The rain put the kaibash on our grilling plans. So we hit happy hour tonight at our local sushi place, instead. Nom nom!!
Belly up to the sushi bar.
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Category Archives: Life
First zinnies.
Monte’s zinnias are starting to bloom. These are the first ones we’ve brought inside to enjoy.
Cascades in clouds.
Thanks to Noreen for schlepping me to the airport in the wee hours of the morning. I’m not home yet, posting from ORD.
I got a window seat on the right side of the plane, on purpose, expressly for this (my favorite) view. Looking south, Mount Rainier is in the foreground. Mount Adams is to the left farther south. In between, even farther south and very hard to see, is Mount Hood. Mount St. Helens would be visible to the right of Rainier, except for the cloud deck sitting above it.
Colleen is up on Rainier this weekend. Don’t see her though. 
Scenes from my Saturday.
I headed into Seattle today to visit Pat & Nga and the kids. Before I hit the road I stopped by a park on the puget sound shoreline where attended girl scout camp back in the day. I remember camping, cooking, clamming and making sand sculptures here over several summers here. I dare say it has been 35 years or so since i last stood on this particular stretch of beach. It is still amazingly beautiful.
I drove my mom’s car. Not your typical dashboard.
When i got to seattle, we drove to a park on the *other* side of the puget sound to fly the kites that I gave the boys. They are master kite flyers. One shot with both of them:
One shot of Nicky:
And one shot of Will:
A great day. Back to Austin tomorrow. Goodnight!
Nice kitty.
Brian comes over to my mom’s on Fridays a couple times a month to watch movies with her. Today he brought his 5 year old teacup pomeranian, Chip. She’s just recently been groomed for summer but she’s still so tiny! I could stop calling her “kitty.”
Today’s movies were quite the mix of genre: 300, Goodnight & Good Luck, and the first two episodes of the John Adams series. I could not keep up.
Oh, and IT’S FRIDAY!!!
60 years on.
I finally got a chance to go outside today! I went for a walk this afternoon after my last meeting. There is a new park with a huge network of trails through towering trees about a mile walk from my mom’s house. It was gorgeous. This cut log was laying next to the trail. I stopped counting at 60 rings. Thank you log, I now have Elton John’s 60 Years On ringing in my head. Now you do too.
A shot of the beautiful canopy … I like the glowing green of the leaves in this shot.
I drove jake here tonight and we cooked dinner and ate with mom. Then he played guitar for us for a while. He’s very good. He reminded me that I had taught him the basics many years ago. Very sweet.
Stormy weather…
Headed to Seattle tonight. Boarded the plane. Fell asleep. When I woke up they were asking everyone to deplane due to storms in the area. I did not know that most of the bars AND the admirals club close at 7:30. What were they thinking?! Still hoping our flight leaves after the storm passes. Here’s some of my moments…
Thank you Ray Benson’s Roadhouse Bar!!!
Indie-pendants.
I’ve been playing with beads again. I’ve gotten it in my head that pendants that can easily slip onto chains would be fun to make and very versatile. Here are a few I’ve recently made.
Made with (L-R): turquoise, tiger’s eye, swarovski crystal, and howlite.
Old Yeller.
Pretty flowers in the house. Thanks to Monte!
Unos momentos desde mi Cinco de Mayo.
Hola! Happy Cinco de Mayo. Before I forget, I want to post this shot that I took yesterday. I took it with my waterproof camera from the kayak, so I wasn’t able to upload it until today. This is Nirvana and Sapphire at anchor. Pretty boats.
Rafted up in Arky South.
Today I paddled completely around Arky South cove. I enjoy paddling. But I like, even more, cruising along the shore for found objects. Today’s haul: 4 plastic bobbers, 1 popper jig, 1 croppie tube jig, and 2 nice docklines with spliced loops.
Then we pulled up the anchor and sailed for several hours. We sailed along with Kalliopi (with Nick and his kids on-board) for a while. Then we turned around and caught a glimpse of Lori, Joe, Wally and Kelly on Camelot, with her newly raised 150 whomper jib. I think Lori’s getting serious now, ever since Nirvana beat Camelot in a beer can a couple weeks ago.
On the way home, we saw this guy riding along 620. Amazing. It appears to be direct drive, no evidence of a chain. And, I have no idea how he stops / dismounts this thing – that front tire is about 5′ in diameter.
Lance, is that you?
And, now back home, we are celebrating Cinco de Mayo with Julie. Salud!
Made by the master.
At anchor.
Saturday!! This is likely the last weekend before our dock becomes disconnected from shore, power and water. Lake Travis is low and dropping. 
This guy was guarding E dock when we arrived.
We anchored up in Arky south again. Rory and Greg arrived on Sapphire and joined us after a couple hours. We have the kayak stored in the slip now so it’s easy to bring it out with us. This is its first outing of 2013. Many more to come.
Fins up!
We set out again with Marty and Sue this afternoon for the Austin installment of the Jimmy Buffett “Songs from St. Somewhere” tour. We got there a couple hours early so we could phlock with all the other parrot heads. We saw Rob and Jen, too. Though the concert was postponed 24 hours, the place was packed.
The new Formula 1 track complex is pretty impressive. It sprawls over 1300 acres, located SE of the Austin airport. Quite a trek, but boy do they know how to move people in and out quickly and smoothly.
The Austin360 amphitheater is very nice. Brand new. Accommodates 14,000, which we must have been close to tonight. It is nestled between 2 giant hairpin turns of the F1 racecourse. The tower behind the stage is the observation tower overlooking the racecourse
And the concert was fantastic. Jackson Browne opened, and Jimmy played for a couple hours straight. He’s a great entertainer. I hope he doesn’t wait 17 more years before coming back again.
Postponed.
We’ve been counting down to tonight, to go to a concert with Marty & Sue at the new Circuit of the America’s racetrack concert venue called the 360 Amphitheater: Jimmy Buffet + Jackson Browne!
The last time Jimmy Buffet played a show Austin was 17 years ago at the (no longer there) Southpark Meadows. I was at that show, and have been looking forward to tonight’s show as well.
So we all headed out together in parrot head garb, and stopped to eat at Chuy’s before the show. It was there that we learned, an hour before the gates opened, that the concert had been postponed on account of high winds, until tomorrow night. A cold front came through early this morning and the winds have been blowing 20-40 miles all day, and will continue through the night.
Ok, I guess we’ll do it all again tomorrow!
Happy happy joy joy.
It’s pizza night! These are the works of art from tonight’s installment. Rachel and Julie were the pizza artistes. Monte’s homemade crusts, of course. The top left one is margherita with tomatoes, mozzarella, home grown basil and olive oil (instead of red sauce). Top right is tomato sauce, prosciutto, onion, basil, red pepper, olive and goat cheese. Bottom left and right are varying amounts of prosciutto, mushroom, olive, onion, red pepper and mozz.
Yum – life is good !
