photography – Page 68

Multi-tasking.

My Sunday wannado list was longer than the day would allow. I made it to the gym early, then caught up on laundry and paperwork. Then the dilemma: park in front of the tv for 4 hours to watch my Seahawks in action? Or go to the Pecan Street Festival and run a few other errands?

So, I decided, BOTH!

I streamed the game on my iPhone via the NFL mobile app as I walked around the festival with an earbud in my ear. The rain held up and it was a nice afternoon. And, oh my, what a game! The Hawks came back from being down 20-3 to Houston at halftime, winning in overtime. I was the most animated festival attendee on the scene. I got a few dark looks from folks wearing Texans jerseys, as I walked around in my Seahawks shirt. 🙂

The festival was lively, as usual. Music, food and a couple hundred vendors selling art, jewelry, candles, tye-dye, and such. It’s held twice a year — once in the spring and once in the fall. If you missed it this time around, mark your calendar for May 4 & 5 next year.

This is a shot of one of the 3 music stages. Son de Rey was playing.

I’m baaaack.

Wow, I’ve left Sheila365 untended for 3 weeks! That’s the longest stretch without posting since I started this blog over 3 years ago. But it’s not because I don’t have new photos. Oh my, do I have photos! We spent 2 jam-packed weeks in Seattle visiting family. I worked the first week, but I was on vacation for the second week. We celebrated birthdays, had great visits with my mom, all my siblings and their kids, and Monte’s nephew and his awesome family. Watched kids soccer games, watched football games (go seahawks!), went golfing, went to the Port Townsend wooden boat show, spent a glorious day on the Seattle waterfront. We’ve been back home for a week, but it was way too busy with work to attack the photos. I just need to sit down and sort through them, to a pick a few to share. But that’s not going to happen today, so let me just post this one, to get back into the blogging groove. Happy Anniversary to us! We’ve completed another ride together around the sun, with lots of great memories — looking forward to what we encounter on the next lap.

In the midst of the mist.

We went to the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival today. And we had a really fantastic day. I took a ton of photos but am wiped out so I will only quickly post one before I succumb to sleep. I’ll post more tomorrow.

This was from this morning before the fog lifted. Soon after this we were treated to a beautiful day. Sunny, clear and light breezes. This was the rowing regatta, with a ghostly schooner looking on from the fog.

Olympic sunset.

So pretty. The sun setting behind the Olympic mountains.

Blue-hair special.

As 5:30 rolled around tonight I got this text from Monte on my phone: “Blue hair special?” That’s what we call the hurry-up-to-beat-the-happy-hour-rush dinner run to our nearby Chuy’s. If we time it right we can be in and out of there in no time flat.

Yes, sir! I logged off and got semi-presentable in a jif. And we were off. Ah, yes, dinner and a marg, and home by 6:30. Yum!
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Happy Labor-free Day!

To celebrate this Monday holiday, I committed to doing absolutely nothing, for a change. No cleaning, no shopping, no cooking, no lake time, no house projects. So, Monte and I held down the couch as we watched the end of all the movies on the DVR that we’d started one evening or another in the last few weeks, but hadn’t finished because I fell asleep while watching them: Hereafter, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Mask of Zorro, The Birds…. Whew. We’re all caught up now.

In keeping with my do-nothing pledge, we had a plate of cold nibbles for dinner. Cheers!

Sunday sunrise.

Hello September, and… good morning! One of the nice things about anchoring in Arky cove is that you are treated to beautiful sunset and sunrise views – this was the view off the port-side of Nirvana, as I was drinking my morning coffee.
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Back at the marina, we popped into Shades for lunch for the last time this season, after this weekend they close up shop until next spring. This is the sobering view of the marina from the restaurant. The lake is at 620′ and some change. Just 6 feet from the all-time low for Lake Travis of 614.18′ in August of 1951. Less than 3 years ago, the lake was brimming at 680+ with the lakewater lapping the parking lot. With the LCRA’s mismanagement of this incredible natural resource, and with no rain in the future, we’re sure to go much lower than that this year. All docks are now moved out, off-shore, accessible via shuttles that leave from the courtesy dock. No electricity or water on the docks for the forseeable future. This is sad, not only because we love playing on the lake, but scary because this is Austin’s drinking water supply, quickly disappearing downstream.

Pray for rain.

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Going batty.

Wow, this week has been crazy. Today I’ve been on back to back calls since 6AM without a break until 2:30 PM. And I have a couple more hours of meetings to go before the day is over — certainly lots more work to do after the calls. But after my call ended at 2:30 I just had to get up and walk around.

I started to walk down the hall to the kitchen when a blob on the window by the front door caught my eye. What the heck is that?

I better take a closer look…

OMG that is a bat! In case you were not aware, Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in the US… about 1.5 million mexican free-tailed bats make the underside of the Congress Bridge downtown their home from about March to October. Being nocturnal, they come out from under the bridge in droves after sunset everynight to forage for insects. I’ve seen the exodus many times and consider them friend not foe. This little guy didn’t make it back to the bridge, apparently. I was perfectly fine to let him hang out on the window until nightfall, but I couldn’t resist the urge to go outside and get a better picture. For you guys, of course.

So, i went outside and approached slowly…

Then I had to lean in a little closer to get a better shot… this one is kind of blurry…his head is pointing down, and he’s hanging on to the leaded window piece with his little feet…

and just then, he woke up and flew right past me. He scared the begeesus out of me and I was as startled as he was. I wish I had been able to get a shot of him in flight. Oh well. I hope he makes it back to the bridge tonight. Sorry I woke him up, but I didn’t get a good night’s sleep either.

I think that, eventually, my heart rate will return to normal. 🙂 For now, it’s back to work for me!

Celebrating a milestone.

This evening the UT Nursing School held the official pinning ceremony for the students that have passed the RN exam and are now nurses. We were honored to be Julie’s guests, to celebrate with her.

Afterwards, we grabbed dinner downtown at Easy Tiger. They serve bratwurst and other sausages made in-house, and breads, pretzels, sauerkraut and cheeses that they also make themselves. It was our first time, and we really enjoyed it. I don’t remember seeing Waller Creek in this good condition. A nice place. You should check it out next time you’re near 6th Street.

Fair breezes.

We enjoyed a fun raft-up last night. It’s been a long time since we’ve had 5 boats rafted up overnight. Last night it was Monte and I on Nirvana. Nick, Isabel, Lorene and Dimitri on Kalliopi. Wally, Kurt and Kevin on Zen. Kirk and Lilly on La Cima del Cielo. And Brent and Lawrence on a Catalina 27 that came in under the veil of darkness before the near-full moon rose, so I didn’t catch their boat’s name. We played ipod wars into the wee hours. This morning we lounged around on deck and floated behind the boats till after noon. Then Nirvana and Kalliopi sailed down to Carlos & Charlie’s, and then turned around to make way back up to our slips. Isabel sent us this shot that they took on our way back to the marina.

Back at the marina we checked out the boat to make sure everything was ship-shape, since our docks are now offshore by nearly a mile. We will allegedly have power hooked up in a few weeks. We shall see. The lake is at about 621′. Terribly low. It’s no longer a lake. It’s just a windy river with lots of new hazards around every corner. I’m starting to think it will never rise again.

Joe came out visit with us on Nirvana for the afternoon. It was really nice to get a visit in with him.

Not the hands of a girlie girl.

We’re at the lake for the night. We’ll have to wait and see who the wind will blow in tonight.
More owies for the collection. Oh well.
Looking forward to a nice night in our favorite cove.

My team.

Tonight is game 3 of preseason football, and the Seahawks have a rare nationally televised game. So I get a chance to watch them! We’re rooting them on from Austin.

Saturday nom noms.

Dinner time rolled around tonight and risotto and grilled salmon were on the menu. The before shot of the risotto:

And the before shot of the salmon fillet, rubbed with olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and ground pepper, sitting skin-down on a cedar plank that has been soaking in water for about 4 hours:

We cook it on a weber charcoal grill over direct heat for about 30 mins (this fillet was 2 pounds). The plank burns on the bottom, but infuses the salmon with a delicious smoked flavor. Be careful taking the plank off, it will burn anything you set it on. I use a cookie sheet. It’s not pretty, but it does the trick.
And after:

We watched the first race of the Louis Vuitton Cup final, but it was disappointing as both boats had problems and they postponed the second race. Later, the Seahawks preseason game 2 was on the NFL Network, and i got to watch them cream the broncos, so that made up for it.
Have I mentioned that I love weekends?!

A boatload of kids. Seriously.

Julie joined us on Nirvana for a raftup last night in Arky South with Rory & Greg on Sapphire. Kurt, Barbara and some of their friends came out on Dancer and tied up to us until after sunset. Nick & Isabel came motoring into the cove on Kalliopi right before sunset to join us. Even from a distance, we could see many people on the deck of their boat. As they came closer, we counted 14 teenagers + Isabel, Nick and Dmitri. Whoooa nelly, that’s a lot of people. And they were staying the night! It was a going away party for Morgan who is heading to college next week. Everyone had lots of fun. And we didn’t lose anyone! Never a dull moment. 🙂
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