Wally found this guy on b-dock today. We took a couple of shots and then let him go on his way.
Big finale.
We went to a Round Rock Express baseball game tonight. On Friday nights they have a post-game fireworks show. We had great seats right along the 3rd base line. The game didn’t end well, but the fireworks sure did.
TGIF!!!!
Brush be gone!
One of the perks of being a customer of Austin Utilities is their Large Brush Collection program — twice a year you can put as much brush, tree trunks, branches, etc on the curb and the city will haul it away.
This year we had alot of trees that had died from the drought and monte went to town on them with the saw. We had about 30′ of frontage piled about 4 feet high with brush.
The city is pretty darn efficient in hauling it away. It took them less than 5 minutes at our house, and they were off to the next pile.
Come (rain) dance with me!
It rained again tonight. We got a good dousing this time. I would like more though, so please do a rain dance for Central Texas and the rest of the country that is in dire need of it.
If you don’t have a rain dance of your own, then just dance with Matt. It’s been 4 years since the last one, but he’s just released his latest Dancing video. Check it out on youtube here. I dare you not to smile. 🙂
Three P’s.
We’ve been anxiously awaiting some, *any*, rain at our house for the last 72 hours or so. In between weather radar checks, I cooked dinner tonight. And as we were finishing, the rain started falling — yeah!!
Pasta, Proscuitto & Peas
6 oz fresh pasta (I used linguine)
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 shallot, finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely diced
2 oz sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
4 oz prosciutto, sliced into long thin strips (I trim off fat to throw it in while sauteing the shallots and garlic)
1/2 c white wine
6 oz green peas (i used frozen, you can also use fresh)
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 oz parmesan cheese, finely shredded
Boil pasta in salted water. Over medium heat, saute onions, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes til soft in butter, olive oil and trimmed fat from prosciutto. After a minute or two, add sliced prosciutto. Stir for 2-3 minutes. Add wine to de-glaze pan, stir and reduce by 1/2. Add peas and cream. Stir again for 2-3 mins.
When pasta is done, strain (saving 1 cup pasta water in case sauce needs thinning). Remove sauce from heat and place strained pasta in cream sauce. Toss pasta in sauce. Add pasta water if needed to thin sauce.
Stir in cheese. Serve!
Anticipation.
A chance of rain has been in the forecast for the last day or two. At about 4pm the clouds start to build and red blobs pop up on the weather radar. Unfortunately the rain clouds fizzle out before they get to us.
I hope it’s raining somewhere.
Zinnies and zinnies and zinnies, oh my!
More zinnias from the garden.
Pizza night.
We made pizza for dinner tonight. 4 doughs. I didn’t get a picture of the first one – with homemade pesto, olives, and parmesan cheese. Delicious! Pizza 2 was a margherita with homemade sauce with tomatoes from the garden, homegrown basil, and mozzarella cheese. Pizza 3 was red sauce, proscuitto, black olives, onions and mozzarella, and pizza 4 was red sauce, artichoke hearts, red bell peppers, olives and mozzarella cheese.
The best part of pizza night are the leftovers.
Julie and I watched Wanderlust tonight. You guys will just have to watch it and judge for yourselves. 🙂
TGIF!!!!
Just yer average sunset.
We went to the marina to take the 320 out for a sea trial. It was a nice day. Greg & Steve & Kurt came along. It sailed beautifully. Nice boat! We found some issues with the rigging that made lowering the main difficult. We’ve got some homework to do now to see if it is easily addressed or not.
After the sail we floated off b-dock with joe, kurt and barbara. Then dinner at Los Pinos.
This is a shot of the sunset, taken from the marina parking lot. Even with the power lines and lights in the foreground it’s a beauty.
Happy July 4th!
Wow, that was a fun raftup! We got to the cove at about 5pm. Rory & Greg arrived first on Sapphire. Monte hooked them up with a stern anchor and a bow line to shore. Then Lori & Dave arrived on Camelot. Then Marty & Sue on Caribbean Hug. Then Wally & Robert on Voodoo.
We cooked up some beef fajitas right before the sun set — it was so easy, using the pre-seasoned skirt steak from HEB, and the cast iron skillet was as good as a grill. We’ll definitely have to bring those again.
There was a beautiful full moon – the Buck Moon. I have not mastered the art of photographing a full moon on a non-stationary boat yet, so no good pic to post.
iPod wars raged into the wee hours. I threw in the towel around 2AM. This morning I woke up to the sound of Voodoo dropping off Rory & Greg. They were just returning from a moonlight sail. They apparently left at about 3:30 AM, headed for the dam. They turned around at Sometimes Islands at about 6:30 and made it back to the raft-up by about 8:30. Those guys stayed up all night long. Crazy sailors!
We had a great day. But we are pretty tired from all the fun and schlepping.
This is a shot of a dragonfly that was darting around behind Cupholder this morning. I’m not sure why he hung around, but he stayed for an hour or two.
July 4th’s Eve raftup.
I’m off of work for the rest of the week (YAY!). We headed to the lake today for a raftup with friends in Arky south. We’ve got the coolers packed, and the kayak on the trailer, and we’re off!
This is a shot of one of the zinnias out back. They’re so pretty!
Keeto at about 10 1/2 months.
After being out of town all last week, it’s nice to be home this week — for lots of reasons. One is that I get to visit with Keeto in the morning. Such a pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty bird.
Keeto will be 1 year old around the middle of August. It’ll be another good excuse to throw a party. 🙂
Viva la Roja!
We camped out at home today to recharge, and also to watch the Euro2012 championship. Spain vs. Italy. Marty came over to help us cheer on Spain. España did not disappoint, winning 4 – 0 over a strong Italian team.
They have now won 3 World / European championships in a row. It’s building up to be an exciting 2014 world cup in Brazil.
Moving on up?
We went to the lake today early, to finalize an offer we’ve made on a new boat. It’s not a done deal – we still have to take it out for a sea trial and have a marine surveyor inspect it, but if there are not problems found, this may be our new ride in a couple weeks.
We have infinitely enjoyed sailing and playing aboard our unique, homebuilt wooden catboat for eight years. We treasure the friends we have made at the marina in those 8 years, too. We are not ones to make big decisions lightly. But we recently decided to make a move up to a bigger boat, and this is the one that presented itself. If it doesn’t work out, no biggie, we’ll wait for the next one that feels right. If it does work out, I look forward to another 10-15 years of fun aboard this boat on our beautiful lake with our sailing friends.
I’ll keep you posted!
Sheila365 