|
Mike and I bought passes for the entire festival. I missed the first day because Alan had a stomach virus, but the cost of daily tickets was more than the 3-day tickets so I didn't waste any money. Besides, I'm a mom and know where my priorities are.
Anyways, we did the festival on Saturday and Sunday and loved it. Yeah, it was hotter than hell, but there was a breeze here and there. We got to sit under the shade of a tree during a few shows, and we had lots of cold water that we brought in. SBC even gave away little misting fans and bottles of water if you went to their tent. On Saturday afternoon, we took a quick break and cooled off at Barton Springs. Geez was the water cold! The only times I felt horrible was walking back to the car. Mike has a friend that lives nearby, so we parked in her neighborhood. It's a 20 minute walk, but the last part is up a killer hill. Man, I'm so out of shape. But I'm not sunburned and my feet have no blisters. Can't say my feet don't hurt because my right one does due to the heel spur. It hurt like a mf yesterday but I stretched it last night and prayed for the best. Think it will be a repeat performance tonight.
The music was awesome and so varied. I had originally thought Mike and I would be enjoying different artists, but we agreed on the schedule and stayed together the entire time. We saw a children's choir, several gospel acts, Shelby Lynne, Elvis Costello, Rachel Yanagamoto, and many others I can't think of.
I wore my hair up under a hat most of the time. A few times during the day I would take it all down (it was easy, I had it in a log roll and Ficcare), let my head cool off a bit, and reassemble. One time, a guy behind me cried out 'oh my god, look at her hair!' It was said in an amazing tone. I turned to see who it was, and he said he would have never thought I'd have hair that long and all of it was hidden inside my hat. It was kinda funny, but it made me feel good.Current Mood:  exhausted |
|
I like reading historical fiction. It's always interesting to read of a minor character or event and the life spun about it. In The Red Tent, the story is of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter and barely mentioned in the Bible. It's a story about the sorority of women in a time when men dominated and women were nothing. There were a few things in the book that didn't mesh with the Bible, but overall it was a good book. After all, if I wanted to read real history I wouldn't be reading this book.
The Red Tent is a great book for celebrating being a woman. Its stories of birth, coming of age, marriage, and even death make you happy to be among women and know that you are cared for. And to know that the stories are handed down from mother to daughter and granddaughter and that is what keeps families and traditions alive.
The idea of a red tent is very comforting. A place of refuge where no man enters and you are allowed to be a woman among women and share in the joys and pains of life. |
|
It was a good day, being my 44th birthday and all. I'm not for any parties and such, so the kids and I ate breakfast at IHOP with my sister and her boys.
Then we visited the Parade of Homes. Every year the local realtors get together and showcase a few newly built homes. This year it was in the Dominion, neighborhood to David Robinson and George Strait and other monied folk. We're talking million dollar homes, where cottages go for a cool $750,000. Anyways, there were 9 new homes in a new section of Dominion that were built and dolled up for us to visit. These homes had it all - 3 car garages, bathrooms for everyone, showers so huge you felt you were outside, bedrooms light and iry and some dark and luxurious, media rooms for watching movies in stadium seating complete with twinkling stars above. Oh the kitchens! Huge spaces with countertops of marble, stone and other materials I couldn't guess. Space for every pot and pan, wine glass and wine bottle. Tiled backsplashes, industrial size stoves, cappuccino machines built in. They were all beautiful but the part of each home that snatched my heart was the poolside porches. The pools weren't big, but they were gorgeous. All had hot tubs and most had waterfalls dripping down the limestone rocks into the pools below. They all had a huge porch with a complete kitchen area. The ceiling fans kept you cool, the chairs were comfortable, and the landscaping kept you breathless. I could live outside any of these homes and not want to step inside the carpeted inside.
I did notice that all the homes were of the same, or nearly the same, color palette - tan and browns with some green tossed in. Sure, there was the dining room in the italian style home that had yellow venitian plaster walls, but the rest of the room was so dark, it became a tan color. Not that I mind those colors - I do like the natural colors. But couldn't the designers come up with something new? Sure there was the home with the bathrooms in black marble (if there's one place I'd like it lit well it's the bathroom) but that was miserable and dark.
After the nine homes, we all went to Long John Silvers and became human again.Current Mood:  refreshed |
|
Ok, so the first tubing trip was fun, a second one will be even more fun. On the surface - yes, but of course I've got to change it up a bit.
Change 1 - Instead of going with Mike and three other ladies my age, why not go with my kids (ages 10 and 13), my sister and her boys (ages 14 and 12) and Mike?
Change 2 - Instead of doing a 2 1/2 hour float let's do a longer float of 6 hours!
Change 3 - Instead of the section of the river that includes the Chute and the easy Stairstep rapids, let's do the section that includes 4 different and more advanced rapids: Hueco Springs, Slumber Falls, Clutter & Rock Garden Rapids, and Gruene Rapids?
And the last change.... let's go on a holiday weekend!
Jeepers, just kill me now. Only it's too late and we did it.
It was terribly crowded. I think it was more the fact that we went on the more popular section of the river than being a holiday weekend, although I'm sure the Labor Day weekend increased the population of tubers some.
This crowd was younger and drunker and the girls kept losing their tops only to be rewarded with jello shots. sheesh. Oh yeah, the guys weren't so smart either. We witnessed three brave fellows climb a thirty to forty foot limestone cliff, climb a tree, scale an iron fence and maneuver across four rows of barbed wire and perch atop the cliff until the masses below screamed loud enough and he received a sufficient amount of bosom flashing to entice the guys to jump to the river below. One never made it - he tried twice and always seemed to select the crumbliest areas and wound up scraping the cliffside on the way down. And then there was the guy complaining of getting cut on a beer can and falling off his raft while doing so.
The float was way too long despite the great rapid adventures. Our group and cooler did very well managing the rapids - with the exception of my sister. She made the first rapids okay, but the second one flipped her over and she lost her tube. Without a tube it's nearly impossible to make it without tumbling and falling several times. Forget about finding a way to the edge of safety. We were close together when we approached the falls, but I didn't see her lose the tube. It's a time when it's every man for himself and wait at the end to count the missing. At one point I was going down the rapids backwards and saw Frances standing up between some of the trees. I didn't have enough time to do a complete check and notice she didn't have her tube though. Also, we were too far apart to manage a scream of help; besides the other screams would have drowned it all out. So, I made it through okay. I immediately turned to do an inventory of my kids. I saw my nephew ahead who said Mike was further down river with the rest of the kids and the cooler. Great, now where is Fran? It's hard to determine whether you are in the lead or at the end of your group - going down a rapid isn't a first-in first-out sort of thing. I wasn't sure, and since I knew the kids were okay and with Mike, I decided to wait for Frances and told Russell to float on ahead and let Mike know. I waited and waited. Finally I saw her clinging onto some cute guy's tube and his cooler tube. Then I saw ahead of my nephew a lone tube. I yelled at him to grab the tube and we matched Fran to her tube once again. Whew! She really had some scrapes on both shins and down her back. I knew she was hurting. But the good thing is the water is so cold it's numbing and soothes you.
In between the rapids are some very slow spots - very slow. It's odd how the river is rushing water at one point and slower than molasses at others. During the slow times, we paddled/swam to go around the drunken partiers and to just get through the float a little faster. How can people tube AND smoke too? I wound up with raw skin on the underside of my upper arms where they rubbed against my tube when I paddled. The rawness continues all the way down to the creases of my elbows.
Frances tenderly made it through the rest of the rapids attached to her tube as did the rest of us. On the last rapids, Mike's tube popped and left him with a limp tube (insert snicker here) It wasn't a big deal because immediately after that rapid it was the end of our float and we all got out and caught the bus back to our car.
Wasn't that fun?
It's a good thing Frances and I carpooled together, because my elbows were too raw to bend. A quick stop at the grocery store for a topical spray and I was pacified. I didn't sleep well that night, needless to say. There were only two comfortable ways to sleep - flat on my back with my arms outstretched and not touching any of the bedsheets (and no ceiling fan either, even the air draft hurt) - or on the recliner in the living room with arms on the armrests. Neither worked for a very long time, but I managed to get about 7 naps inbetween reconfiguring my body and spraying that antiseptic stuff on me.
Fran had several bruises and sore muscles the next day and her scrapes were just fine. Between her adventure and my raw arms, I'm nto sure who turned out worse.
Today, I'm okay. I slept better the second night. Scabs are appearing all over my arms. One elbow is still raw and won't set a scab and so it's weepy all the time. I tried bandaging it but the rest of the arm is too raw to accept a bandage edge. I'll just keep washing it with betadine and keeping it clean to avoid an infection.
Good thing I gave blood last week. Imagine the horror of the lab tech when I show him my arms so he can look for track marks!
P.S. Here's a link for river outfitters and a map too: http://www.texhillcntry.com/river-road.htmlCurrent Mood: healing I'm listening to: Dave Ramsey on talk radio |
|
- Aesop's Fables
- Grimm's Fairytales
- Charlotte's Web
- The Cat in the Hat
- Horton Hatches the Egg
- Winnie the Pooh
- Black Beauty
- The Diary of Anne Frank
- Uncle Remes and Brer Rabbit - This was a series of small books that we had. Each had a moral to them. Plus they were light weight and easy to move with.
- We had this big old book of classic fairytales - Snow White, Cinderella, Mother Goose poems. That book is my all time favorite book.
I didn't include Little Women, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy, or the Little House Series because I read those when I was in high school so I don't really consider them books from my childhood but more books from my youth. |
|
more catching up
- Surfing
- SkyDiving
- Skateboarding
- Golf
- Bowling
- Rugby
- Polo
- Sumo
- Raquetball and handball
- Water skiing
|
|
Yeah, I know it's not Tuesday, but I'm catching up.
- US Men's hockey beating the Soviets
- Greg Louganis hitting his head on a platform dive
- Nadia Comaneci getting a perfect 10 - actually 7 of them
- Mary Lou Retton winning a gold for her bright cheery attitude, er performance
- Mark Spitz winning a whole lotta gold
- Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon
- Florence Griffith Joyner "Flo Jo" and those awesome nails of hers
- Any of the opening ceremonies
- ditto for the closing ceremonies - I just love seeing all the athletes getting together and having fun
-
|
|
eh, so I missed a few weeks....
 I say ... and you think ... ?
- GAME BOY:: new charger (son lost his and we just bought a new one)
- Biopsy:: breast
- Attack:: a b-movie
- Convention:: republican
- Jewels:: balls
- Genetics:: genome
- Impostor:: fake
- Doug:: a man's name
- Arbitrary:: courtroom
- Oscillate:: water sprinkler
|
|
I'm not a big television fan. Never have been really. I did cross stitching, read books, gardening, movies, and played outside instead. I've got a television (actually two, just got the second one in my bedroom a few months ago) and it's got DirectTV but we had just the basic stuff plus the Starz movie channels. No HBO. Had it years ago, but dropped it when it seemed all they had on was boxing.
So this Sex and the City thing (and the Sopranos too) was something I've heard about and never experienced. I've heard that it's explicit and nasty, it's interesting and not to be missed. Everyone has an opinion about it whether they've seen it or not. And now it's over, cause it's not on anylonger. Except TBS picked it up, cleaned it up and shows it again in the stripped version (excuse the pun.) I watched the first few episodes and they intrigued me. So much so that I rented them from the video store. I'm into season 4 now.
Yeah it's raunchy and there's a lotta breasts flashing about (mostly Kim Cattrall's) it is also funny and interesting. Some of the storylines are so personal for me. I guess the questions raised in dating and relationships are universal. How do you know when he's the one, when is it over, can women have sex without love like a guy? I've seen bits of me in every one of the four women. It's almost scary, because I usually don't identify with most fictional characters. Ok ok, there is an uncanny thing about the roadrunner and me, but that's another topic.
Maybe it's just that I'm single and older and this is a show about older women dating. I'm not alone and there are other women having the same questions and problems. I don't feel like a freak out in the married world.
It's strange, because I'm part of a girlfriend group of four too. But we are in no way similar to the Sex/City gang. And yes we do talk about sex and relationships but not in the detail and depth done on the show. And it's usually me doing the talking about the sex - I guess I'm Samantha in that respect. Can't help it, I like sex - a lot. *shrug* But we do have fun together. Too bad we live in three different states a thousand miles apart. I miss our dinners, buncos, and drinks together.
|
|
Been a while, eh? Took a self imposed break. Work, kids, life, depression all bunched up on me and I needed to sort it all out. Anyways, it was a good summer never the less. Kids are back in school (it started two weeks ago) and loving it. Grace made the basketball team and Alan is happy to be a 5th grade top dog.
Today I went tubing down the Guadalupe with Mike and some friends of his. I barely knew two of the ladies, but I thought it would be nice to have some fun for a few hours. If you've never been tubing it's both relaxing and exciting. The Guadalupe is well known for the tubing. Picture a slow moving river alongside huge cypress trees with swing ropes dipping into the water. Cliffs harboring green ferns and a few beautiful homes standing on water's edge. It's very nice. The easy going water is a cool 68° that carries you and your tube along the slow spots and into the rapids formed by rock formations. Drink a beer, tie the tubes together and chat.
After we dried off and changed clothes, Mike and I left for dinner. The others had rented a room nearby and were planning on shopping in Gruene. We talked about his new house that he's about to close on, and the concerts we want to see in the near future. It was a good dinner. For some reason, it was relaxing and very comfortable. I don't why either - was it because we are both comfortable with our friendship now or was the tranquilizing effect of the river ride still calming me?Current Mood:  relaxed |
| » Ten on Tuesday - Ten Underappreciated Actors/Actresses |
|---|
- Robin Williams
- Clint Eastwood
- Johnny Depp
- Michael Caine
- Robert Duvall
- Kevin Bacon
- Kathy Bates
- Emma Thompson
- Sally Field
- Cher
I've got very well known names on this list, so it might not be your definition of unerappreciated. I think the people on my list are stellar actors but don't receive the acclaim they should have. Some are classic and skilled in their craft, others take enormous risks in the variety of roles they play. I admire them all.
Aug. 4th, 2004 @ 10:11 pm
|
| » Unconscious Mutterings - week 78 |
|---|
I say ... and you think ... ?
- Testicles:: balls
- Ribald:: bawdy
- Auction:: furniture
- Inch:: mile
- Tony:: award for theater
- Phony:: fake
- Stool:: the $29 all wood barstool I just bought
- Coyote:: common around here
- Cinderella:: fairy tale
- Battery:: needs recharging
Aug. 1st, 2004 @ 04:23 pm
|
| » Talking in my Sleep |
|---|
Work is kicking my butt this week. I've got a Migration Plan due and very little information to go on. The Captain in charge is sneaking in tons of issues that have nothing to do with migrating user accounts, email, files and shared drives. In similar projects there are separate Help Desk and Workgroup Administration plans - but he wants mine to cover all of the topics. I told him that those issues are sufficiently covered with their own process and my plan will reference them but not detail them. After all I have no authority to change their process and neither do the organizations signing off on my plan.
If you know me (or read some of my lj) then you know my love for sleep. I sleep anytime I can. I'm just one of those persons who could be mistaken for sloths, except I don't have mold growing on my hairy back. I've taken to a short nap after work each day. But yesterday my nap was a mega-nap. I asked Grace to wake me in 2 hours and she tried but when the napper also talks in her sleep it's difficult to ascertain whether the attempt works or not. Apparently she came in to wake me and I told her that I had no clue why I wanted to wake up anyway. Later, my son tried to get me to answer a phone call but I told him I'd get around to it. I woke up at midnight.
Jul. 29th, 2004 @ 05:43 pm
|
| » Short Beach Trip |
|---|
Went to the beach this weekend. By all counts it had the makings of a terrible weekend but it turned out okay.
First off it came a bad thunderstorm Friday afternoon at 4:30. I was still at work, thankfully I had saved my file just before the power went out. No power sets off the intrusion alarms and so the building gets locked down. Friday - 4:30pm - can't go home????? geez. Finally, at 5pm security decides that the power isn't coming back soon and lets us leave. It's still raining but I'm going home. It takes me 90 minutes to go home when it should normally take me 30 minutes. Too many cars and an accident blocking the only road to my house that I know isn't covered in rushing water. I'm home though and the power is also out in my neighborhood. Drat, I'm starving and I haven't packed yet. I mangle a tuna fish can open, make a sandwich and manage to pack with a flashlight and what little light comes in through the open windows.
Thankfully, my sister also has no power, so we are both in the same boat. No worries, the kids are already packed and we didn't ahve any plans for tonight other than driving the 3 hours to the coast. Power finally is back, we make sure all is packed, close up the houses, and move out.
As we near the coast, the motel calls me to see if everything is okay. I had given my credit card number to hold the room knowing we'd be after 6pm, but after 11pm is strange. The motel calls a second time reconfirming that I wanted one room and it had a king bed in it. No way. We had a long conversation where I told him there was no way I'd reserve one room with one bed for the 6 of us. He offered a cot. I told him his company surely would not allow 6 in a room. I told him I'd have to find another motel and he said he'd charge me one night's rent. I pitched a fit. After my persistence (calm, cool, and collected I might add) I won. The kids were quite impressed with my debate and noticed that I didn't cuss nor belittle the guy at any time. After all mistakes are made by everyone, but I am not going to pay for a mistake made on their part. I checked my credit card today to make sure I haven't been billed.
The rest of the trip went well. We found a nice Red Roof Inn with clean rooms and a nice pool for cheap. The beach was a lot of fun. The kids swam and played with the boogie boards in the surf. We bought skim boards too and the boys got to be pretty proficient with them. We had two great suppers - a seafood boil near the acquarium and an always great fish dinner at Port Aransas.
I got sick with a damn headache coming home though. Frances drove home but I wasn't any fun in the passenger seat. But then even without the headache I would have been asleep anyways. Driving always makes me sleepy.
We talked as we always do about how fun it would be to live on the coast. I like the sand, but it should stay on the beach. That would be my worry. But the coast has such wonderful breezes that I wish for at home. I guess that's why I have to many windchimes at home - I celebrate those rare breezes! lol
Jul. 27th, 2004 @ 12:30 am
|
| » Ten on Tuesday - Ten Things You Wish You Knew When You Were Younger |
|---|
Every once in a while, there comes a moment in your life when you think to yourself, 'Man, if only I knew that when I was younger, I'd be so much better off!' ... which brings us to this week's topic:
- What brand you wear isn't important
- You aren't responsible for everything and everyone
- Honesty is very important between friends and lovers
- Think before I speak. I'm always saying things I shouldn't have
- Taking risks is okay and a lot of fun
- Speak up or you'll be run over by others
- My ideas are good a lot of the time and deserve to be heard
- It's the little things you do for someone that often mean the most
- Credit cards suck/money talks
- take vacations often and enjoy them
Jul. 27th, 2004 @ 12:06 am
|
| » Unconscious Mutterings - week 77 |
|---|
I say ... and you think ... ?
- Sleep:: my favorite thing to do
- Stats:: charts
- Portfolio:: artwork
- Lipton:: tea
- Telly:: British telephone
- Immigrate:: Statue of Liberty
- Viable:: alternative
- Serene:: cool blue water
- Mountain:: quiet retreat
- Natalie:: Woods
Jul. 26th, 2004 @ 10:56 pm
|
| » Ten on Tuesday - Ten Great TV Episodes |
|---|
Television watching isn't one of my favorite pasttimes, so this will require a lot of thought on my part. But I think I could make a list just of all the Friends shows. There are just too many to list. I think the writing was brilliant and so funny. My kids laugh at me because I'm always laughing and crying over a show.
- Dallas - JR gets shot/Who Shot JR? This was the first cliff hanger done on television and really had everyone talking that summer. Of course I watched the last show to see JR get shot (everyone wanted him shot) but then it was who did it? Great television. Of course they screwed up their reputation for great writing in a later season with the Bobby's dead/It was all a dream thing.
- The finale of Survivor: Borneo. This was the first season of Survivor and it was fresh and new. Sue Hawk's rats and snakes speech was unexpected and so well put for a woman who could barely string three words together.
- The finale of M*A*SH. I loved this show when I was a kid. It was witty and sarcastic and yet emotional too. Good writers. The last episode was very long, longer than a theatrical movie. I sort of felt let down after that episode, but I guess it was true to the show - in war not everything turns out the way you expect it.
- Friends. Pick an episode, chances are it is one of my favorites. Chandler is my favorite character. I liked the episode with the Blackout and he's stuck in an ATM with Jill Goodacre.
- Friends - The one with Chandler in the box. It really begins before this episode, because Chandler is in love with Joey's girlfriend. He gives her a thoughtful gift on Joey's behalf and winds up kissing her. Joey finds out and he's punished by spending Thanksgiving in a box.
- Friends - The one where Joey realizes he's in love with Rachel and the shows after it. I really wanted Joey and Rachel to hook up. I love Joey and don't care for Ross (he's my least liked Friends character) so I'd like to see Joey in a couple relationship. Of course then the show will be unbearable because we'd have to endure watching Ross mope around the apartment like a sick puppy.
- Friends - The one with the Prom video. This is a real good one, I love the prom video and how silly they look. But it brings Rachel to forgive Ross for list he made. Very sweet.
- Friends - The one where no one is ready and Ross is aggravated. Rachel winds up getting mad too and won't go. Monica is obsessing over an answering machine call from Richard and Joey puts on all of Chandler's clothes and is going commando. There was an icky glass of fat involved too. What a riot.
- Friends - the one where the boys win the girls apartment in a trivia game.
- Friends - the one where everyone finds out about Chandler and Monica. Actually it's more tan just one episode because Joey finds out first. The things he endures for them is outrageous.
Jul. 20th, 2004 @ 11:27 am
|
| » Unconscious Mutterings - week 76 |
|---|
I say ... and you think ... ?
- Nostalgia:: old times
- Irreplaceable:: photos
- Odd:: marching to a different drummer
- James Spader:: actor
- Flamboyant:: Nathan Lane in "The Birdcage"
- Intense:: heavy
- Simple:: easy
- Septic:: tank
- Ton:: 2,000 pounds
- Turkey:: where I lived when I was 5-6 years old
Jul. 19th, 2004 @ 08:28 am
|
| » Ten on Tuesday - Things You Love to Do in the Summertime |
|---|
I wish it weren't too hot in the summertime where I live. If we are outside, it is either nighttime or there's water involved.
- Eat watermelon fresh from the garden
- Sit in the hammock outside late after dark
- Watch the kids chase fireflies
- Go to Schlitterbahn - the best waterpark around
- Port Aransas weekends - beaches and shrimp - yum!
- Eat homemade ice cream
- See a play at the Hillside Outdoor Theater in Austin's Zilker Park
- Playing in the rain (I'm too old now, but the kids still do it)
- Watching hummingbirds sip nectar from my feeders
- Enjoy the crepe myrtle blooms on the trees and as they die and fall like snowflakes
- Gardening!
Jul. 13th, 2004 @ 12:30 pm
|
| » Garbage Disposals after Midnight |
|---|
As I sit here I'm dead tired and waiting. Waiting for the garbage disposal to drain. I think it's clogged, no, I KNOW it's clogged. My neighbor who is moving tomorrow just came over with a bunch of leftover fridge stuff that needed a home. I tossed a lot out, after all a half a bottle of mustard isn't worth it when I've got a bottle myself. Anyways, I didn't have enough room for it all, but there was plenty besides the watermelon and cantalopes that could be tossed. And so here I am past midnight cleaning out my fridge and tossing leftovers into the disposal. Some make it, but the rice just stopped it up.
I'm so tired too.
Jul. 13th, 2004 @ 01:33 am
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ecbell's journal