how about a few of

the grandfather's slides for today?  I was going through some yesterday.  I like them just how they are but I had to play around with a few too.

And here's the first one in black and white.  I like how colorful it is but I also like it plain.

I love going through these slides.  Unfortunately, I'll be busy for the next few days so I won't have time for any of it.  On that note, if I don't show up for a few days, it's because I'll be busy.  There's a lot going on but by the way I'm sitting here typing in my pajamas and a robe, you'd never guess.  Actually, you know those times where you can't do this until that but you can't do that until something else and you're waiting on another thing before you can consider doing the something else but you don't really want to do the other thing until 10:00?  That's where I am.  Patiently waiting to TCB but once the time comes to TCB, I'll knock it all out in beast mode.  Guess I'll sign off to prepare for that beast mode.

let me tell you

about Saturday.  Cosme was scheduled to check out on a bigger, faster, higher powered plane.  He asked me to come along so I went.  He let me know when we were almost there that he might be required to do a few things that I probably wouldn't be excited about.  I told him these were things he needed to verify before I got on that plane.  He asked and it was confirmed.  He would have to do two stalls while we were up there.  The instructor explained everything in detail, while my hands were sweating and I couldn't quit laughing.  (I'm pretty sure that nervous laugh of mine is eventually going to convince people I'm crazy.)  Anyway, they both assured me that it would be fine.  I figured what the heck and went along.  Our destination was Rockport.  We weren't landing but just doing a touch-and-go.  I was doing fine, just reading in the backseat and then they let me know.  We were about to do our first stall.  I probably should have told them in the beginning to not warn me but just do it.  Seriously, chances are I would've been too preoccupied on my iPad to notice what was going on.  Anyway, here came the first stall.  I knew it would involve flaps doing something and then the nose dipped a little.  The plane reminded me with the warning "STALL, STALL, STALL".  OMG.  No worries though, Cosme recovered it all just fine and we went on our way.  I knew one more would happen so I tried to get distracted again with my iPad, seriously dreading the next stall because I knew it involved the nose going up.  (I seriously just had shivers thinking about it.)  Anyway, I got preoccupied and then they let me know again.  Here it comes.  Imagine this.  Imagine a roller coaster, which by the way, I hate.  So imagine that roller coaster that people love at theme parks.  Now imagine it not really being a ride at a theme park but you're 4500 feet in the air and this is real life.  The nose went up, "STALL, STALL, STALL...", my hands were sweating and as I had a death strong grip on my camera and iPad, Cosme recovered.  Deep breath.  Stalls were over, then we hit an air pocket or something and I almost lost my camera and iPad.  GULP.  At this point I knew I was ready to land and be done with it.  Then it started raining.  No biggie, there wasn't any lightning.  We made it to Rockport.  By the way, do you know anyone who can spot an unfamiliar town's bakery from the air?  I doubt it but guess who did.  So we touched and went in Rockport and were headed home, avoiding rain clouds.  I think we took a longer route back to avoid a certain area on the radar where lightning was.  We landed and then I had a margarita.

Here are some of the pictures I got from the ride.  I know a lot of them look alike but really, they're not.

The sun is trying to break through.

Scattered showers

Rain

Along the coast

Rain to the left, not to the right.

Now just stop a minute and look at this runway.  This isn't where we landed but it definitely caught my attention.  Look at it.

No, really.  Look at it.  How close is the bay side to the water?  (Not that the coast side is terribly far from the other end.)  Now think about this for a minute.  In order to come in for a landing, you'll need to get set up.  Not only does that involve lining up for it, with either side being over water, but you're also going to be getting lower... OVER WATER.  I can't think about this.  I just know I never want to land there.

I think this entire post makes me deserving of a really strong Coke.

a couple of years

ago I bought dark gray hand towels for the half bath.  Once washed, they seemed purple.  I bought a few more of a different brand.  Once washed, they seemed purple too.  I just figured I'd deal with it.  Not long ago I bought light gray towels for our master bath.  I washed them and now they seem lavender.

Is it just me?  The last thing I ever planned was turning our bathroom purple.  I think the next time around I'll stick with white. 

There's a photo walk tomorrow that I haven't been able to decide on.  It's at a botanical garden in Humble.  That's a long drive.  Well, it's not a terribly long drive but it's a drive I don't really feel like making.  I still have a few hours to decide.  I doubt I'll go but I guess I could get my batteries charged just in case... unlike I did last weekend when we got 20 minutes down the road and I realized the one battery I had with me was flashing low.  It's a good thing we turned around to get another, you know, for all those pictures I didn't get.

Oh well.  I have things I need to be doing right now but I just don't feel like it.  I could start a load of laundry, run a few errands or even go get a pedicure.  I'm just not in the mood for any of it.  I was going to walk the dogs earlier but I didn't feel like having to wave at anyone.  Maybe I could do that now.  (The walking, not the waving.)  Although, if I do have to wave, it'd be at the guy who mows the neighborhood entrance and public spaces.  I'd wave my fist at him like he practically did to me the other day.  Maybe I shouldn't get out and put myself in the position of having to face anyone today.  Why can't it be a rainy day?  That'd scratch a few options off that list.  I guess as long as I'm sitting at this computer, my list of "maybe I should" is only getting longer.  Maybe I should sign off before I make myself think there are even more things I could be doing.  That sounds like a good idea.

i've told several people

and I might've mentioned here before but I don't think I've ever told Cosme... not until the other day.  But I finally told him that yes, sometimes I want to leave and move back to the city.

This was taken with my birthday present.

I haven't told him because I knew he'd love to jump on it.  But I have told him that sometimes I think about it and I've even looked up houses online.  It's been like this a lot over the last few years.  Even though I grew up in the city, I spent a lot of time down here in these small towns.  When I was a kid, it was neat and I loved it.  Everybody and everything was so close by.  Sure, there was more to it than that but I guess a lot has changed over the years.  Or maybe nothing's changed except for me.  Oh crap, now this post is starting to sound all deep and thought provoking.  Not really.  Maybe a small town isn't the best place for somebody who likes their space and keeping to themselves.  (On the other hand, what kind of a place is a blog for someone who likes keeping to themselves?  Totally different.)  Or maybe seeing what everybody's up to via social media is good enough for me and the small town makes it almost too much.  Either way, it's just one of those things.  I really don't want to leave and there are a lot of reasons: no traffic, quick and easy trips around town and even to the next town, lower crime rate (knock on wood), fairly quiet, more for your money... I could go on.

For now though, I think we'll stick to the small town and I'll just use this blog to vent, reflect and have revelations.  (Too much?  Yeah, I thought so.)

my birthday was

yesterday.

I'm now 43, XLIII, "George W".  You get the idea.  However you want to look at it, guess what I had for breakfast.

Did you guess birthday cake from Moeller's?  If so, you'd be correct.

it's early

I mean REALLY early.  It's 4:20 in the morning.  Normally our alarm clock goes off in 10 minutes but since Cosme's out of town, it won't.  Also, I've been up since about 1:30.  I'll probably have a nap in a few hours (which I HATE doing)... you know, when the sun's up and blasting through my bedroom windows.  Makes sense.  Since 1:30 I've read some, finished a movie, started another movie but turned it off to read a little more then I decided to set up my tripod on the driveway after letting Eric know I was going to be up and about and to not shoot.  Now I'm sitting here drinking a Coke, listening to music and typing.  Isn't that what everybody does at this hour? 

It was frustrating outside.  It's SO humid.  The lens was foggy, my hair was getting bigger by the second while falling out of the clip and I was doing everything possible to keep the dogs from barking (which I successfully pulled off).  On the other hand, I saw a shooting star or something (which I managed to miss by a few seconds with my camera), heard a car alarm go off in the back of the neighborhood, was being watched by what I hope was just a cat and last but not least, decided the car swerving down our street was only delivering papers and a 911 call wasn't necessary. 

I know one thing for sure though.  My neighbors should be more considerate and watch for me at odd hours in case I need them to turn off their outside lights.

Nice garage lights you have there, neighbor.

Here's one of the pictures from playing around on the driveway at 3:30.

Other than that, it's just early.  I'm tempted to drive to Shipley and pick up a donut but I'm scared it's too early and instead of giving me a hot, fresh one, I'd get some cold substitute left over from yesterday's last batch.  Ugh... the crisis of trying to figure it all out.

it's that time of

year to wonder what the rule is.  Kind of like the whole "no wearing white until Easter but definitely not after Labor Day".  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  But the one important question:

What is the official date to start burning the autumn themed candles and wax?  

 
I might've broken a rule but last weekend, I started.  All the wax in the Scentsy warmers went from the usual to Frosted Ginger Cookie.  I'll slowly work my way into Mandarin Moon and Maple Butter but in this house, the season has started.  If people can start with all the pumpkin recipe pins on Pinterest, I can at least have my house smell like pumpkin pie to fit in, right?

Forget it.  I'm not wondering anymore.  I hereby declare September 1st as the official day to feel free to make your house smell like fall.

In other, more shocking news, I'm going to try to sell our Cult tickets.  Did I mention I bought Cult tickets?  They're coming on October 31st.  Since then, the church has decided to do a haunted house if I can help.  If our tickets sell, we'll be scaring area kids.  If not, we'll be in Houston watching a show.  It's a win/win situation.

every so often i

decide to make quiche.  I buy the spinach, let it thaw, never get around to making the quiche and throw the spinach out.  That happens several times until I either get tired of the routine and realize I'm not going to get it done or I give in and make the quiche.  This last time I only had to throw away 2 past-their-prime packages of spinach.  Also, I figured I'd use a frozen pie crust.  You know, to make things easier and maybe adding a little more motivation to the mission.  So, I was trying a new recipe, one I found on Pinterest.  Cheesy Bacon Spinach Quiche.  Well, I tried to follow the recipe as closely as possible.  Unlike the pie crusts I normally make, those frozen ones weren't deep dish.  So guess what.  I didn't have enough room for all the ingredients.  I eyeballed it to balance it all out (but definitely using the full amount of bacon... duh).  And just like that, all the hopes I had of my frozen pie crust saving me a few steps vanished.

One of my favorite messes to clean.  Baked-on egg.

 Ugh.  On the plus side, once I made a huge mess and spilled so much getting this thing into the oven, there was enough room to add the rest of the egg.  Yea, me.

I was happy with how it turned out so I'll keep it in the books.

I was going to make muffins to go along with the quiche but found this recipe on Pinterest and decided on it instead.  Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Cake.  We liked it too.

Mine didn't look quite like the picture on the original blog but I wondered if it was because mine had already cooled down a bit at this point.  Either way, it's cinnamon and sugar with icing.

That's the only picture I got because I was hungry and wanted to hurry and eat.  Afterwards, I was stuffed and didn't want to see any of it.  Right now though, I wouldn't mind having a bite of each.

i got a little sidetracked

and have found myself going through my grandfather's slides.  So today, I'm posting a few of his pictures.

I think picture might give me nightmares.  Land, please.

This one says one thing to me.  America.  Well, not because of the location but the subjects.

This was a color slide but the colors were so off an faded.  So now this one looks about 50 years older than what it is.

I first thought these resembled chocolate fountains but then I realized those are ladders and not places for the chocolate to slide down.  Now I'm thinking they belong on a spaceship.  Is it just me?

Now I'm off to dig some more.  Fun, fun, fun!

like i was saying

I spent Saturday night searching where we could find something sweet and apple filled in this German town.  We had talked about the airport diner, which we heard had a great breakfast (and awesome milkshake) but no.  I'm sorry.  Once the apple-filled thought popped into my head, it wasn't going away.  So I searched and there it was.  Old German Bakery and Restaurant.  It was a plan.

But first I needed to go back to Luckenback.  We got there right before 9:00, just as the store was opening.

Cosme talked to the lady working the store about the history of the town while I shopped.

Sunday morning, way too early for Leon Russell's show.

 So yeah.  We walked around, shopped a little, learned a little and then headed off for breakfast.

I knew I'd found us the right place when we arrived and there was a crowd on the sidewalk, all waiting for tables.  We went in to put our name on the list and the hostess asked us how many.  Oh, only two?  She looked over to a table where an elderly woman and man (not together, just table sharing) were having coffee.  "If you want, you can sit at this table.  They're locals."  We both said sure and sat down with two strangers.  They immediately started up a conversation with us and it was funny and cool all in one.  So they gave us pointers on ordering, like only order one German pancake because they're big.

And then the best way to fix it and eat said pancake.

FYI, put your butter on, roll it up a few times like a burrito and then pour your syrup on.

And which pastries in the case were what and which were the best.  I didn't get any pictures of the pastries but I bought PLENTY.  Maybe we need to schedule another trip just for pastries.  Pastrypallooza.

Anyway, Cosme got a Belgian waffle and an omelet.  Which, by the way, our new table companion said he forgot to tell us we should ask for the biscuit to be grilled.  I'll remember that for next time but it was still a wonderful biscuit.

The table next to us had hash browns come and I knew we needed an order as well.

Seriously, y'all.  There's no way we could've eaten it all and I didn't want to leave it but it really wouldn't have held up well.  (Hanging my head in defeat.)

By the time we finished with Luckenback and breakfast, Cosme was ready to do more.  No.  You feed me like that and I'm done.  We went back to the hotel, got our stuff loaded up and got ready to fly back.  (But first you know I had to buy a couple of t-shirts from the hotel... please.)

Anyway, we plan to go back and do more of what we did last weekend.  Maybe next time we'll hit up the vineyards instead of the brewing places and maybe even listen to some live music.  Honestly though, I'd be totally fine with more of the shops and food.  Until then, I think the latest and greatest fad diet is calling my name.

let's start with

last weekend.  We had planned on a trip to San Antonio but since it was Restaurant Week, we decided on Fredericksburg.  It's not like we'd never talked about going, it just never fit into the schedule... until last weekend.  The plans were made and off we went.  We landed Saturday and stayed at The Hangar Hotel.  Whoever thought of that had the BEST idea EVER.  Seriously.  We landed and parked the plane in the hotel's plane parking lot.

This was SO convenient.  Every town should have something like this.  Also, no pets or children under 18 allowed.

The bathroom.  Just because.

The phone on the nightstand.  Again, just because.

We walked next door to rent the airport's last available car.  Talk about awesome luck.  We really hadn't planned on renting a car but decided we would if one was available and luckily, someone turned one in early.  So we rented the car and headed out for beer tasting at The Pedernales Brewing Company.  I don't care for beer but I did have one glass (of the four I paid for).  Needless to say, Cosme had a lot more than me.  Anyway, I told them I don't care for beer so they gave me one that wasn't too bitter.

A scene from our tour.

After the beer, we headed over to Luckenbach.  It was packed.  I mean let's face it, we got there at 3:00 on Saturday.  (Yes, I understand a crowd is fine but when you have pictures you want to get, people hanging out everywhere is annoying.)  We decided to head back to Fredericksburg because I knew I wanted to look in their shops.  I bought a few things and was talking to a few employees at one store and told them the German rental car lady already suggested a restaurant we planned to try.  They let me know we'd be better off calling for a reservation.  So I did.  We cut our shopping/browsing/walking down Main Street a little short because our reservation was for 6:00.  I asked about a dress code and the restaurant told us business casual.  I've been to plenty of restaurants and I know what business casual is.  I asked if we'd be okay in jeans and shorts with tennis shoes or if they'd turn us away.  She said we'd be fine.  So we headed over to The Cabernet Grill and ended up being a little early.  I learned a little something that day.  Houston's business casual and Fredericksburg's business casual are not the same thing.  We were just fine.  At this point we were both starving so we kind of went overboard: a bottle of wine, two appetizers, a salad, two entrees and a dessert.  We pigged out.  BIG TIME.  I didn't get pictures of everything but here's "my" appetizer and our dessert.

Brie with a maple glaze and grapes served with crackers.  We ate the entire thing.

Apple pie topped with ice cream and whipped cream.

After all that we almost couldn't move but knew we had to.  Actually, Cosme was just about sick.  As for the other food, the other appetizer was bacon wrapped figs with bleu cheese (I think) and some sauce that Cosme ended up sopping up with the basket of bread, Cosme's salad (that he loved) was tomatoes with pesto and something else, my filet mignon with a serrano roasted garlic bearnaise on the side with mashed potatoes and corn and Cosme's lobster topped chicken fried ribeye with whatever sides he got.  We were stuffed.  We headed back to the hotel and crashed.  We originally planned on heading over to The Officer's Club (hotel's bar) but we couldn't handle another bite or sip of anything else.  I was a little bummed because I realized after everything that in this German town, I didn't stop for any sweets.  Oh well, the good thing about taking in too much too soon and crashing early, I had time to research bakeries for the next morning.

But I'll get into that tomorrow.

here we are

already in September.  I guess my busy schedule has kept me away a few days longer than expected.  Eric and Paige are going to a convention this weekend and that convention needs costumes.  I've been pretending like I know what I'm doing and trying to put costumes together by Friday.  Saturday they're going as The Joker and Harley Quinn.  Here's most of his Joker costume.

 Just don't look too close.  I probably could've done a better job if I hadn't waited until the last minute but considering the last time I made a vest was 1985 in Home Economics and my "refresher course" was a handful of YouTube videos, I'd say it's okay.

Today I need to finish hemming his pants and finish a vest for Sunday's costume.  Tomorrow we'll do a test run with the Joker's face paint.  It's been busy.  In the meantime, Gabi couldn't come last week because I had a stomach bug just about all week so right now her absence is much noticed.  I also need to take a little time out of sewing for cleaning.

In the next few days I'll get around to talking about Cosme and me taking a quick trip to Fredericksburg last weekend.

Filed under the category of awesome news:

 BLUE BELL IS BACK.

It was back in area stores on Monday.  I was at Kroger first thing Monday morning getting a tub of Homemade Vanilla and a tub of Cookies n Cream, which I rarely buy.  This was lunch yesterday.  I had to have a scoop.  And it looks so good, I think I need one today too.  As in right now.