Whew! We’re still out here rafted up in the wee hours this Monday morning. Another night of iPod wars with friends last night has rolled right into the next morning and we’re still going! We have today off, so we can take our time getting home.
This is a shot of the waning moon rising over our marina at about 1:30 AM. It looked much bigger from my side of the viewfinder.
Next weekend should be near the new moon, so maybe I’ll try to get a nice shot of the stars.
Happy 4th of July!! Wow. What can I say? We had a blast yesterday. An excellent morning, too. We were joined later in the day by Joe on Prelude, Kurt, Wally & Greg on Dancer and Marty & Sue on Caribbean Hug. I guess I saw this coming, but we ended up having so much fun that we stayed another night — yet another accidental raft-up.
I love it that we have found such a fun bunch of big kids to spend our time on the lake with. If laughter is the best medicine, I’m set.
As the song says:
“….the road goes on forever and the party never ends!“
This is a shot of the official portion of our burgee collection — flown proudly on Cupholder this July 4th. The burgee on the bottom is a “B” signal flag, for B-Dock, of course.
This is the 3-day Fourth of July holiday weekend. We’ve packed up Cupholder for an overnight raft-up with friends in Hurst Cove. We joined Teri and Jim on Island Time, and Lori and Dave on Camelot for the night. The city of Lakeway shoots fireworks from a barge in the cove tonight and we’ll have an awesome view from about 200 feet away. Doray and Tom came out with us for the afternoon, and a bunch of other folks motored over and tied up with us to watch show as well, but didn’t stay overnight – Joe and kids on Prelude, Kurt, Barbara, Wally & Shannon, Greg and the Wiz on Dancer, and Tony & Michelle on Caribbean Run. It was quite the show, and quite the party.
It wasn’t the same without Marty & Sue to play along with us, but afterward the 3 boats that were left played iPod wars WELL into the night — lots of laughs. A good time was had by all. 🙂
Rainy Friday. I’ll take ’em any way I can get ’em. I tried to capture a slash in the puddles out back, and this is the best I was able to get. Maybe the next downpour will yield a better shot.
We were thinking of watching the Carlos n’ Charlies fireworks tonight, but they ended up getting rained out.
We’re headed to the lake tomorrow.
I’m on my way back home, flying through Dallas. This is a shot from the SkyLink train as I dashed between terminals.
Since I’m traveling again, I renewed my Admiral’s Club membership that I let expire when I was on leave from work. It makes flying a tad more tolerable. American has finally enabled wireless for no charge in the lounges. That makes it even more worth it.
Hurricane Alex made landfall in Mexico and the rain bands have made their way up as far as Austin for the last few days while I’ve been in NY. Water for the garden, yay!
I’m looking forward to the 3-day weekend. Lake. Friends. Laughs. Fireworks. Relaxation.
This sign made me chuckle as I drove past today. It’s located about a mile and a half outside of the IBM Somers campus. I turned around and drove past a second time, just so that I could snap this picture.
After this week of meetings here, I can report that the Circus is alive and well. 🙂
Today is the last day of the first half of 2010. How fast was that?!
I didn’t bring the camera with me this morning, so by the time I got back to the hotel room tonight there was little material to work with. I’m determined to keep this photo-a-day thing going, though, so I opted for a self-portrait-ish shot. Ok, just the eye — but it IS mine.
I learned the other day that my mom will be having cataract surgery. I was checking out my eye in the mirror for early signs of cataracts, but didn’t see anything, so I think I’m ok…..for a while, anyway. Whew!
Anyway, that’s what led to this shot.
Back to NY for meetings this week. I indulged myself by traveling on Monday instead of Sunday.
As we were landing, I took this shot of the Empire State Building and surrounding part of Manhattan right before sunset. I don’t have time to hit the big city this trip though. I’m blowing right through La Guardia and headed to Somers.
I have another shot of the Financial district on the southern tip of the island, but it still just looks wrong without those 2 towers. Hard to believe that was nearly 9 years ago.
Over the weekend I read in the news that a 6 month old infant was killed and her mother seriously injured by a falling tree branch while posing for a photo taken by the father during a visit to the Central Park Zoo. So terribly sad, and so random.
Jen and Rob invited us to go tubing with them and their niece, Channing, today. We did our traditional San Marcos River extended float. We go farther downstream past the official take out point where we park a car and trailer ahead of time to haul tubes and tubers back to the starting point. That way we have a 3 hour float.
It hasn’t hit 100 degrees yet this year, so it’s a little unusual for us to go tubing until triple digit temps. But we had a fun time. The flow was unusually swift, so it was more work than your typical lazy float down the river.
This is a shot just as I entered the chute at the rapids. I’ve never turned over before, but this time I did, and ended up losing my hat and sunglasses. My hat was found a bit down river, but my prescription raybans are gone for good. Oh well. But it didn’t dampen the fun.
Can’t wait for the next float!
The moon, she is full! This month’s full moon is called the Strawberry Moon, and it occurred at about 5:40 AM this morning, as the moon was setting. I was already up, so I walked outside to try to find a view not obstructed by trees (difficult to do in this neighborhood). A partial lunar eclipse was happening at the same time.
This is a shot of the full moon as the shadow of the Earth clipped the top right portion while passing between it and the sun.
I guess it just looks like an ordinary waning or waxing moon, but it’s a bit more unique than that. I’m glad I was up to see it.
Another week flown by. Got a lot accomplished, but lots more to do.
I had a bit of an inspiration-less day today. Meetings start at 6:30 every day, and run through the early evening. It’s refreshing when I can finally log off for the day.
Walking around outside seems to take bit of the fogginess out of my head. I know I’ve been posting lots of flower pics, but I enjoy sharing them. Here is another zinnia.
I really like this Canon PowerShot D10. I’ve found it takes great close up shots. But, not so great wide shots. Or, it could be me. I think it’s time I dig out the manual. Maybe I’ll flip through that this weekend.
Tonight we are enjoying a quiet Friday night at home. We’ve got the original “Flipper” movie queued up on the DVR. Yes, that’s right — the 1960’s movie about the dolphin.
Oh, by the way… just 6 months from today until Christmas (!)
The lantana is booming this year. The butterflies are all over their little bunches of flowers. They do look mighty tasty, don’t you think?
For the last couple of years sunflowers have mysteriously appeared in the flowerbed out back. I assume they were seeded by birds on their way back from the feeder… or maybe those pesky squirrels. They’re a nice addition to the garden.
This one is about 4 feet tall so far and has a number of buds ready to pop.
We love to grill. Year round. Weber kettles and charcoal, baby.
Tonight’s menu:
insalata caprese, grilled chicken, spinach risotto, and a decadent chocolate cake from Marty & Sue, who joined us for dinner.
Delicious!
Here’s how we do the chicken, in case you want to give it a try, too……
Grilled Chicken
1 whole chicken
a couple fresh rosemary sprigs
olive oil
kosher salt and ground black pepper
Prepare coals for indirect cooking (2 piles – on left and right side of grill). Clean chicken, rub with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper inside and out, stuff a few sprigs of rosemary inside (and sometimes a chunk of onion, apple, ..), tie the bird up and put in the center of the grill breast-side down (though we’ve tried both ways, I think it’s juicier this way). Cook for about 15 minutes per pound. Remove from grill and let sit 10-15 minutes before carving.
Sheila365 