Random thoughts...

My favorite new snack food: Snyder's Honey Wheat Sticks.

Iced tea is best in a clear glass.

Fountain drinks should have pebble ice (like Sonic), a lid, a straw, and a Styrofoam cup.

September is always better than August (in Texas).

Virtually all hotels are overpriced.

It's time for the Astros to make their run at the wild card spot.

I prefer men to wear collared shirts when playing tennis or golf.

Crossword clues should indicate if the answer is more than one word.


**I tried this as a numbered list, but didn't like it.

I've done it again!

I've spent quite a while tonight messing with my blog template. I don't have much to show for it except some new colors for some of the text and a picture in my profile.

I'm now trying to figure out how to put a photo of some kind into my header. No luck as yet. Perhaps I'll begin to read about HTML in my spare time. Ha!


LET ME JUST SAY THIS, "GIG 'EM!!!"

True colors

Arkansas

Last weekend I drove to Arkansas for a friend's wedding. Who knew Arkansas was so beautiful? I was there in college, but clearly I didn't appreciate it! It sure doesn't hurt that with the rain, everything was very, very green.

The wedding was in Norfork, just south of Mountain Home. Mountain Home is approximately 15 miles south of the Missouri border in the very middle of Arkansas.


Here are some pictures to chronicle the small bit of sight seeing we did.

The Rainbow Arch Bridge and the White River in Cotter, Arkansas
(Notice the fly fishers?)

Looking the length of the bridge

Steam hovers over the water in the morning

The road above Norfork Dam in Norfork, Arkansas

I am SO grown up!

I mentioned that I'm officially a grown up in an earlier post. Age and habits make it so.

So I've done something else that only a grown up would do. I increased my contribution to my 401k. I also re-allocated the money already in it. I analyzed, researched, rubbed my forehead, and squinted. Recently our 401k administrators added more funds from which to choose, so this was no small task. I'm feeling good - and stupid. I should have stayed on top of this all along.

I will not be lazy. Grown ups aren't lazy.

Here's a few Outback pictures from my trip to Australia in September 2003. I was absolutely NOT lazy on this day. I bet we hiked 10 miles. And then I slept in a big tent on a cot!

Then again, I do feel pretty grown up for taking a trip to Australia on my own! I'll post more pictures if you guys care to see them!

Good reads (blogs not books)

Recently, through much clicking and following of links, I've found two blogs that intrigue me. Each is the kind of blog that makes me want to sit and start reading from the beginning! I don't have that much time, so I've decided to read a few entries every time I visit... Someday I'll catch up! I'll make a link to the first ever post in each blog.

barista brat
i'm the original barista brat. come find me at your local bux!

Wide Lawns and Narrow Minds
Wide Lawns and Narrow Minds is a social satire about life in South Florida, from the perspective of a witty and often abused country club employee, who must deal on a daily basis with the exploits of the tasteless, demanding, tacky and unreasonable Rich White People for whom she works. Calling herself Subservient Worker, the author of this blog anonymously recounts the outrageous, fictionalized incidents which occur regularly at her job as an administrative assistant in the Home Owner’s Association of one of the largest and most exclusive golf and tennis communities in Basura, Florida, while also offering a sane and balanced contrast to the lifestyle of her employers. Any similarities between events, locations or individuals mentioned in this blog and actual events, locations or individuals are purely coincidental, unintended and not the responsibility of Subservient Worker. All material contained on this blog is the copyrighted, original material of its author, so don't steal or I'll turn off your barcode.

Bloggers block!

Somewhere in my last two or three posts I promised that I was back to blogging. Clearly I lied.

At least one friend, Shelley, has implied that she finds it annoying when she daily clicks on another's blog to read the new post and finds instead an OLD post. I'm not sure, but I think she might have been talking to me. Check out her blog and read about her recent travels to Fiji and Mexico. Be jealous, I am!

Anyway, today I decided I CAN DO BETTER. (That's me yelling at myself.) Plus, I got a little bit of a big head to see that my blogging friend, Bre, has my blog in her sidebar links. She lists blogs that are "fun and fabulous." I'm honored and a little intimidated by the pressure to be "fun and fabulous." Wish me luck.

I'm about to hit up Bre to help me put a picture in my title box. She has a cool artistic rendering of shoes (one of her passions) in her title box now! Another fabulous blogging friend, Heather, has a whole new look on her blog - including two color boxed columns and a picture (or is it two) in the title area.

Maybe I'll just hire someone? Andreia recommended Susie at Bluebird Blogs for a little color and redesign. Take a look at Susie's site for cool examples of her work. I hope she'll help me copy one design she already did.

I took some pictures on a recent drive around Austin.

Texas Capitol Building, Austin, TX

Entrance to the Texas State Cemetery
The inside is prettier.

Another visitor

I'm late in posting this!

It seems my place is now a pet friendly bed and breakfast. (It could be argued that "breakfast" shouldn't be in the name.) Seriously, give me a call if you need a place to crash!

Courtney and her puppy (!) came to stay with me a week or so ago. Check out this handsome German shepherd.

Meet Bauer!

Those are 15 inch tiles, folks!

Jealousy

A good Aunt must brag on all of her friends' dogs! And this Aunt must post pictures.

One of my other good friends has a dog named Blondie. Blondie was rescued and trained for agility competitions. She's a very fun and friendly puppy. I call her a puppy but I bet she's two years old already.

Blondie has been to my house at least three times. I'm told Blondie is so excited to see me that she starts to whimper (with glee, not trepidation) when the car reaches the entrance to my neighborhood. She gets more and more excited in the two mile trip in to my part of the neighborhood. I told my dad this story, but he doesn't believe it. Perhaps I'll ask for a video recording of it or at least an audio one. I mean, really, who wouldn't get a boost from knowing that a dog was happy to be visiting?

Please see Blondie, Queen of New Braunfels, TX.

For the record!!

First of all, thanks to each of you who left a comment on my last entry. I fear that I misled you into thinking that July 13th was my birthday... It's really in April (hence the trip to Mexico). I wanted to set the record straight for the those that years from now review this blog diary of my _exciting_ life! That said, the rest is true, I do drink coffee, therefore I am a grown up.

No one asked me a question. Perhaps no one thinks coffee drinking and being 35 mean that I am wise. WRONG!

Things I've learned since I've been a grown-up:

1. It might not be a good plan to drink hot coffee (liberal use of the term coffee) and sit outside when it is 95 degrees outside at 9 pm.
2. It turns out getting coffee in a fancy coffee store is not like getting a 1/3 or a 1/2 cup of coffee at home and then filling the mug with sweetened flavored creamer and Equal sweetener. At the store you might need two cups for all the special mixing.
3. Seriously, I might just be a social coffee drinker. Real coffee early in the morning, even with lots of goo in it, makes my stomach upset. Late at night or after breakfast or a meal, then we're all good.

I've learned more than this in the last few month, but this is all I'm blogging about!


For my picture today, I'll use one I took of the puppy, Dexter, that came to stay at my house this weekend. Cute, right? He's not mine, I had to give him back to his owner on Sunday.

News Flash

So... I turned 35. I'm grown up. Seriously, I am; if for no other reason than my age.

But the reason I blog today is to tell you that IT IS OFFICIAL. I drink coffee now. So I'm a grown up.

(Thing number 88 on my 101 Things is now false.)

I should point out that I'd rather you just wave the coffee over my cup full of cream and sweetener, but still, I drink coffee.

Ask me something. I'm a grown up. I'm wise. Probably I'll know the answer.

Found this on the web, it looks a bit dark for me. Might taste like coffee.

It should work now!

My astute coworker (we are working hard!) pointed out that the blog appearance problem might be associated with the browser used. Sure enough, I was using Firefox which did not have the display problem. However, Internet Explorer users did have the problem.

I messed with a setting on the template that controls how many posts are shown at a time in the window... reducing that number fixed the problem in IE. More importantly, it also did not screw up the appearance of my blog in Firefox.

Excellent.

Gratuitous picture that I took this weekend of a rose in Tyler, Texas. More to come.

I'm back, I promise, but first...

I know you wanted an interesting post about my life or maybe a mediocre post, but with pictures... Well, first, may I ask you to weigh in on this subject by commenting on this entry? You can answer even if you aren't a Blogspot member, so please comment to let me know...

I promise that Wednesday I'll post something better; possibly even something witty and with photos.

Okay here's the question:
When you view my blog on your computer or laptop, do you see the links on the right hand side column next to the latest (greatest) post? Or does that column appear to be way down the page almost like it's letting you see the whole posting column before the column with the little "About Me", "Cluster Map", "ClockLink", "101 Things", "Blogging Friends", "Random Blogs I Read", "Previous Posts", and "Archives" links?

That's more than one question, I know, but it's just the one subject.

I ask because on my computer is looks just fine, like the template; two columns side by side. But at least two friends have said that it has always looked as I described it above.

SO, I wondering did I delete part of the template that makes it smart enough to size the columns for any computer resolution??? Or what??? I don't want to start over, so if anyone knows how to fix it please let me know!

Thanks!

Monday is for links

I almost posted on Monday! Forgive me?

I was inspired by Heather at Yummy Sushi Pajamas. Each Monday she posts links to some of her favorite blogs. She has been nice enough to visit my blog, comment AND put me on her Monday link list.

Here is my first Monday link list. Please visit them if you have time and post a comment if you feel inclined.

Yummy Sushi Pajamas
This Fish Needs A Bicycle
Win or lose, we go shopping
- plain simple english
Greek Tragedy
Benjamin Wagner Dot Com

The reason I'm not posting

I'm not posting regularly because I have an addiction. It's an addiction to read/check something like 20 blogs per day, right? I read all these interesting blog entries and am left with the thought that I'm not very good at blogging. Or I think, "I should have blogged about that!" But if I do it now, it's virtually plagiarism. Illegal. Wrong. Bad.

So, I'll try to be more prolific in my posting. Tomorrow I plan to post links to some of the blogs I like to read.

The chair in which I read blogs.

I'm a new fan

I had some great friends in town Memorial Day weekend. We had a blast. They are huge Mavericks fans (as I'm sure you can tell if you checked out the link). So... We watched the two weekend games at my house. I was hooked. They knew about the players and their track records and strengths. It was fun to watch the games with them.

I haven't paid much attention to NBA ball since my hometown team, the Rockets, won two championships in a row (in '94 and '95). Now those were good times! I kept up with the NBA for a few more years, but was frankly more interested in college sports.

I'm not saying I'm not a Rockets fan at heart. What I'm saying is I want the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA Finals this year. And I want to watch all the games! If you're a Mavs fan, you want me to watch too, because they won both games I watched last weekend. And last night, I listened to the first half of the game while I worked outside in the backyard. At halftime I came in to watch the rest of the game. Not long after I started watching the Mavericks came to life, coming back from behind to dominate the second half and win the series!

Many thanks

Many thanks to Heather at Yummy Sushi Pajamas for the mention of my blog on her blog. She puts of up a list of blogs she's reading every Monday. I think this is a great idea. I plan to do it this coming Monday! In the meantime check out her blog and the others she likes.

Thing Number 9

Number 9 on my 101 Things is "I want to own a hot air balloon someday."

A friend said that MSN's This Week in Pictures May 18-25 had a great shot of hot air balloons. I went to look. WOW! Take a look at picture 2. Now you see why I'm fascinated?

I've been on two balloon flights. One was while I was in college and it was a small balloon with a small basket, holding maybe 4 people maximum. When I visited Australia in 2003, I was in a bigger balloon with a bigger basket. Must have been 9 people and the pilot, but it could have held more.

Of course there are pictures!

My first trip with the AARP!


How about that view?


Notice our reflection in the water?


Packing up and looking into the balloon.


It was a big balloon!

Stylin'

Do you like my new map and the clock? If they are not directly to the right of this post, then scroll down to the end of the page and they should be on the bottom right hand side.

What other cool things should I add to my blog???

Should I post more or less pictures?

Should I write more about my life?

You tell me!

Eating!

I love to eat.

I noticed that I took pictures of almost every place we ate while in Mexico last month. Each restaurant served "salsa" and chips. The salsa was excellent, but it was more like pico de gallo.

Sadly I didn't get a picture at one of my favorite places, the Turtle Bay Cafe in Akumal. I don't think they served chips and salsa.

For fun, I think I'll use a ranking system for the salsa, using a scale of 1 to 5 stars, 5 being the best. Read the picture captions for ratings and see the footnote for a disclaimer.

At Mama's Cafe in Puerto Morales, we ate breakfast tacos with salsa.
Salsa rating: ***


The Mango Cafe, in Akumal, where we had smoothies and breakfast tacos.
Salsa rating: ***


Nearest our hotel, the La Buena Vida had good food,
really good salsa and beverages to go.
Salsa rating: ****


Oscar y Lalo's, between Akumal and Tulum, was on this beautiful bay.
Salsa rating: *****


Que Onda means "This Wave" (I think) and served
interesting Italian food on a beautiful patio.
Salsa rating: NA


McDonald's in Playa del Carmen provided a Diet Coke
(with ice and a straw) and a mediocre breakfast taco.
Salsa rating: NA

Disclaimer: Salsa ratings are solely the opinion of the writer and may not be shared by her traveling companions.

Dirt and Shoes

I like these shoes, they protect my toes, they're rugged and they were a good deal. (They are not real Keen sandals, but rather Sports Authority's own brand.)

After a day of climbing of exploring Mayan ruin sites in Mexico, though, I thought maybe socks and running shoes (without HOLES) would have been better.

Shoes...

No shoes!

The difference is so obvious, right? By the way, I would learn later that some of that was sunburn, not dirt. Sweet!

Mayan Ruins

While in Mexico I visited two ruin sites: Tulum and Coba.

Tulum is on the coast, in fact you've probably seen it in pictures. It's really gorgeous and unique because it virtually hangs on a cliff.

Coba is inland and surrounded by more greenery and vegetation. There is a 13 story ruin here that we were allowed to climb.

We did not hire a guide at either site, therefore I'm not qualified to tell you much about the pictures below. You'll want to rely on the links for further information.

Tulum from afar. I wish the beautiful colors of the water were more evident.

I really like the combination of colors in this picture, taken at the Tulum site.

A handy sign that we actually saw after the fact at Coba!

The tallest of the Coba ruins - or the Big Pyramid (see above).
I climbed all 13 stories. If you don't believe that, ask my knees!

Too late we noticed that there had been iguanas
sunning themselves all over the Tulum ruins.

More Mexico Pictures

I got one comment asking for more pictures. I can do that! More comments, more pictures!!! Come on now, read my rarely updated blog!

Speaking of pictures... Would anyone care to comment upon which online photo hosting service is best? I recently read that only a few services guarantee to keep your photos online forever (and therefore safely backed up). I read the article, but now I can't remember which services it recommended. Maybe I'll look into it and blog about it in future.

Sunrise from the condo terrace.


The rare, but lovely, chicken tree.

I like to take pictures of boats.

And boats near jetties.

Something's fishy...

For the record:
I started with 323 pictures and I've whittled it down to 251. I think I could reduce it by a few more if I really tried.

Here are a few snorkeling pictures. Click on each separately for the best view.

One fish...


Two fish...


WAIT, NO RED FISH??

BLUE fish!


School's out for summer!


Camera shy?

Guess how many?

If you guess how many photos I took, I'll give you a mention in my blog as an awesome guesser... No answers from Stacey or Leslie will count.

Be within 10 of the correct answer and you might even get a prize, like a framed photo of me! :)

There are two numbers... The number of pictures that were on my camera when I came home and the number that were left after I deleted the bad ones. Guess either or both.

FYI-I have an underwater camera housing for my camera, so include those pictures in your count. And for the record I arrived on Tuesday midday and left on Sunday midday.

I'm back!

I've been feeling guilty about not posting lately. I've checked my blogging friends and it seems I'm not the only blog slacker.

I've been in Mexico! I spent my 35th birthday in a little town called Akumal, about 60 miles south of Cancun. The condo was great, the rent car was great (always get the insurance!), and the company even better (my college buddies Stacey and Leslie).

I'll write more when my mind gets back from this beautiful place. Our condo is in the second picture below, the short white one, approximately centered in the photo.

Thing Number 47

I mentioned in my 101 things that I procrastinate. It waited to put that down as number 47 out of 101. Would it have been funnier if I had put it down as number 101?

Along those lines, let me tell you a story. Today I finally washed a pair of shoes that got dirty back in late September, when I went to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. It was SO hot and windy and dusty. Really hot and windy and dusty. Like ruin your clothes with red dirt and sweat hot. I don't have a picture of the dirty shoes, but I do have pictures to show the dust bowl that was day 2 of the festival.

The above picture is day 1, just before Lucinda Williams performs.

To truly appreciate this picture, click on it to view it in bigger form.
Sunset, day 2. Or rather "the day of dust."

Fellow Ag, Lyle Lovett, performing live on the evening of day 1.

Yard Work

Today I spent time outside working on the yard. The weather was fabulous.

I trimmed the hedges in the front yard and fertilized the whole yard.

To demonstrate how quickly the hedges can get out of hand, I took two pictures before I trimmed the final hedge... I'll include them both so that you can see how bad the one is and how great the others look as a result of my handiwork.




If you're lucky, and you encourage me by leaving comments, I MIGHT post pictures of my super green lawn next week.