Wimberely

Item 3 - The 21st (Monday) was Michael's birthday. A few months ago we agreed to take Friday and Monday off but at the time didn't have any plans. We just wanted to get the request into work. As the time got closer, we decided to do a trip but didn't want to fly or travel too far. I told Michael I'd plan everything as part of his birthday present. I researched day/weekend trips from Austin and came across the little town of Wimberley. It's only 5o minutes from here and really easy to get to. It's known as an artist community and there's lots of galleries down there. It's kinda a 'one road town' where everything is based around RR 12 that goes through it. It's the type of town you could do in a day or a leisurely weekend. Michael wanted to have a lot of relaxation time, so this fit perfectly. I booked us at a beautiful Bed & Breakfast I found online (http://www.creekhaveninn.com/) and got the least feminine room they had available. Friday we drove down and went to the Wimberely Glass Works (http://www.wgw.com/) which was out of our price range, but stunning to look at. We then checked into the B&B and went down the road into town for dinner. I had chosen an Italian restaurant in the square that had good reviews on the internet. It was really yummy. The town itself is 'dry' in that they don't sell alcohol, but you can bring your own bottles to restaurants and that's allowed. It's a common thing in Texas. Saturday we had a wonderful breakfast at the B&B and then went shopping on the main street and square. There's lots of little shops that have art, pottery, jewelry, stained glass, etc. We were out almost three hours. I bought a gorgeous silver bracelet that was all hand worked. I didn't see any art that I wanted, although there were a couple of bronze statues that if I had $4000 to plunk down would have been coming home with me. We had a small lunch in town and then went back to the B&B to hang out till dinner time. The whole town closes up by 9pm, so I had made reservations at the local steakhouse for 7. I had found it online and all the reviews were positive (http://www.cedargrovesteakhouse.com/). It was an incredible dinner.

Michael always gets the crab cakes for an appetizer if the restaurant carries them. He said the ones at this place were the third best he's ever had (followed by one in Portland and one at some fancy 4-star place he went). I don't even like crab usually, but these were damn tasty.

Some of the reviews said that this place had the best duck they've ever had. I've never had duck, but figured might was well give it a try here. It was so freaking good! It tasted like a cross between turkey and steak. I didn't think it was gamey at all. It was in a port wine reduction sauce and came with creamy garliz orzo (small rice like pasta) and I substitued parmesan mashed potatoes for the asparagus that would've come with it. I really enjoyed it. Michael got a New York strip that he said was really good.

For dessert Michael got the creme brulee, and he said it's the best he's ever had. Even better than Bohanan's. I got the mousse chocolate cake. I'm usually really critical about restaurant chocolate cake. It's usually too dry. This was probably the best I've ever had.

Early in the meal I told our waiter we were here for Michael's birthday and to give the check to me. When he came with the check he said they had comped his creme brulee as a birthday treat! So, we got a $9 dessert for free! Yay! The whole dinner was under $100 which I didn't think was bad at all for appetizer, duck, steak, two desserts, and one glass of wine. I would so go there again.

All in all, Wimberely was just a great trip. Now Michael's all freaked out about how he's going to 'top' this for my birthday. I told him it's not the amount of money spent, it's the thought that goes into it. So, we'll see what he does in October. For his actual gift I got him a kitchen blow torch for making creme brulee and an aquarium that I know he wanted. I gave him a gift card for the plants and fish cause there was no way I was picking that stuff out. So, A+ for me for his birthday.

Baby Shower & Baby Room - no, not mine silly!

Ok, I have been soundly chastised for that tiny previous post. Since I've got some time right now, I'll try to update as much as possible.

Item 1 - Mike & Annette's awesome baby room which I helped paint. They went with a transportation/automative theme after seeing something similar on the internet. The entire room is that carribean blue color, with a wide tan stripe around the middle. The mural above the crib is from a picture of Austin's 360 Bridge (a major landmark here).




All of the signs painted were done using Mike's projector from the upstairs theater and pictures from the internet. He projected the picture onto the wall and we traced it with pencil. Using small art brushes we just painted regular wall paint within the lines. It was really tedious but it came out so great. Mike did all the work on the mural. I did the I-35 sign, the Slippery When Wet, a Stop Light Sign (not pictured), and half of the No Parking. Mike and Annette did the Stop Sign and the green Welcome to Texas sign. Annette did all the clouds. I realize that as much as I'm not 'artistic' in that I can't free hand worth a damn, I can follow the lines quite well. The No Parking sign looks like a real sign from a distance. Growing up on the east coast Mike & Annette are used to smooth walls. The texture on their walls here was so annoying when trying to get smooth lines!



The truck is a decal. It came in a really cool set that they found that had a bunch of car/truck/racing decals.



One of Annette's uncles in New York works for Mack truck and he got them these die-cast models that are 1/32 (or something) exact models of the trucks. The hoods of the trucks come up and everything is so detailed. They're a great addition to the room. The little trucks on the wall are decals, the Stop Sign is painted.

Item 2 - Annette's Baby Shower

As soon as we heard Annette was going to have a baby, Judy suggested throwing them a Baby Shower. So she and I got together to plan a N0-Kidding group baby shower! Heh, is that ironic? Since neither of us goes to many baby showers, we decided to have some fun with it and do a few games. The first one was 'Meaure the Tummy'. I brought ribbon and everyone had to cut a piece that they thought would go around Annette's tummy. The closest one wins. I was so close! I was only 1/4 inch off from the winner. (and don't you think the tiara is cute? Judy and I had a lot of fun shopping for this!)

Another game not shown was guessing the number of M&M's in a baby bottle. I had counted every single damn one of those, and in fact Judy got it right!

The last game we did was something that Judy had done before and it was a BLAST. You go around in a circle and everyone says a baby's name that matches the next letter of the alphabet. Since they're having a boy, we only did boy names. As the alphabet goes around, if we get to a letter and no one can think of a name (like for X or U or O), we would all agree to stop that letter and go to the next. But, if you had K and couldn't think of a K name, but other people agreed that there were other fairly common K names out there, then you were out of the game. I don't even know how many times we went around, but we came up with a lot of names! In the beginning I said you couldn't use 'Chair' or 'Window' or some crazy ass word and say it's a 'name'. All names had to be commonly accepted as a boy's name. We did accept older names though. We also said if Charles was said, you couldn't use Chuck or Charlie. Samething with Robert - couldn't use Rob or Robby. They had to be 'unique' names, so to speak.

Here's the list. The dash means the letter was stopped. I think if you click on the picture it gets bigger. I especially liked 'Zule'.

Heh. Judy pointed this out. It's their to-do list on the fridge. Check out what I circled in black.

Stop driving slow!!!

Yes, I understand gas is $4.00 a gallon, but driving 50 mph in the FAST LANE will only cause accidents! If you're gonna drive like an old granny, get your ass over to the slow lane! Argh! I'm getting so annoyed with these people driving so freaking slow.

that's it for now...I have a shit load of pictures to post and stuff happening, but I've got to keep cleaning house - Saturday I'm hosting a Pampered Chef party for my neighbors and co-workers. oh, and yes, my sister had her baby on Saturday - little Olivia Rose. I said it was ok to use my middle name (also my mom's) since I'm not going to have kids - it's only fair that she gets use of it.

Happy Blowing Things Up Day!

Was this really a three day weekend? It went by so fast. Friday Michael went to a co-worker's house for a picnic and I went to my parent's house. We did hot dogs/hamburgers, very low key. Later Michael and I were going to go to the Alamo Drafthouse cinema to see Sex and the City, but just as I was going to leave my mom's to get tickets, his friends Shelly & Bryan called me to invite us to dinner. They had a baby a few months ago so we don't see them that often. I really like them and get along with them. So, I called Michael and he agreed he'd rather see them than the movie. We all met up at Kerby Lane for dinner and had gelato (um!) afterwards. Shelly works at Parks and Wildlife and knows all the kayaking and hiking trails. The department actually 'rates' trails where they'll take kayaks down the path, take GPS coordinates the whole time, take pictures of flora/fauna in the area, and rate how deep the water is and if there's portage places. That's so cool that she gets paid to do that. Sometime they'll get a babysitter and we're all going to go kayaking. Ok...anyways,..... after dinner Michael and I went back to my parent's house. My mom's computer was acting up and wanted Michael to look at it. After he got done fixing it, the fireworks had started. Uh, yeah, that's something I'll never get used to. Out here fireworks are legal as long as you're not in the 'city' of Austin. My parent's house is considered 'county' as is mine, so fireworks are legal. Now, when I say fireworks, yes they have Roman Candles and sparklers, etc. But they also have the huge ass exploding fireworks that shoot way up in the air and explode in a huge burst. You know, the ones you see at professional events. Yeah, you can buy that kind out here! Crazy. One house to the left and two houses to the right were setting off fireworks in the street. So, we just all sat on my parent's front deck and enjoyed the show. The nice thing was that the fireworks were in the street, but we were up by the house so we didn't get into all the smoke/gas that gets discharged when the fireworks are set off. It was AWESOME.

Saturday Gil had a 'Thanksgiving in July'. He had a turkey in his freezer that he bought on sale and he wanted to get people together to eat it. He invited a bunch of no kidding folks, thinking a lot wouldn't be able to come due to the holiday weekend. Well, he had 19 people! We all brought food so there was plenty to go around. As usual I went a little overboard with cooking. I had wanted to do a pasta dish, homemade biscuits, and stuffed zucchini - all new recipes. I ended up making stuffed manicotti and stuffed shells. I also sauteed some yellow squash, onions, and zucchini in case people just wanted a simple veggie side dish. The manicotti were pretty good, but I think I need to fiddle with the recipe for the stuffed shells. I just gave up on doing the biscuits and stuffed zucchini. Well, I still have all the ingredients, so maybe I'll make them this week. We'll see.

Today Michael and I went shopping. We got the car rack and kayak holder for my car. Even though we're not buying kayaks yet, there's a place in town that rents a lot of different kayaks and Michael wants to try out some different ones. If we have the car rack we can go and rent them, and then drive to the water for the put in. I've basically found the one I want. http://www.wildernesssystems.com/tarpon-120

He wants to try the Tarpon 140 and a couple of sit-insides. After falling into the river last time, I've realized I definitly want a sit-on-top kayak. It's easier to get into from the water, and I won't feel 'trapped' if I fall in the water. I think I might want Orange. I've already decided I'm going to buy that Rustoleum spray paint for plastic and customize the paint job. We've joked about putting flames on it. That would be interesting. Anyways, we're slowly going to the inevitable of buying kayaks. Michael found out that the place in town he's renting from has a 'Demo Day' in September and the kayaks are on sale then. So, if they have the ones we want, we'll probably get them then. That's right around our 1 year Anniversay, so I joked about just buying kayaks as our gifts to each other instead of trying to find something special and most likely expensive. The kayaks are expensive enough - $750 or so. We also need to buy a mount system for my garage. We measured today and a 14 foot kayak will fit, but just barely. I know we'll be buying a kayak soon, I just don't want to pay full price. They never go on 'sale' so we have to wait for these special events. Hopefully we'll get ours in Sept in time for the weather to cool down. There are just so many rivers, lakes, and paddling trails around Austin - there's a lot of opportunity to kayak. I don't think we'd get tired of it. See how happy I am!