Good Sunday Morning....

..... the last day of Spring Break. Did I accomplish anything this week? I don't like for my down time to go unused. There's just so much to do and if I just sit around on weekends or school holidays then the whole place starts falling apart.

I finished one sock and started a cardigan (4 times now...) that may not make it. Designing your own clothes is hard. I have some really good ideas for things that I saw in some of the shops down in New Braunfels. I may have to start those so the ideas don't fade.

I have my herb garden and the salsa garden up and going. I haven't put the tomato plants out yet, I want them to get a tad bigger first. That's all the garden I need. Sometimes I think if we are going to water the grass we should just make a vegetable garden of the yard and be able to eat it.... but I'm the only one who eats that sort of thing and I can't eat that much. Jody says the job of keeping up with it is just too great. Not many people have time for that. And I would much rather knit and watch the grass grow than spend every evening keeping the grass from taking over the garden. I'll just take care of the flowerbeds and be happy with that, there's an excellent Farmer's Market just down the road.

Jody and I were talking the other day about the pros and cons of living in a house opposed to a Condo or an Apartment. We have lived here since '95 and I love living in our own house that we can do whatever we want to, whenever we decide to do it. But when it comes to upkeep or repairs, it's so easy to call the Apartment Super and say "get over here and fix this!" We make too much noise to live right on top/or next to our neighbors. Jody doesn't like mowing and fighting Fire Ants, that's his main gripe. One of these days I'm going to surprise him and mow just to show him I can operate the mower. I wish I still had my little push mower. Who needs a motor?

Look what I had to look at yesterday when I came out on the deck.... La Fiesta del Cupleanos. We have neighbors who like to party. Oh how I would love to have a 10 foot privacy fence. Do you see that little white yapping Pom up against the fence? (click on the picture... get a good look at her) She (Lulu) yapped at me the whole time I was outside knitting. I wanted to go over there and do the Dog Whisperer SHHHHT on her. She eventually exhausted herself and had to go lie down, but if I got up she'd go nuts again. They started partying around 2:30 in the afternoon and when Jody and I left for Garland at 6:00 they were still going strong. I don't know what time they broke up, we didn't get home until 11:30! All the stuff is gone this morning and the grill is up against the house. (I wish that grill was in my yard.) Some balloons are still hanging on the fence. Other than that they cleaned up nicely.



I've been using the cookware these past two nights, I LOVE it! All the greatness of cast iron without the mess of cleaning up. Stuff just slides right off. We had tenderloins in the grill pan Friday night. They were about 3 inches thick and I butterfly them that way they aren't mooing and trying to run off the plate when we cut into them. It's a Nita trick and we love it.






Then last night we had stew. Jody LOVES stew, I only make it in the Fall and Winter and with this being the first weekend of Spring we barely got it squeezed in. This pot is the perfect size. If we have a huge pot we tend to make too much. There is just enough for Jody for lunch today. That is unless he remembers 1/2 of my steak from Friday is in the fridge.

Jeff came in from Padre last night around 5:30. We weren't expecting him until today. I guess they had their fill of jet skiing, beach bums, beer drinking and sun and left at 3AM in the morning. I guess that's when they woke up so may as well drive. At least he'll have today to re-coup. We'll probably see him for dinner tonight... Baby Back Ribs. (I wonder how I can use my cookware????)

Like I mentioned earlier, we went to Garland's Picking on the Square last night. It was the first one of the season and there weren't too many people there. But we still had fun. Jody cracking jokes about the names of some of the Bluegrass songs the groups would play. Like 49 Cats in a Rain Barrel. They just played it and didn't sing it so I can only imagine what the words were. Sometimes when people sing Bluegrass they kind of sound like a cat in a rain barrel.

I laughed so hard at him, I almost had an Asthma attack. Between him and the stand up bass player I had a real good time. The Bass Player had told a new fiddler "I'll play along to any song just pick something, I'll slide right in..." And then someone suggested A Showkin's Fairwell (I don't know if I spelled that right) and it was if the Bass Player was thinking out loud and said "I HATE that song!" I just burst out laughing and he was so embarrassed that someone had heard him. Well now the poor Bass Player will never live that down, because Jody will tease him from now on. We all had a good laugh over that one. That's a real pretty fiddle tune but it's really hard for a bass because it's really slow. Jody can really liven up a dull evening when he's not feeling bad. I was asked if I'd be bringing cookies next week... Hmmm? I wonder if they'll eat that Amish Friendship bread? That stuff is growing like a fungus. I've got all week to think of something.

So between Spring Cleaning, travel, knitting, cooking, and a bunch of good laughs, I had a pretty successful week. Ya'll have a good one!