Mmmm! Autumn means grapefruit season! Texas produces some sweet, delicious grapefruit. There are many different ways to enjoy them.
One is a drink some people call a Greyhound:
Fill tall glass halfway with ice 2 oz vodka 8 oz freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
Delicious! But, sadly, not so great for anyone taking statin meds to treat high cholesterol, FYI.
We enjoyed a couple tonight while rooting (in vain) for Cincinnati to beat Pittsburgh on Monday Night Football.
After many weekends of work-working and rushing around I have finally enjoyed a weekend working on a fun project that I have put off for too long.
When we went to the Abacos last summer, we stopped at Man-o-War Key. We walked up and down the island, and one house had the most awesome wind vane in the front yard. It had four boats with real sails that tacked as they rotated on the pole. I wanted one!
When we walked by again on our way back to the dock the owner was in the front yard adjusting it and we asked him where he got it. He said somewhere in Washington State. Well, when I got home I searched for this little gem online and was not able to find it.
Christmas came around and guess what was under the tree? Monte had hand carved four little catboats with masts and barn door rudders just waiting for sails. He’d made me a sailboat wind vane of my very own!
Well, THIS was the weekend I was determined to make the sails. So I hustled off to the craft store yesterday and today cut out and sewed the sails. We just finished rigging them. They’re so cute!
Now all we have to do is mount it atop a pole somewhere in the yard. The biggest challenge will be digging a hole in our backyard, where we have about 1/4″ of topsoil ontop of solid limestone. 🙂
I can’t wait to see them sailing around.
We’ve lived in Central Texas for nearly 15 years (gasp). Yet we’ve never made it down to New Braunfels for the annual Wurstfest. It’s a 10 day celebration of beer, bratwurst, oompah music and chicken dancing. And it’s wrapping up this weekend. Alas, we won’t be able to make it down this year either.
Soooo, I decided to have our own little wurstfest at home tonight. Not the same thing, no, but perhaps it will hold us over til next year.
We put a few bratwurst on the grill, cooked up some sauerkraut and shared a couple green-bottled german biers (prost!).
Now, where did I put my lederhosen?
Friday!
We bought last minute tickets to see the 40th anniversary show that Asleep at the Wheel played at the Long Center tonight. The show was put on in partnership with the Austin Lyric Opera. The stage setting was for the La Traviatta show that is starting tomorrow night, but it made for a cool backdrop. When Ray Benson opened the show he said they’d turn the grand old opera into the grand ole opry for the night.
They played for almost 4 hours!
They kept bringing onstage more and more musicians that had played with the band over the years – they had 4 horns, 4 or 5 pedal steel, 2 pianos, 6 fiddles, … Lots of great old swing sound.
Towards the end, Willie came out and played with the Wheel.
It was a great way to kick off the weekend.
This is a shot across Town Lake taken from the Long Center.
We have really enjoyed our herb garden this year. Well, we do every year, but this year the queen of the garden was the basil. We made many batches of pesto, margherita pizza, and caprese salad. We still have some left. We usually pinch off the flowers, but this time of year it’s better to let them go to seed in the hopes that we can get some seed for new plants next year.
This shot caught a sunbeam as the sun was dropping behind the trees.
Mmm, can’t you just smell the basil?
Ok, yes, I know my photos have been less than impressive lately. It’s hard to find interesting material when I’m sitting in front of a computer all day and night.
I need to get up and about, this is nuts.
Anyway.
I know it’s going to get a lot colder, but as for today, 55 degrees seems pretty COLD!
It turns out that I was asked to take on an additional high priority project for the next week or two, on top of the other things I have on the plate, so I decided to cancel my trip this week. It was an easy decision, really, and so I’m happy to not have to travel.
So instead of being on a plane tonight, I was able to watch the election returns as they came in.
This is a pic of the outcome at the end of the night…
November – wow, the year is sailing on by!
This morning I had some very early meetings to get ready for. So, I was padding around the house at about 4 AM, making coffee ever so quietly.
This is the typical shot of the no-man’s land between my office and the coffee pot.
I’ll leave you with this…..according to the Mamas & the Papas: “Monday, Monday…… can’t trust that day…” (youtube link)
Today we backed the catboat into the shop for the first time, marking the completion of a journey that we began when we got married and combined our 2 lives: the quest to find or make a place that was both of ours, where we could work on all of the projects that we enjoyed.
It took a while. Monte and I don’t do things in a hurry. But I love how it turned out.
Welcome home Cupholder!
There was a little bit of breeze all afternoon tinkling the wind chimes out back, probably made for a nice sail.
We spent this Saturday at the homestead.
Friday!
Tonight we’re going over to Lori & Dave’s for game night. We usually end up with way too many games to play, but there’s always sure to be enough laughs (and wine) to go round.
I may be traveling on Tuesday next week — Election Day. And, there is only 1 more day left for early voting here in Texas, so I dashed in tonight after work and before Game 2 of the World Series.
Let’s Go Rangers!!!!
Monte brought in a nice bouquet of zinnias from the last planting today. Keep ’em comin’!
It looks like Spring in the kitchen 🙂
Today is my parent’s 52nd anniversary. I’m so very glad that all the kids threw them a big party for their 50th. Even though my dad was ill at the time, seeing people that they hadn’t seen in some cases since their wedding was a wonderful thing. Oddly enough, of 2 of the 3 groomsmen (or was it 3 out of 4?) that made it to the 50th celebration had died within a month or two after the party. So it was a sweet, last reunion. And my dad passed away almost a year ago.
So, today I celebrate their anniversary and our family that got its start on this day over half a century ago.
Sheila365 