We dashed out to Mayfield Park today to see the peacocks and the pretty grounds, found a geocache, and then climbed atop Mount Bonnell to enjoy the view.
A nice day, indeed.
Category: Fun
Whoa, Nellie.
I took a walk around the hood tonight to hit my step target. And I came across this little lady who was very wary of me. I said hi, took a picture and kept moving on down the road. I’d like to think that she has a similar snap of me.
Girl power!
I’ve been closely following the around-the-world sailing race, the Volvo Ocean Race, since it started back in October of last year. Seven boats/teams started in Alicante, Spain, and have been sailing individual legs from one port to the next over the course of these last 8 months. They have circumnavigated the globe and are driving to the end, later this month. Tonight they will finish leg 8 – which started in Lisbon, Portugal, ending in Lorient, France. One of the teams is an all-female crew, on-board the magenta Team SCA boat. They have competed well, but have not yet won a leg. Tonight they are in the brink of winning leg 8, and I am so rooting for them. Just a little over 40 nm to go, and they are still leading the pack by 10nm and holding steady on speed. Go Team SCA!!!
What an amazing adventure. Check it out!
Sugar bombs.
I was introduced to cake pops recently, when a friend brought a dozen to a party. They are an excellent sweet treat. This weekend I took a stab at making a batch myself. Here’s how they turned out:
I did a little research beforehand, googling a few recipes and how-tos. This is the one I picked to guide me, and pretty much followed it exactly. I made one modification – I detest frosting-in-a-can, as its main ingredient is partially hydrogenated fat. I bought a powder mix instead – which was basically powdered sugar, really. I just had to add butter and a bit of milk. And it worked great for the frosting. I mixed up half a box (i.e., about as much frosting to cover half a cake), on the advice of the how-to that I was following. And it worked fine.
I bought pure white Wilton candy chips, and added food coloring. I have to say that the “dipping” phase is still a mystery to me. No matter what I tried, the candy coating was always the consistency of frosting. I tried both the microwave method, as well as the double boiler method. It was still very thick. So I couldn’t really “dip” the pops. I spun them through the coating and had to smooth with a knife most of the time. No matter, though, they turned out fine.
Some people recommend buying floral arrangement foam to use as a stand to hold your cake pops. I asked Monte to make me a few stands with wood scrap he had laying around in the shop. They worked great.
I’m beside myself.
Today the lake is lapping close to 665′. How amaze-balls is that??!!! The forecast has settled down enough for us to plan a night out. And it is amazing. The lake is up 45’+ and we are anchored up in a cove we could only look at on maps 2 weeks ago. Thank you! 
Kurt & Kevin joined us a little while ago. Who else is in?!!
Chasing sunsets.
We popped into our local public house for dinner and some cards tonight. On the way home we were treated to an awesome sunset… complete with rainbow and mammatus clouds (Monte looked it up). We had to dash around a bit and didn’t get a good shot, but hopefully this gives you an inkling of how beautiful it was.
Saturday.
We enjoyed a lovely night on the hook. We cooked up some grilled red peppers, chicken poblano sausages and rice.
We’re spoiled now…used our phone as a wireless hotspot and then streamed shows off of amazon prime on TV down below until we both fell asleep. Not exactly roughing it. 🙂
This morning I paddled for quite a while then went ashore to scrub 6 months of gunk from the bottom of the kayak. I also checked on some geocaches I’d hidden nearby. All good.
Pretty sights: 
Tonight Kurt will join us for another night in the cove. An almost full moon should light things up.
Friday.
We hightailed it out of town after work. The sunset from the back deck:
Interstate caching.
My meetings wrapped up atound 6 o’clock. I had about an hour and a half til sunset. So…. I set out for the woods before coming back to my hotel for an evening of email and work. I’m close to the border of Connecticut and New York where I’m staying, so I managed to find geocaches in both states tonight.
This is a placid pond I came across along one of the trails.
Home on La Grange.
Since day 1 of the MS-150 was called off, we had a leisurely morning in Houston. Day 2 will start in La Grange at the courthouse, and our riders’ team arranged a place for them to overnight at a beautiful ranch outside of town.
We spent the afternoon exploring the historic downtown.
La Grange is the county seat of Fayette County. Texas has some of the grandest old county courthouses. The one in La Grange is a good example.
After lunch at Orsak’s Cafe and bluebell ice cream at Latte on the Square we headed to the ranch to drop off riders and bikes. What an amazing spread.
I spied a purple martin house by the pond.
Yeah, I’m a sherpa.
Three of my girlfriends have ridden in the MS-150 for nearly each of the last 15 years. It’s a 2-day Houston-to-Austin cycling event and fundraiser to help find a cure for multiple sclerosis. And when they do ride, I go with them as their sherpa. My duties consist of helping schlep things as needed, keeping the wine flowing Friday night, delivering them to the starting line Saturday morning, and making sure their vehicle gets back to Austin. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it.
This is the first time I snagged one of the bandanas for myself. 🙂 
Please consider donating to help fund a cure.
This year’s ride is impacted by the recent rains. Notifications went out this afternoon that Day 1’s ride was cancelled, but we’re in Houston tonight and will do what it takes to get our riders on their way.
Jazz it up.
One of my unofficial new year’s resolutions was to dedicate some time to learning. Have you heard of MOOCs – massive open online classes? Well, there are MANY online courses on every subject imaginable, hosted from many different institutions and web portals. They are free – if audited, and are taken online from the comfort of your couch. Ten weeks ago I enrolled in a MOOC on Jazz Appreciation on edx.org, along with 11,000(!) other students. I love all kinds of music, but I really didn’t know much about Jazz, and I thought if I learned a bit more about it, its eras and artists, that I might enjoy it even more.
Today I finished the course. I highly recommend it. I now know a bit more about early jazz, swing, bebop, cool, hard bop, modal, free jazz, fusion, and neo-classical eras. I know that Coltrane was THE MAN on tenor sax. I know that Miles varied his music on trumpet to influence many eras. I found out that I really like the pianist Bill Evans and will seek out some of his albums. I understand why Charles Mingus and Thelonius Monk transcend a specific Jazz era. I decided that I don’t care as much for bebop – no offense to Dizzy and the Bird. I enjoy early jazz and modal and hard bop and cool. I can distinguish blues form from AABA form. I can listen for the bass and drums to try to pick out swing from even-8th rhythm. I heard many snippets of a variety of performances from artists that I was already aware of, whetting my interest to hear more by them. And I learned about some of the newest artists to appear on the Jazz stage. Professor Hellmer was great.
All and all, a great class! Aaaaaand, I got an A. 🙂
openculture.com maintains a list of over a thousand MOOCs here. Take a look, pick one out that sounds interesting, and enroll!
Be happy.
Today is the International Day of Happiness. Get out there and make a happy moment. 🙂 Here are a few happy moments from my day.
Friday! Nuff said.
It’s raining over the lake.
The vernal equinox will occur at 5:45 PM in Austin today.
Julie is coming back to Austin tonight for a visit. It’ll be nice to catch up with her at dinner.
Aaaaaand we’re going to make pizza!
A bit o the green.
Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
We popped in to our local pub to throw back a Guinness and a Harp (or two).
Slainte!
Sheila365 