Day is done.

The colors of Fall.

Just another B-dock sunset.

First to fall.


The cedar elms are the first trees to lose their leaves this year, in our yard.  The red oak and post oak are starting to get some color.  I’m hoping the chinese pistache turns vivid yellow again this year.  It’s only done that once in the 6 years we’ve lived here.  A girl can hope.

A right and a privilege.

Early bird gets the worm.

Texas early voting ended on Friday.  I attempted several times to dash over to one of the early voting places last week but each time was greeted with a wait in line longer than I had time to spare.  My mission today was to get it over first thing, since I had a day packed with back to back meetings starting at 7:30.  The polls opened at 7:00.  So, it was now or never.

I made sure I was in line good and early;  so I poured a cup of coffee to-go and headed out about 6:15.  I was actually 3rd in line.  By the time the polls opened the line was at least 50 people long and growing longer by the minute.

Mission accomplished.

Now, on to my first meeting…

The Ruby Reds are here!

Grapefruit juice + vodka = delicious Fall cocktail.

We’re back home from the lake.   We had a great time last night visiting with our raftup buddies.  Tonight we’re enjoying fresh squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice with a little vodka over ice.  I guess Fall is officially here!

Between October and May the Texas Rio Grande valley produces luscious, red, sweet, juicy grapefruit for all the world to enjoy.   Go get some!

Check out this link for recipe ideas for Texas Ruby Red grapefruit.

Rude awakening.

For whom the bell tolls?

Gene & Jo stopped by for a few days in Austin on their way home – a month-long road trip.  I know they’re looking forward to getting home but it has been great to get a visit in with them.  Last night Monte made roast leg of lamb.  Julie joined us, too.  It was fantastic!

This morning, as we were contemplating getting up, the alarm on our security system went off… right outside Gene & Jo’s room (!)  It was SO loud!  I don’t know what set it off.  And we didn’t know how to make it stop, so…. it is no longer attached to the house 🙂

Phew!

We headed to the marina after the fire drill today.  Gene and Jo headed home from there after visiting Nirvana.

Monte and I rafted up in Arky south with Rory & Greg on Sapphire, and Lori & Dave on Camelot.   We had very little wind for the Beer Can regatta.  But afterwards we sailed through 20+ knot gusts on our way to the cove.  It was nice to raft up and relax.   Leftover lamb sandwiches for dinner!

Halloweenie treats.

Treats. Definitely treats.

Happy Halloween!  Each year in this house we get fewer trick-or-treaters.  So I buy less candy every year.  Apparently still too much.  This year we only had 2 doorbell rings… a total of 6 kids.  😦

These were the leftovers.

Night lights.


We raced the beer can today.  Correction – not really raced.  Mostly crept along at 2-4 knots.  The wind was supposed to be out of the north 10-15 today, but it sure was not.

That’s ok though, we had a nice visit with Joe, who joined us on Nirvana.   Robert and Tony (owns a 323 Beneteau on A-dock) won on Voodoo.  Ken and Jay came in second on Spike.  Kurt, Wally & Kevin came in 3rd.  We came in 4th.  Followed by the Wiz on Allegro.

It was nice out, really.  A little chilly, but at one point I was in a t-shirt, working the lines.

Afterwards, we sat on Voodoo and chatted til after sunset.  After climbing the hill back up to the parking lot we noticed the hot air balloons over at Lakeway City Park’s Great Goblin Glow Halloween festival.  We’ve seen them from the marina the last few years.   I can never get a good shot of them, though.

Oh well, pretty in person.

La chaise de bistrot du bubbly.

Little bistro chair made out of champagne cage.

Yay, Friday!  Julie and I treated ourselves to a pedicure after work / class.  Then Indian for dinner with Monte.  Then back home for a movie on pay per view…Moonrise Kingdom.  Enjoyed it!

We shared a bottle of bubbly, and made this cute little bistro chair out of the cage on the champagne bottle.  I saw this online a while back which gave me the idea (and also shows you how to make one, if you want to try it yourself).  We ought to have a couple dozen made by New Year’s Day.  🙂

Table for one!

Grill grub

Hibachi pie.

Monte whipped up a batch of his pizza doughs this afternoon.  Instead of our usual thin, thin crust in the oven on the pizza stone, he wanted to give it a try on the grill this time.   We’ve tried grilled pizza before… once we put a pizza stone on top of the grate in a Weber charcoal grill and tried, unsuccessfully, to cook a loaded pizza dough on top.  After that experiment, we ended up with 3 or 4 inedible pizzas that were black on the bottom and raw on top.  And, the pizza stone eventually broke in 2 from the heat.

This time, he had something else in mind.   We have a charcoal hibachi grill out back as well.  This time he put one of our cast iron grill plates on the hibachi, and put the pizza dough on top of that.  After turning it the dough once, he put sauce and cheese on top while the other side was grilling.   It only took a few minutes per side – and it turned out great.

Viva la pizza!

Ms. Monarch.

Danaus plexippus.

I went outside this afternoon between meetings and was greeted by a bevy of butterflies flitting around the lantana.  I snapped this shot quickly.  Bear with me, as it’s a bit fuzzy.  I had to zoom in and tweak it a bit.  My online butterfly identification guide tells me it’s a female Monarch butterfly.  You go, girl!

Scones on a boat.

Roughin’ it.

I’ve mastered the gas oven on the boat.   This morning I fired it up and baked blueberry scones for breakfast.  We are definitely not roughing it with fresh baked scones and jam.  🙂

(Disclaimer, I’m not a complete Betty-Crocker, though, I use Sticky Fingers scone mix.  Just add water.   Delicious!)

Made it to the cove by sunset.

Our cove.

We raced the beer can today.  This time Mark joined us on Nirvana.   Wally & Joe sailed on Soul Healer, so we had another 320 to match up against.  Lori & Doray sailed on Camelot, and Kurt & Kevin on Dancer.   The winds were strong out of the south, which made for a fun sail.  We didn’t come in last!  Though, we very well could have if it weren’t for Camelot accidentally dropping the main on the last leg (argh!)

Afterwards, we dropped Mark off on E-dock and headed right back out to anchor up in Arky south for the night.   We made it in time to admire another sunset in our favorite cove.  Lovely.

Wally joined us after dinner on Zen, tying up to us for the night, and we chuckled our way through the evening.

I ♥ this knot.

Celtic heart knotwork.

I ran across a DIY post online showing how to tie a Celtic heart knot.  So, I tried it and made this little chachki.  It needs some work to emphasize the heart shape, but I like it!

If you want to see how to make one, this YouTube video shows you how and is easy to follow.

Pretty dangles.

My first attempt at making earrings.

The other day when my sister and I spent an afternoon running around and playing in downtown Austin, I mentioned that we stopped into a bead shop (Bead It on South Lamar).  Over the years, I have assembled a nice set of jewelry-making tools that I use to repair miscellaneous of my favorite purchased pieces that have broken.  I’ve always wanted to try my hand at making earrings, bracelets, necklaces, etc, but have never taken that step.

So, when I came home last week with several baggies of beads and earring posts & hangers, I was excited to make a few pairs.   These are my very first pieces.   Not bad, i think.   Hmmmm, could there be an etsy storefront in my future?    🙂

P.s.  I’m wearing the purple/amethyst ones as I’m posting this…