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.
Halloweenie treats.
Tag: 365 project
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.
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. 🙂
Grill grub
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
Just sayin’…
I could get used to this “retirement” thing.
We’ve had company here this week – my sister visiting, a colleague of mine for dinner last friday, and Julie joining us when she can find time. So, Monte has been cooking up a storm… grilled chickens, Cincinnati chili, cedar plank salmon, risotto, catfish, creme caramel, cooked apples, grilled pork ribs, and today for lunch: homemade ravioli with goat cheese stuffing. Hoooo-wheeeeee!
Delicious!
Taking the day off.
My sister leaves tomorrow, so I took the afternoon off to play hooky with her. We started off buying beads at a bead shop to get supplies for making jewelry thingies. No pics of that – a project for another day. Then we headed to Zilker Park for a hike on the Barton Creek Greenbelt Trail. It was really lovely out. High 70’s and sunny. Perfect for a hike. The creek is mostly dry. We did see lots of flowers, butterflies and dragonflies.
The orange butterfly in the shot below stopped to let me take several shots.
Later on down the trail this swallowtail stopped to let me do the same thing.
I found a pretty good butterfly guide website to try to identify them. You might want to bookmark for future reference.
After the hike we stopped by Barton Springs Pool. Such a pretty place. The pool was beautifully clear.
Then we ran over to Sno-Beach for a must-have best-snocone-ever experience. You’d better hurry, they close at the end of October for the winter. Go out and get one!
Then. Back to Zilker to rent a kayak and tootle around Town Lake (ok, sorry “Lady Bird Lake.” old habits die hard). We paddled all the way to the South 1st Street bridge. On our paddle back we passed 3 UT Women’s Crew boats training.
The Austin City Limits Music Festival takes place this weekend. It’s a 3 day music extravaganza hosted in Zilker Park. Everything is setup and just about ready for the throngs of festival-goers. I took the opportunity to take a quick shot of the festival entrance, so I wouldn’t have to come down here with 75,000 of my closest friends to get the shot this weekend.
What a great Austin afternoon!
Joie de vivre.
Even though the chill of Fall is in the air, we, of course, headed to the lake. We raced in the beer can today. We had a great turnout: Wally & Joe on Zen, Kurt & Kevin on Dancer, Lori & Doray on Camelot, Dave and Wiz on MisGuided, and the 4 of us on Nirvana. We got off the start line a minute and a half late (need to work on that). Monte and I, the racing novices that we are, debated re: tactics as we sailed the course (need to work on that, too). 🙂 We didn’t win, place or show, but had fun.
Afterwards we anchored up in Arky South in our usual spot for the night.
My sister is visiting for a week. She took her turn on the winches and at the wheel. Another natural mariner 🙂 Julie joined us, too.
I enjoy it very much when family comes to visit, and when we hit the road to visit family as well. We both come from big families but don’t live close to them. My thoughts are especially on the importance of spending time with family, as I learned that my cousin died unexpectedly and tragically from a pulmonary embolism this week – a complication from relatively routine back surgery a few days before. So sad. So sobering. He had just turned 48 a few weeks back, in the prime of his life, raised a wonderful family, and was an active and accomplished Air Force colonel, getting ready to chart the next phase of his life’s course. I had a chance to visit with him in Seattle last summer. So glad I did.
Pretty in purple.
Monte brought some lilies home yesterday. When he put them in the vase they were just buds – they were all closed. Overnight they all popped open, and now these pretty flowers brighten up the dining room.
Sheila365 