A PERFECT DAY

Oh Fall! How do I love the? Let me count the ways:

Cool, crisp morning walks, complete with beautiful sunrises and lots of signs that the Cantina Garden is finally awakening from its late summer dormancy.

An al fresco lunch with the in-laws-to-be, out on the beautiful terrace behind Inoz', overlooking Cypress Creek...

where we had a "passing of the albums." (Holly was kind enough to share with me a huge family album, where I could see pictures of Little Nate growing up. She also encouraged me to contribute something to the beautiful wedding album she has created for Lex and Nate. I felt honored to do so.)

Last, but certainly not least, there was dinner out on our upper porch with daughter Lex and granddaughter Izzy, who will be staying with us for the first time this weekend.

AND, all of this without one single mosquito bite! Now that's what I call a perfect day.
  

BOOTIFUL WIMBERLEY

People in the Texas Hill Country tend to be passionate about their boots, whether they actually need them for ranching or not. For one thing, trying to do the two-step or Cotton-eyed Joe in street shoes just looks silly, now doesn't it? We even have a lady here in Wimberley who is known as The Boot Whisperer. It is said that all she has to do is study your feet for a moment to know exactly which pair of boots would be the perfect match for you.

So, what did the Wimberley Vally Arts & Cultural Alliance choose when they wanted to place hand-painted sculptures around town?

Why, six-foot-tall cowboy boots, of course!

Spotted by Annie James, on Old Kyle Rd.

I missed the big reveal party, when I could have seen them all together at one time. However, I must admit, it's kinda fun stumbling across them one at a time, as I go about my daily rounds.

Spotted by Brookshire Bros. Grocery Store

Spotted at the Wimberley Village Library, featuring local musician Sarah Jarosz

Three down, twenty or more yet to be discovered!

BLOODY HILARIOUS

My family has a longstanding Christmas-Eve-Bad-Sci-Fi-Film tradition. It got started back in the days when at least one of the Thomas clansmen always gave another a ridiculous grade B movie for Christmas, then they popped it in to watch as soon as all the littles were in bed. Which is how my hubby and kids ended up being huge Bruce Campbell /Evil Dead/Army of Darkness fans. So, of course, there was no way my hubby could pass up a chance to go see this, when he heard it was coming to Austin.

After giving it some thought, I told my hubby "Dear, you know I'd be more than happy to go with you. But you might have a bit more fun if you took one of the kids with you instead." Only problem was, when he asked "Who wants to go?" they both said "I DO!" So he got two more tickets and we all went.

He's such a good daddy that he even let the kids have our two front-row-center tickets, and we took these seats, a few rows back.

They got a little nervous when they realized that everything in the first few rows was covered in plastic! Fortunately, someone let them know that they had ponchos for sale out in the lobby.

Fixin' To Start!

The ponchos helped, but not enough!

Believe it or not, these socks used to be white.

Nice white suit, Dude!

Hubby swears he had no idea there was a "splash zone" when he bought those front row tickets. All I can say is, he owes our kiddos BIG TIME. For if it had been us sitting there, instead of them, Hubby would have been dead meat by the end of the show!

And then we took them out to dinner.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE

Well, off to report for Jury Duty over in San Marcos. Haven't been called up since, well, I can't remember when! Hopefully I won't get caught up in anything lengthy. I've got places to go. People to see. Some crazy-funny pictures of my kids covered in blood to post. Catcha later!
 

LONG TIME, NO SEE

Well, what do you know? There actually WAS an art table hidden under all those piles of stuff! 

It's so good to see you again after all this time!

Hmmmmmm...what marvelous messiness shall I cover you with now?