This was one of the best years for wildflowers that I can remember, but they have peaked and are starting to fade. I’m going to miss going out back every day to look for new arrivals. This is a closer look at the indian paintbrush that showed up. I think these flowers have one of the best names — the leaves/petals really do look like they’ve been dipped in paint. I can’t wait until next year to see how they’ve multiplied.
I was pleased today to find a tiny poppy that had just bloomed in the way back. It couldn’t be more than 1 1/4″ across, but it’s there because we sowed the seeds!!!
Up early this morning to get Laura and Lori to the starting line. Maybe one of these days I should ride with them…. but then again, his sherpa thing is not a bad gig.
A Toyota being pushed through the lobby of the Houston Omni Hotel. Today is the Friday before the MS-150 bike ride weekend, which is a 2 day bike ride from Houston to Austin, raising money for fighting Multiple Sclerosis. For the last 8 years or so I’ve been driving my cycling friends to the event in Houston, helping them with their gear and driving their truck back to Austin the next day. I call it being a “sherpa.” It’s alot of fun with my girlfriends, and a great deal – as they treat me to a wonderful dinner.
This year Lori and Laura are riding, and Irene has joined again for co-sherpa duties. We were walking back to the hotel room late at night and saw them pushing this Toyota official MS-150 support vans through the lobby. I guess they didn’t want to start the engine. It was amusing though because the guy in the drivers seat kept putting on the brakes.
Anyway. I could have taken lots of pictures of bikes, but this moment caught my fancy.
I made a batch of almond biscotti tonight for a road trip tomorrow.
Almond Biscotti (makes about 2 dozen)
2 c flour
1 c sugar
1 c slivered almonds
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 eggs + 1 egg white
vegetable cooking spray
Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in separate bowl, and then add to dry mixture, stirring until well blended. The dough will be very dry.
Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead lightly 7-8 times. Shape dough into 16″ long flat loaf. Place loaf on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Flatten loaf to 1″ thickness.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins. Remove loaf to cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Cut loaf into approx 24 half-inch thick slices and place, cut sides down, on baking sheet.
Reduce oven temp to 325 degrees and cook 10 minutes each side (cook slightly less on each side if you like softer biscotti). Remove from sheet to wire rack and let cool completely.
Enjoy!
It’s that time of year. If you paid any Federal Income Tax at all for 2009 you are one of the 53% of American households that carry 100% of the tax burden (ref).
I waited until just about the last day to put mine in the mail.
The following is worth reflecting on this Tax Day Eve…
The 10 Cannots (William Boetcker, 1916)
I had a flat from a nail in one of my tires last week. I took it in and had it fixed. Then this weekend I was running some errands and about half-way through discovered the same tire was flat again (grrr). So today I took it back and they talked me into new tires all around, as they were pretty worn and someone used the word “dry rot.” Hard to believe it had been about 6 or 7 years since I bought new ones. How long are they supposed to last?
I love my Audi… it’s 13 years old and going strong.
Well, suffice to say that some days provide more exciting moments than others. Today is Monday. Kind of a dreary one. I took a moment this morning to load up some new ammunition for the next iPod wars opportunity that presents itself.
Wrapping up the psycho-killer reunion weekend, we headed to the lake today. We took Cupholder out. On our way out of Hurst Cove we saw Joe and Ken & Chris and their grandkids.
Lori and Dave took Camelot out with Wendy, Denyse, Lisa and Laura on board. We sailed a bit and rafted up in Arky south cove for several hours. On the way home we tied up to Joe on the mooring ball for a bit and fed the fish.
It was a good end to a fun weekend.
We went to a reunion of sorts at Lori’s tonight, of some of the folks that worked and played hard in Boca in the early days. Simply could NOT keep these people from dancing (or whatever you’d call it). Saw Lori, Dave, Rudy, Jake, Eric, Laurie, Doray, Tom, David H, Wendy, Denyse and Lisa. Had a blast.
Yay, Friday! Monte whipped up a lovely tomato sauce, while I made the pasta. Delicious!
We’re loving the kitchen and all that we make in it.
In the wayback, the bluebonnets are doing great. I think they’ve hit their peak, though, and will start to fade over the next few weeks.
When we sowed the bluebonnet seeds last year, which we harvested from behind the IBM 900 buildings, we also collected indian paintbrush seeds, along with some red poppy and a bunch of other wildflower seed. The bluebonnets have really taken hold, but the other wildflowers just haven’t shown up — with the happy exception of this one (1) indian paintbrush which I was very excited to find. It’s one of my favorites.
This is a shot of my lone indian paintbrush against a backdrop of bluebonnets. Maybe next year I’ll have a dozen.
The trumpet vine on the fenceline is in full bloom today.
We made it to our neighborhood margarita hole for dinner tonight — timed to miss the after-work rush. This is a shot of Chuy’s hubcap ceiling. I love me some mango margs.
Sheila365 