Austin ModHouse

just about a week ago, kat came up with an idea, "let's have a party for kids.  they can swim and karaoke and play music and..."  she had a long list of stuffs.  I thought it was a bit crazy, seeing that there were only a few days left of the school year, but I agreed to help if she organized it.  she made invites, the kids passed them out to their friends, and a whole bunch of kids did come, they went WILD!  they all had so much fun, I suffered 3 hours of kids pounding on the drums and leaving the doors open and eating in areas we don't normally allow food...  we were out numbered.  we were BEAT after three hours.  we were good chaparones and did not treat ourselves to any adult beverages that might have helped endure all that drumming.  I think the parents enjoyed being able to drop their kids at our house for three hours on a friday night.  next time (if there is a next time) I may put the drums in the garage.

I hosted a group mustache photo booth

WIMBERLEY:  then we had to get on the road early the next morning.  we wanted to attend the annual HOA meeting for our place on the blanco river.  if you like getting together with your neighbors to watch them interrogate each other about all sorts of things like, what shade of blue your shed is, or how many dogs you have, and why do you have a storage container on your property and when will it be gone... I highly recommend you join a HOA.  the people who wave at you when you pass on the street get an opportunity to get all up into your business, despite the fact that the HOA has no rules that dictate such things and there were no actual HOA violations.  still, we raced down early saturday morning to listen to a few hours of made up BS drama.  those sort of situation just make me want to build a giant pink flying saucer in my front yard down there.  one person did voice their fear of "oddball colors, like pink". 

anyhow, we survived the meeting and then soaked away the stress.  we are now ready to host friends to join us for dinners and soaks.  had two families down this weekend.  grilled salmon two nights and it did not suck one little bit.

I finished the roof for the screen room off the back of the barn/cabin (and yes, it was mentioned at the HOA meeting.  I didn't take the bait, I don't need to join in the drama-fest and the topic soon faded).  I also spent several hours trimming the oak trees.

back to austin for HH at garrido's on memorial day.

Posted by paul at 07:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

#1 son has been taking guitar lessons for less than a year. his playing really started to improve after about 6 months. we agreed to let him perform for the school’s show at stubb’s bbq. I had enjoyed his practice sessions at home. when he played with the band (drums and backup guitar) I was very excited. they sounded great! his playing seemed to improve with the drummer keeping a faster tempo. 

he practiced, tuned and retuned his guitar while he waited for his turn.  his new snark tuner makes tuning fast and easy.  and here it is!

it was great seeing all the students getting some stage time.  and the bbq was good. I enjoyed a caesar salad with brisket.

in other news:

best meal we had this past week was at home.  I marinated the salmon in a wasabi aoli (fancy word for mayonaise) then crusted it with panko and pecan.  oven roasted brussel sprouts, cilantro-lime butter rice and a salad with carrot juice and ginger dressing. 

my dreams of volunteer jackolanterns are fading, it's not yet June and they've already turned orange...

we hired a tree service to "raise the canopy" and clean up the lot.  the yard is SO much larger, even the house looks better. 

Posted by paul at 09:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

when I left you last week, we were in the middle of an impossible situation.  we were trying to complete half a year's worth of upgrades and maintenance within ten days time.  I had been contacted by a producer of one of those home design reality TV shows.  there had been a lot of talk, contracts signed etc.  then I was given firm production dates. 

it was a LOT of stress.  everything else was put on the back-burner.  middle of this week I was high atop a ladder, painting the ceiling in the screen room.  I suddenly noticed the phone had not rang for a few days.  normally the production staff would increase the phone calls and emails...  I came off my ladder, shot an email to the producer asking for another confirmation of the start date.  he could not confirm.  I pressed him with a few direct questions and he also could not confirm the show itself was still in production.  it happens all the time, shows get cancelled before their first air date.  I suspect that to be our situation.  while we were excited about the show, we were also relieved to be able to slow down and aim to have our list done by the end of summer, instead of a few days.

so we took it easy this weekend.  kat went back to finish her flower box project. 

#1 son has a guitar recital at stubb's bbq next saturday.  it's going to be a great show.  he has a full band supporting him.  I recorded him practicing his guitar part at home.  and of course #2 son said "it's my turn" and expected to be recorded and have his picture taken.  videos of both posted at the bottom of the page. 

BIG

VOLUNTEERS:

I toss many of my kitchen scraps right out the door, onto the ground near the kitchen.  every year we get some volunteers from the seeds in those scraps.  this year has been very productive from the volunteer arm of the garden due to all the rain.  we have several volunteer tomato with big fruit and we even have some BIG pumpkins in the works...  I'll be so impressed if we carve our own pumpkins this halloween.  at this rate, we might be able to carve one into a full size carriage. 

we have started to track what we take out of the abandoned house we bought in wimberley.  kat made a charitable donation of a bunch of housewares, I sold some jeep doors I found there on ebay ($800!) and we now have a bunch of small appliances including, crockpot, waffle iron, gaggia espresso machine, vegetable juicer, and now an air popcorn maker!

BIG IT UP CLICKY HERE

these things have actually increased in value.  people like to buy them and roast their own coffee beans.  we may try that as I am a bit of a DIY junkie.  but for now, the kids are enjoying healthy (less fat/sodium/microwaves) air popped corn. 

we have had a few days where it was warm enough to swim.  he was so happy to be able to use his new flippers.  he obsessed over them every day until we finally gave in and bought him some.  he'd seen flippers in an old navy swim suit ad.  he just KNEW they were the thing for him. 

we tried a new indian food restaurant.  the food was fantastic. the service started out ok but then took a nose dive when our waiter was unavailable to us.  we spent the last half of the meal trying to get his attention...  I can't recommend pakwan. 

Posted by paul at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

we attended yet another fun filled yelp elite party at ray benson's rattle inn. 

BANG BANG!... you got me.

I asked a friend his opinion of the beer, "one is really hoppy and the other is a bit too yeasty".  I went inside and asked for one of each, combined them in one glass and started a new trend.  everybody started going in and asking for one of each along with an empty glass.  the southern star brew was good and always glad to find a can option for boating and river fun times when glass bottles are unwelcome.

pretty yelp elite cowgirls insured a fun evening.

Z tequila offered delicious paloma and a few other cocktails.

short shorts and a pair of pistols.

I did chaperone another preschool field trip.  way out near bastrop, behind a mobile home park, somebody had the idea to carve a path in the woods and plop life size fiberglass dinosaurs and charge $5 a head. 

he still won't cooperate for a picture.  the statue mode is my only hope to get him to stand still for the camera. 

he holds his hands out like that when he is a statue....  ok. 

I made it back to wimberley to replace the missing section of siding.  with a bit of patchwork I did it with just one sheet.  I trimmed the window with pieces I removed from the big house that will be torn down.  I need to replace the front door, trim it, caulk paint and then it'll start to look finished. 

treated ourselves to another great meal at haddington's.  they make their own tonic water there, quinine bark in a pressure cooker or something like that.  the tonic ends up looking brown/reddish.  kat really enjoyed the house made pork cracklin' and we really loved that duck meatloaf with blueberry reduction.  scallops (below) were good too. 

a year’s worth of home maintenance and cleaning crammed into ten days...

the home and I are supposed to be reality tv show ready in ten days time.  I have an impossible list of things to be done.  stripping the old floor finish puts me in a bad mood.  and none if it helps with kat's disposition either.  she hates this sort of stress, especially when so much of the house is disassembled in mid cleaning and project phase. 

I finally finished installing glass tile around the outdoor shower.  I realized I left my tile float down in wimberley, so I made my own.  the one on the right worked so well I didn't try that thing on the left.  left over rubber from the roofer, two screws and a scrap of wood. 

had some friends over for dinner and wine in the screen room (indoor dining table is non-op due to floor project).  kat was all worn out from stress and cleaning.  she laid down to rest a minute and never woke up, slept through dinner and all.  I made a soup of cauliflower, leek and cashew and drizzled a carrot and ginger juice and cayenne sauce over the top.  it looked like mashed potatoes with buffalo wing sauce... everybody seemed to enjoy it (kat ate hers the next day)

zoom-zoom-zoom

Posted by paul at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

spent the last part of the weekend at the blanco river barn near wimberley and fischer, tx.

I got the on-demand water heater connected to the 12v water pump and water tank.  hot showers!

I made use of a stack of hardi backer board found in the house, made a small screen.

that river.... within a moment of dropping the tired feet into that cool, clear water...  relaxation is suddenly abundant.  it's like some sort of magic.

heating up the grill. 

the boys played with a low tech telephone, I made them put the iphones down.

and they played with bricks...

future grill master?  he insisted upon putting the grates over the burning charcoal.  he was careful and received no burns.

#2 son piled the dijon mustard high while the daughter lopped of chunks of the pungent Morbier.  she asked, "what cheese is this?  I REALLY like it!"  that's my girl!  they ate a big wedge mostly themselves. 

we grilled salmon, grean beans, onion and tomato..., the daughter made wild rice,  it was good. 

and now that we have electricity, we have a/c and the kids enjoyed a movie inside that evening.

we took the spare projector down and they kids watched chitty-chitty bang-bang,  it worked out great. 

we found a window on clearance at lowe's.  I'll be glad when the front of the barn is less ugly.  the window had to go in before I replace the missing siding.

we made great progress at cleaning out the abandoned house.  kat carefully packed up the kitchen, made notes of everything to be dropped off for donation and cleaned.  we found a few jewelry boxes (but no jewelry).

the daughter carefully cleaned them and applied orange oil to make them less sad after being left behind.  possibly the most love they ever received... the one box plays "memory"

Posted by paul at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

it seems that more people came out than ever before to wish eeyore a happy birthday day.  we had planned to get costumes organized and get #1 son a potato sack so he could practice for the sack race...  well, they didn't have sack races this year and kat worked a slew of late nights this week and we did well enough just making it to the event.

1965 ford econoline hubcaps make nice drums and hats at the same time. 

#2 son has a handle on this birthday thing, he is so ready for his next birthday.  talks about it constantly.  so we had talked up eeyore's birthday.  he asked "where is eeyore".  I think he was calling our bluff.  but when we took him to see the real donkey he quickly clammed up and backed away.  #1 son was more comfortable wishing eeyore a happy birthday

throw the sack games...

the most fun part of eeyore's.... the people watching.  we camped under a tree, enjoyed some best wurst, kat got her giant smoked turkey leg, and some saint arnold's.  it was a very relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

lots of girls wearing body paint.

we found a field of hula-hoops as we walked out of pease park and much hooping did ensue..

we had a quick stop at kat's office (more work) and then we had a very refreshing dinner at imperia. 

sat at our usual booth and made our selves at home.

chop sticks are not so easy without his helper but he tried...

easier to eat sushi with fingers.

sit on the floor, stand, lay down and eat.... whatever it takes.  we took it casually. 

yes, he got food on his nose.  because he eats like this...

Posted by paul at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)