Poseidon look at me

That's right, I'm on a boat. And I'm putting a picture of myself in a bathing suit on the internets. What? I'm officially announcing that this is The Summer of Not Feeling Bad. (Hmm? It's not summer yet where you are? Well it was 103 here yesterday y'all. We're deep in it.) I am not tan or fit and I am afraid of water, but it is HOT and this is fun.(That's what I'm repeating to myself over and over in my head) This summer I am going to enjoy every anxiety-free moment I can. So far, I've done pretty well.

The boat adventure happened over Memorial Day weekend. We went camping at Bergheim (They have a super fancy website with sound!) and I discovered something shocking: I prefer more rustic camping. It was fun and all, but everyone was a bit close together for my liking. Who knew?

This past weekend, I broke the no-swimsuit rule again when we went to a really great swimming hole. No, I won't tell you where it is because we don't want it to get overrun. I also didn't pay attention when we were driving so I really can not tell you where it is.

The internets have been down for a few days here at the grove, but that's no excuse for not having posted since mid-May. Yes, I am quite lazy. I mean super busy Not Feeling Bad!!

I'll catch you up with a random bullet list:

• We went to an Express game and got a free upgrade to seats in the fancy pants part. Then the baseball announcer said our names in his silly announcer voice and they showed us on the screen! (Also of note only to E. Stine and T. Stark: we got to see Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz!)
• I went to the Renegade Craft Fair and I got the coolest thing ever. Ask me when you see me and I'll show it to you.
• I got a new record!! Love!!!
• We ate the BEST BARBEQUE on earth.

I'm sure I've forgotten something important, but this blog thing is so time consuming and I've got a swim date with Adaline. Hope all's well with all y'all :)

Polka, Nature, Wings.

After a brief hiatus, Superfuntime Weekends have returned. Friday night we had a low key Burnet Road Crawl to celebrate one of Adriane's co-worker's last day, John's last day of student teaching, and the general settling down of our life. Saturday we went down to the greenbelt, and low and behold because of that one day of rain, there was a little water. I took a silly number of tree/water/sunset pictures, and if you have spare time you can see them here. On Sunday, we went to Maifest at Anhalt Hall. If you still have more time, photos are here. You may remember that we went to Cajun Fest at Anhalt two years ago (yikes!) but we haven't been since. Superfuntime indeed. Polka.
Nature.
Wings.

Here's a little low-quality video of The Grand March.

Hope y'all had a Superfuntime Weekend too!

The rain rain rain came down down down...

Woo hoo! It's raining, and here that's news. Aw, Texas, I love you!

He knew I was coming so he baked a cake!

This past weekend, I had a lovely solo visit with The Starks. Here's my sweet father-in-law showing off his baking chops (and stylish hat!):

Needless to say, recent events have made me re-examine my feelings about what it is to be a mother. Luckily I was able to spend Mother's Day weekend with my mom, daughter and mother-in-law. Of course it was my intention to write a little blog-blurb about all the mothers I know and how great they are and stuff, but as you can tell I missed yet another boat. Hey moms! You're great!

Poor blog, it must have been lonely.

Let's see...what's been happening? It's springtime. Springtime here in the ATX is stupid pretty.

I'm still crochetin' like a maniac. I made yarn shoes. Yes, they're really slippers but Ace called them yarn shoes and I like that better. We went to the coast with the Howells. It was deemed "mope free weekend" and it was just what we needed. I didn't take many pics but here's a good representative of the trip-cooking with fahre y'all!

Downtube Shifter played a wedding (I mean, Emily's birthday party!) All covers of soft rock favorites of the '70's and 80's. Just kidding, it was a regular DTS show. You can watch a video of them from SXSW here. The sound is a little off kilter, but that's all the more reason you should come out and see them for real!
Love the decorations. This wedding made ours look fancy, but it was fun.

In addition to the crochet, I'm continuing with other out-of-character behaviors. I'm going to yoga at least twice a week. I LOVE yoga. Who knew? I've been running (well, walk/running, but still). Along the way I sometimes see one of these guys:

A Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. Cool! See, I'm still me. Birdwatching is a very in-character behavior. Another in-character behavior, this:

Yesterday was Lee Chat's 6th birthday. I made him some tuna treats with sprinkles. He and Hubert enjoyed them quite a bit.
Uh-oh, Lee took his eyes off the prize for a second...And boom, Hube's taken over his treat. Don't worry, Lee got more and he has a much smaller appetite than his brother anyway.
I'm sure I'm forgetting things, as usual. Think think think. We went to another Express game, I went to a super fun wine tasting with my ladies (I bought the WA wine, a rose with the tagline "you can drink rose and still be a badass"), Adriane and I tried to go to The Amazon Olympics, but it was shut down by the police. It pains me to even think about it.

I saw the best documentary. It's called Marwencol and it's on the NF instant. Watch it. Now. You're already on the computer.

Oops, guess I missed my chance to have a clever April Fool's joke post. Seeing as how March was one big prank from the universe you'll have to cut me some slack.

My new #1 coping mechanism? Crochet. I know!
Trust me, these look a lot more impressive in person. I'm doing the squares in this book in order. Hmm...feels like I've made more than this, maybe there are a few floating around in the car. The second Thing-You-Never-Thought-I-Would-Do: Yoga. I've only been once but today I bought a mat. Thanks to my friend Powerhouse for providing the motivation (free classes!) This morning I was going to go for a walk/jog but there was lightning so I ran on the treadmill here at the apt. complex. I ran on the treadmill, y'all. Who am I? Oh yeah, someone desperate for stress relief.

Last week we took the Double A's to an Express game because guess who came to Round Rock? The Rangers!! Look Erick, here's good ol' Wash on our humble little Dell Diamond field.
Uh oh, Ace is wearing the wrong sport sweatshirt. Better get this boy some proper Texas Rangers gear. Looks like he's having a good time anyway.
But of course no one can have more fun watching a sporting event than Adaline.
Oh yeah, yesterday I had a very pleasant sister date. We wandered about downtown and then went to a Sesame Street Singalong at the Alamo Drafthouse. Super cool. Take that universe!!

The 18th already?

Hi y'all. Seems I've let a couple of weeks go by again. Sorry. Life has been a little hectic lately but today I'm just chillin' on the deck with some lavender spearmint iced tea,some crochet, (I'm still making a halfhearted attempt to be a Master Yarncrafter and learn not to hate crochet- I picked up a new book with my HCW gift certificate -thanks, MIL!-and so far I've made 1.5 of the 250 motifs in it.)
and my best furry friend, LeeChat. We cobbled together some leftover wedding giftcards and bought one of these newfangled Flip cameras. I can't say I'm overjoyed with the product. The battery pack has been a bit wonky and because it's so small it's easy to accidently hit buttons you don't want to, but it's fun to have. So far the only DTS video I've taken is very dark (in a bar and all) but Saturday the boys have an outdoor daylight show so maybe I can get something good. For now you can enjoy my latest film which I've titled "Lee Yawns, Then Grooms"

While the Funometer on my weekends has been registering at a much lower level in recent weeks, we've still done some cool stuff. Weekend before last we went fishing-well, John fished and I sat on the bank and took pictures, started square one of the crochet, and tried to identify the birds. I'm not posting pictures of this since I printed some up and will attempt to mail them to some of y'all. This weekend we went to HONK!TX which was super fun. I put some pics on the flickr but am too lazy right now to do the whole caption thing. Maybe later. We found a new food trailer on the eastside called Love Balls!! It was great. Wacky Japanese food. (involving octopus!) As a grand finale, we stumbled upon a crawfish boil ("bol") y'all! Or what I like to call "eating bugs". Who'd a thunk I would ever do these things? Blame it on Texas. I mean, Thank Texas!!!

Happy Texas Independence Day Y'all!

Click on the title of this post to learn about "the grievances patiently borne" by the people of Texas. Raise your Lone Star bottles! Texas Forever!

P.S. Today is also: Jon Bon Jovi's birthday, The Howell's Anniversary, and Dr. Seuss' birthday. Busy day.