We went to dinner at Rob & Jen’s tonight. Their friend, Matt, who we met at their wedding, was visiting from out of town. Rob baked up a delicious batch of stuffed lobster. And, we were treated to post-dinner fireworks, as is the custom on Zyle Road. 🙂 I guess you could say we were celebrating January 14th!
The cedar pollen is high in Central Texas. Which means I’ll be avoiding going outside for extended periods of time. Unfortunately, that means I can’t lend a hand with the yardwork. I used to go outside regardless, and dig in the dirt, trim brush and help with picking up leaves. But then I would be pretty much a sneezing, coughing, itching mess, clinging to a box of kleenex all week. So I’m hanging indoors this weekend. Monte cleared the front yard of leaves yesterday, and it looks great.
Today he is cutting down several very tall cedars along the back fenceline that have died from the last couple of droughts.
So, since I’m not out there helping, i’ll feed him instead 🙂
Spring rolls are not your typical lumberjack meal… but that’s what he got for lunch today anyway. The shot above is of what went into them (minus the noodles and rice paper wrap), and the shot below is of how they turned out. Hopefully they’ll tide him over til dinner.
You don’t so much need a recipe as you do a shopping list.
Spring Rolls
– Rice paper wrappers (soak in warm water for about 5 seconds right before preparing the spring roll to soften)
– Rice vermicelli (boiled up beforehand, I use a small amount on each one)
– Veggies of choice sliced very thin (I like cucumbers, carrots, lettuce)
– Cilantro (fresh, chopped up)
– Shrimp (cook it beforehand, you can also use chicken or beef or whatever you like)
– Peanut sauce (for dipping)
Cut everything up ahead of time, cook your meat, boil the noodles. Soften a rice paper wrapper (one at a time). Put a little of each in the center of the circular wrapper. Fold down the top edge and fold up the bottom edge, and roll as snugly as you can. Repeat until you can’t eat anymore.
Enjoy!
I love my car – though it has been showing signs of wear and tear for the last few years. I bought it new in 1997, which means it’s 15 years old this year, with about 85K miles. My plan has been to drive it til it falls apart. Question is, will this year be the year it falls apart?
The engine light came on yesterday and has stayed on, which freaked me out a bit since it has not done that before the manual says to stop the car and not drive it anymore when that light comes on.
I called the dealer, where I usually take it. But given that it’s in its golden years, that may be a little bit of overkill. They said they could take a look at it, but it would cost 1 hour of labor to just do that. The nice guy on the phone did say that 99% of the reasons the light comes on are not catastrophic, probably emissions related.
Monte suggested taking it to AutoZone, as they will come out to the parking lot and read the code off the car’s computer for free. What a concept! Keep that in mind next time this happens to you. I drove over today and in about 10 seconds they told me it was a code indicating that the exhaust mix is out of whack.
Whew. Ok, so I just need to get that fixed up to pass my next emissions inspection. I guess this is not the end of the road yet. Though, i must say it is a bit annoying when my sunroof opens on its own when it’s raining 🙂 so maybe the end of the road is not too far away…. Stay tuned.
The weather has been beautiful during the past week. Highs in the 60’s, even creeping into the 70’s, clear skies. And, it’s been breezy, the winds started out of the north and then slipped back into the normal southerlies. The wind has almost emptied the red oak of its leaves. The picture on the left was taken last Saturday, the one on the right today. Monte’s already planning his leaf collection strategy for this year. We are getting off easy, though. About half the leaves uncharacteristically fell in the Summer and the Fall, due to the drought, and they are long gone. Half of the rest blew down the street over the last few days 🙂 .
Have a great weekend!
Our friend, Dan, has a car problem. He has been building a modified old timey roadster from the ground up for the last few years. It’s not done yet, but he just bought a working 1926 Model T and had it shipped down here on a truck. Tonight we went over to Dan & Lynn’s house for dinner and to see the car, and to hopefully get a ride around the block in a genuine Tin Lizzy.
However, when we walked into his garage, this is what we saw. He had already put it up on blocks and taken it apart to spiff things up. So, for now this photo will have to do, and our ride will have to wait a bit.
P.S. I especially enjoyed the after dinner discussion Monte and Dan were having about a wooden hygrometer (measures humidity in the air) that he had just built. Dan couldn’t understand why Monte would make one out of wood when he had a perfectly good electronic hygrometer already. Ironic, eh? (i.e., reference photo above) 🙂
I bought a couple of cool “tipping” teacups that I ran across while browsing for gifts on the web. They make steeping loose-leaf tea one cup at a time very easy and quick. I had to, of course, get one for myself. 🙂 Then I had to find some loose-leaf tea to try out.
I am a 2-3 cup-a-day coffee drinker – have been for years. But, i was born a tea drinker. My Irish father drank a cup of tea at breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. So, I drank it as a kid, too, but very infrequently since then.
I’ve never tried loose-leaf tea, but have heard about how much more flavorful it is than tea-bag tea. I was eager to find loose-leaf versions of some of my favorite brews: Irish Breakfast, Earl Grey and Chamomile. I’m lucky to live in Austin for lots of reasons, but one of them is the local tea-shop called The Steeping Room, which is only about 5 minutes from my house. I popped over there and stocked up.
The picture above is of the before-bedtime blend called Perfect Night. It’s a mix of chamomile, rose, rose hips, lavender and pink peppercorns. I had some tonight and it was delicious.
I’ve also tried the breakfast tea and earl grey black teas — all amazingly flavorful. I think i’m hooked.
Mom sent us a gift box of Washington State pears and apples. Yum!
I’m not so good at New Year’s resolutions. I make them, but really only for myself. I suppose the important thing is that I will strive to make 2012 a better year for me — body, mind and soul — and hopefully leave my little corner of the world better than I found it along the way. I wish the same for you.
Loved ones. Good health. Lake Travis.
One of my favorite artists is Mary Doerr. You can browse her extensive collection of prints either in person or online at Images of Austin gallery. The image below is a link from her online gallery of the print entitled Lake Travis. Monte gave me this print as a gift several years ago. The vantage point of the view in her print is above the lake overlooking Marshall Ford Marina and the basin. Across the way you can see Windy Point, the land on the left fading into the distance is Hudson Bend. There are no signs of Sometimes Islands in her print (which only start to show when the lake drops below about 658′), as she has captured the basin as we love to see it — full.
Below is a shot from a similar vantage point taken today with the lake at 626 feet. Sad to see. Let’s hope for LOTS of rain in 2012.
But, even with our lake low and dropping, we can’t stay away. So, after our stop to look at the lake, we continued on to our marina. I joined Lori, Laura, Ann and Ireni for a ladies’ sail on Camelot. Monte and Joe went out on Cupholder to find some fish. It was a beautiful day, as you can see in the picture. Light northerly breezes made for a nice sail.
Today is Friday, New Year’s Eve’s Eve. Just 3 more days left of what’s been a great vacation from work. Here’s to not taking anything for granted. Cheers!
I spotted this woodpecker working on one of the trees out back today. The tree is a hackberry and from the sound of his rapping on the branches, it might be a casualty of the drought. But losing a hackberry isn’t a great loss.
I think this is a Ladder-backed woodpecker.
Apologies for the crummy photo quality. He was way up near the top of the tree and I had to use my 12x zoom. He didn’t seem very perturbed though, he paid no attention to me as I walked under the tree trying to get a shot.
Today we walked 9 holes at Morris-Williams Golf Course. I’ve been looking forward to golfing with my sweetie since vacation started. The rain put a damper on that for a bit, but today was beautiful with temps in the 60’s.
This is a shot of the Number 6 hole, taken from the Number 5 green. The rain we’ve had the last few weeks have greened things up a bit. You can just barely see the UT Tower – the one building visible on the horizon.
I really enjoy Morris-Williams. I am still quite the novice golfer, but this is the course that I know best – by far. The tee-to-green distance of the first 9 holes is about a mile and a half. So I figure we walked 2 or so miles. Though the way I hit today, it might have been more like 3-4 miles. 🙂 And, on this course, every hole seems to be uphill. But no matter, it was really nice to be out there.
I did not lose any balls in the out of bounds or in the water hazards. I did, however, hit several trees that popped out of nowhere. Oh well. Maybe one of my New Year’s resolutions will be to play at least once a quarter in 2012. We’ll see….
One of the things I enjoy about our little homestead are the many large trees that surround it. It’s a blessing, but also a challenge with the extended droughts we’ve experienced over the last few years. We just couldn’t seem to put enough water on the trees this summer, given the water restrictions we had, and the fact that our sprinkler system is currently out of service. Though quite stressed by the drought, most of them weathered through the summer. We lost a redbud out back (*sniffle*), and I’m not sure about the ornamental pear out front — we’ll just have to see how it looks in the spring.
The Shumard Red Oak that graces the front yard is ginormous, and is a sight to behold when the leaves start to change. Even though it lost many of its leaves this summer, there are still plently left to fall (and to rake up in about a month).
The strange thing is that i cannot find an acorn on the entire tree this year. I guess that’s a result of the drought stress as well. Last year, by comparison, was a bumper crop for acorns, and the squirrels went nuts (pardon the pun). This year the little critters are going to have a hard time finding food — which means they’ll be trying to eat anything attached to, or around the house, that looks like food. (So, be warned!)
This afternoon, though it was very chilly, we headed to the lake for some fishing. We picked up Joe, Kurt and Wally and motored over to the docks across the lake. Wally caught the first bass, and Monte caught 2 more.
We headed back to the marina as the sun was slipping away. I love the light at this time of day on the lake. It is the golden hour. The shot above is of monte’s 2nd fish, lit up by the golden sunset.
The shot below is of the sun as it was setting.
The shot below is from the cockpit of the catboat, after the sun has set. I love the colors of the sky at dusk.
And this last shot is of the crescent moon, with Venus to its left, as viewed from B-Dock, through the Christmas lights on Allegro’s rigging, as we were heading for home.
A good day, indeed.
Today we drove down to San Antonio for my uncle’s funeral. The mass was very nice, and the burial was at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, where they held military funeral honors. One of my cousins from Colorado also flew down to attend. Having 4 cousins together was quite rare for our far-flung family, so it was a real treat.
Rest in peace, Uncle Devitt.
Sheila365 