All Good Things

Well, I am back in California after a really awesome trip to Texas. I am beat!

Yesterday Tara, Cindy, Julie and I headed up I-35 to Austin, the state capitol.

DSC01193

We just drove by the actual capitol – we had better things to do, such as stopping at Hill Country Weavers, where I totally gorged on sock yarn:

DSC01190

Here’s what I bought:

mosaic6713643

Nature’s Palette, Jitterbug, Araucania Ranco Multy, Araucania Ranco Multy, Jitterbug, and Malabrigo Worsted.

I love Hill Country Weavers. If you are ever in Austin, you must stop there!

The girls were pretty cool about me dragging them to a yarn store, since none of them knit. I think part of it had to do with the intriguing Airstream right across the street:

HEY CUPCAKE

Did we totally partake of cupcakes following the yarning? Yes, yes we did.

After that, we stopped at the huge Half Price Books on North Lamar, then headed back to San Antonio.

And took a lot of pictures. As you can see, I am now a redhead, courtesy of Garnier Fructisse.

DSC01200

I had a GREAT TIME on vacation. I miss Texas a lot. But it was good to get home, especially when I knew this was waiting for me:

My New Eee PC

(Note the chapstick for scale!) It’s my new tiny laptop, an Eee PC. I was hoping it would arrive prior to the trip, but it didn’t. It’s Linux, which I was expecting to be difficult to get used to, but it’s easy and I love it.

Now I am broke, but it was SO WORTH IT – the trip, the computer (though that was courtesy of the U.S. Government and their ESP [hahaha esp]), and seeing my best girlfriends. I am mentally recharged and ready to write – and finally finish a novel or too.

Also: damn, June already? Yikes.

El Mercado, Alamo

Last night Julie and I headed down to Market Square and the Alamo.  We went to the Farmer’s Market and El Mercado, where I took a ton of pictures. (Mom, there are a bunch of Mexican dresses in there!) We stopped for margaritas and queso at La Margarita (infamous site of a long-ago midday accidental drunk-in-public incident during the Latin American Music Awards… fond memories!) and then headed downtown to the Alamo.

El Mercado

The Alamo

I lived here for five years and never took a picture of myself in front of the Alamo, so I made Julie take a picture.

We then went to the Mirror Maze, which I think is part of the collection of Ripley’s Believe It or Not attractions across the street from the Alamo. It was pretty cool. After that, we headed down to the Riverwalk and went to County Line for dinner.

County Line is a delicious bbq restaurant, a small Texas chain. I got the chicken platter, which is chicken, sausage and beef brisket. I also got it with garlic mashed potatoes and potato salad. Julie got the beef ribs with garlic mashed and a side salad. (I did not travel 2,000 miles for my health! haha also if I am paying $15.99 for a dinner it will be for all the things I love, the end.)

So today there will be more putzing around the apartment. I have the truck today so I might go see the movie. I was captivated by The Fall’s trailer, though I may go see Indiana Jones. OR conversely, I may just nap all day, we’ll see. We’ve been getting Red Box rentals from the Walmart – it’s a dollar a day for movies rentals, and we’ve rented 27 Dresses, The Golden Compass, National Treasure 2, and Stardust.

Anyway, this morning I am going to go to Sonic and get a delicious breakfast.

Tomorrow: Austin! All of us (Julie, Tara, and Cindy) are going to Round Rock to the Ikea, then I am forcing them to go to a bead store and Hill Country Weavers. But also to the ginormous Half Price Books on Lamar.

Skeet Shooting

I worked here in 2005. This was prior to working with Xerox/Marriott.

NSSA Compound

It was during the World Shoot and I processed all the medals for the shooters.  There were thousands (?) of them. I also did admin work. 

NSSA Compound

Tonight Julie and I are going downtown to the Mercado and I will hopefully not be totally lame and actually take pictures there – it’s a riot of color and Mexican-ness.