“Retired” is a state of mind. Monte has been working every day out in the shop making sawdust and pretty furniture. This is his latest project, one of a pair of LP cabinets. Made out of beautiful walnut with a gorgeous custom finish. He designed and built them. Quite the craftsman!
The drawers have heavy duty full bottom-mounted slides. And he designed an angled, adjustable back-stop for each drawer.
Below is the “before” picture 🙂
I wonder what’s next?!
When I arrived in San Francisco on Monday I saw signs welcoming the America’s Cup World Series races that were taking place here… this week! Unfortunately my hotel and meetings were across the bay in Emeryville, so I had no chance of getting a glimpse of the heats and qualifying races that started every day at 2pm and went until about 4pm. I would have LOVED to see them race, but was going to have to settle for getting a picture of the boats.
We did drive over to the city on Wednesday night, but didn’t make it to the Golden Gate Yacht Club, the home marina of the America’s Cup holder Oracle Racing, where the boats were moored.
So today I had a tiny window of time between meetings and the drive to the airport. I was determined to make it to the waterfront. So I braved morning traffic and made it to Marina Green and was able to walk up and down the boardwalk about 50 yards from all the boats.
The shot above is a bit into the sun, but it shows all the boats moored in San Francisco Bay. Alcatraz is in the background. The boats above are the AC45 (45′ class) boats. The mainsails are “wing sails” and they are catamarans. These World Series races are practice for the America’s Cup Finals racing next summer with even bigger boats. In February they will introduce the 72′ (AC72) catamarans that will be raced in the Challenger races of the America’s Cup. If you think these boats are fast, just wait until next year. The final America’s Cup will be in September 2013 in San Francisco. If you want to see them in action, NBC will be carrying this Sunday’s final races live on national TV @ 11:30 AM Pacific. And, you can follow the standings of this week’s races here.
The shot below is a closer picture of the Oracle Racing boats.
And, a trip to San Francisco would not be complete without the obligatory shot of the Golden Gate Bridge: 🙂
After the day’s wrap-up meeting session, we headed to a restaurant closest to the hotel. It’s Polynesian fare tonight, folks. This is the first course. 🙂
I drove into San Francisco with several colleagues for dinner tonight. I had fresh Dungeness crab, and after dinner we ordered a round of legendary Irish Coffees at The Buena Vista.
Deeee-licious!
The restaurant’s website has instructions on how to make one, if you want to try to make one yourself:
| Buena Vista Irish Coffee | ||
 Fill glass with very hot water to pre-heat, then empty. |
 Pour hot coffee into hot glass until it is about three-quarters full. Drop in two cocktail sugar cubes. |
 Stir until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved. |
 Add full jigger of Irish Whiskey for proper taste and body. |
 Top with a collar of lightly whipped whipping cream by pouring gently over a spoon. |
 Enjoy it while piping hot. |
This morning as I was walking by the kitchen window I notice a leaf that appeared to have blown up and gotten stuck to the hummingbird feeder. I figured it was a remnant from some of the wind gusts during the weekend rain. When I took a closer look, i saw that it was not a leaf, but a moth or butterfly of some sort.
Very effective camouflage, i must say.
We headed to the lake yesterday around noon. We have a long list of chores and minor repairs to take care of on the boat, and we schlepped a bunch of tools and supplies out to take care of some of them. Rain was in the forecast, so not a lot of people were out and about.
About 5 o’clock we called it a day and headed out of the slip to anchor out overnight in Arkansas Bend cove. Lori, Dave and Jake joined us on Camelot. We had a very pleasant night but boy did we get rained on. We hunkered down below on one of the boats and played cards until it let up. After the rains blew through it was quite nice. Good breezes through the boat kept us cool.
This morning when I went up into the cockpit this was the view that greeted me. A beautiful Lake Travis sunrise. A good morning, indeed.
Whew, what a long week. Monte has also had a long and HOT week, working in the shop all day, every day this week in 100 degree temps.
I was happy to hear the blender fire up at about 5:30.
TGIF, and have a great weekend everyone!
Today is the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. I was a (relatively) wee lass when he died. Now I’m older than he was when he died. Sad to realize he only lived to the age of 42. You are missed, big guy.
Here’s one to give a listen to on this day…not one of his own songs, but I like his version: My Way – Elvis style. He certainly did live life his own way….
When we adopted Keeto last year, he was approximately 6 weeks old. Based on that we guesstimated his birthday to be August 15. Today marks the completion of his first lap around the sun. Happy Birthday birdie!
It’s Sunday night, and the end of another great weekend. Yesterday my cousin Devitt and Aunt Joanne came over for a breakfast visit with Monte, Julie and I. Monte made french omelettes, Julia Child style. And we tried our hand at a potato recipe that we got from Devitt:
Browned Breakfast Potatoes
Large cast iron skillet
8 oz bacon, cut into 1-2″ pieces
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2″ cubes
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Salt & pepper
Cook bacon, onions and garlic in large cast iron skillet until browned. Discard bacon fat from pan. Add potatoes, salt & pepper. Cook another 10 minutes or so over medium heat on the stovetop. Then place skillet, uncovered, in 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 and cook for another 10 minutes.
Serve and savor!
Afterwards, Julie headed home to study up for the last final exam of Summer session (good luck!), and we packed for the lake.
We planned to raft-up with friends overnight to watch the Perseids meteor shower. We made it to the cove by about 5pm and set our first anchor on the new boat. It was a good set. We were soon joined by Joe on Prelude, Rory & Greg on Sapphire, Nick, Laurene & Morgan on Kalliopi, and Kurt & Kevin on Dancer. Everyone was tied up by the time the golden hour was upon us. The shot above is of the 5 boats, stern to the sunset. Nirvana is in the middle.
After dinner and stories from the day, everyone grabbed a cushion and laid on the bow of their boats to watch for meteors. It wasn’t a knock-out show, but we did get to see some good ones. The night was peppered with random shouts of “There’s one!” every 10 or 15 minutes.
This morning everyone floated for a while and then people started peeling off at about noon. I’m pleased to report that we got the anchor up with little problem. I am loving the electric windlass to bring up the chain and anchor!
Monte and I sailed ALL afternoon. The breezes started out sluggish but filled in to some great wind that we haven’t seen in a long time on the lake. At about 3:30 we dropped sail and picked up Devitt at Arky cove to take him out for a sail. He did great, taking the helm as Monte and I worked the lines. We dropped him off back at the park around 5:30 and headed back to the marina.
By the time we got home several hours later we were pleasantly exhausted.
I can’t wait to get out there again. Friday soon come!
Yay Friday! Made it through another week. Got a very early start.
Monte worked in the shop all day. After work we picked up Julie and went out for Indian.
I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I hope yours is, as well.
My cousin and Aunt will be visiting tomorrow morning. After that we’ll be headed to the lake.
Late tomorrow night, Saturday, August 11, and early morning Sunday, August 12, the Perseids Meteor shower hits its peak. In Austin the moon won’t rise until about 3AM, so I’m hoping we’ll have a great view and get to see some good burners. There’s supposed to be 30-50 meteors an hour. We’ll be watching from our boat, anchored up in a dark cove on the lake. 🙂 If you want to take a peek as well, here’s a link with more info on where and when to look.
The shot above is of yet another zinnia in the garden. Have a great weekend!
Austin recently relaxed the restrictions on watering that we have been under for over a year — moving from drought stage 2 to 1. That means that we can now water 2 days a week, as opposed to 1. Our days are Thursday and Sunday. We can only water before 5 AM or after 7PM on those days. We are trying to take advantage of both our scheduled days to give our trees and flowers water to thrive in this heat. It’s been a bit of a challenge since our automatic sprinkler system has been kaput for the last 2 years. So it means schlepping hoses.
This is a shot of one of the liriope plants on the front porch. I replanted these this spring because the ones that used to flank our front door were wiped out from either the drought or the freezes during the winter.
I’m trying to remember to water them. So far, so good. They’re rewarding me with lots of flower spikes. Very dainty.
The basil patch overfloweth. We’ve started handing out basil to our neighbors. Come and get some!
It’s been thirteen days since my last post here. So, this has been my longest break in posting since I started this photoblog over 2 years ago. I’d better catch you all up.
The week before last was busy with work. Monte was working on a project in the woodshop. I had to travel to Raleigh for all of last week. A very long week, indeed. I brought my camera with me, but given my work schedule and meetings every day starting early and ending late, the only interesting subject matter to capture ended up being TV screen shots from the Olympics (especially the women’s gymnastics team gold). I decided to spare you and skip posting those.
While I was in Raleigh last week, Monte closed on the boat. I got home close to midnight Friday night, so Saturday morning I was anxious to get out to the marina.
We moved in Saturday afternoon and slept on the boat for the first time Saturday night. On Sunday morning we took Nirvana out for the first time together. The winds were very light to non-existent, but we had a blast. We raised both sails and ghosted along for a while. Getting Nirvana was a big step for us, but I am very excited about this next phase of our sailing-life journey together. This is a shot that monte took of Nirvana from the water.
At the end of the day we stopped by b-dock for a float. By the time we got home tonight we were both pretty exhausted but somehow found the energy to split up cooking duties to make lamb chops (monte) and risotto (me) for a delicious dinner.
G’nite all!
Sheila365 