Category: weekend adventures

I had such a busy weekend that I’m glad my Monday night ended up being pretty boring. I needed this evening to chill out.

Friday started with a trip to Peche, to bid farewell to a coworker who left my company to focus on her music. I already miss her presence in the office, but I wish her well, and know she’s destined for great things.

After that, I headed up to Round Rock to deliver some Christmas gifts to Reesa and Nathan’s kids. Earlier this week, I had a great time picking out some holiday books for their daughter, and chose The Polar Express and Herschel and the Hannukah Goblins, both favorites of my childhood. I hope she loves them as much as I do.

Once we got back from Round Rock, Jon and I were pretty much done for the night. It had been a long week, and our Saturday was going to be busy. We grabbed a quick dinner at Enchiladas Y Mas and then chilled out with a little television.

Saturday morning was all about running errands, and then we met up with our friends Carly and Trent. I’ll be pet-sitting their lizard while they’re traveling for the holidays, and I wanted to make sure I knew the ins and outs of iguana care. After that, we went up to Vino Vino for a wine tasting, where we got to sample thirty sparkling wines and snack on some fantastic cheese. We’ve ordered a few nice bottles for the holidays, which should be in just in time for Christmas.

After Vino Vino, we hit up NeWorld Deli for some sandwiches, and then parted company for the afternoon. At Carly’s suggestion, we watched a few episodes of Louis, which I really enjoyed, despite not liking Louis C.K.’s stand-up. Then, we played a few rounds of Tetris Link (the Tetris board game, which Jon bought because I am in love with all things Tetris), it was time to meet up with friends at Opal Divine’s for trivia.

One of my favorite things about Opal’s is the hot cocktails they have during winter. Including the flaming eggnog:

Our team did okay in trivia, taking 9th place. Which is pretty good, but not good enough for us, because we’re competitive like that. We need to get an edge if we’re going to do well at Geek Bowl in January!

Sunday meant our usual Torchy’s run, and then a walk through our new neighborhood (we’ve been there a month now, but we’ve been traveling so much that we haven’t really gotten to know the place yet). After that, I worked on poetry for a few hours before joining my friend Lynn to visit Reesa in the hospital, where she’s still struggling with cancer. I’m hoping for her recovery in 2012.

I got back from the hospital just in time to attend the winter solstice celebration at BookWoman. There was a lineup of fantastic readings from local poets and fiction writers, and I was so inspired by everyone’s work that I came home and wrote two more poems right away.

When I returned, Jon and I realized there was no food in the fridge, so we begrudgingly went out to stock up on supplies for the week (curse our bodies, needing to eat). It was another chill evening, and the perfect way to wrap up a great weekend.

This weekend boats a lot of holiday cheer, since Channukah, Solstice, and Christmas all fall within days of each other. Hopefully when all is said and done I’ll get around to doing a write-up of all the amazing food I plan to cook this week. Happy holidays, everyone!

This weekend was theoretically a relaxing one. But it proved once again that I thrive on being busy.

Last week was frustrating for a couple of reasons, the main one being that my wonderful friend Reesa is back in the hospital. She’s been battling a recurrence of breast cancer for pretty much the entire year, and was hospitalized for pretty much the entire summer. Last week, she went back in with a blood clot in her lung, as well as a staph infection. There’s been a lot of worry. But on Friday, she was allowed to start getting visitors again, so Jon and I went over there after dinner, and spent several hours talking and laughing. It was a relief, after a week of worry, to just be able to see Reesa. She’s still sick, but getting to have a conversation with her really helped me relax. I can’t wait until she’s back home.

I had a relaxing Saturday morning, which consisted mostly of revising poetry, before going to lunch with members of the Austin Writergrrls, which is a writing group I belong to. We had some great conversation about creative work, day jobs, and life in general. I always feel encouraged and inspired after spending time with them.

After lunch, I went to my salon for a haircut and some new color. While I enjoyed the bleach blonde look, it was frying my hair. So I ended up with this:

I love the way it came out, and I like the idea of changing my hair color to match the seasons. Good thing I have plenty of time to ponder a spring look.

After my haircut, I went home and began to put a Halloween costume together. I am usually really lazy and don’t bother with Halloween, but this year, Jon put together a Breaking Bad costume, and it was awesome:

He even shaved his head to complete the look. I was only slightly traumatized. He looks good with a shaved head, actually. It just took some getting used to.

Anyway, I decided I actually wanted to dress up, so making liberal use of safety pins and tape, I finagled one of Jon’s suits to fit me. Sort of. Next year, I’ll start planning more than 4 hours in advance. Anyway, one suit and a hat later, I ended up as Don Draper, and together, Jon and I were AMC Original Programming. We also came in 9th place in trivia, which was awesome considering that we didn’t have any of our teammates with us (as they were off doing other Halloween things).

On Sunday morning, Jon made migas, we did errands, and I made a double batch of tomato sauce. Then I spent the afternoon at a small going-away gathering for one of my dance friends who is moving to Seattle. I’m going to miss him, but he’s keeping his rental property in Austin, meaning he’ll be back for visits and such.

After the party, I came home, made a delicious pizza, and spent the evening chilling out before turning in early. A great end to a great weekend.

It’s been quite a weekend! Friday started out with dinner at Kerby Lane Cafe, where I met with some dance friends to help plan a competition that’s taking place in October. After dinner, I met up with Jon and we went out for beers at the Pourhouse Pub, and then turned in a little early. It was a low-key Friday night that felt great at the end of a long week.

On Saturday, I slept in, and then it was time for our usual Saturday morning jaunt to Torchy’s. After tacos, my friend and I drove out to Longhorn Cavern, where we went on an amazing tour.

The tour was amazing. First off, our guide clearly enjoyed his job, and was very charismatic. We got to see some amazing geographic formations, learned a lot about the history of the cavern and Texas, and got to experience a few moments of total darkness. The whole thing ran a little over an hour and a half, and I even came away with ideas for stories.

After walking through the cavern, we stopped for a late lunch at Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls, where we dined on great food and even better pie.

Once I got home, I did a little yoga, took a shower, and then went out to Trophy’s to see Jon and his band Groove Think.

After the show, Jon, Denise, and I went to Black Sheep Lodge for drinks and delicious fried food.

This morning, I slept late again (yay!), and then Jon and I got brunch at 24 Diner. After swinging by Black Sheep to pick up the card that Jon forgot, we went up to Williams-Sonoma to get a wedding gift for some friends.  When we got home, I did some yoga, and then it was time to head out for the Inaugural Austin Writergrrls Literary Festival, held at BookWoman.

The reading was fantastic, and it was fun to celebrate the local women authors who have published books this past year. I admit, I spent more money than I planned, but local bookstores are always worth the extra cash.

After the reading, I went over to the hospital to have my writer’s group. One of the participants was a bit late, and since I had my camera with me, I got some great shots of Reesa’s daughter.

After writing group, I came home just in time to catch the amazing season premier of Breaking Bad. Now I’m chilling out, working on some writing, organizing photographs, and generally winding down before another workweek begins.

I realized as I sat down to write this post that I didn’t actually take any photos this weekend. I guess after weeks of travel and taking touristy photos at every turn, I needed a break from the camera.

This weekend was fairly low-key. Last weekend we were in NYC, two weekends before that I was dancing in Philadelphia. I’ve had a lot of travel, and I just needed to chill out and relax.

Well, chilling out didn’t happen much in the literal way. Our air conditioning went out at 5 a.m. on Friday, and by the time we got home from work, it still wasn’t fixed. Fortunately, I kicked the weekend off eating sushi with my friend Missy in the blissfully temperate Korea House. After that, though, it was off to the toasty apartment. We had repair people in and out most of the night trying to diagnose the problem. As it turns out, it was a mechanical issue with the A/C unit, AND we had a problem with the circuit breaker. The A/C unit itself got fixed, but we couldn’t run it until the breaker was taken care of, and that wasn’t happening that evening. Fortunately, a neighbor loaned us his portable unit, so the bedroom was comfortable.

Since I was already sweaty, I decided to head out to Kick Butt Blues and dance for awhile. I stayed for a few hours and got to socialize with some of my favorite dancers. And I was actually cooler than I would have been at home!

After a still-sweaty night, I woke up on Saturday, took a cold shower, and then went for a dip in the always-cool Barton Springs. Afterwards, I made my way to the downtown Farmers Market. I picked up eggplants, yellow tomatoes, leeks, chipotle-cilantro pasta, whole goat’s milk, and antelope sausage. I hadn’t been to the market in months, and I was excited  by my finds.

After hanging around the cool bedroom watching Veronica Mars, Jon and I went climbing at the Austin Rock Gym. We took the basic belay course. Unfortunately, I still have a lingering fear of heights, so I didn’t have the best time. I hope that Jon gets a climbing buddy soon, because rock climbing is not my ideal way to spend a weekend.

I wanted to cook dinner with my fantastic farmers market finds, but I wasn’t about to attempt it in my hot kitchen. So we went over to my dance partner’s house and cooked him dinner! I made a quiche with the antelope sausage and some of the tomatoes. Then we watched a film called Red Belt, which was quite good.

Today, I woke up and did some yoga, and then met my friend Gillian at Curra’s for brunch, followed by more time at Barton Springs. Then I went to visit my friend Reesa in the hospital. While I was out, the electrician came by and fixed the breaker, so I arrived at a cool apartment! To celebrate, I made the pasta from the farmers market, using the rest of the tomatoes, the goat’s milk, and some goat cheese to make a sort of tomato sauce/roux blend.

Tomorrow begins another week! I have a lot of plans, including beginning Infinite Jest. If all goes according to plan, I’ll write about my reading experiences here. Stay tuned!

Friday started out South Austin style. After work, I met up with Jon at Barton Springs for some swimming, sunning, and writing flash fiction. Then we went for a late lunch at Taco Xpress. Delicious tacos, queso, and agua fresca. I love working across the street from this place.

After chilling out at home for a bit (including the series finale of Fringe), we headed over to my friend Carly’s birthday party. Our hosts served champagne cocktails and had a homemade absinthe fountain, plus some very delicious cake. We hung out on the deck and chatted all night, and stayed out till almost two a.m.

Saturday morning, Jon and I went on our weekly excursion to Torchy’s, where I tried the taco of the month. It’s called the Libertarian, and consists of chicken-fried jalapeno sausage; grilled onions, peppers, and jalapenos; queso; pico; and two cheeses. I could feel my arteries clogging with every bite, and it was delicious.

Following breakfast, I went to my dance studio for rehearsal. I have two competitions this month, and I’ve been putting regular time in on weekends to make sure I’m ready. When I was done with rehearsal, Jon and I headed over to Dragon’s Lair for Free Comic Book Day (where I spent a surprising amount of money). Then we went to a friend’s house to play Rock Band for a few hours before heading out to Peter Pan for some miniature golf.

After miniature golf, we didn’t have any plans. We were both overheated and tired from staying out late the night before. We went home, made ourselves a pizza, and put on Northern Exposure. I also wrote a new flash fiction piece for the Story a Day challenge. I crashed pretty early, and that’s where things get crazy.

At 4 a.m., I woke up and Jon had a horrendous headache. Bad enough that I decided we should take him to the ER. Had it been any other week, I might not have gone, but we lost a college friend this week unexpectedly, and then one of Jon’s former colleagues died unexpectedly, with no determined cause, at 31. So I was a little paranoid. We went to the Austin Heart Hospital, and amazingly, we were the only people there. Jon was diagnosed with a migraine, and after some IV hydration, painkillers, and anti-nausea meds, we got a prescription and went home. In and out in 2 hours, which isn’t bad for the ER.

After getting home, I crashed for about four hours, and then got up to meet my friend Gillian for brunch at Perla’s. I had never been there before, and was blown away. We started out with the Caesar, the restaurant’s variation on the Bloody Mary. We followed up with their special brunch oyster shooters, which contained rum and honeydew melon.

After drinks, we moved on to food. I ordered the lobster omelette, which included creme fraiche, caviar, and white cheddar. It was amazing, and totally worth the price. On top of that, since our entrees were late (as they were extra-busy on Mother’s Day), we got some free scones and muffins.

After brunch, it was back to the studio for more practice, and then it was time for writing group. While usually held at a friend’s house, our gracious host wasn’t feeling well today, so we met up at Genuine Joe’s for some discussion about our works in progress.

With no more commitments for the day, Jon and I ran out to the grocery store for some items for dinner tonight and for the rest of the week. Now we’re chilling out, eating salad, and watching Castle. It’s going to be a pretty chill evening, and I plan to finish a story and then read more of How Italian Food Conquered the World, the newest book to capture my attention.

Hope you all had great weekends!