Monday, March 30, 2009

Sunday Fun Day


I had quite the Sunday. My little sister ran the Capital 10k yesterday. For some reason I had it in my head that the race began at 8 am. I got up early to shower and get ready, thought I was running late so I was going to park at the one mile mark thinking I could catch her there. I find parking; call my sister to wish her good luck since I thought the race was starting in 15 minutes. She answers and it does not sound like she is in a crowd of people ready for a 10k.

“Hey what are you doing?”

“Oh downloading music to listen to for the race.”

“What?! You are going to miss it! You have 15 minutes!”

Laughing, “It starts at 8:45.”

So I was an hour early. I made my way down to the starting line and since I was so early I got to take in a whole bunch of people watching. Several people wear costumes which is great. Over 18,000 people were registered for this race, it was crazy. The day was beautiful but freezing. I got to see my little sister start the race and then went to finish line. There were so many people I missed her finishing, but I was happy to be there for moral support. It also inspired me to sign up next year.

I then grabbed a paper and headed to a new bar/restaurant. I had some time to kill until I met friends for lunch. I ordered what was possibly one of the most expensive cocktails I have ever had in my life. While it was very tasty, for what it costs it should have been served in a bucket. I can’t remember the name but it had fig infused Jim beam, roasted grapefruit juice, a vanilla liqueur, an orange slice and one or two more ingredients I can’t remember.

Next I met some friend’s at Fino. This is a wonderful restaurant that my best friend’s boyfriend manages. They have decided to start doing Sunday brunch and this was an invite only soft opening. The food was great; I got scrambled eggs with house cured salmon. As an appetizer I got the fried olives with anchovies, which I wish were always in my kitchen. They are also known for their classic cocktails. The bloody mary’s were great, they made their own tomato juice. Overall we had a great brunch and the restaurant will benefit I think from having Sunday brunch.

We had finished eating and my friend asks if I would like to come over and have a glass of wine on her back porch. This sounds great as the day has warmed up and was perfect for a porch and a glass of wine. Well she tricked me. Once in the car she says that she has to stop at the grocery store to grab a couple of things. Um a couple of things translate to her shopping for the week. My idea of hell is a centrally located grocery store on a Sunday afternoon because everyone is there! We made it fun, and actually got through the place pretty quickly. We sat on her back porch and finished going through the paper that I had bought that morning.

Then it was off to my sister’s where they were having an impromptu get together to break in their new grill. We laughed and I got to catch up with some people I had not seen in awhile. I consumed vast amounts of queso, I am not sure how one can not consume vast amounts when you standing right in front of it. Yes I could have moved, but I was helping cook so I HAD to be standing there!

Then it was home to bed. I am excited because the boyfriend is about 7 hours away. He has been helping pack up a friend who just got out of the military. They are driving from San Diego to Austin. I have not seen him for 6 long days. I am off to bake him cookies!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Cars

I just got my car back from the body shop! I hated the rental I was driving so it is nice to be back in my familiar car. Oh cars how I hate and love thee. I had three things fixed on my car. I had the part where the lady side swiped me along my two passenger doors fixed. Then I had the front passenger fender dent fixed that had been done by a family friend um two years ago. I also had my front bumper fixed so it was no longer held on by wire. I like having a car; I have had my license since I was 15. Also living in Texas, things are spread out here, a car is handy. What I don’t like about cars is the up keep. Oil changes not so bad, everything else a pain. All of the body damage was on the passenger side and so I never saw it, nor did it impede me driving it. If it had not been for the boyfriend I may have never gotten any of it fixed. Things like that just don’t bother me. I have had 6 cars in the 17 years I have been driving and never had a car payment. I believe in paying cash for something used. That is how I roll! My first car was a baby blue mini van that did not have the middle seats because my grandfather forgot where he put them, no I am not kidding. My grandfather bought and sold used cars as a hobby and so he gave me one for my first car. The man was not very honest and so he would unhook the speedometer so that you could not tell that the car really had more miles on it than it said. So I had to take my car to get the speedometer reattached and tell why I was getting it reattached. Life lessons. I had to have a crow bar in the van at all times because if the sliding side door went too far I had to crow bar it back on the track. My other favorite feature was if I hit a bump the radio would go into scan mode and not stop unless you turned the car off.

My second car was a gift (a used one), a red blazer. I loved that car, probably my most care free car.

My next car was my mom’s old Acura that had a billion miles on it and I loved it! The only time I did not love it was after it would rain. The water would go somewhere, never found out where and then when you made a turn it would come pouring out of the sunroof onto your head. The first time it happened I almost had a wreck. After that I carried towels and a rain coat in my car. This was also the car that was vandalized in college. It was black and someone spray painted BIG PIMP across the driver’s side in white. I actually drove around like that for a month. Then when I did finally take it in they called and I thought they were going to say I could come pick it up. No they were calling to let me know that some one ran over the top of the hood when it was in the parking lot. Yes OVER the top of the hood. The guy thank fully had insurance. Oh and I of course never got the whole sunroof dumping water on me fixed.

Then came my 1995 shiny blue Cadillac. My grandmother passed away and it was one of the things she left me. This thing was just a huge shiny box of metal. Someone hit the side when I had it parked and I never knew who did it nor did I get it fixed. The cloth on the ceiling started coming off and so on a road trip to Houston to see a concert I bought multi colored push pins and had a friend put them all over the ceiling to keep it up. That car eventually had to be towed away and I got $100 for it.

Next came the turquoise Buick. This was given to me by my other grandmother for a nominal fee. The air conditioning did not work in it for a year because I got an estimate for $1500 and I could not afford it at the time. So yes I lived through an Austin Texas summer with no AC, miserable. I was getting an oil change one day and the guy said it could be fixed for $150, I almost kissed him. I did not wash this car for at least two years. When I moved in with the boyfriend it was sitting in my apartment parking lot because my grandmother had sold me a new car. The boyfriend got the car to his house, cleaned up and somehow sold it for over $1000. It did have really low mileage.

I now have the Passat, which I love. I also now love the color since they washed it after doing the body work; I had no idea what a pretty red it is. I have made a promise that I am going to wash it on a regular basis from now on. I just need to find out what a regular basis means.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

It is 10 on a Thursday Morning

From my home office I can see down onto the neighbors back porch. I could hear constant giggling so I looked out the window and there is their daughter (maybe 16) and a guy friend smoking pot out of an apple. These are the same neighbors that called the cops on us for playing a board game outside on our porch. This is all making me laugh.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Migraines

I have had migraines for the past 5 days. The kind that makes you want to vomit so I have pretty much been on the couch or in bed. I had acupuncture this morning and I finally feel like a normal human again! This happened to me about 5 years ago and acupuncture did the trick. I was told I have a wiry pulse which means disharmony. This was not a great surprise as life is always a little weird when you have been unemployed for three months, applying like mad and have had one interview. I am off to Yoga to hopefully stretch some of this disharmony out!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Trains and Books

The weather here is gorgeous, and being unemployed I am taking full advantage of it! Yesterday I went with a friend and her four year old to ride the Zilker Zephyr. He is all about trains so he loved every minute. It was great to sit and watch a four year old take in the train, the people, Town Lake, and anything else that crossed his path.

I came home and finished “The Story of Forgetting” by Stefan Merrill Block. It was a good book, especially if you have ever had anyone close to you have Alzheimer’s. The story is told from the perspective of the old and the young which I thought was a nice structure. There were a few boring parts for me where the author really got into the science of the disease, but I know some will find this fascinating. I would recommend this book, a soft loving story that like most lives has their record of grief.

After making dinner I started another book, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini. This book has been given a lot of praise as well as the one that came before, “The Kite Runner”. I had been told by friend that I should have nothing to do for a couple of days when I start this book because all I am going to want to do is read it. They were right. I lay in bed for almost two hours last night thinking about the book, wanting to get up and read more but telling myself I have plenty of time today to finish it. I am about to sit out on my upstairs porch and finish it. Pics included on where to find me today, I am very lucky.




View from my porch.


On the train with my favorite four year old.


Monday, March 16, 2009

Dinner Party

About midnight on Saturday night after quite a bit of wine I decided that I wanted to have a dinner party, the next day. I sent out a mass text to those I wanted to invite and woke up the next morning to several replies of yes. The boyfriend called several more people and while he had meetings and worked I started cooking. There was no theme I just cooked a bunch of stuff I had wanted to cook. The boyfriend’s brother had killed a deer but didn’t want the meat so he brought all of it to us. I am a vegetarian but don’t mind cooking meat so I have been seeing how many different ways I can make venison. I chose one of the boyfriend’s favorites, venison burgers and put that on the menu. (Quick note I chop up raw bacon and mix it in while forming the patties and this apparently is a big hit. Of course it is bacon). I made a chick pea salad with asparagus, brussel sprouts and mushrooms. There was a homemade vegetarian pot pie, Caesar salad, mashed potatoes, baked macaroni and cheese, shrimp, and a bunch of wine. The food went over very well and so I had full happy guests.

One of my best friends is a consultant for some board game companies. She brought over a game for us to test. I have to say I do not enjoy playing games with the exception of Catch Phrase. But my friend needed my help and apparently everyone else that I had invited loves games. We were sitting on the back porch playing the game, drinking some wine. There was knock on the front door and when we answered there was a police officer. We were informed out neighbor called because we were causing a commotion. When we explained it was six of us playing a board game, all young professional in their 30s the officer laughed and said, “You guys must not be friendly with your neighbor?” The thing is we are! We can talk to each other from out back porches; we have each other cell numbers. Why they couldn’t stick their head out and ask us to quiet a bit or call, I have no idea. We actually laughed pretty hard and then moved the game inside because we are courteous. I would like to recommend the game Loaded Questions! Like I said I do not like games and was in total agreement when everyone wanted to play a second time.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Puppy

My little sister and her husband have adopted a collie mix from the shelter. He is 9 weeks old and adorable. She brought him over to meet his cousins, my nine year old lab mix Evan and my 2 year old lab Molly. You can imagine he is not much bigger than their paws seeing they both weigh over 75 pounds. He was not scared and when you held him towards the other dogs face he pawed at them like a young cat. At one point he tried to nurse from Molly, she can’t sit still for two seconds so that didn’t last. Then he walked over to Evan and began to try and nurse from his………yea little man that is not what you want. Evan politely sidestepped away from the confused 9 week old pup. Sampson (the pup) falls over constantly but had no fear with tackling the steps or the bigger dogs. My favorite was how he would just suddenly plop down out of exhaustion. My other favorite part was when my sister walked in our house and eyed the black hair on the wood floors. “Um when did you last sweep?” I laughed and told her, “Yesterday!” My sister the neat freak is going to love all of the hair!






Monday, March 9, 2009

Jobs

If you have turned on your TV or read a newspaper lately then you know the world of unemployment is big and a mess. I am a current member of that world. I was on one of the very popular job websites and it said it had found some matches based on my previous employment. COPY TECHNICIAN?! Um this made me go and check all of the information I had given them. For the past 5 years I have been a buyer of snow globes and musical figurines, how in the word does that translate to Copy Technician? I will have to draft a much longer post on my past employment because yes I really did buy and import snow globes and musical figurines.

Dinos in your front yard?

I walked by this house the other day and was simply amazed by the succulents in the front yard. The giant aloe plants were twice my height, (I am 5’5”). Those with the cactus it felt very primitive, like some sort of animal from a primitive time were about to walk around the corner of one of the plants. Since we have done zero landscaping to our yard and I have a great deal of time on my hands I was thinking about starting to put our yard together. I like the idea of succulents since I am not very good at keeping things alive and we live in Texas. I have it on my grand list of things to tackle so we will see what happens. Here is a picture of the giant aloes I encountered.



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Sunday, March 8, 2009

Book Review

I just finished what I found to be a very interesting book, The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. I thought of it as historical fiction meets a modern day murder mystery. The historical fiction is based on a wife living a life of polygamy in 1875 separating from her husband. What brings more attention to the situation is that her husband is the prophet and leader of the Mormons at that time, Brigham Young. She chooses not only to separate but to travel and speak against polygamy. The story flashes back and forth to modern day where polygamy is still practiced in a compound in Utah. This group refers to themselves as the Firsts. I found it interesting in the way it examines faith, not the validity or even the form it comes in, but simply the strength. The way in witch individuals truly believe and can not fathom wavering from that faith even if the situation it puts them in is not ideal. I liked the back and forth between history and modern day to give the faith that this sect, the Firsts base their polygamist beliefs.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

How Amazon Cracks Me Up

Things came up so we did not make it the greenbelt yesterday, another day.

I was just checking my email and got another hilarious email from Amazon. The company I used to work for was partially owned by Barnes and Noble so I was lucky enough to have an employee discount. This means all books I bought in the past five years came from Barnes and Noble. Since I no longer work for said company I have ordered a few books from Amazon. The books I have ordered are the last two in the Twilight series and then a book that we read for one of my book clubs, it had been written by one of the member’s half sister. I was happy to support this new author but it was not really my genre of fiction, there was softball, stalkers, and detailed sex. I read it and at the book club described it as reading a Lifetime movie. Because these are the three books I have purchased from Amazon, they have been making suggestions of what I may want to read next. The last two emails I have received from them have been titled; Discover Romance and Adventure Between the Covers‏ and New Releases in Books for Teens‏. Oh Amazon you are cracking me up. I need to buy some new books to change my reputation with you, but I will miss the emails for teen lit and soft porn reading!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Bull Creek

It was absolutely gorgeous here yesterday, so I took my boy Evan to Bull Creek which is part of the Greenbelt here in Austin. I had fun taking pictures and watching my dog sniff around.

I have been going to one part of the Greenbelt or another since I came here for college. I have done the, have several beers and stay all day times, just walking with friends times, and the by myself times. I had always stuck to the south part of the Greenbelt because that was closest. Now that I live up north I am exploring and loving new parts!

One of my best friends has lived here for awhile now; she went to a college close by. I was telling her about going to the Greenbelt yesterday when she tells me she has never been. In the next couple of hours I will be taking her for her virgin walk on the Greenbelt!

Here are some pictures from yesterday and hopefully I will have more tomorrow!