HUBBY COOKS

This is my hubby, cooking dinner:

 
He's got his outdoor speakers blasting rock 'n roll, the big green egg heating up, a beer in his hand, perfect weather, and a big honkin' ribeye from Richardson Farms marinating in his special concoction.

He may have only one or two things in his repertoire, but what he does, he does well.

This is one happy guy.

EASTER EGGS

No dying necessary!

MORE POODIENESS

We now move into the living-dining area of sister Poodie's Great Condo Redo.

Before:

You enter the condo at one end of the long L-shaped living/dining area.

I think that door on the right leads to the bedrooms and bathrooms.

The dining area opens onto the kitchen to the left, and the study straight ahead.

After:

Entry Area

Main Living Area (big square French coffee table still being refinished)

Dining Area

Wall Left of Entry Area

CALL ME CRUELLA

 "Does this photo make my butt look big?", asks this garden raider caught on John's spy camera a while back.

This morning as I sat next to an open window waiting for the sun to come up, I kept hearing a noise in or near the Cantina Garden, which was just below me. Usually the deer travel in groups, and you can hear the pitter patter of hooves on rock, or spot a white tail, even in the dark. But not today. All I could hear was the rustling and ripping of vegetation. Could it be that pesky armadillo again? The one who decimated an entire bed of coneflowers a week or two ago?

Finally it got light enough for me to see that it was, in fact, a lone doe, and she was ripping plants out of the beds Hubby had added around the outside of the Cantina Garden fence, then filled with rosemary and other deer resistant plants, to distract them from the juicy tidbits inside the fence. Since the deer no longer pay any mind to our yells and banging, I grabbed my trusty cow bell, ran outside, and started clanging it for all it was worth. I'm sure my neighbors loved that.

It worked, but as she scampered off, I thought I noticed something a bit off kilter about her gait. Crap. That's when I remembered the poor doe I spotted a couple of weeks ago - the one who was holding her left hind leg up in the air as she struggled to follow her herd, but who got left behind. I assumed she had been hit by a car, and it made me very sad to think she was probably fixing to starve and die. Now I'm guessing I may have just run her off from the only food she can get to. I feel like such a turd.

MEMORIES OF PROVENCE

Woohoo! I finally completed a page in my French travel journal -- two years after the fact!

If you recall, I started this page a while back, using a great little technique that I learned from travel-journalist-extraordinaire Jacqueline Newbold. Not only does it expedite the process of journaling on the go, by having a pageful of backgrounds ready and waiting for quick little sketches, it also allows you to add color and detail to them at some later point in time, by using "reference photos" that you took when you did the sketches.

Or if, like me, you were too busy having fun to do more than snap a few quick photos, or were traveling with a group that wasn't interested in standing around while you sketched, you can wait and do the sketches when you get home, taking all the time your little heart desires!

Best of all, instead of doing my sketches chronologically, I can group them however I like. Here you see some of my favorite windows and balconies. Next up? Sitting and sipping my way through the outdoor cafes of southern France!

Now, just out of curiosity, how do you pronounce the name Jacqueline? I always thought it was Jack'-wuh-lin. However, I just watched a little video on Jacquiline's website, and she introduced herself as Jack-lean'. Doh! Remember your French lessons Becky?

IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHIN'!

 
Well, now that we finally have this antibiotic-pump-thingy figured out, and don't have to fret over that anymore, Dear Hubby's blood pressure has decided to go haywire again. On top of that, I have a sneaking suspicion we are fixing to be caught in the middle of another pissing match between his BP specialist in Houston and his cardiologist here in Austin. As my favorite news personality, Danna Roseanna Danna, was so fond of saying, "It's always somethin'!" Anywho, whenever I find my thoughts spiraling down a dark hole, I try to force them back into the sunshine by recalling the way I felt yesterday afternoon, upon spotting these gorgeous poppies in bloom down by Cypress Creek Cafe.

I don't know why poppies make me so happy. They just do.

POODIE'S RE-DO UPDATE

Well, Big Sister is finally unpacked! Though she still has furniture to refinish and a bit of final tweaking and accessorizing to do, I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the latest photos juxtaposed against the "before" pictures. It's going to be a bit difficult for me to match the photos up, considering I've never stepped foot in the place, but I'll give it a try. Maybe it would be best if I just give you one room at a time. For today, we'll start with a little 70's-style "den" that opened off the kitchen, and which Poodie will now be using as her cozy office/TV/reading/napping room.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

As you can see, she widened the doorway and made a little half-wall.

Before:

After:

Well, I think this is what is now on that blank wall to the right of the kitchen door, but I wouldn't swear to it. Carolyn, correct me if I'm wrong!

Amazing difference, no? I'll share more with you later, soon as I can get the photos matched up!