Happy Birthday Mom & Dad!!

Here's wishing Meme & Poppy a wonderful birthday weekend!!  Meme's birthday is today, February 28 and of course, I was going to say she was turning 29 again, but then what would they make me??  Poppy's birthday is tomorrow, March 1!    Hopefully, there are special birthday dinners occurring at their house tonight and tomorrow night (I want to know the menu) complete with a yummy birthday cake!!  We'll be seeing them both next weekend to celebrate their birthdays AGAIN in Wimberley back the Blair House Inn!!

Our Saturday has been busy so far.  Stephen had his ISEE examination this morning.  It's a skills assessment examination as the last piece for the private school application we've made.  Three hour test with essay!!  Stephen said his head hurt when he finished!!  I bet it did.  Told him to get used to it because he'll see that type of test environment with the ACT/PSAT/SAT and other types of testing in his life!!  He felt he did really well with the math portion and ok with the reading/writing portion.  I'm told we'll be able to see the scores on Weds evening.  So... stay tuned!

Rachel had a soccer game this morning at 10 am so she had to be at school at 8:45 am.  Since I still have not been able to master cloning myself,  John was the designated driver for her event!!  I went to the game to watch her play though after dropping Stephen off.  She played goalkeeper for the first half and mid field for the second half.   It was pretty cold out there and the wind was very strong.  The ball didn't go where it normally would with the strong wind blowing it southward! They were victorious and won 2 - 0!!  YAY!!

After arranging for the kid pickups/dropoffs at home, I went to the 3 area scrapbooking shops for the Houston Area Scrapbook Round-Up.    Lots of fun things to make and 20% off everything everywhere!  I had fun doing that and picked up a few item I needed!!   My next goal.... print off some pictures and to get creative soon!

Rachel had a few boys over today that were on her assigned team in Biology and they had a project to finish they have to present on Monday!  Rachel managed to pick a team where she's one of two girls with 4 guys and the other girl couldn't come today.... hmmmmm...... anyway, they were nice young men.  They worked on their project for about 3 - 4 hours to get it done (with a little foozball in between!).  

We're having a mexican dinner tonight at our favorite restaurant - Los Ramirez - with the family of one of Rachel's friends, Bridget.  They are new to town and we offered to introduce them to our favorite mex place around here!  That'll be fun!!

Later!

MA

We have a Tenderfoot amongst us!

Stephen is now an official Tenderfoot Boy Scout!  He received his Tenderfoot ranking as a Boy Scout this evening at the Court of Honor!!  Tradition is for a parent to stand up with their child while he receives a new rank award.  The parent then receives a pin to commemorate the work going into the ranking and the Scout receives the patch to wear.  The Troop Master typically grants the rankings to each Scout.  So, here we are in a picture with Stephen, me and the Scout Master, Mr. Holcomb.   Congratulations Stephen!!

The other fun for the last several days has been the hectic finishing of Stephen's Science Fair Project which is due tomorrow!  Here's a picture of the finished project.

I have to say, I'm just tired of science projects.  When we lived in Silverlake (Pearland), the elementary school there started science projects in Kindergarten!  Yes... kindergarten.  They weren't really tough projects, but they were projects.  In Kindergarten I think she had to research an animal and make a poster.  Each year after, the projects progressed in difficulty until by 4th or 5th grade, they were doing some seriously good projects.  Rachel was pretty good at them, but they really take a lot of work from parents to help the child finish it.    The good thing that came from starting them so young, is by 5th grade, I really didn't have to help much any more and certainly now, with her in 9th grade, I'm not required much to participate for Rachel.

Stephen's a different story.......

In our current school district, they don't start science projects until 6th grade, so this is Stephen's first science project ever.  He chose to do a project to determine which window coverings block the most heat between sheers, curtains, solar screen and solar film.   It's an interesting consumer project.  The winner is the ugly reflective solar film on the windows!!  Truly... doesn't look good, but it blocks a ton of heat.   Mom had to help pretty much all the way around on this project with helping to setup and guide the time consuming experiments to using all my great scrapbooking equipment to help make letters/labels for the poster!!  I'm glad it's over!!  

That's if for tonight and I'm pooped!!  Unfortunately, it's 10:00 pm and Rachel's due to be returning to the school in about 15 minutes from soccer games across town in Katy tonight!! 

Later!

MA

I just love a great wine!!

Wine Corks!

Our Hostess - Michelle

My dear friend, Michelle, is studying to be a Master Sommelier which requires lots of classes, examinations and pretty tough blind wine tastings!!   So, in preparation for a big exam to come in May, Michelle had a really fun Ladies Wine Tasting Friday night at her place!  There were 10 of us and we each were assigned a certain grape varietal and region to bring with a price tag at $20 or so.  I was assigned a favorite of mine, the Pinot Noir grape and asked to bring one from either the Santa Barbara, Sonoma valley or Washington regions.  One of my favorite regions for Pinot in Sonoma is the Russian River Valley so I found a nice $35 bottle at Specs for us to try - Renteria, 2005 Russian River Valley, Ranch Road Pinot Noir.  2005 was a pretty good year too so the wine by all accounts should be pretty good.

Ok - so there were 10 wines!  We had an Australian Shiraz, CA Zinfandel, Napa Cab, Cal Syrah, Washington Merlot, Argentine Malbec, Tempranillo from Spain, Gamay from France, and two Pinot Noir's - one from New Zealand and the one I brought from CA.  All covered up in paper Specs bags!

So.. no... I really can't distinguish wines very well I've learned.  My palette is not all that distinguishable.  I also learned last night that after about 3 tastings, I can't smell them much anymore either!!  (That's why the pros spit it all out... but hey, I can't do that unless it's really, really bad!!)  So - how did I do in the tasting?  Well, I relied on the fact that I know what wines I tend to like the most and that was how I approached picking them out.  And surprise... I did pretty well managing to identify 4 of them!

So - my favorites and the ones I'm going to go looking to buy a few are the following:

Summers Adriana's Cuvee 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, CA 

Martino Old Vine Malbec 2004 Mendoza, Argentina ($20)

Renteria Ranch Road 2005 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley, CA  ($35)

If you want to taste some really nice wines and not spend a ton of money, those three above are really, really nice.  I liked some of the others as well, but those three were my favs!

Michelle's husband, Tom, brought out a really good bottle of Pinot - Kosta Browne!!  Wow ... it was good!!  Thank you so much for sharing it with me!!

The ladies I met Friday night were all fun and really sweet people!  The world is so small that even in this little circle of 10 people who are friends of Michelle, I end up working with one of them and having worked with another in a past life!  Funny how that goes isn't it!   Jennifer and I did a double take when I walked in and we realized we were at the same party - we work together! Alejandra came up to me at some point as she knew me from some where and we figured that out and that was fun!  It was fun to see Joy who I had meet at a wine tasting with Michelle, meet Christy (and hear her amazingly interesting stories of a shared employer at one time), Sanna, Amy, Katie, Merilyn, and Arati! 

This is Jack!! Michelle & Tom's baby!  He's a real character!!  Check out the pictures of Jack's attempts to get a treat.  He's hillarious!

Michelle - I'm ready for another tasting!!  

More pictures are in the gallery (you may have to click on the gallery to go to Flickr to look - it only posts the first 20 pics!!)

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Other pictures in the gallery are from Rachel's last soccer game and then Rachel got a hold of the camera last weekend and was playing!!  Pretty fun to see what she came up with taking pictures around the house!!

 

Have a great Sunday!  We're going to start working on the garden prep today!!

Love, 

MA

Happy Birthday Macie!!!

Today is my niece, Macie's, Birthday!!!  YAY!!  

I hope your birthday is extra special today.  Love from Aunt MA, John, Rachel and Stephen!!!

xoxoxox

We're getting there...

So, it's Weds.  Middle of the week.  It's the only day of the week where we don't have any commitments out of the house in the evening!  That'll be nice tonight!!

Last night was Bible Study with Beth Moore!  She's just so amazing.  God sure has entrusted her with a spiritual gift that is touching so many people.  We're studying about our Inheritance and what that means to us.  I'm don't think I've put together all the pieces in my head that she has mentioned, but it's starting to resonate.  She talks quickly and with passion, you just have to hang on and listen!!

We're in a weather pattern that I just don't care for around here.  Temps in the upper 60/70's, muggy and misty wet.  YUCK!!!  Just feels like everything sticks to you. My friends/family in Central Texas are praying for rain, so I hope some of this gets to you!

Have a great Weds!

MA

Not Me! Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Ok - so I thought I'd give MckMama's Not-Me Monday Carnival a twirl... see what I can come up with anyway.

As I mentioned on a post last week, Rachel had her first "date" on Friday night.  I most certainly did not consider taking a picture to commemorate this event for scrapbooking and forever!  That would have earned me some serious ignoring from my oldest child and I certainly wouldn't want to ever do anything to embarrass her.  :-)   I most certainly did not tell her that the next time she wouldn't be so lucky!!  No, not me!

I have the most wonderful husband who, for Valentine's Day, certainly did not take my order for a homemade dinner and make it to a T and then let me sit on the couch with my computer while he slaved away cooking it!!  Of course, knowing he was doing so much work, I most certainly did not just sit around like a Queen drinking wine and munching on cheese & crackers!! No, not me!

I know I did not wear my favorite pair of jeans for several days in a row because I was just not too lazy to wash them!! That would be just really yucky and smelly and just so not cool. No, not me!

And.. of course, I most certainly did not stay in bed a few extra minutes one (or three) morning(s) last week trying to come up with a reason to justify staying there all day.  And while not thinking about reasons to justify staying there, of course I was not thinking about ways to become a millionaire so I could stay there indefinitely. No.. of course not me.  

While working on my (umpteenth) school science project for a child, I most certainly did not curse the person who ever came up with the idea of science projects and all the mess that goes along with them for the p.a.r.e.n.t.s!  No, not me!!  I most certainly did not keep putting off Stephen desires to work on said project until the last possible day (Sunday) because it's just not how I wanted to spend my day!!!  No, I have NO selfish tendencies, not me!

Ok - so perhaps not so bad for my first Not Me, Monday!!

Have a great evening!

Mary-Austin

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope everyone is having a fun Valentine's Day!!  It's low key around here today.  John cooked a fabulous dinner and we're just hanging out!!

Hope everyone had a good one!

Mary-Austin

Friday the 13th!!

Well, it's a Friday the 13th... but to me, it's just another fabulous Friday!!!   Not much blogging happened this week well, cause I was tired and didn't have much to say!!  I'll catch up soon.

A couple of items of note besides it being Friday and all ...

It's Valentine's weekend?  Have you prepared a pretty card for your sweetie??  (or mom, dad, sister, brother...... shameless reminder to my own children....)   

Rachel has her first ever "let's go to the movies", but "it's not a date, Mom, we're just hanging out" with a guy tonight!!  I won't embarrass her too badly, but I'm excited for her.  It's pretty exciting to be asked to go "hang out"!!   So, we'll be doing some chaperoning this evening.  

Stephen's baseball practices have started for the season, 3 times a week.  So, yes, that's fun!  Luckily, so far, his Dad has made it for most of them, but I'm sure that won't always be the case.  Last night, Stephen had a practice and Rachel had a soccer game at the same time.  Fun times!!

Gotta run now and get to my paying job!!  

Have a great Friday!!

MA

Back to Reality!!! And Some Favorites!!

Well, we're back home in Friendswood!  We had a lovely weekend in Wimberley and made our way home this afternoon.  Back to the norm... back to the homework... back to the flute lessons... and hearing about the DARE drug presentation today at the high school. (Another blog to come about how proud I am of my daughter's resolve against drugs and alcohol!!).  Getting ready for work tomorrow... mentally anyway!  

Tonight I figured out my technical difficulties so I have quite a few pictures to show you.  

First.. let's finish the tale of Wimberley!

As is typical at a Bed and BREAKFAST, you get breakfast with your stay!  However, there is nothing typical about the Blair House Inn breakfasts!  They are wonderful!  Sunday morning we had a fresh fruit compote, migas and empanadas with sopapillas for the bread pastry.  This morning we were served fresh fruit, bananas foster french toast, bacon and cranberry bread.  They were divine and starts off your day wonderfully.

We didn't get such an early start on Sunday choosing instead to lounge around in our room and read, watch TV and just relax.  We decided to head out around noon or so and our first stop was the Mandola Winery.  The Mandola family has several restaurants in the Houston area and in Driftwood, they have a winery and restaurant.  Unfortunately, we were not crazy about most of their wines this time.  Their winery looks like a winery out in Napa in its design - it's pretty, regal and you can buy or bring items for a picnic there.  They also have a restaurant we here is pretty good.  We didn't have the opportunity to try it this time.

After Mandolas, we decided to go to Spicewood Vineyards in Spicewood, TX.  We were told it would take about 45 minutes.  Well.... it's not the easiest place to find coming from Wimberley on the county roads so it ended up taking us about 1.5 hours to get there.  Pretty scenery along the way though, so it was nice drive.  You'll see in the picture (and the others in the picture gallery) we did find a river that still has water in it!  Not a lot of water, but some!

Spicewood Vineyards was fun to try.  We found a couple of interesting wines to purchase here.   The big hit was finding this amazing Thai Sesame Oil for marinade or dipping which was divine!!  I mean divine.... tasted so good!!  Trying to decide when I'm pulling that baby out.

We were done with the wineries at that point and hungry for lunch.  John had a hankering for some good ole Texas BBQ and we circled our way back to Driftwood and hit a Texas favorite - the Salt Lick!!  My-O-My the BBQ is good here!!    If you are not a meat eater... look away now!!  For those of us who love good BBQ - take a look!!  :-)

Yes, our vacation has had food and wine in it to a great part!!  We do enjoy finding good food and tasting good wines.  More importantly, we just enjoy visiting places and taking in the sights!!

After dinner, we headed back to the Blair House for a relaxing evening and great sleep in the fabulous Laredo room!!

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Posted Pictures of the past week of Fun!   Our little get-together on Jan 31 with a lot of John's colleagues and some of mine, all the celebrations from my birthday, and this weekend!  All of it is updated in the Flickr picture gallery.  However, here are a few of my favorites in no particular order!!  Enjoy!!

Wimberley, Texas - Go Visit!

This picture capped off a wonderful day we had yesterday in Wimberley, Texas.   Here are the highlights!

First - where we are staying!!   

Blair House Inn

We are staying at this beautiful Bed and Breakfast called the Blair House Inn.  HIGHLY recommend this wonderful B&B if you are planning to stay in this area.  It is run by Mike and Vicki and they really treat you wonderfully.  The houses are situated on a hill and are beautifully landscaped in the traditional hill country landscaping and lovely lights.  We arrived late on Friday evening so we got the evening approach and it's so romantic!  We are staying in the Laredo room and it's a two room suite decorated in a rustic Mexican theme.   It's really a pretty room and quite comfortable.  Large comfy King bed, fireplace, sitting area, micro/refrig/coffee maker/ large whirlpool tub in the bathroom with a lovely porch to sit on outside as well to just relax.   Highlighted all throughout their property is interesting art work, glass work, sculptures from the local artists in the area.   The breakfasts so far have been very tasty!  Served from 830 - 9:30 am, everyone gathers in the main house for coffee, fresh squeezed juice, fresh fruit with whipped cream, fresh baked sweet breads and a really yummy breakfast! Saturday morning we were treated to a fresh fruit, Jewish Apply cake and a Vegetable Frittata served with Rosemary Potatoes.  Pair that with some fresh orange juice and coffee... yummy stuff!!    Mike gave us some suggestions for our day yesterday and ALL of them proved to be really interesting and very fun.

Bella Vista Ranch. 

DID YOU KNOW olive trees grow in Texas and there is such thing as olive oil made in Texas??  I sure did not know this but on our first stop of the day, we were treated to a 2 hour lesson on Olive Tree history and growth worldwide plus how it ended up in Texas.  It is extremely interesting actually and quite a risky project to try to grow olive trees here in Texas due to our weird weather patterns.  But Jack Dougherty does it and sure does it well.  We were treated to a tasting after our education and the oil he produces smells fresh and tastes fresh.  My Dad would love a visit here!!!

They make several infused varieties such as orange olive oil, lime olive oil and garlic infused olive oil.  John and I especially enjoyed the garlic olive oil, but unfortunately, they quickly ran out of that particular one so we were not able to buy it yesterday.  We'll order some here in the next week or so.  Jack also makes his own wine and it was pretty good as well.  I think we bought a couple of bottles of Syrah and Cab.  Oh... and a couple of other things he has done there at the ranch - grow artichokes (yes, no lie), asparagus, pine nut trees and avocados.   How fun is that? Mom, Dad..... something to think about....He had some asparagus growing in a pot!!   

If you have the time, take a read of his website and make a point to visit this Italian styled family farm in Wimberley.  It's really a treat!!

Second Stop ......

Driftwood Vineyards

A lovely vineyard just up RR12 north of Wimberley.  It was quite a busy place to be today with lots of groups (families & wedding parties) out visiting the wineries.  We enjoyed tasting wines here and found a few good ones to bring home with us in a 2006 Super Texan, a mix of Sangiovese 88% and Merlot 12%, 2006 LoneStar Cab and a 2006 Longhorn Red (Cab Sav/Syrah), and by sister B&E Vineyards, a 2003 Cab Sav and 2004 Red Rhythym (blend of Merlot, Cab Sav, Cab Franc).  

Third Stop ....

The Leaning Pear Eatery

We decided to stop for a lite lunch about 1:00 or so after our wine tasting at Driftwood.  Again, on Mike's recommendation (from Blair's House) we decided to go by this little eatery for lunch.  The Leaning Pear is owned by a young couple, Rachel and Matthew Buchanan.  Matthew went to the Culinary Institute of America in New York.  After school, they moved back to the Texas Hill Country and worked as Exec Chef and Asst Innkeeper at another Wimberley B&B called The Inn Above Onion Creek.  In 2006, they restored an old building into what is now The Leaning Pear and serve great unique sandwiches, soups and entrees.    I had an absolutely wonderful BBLT (Bacon, Brie, Lettuce and Tomato) on toasted sourdough bread!!  YUMMY!!  John had a Seafood Cioppolo (stew) and a Reuben sandwich.  He enjoyed both a great deal!! Definitely a great place to visit again!

Fourth Stop .....

Tour of Wimberly Square and walked around the little shops doing some window shopping.  Cute stuff here.  John managed to find a little store that sold Blue Bell Ice Cream so he partook in an ice cream cone!!  :-)

Fifth Stop.... (yes, we're getting tired by now...)

Wimberley Glassworks

Another fun place to stop.  They have beautiful handmade glass pieces to revel at.  Don't touch though!!  We saw one that was $9,000 and some mother was letting her 6 year old child touch it!!  ?????  Craziness.   But, it was a really neat place.  The cool thing is they demonstrate their glass blowing techniques which is ultracool to watch and FREE!!  Fun to see some melted substance become a vase or a plate or something cool like some of the beautiful sconces that the Blair House has in their main house dining room.  

I was pretty tired by this time, so we proceeded to go back to our B&B and I got to take a nap!! Anyone who knows me, knows this isn't something I do very often.  I typically don't wake up really well after a nap so I'd rather just go to bed early.  But... tonight we had a special treat in store, so I knew I needed a nap to make it through so I snoozed for about 2 hours.  :-)

Blair House Inn Saturday Evening Dinner!!!

We were so excited to get in for this dinner.  We had been on the wait list and with the luck of a cancellation, we eeked our way in.  Thank you Mike & Vicki! Blair House is widely known for their cooking school and their Saturday Night Dinners which often also treat wines from the local Texas wineries.  Tonight was no different - a wonderful dinner to be paired with wines from Dry Comal Creek.  If you've read some of my prior posts, we've visited Dry Comal a couple of times and enjoy their wine.

On the menu tonight was divine!!  

• Crab Claws in butter sauce (John had my serving too!) - John describes them as succulent and juicy!
  
• Wine - French Columbard (which was good but almost too sweet for me to drink too much)
• French Onion Soup w/a crouton covered with melted Gruyere  - This was one of the favorites from the evening!  It was REALLY good.... I could have eaten quite a bit more than the serving they gave us.  It was soooo good.
  
• Wine - Sauvignon Blanc - very fruity and dry - virtually no sugar in this one.  I liked it!
• Iceberg Salad with French/Blue Cheese Dressing, bacon, pecans, hardboiled egg and blue cheese was really yummy too!  Nice and fresh.
• Smoked Bone-in Pork Loin w/wild rice and baby carrots and snow pea pods - This was really, really good.  Quite tasty!!  I loved the flavors of the pork and really loved the wild rice.  It had pecans in it - I love pecans!!
• Wine - 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon  - this was good - this wine has bold fruits and a kick with a pepper spice at the finish.  Paired well with the pork, not sure if I would drink it without a food offset though.
• Chocolate Mouse Cake with Strawberry Romanoff Sauce - YUMMY... mine came with a candle and a song!!  :-)  See the above picture which I took by the way!!  Isn't it cool!!! 
• Wine - A really right out of the barrel that day - new wine - White Port.  About 18% alcohol and quite sweet, it was strong.  Tasted GREAT with the chocolate.  I could not drink it all though - too sweet and alcholic for me.  I'm not a big port fan but this was good in small doses!!

The winemaker from Dry Comal Creek was there as well last night and we were able to spend some time with him and his wife.  They moved from California to Texas about 8 months ago for him to become the winemaker at Dry Comal.  I believe I heard that his wife is a Major in the Army stationed at Ft. Sam Houston in SA.  They were quite a hoot and fun!  

More pictures of all of this to come when I have time to do some editing!!  They are fun!!

Off to explore for Sunday!!

MA

Birthday Installment #3

Ok - so, wow... it's been a busy but fun day at the Cox House!

I have pictures.... some great pictures!!  I'm just having some technical difficulties in uploading them and it's late... and I need to get some sleep.  So.. the pictures will just have to come later.

A few notes before we get to the end of the birthday celebration for this evening.

John DID GO to his doctor's appointment today (as opposed to the last appointment he canceled when I wasn't looking).  And gee, guess what??  Amazingly there IS something wrong with his knee!!  Wow.. what a revelation given it's consistent habit of swelling with small moves the wrong way!!  Typical He Man that he is!!    Anyway... the doctor believes he has a torn meniscus and probably will require some type of surgery to fix it.  However, he first has to have an MRI to see precisely what the problem is before that occurs.  Unless there is something really bad, my guess is John will have the surgery immediately following the end of the school year in May.  It's probably a little impractical to have it during the school year.

Back to MY BIRTHDAY celebration.... our final event of the day centered around, yes, you guessed it, more food!!!  LOL... John had made reservations at this really wonderful steakhouse called Killen's Restaurant which is very small but has some fabulous steaks and a very reasonable wine list.  He was a smart boy and made the reservations for a little later which helped me even get close to being hungry again from all the prior "celebrations" earlier in the day!!  LOL... I will tell you though, we shared a fabulous tomato, mozzarella & basil salad, ahi tuna appetizer and I went with a ribeye and John with Lamb.  YUMMY!!!  Have a really great Australian Shiraz wine from Wolf Blass Private Label which tasted a little more like a cab but with spices.  Didn't have room for dessert but the restaurant sent me home with a bread pudding on the house!!  John had also baked my favorite cake which is yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  Didn't eat a bite yet!!   Toooooo fullllll!!!   

As for gifts, this was a really light gift year and I purposefully told John not to spend much money.  I truly don't need anything.  He bought me a really pretty pair of majorica pearl earrings though!!  They are very delicate and very pretty.  The kids made some sweet cards and a few little gifts.  

All in all - this has been a wonderful birthday!!  

Going to bed now!!!

MA

Birthday Installment #2!

So... now we're at Birthday Installment #2 'cause the birthday Day just keeps on getting better!!  I have pictures to go with some of this BUT I cannot put my hands on the little card reader to read the camera card!!  Not sure where it has gone or why, but when I find it, I'll update the pictures.

I think the story of today is really best told so far by the food!!  Truly...

Survived the really great breakfast this morning cooked by Chef John!!  (see post below for description).  Made it to work nice and full and caffeinated by my coffee in the car.  Yes.. for those who know my addiction to Starbucks is legendary, know that I'm actually only hitting Starbucks an average of 1 time a week right now!!  YEP!!!  I'm in the saving money mode and having coffee made at home does save you money.....   so.. we're moving on now....

Get to work... working away.... my friend Huong comes in to talk to me (she was supposed to be on vacation today too...) and hmmm... I start hearing voices that I know gathering just down the hallway that aren't normally on my floor.... hmmmm... wondering if Huong was sent in to be the staller... hmmmm.... i'm thinking, while she's talking to me,  I wonder what they are up to?  And yes.... they were planning.... suddenly several of my friends (Lisa, Huong, John, Sally, Priscilla, Kevin and Geoff) show up in my office with what I consider to be THE BEST POUND CAKE in the world made by Sally!!    She really does make this fabulous Pound Cake and for years, I haven't been up on her floor to be able to grab a piece at the special times she makes it.  It just so happened, a few weeks back she had made one for John's birthday and Huong brought us some to try (cause she didn't know the history like I know the history) and I just knew from looking at it that it was one of Sally's special cakes!!  I've been around there for a lot longer then these youngsters, so I know these things!!  Lisa and Huong took notice of my excitement to have a piece of Sally's fabulous Pound Cake and proceed to request her assistance in making one for MY birthday!!  Well done my friends!!  Well done!!  It was wonderful.   Cake at 10:00 am.... yummy!! yummy!!

NEXT  --- again, centering around food!!  :-)   Our Ladies Who Lunch group - includes myself, Linda, Connie, Karen, and Kristi - provided another treat for today.  A birthday celebration lunch at our comfort food mexican place - Spanish Flowers!  It was a road trip (which just simply means we actually get in a car and drive somewhere outside of the immediate downtown area) and of course, it was yummy!!   I picked something on the light side because holy moly... by this time, there really isn't much room left in my stomach!!!  Enjoyed the company immensely as usual!!

The afternoon was really a blur... did a lot of work!!  John and I figured out where we were going to go this weekend.....

Blair House Inn in Wimberley, TX   looks fabulous.... I love a good B&B!!  Unfortunately, the really great 5 course dinner is booked for Saturday night, but hopefully, with a cancellation, we might get in!!  Doesn't matter though... it looks to be a beautiful place and I'm sure we'll enjoy ourselves!!  Check it out here....www.blairhouseinn.com  

Next .... DINNER!!!  More to come!!

MA

It's MY Birthday!!! (and I'll cry if I want to....)

Ha ha ... just like that song!!  No crying here... well, at least not yet anyway!!  The day is still early ....

BUT - it's my 42nd Birthday!!  Wowzer... perhaps I should have stopped counting at 29!  Then it would be the 13th Anniversary of my 29th Birthday!!  :-)

We started my birthday a little early since the kids will be out with their Dad tonight, we had a family dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant, Los Ramirez, last night!  Even the sickie (Rachel) was feeling well enough and no fever to be able to go along.  Didn't eat much, but she was there and that's all that mattered!!

This morning I was greeted with coffee and a fabulous home cooked breakfast by my wonderful husband - eggs, chorizo, potatos, tortillas, bacon...   We all were ready to go by 7 am so we could have breakfast together today!!  That was really special!!

We were supposed to go to Vancouver this weekend for a pre-conference trip to celebrate my birthday, but unfortunately, the conference was cancelled at the last minute, so alas, our trip was cancelled as well.  We're working on some alternative plans so stay tuned for what we come up with.

Have to run now.. take Rachel back to school for the first day this week (YAY) and me off to work.  John has (finally) an appointment this morning with the orthopedic to take a look at his knee so that's moving forward as well!!

Later!!  

Birthday Girl!

Sickness in the House!!!

Well, we've finally done it... gone and caught some sickness from someone somewhere!!  Try to so hard to avoid it all each year!!  

Rachel came home with something that looks and acts a lot like the flu bug.  High fevers, chills, aches and pains, sore throat, head stuffiness.  Luckily... no nausea etc.  But.. she does feel bad!! My poor little baby!!  Her Mama is staying home to help keep her medicated, hydrated and hear about her misery...   

Trying real hard to not catch it either!!  John and I have a flight on Friday evening and I.DO.NOT.WANT. TO.BE.SICK!!

Ok - so let's talk about Facebook for a moment!!   If you had asked me a year ago, heck, even 6 months ago, if I ever thought I'd be on Facebook, both of my sisters would be on Facebook, even my 65 year old Mother would be on Facebook, I would have asked what planet do you hail from!!  Seriously.... who would have thought!!   But... guess what!! They ARE ALL on Facebook!! For various reasons, but on it nonetheless.  I had a conversation with a client the other day and we were talking about this Facebook phenomenon which started with college kids and has just grown to be a HUGE social network used for communication for groups as well as just plain silliness. One of my colleagues made the comment that their child would never be on Facebook.  Oh... mais non!  They will be my friend - just you wait!!  (and so might you, I might add).

My sister and my mom joined primarily because they are a part of a group that decided to make Facebook their primary method for communication of group events!  Instead of the good ole email distribution lists we are all so fond of!  Nope... you won't know what movie the group is going to see or where or when if you don't join the group on Facebook!!  Sort of makes it necessary at that point if you want a social life.   Other adults get on here for reasons such as mine - I got on here for one reason - to track my little chickadee who is on Facebook and keep an eye on her "friends"!  :-)   Something very important to do with younger adults!  Make sure they understand what information is ok to share, what isn't.    Colleges, Employers all check Facebook now when looking at Applications to try to determine your personal character - ie your beliefs, your friends, thoughts, etc. 

However... I now have 30+ friends on here.  It amazed me to find relatives (cousins/aunt), high school friends, college friends, neighborhood friends, work friends all out Facebook hanging out chatting with each other or reconnecting!  Some people I literally have not spoken to or seen in gee, about 24 years now!!  Kind of wild I think.     I think Facebook has certainly passed the generational boundaries of young age and transcended into a tool used by all generations for connect to one another!  Wonder what they will come up with next!!  

Look me up on Facebook!! 

Back to check on the sickie!!  Have a great day today!!

MA

Super Sunday!

It's Super Bowl Sunday!!  We watched the Cardinals play the Steelers in SuperBowl 43!!  It's actually been a pretty good game!!!  The Steelers won becoming the first NFL team to win 6 Super Bowl Games!!  I also won a bit of money tonight :-)

I wasn't sure we'd be watching this game tonight given the Dallas Cowboys aren't in it and John really hasn't been interested in watching much football since their loss in December.

Last night we had a little get together with some friends - lots of John's friends from school and a few work friends from my side as well.  It was a lot of fun!!  I have some pictures to post hopefully later tonight or perhaps tomorrow.    I think there were about 28 people here.  John cooked some wonderful tacos al pastor, fideo (mexican spaghetti) and charro beans!!  Everyone brought some really good food to go with it - we had queso, cream cheese and candied jalepenos (which were so yummy), queso with corn, fabulous roasted pepper green salsa and Chuy's green dip!!  Doesn't even mention the great cookies, brownies, and cakes!  Wow... we had a good food spread!!   All that great food needed some really good drinks to go with it so we had John's famous margaritas, wine, and lots of other beverages of choice!   After all the food... we managed to hang out by a warm fire!  I had the provisions for smores, but I don't think anyone really wanted to go to the trouble!  

We pulled out the Guitar Hero and since there were no teenagers around to beat the mess out of us all, we had a good time trying to play these songs on the guitar and drums!!

Rachel is a little sickly today!  It looks like she may have caught the bug that's going around the school.  She may be staying home tomorrow!!  Guess we'll have to see.

We're heading to Vancouver, Canada, next weekend!!  More to come on that as the week progresses!!  Very fun!

Have a great Monday!!

MA