traveling to a location with a bit of relief from the heat, but this summer we have no such plan. This summer, my husband has suggested Schlitterbahn Waterpark in South Padre. South Padre, while on the Gulf of Mexico, is even further south than we are and thus, is quite hot as well. Of course we’ll be in the water, but still…

As a result, I’ll spend the next six months (give or take) being jealous of everyone living in a cooler climate or vacationing in one. These are the sorts of images that have been flashing through my brain with disturbing regularly of late:

Can anyone pinpoint the locales?

A Lego store just opened at the mall closest to our house, much to the delight of my boys. To celebrate the grand opening, they brought in a Lego Master Model Builder to create an 8 foot Yoda with the help of mall-going kids. Not knowing what to expect, I toted my kids to the mall today to participate and was actually very pleased and impressed.

The Master Builder had created a two foot Yoda model from three basic Lego colors and he was having the kids create jumbo-sized Lego blocks for him to use to create the 8-foot model. My older son built nine of these blocks and my younger son seven, and they could watch as the M.B. was adding these big blocks to the larger model. They would have stayed, but we hadn’t eaten lunch, and I dragged them away… Mean mom.

* Just in case you’re wondering, I looked this quote up–it didn’t spring off the top of my head. I’m not sure whether this makes me look more or less geeky.