Brain Blip

I can't believe I forgot to post about the delicious gluten free cookie pie I made Toby for his birthday. Finding simple gluten free dessert options has been challenging for me. Made from scratch they require more ingredients than I like to deal with. It's not as simple as flour, butter and eggs anymore, and GF rice flours and other ingredients that are needed in addition to the mixture are more expensive than I want to pay for as little as I would use them. Remember, I'm Miss Simplicity here.

 Luckily Toby isn't a big dessert fan, but I know that he likes to have something dessert-ish every once in a while so a couple of weeks before his birthday I started to search GF dessert sites and found a couple that looked easy and good enough to try.

The one I chose here was a hit with all three of us!!! Toby actually made himself physically sick off of it one night. Most of all it was super easy for me to prepare. Because it was a never tried recipe and for a special occasion I was really scared it wouldn't turn out. Luckily, this time my fears did not manifest...

Since we have gone gluten free I do more food prep than I care to, but it's a necessity now. Quite honestly, I don't mind cooking its the cleaning up afterwards part I don't like.

Anyway, initially my goal was to post some of our favorite GF dishes but I got busy with the business and blogging got pushed to the bottom of my priority list.  Now that everything has settled down a bit, I will be posting more often.

One more thing I wanted to make note of. Skye is a somewhat picky eater. What I mean is that when she is left to her own devices she will pop a frozen pizza into the microwave or make herself a sandwich if she gets hungry between meals instead of grabbing a carrot or apple out of the fridge.

I have found with her it's all in the way food is presented. When I have time or when I feel like she's needing more healthy food in her diet I make her what I like to call 'snack trays'. For whatever reason when I prep her healthy food in this way she devours it as if it were a candy bar.

I have different versions that I make depending on what I have in the fridge for the week. Sometimes it's nuts and crackers and cheese, celery or banana topped with peanut butter, basic spinach salad with cucumber and topped with cheese, etc. Her recent favorite is frozen banana ice cream.  I can even get her friends to eat healthy food when I present it to them in this sort of display.......

For dinner tonight I made some very delicious GF Spaghetti and Turkey Spinach Meatballs. I have been having a hard time finding GF pasta that tasted like real pasta but the other day my very generous gluten intolerant neighbor brought me a package over to try out. It passed the test.

Skye ate only the meatballs. She said she wasn't even hungry but they were so good she kept asking for more. Here is a link for the GF Turkey Spinach Meatballs.

Enjoy!!!

Birthday Boy Day

Today is Toby's 39th birthday. The birthday tradition in our family follows as the birthday boy (or girl) gets to choose ANYTHING they want to do that day and all the other family members in the household have to agree to do it without argument and with a smile. No excuses or exceptions.  Birthday's are usually the only days in our family where there is freedom from petty disagreements.

Today Toby chose to go to Rio Vista Park on the San Marcos River. It's one of our favorite places to go but with starting the business we haven't had the chance to go this summer.

Oddly and rarely enough, the day called for a large chance of rain from a system that was passing through. The temp was also 80 degrees which for a Texan is considered "cool".  We are accustomed to the sun blazing and temps in the 100's in the summer time.

The spring water on the river feels like ice even when it's 100 + outside so I already had it in my mind that I would sit on the rocks utilizing my camera and enjoying the scenery with the overcast/drizzly sky and it's measly 80 degrees.

Due to the weather nobody but a couple of folks were out sitting on the river's edge so it was nice to have the place all to ourselves.

I stuck my toe in the water and it felt like ice water. My water obsessed dog was even a little reluctant to make the splash but it didn't take much coercion from Toby before he dove in....

Skye had already planned that she wasn't going in the water before we even left the house. She had a bad wreck on her bike a couple of days ago and had some pretty bad "war wounds" on her knees, side, and shoulder. Her wrist is also sprained and bruised so she didn't feel she would be able to swim confidently against the strong currents in the river. I didn't argue with her. Even though the water looks docile I know how easily those mini rapids can pull you under....

Her favorite part of the day was the Oreo snacks

The sun shone it's face for a little bit and I succumbed to the water. I love the freshness and crispness of spring water and I couldn't resist slowly immersing my body in until I acclimated to the icy water. It's such a clean, refreshing feeling compared to the warm salty, sticky feeling the ocean has to offer....

The birthday boy enjoying the water.....

I hope he had as much fun on his birthday as I did.

Quest For The Guitar

Today we set out in search of a guitar. Not just any guitar, but a particular guitar located downtown.

One of Toby's customers brought in a picture of a guitar that sits on the streets of downtown Austin. He wants this particular guitar tattooed on him but the picture he brought in is not  clear enough for Toby to see the details on the guitar, which of course is very important when you are getting a guitar tattooed on you.

So we headed downtown to the location of where the said guitar is situated outside of City Hall to get better photos. Well, no guitar was found. We ventured inside City Hall to ask the whereabouts of the guitar and were told the guitar (and many other guitars like it) were sold at an auction to raise money for DELL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL in Austin and that once auctioned the guitar(s) had been donated and distributed to various locations around the city.

They suggested we try The Residences at W (classy place!) across the street but to no avail. The desk lady at  "The W" suggested we check the guitar shop a couple of blocks away.

I didn't mind the wild goose chase at all because it gave me a chance to utilize my camera and enjoy the downtown scenery.....

Old Fire Tower

At the guitar shop we finally got some concrete answers and headed out to ABIA (Austin Bergstrom Airport) where the brunt of the guitars were donated after their purchase.

ABIA's parking lot is like a mini city so after we parked we took advantage of the airport shuttle bus to get us to the terminal....

BINGO, the said guitar - and apparently all the others - was spotted at the baggage claim.....

And finally! The guitar quest came to an end......

THE Guitar

My favorite.....

It's days like these that help me keep my sanity.

My Ecstasy

Halfway through August. Apparently time really does fly when you are having fun. Not that I have been having barrels of it, but I have learned to have fun with the small pleasures life offers.

I recently read something that had me reflecting. A survey showed that people are happiest with experiences in life rather than things.

What I remember and cherish most are my experiences with my family, nature, friends, neighbors, exploring, etc. Those times I have acquired something material..a new house, new car, new outfit, etc. the happiness lasts until the "newness" wears off and then it's just another...thing. Not that certain things don't enable me to have those experiences. Without my camera (a thing) I wouldn't able to document my experiences. Without my car I wouldn't be able to take trips that enable me my experiences. Hmmmm...I guess maybe things and experiences are interchangeable.

Anyway.........

Last week or so ago Skye and I were coming home from the shop when Skye requested we take a detour through the Old Manor Cemetery. Sometimes she has out of the ordinary requests, but I was game. It was a super hot day so we didn't get out of the car and walk around - only drove slowly through reading and looking at the stones that were on the edge of the drive path. I told her we would go back when it got a little cooler and check out the cemetery a little more thoroughly. I noticed some really old looking headstones on the edge of the woods in the back of the cemetery that looked intriguing.

When we left the cemetery we took a side road I wanted to check out. As we traveled down the road through the canopy of trees this huge house appeared at the end of it. It looked unkempt and vacant so we drove around to the driveway on the side of it. There was a modern car in the driveway so we opted not to get out and nose around....

A morning walk with Toby and Bo in the park.....

Afternoon dips in the pool on a hot day.....

A VERY HOT, but BEAUTIFUL afternoon at the skate park....

How can this be comfortable?.....

Poppa.....

I typically only get snapshots of sunsets but this particular shot was taken of  the sunrise on the way to my friends house one morning....

This old man is seen everywhere in Manor. He sets up his little "traveling band" and plays his guitar solo in front of various establishments. And no, it's not worth the stop to listen, but it is entertaining to say the least....

Oh, and last but not least we finally got our GRIDLOCK TATTOO website launched. Check it out here. I'm really proud of hubby's work. He is an excellent artist with exceptional skills in dealing with people. If you stop in to read my blog and you are ever in the area - or know someone who is/will be please stop by and say hi or better yet get a tattoo! :-)

Business and Pleasure

I guess we all have been missing our day trips this summer. Even my homebody daughter has made comments that indicate she misses our outings.

I surely was overdue a change in routine so I decided we would mix a little pleasure with business. On our agenda for the week was to head to the smaller towns East of us to pass out flyers, business cards, and to generally get our name out, so I pulled my resources together and found some interesting sights to check out along the way.

Our first stop was the  Wendish Museum in Serbin, Texas. It was certainly nothing to call home about - unless you are a Texas history buff - but they had simple but yet very informative and interesting visual displays. The older folks running the place were friendly and helpful also....

LOVE these painted eggs

This room reminded me of my deceased grandparents antique decor

Next, we crossed the graveyard to the Lutheran Church. It was blazing-ass hot but we still enjoyed looking at the old gravestones....

I was glad the church was nice and cool when we reached it because I was beyond weak from the extreme heat. (105 degrees to be exact...and that's without heat index)

Being raised up in the church I often wonder what my un-indoctrinated children think about them upon entering. I have so many memories linked to churches and my kids are probably just like..."um, yeah so it's just this huge, ornate building with a bunch of crosses."...

This is a building that was used as a church, school, and meeting room in the 1800's by the Wends. I was the only one who felt the desire to walk the 100 ft in the heat to take a gander at it. Toby and Skye roosted on a bench underneath a shade tree....

Next we headed a few miles east to Giddings, Texas. We have been through Giddings several times on our way to Houston but never have carved out the time to stop and visit.

We checked out the old Union Station Transportation Museum...

Next, we walked across the street to Blast From The Past. It was interesting place. I also learned something new while I was there. I never knew where the band REO Speedwagon got their name from - not that I ever really thought about it - but apparently it was a firetruck...

Apparently this dog, Ben, is an important animal friend of the shop....

We also walked out of there with $15 worth of yummy fudge.

On the way home we saw smoke in the distance. We kept our eyes on it as we drove closer to the source. It was a car on fire and rights as we drove by it it exploded. I think that was the highlight of Skye's day. She talked about that dang car exploding all the way home....

It was a successful day in both business and pleasure.