Texas living for us

In Texas, you HAVE to invite people round for barbecues, and that's what we did a couple of weeks ago... About 15 people came to the house on a Saturday evening, and we enjoyed drinks, burgers, hot dogs and cakes inside the house and out. You won't actually see the barbecue itself on these pics, but it's a monster on which you can grill about 20 burgers at a time. The landlord left it on the porch for us to use.

On another, lesss joyous note, I've had to go to the dentist to get a deep root cleaning (ouch, I know. It's a procedure they don't seem to do in Europe...). My gums were in a very bad shape, and he recommended having them cleaned properly (as in, under the gum line), which the hygienist did. I needed 2 sessions, one for the right part of the mouth, and one for the left, followed by a laser treatment to cauterise everything and help the bone regrow properly.

Dentists in America are BIG business, and even with health insurance I still had to pay quite a lot from my (or rather the husband's) pocket... The laser part of the treatment for instance was not covered at all by the insurance, whilst the cleaning itself was covered at 80%. Today I went back to have an old filling sorted out (it needed replacing), and I'm quite pleased cos I now have one of those invisible fillings rather than the really ugly dark ones my dentist in the UK still does.

To make me (or rather, the husband) feel better about the bill, at least I got out of my dentist's practice with little goodies, including a kit to bleach your teeth at home, toothbrushes, floss and toothpaste. I tried the bleaching thingy, and it did clean my teeth a little, but not as well as I had hoped. What you do is put a few drops of bleaching solution (contained in the syringes) into plastic moulds of your teeth (in beige box), and place them in your mouth for about an hour everyday (for a total of two weeks).