DOH!

I have another confession to make. I am in a co-dependent relationship, and my husband and both of my kids are enablers. Because they are all geeks, they make it easy for me to be a Luddite. Why learn anything about technology, when I can just get one of them to do whatever needs doing? Which could be why I've had this blog for a year and a half, and I just now figured out that I have a choice when it comes to picture size!

The problem is, the chicks have flown the coop, and since hubby is only here part-time, I sometimes get fed up with having to wait on him to come fix my problems for me. Like yesterday, when I got that comment from Pamela over at Digging. The one on Tuesday's post that said "By the way, if you'll enable Name/URL comments, it'll let people without Google/Blogger accts comment too. Many people don't have them." I left her a terribly whiny reply about my being too dense when it comes to technology, and about hubby not being here to help me. I'm turning red right now, just thinking about it.

But, after a while I started to get pissed - first with John, for not being here when I need him, and then with myself, for being so dependent on him. Eventually it goaded me into sitting down at my blog, and clicking on some of these tabs that I've never even bothered to open before. Which is how I discovered, much to my chagrin, it is so easy to do what Pamela suggested, that any moron could handle it. Even me.

So now you must leave lots of comments, to help make up for my public humiliation!

FAQ

"Are you going crazy from the boredom yet?" my city friends keep asking me. My reply? "HA! If you only knew." Yes, small town life can be tough - when you can choose only one activity from amongst the 10 or 15 options that are spread out over the Hill Country and Austin, on any given weekend!

For instance, this past weekend we had to forgo the Funky Chicken Coop Tour in Austin, in order to attend the annual Wimberley Pie Social - a first for us. "What on earth is a pie social?" you city-slickers are asking. Well, it's munching on hot dogs and listening to local musicians. It's entering your best pie in the judging (Outdoor Woman Muse won 2nd place!), and having a chance to sample that of your neighbor. It's visiting with the local herb guru, and watching an old-fashioned blacksmith at work. It's taking tours of the historic Winters-Wimberley House, and buying raffle tickets. It's seeing beautiful quilts, vintage aprons and assorted crafts. But, most of all, it's being part of a community. Would I trade any of this for being able to hang out at the mall? Not on your life!

SUR-PRI-ISE!

Funny thing. Remember me writing not long ago about wanting to become the kind of housekeeper who doesn't have to get in a bundle about unexpected guests? I don't mean I want to turn into Martha Stewart, and have it looking picture perfect 24/7. I just want to get into a comfortable routine, where certain things get done on an almost daily basis, so you never have to start completely from scratch. I don't care if the house looks lived in, I just don't want it to look dirty, know what I mean?

Anywho, I'm getting better about it, but it's still more of a goal than a reality. So, here comes the funny part. I was sitting at my computer the other day, typing away, when suddenly I realized that someone was knocking on the door. Now, that's something you don't hear very often when you live out in the country. Our long, steep driveway tends to weed out all but the most determined. Anyway, I hear this knocking so I go to check, and what do I find? John's cousin and her family, whom we haven't seen in years. They just happened to be in the area for spring break!

It was great seeing her again, and we all had a lovely visit, but I have to say, Holy-Moly, thank goodness we'd just had a dinner party a couple of days earlier! Had I known she was coming, the house would have looked a lot better, but if they had surprised me the previous week, it could have been a whole lot worse! I shudder to think. Good news though, my motivation for developing my cleaning routine is much, much stronger now.

NEW TO-DOS

Click to Enlarge

SPECIAL REQUEST

"The central character in a life story should have a clear desire line....Your desire is the engine of your story and your desire line is the track it runs on." --- Tristine Rainer

Interesting quote. Just stumbled across it in my journal this morning, and it got me to thinking. It made me realize that my desire for a more reasonable life has been the engine that has lead me to most every decision I've made since I was a teen in the late 60's. It has shaped the path of my life, and brought me to the place where I am now. Thank Heavens! 'Cause if not for that, well, I wouldn't have had, not one, but TWO great parties to go to this week, and John wouldn't have taken this whole week off from work to be here for them.

Last night's revelry was a surprise party in honor of friend Cindy's 50th birthday. This one was also held in the tiny town of Fishcher (over towards Canyon Lake), but instead of being at Fischer Hall, it was held at the new cantina which the owners of Fischer B&B just added to their property. Our musical entertainment was provided by another of Slim Richey's bands (remember Kat's Meow?), called Jitterbug Vipers, and this was another family-style pot-luck dinner-dance.

I'm beginning to realize that volunteering for the board of The Bountiful Sprout was one of the smartest things I ever did. Not only do these people like to party, they also care passionately about their food, so whenever we get together for a pot-luck, we eat good!

Oh, and about that special request. In case you hadn't noticed, I finally figured out that I have a choice when it comes to picture size here, and I really love the look of the larger pictures I have been posting lately. However, I don't want to continue doing that if it is taking way too long for my blog to load, each time you open it. So, PLEASE, let me know if that gets to be a problem, and I will go back to smaller pics!

Meanwhile, PARTY ON!

MY WISH FOR YOU?

May you never cease to be amazed by the beauty that surrounds you. We've had this house for four years now, and at first I worried that I might eventually become jaded - start to take all of this for granted. But nope, not happening! Each time I return from somewhere else, drive up over that rise in the road and suddenly see our valley spread out in front of me, and each time I glance up from my computer to see the hawks performing their spiraling ballet just for me, or I see the sun dipping down behind the hills, infusing the sky with pastel finger-paint patterns, I still feel the need to pinch myself and ask "Is this real? Do I really live somewhere as beautiful as this, or am I still in the 'burbs, just daydreaming over some magazine photo?"

SYMBIOTIC SHOPS

Well, goodness gracious me. I got so busy showing you my pictures of Fonda San Miguel , I totally forgot to tell you how we spent the day! We happened to be in Austin for their world-renowned Sunday brunch, thanks to my brother the foodie, who gave us a gift certificate for it this Christmas. The price is pretty steep, until you consider what it would cost you to travel to all the different sections of Mexico and taste the traditional dishes that are represented on this one buffet.

From there we drove to Waterloo Records, one of my husbands favorite places in the world, and I wandered across the street to browse through Book People and Anthropologie. I just love it that these stores are all so close together. I think of it as a form of symbiosis. John could spend all day in Waterloo, but I'm bored after five minutes. Best Buy is even worse. I'm bored before I walk through the door - no color or stories in the whole darn place! If there are no other good stores nearby when John goes into a place like this, I usually stay in the car doing Sudoku, so that my obvious antsiness doesn't spoil his fun. He would be the same way in a store like Anthropologie.

So, having them right across the street from each other is just fabulous. We can each get our fill, then meet up at Book People, where we could both spend an entire day. Best thing of all is that I can spend all day in these kinds of shops without spending a dime. In Anthropologie I just harvest ideas, and in bookstores I get suggestions for things I might like to check out at the library, though occasionally I might splurge on something for the good-lifeitude reference collection. What could be more perfect? Well, unless maybe you went from there to the Alamo Drafthouse to see one of the off-beat art house kinds of movies that they occasionally show. This weekend we saw Sunshine Cleaning Company, about two sisters with dead end, menial jobs who stumble into the business of cleaning up crime scenes, once the bodies have been carted away and the cops are finished with them. What a day!

P.S. Many thanks to misskmaas.wordpress.com for the Alamo image, and en.wikipedia.org for the Waterloo image above.