Thanksgiving Day 2009

Today marks our second Thanksgiving holiday in Texas. It wasn't much different than the one we had last year. Moving to new places calls for new activities and traditions.

Not wanting to be strapped at home on Thanksgiving day cooking dinner for just the three of us (I do that all the time) we decided to do what we did last year....walk Town Lake. There are about 20 miles of hike and bike trail around the lake. Each time we go we try to walk a different end of the loop so we don't keep walking the same path over and over again.

Once again this year's weather was perfect. Here are some of the sights along our stroll...








Hmmmmm.........I'm sure there is a story behind this.






The fall colors were absolutely beautiful. By the end of our stroll we had walked close to 4 miles. We had a great day and plenty to be thankful for....a great city to live in, family

Empty Bowl

Today we attended the Empty Bowl Project at the Mexican American Cultural Center. Last year Summer had seen this charity project advertised on T.V. and expressed a great interest in participating.

We made a plan to attend last year. Unfortunately, the night before the event she came down with a stomach virus. She was very upset that I wouldn't just take her anyway. I had already had experiences of her vomiting in public places - even though she did seem like she felt much better the next morning, I was not about to chance another public display of kid puke.

So, this year when she saw it advertised again we made our second year plan to attend.

Luckily this year everyone woke up feeling healthy.

Although I never expected, I should have known that this would be a big event. Austin has the reputation of being one of the most generous and giving cities in the Nation....as you can tell by the panhandler and homeless population located here.

Parking was no easy task. I was a little worried we may have to park many blocks from the event. I don't mind walking at all, but we had all bypassed our morning breakfast so we would fully enjoy our soup bowl. Walking many blocks on an empty stomach did not sound like fun.

It's a good thing I drive a very small car. We managed to weasel into a spot very nearby the Center.



The line was HUGE. I was a little worried that we would be in that line for hours and die of starvation in the meantime. Here is only a portion of the line we were in...and we were at the end of it..



This guy was set up along the line. He made pottery look very easy...



As long as the line was it moved pretty quickly. We only stood in it about 30 minutes.

Once we got inside we got to pick our bowl. There were rows and rows of all sort of different bowls. I really get overwhelmed with large selections. This was not the place to be. There were sooooo many cool looking bowls. Summer ended up making my selections for me and I chose between the ones she selected.

Decisions, decisions....




The germiphobe in me worried about eating out of a bowl thousands of folks had been handling. I was glad to see there were bowl washing stations set up for you to have your bowl washed before you ate out of it.

We ate our soup out of our bowl outside in the bright warm sunshine against the Town Lake (Lady Bird Lake) Hike and Bike Trail.

Been Thinkin'.......

In the past couple of months I have seriously been thinking about ditching my blog. It really serves no purpose for me anymore. Most of the time I have to steal time to work on it. Usually the stolen time is taking away from more important daily tasks that need to be accomplished.

As of late, I really don't enjoy it much anymore. I almost dread it now. I feel compelled to write something interesting and captivating..my daily life is definitely not as interesting or captivating as I would like it to be. Certainly not a bad life, but definitely not interesting enough to write a book about.

The initial purpose of my blog was to keep my family and friends informed of my daily life while living a few states away.

To be quite honest, I'm not really sure my dad reads my blog...I would guess not. I KNOW for a fact my son does not nor does my youngest brother. I KNOW that some of my favorite family members on hubby's side do not. Maybe a few distant and estranged family members may "check in" every once in a while.

I DO KNOW that a couple of good friends keep track. I DO KNOW that hubby reads it even though I don't know why.....he knows everything that is happening before it is written. I DO KNOW that my oldest brother reads it periodically.

I do enjoy writing for myself, but most the time when I feel compelled to blog for myself it's to vent, bitch, or criticize. Most the stuff I would say in a personal journal would not be blog worthy material and would probably not make my little light shine.

I have given myself to the end of the year to publicly blog. I will then reassess the situation and see how I feel...my mood seems to change from day to day lately.

I don't feel moody today, but I know I sure sound as though I am.

By the way, nothing noteworthy happened today.

Thursday November 19, 2009

Even though the weather has been beautiful here, I did not have the urge to do outdoor activities this week...I know, check for fever.

I woke up this morning determined to go-a-explorin' as to not waste any good weather. As determined as I was I never did muster up a trek.

We were all having such a good time just hanging out at the house. Summer and I decided to spend some time outside. Although I don't mind staying home every once in a while, staying indoors for too long can be torture for me.

We all ended up staying outside a couple of hours. Summer was totally immersed in some activity at the flower bed while Toby and I pulled weeds in the yard. I bitch about the weeds in the yard, but in all honesty I find it very relaxing to pull weeds.

Eventually mine and Toby's back began to give out and Summer was getting hungry. We decided to go to the Good Luck Grill and use Toby's gift certificate he won for the pumpkin decorating contest on Halloween.

After we got our stomach's full of good cookin' we planned to go to Home Depot to get the supplies we would need to build the rabbit cage for Summer's 4-H project.

After we drove up into the driveway we decided that we would rather stay home and save the chore for next week. Nothing is worth venturing out into Austin traffic at peak traffic hour...it's bad enough without it being rush hour.

The rest of the evening Toby spent on the couch watching T.V. while Summer and I played outside. I ended up having to chat with Crazy K my neighbor. The woman with all her craziness is sometimes a source of amusement for me....as long as she is outside and not inside my house where I can retreat from her if necessary.

A nice relaxing day I must say. :-)

November ?????? 2009

I have not been in the mood to blog....not at all. It's especially hard to blog when my mind feels like a big blank.

We did go out today and there were a few notable highlights:

While at the red light near downtown, I discovered I needed to be in the other lane to get where I needed to turn. Since there was no one behind me, I backed up and pulled behind the car in the lane I was suppose to be in. For whatever reason, this guy I pulled in behind decided he was going to back up.

I tried to avoid him by backing up myself....why I didn't think about just blowing my horn to alert him that he was about to back over me I don't know.

Anyway, there are advantages to driving older model cars that already have years worth of dents and bangs. The damage was very minor. A little scratch and my headlight was pushed in slightly.

Instead of holding up Austin's already horrid traffic and waiting on the police to get there to fill out a report, we waved the guy on. He had a big truck so he certainly didn't have any damage. So now Betsy has one more ding to add to her collection of other dings and bangs.

Believe it or not all this happened in the amount of time it took the light to change. We didn't even have to hold traffic up.

The next notable event happened in Sears. Toby and Summer got into trouble playing on the escalator stairs. It was so funny to watch them being scolded. Summer looked a little worried but Toby didn't bat an eye....I could tell that he was obviously used to getting in trouble a time or two in his life.

I only wish I could be as calm, cool, and collective as he is. My face would have been beet red and I would have been looking for a place to hide. I have never once seen my husband get embarassed....and there have been many times that he should have.

He also spent some time at the jewelry counter helping an old lady set a watch she had bought. After he set her watch for her she asked him if he needed her to pray for him about anything. He told her no, that he was all good. :-)

After Sears we did our grocery shopping in the HEB next door. It was not my usual HEB and it was very crowded. We did manage to get a 10lb turkey for $4.

Last notable thing was that one of the neighbor kids from down the street threw up in my driveway. Whatever happened to kids staying home in the bed when they are sick??????????

Well, that's about it. Interesting stuff, huh???

Friday November 13, 2009

Friday the 13th. The day was nothing out of the ordinary...no bad happenings.

We had play date today enjoying the great weather before the "winter" moves in.

As I was chatting with Angela about our week, I spotted a guy riding a bike on the trails. The sight triggered my memory about something we saw yesterday at Pease Park.

I can't believe I didn't even remember to post about it yesterday. I guess I have been here long enough that strange and weird oddities don't remain in my mind for too long.

As we were walking down the trail a naked biker rides right past us. Toby being in the tattoo business has made both Summer and I both immune to most sights out of the ordinary, but when we saw this one Toby's eyes even bulged out.

I had heard tales of the naked biker but never fathomed that I would ever see him personally. A very interesting sight I must say. Why are my camera batteries always dead when I see the really cool stuff??????

On the way home from the park I got the oil changed in my car. The rest of the evening consisted of laundry, doing some pre-cooking for tomorrow, and vacuuming.

I am starting to feel a little sad. This would be the week I would be looking forward to my son coming in for a week......

A Day in the Park

We got up and out of the house at a decent hour this morning. While the weather is still cooperative we decided to check out a new park - Pease Park. The park is very close to downtown, but as with most parks near downtown you would never know it.

The park had a wonderful walking/biking trail we walked for miles and miles it seemed like. Hubby was on a mission in search of a tree he read about in one our Central Texas Hiking Guides. There was suppose to have been some sort of historical massacre underneath this particular tree some odd years ago. I really don't know why he was so determined to find this tree...I guess it's a man thing.

Summer and I didn't mind anyway, we are always up for a good long walk with new and exciting scenery.

Pics:



On some of our trails there are signs that warn of falling rocks. I always cringe as I walk underneath some of these boulders...




Summer loves to climb the big trees we come upon. She seems to climb them with ease but always screams for help to get down them...



Here is the tree we walked miles in search of. Only problem was there was 3 trees....which tree was it we wondered????



Just because I thought they were cool pics:







We had a great walk, but I really need to invest in some sort of flip flop made for walking....