What a great weekend!

Sorry I have not blogged in a few days, I've been too busy having fun! So just to get you caught up. Here is what I have been up to since Friday.



Friday, Mike and I caught up on many episodes of Heroes. That is one of the shows on NBC that is no longer available at my house, because I have cable - and TimeWarner and our local NBC affiliate are feuding over money. That means no Heroes, no SNL, no Office. I am mad. But, Mike has Direct TV so he has been recording all the episodes. What a season this is! Lots of villains and characters I thought were good are bad and vice versa.




Saturday was a UT football game vs Oklahoma State University (OSU). It was the closest game so far this year and although UT was ahead the whole time, it felt like we were losing. Colt McCoy broke several school records but also threw an interception and fumbled the ball. It really came down to the last 30 seconds and we got lucky and won 28-24. There was a record number of fans at the game, 98,053 and because the game was so close, more of us than usual stayed until the end - meaning it took an eternity to exit the stadium.



We had a Halloween party to go to Saturday night. I had thought we would have more time between the end of the game and the party, but there was no time to recover from the game before it was time to leave for the party. Kelly gave us the idea for our costumes. I went as a bathroom wall, complete with a tp dispenser and graffiti. And Mike went as kind of a bathroom graffiti writer. It was a very interactive costume and people at the party wrote their own graffiti on my wall. It was hard to dance in this costume though. The costume that won the prize was a girl who came with her face in a framed portrait. Her boyfriend is an artist and he painted it for her, cut out the face and then they painted her face to match it. It was very clever!



On Sunday we had tickets to the last concert at the Backyard an outdoor venue that opened the same year we moved here. It is such a nice venue, but I guess the level of frustration the owner has with the mall it is adjacent to just got to be too much and he says he is getting too old to be doing this. He is thinking about re-opening in another location - he even has the land and there were sketches of the layout yesterday - but he apparently won't commit to doing it yet. So the doors opened at 2, music started at 3 and we got there just after the first performance. Here's who we saw from about 4:00 until we left at 11:30: Nakia and His Southern Cousins (fun band, also saw them at ACL), Carolyn Wonderland (LOVE her music!), the Gourds (a popular local Austin band), Kelly Willis (good, but very laid back and mellow), Grupo Fantasma (got everyone on their feet dancing and singing!) , Ruthie Foster (one of my favorites for her New Orleans bayou type sound altho I think she is from Texas), Jimmie Vaughn (I've never seen him "live" before and he was who I really wanted to see and I wasn't disappointed) and finally Willie himself came on around 10:30. I love Willie. Although he sings softly now and mumbles some of the words, he is so giving to the audience. Fans toss hats and things up onto the stage and he puts them on, sings a song or two or three and then tosses the item back to the owner. So throughout his show he wears many different headbands, cowboy hats and ball caps. Mike and I met Virginia, Brian and Jack (Brian's son who fell asleep during John Fogerty) at the show. Chairs weren't allowed, so we had blankets to sit on, but we had to put them on cement because there was no grass. Anyway, our feet and butts are really sore today after all that time standing and sitting on cement. Oh, and they ran out of food! Lucky for them they did not run out of beer so there wasn't a riot.



So, here is Virginia



And here is Jimmie Vaughn. You can see how the stage is set with big trees behind it and there are large live oaks all around the seating area. This place has a great vibe. It feels like you are way out in the country literally in someone's backyard at a private party. And the main event - Willie!
Now it is Monday. I survived a day at the office and came home to cook dinner for Duncan. But first we carved pumpkins.

Duncan made a scary one with many big teeth and I tried a new technique (for me) where you don't cut all the way through and you get a glow effect. Here are the finished products

Why I don't walk barefoot to pick up the paper anymore

This innocent little guy was sunning himself on my driveway when I went out to get the mail yesterday. I was barefoot and didn't have my camera so I ran back into the house, careful not to step on anything suspicious along the way. Why is it I need constant reminding that I live in a world full of other creatures and need to keep my shoes on?!?! After finding my shoes and camera I went back out to find this critter and he had slithered into the grass but I found him. He looks innocent enough...but where are his mother and father?! I won't mention what else I have seen cross my driveway that has long furry legs and starts with a T. Shoes - got em on now!

Random things I love about Austin, part 1

This is the most fun garden shop in the whole world and I pass it on my way home every evening. No matter what kind of day its been, it always makes me smile. I took this photo about a week ago from my car, hence the pumpkins amid the flamingos. In August the flamingos are replaced with plastic penguins to help us think cool thoughts on those very hot days. They get painted red and blue whenever the local high school football team gets into a championship (which used to be pretty frequently. And Drew Brees - the Saints quarterback - graduated from that school.) When Lance Armstrong won the Tour for the 7th time they had yellow flamingos in his honor. I have one of those, along with 2 pink ones in one of my front gardens. I hope this makes you smile too! :)

Birthday week finale

On Saturday, the kids and I met at Leslie's to inspect her completed bathroom project. Steffi was highly amused that the mirror was also a mirror on the inside.
Now you don't have to imagine what the birthday basket looks like on the cabinet. Below is the new shower, that still doesn't have a door so anyone, including Lucy, can jump in.
And the bath with a Picasso print. Duncan was fashionably late and initially got big growls from Lucy and then he charmed her just like all the girls into giving him lots of licks and kisses.
We went to lunch at Waterloo. We all enjoyed lunch amid the other patrons who were there to watch the Texas Tech - A&M game. Steffi will not recommend their peppercorn blue cheese burger because it was too long on peppercorns and short on the blue cheese. Then we went back to Ant L's house for presents and red velvet cake (a cake which I had been planning to bake but had to buy since Ms Steffi borrowed my cake pans and forgot to bring them home this weekend!) and collaborative cheating on Phase 10.

Odds and ends

Thursday Duncan and I had movie night, preceded by a haircut for him

and delicious sandwiches from Which Wich for dinner. We saw Burn After Reading, which stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney. You would think that any film with those two in it would be worthwhile. Nope. We kept waiting for the plot to develop. The ending was funny and it was a relief that it was over. Between Chihuahuas and this I think Duncan should choose the next movie.

Duncan spent the night on Thursday and we went to an eye doctor appt for him first thing Friday morning. The good news is that his eyes have not changed so it will just be a routine refill of his contact lenses and replacement of his scratched lenses for his glasses. After the appointment I went in to work, not expecting to get a parking space at 9:30 - but parking karma was good and I did!! Then, adding to this already good day, the east and west coast wine buyers had been in town this week and had left many many bottles of wine to be distributed to the lucky inhabitants of the 2nd floor - me included! I have no idea whether these wines are good or bad, but besides the $2.97 bottle of wine we tasted in Atlanta the other week, I haven't had a bad bottle of wine in a long time. And if these are bad - who cares - they were free!

Friday evening Steffi, Brandi and I went to see the fall play, Shakepeare's Twelfth Night, at St Michaels in their new performing arts center. So unfair that it was not completed until after Steffi graduated! On our way in we admired her brick near the entrance of the new center. They even spelled her name correctly. Anyway, the facility was fabulous, there were lots of alumni in the packed house and the play we excellent!!

BOOoooooOOO!!!!!!!

Just a quick post... I put up my Halloween decorations last evening when the rain finally stopped. Topher was pretty spooked by the pumpkins!

These skeleton heads glow and then fade and then glow again so it was tricky getting a picture of everything lit all at once.
I know it is really too early but I hope we can carve pumpkins this weekend. :)

Happy Birthday Leslie!

Today is my sister's birthday so we all (her neighbors Sandy and Una, Mike, me and the birthday girl, of course) went to County Line on the Hill to celebrate. Tomorrow there is a birthday lunch at work for her and another co-worker. On Saturday we will celebrate again with Stefanie and Duncan. Nothing like having a birthday week!

Gift ideas this year were obvious. Her bathroom remodel is virtually complete (only the shower door is left to be installed - yay!). Leslie offered to allow my Mom and me to give her new towels and stuff for her birthday. I hear that we are not the only family that does this? - buy things for yourself and then take checks from others to pay for them. I guess you get exactly what you want that way. Anyway, I got credit for the bathmats and Mom gets to give her the towels. (That's Lucy, looking very mature since she turned a whole 1 year old 2 weeks ago. Don't be fooled -she is still just a big puppy!)

I wanted to give her something else for her spiffy new room. What I had in mind was a silk flower arrangement. Lucky for me that Leslie sent over some recent photos that gave me inspiration and confidence to do something creative. Here's what inspired me. Doesn't that tall cabinet just beg for a basket arrangement on top?!

So I went to Michael's and bought all the pieces for something I envisioned would work, and add some color and texture to the room. I really had fun assembling it and Leslie says it is just perfect for the room Even before I mentioned where I thought it should go, she told me it would be perfect on top of the cabinet. Yay! This was taken in my kitchen so you'll just have to imagine how it looks in her room (and I'll take pix this weekend).

Hope you had a great day sister!

YLS

PS. And happy birthday to Patricia and Abby who also have birthdays today.

a little rain won't slow us down

So here we are in Charleston, actually the Isle of Palms, where the weather was perfect before we arrived and is supposed to return to perfect just about the time we take off on Sunday. Nevermind, we can do pretty much everything we had planned (except sitting on the beach) in the rain. As you know from my previous post, we are staying with Kelly in her most adorable beach house here. Her parents live a few miles away in Mt Pleasant and her sister lives just a few blocks away on the island. The whole family decided to move here a few years ago from Maryland. Isn't that cool? I used to be their babysitter and have just kept in touch over the years.

Thursday we started the evening off at Crave where we had to have a Sweet Tea-ni made with Charleston's unique Firefly Sweet Tea vodka. Tasted just like sweet iced tea - absolutely delish!! So, there's a story behind the Firefly Sweet Tea vodka. Kelly mailed a bottle of it to me for ACL weekend. Only it exploded in my hot mailbox so only the geckos who live in there got to enjoy it. You can't buy it in Texas and it sounded like such a great thing that I wanted to buy a bottle to carry back to Austin so we had to go to Crave to learn how to make Sweet Tea-ni's with it when I get home.

After Crave we went over to Kelly's sister Michelle's house for their Mom Jo's homemade gumbo - two varieties - regular and landlubbers (for Mike since he is allergice to shellfish).


Friday there was a brief period of time where it was not raining so we hit the beach to read our books. The water was warm - still about 75! You'd never know it, but there were big gray clouds on either side of this blue part of the sky.



We decided to stay on the islands (Isle of Palms and Sullivan's) for the evening. We started off at Poe's for a few drinks before dinner. Poe's is named after Edgar Allen..who aparently spent the last days of his life here the Charleston area. All of the entrees are named after his books and there is a huge beetle in the front sidewalk.
For dinner, we had reservations at High Thyme just across the street. There was this wonderful Terrapin beer on the menu that Mike had in my honor (as a Maryland Terp) even tho it is brewed in Athens GA. Terrapins rock!!
This was our waitress, Emily. You can tell by looking at her that we had the best service.

After dinner we had to explore another bar in the area, Dunlevy's Pub. We wanted Mike to pose here, but he refused.

Around 11 we went to the Windjammer to listen to some live music - a cover band called Playlist. They played all this "great" 80's music that we were embarassed to admit we knew. It actually was a lot of fun, especially the people watching. We stayed out pretty late and then slept in until 10, which was just wonderful...and just in time to get up to watch the UT game at noon. More on Saturday tomorrow....

The Flip Flop Inn

The "Flip Flop Inn" is appropriately named. Seriously, Kelly has enough flip flops to wear a different pair everyday for several years and never wear the same pair twice!

I love this sign - "If it's called Tourist Season Why Can't We Shoot Them?"

It is quite comfortable here and if it wasn't raining at the moment, I would probably be asleep in the hammock.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Last night Duncan and I went to see that new movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua. We were going to smuggle Topher in, but because we were having dinner first we left him at home. Dinner was at a sports bar called Zingers up at the Hill Country Galleria. The HCG reminded both of us of something you might find in Colorado - it is a very nice outdoor shopping mall with lots of rough stone. The Bee Caves City Hall and library are there as well as lots of shops, restaurants, an amphitheater and the movies. As most sports bars do, Zingers has TVs everywhere. They also have several WIIs for the kids to play - I guess while the parent(s) watch sports. There is a game console in each booth for you to play video games and puzzles at your table. You will not get bored waiting for your food at Zingers! The movie was super cute and had a story line that you would expect - dog gets lost, female lead goes looking for it, male lead who doesn't know female lead jumps in to help (with his chihuahua), everyone has adventures and falls in love and makes it home safely. I don't think I am giving away too much because this is exactly what you would expect.

Bulk Pick Up Day

Today is the second semi annual bulk pick up day. Obviously I skimped on the first one back in April.

The sprinkler guy came around 8:30 this a.m. to make my system work again. While he worked his way around the yard repairing the sprinkler heads I started hauling stuff out of the garage to the curb. By 9:30 I had made some progress. Old carpet, old bike, extra insulation and a ton of wood.At some point mid-morning one of the bulk pick up trailers showed up and took everything that was metal. And since Duncan wasn't here yet, they carried the sleep sofa (which didn't deserve to be put on the pile upside down....) out to the pile. And I wasn't finished yet. Thankfully, Duncan was on his way over to help. The sprinkler guy snagged a few things he wanted like an old wheelbarrow and a scooter for his son.

I found more "treasures" in hobbitland, like the birthing box we used when Choco had puppies and my old skiis and, of course, more wood!

While in hobbitland, I found my very first Price Waterhouse audit bag, circa 1984. It had a huge capacity for "working papers" but was really ugly. I had to save it. For now.

I also opened a box of books and found this list of baby names that I remember listing when I was pregnant with Duncan. He approved of several of them, like Savannah and Samantha. He did not care for Ariel or Tiernay. Good thing he was a boy!! I also found another briefcase of mine that was completely empty except for this picture of Stefanie when she was about 3 or 4 months old. She was obviously a very happy baby on this picture day.

After Duncan arrived I made him his favorite breakfast - pancakes! I am known for making shapes on request. I make turtles and bunnies like my Mom taught me, plus I make dinosaurs, eiffel towers, taj mahals, almost anything. Today the request was for a truck. I made this one first and then made another, much better one, that Duncan ate before I could photograph it.

Then I made a star and moons for myself and a snake for later.

After breakfast was over around 12:30 we went back out to the garage for more work.

Now it is almost 5 and all that stuff is still at the end of the driveway. Duncan said that we had the largest pile by the curb. They are probably going to embarass me by not coming back tonight. I bet it will fill up their whole trailer when they come back.

Oh, I should explain that Hobbitland is the large 500 sq ft air temperature controlled storage area underneath my house. Access is through the garage. We call it Hobbitland because you have to be a very small person, like a hobbit, in order to stand up inside since it is about only 5 1/2 feet from floor to ceiling. We constantly bump our heads on the ceiling and light fixtures so I try to remember to stay in a hunched-over position while down there and I still bump my head when I forget. It is a wonderful storage area and would have made a great playroom for the kids when they were little, but we had a large indoor playroom so we just used it as storage.

Losers Lunch

We have had a tradition here for many years called the Losers Lunch. It only happens during football season and we always go to the same pizza place - Frank and Angies. We used to have the same waiter - Daniel - until he went to work somewhere else. It all started when we realized that each of us, we were IT Directors at the time, supported a different football team. I am a Redskin fan, Jeff was a Cowboy fan, Bill and Dave both supported the Giants and Doug rooted for the Bengals. Whenever our teams played each other the winner got treated to lunch by the loser and the loser had to wear the winning team's jersey all morning through lunch. This made for some very amusing morning meetings and walks to lunch! The group has changed somewhat, but those of us who are still in Austin continue this tradition. Yesterday we "celebrated" the Giant's win over the Redskins (see, I have a lousy Eli Manning jersey on) and the recent Redskins win over the Cowboys (David B is wearing my Santana Moss jersey).

We had the late softball game last night, 9:15. It was a beautiful night for softball, just a really late one. And we won. And, I scored more runs last night than I had in probably in the entire previous 2 years. I don't know how, other than the game was fast-paced and sometimes each of us would be up twice in an inning. The scoreboard wasn't lit so we had no idea what the score was, other than we won. Then we hung around for awhile and watched a game that started at 10:15. I am really looking forward to a couch potato evening of just watching the debates tonight.