Lovely

Oh, what a nice weekend this was, in the AusTex. Warm in the sun, but neither hot nor humid. Sunny, breezy, blue-sky'd goodness; two of the - perhaps five? - PERFECT days per year that we get.

Happily, we spent most of both days outside. Yesterday, the OG consented to be in a little local track meet - much to the joy of The Man - and we were there for most of the morning. (Third in the 100-meter dash, thank you very much...and against some SERIOUS li'l track stars, let me tell you. No, seriously, they had coaches and track spikes and everything.0

Afterwards, we fulfilled the contractual bribery obligation we had arranged prior to the meet, and indulged the OG in a trip to Dobie Mall for pizza and a trip to the geekboy Star Wars figurine shop. (She settled on "Leia as the bounty hunter Boushh," which came with its own, little, tiny, Thermal Detonator! I could not be more proud.)

Then, after that, we were sort of at a loss for what to do. It certainly crossed our minds to hang out at the house the rest of the day, but, what with the nice and all, it seemed like a waste. So, on a whim, we decided to go out for a drive to see wildflowers, which is something we do every year about this time. Normally, we participate in the peculiar Texas pathology of ill-advisedly hauling of the children out of the car on the side of the busy road to force them to sit in the bluebonnets. We had heard that the 'bonnets weren't going to be too spectacular this year towards the west, so we went east a fair bit outside of town, and kinda made a big square back to Austin.

Sadly, though, the child endangerment did not occur this year. There's a lot of paintbrush and primroses, but the bluebonnets were quite sparse. So, just hold off on that there call to CPS, buddy.

Coming back home from the south, The Man took a swing into Bastrop State Park, a.k.a. the home of the "lost pines." Now, The Man and the OG have been there, camping, but I've never been there before. It was really QUITE beautiful. There is truly this big stand of huge, tall pine trees, smack dab in the middle of Texas, with no really apparent reason to be there. We got out, hiked around there for a bit, and marveled at the thick carpet of pine needles under our feet.

The YG really does not get the whole "roughing it" thing, as you will probably garner from the fairy dress. (True story; she was sitting under a tree, humming to herself. I asked her if she was playing a game. She said, yes, she was, and asked if I wanted to know the name of her game. I said that I did, and she sighed, looked at me wistfully, and answered "The Land Before Love.")

The OG, after the previous comment sent her into an apoplectic fit:


When the sun went down, we decided to stop in for dinner at this little place called the Roadhouse, right outside of Bastrop State Park. Honestly, it didn't look like much on the outside; kind of faux-atmospherish and country-cutesy. I didn't think it'd even really tempt me off my diet, 'cause a lot of those places use frozen fries, standard white buns, that sort of thing. But - DAYUM. I was WRONG. That was just about the best hamburger I've had in a LONG time. The fries were clearly hand-cut and fried in really good oil. I NEVER get ice-cream shakes, but they, too, were outstanding.

We shall just, um, leave the diet status unreported on for yesterday, for my shame is too great.

Today, the OG had a softball game - or, was supposed to, except that the other team, erm, didn't show up. So, her team had a scrimmage instead, and we called it a day.

Afterwards, having no real desire to go home and fold the Everest of Laundry piled up on our bed, we decided to evade all responsibilities by parking ourselves at the Central Market playscape all afternoon, with the Bookhart and Noxious clans joining us and entertaining our kids. The Man, that was one brilliant idea.

Tonight; salmon filets rubbed in Madras curry, salt, pepper, and garbanzo flour, steamed broccoli, and expensive-root-beer root-beer floats for the other three; not me, in a fruitless attempt to regain my dignity after last night.

Sigh. I'm very satisfied with my weekend. You?
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OK, all you PC users? You want to know WHY you should switch to Mac?

Because of the built-in camera, and PhotoBooth, with which you can do things like THESE!





Oh, I'm so very glad I spent $1400 on this thing. So worth it.

So, I have to ask...which is the most disturbing picture?

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