Family – Page 19 – Sheila365

Fair breezes.

We enjoyed a fun raft-up last night. It’s been a long time since we’ve had 5 boats rafted up overnight. Last night it was Monte and I on Nirvana. Nick, Isabel, Lorene and Dimitri on Kalliopi. Wally, Kurt and Kevin on Zen. Kirk and Lilly on La Cima del Cielo. And Brent and Lawrence on a Catalina 27 that came in under the veil of darkness before the near-full moon rose, so I didn’t catch their boat’s name. We played ipod wars into the wee hours. This morning we lounged around on deck and floated behind the boats till after noon. Then Nirvana and Kalliopi sailed down to Carlos & Charlie’s, and then turned around to make way back up to our slips. Isabel sent us this shot that they took on our way back to the marina.

Back at the marina we checked out the boat to make sure everything was ship-shape, since our docks are now offshore by nearly a mile. We will allegedly have power hooked up in a few weeks. We shall see. The lake is at about 621′. Terribly low. It’s no longer a lake. It’s just a windy river with lots of new hazards around every corner. I’m starting to think it will never rise again.

Joe came out visit with us on Nirvana for the afternoon. It was really nice to get a visit in with him.

My team.

Tonight is game 3 of preseason football, and the Seahawks have a rare nationally televised game. So I get a chance to watch them! We’re rooting them on from Austin.

Saturday nom noms.

Dinner time rolled around tonight and risotto and grilled salmon were on the menu. The before shot of the risotto:

And the before shot of the salmon fillet, rubbed with olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and ground pepper, sitting skin-down on a cedar plank that has been soaking in water for about 4 hours:

We cook it on a weber charcoal grill over direct heat for about 30 mins (this fillet was 2 pounds). The plank burns on the bottom, but infuses the salmon with a delicious smoked flavor. Be careful taking the plank off, it will burn anything you set it on. I use a cookie sheet. It’s not pretty, but it does the trick.
And after:

We watched the first race of the Louis Vuitton Cup final, but it was disappointing as both boats had problems and they postponed the second race. Later, the Seahawks preseason game 2 was on the NFL Network, and i got to watch them cream the broncos, so that made up for it.
Have I mentioned that I love weekends?!

A fun but not-on-the-lake Sunday.

As much as we love spending our weekends on the lake, it’s nice to have a change of scenery every once in a while. I mean, we live in an awesome place; we have to get out and about. On the first Sunday of every month, the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum offers free admission to all their exhibits. So, we made plans to go today to see their current special exhibit on Texas Furniture. Here are a few scenes from our day…

The iconic, iron lonestar out in front of the museum…it was a beautiful day…

I snuck a pic from inside… shhh… a tad blurry, but a grand 4 poster bed…

Lunch at Freddie’s…

And, I finally got a picture of the Austin mural on South 1st street… it’s probably about time for some TLC – it’s showing a little wear and tear…

And we wrapped up the day at the Zilker Hillside Theater. Their 55th annual summer musical this year is Little Shop of Horrors. It was a great show…

G’nite all!

Do you know what day it is?

Happy Champagne Day!!!!! Cheers! Well, National champagne day, that is. If you happen to miss this one you can catch international champagne day or global champagne day later this year. Heck, any day will do! Get out there and celebrate!

Lovely day.

We headed to the lake today. Julie joined us. We saw Joe on the docks. And we floated with Rory and Greg for a bit in arky south. Tonight is a Texas Sailing raftup but have plans for tomorrow, so headed home tonight. I wish every day was a weekend. Cheers to my peeps. To those if you I haven’t seen in a while – I miss ya’ll !

We made it home in time to grill up some yummy grub,too.

She’s baaaack!

Oh, the malaise of a Thursday… unceremoniously stuck between “Hump Day” and “TGIF.” Is there a motto for Thursdays?

Well my highlight for today was picking up Julie from the airport. She’s back for school – the semester starts in a few weeks. She plans to move in with a friend that she met last semester, so we’ll be empty nesters soon. Since she passed her RN exam over the summer, she’s official now and is hoping to work at a local hospital while she’s going to school. What a kid!

And, before I sign off… here is a link to a short (5-ish minutes) TED video a colleague sent me today. It has a 10 tips/shortcuts for using technology more efficiently. I knew about most of them but not all. The first one blew me away….who knew?

Happy post-humpday TGIF-eve!!

Here’s looking at you, kid.

Monday. Bleh.
Early this morning I collected all the photos I took while Jake was here and put them on a SDRAM card for him to take home with him. Here is one from the tubing trip yesterday. A humongous dragonfly landed on Jake’s head. I had to try to get a close-up.
I drove him (Jake, not the dragonfly) to the airport today, and he’s on his way home. Being an aunt is the next best thing to being a mom, I guess. I love my nieces and nephews, but live far away from them. I am very glad they (and their parents) don’t mind having to trek across the country for a visit.

Wheee!

We went toobing today on the San Marcos. It’s always a great time – we try to make it out there at least once every summer. It’s funny, all the toobing photos from every year look like exactly the same trip. 🙂

How’s it hanging?

We had a great day on the lake today. The winds picked up so we pulled anchor and sailed over to the Gnarly Gar and had lunch. Jake did great at the helm. On the way back to the marina, the winds were so light that Monte and Jake were able to jump in and be towed behind the boat, as we sailed along at about half a knot.

When we got back home, Keeto was very happy to see the flock return, as usual. He’s a funny bird.

The evening was filled with Wii contests of strength and speed; a delicious spread of sauteed pork chops, pasta and kale that Jake prepared; and the mandatory showing of Captain Ron for new-sailor initiation.

A great weekend!

Pot o’sunshine.

Our nephew Jake is visiting for a week or so. We had pizza night last night and today we headed to the lake. Of course.
Jane and Jeff joined us on Destiny. It was a beautiful day. After last week’s rain a straggler shower or two dodged around on the horizon.
We didn’t get rain but were treated to this rainbow from arky south.

Little helper.

It’s Saturday!! Keeto loves to help out with making the grocery list. 🙂

My other helper made awesome daiquiris at the end of the day. I wish every day was saturday. Cheers!

Nailed it.

My risotto-eer has been at it again. Tonight he made Basil Risotto, with fresh basil and tomatoes from the garden. Delicious!

The recipe book is Risotto, by Clive Tring. Lots of good risotto recipes, with lovely photos of the dishes.

Tiptoeing through time.

I’ve spent the entire day today jumping back into my genealogy research. I have recently connected with distant cousins in my same generation, all of who’s grandparents were siblings born in the late 1800s. It has rekindled the fire in me to transfer the myriad of notes, stories and photographs that I have compiled over the last decade or so into a cleanly documented family tree. And we are pooling our research.
It is especially challenging to research my ancestors because virtually all of my grandparent paths on all sides start in Ireland. So I’m enjoying joining forces on the research.
Once I make a pass through my ancestors’ part of the tree, I’ll do the same for Monte’s, for whom I have significantly more information.

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