Weekend in the Hill Country

This weekend to celebrate my 30th birthday, D was kind enough to reserve a cottage in the Texas Hill Country with our friends the Andersons and the Mizes.  This is probably our last weekend to get away and it was absolutely perfect.

Our Bedroom

The grill and firepit, where we cooked s'mores under the Texas stars.

 D was sweet enough to roast me a marshmallow and I made myself a PERFECT s'more with a Ghirardelli mint chocolate square.  Not diabetes approved, but it was my birthday weekend and I only had one.

Front porch for relaxing

Gourmet kitchen where we all cooked dinner together Friday night.

The cottage was set on 34 acres and had two horses, one was a mini-horse.

Janet and the mini-horse

Christine and Janet with the not-so-mini-horse

Interesting story about the horses.  We got there super late after dark and wanted to build a fire in the outdoor fireplace after dinner.  After a lovely night, we finally turned in.  Around 7 AM I woke up with a leg cramp (yay pregnancy ailments) and walked into the kitchen to walk it off a bit and get a look at our surroundings once the sun came up.  Much to my surprise, staring in the living room window at me were the horses.  I got D out of bed and asked if the horses should be this close to the house and he said that the corral was probably close to the house, to which I replied, "No, they're standing next to the hammock, THAT close?" 

He jumped out of bed and we realized that the gate we had gone through the night before to get the firewood (and had left open) was the gate to the horse corral.  Thankfully, we had secured all the other gates on the property, so they couldn't escape, but D still had to herd them back into their corral.  The mini-horse wasn't having it and freaked out and started running around the house, which in turn got the bigger horse all riled up.  So there we are, in the middle of no where, with 2 horses in our front yard and no idea what to do.  Thankfully they decided to return to their corral on their own, after which we secured the gate (um, hello, if you're going to rent out your cottage maybe LOCK THE HORSE CORRAL GATE or perhaps LABEL THE GATE or better yet DON'T STORE THE FIREWOOD IN THERE???)

After D was done playing horse whisperer, we collapsed back into bed for a couple more hours.  The horses were super friendly to everyone else later that day, coming over and letting everyone pet them.  Everyone but D.  The horses had already decided that he was not cool.

Later that morning, Christine prepared a delicious diabetes friendly breakfast for us and we headed into Fredericksburg for some shopping while the boys went to the Admiral Nimitz museum.  I found some yummy smokey salsa and white truffle oil for D and I to enjoy at home and found some dog treats that looked like s'mores for the pups who were spending their weekend at the kennel.  That night we headed to dinner at the Cabernet Grill.

D and I before dinner

The girls before dinner

After an amazing dinner I got my long awaited slice of chicken fried pecan pie with a scoop of Jack Daniels ice cream.  While I wanted to wolf the whole thing down, I shared it with D since I wasn't really supposed to be eating it at all.  He was happy to oblige, for the good of the baby of course. 

We spent that night playing games and laughing so hard I was sure I'd pee my pants (thankfully I did not).  The next morning we packed up and stopped at the Herb Farm in Fredericksburg on our way out of town for a delightful brunch and then headed back to Austin. 

Happy New Year!

We had one of our most low key New Year's celebrations this year, maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but maybe I just realized how super duper blessed we are.  Saturday I spent most of the day in the kitchen, cooking chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles (YUM!) and the Barefoot Contessa's Greek Salad Recipe.  I added some lettuce to the salad, since D isn't fond of weird veggie only salads.  I also used some of the olive oil we brought back from Tuscany for the dressing.  I hate how Ina Garten is always saying "use 1/4 of a cup of good olive oil," implying that her viewers typically buy some sort of subpar ingredients on a regular basis but since you're making her recipe you should step it up a notch?  Maybe it's just me....

Anyways, I brought half the cupcakes over to a get together at D's brother and sister-in-law's house in the late afternoon.  We visited and had snacks and the boys grilled.  I mostly housed the chips and dips, using pregnancy as my excuse for my usual gluttony over anything dippable. 

After the sun set we headed home to change clothes, feed the pups, and then head to NYE bash number two (yes, we're very popular, kind of a big deal, I know) where I brought the rest of the cupcakes for dessert and the greek salad I'd prepared earlier.  We went over to Christine and Parker's for an AMAZING dinner complete with an impressive spread of hors derves, wines, egg nog, a delicious prime rib, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, and kale au gratin.  Suddenly, I wished I'd made a more impressive dessert, maybe cupcakes are a bit low brow as a finale for a spread like that, maybe I'm a bit nutty because I'm preggo, but they were moist and totally hit the spot.  I ate two.

We headed home right after midnight, this preggo was A) exhausted and B) *TMI alert* rather gassy.  Like grab on to something wincing in pain with gas cramps gassy.  It was so bad that I had flashes of worry that I was in labor or something.  Then the reality set in that oh-my-god-labor-is-going-to-hurt-that-much-and-more-f*#$!  So we came home where I could take the appropriate medications and wait out the storm in the peace of my own bed.  Also, note, that this isn't  like me being all farty and gross, it was just pains, I would kill to "be all farty".  The baby seems to be jamming up all that business in my digestive tract so it's not getting out, thus the intense stabbing pains in my abdomen, causing me to excuse myself from social gatherings, lest people interpret my periodic gasps and winces of pain as I clutch the nearest pillow as actual labor.  I blame that damn greek salad and all the chopped up veggies.... 

 

New Year's Day we woke up, decidedly un-hungover, and spent the day doing chores around the house.  I picked out a paint color for the baby's room.  There were multiple trips to Lowes.  The paint department guy there officially knows me as the crazy pregnant lady who bought WAY too many sample jars of paint and made off with roughly half their paint chips.

Left to right:  Sliced Cucumber, Lilting Laughter, Yellow Bliss, Butter, and on the bottom, Vanilla Wafer

The Lilting Laughter came off very pink and while I loved the Sliced Cucumber, we realized our ENTIRE house is either green or grey and that it wouldn't kill us to use a different color in one effing room.  Vanilla Wafer is a bit too close too white, so it's in between Yellow Bliss and Butter.  Butter looks best in the daylight, Yellow Bliss, best by artificial light.  We're still trying to decide between the two, but I'm sure it'll look great whichever one we choose.  As you can see we have ridiculously dark blue walls in that room, so a good coat of primer will be required. 

While I was having my color summit in the nursery (attendees included two terriers and D), I also made a big pot of my Guinness Stew.  This is one recipe that I can genuinely claim I made up.  I researched some other versions online, but it was inspired by something D had skiing one time and came home and told me about.  I made some tweaks from the last time I made it.

-Brown the meat in half a stick of butter.  Toss the meat with 2 tablespoons of flour, salt and pepper, then throw it into the melted butter.  I used 2 lbs this time.
-slice up an onion, 4 cloves of garlic, two carrots, 8 oz of sliced mushrooms, and half a lb of new potatoes, sliced in half.
-throw it all in a pot, add a can of tomato paste (4 oz-ish?) pour in a can of Guinness, add a cup of water and one packet of onion soup mix (I made this in the past with 2 packets, but I'm trying to cool it on the sodium being preggo and all and it was perfect)
-throw in some herbs, thyme, a couple bay leaves, some dried parsley, basically anything that sounds good and isn't nailed down
-put a lid on it and slide it into a 350 degree oven for 2 hours (I took it out once to stir it half way through)
-D likes his sauces thick, so I thickened the sauce with a couple tablespoons of flour, but that's totally optional
-I served it with buttermilk biscuits, but if you kept the sauce thinner, some rice or egg noodles might be nice.

And there you have it, flying by the seat of my pants, making it up as I go and never the same way twice, but it always turns out damn tasty and D is a very happy man.    Which is good because he spent the whole day rekeying our locks, replacing door knobs, fixing our brand new fan (which was crappily made, engineer husband to the rescue!).  And that is the very unglamourous way we rang in the new year, but it made me realize how blessed we were to have so many good friends, plenty of food on the table, jobs that allow us to have such nice things, a beautiful home, a darling child on the way, and of course, two of the snuggliest and most entertaining pups on the planet.  Sometimes you have to stop and wonder what you did to deserve all this, you know?

Weekend Recap

First of all, thanks to everyone for the helpful input on the shoe size issue.  I've decided to refrain from any shoe purchases until post-baby.  My husband can write me a big fat IOU on them. 

Friday
Had a nice evening home alone as the hubs was out with friends.  I got plenty done around the house, I hung up and partially organized the nursery closet, did laundry, and worked on our will.  Now that the baby is on her way, I figure we need grown up things like a will and life insurance.  These aren't super fun blog fodder, but I will recommend Quicken WillMaker.  Not sure about the quality of the legal document produced by it, but it took me no time to put together. 

Saturday

Saturday morning I went to Junior League's A Christmas Affair with Christine and Janet.  I am so glad I discovered this event as it will probably be something I take our little girl to as she gets older and will be attending for the shopping.  I thought it might be a silly way to waste money, but once I got there, I saw lots of unique things and wished I'd come with a better game plan to do more of the shopping with the nieces and nephews.

I got lots of great hostess gifts that I now have a decent little stockpile of.  No longer will I have to rummage around at the last minute or run to the store on the fly so I don't show up for a dinner party empty handed.  I got drink mixes, dip mixes, teas, a super cute ornament customized to indicate that this year is the Christmas that we are expecting (will include a photo once I get it on the tree), and lots of baby clothes.  I also discovered Austin retailers that I would have never known about otherwise like GaGa Boutique located on SoCo.  They had all sorts of unique Austin-ey onesies (I got one with a guitar on it as a tribute to D), teething necklaces, and I picked up this Diappes & Wipees carrier.

It holds 2-4 diapers and wipes so if you want to grab the baby and minimal extra crap, you can just grab this.  Once again, the guitar theme for D.  I figure it's good for him to have when he's taking the baby somewhere quick or running over to a friend's house so he doesn't have to lug the giant diaper bag.  There were also lots of clothing boutiques for grown ups and children alike.  Sadly I didn't want to invest in any clothes other than maternity, so I skipped the grown up stores but they had some super cute stuff.  I got the baby a couple other things, but didn't get too carried away, if anything I wish I'd bought more because I kept thinking about things and wishing I'd sprung for them.  I'll know for next year and plan my budget accordingly.  They also have great events in the morning for the kiddos, I look forward to taking our little girl to those!

Afterwards I came home and had a nap.  Later that night we met friends downtown for dinner and drinks. 

Sunday
Sunday was a rather dull day.  I woke up and got a prenatal massage and then came home and did chores.  D continued his war with the dresser refinishing all weekend, extended from last weekend.  We finally gave up and decided to paint the whole thing white to match the other baby furniture.  We tried, you win some, you lose some.  I then sat around the house, drank tea, did laundry, napped, ran errands and snacked on some smoked gouda (cheese is my number one craving in pregnancy). 

I got a lot done and feel like I'm leaving the house in good shape for the upcoming holidays!  I look forward to spending time with family and cooking up a storm!

Weekend Recap

Friday

My parents came in from Houston to help us with baby prep stuff.  We had a yummy BBQ dinner of food my parents picked up in Elgin and then went to Lowes to get supplies for our weekend projects.  Darryl was kind enough to replace our kitchen sink faucet since it was corroded and getting dangerously close to breaking.  I kept imagining it breaking off on a Tuesday night and a giant geyser shooting up in the middle of the kitchen.  Replacing the faucet was really the last thing that needed to be done for our kitchen makeover, so I was glad to finally have it out of the way!

Saturday

My mom and I went on an Ikea adventure and found a great changing table that matches the style of our nursery and was under $70!  Sold.  We came home to find D and my dad working their way through restaining the guest bedroom dresser to match the nursery based on a project I saw on Young House Love.  Turns out Sherry and John, they are not.  It ended up being a difficult project, but they persevered.  After Ikea my mom and I ran some errands together and then went through the GIANT box of hand me downs from our friends' little girls.  We are so lucky because they had the most beautiful clothes.  My mom kept exclaiming how much better dressed my daughter is going to be than me!  Since we were given clothes from newborn to 12 months, I ordered a set of baby closet dividers and hangers on Amazon.  When they come in I'll be able to hang all the pretty dresses by age range.  Then my mom and I practiced swaddling my childhood baby doll using Youtube videos and directions from Happiest Baby on the Block.  We took a dinner break and then D and my dad put the crib together in the living room.

Sunday

The dresser still wasn't going great, the stain wouldn't dry so we decided to just leave it for a few days in the garage.  D put together the changing table and we rearranged the guest bedroom furniture to accommodate the new baby furniture.  At this point we realized a major miscalculation on our part.  There was no way to fit the crib through the doorways from the living room to the nursery.  So then poor D and my dad had to pull it apart and put the parts, defeated, into the nursery/guest bedroom.  My mom and I spent some quality time getting my closet situation under control. 

All and all, it was a productive and busy weekend, but I'm sure D will be glad that we don't have another one like it planned until January when we paint the nursery and start getting it set up for real!

Weekend Recap

Friday after work we came home from work and worked out. The hubs went to the gym and I went for a little jog around Town Lake. Later that night we met up with some friends for a late sushi dinner. Saturday we went to the Bluebonnet Air Show with Christine and Parker and his family.

Parker's grandfather was a P-51 pilot and told us about all the planes and even hooked us up with VIP passes! It made me wish I'd spent more time listening to my grandfathers' stories about the war while they were still alive

We had such a wonderful time and saw so much cool stuff! And Christine and I totally got hit on by an older gentleman who rolled up to us on his scooter and offered us a ride. 

We headed home and then down to the UT campus for a sweet date.  I took Darryl to my favorite Thai restaurant that I used to eat at every Sunday night because the cafeteria at my dorm was closed on Sunday nights.  I came to the realization at this point that DARRYL HAS NEVER TRIED THAI FOOD.  Whaaaaat?  How have I been with this man for 8 years and we've never eaten a meal of Thai food together?  So I helped him figure out what to order and he actually liked it!  Then we went for a stroll through our Alma mater, the whole time remembering all that used to be there.  Lots has changed on the Drag but the campus is basically the same.  We saw Tim McGraw and opener Luke Bryan.  This was also Darryl's first big country concert.

Look how good our seats were?  Darryl did good!

When Tim came out at the beginning of the show, he came out right in front of us and sang "Something Like That" right in front of us!  He did such a great show and sang all my favorites!  I might have fawned over him a tad too much because I turned to Darryl and said, "Wow, he's so hot!" he responded "Yeah, you've mentioned that a few times...."  Haha, whoops!

Sunday I headed down to San Antonio to meet up with Elizabeth for brunch at TRE.  We had a lovely time and they had such a fun selection of mimosas!  Both the food and the conversation were well worth the drive, Elizabeth always is so good at making me laugh. 

After that it was chores and errands and blogging to finish up a super fun and super busy weekend!

Why Wedding Photo Booths are THE BEST!

It was a beautiful wedding.  Ben totally cried as Janet came down the aisle.  Not like a single composed tear, but like kind of an ugly cry.  Except it wasn't ugly, it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in a wedding. 

 Darryl and I enjoyed ourselves immensely....

As did Molly and Buckley......

And Amelia and Jason....

And Christine and Parker.....

And Cami and Chase...

And all the bridesmaids.....

And all of the bridesmaids, a few of the groomsmen, and Darryl :).


They used Magnolia Photo Booth.  Check them out, they were cool!

Weekend Recap

Well folks, another lame weekend recap.  Actually, it was a pretty eventful weekend with several good stories, but unfortunately, mucho work related, which I don't blog about as a rule. 

Friday
Hopped a jet to Denver for my company wide technical meeting.  It's a super cool thing they do every year.  This year I was invited to present on a paper I had written on groundwater sampling technology.  We arrived just in time for lunch and the opening session.  I saw lots of good talks that day and got to spend some quality time bonding with my colleagues.  Interpret "bonding" as you may, I'll leave it as that.

Saturday
Woke up bright and early Saturday AM for my 8 AM presentation.  I felt less than stellar.  Not terrible.  But not like I was about to run a marathon either.  My presentation went well, lots of great questions and lots of people coming up to me for the rest of the day asking me about my study and complimenting my presentation.  I was nervous, I rushed, I have no idea if I made any sense, most importantly, I was thrilled that it was over.  It was an amazing honor but really scary at the same time.  After lunch I ducked out on a few talks and took an hour power nap, then headed back to the convention center. 

That evening we had our big banquet and went out to explore the bars.  Since a lot of us were hurting a tad from the night before, about half of it took it pretty easy (the other half, not so much).  Hung out with people in the lobby until 2:30 AM and then called it a night. 

Sunday
We went out to breakfast and then headed to the airport where our plane taxied out to the runway, then had to turn around and come back because of a mechanical problem.  So they put us on a new plane.  Taxi us out to the runway, turn around to come back because one of the engines had a "fatal error".  You know what two words I don't want to hear on an airplane?  "Fatal" and "error".  So we were put on  a third plane.  By that point it was obvious that the pilot was hating life as much as we were.  So a $100 travel voucher, a chocolate chip cookie, a lengthy discussion with my coworkers about how we could get snakes on a plane, three airplanes and five hours later, I was home sweet home. See you next year, Denver.

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens...Dreadful Weekend Recap

I've provided a photo of some happy little daffodils from my garden.  I have a couple of vases like this throughout the house.  These sunny little beauties are one of my favorite things about February, they pop up around Valentine's Day each year.  So in case my Valentine should forget to bring me flowers (he didn't forget) my garden will. 

Now in the scheme of things (war, famine, poverty) this weekend is hardly dreadful.  But has anyone had a bitch of a week at work (just spread thin, stressed out, overwhelmed) and you just want to relax and get ahead on your chores and work on the weekend?  These are just not the kind of things you want to deal with.  And I did get to spend some lovely time with friends and at the salon.  Without these bright spots I would be pulling my hair out. 

Friday
Darryl went out with some friends so I happily crashed on the couch, ate leftovers and cleaned out my DVR.  I love Friday night veg time.  However, midst vegging in front of the TV and surfing trashy celebrity gossip sites, I managed to get a computer virus from one of the websites on my personal laptop.  I had gotten a similar malware virus on my work laptop from Facebook, so not my first rodeo with this kind of virus removal (yes, I have a regularly updated virus protection program on both machines, consider yourself warned)  but it was still time consuming and frustrating.  While I was in the throes of removing this virus from my machine, Petey decided to mosey into the bedroom, crawl onto my bedside table, retrieve my plastic retainer and chew it up into tiny little bits, swallowing half of them.  Now I get to pay $300 to have a new one made.  Thankfully, Petey was fine.

Saturday
I ran some errands and got my hair cut and colored at the salon while I finished Jen Lancaster's Pretty In Plaid.  To round out the day I thought I'd stop at Jiffy Lube for an oil change.  I typically take my car to the dealer for everything, but I thought, it's convenient, why not. 

So I'm sitting there and my oil change is taking a loooong time.  The assistant manager comes in to tell me that they didn't have the right oil filter in stock so they ran down to AutoZone to grab a new one.  That one was out too, so they had to go to another one.  While this is all going on, unbeknownst to me, (I couldn't see my car from where I was waiting), they had left my headlights and all my interior accessories (radio, etc) and completely drained my battery.  AND they still charged me for the oil change.  Thanks for totally ripping me off and destroying my battery, ass hats.  I left a message for the district manager requesting reimbursement for both.  I mean, okay, the tech that drove my car into the oil change bay messed up, but what about ALL the other techs that walked back and forth in front of my car (it was in the bay closest to the waiting room) with its lights on and did nothing.  So.  Freaking.  Pissed.  Then they had the audacity to say that there was something wrong with my car and that it was experiencing an electrical "failure" and that they couldn't try jump starting it.  Calls made to Lexus customer service (love them) who confirmed that Jiffy Lube had drained my battery.  Then my husband had to come down and jump start my car.  Aren't you guys mechanics?  Why can an engineer and a geologist figure this out and you can't?!? 

Saturday night was nice, had dinner with friends which helped me take my mind off my rage.

Sunday 
Sunday morning I woke up and of course my car wouldn't start thanks to Jiffy Lube's complete decimation of my battery.  I went to brunch with friends in Darryl's car, tried to jump start my car again unsuccessfully so Darryl spent some quality time being sweet and replacing my battery while I spent quality time cleaning the house.  Sigh.  With weekends like these, it makes me long for the work week.  Hope your weekend was better than mine! 

Weekend Recap

Friday
Spent my lunch break with my coworkers delivering for Meals on Wheels.  Afterwards we grabbed a bite at Tam's Deli.  They're known for Vietnamese cuisine and are very affordable.  I had some yummy vegetarian curry, an egg roll, and one of their famous cream puffs for dessert, totally worth the hype.  After lunch my husband called to tell me some good news he'd received at work (what news he got exactly is private, sorry readers, not my news to tell) but I was so happy for him!  Friday night I came home and freshened up my hair and makeup and then headed downtown for a sweet dinner with my husband at Parkside on 6th street.  I've always wanted to try this place and we were meeting some friends at a bar for a birthday party and had intended to just stop for a slice of pizza or something on our way there, but I saw that there was no wait for a table so we went in!  I tried their Tex and the City cocktail, which was a mix of whiskey and jasmine liquor served up.  We shared some lump crab fritters and I had a Cesar salad for dinner and D had a cheeseburger and fries.  I totally recommend this place for happy hour.  Afterwards we headed up to the Treehouse Pub for a fab surprise birthday party for a friend.  We had a blast chatting with everyone and playing Foosball.  But I had to get up early the next morning so we left early.

Saturday
I met some friends at the Natural Gardner for an organic vegetable gardening class.  I learned lots of good information, I've realized how much I do wrong, no wonder my gardens are so "meh" each year.  I shall sally forth fortified with this new knowledge.  If you live in Austin I cannot say enough good things about the Natural Gardner, it's the only nursery I regularly visit and if you get there early on the weekends, the staff is super happy to chat with you about what you have going on in your garden and help you troubleshoot.  Afterwards I came home and worked in my own garden and planted leaf lettuce, carrots, and onions.  I added compost and a mineral mixture I got at NG.  Unfortunately while I was listening to the class (which was outside and surrounded by cedars) dust clouds of pollen were blowing all over me.  I had noticed problems Friday while we were doing MOW, but I was able to shake it off without medicine.  Saturday afternoon I felt so terrible, even after taking medicine, that I had to cancel my evening plans.  The idea of getting off the bed and getting dressed up was too much for me.  I took a shower, did laundry, and just laid in bed.  D had some friends over and made fajitas for dinner, I wasn't that hungry but he makes such good fajitas I couldn't resist having one.  Saturday was lame, I went to sleep super early while all my friends were at a fun birthday party, sad panda.

Sunday
We woke up at 5:30 AM because our power went out and our house alarm gets all angry when that happens.  I had slept through the huge storm, but I was glad that we got so much rain.  New seeds need to be watered 2x a year and rain water is the best water you can provide!  The garden seems to have survived the storm very well.  Now my challenge for the rest of the week is to keep my beds covered with ground covers and to keep the soil temperature above 35 degrees.  Also, I totally want a soil thermometer, I wonder if I could use something else around the house to the same end? 

I ran over to the Domain and checked out the sweet sale at Sur La Table, if you love cooking of just cooking gadgets, you should run over there and stock up, I came away with all sorts of goodies.  I did my grocery shopping and came home and whipped up some raspberry lemonade popsicles a la Waspy Redhead.  I deviated from her recipe a bit, so I hope they turn out well.  Next I made some dough for these cookies I saw on Smitten Kitchen.  The dough is currently chilling in the fridge, I have to let it chill for 3 hours?  I die.  I'm planning on filling them full of raspberry preserves.  Next I started a pot of beef ragu from this month's issue of Real Simple which I plan on serving for dinner tonight over pappardelle.  It's simmering on the stove in my favorite Le Creuset dutch oven and sipping a beer by the fire (I'm a tiny bit spoiled, no?).  Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot get the bowl of my electric mixer off the base.  This is a reoccurring problem and D has to pull it off for me every time after watching me groan and grunt and strain to try and get it to unscrew.  So there it sits still on the stand, full dough residue.  I was hoping to whip up some Parmesan and thyme crackers tonight to serve with some blue cheese butter along side my pappardelle, but alas, that will require me to remove the bowl twice and D is out until dinner time.  Maybe later in the week?  Hope you had a fab weekend!

Weekend Recap

Friday
Met up with my friend Lyra to go to the Texas Spirits Alumnae reunion.  I didn't want to geek out too hard in front of the actives/Lyra so I have no pictures but the gals totally outdid themselves this year.  They had the Active/Alumni mixer at Mayfield Park, which if you didn't know is possibly the most fab location for a garden party on EARTH.  Christine and Parker at Misadventures of An Ex-Yankee did their engagements there, shot by Inked Fingers of course.   They got a kick that Lyra and I, though we pledged 10 years ago, were still friends.  Lyra even found a lady who had been a pledge in the late 80's that had lived in the same bed in the same dorm room as her.  How crazy was that?

We noshed on all sorts of yummy treats including a chocolate fountain and a champagne fountain.  The gals still know how to throw a great soiree and based on the caliber of the actives we chatted up, I can tell why Spirits won UT's Best Student Organization this year.  I cannot express how proud I am to have been a part of this organization and how happy I am to see these ladies continuing the tradition and always it's always wonderful to catch up with Lyra, we don't see each other enough.  After the mixer I came home and my parents arrived to stay with us for the weekend.

Saturday
I cooked up a little breakfast complete with wild blueberry scones with pumpkin butter and a sun dried tomato, spinach, and goat cheese fritatta.  Then my mom and I headed down to the Natural Gardner for what I originally set out to be just a window shopping trip (FAIL).  If this whole geology thing doesn't work out I would love, love, LOVE to work there.  Total fantasy job.  I ended up coming home with a wagon full of goodies, I got a few new lettuce plants, a couple of mums, chives, and a few arugula plants, which my mom and I planted together.  Then we headed up to Ikea and bought a new cabinet to hold our liquor and barware and I got Darryl a new bedside lamp to match the one I already had.  Now our bedroom and kitchen are complete, hooray!  Saturday night we went downtown for a haunted tour of Austin on Segways. 

Darryl and I at the Capital

My parents on their Segways

It was a great tour, the guide told some good spooky ghost stories about Austin and we had a lot of fun zipping around town on the Segways.  It was pretty scary at first and a number of people on our tour fell off at some point, but I managed to stay on and got that bad boy up to its maximum speed (12 mph).  We had planned to walk around town following our tour but had a major case of Seg-legs (even though you're riding around your legs HURT when you get off) so we opted for a visit to Kerbey Lane and then went straight to bed.

Sunday
Woke up and had breakfast with the parents.  Darryl had been suffering from a cold all weekend and was pretty worn out after Saturday, but he rallied.  My mom and I sat on the back porch and cracked pecans (I have two huge pecan trees in the yard) and we wrapped up our weekend.  After my parents headed back to Austin I did the week's grocery shopping and spent a few hours cooking up some chicken stew and garlic herb popovers, half of which went to some friends with a new baby and the other half served as our dinner.  I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen today, Darryl said "I looked like I was Betty Crocker or something."  Finally, I closed out the weekend by showering, putting on some comfy loungewear, and sipping mimosas while cleaning out the old DVR.  Couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

Weekend Recap

Been a while since I've done one of these!  This weekend was glorious because it was my first free weekend at home in a month.  Three weekends ago, had to work all weekend.  Two weekends ago, Vegas (yeah I'm a little behind on the blogging, but I'm catching up).  Last weekend was ACL (post to come).  So this is the first weekend in a month's time that I've had all to myself.  It was really nice to feel BORED for a change.  We've had such a fun few weeks, but it's been a whirlwind lately and it was nice to kick back.

Friday
I came home  from work and took a nap.  I used to be in the habit of going to the gym Fridays after work but lately work's been so exhausting that I've been coming home and having to take a nap before I can do anything Friday nights.  I cooked us some yummy Hungry Girl crab cakes for dinner, then we made a Sonic run and went over to Christine and Parker's place to watch The Shining.  I've never seen it, I'm not big on scary movies, but this was right up my alley.  I don't like the stabby gorefests, but I like me some Kubrick.

Saturday
We had some work done to our house, we had extra insulation added and the whole thing weather stripped and had our air ducts taped to improve our home's energy efficiency.  There are lots of rebates from Austin Energy, Texas Gas, and the federal government to make these sorts of improvements.  And now's a great time to do this since the federal tax credits run out at the end of this year.  While they were working I whipped up a batch of Pumpkin Butter and put up our Halloween decorations.  Next I got my flu shot and then I picked up a couple new Halloween decorations and did our grocery shopping.  My sister-in-law had a baby two weeks ago so while I was watching the UT game (holla flat screen in my kitchen!) I whipped up a batch of my mushroom and asparagus risotto.  We also brought over some huge juicy steaks, salad, and cookies and served them a feast while the little tyke slept and we watched UT redeem themselves.  Then we went home and took the pooches for a walk and called it an early night.

Sunday
We woke up and headed to Opal Divine's Marina for some brunch with the hubs.  We took Ginger with us, they brought us a water dish full of ice cubes, her favorite.  She was a very good girl except for when she kept trying to jump up and sit on the picnic table in the seat next to me.  We came home and I worked in the yard and in my garden for a bit and cleaned off the patio.  Then I whipped up a batch of my famous chili and some Halloween cupcakes, most of which will go to the office with me tomorrow, but I saved us about half a dozen.  Finally we did our chores and hobbies (blogging, ironing, Shutterfly photobook making) while watching Crazy Heart.  It was good, Jeff Bridges totally deserved best actor.  I cannot get over how beautiful the scenery is in this movie, but then again I've always been partial to desert-esque landscapes.  Good way to end the weekend!

Pub Crawler

This weekend we partook in a friend's surprise birthday celebration including a ride on Austin's very own Pub Crawler. What is the Pub Crawler you ask? It's only been in business for a couple of months and it's a bicycle built for 15-ish with a keg on the front. The owner said they had it built in the Netherlands and then shipped over to the US. Here we are decorating while we wait for the guest of honor.

Pub Crawling is very serious business. We got lots of cheers, honks, people taking photos and videotaping us as we cruised around town. The hills were tough but we made it up and across First Street, though there were a couple seconds where I was certain we'd start to roll backwards.  We remembered a delicious keg from Uncle Billy's, a bottle of Patron, and Jello shots.  Know what we did not remember to bring?  Water.  Or some Gatorade would have been nice.  Hydration fail.

I keep trying to load video but it's crashing blogger, maybe tomorrow it'll be in a less fussy mood and I can post some pics of us in action.  Lance Armstrong, eat your heart out.

Weekend Recap

Friday
I was able to sneak out of work a bit early and get my highlights touched up.  Enjoyed taking some "me" time to sit and read while my hair processed.  Then I ran some errands to get some accessories to go with my bridesmaid dress for next weekend.  Friday night Darryl and I had a lovely date at Andiamo in north Austin.  I highly recommend it, it's very unassuming in a crappy looking strip mall but inside is a great place for a date and some AMAZING Italian food.  We shared a bottle of wine and I had the shrimp, asparagus, and pea risotto and Darryl had the veal ravioli.  Their bread is fantastic, I think we downed a loaf each and the cannoli and espresso for dessert were perfect.  We came home stuffed to the gills and did what any newlywed couple does after a romantic night out, we watched Man Woman Wild with Myke Hawk (say it out loud over and over a few times and see what it sounds like, cracks me up because I'm SO mature).

Saturday

Saturday I tried to get all my chores done while Darryl went out on a boat with friends on Lake Travis.  While I was working around the house I enjoyed my new Bath and Body Works candles, one called Fall Leaves and one called Autumn, which smell divine!  Saturday night I met the gang at Carlos & Charlies for some yummy fajitas.

Sunday

I woke up and made my famous sausage and Gorgonzola stuffed mushrooms for our fantasy football draft party later in the day.  After some breakfast (just tried chocolate cheerios, yummy!) the hubs and I headed to Old Navy to use our 30% off coupon and stock up on some basics for fall.  Of my finds, I got the sweater below.

Seems perfect for shopping or touring wineries on a brisk fall day paired with some skinny jeans and brown boots, yes?

Then I headed over to my coworker's house for our fantasy football draft party, which was actually pretty fun (confession: was dreading it) but everyone was really nice, the snacks were yummy and I was sad I had to go all early.  I had to duck out in round 13 to go interview a lady who wants to adopt a dog from Petey and Ginger's rescue group and tour her place to make sure it's a suitable home for a rescued pup.

Saturday night was full of iced tea and fresh mango, clean laundry and the Emmys!  Can't wait for all the fall shows to start! 

Weekend Recap

Friday
Came home from work and gleefully packed my new gym bag, procured from the Vera Bradley's website half off sale.  Normally I think that stuff is grossly overpriced but I have a purse from there that I use to travel and I find the use of pockets and washability of them makes up for the fact that they look like my grandma's quilt.  Plus the whole 50% off thing putt them right at the price point that I think they should be to begin with.

So I opened the box and before stuffing it full of my gym goodies, I did what every normal pet owner does, stuffed Ginger in it and walked around the house with her.

Petey was not chosen for this mission because A) he's been known to pee himself ALL THE TIME for no good reason and B) he usually has poop stuck to his butt and we hadn't done a "clingon" inspection that day.  Ginger somehow manages to keep her pooper pristine, so in the bag she went.  Now I don't know where I'd go with either dog in a bag, but I'm sleeping easier knowing that I now have that option, however, for now, the bag is occupied by my swimming gear.

So Friday night we went to dinner with a coworker and his wife and then they came back to the house to see our fabulous new kitchen and have a few drinks. 

Saturday
The next morning I had an 8:30 hair appointment, which was lovely and relaxing.  I got to sit and sip my coffee while reading Such A Pretty Fat (Jen Lancaster is my new literary obsession, but that's for another post) while my hair processed.  Then I ran up to the jeweler to get my ring inspected and cleaned followed by a brief jaunt to a nearby farmers market.  It's so hot, there's not a lot interesting going on in the way of produce, but I was more interested in the meat.  I came away with a couple of steaks, some snapper fillets, and some vegan mushroom tamales which I ate for lunch.  After some chores around the house and a trip to the gym we headed to a friends housewarming party. 

Sunday
We slept in until 11, which is uncharacteristic for us, but felt so good because we've had to get up early most recent weekends.  I cooked us up some lunch and we went to Home Depot to grab a couple things for the house and get some gardening supplies.  We filled our afternoon with me turning over one of my garden beds (1 down, 2 to go) and planting it full of flower seeds.  I planted cornflowers, cosmos, zinnias, and baby's breath.  I'm hoping for a nice fall cutting garden.  I also ordered some stock and snapdragon seeds due to come in next week that I'll add to the mix.   I absolutely love having the ability to cut my own flowers and make my own bouquets just from things I have growing in my own back yard. 

Afterwards I helped Darryl groom Petey.  We decided to attempt to groom our dog ourselves.  Cairns are a tricky breed and while we may have saved ourselves $50, it was time consuming and he looks pretty stupid.  Especially since I cut one side of his face shorter than the other, now he looks like a goofy Picasso painting with a crooked face or something.  And to make matters worse, we nicked his ear, though I think I was more traumatized than him from the whole experience, plus we still have to pay someone to trim his nails.  I draw the line at cutting nails.  Anyways, I'm sure we'd get better with more practice and his fur grows out extremely fast, but I don't think we'll do that again.  Plus coming in soaked in sweat from working in the garden to grooming a dog was a recipe for dog fur stuck all over my sweaty legs. 

Sunday night I made a batch of my turkey artichoke stuffed shells with spicy marinara sauce and put them in the freezer to have on hand for nights where I didn't feel like cooking or hadn't been to the grocery store.  For dinner we grilled one of the steaks that I bought at the farmers market, it was a great steak, I highly recommend 6J ranch.

Weekend Recap

A tad bit too late, but nonetheless, here it is:

Friday
Left work around 5, stopped at the liquor store for dry vermouth and blue cheese stuffed olives, mixed a Tanqueray No. 10 martini, popped open the laptop for another couple hours.  Ruminated on feelings about my work week that were soon drowned in gin.  Consumed leftovers.  Darryl came home from work around 8 to get weekend provisions.  Darryl attempted to make a Mexican martini with said provisions (and failed), I mixed a Bombay Saphire martini and we sat around the house until my parents arrived and joined us in cocktail hour.  Let me just say, working late on a Friday is kinda lame.  Having martini hour with your spouse on a Friday night at home rather than fighting crowds at resteraunts and bars = awesome.  Try it this weekend.  Thank me later.

Saturday
For breakfast I mixed up these babies for breakfast for the fam and then my dad, Darryl, and Christine and I headed up to Liberty Hill where we got to do all sorts of exotic things like judge a BBQ cookoff, and learn to rope goats, and drink Crown on tap.

Saturday night was a combination yard work/meat coma/tummy ache, as you could have guessed.

Sunday

We all went to brunch at Taverna and had yummy beignets, which reminds me, need to get the hubs down to New Orleans some time soon.  Haven't been in ten years!  I NEED some Cafe Du Monde.  Also the many drunk texts from friends at Jazz Fest helped to enhance that nostalgia, but I digress.  Sunday I picked up a couple things for our trip, such as this snappy fedora at the Gap:

And these sandals:

And these sunglasses at Old Navy

 

And these white bermuda shorts...which for me is a bold choice (light color on the bottom half of a pair shape, fear of sitting in something that stains them, white pockets that show through, do I need to keep going?) but I have a super cute flowy orange tank top to pair them with and I think if I cut the pockets out they'll be fine.  I also snagged a super cute sun dress and t-shirt.  Gap is really good for accessories right now, but not so much clothes.  Old Navy is BANGIN'.  Check out their summer collection.  Thank me later :).

Weekend Recap

Friday:  Went to HH with coworkers, then went over to a friend's house for more food and drinks.  Called it a night early while Darryl went to a fraternity alumni event downtown.

Saturday:  Worked on my garden some more.  I planted another bed of corn (the first bed is already sprouting, how exciting!) and planted some flower seeds in the other beds.  I'm planting lots of flowers all over to hopefully give me a good supply of cuttable flowers all summer.  I love fresh cut flowers, but they're too dang expensive!  We also built some mesh fences around the gardens.  Some of my corn failed to sprout and there was a lot of disturbance in the soil.  I suspect the terriers had a hand in stomping my little seedlings.  I'll give those areas another week before I replant.  Saturday night we went down to Cannoli Joe's (where I got a free t-shirt) to carb load before the Cap 10k.  It's not a very diet friendly place, but it sure it delicious!  I really enjoyed eating there with all our friends!

Sunday:  Christine and Parker picked Darryl and I up and dropped me at the starting line.  They cheered for me after the first mile and at the finish chute.  Those were really well chosen places because the first was just before the major hill climbing sequence that the race is so famous for and the second was after I had just hit the 6 mile mark and was starting my sprint to the finish line.  Lately my hip flexors have been killing me at the end of and after my runs (anyone got advice?) and this event was no exception.  But I managed to finish in 78 minutes and 21 seconds.  And I had a lot more energy throughout the race and my calf which ached for an entire month (I had surgery on it years ago) after last year's race isn't really sore at all.  So I would say that I finished the race with a faster time and a much better endurance than last year.  My goal is to shave a minute off my time each year :). 

After the race we went to Sagra and downed lots of mimosas and brunch. I came home, soaked my tired legs in a fantastic eucalyptis scented epsom salt bath that my friend Janet gave me for my birthday and relaxed.  Tonight Darryl came and helped me grocery shop (I feel good but am admittadly more sore, tired, cranky, than usual so having him help was great) and then we made dinner, whole wheat quinoa with asparagus and chicken sausage.  Now he's doing P90X, I'm eating Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia and considering if it's acceptable to chase it with a beer.  The diet of an elite athlete?  Not so much with the booze and the dairy, but I am going to enjoy the fruits of my labor today.  Then it's back in the saddle tomorrow.  Step one.  Get a bike.  It's triathalon season.

   

Easter Weekend in Pictures

Backyard Crawfish Boil Hosted by the In-Laws

Darryl and his sisters

Us digging in

Christine enjoying the day

Roman style chicken for Easter dinner, served over tri-color risotto

Gorgonzola and herb stuffed artichokes and roasted asparagus for Easter dinner

Weekend Recap, Winter Alelympics Edition

Friday

Had a lovely date night downtown at El Mercado followed by Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3D.  I actually enjoyed it in that is was not the story of Alice in Wonderland, but more of a work inspired as a sequel with elements of Through The Looking Glass incorporated.  It was a pleasant surprise because I hate the story of Alice in Wonderland and I really enjoyed the story line in this movie.

Saturday

Got up early, ran the 3 mile loop at Town Lake, then took the dogs to obedience training.  Then we came home and got suited up for the 2010 Winter Alelympics!  Notice our awesome ski gear.  We were Team America.

We bobbed for habaneros in a pool of ice water....

We risked the dangers of brain freeze in the popsicle binge eating competition...

We ran a triathalon...in pink flippers.....

We jousted on snowboards...I tried to get inside Christine's opponent's head by telling him she was pregnant (she's not, obvs) right before they started and then kept yelling to "not hit her in the baby".  She was the only girl in this competition, we had to use every advantage we could get.

We got WAY too enthusiastic about the games, I tore off my clothes into this outfit and declared to the crowd that I was going to "Michel Phelps this shit".  Note that A) I forgot to take off my bikini bottoms so I'm essentially wearing 1.5 swimsuits in this photo, B) I was wearing my running tights under my Speedo that is 2 sizes too large, C) I managed to put my Speedo on inside out, D) I had been drinking while I was trying to get dressed in this outfit, thus the debacle.  E) My "speed suit" did not perform well in the trial runs, so we eventually had to lose the tights...and turn it right side out while we were at it.....

We operated a bouncy house slip n slide without a trained operator on duty....

Here I am, clawing my way to victory, this thing takes a lot out of your abs, mine were KILLING me on Sunday.

If I do not chug this beer, then the terrorists win.  It was not light beer either making this extra challenging.

We brought it all home with a beer pong tournament, a cookout, and a concert from Do It Live.  I could not have thought of a better way to spend a Saturday.  Good friends, lots of beer, and lots of running around doing crazy things.  Darryl mentioned a friend's name who we should have invited but then said, "she's probably too healthy to do this," I looked at him and said, "I never want to be that healthy."  Life is too short to take yourself seriously, sometimes the healthiest thing you can do for yourself is to enjoy your youth, put on some crazy outfits, do silly things while drinking a couple beers, and live life to the fullest with both old friends and new ones.  That is what really matters in life. 

Sunday

Took a very hung over husband out to brunch.  Darryl doesn't get to go wild too often, so it was really fun to see him go all out, but he was in rough shape in the morning.  After brunch I convinced him to help me in my garden.  I'll post more about that later, with a full garden update.  Enjoy your week darlings!