2600 miles to go: April 2012

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Mya will be 4 years old on Cinco de Mayo

Are those pink toenails, Mya? You will be 4 on Cinco de Mayo. We'll celebrate with a Mya-rita (yet to be invented. I think it must be pink. Any ideas?) Someone once told me that when you are the same number of years old as your birth date, that is your Golden Birthday. Your Golden Birthday will be in 2013. I had to wait until I was 26 for my Golden Birthday. But nobody has to wait past the age of 31. See you Tuesday!

Otissimo! Almost 4 years old!

Making a Popeye face after his bath

Such a handsome young man!

Is this the "orange" train? When I was with Otis in March, he kept wanting to ride the "orange" train. LaWanda and I couldn't figure out which train he was talking about. This is the train at the Portland Zoo. Next time, Otis.

Waiting for the zoo train

I'm guessing Otis is looking at an animal on the other side? Or maybe the animal is looking at Otis.

Sunny Otis in the sunshine.

More vineyard research

With fellow judges John Beeler and Tanya Cooper at Tanya's Llano County vineyard on Saturday, April 28, 2012. John and I work in the Austin office of the State Office of Administrative Hearings. Tanya is in the Fort Worth office. Tanya and her husband Harold were in the process of planting 1,200 grapevines. We were there to help out and learn about vineyards. This is their third planting. The first year's planting was lost to deer, who ate the vines down to the nub. Deer fencing solved the deer problem. Last year was year 2, and the vines, planted in mid-May, weren't well enough established to take the drought and record heat. Most of them died. We hope the third planting is the charm.

Papa Tom with a bucket of bare root grapevines. The vines arrived from California and had to be soaked in buckets of water for a few days prior to planting.

John drilled holes with the gas-powered auger. Luckily the acreage had been pastureland ; no tree roots to contend with. And the soil was sandy and loose. Nice!

Papa Tom, planting a vine. We had to line them up with the post, so a shield could be supported by the post to protect the young vine from bunnies and dry winds. Gophers like the tender roots; Tanya has reluctantly poisoned the gophers. Maybe not so reluctantly? She says once the roots are established, the gophers will leave the vines alone. Since grapes won't be harvested for another 4 years or so, the poison used today shouldn't be an issue, she said.

Tanya's brother-in-law Greg, Papa Tom, and John hard at work. Greg added the vine protectors after we planted.

Freaky carrots!!!

Okay, I have absolutely no idea what Papa Tom did to these carrots to make them so unique! Not exactly pretty, but they were good for juicing.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers???

An evening with Anjanette, Jade, and Jade's Papa Bear

Jade liked sipping water and orange juice out of a tiny teacup before dinner on April 23, 2012.

Jade, picking the guitar. Unfortunately, earlier, I didn't see her standing right in front of the amp before the first chord. She was blown backwards by the sound waves! She stood up, a lone tear trickling to her chin, and pointed an accusing finger at the offending amp. But she was okay with playing the guitar, thank goodness. Mya, do you see Jade's Papa Bear? He's just like your Papa Bear, except with reversed coloring.

So you see the butterfly?

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Millie's back on deck!

We haven't seen Millie climb a tree in about 10 years, but here she is, refusing to come down, vowing to go on a hunger strike until her demands are met.

"I demand salmon at every meal, a personal pillow on your precious living room sofa, and a fish bowl to lap water out of!"

It's Day 2, and Tom and Sharon have had enough! We are too smarter than a cat! So smart in fact, that we will prop an extension ladder on a wobbly patio table so SWAT (Saved With A Tom) can go in and end this nonsense!

The ugly interim photos have been deleted to protect SWAT: the grabbing by the scruff of the neck, the dragging from the tree perch, the holding out at arm's length to instill the fear of heights in the rebel. . . .Millie did latch on to SWAT's leg with all four claws right at the end, but SWAT prevailed!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Beans

Otis likes beans!

River likes beans too!

Rock garden art

River enjoyed clean up as much as painting rocks for the rock garden.

Artists Mya and River painted rocks for the family rock garden.

Ruby slippers

Apparently Dorothy clicked her heels and was beamed up (down?) from Oz to New Orleans for the Muses parade. And thanks to Sista DonnaLynn and her police partner Jimmy, one of the ruby slippers has made its way to Austin via Shreveport. I asked DonnaLynn how she managed to obtain one of the coveted high heels. (Emma: your bracelet of pink high heels is from the Muses parade). She said krewe members are partial to police officers, and Jimmy's only job for the evening was to get a krewe member to hand a high heel down to him from one of the floats for me. Merci beaucoups and great teamwork!

I am musing about the most appropriate place in the house to display this prize. And the golden coconut DonnaLynn brought me from the Zulu parade a few years ago. I love, love, love Mardi Gras.

In Shreveport April 18-19

I visited Mom , Dad, Craig, and Martha in Shreveport on Wednesday and Thursday of this past week. I'm glad to report Mom came home from the physical therapy center on April 19 and is doing much, much better. She was admitted to the hospital on March 29 for three long weeks of treatment and recovery. I spent some time with Craig and Martha on Wednesday evening. Besides great conversation, as always, they introduced me to a wonderful music website: Playing for Change. The group is devoted to connecting the world through music. Through the technique of overdubbing (thank you, Les Paul), musicians all over the world can listen to each other's parts and add their own.

Playing for Change: Stand by Me When you get to the site, hit the Introduction for "Stand by Me." Grandpa Elliot, the second featured musician, is playing at Jackson Square in New Orleans. Martha and Craig met him and Martha has a photo of herself with him.

www.playingforchange.com/

Tax day!

I heard that we all work 107 days per year to pay our taxes: until April 16 this year, thanks to Leap Day. And here I am on April 16 this year, sending the tax return (why do they call it a "return," when the IRS keeps virtually everything you pay in all year?) The Ides of April fell on Sunday this year, and April 16 was Emancipation Day in Washington D.C., so "returns" were due on April 17.

Papa's enchilada salad invention spreads

Papa's begun asking for veggie enchiladas to be added to the top of a dinner salad when we go out to eat. So far, he's made the request at Chuy's, Guero's, Hyde Park Bar and Grill, and Vivo's. The best combination to date has been the Chuy's creation, because the enchiladas were so good. He said the salad part has been the best at Hyde Park Bar and Grill. What should this creation be called? Years from now, when people argue about who invented the "???," we'll have a record that Papa thought up the idea.

Waiting for dinner on Vivo's deck

Vineyard research

Papa and I have been wondering about the feasibility of having a vineyard at Cornerstone. We visited the Pilot Knob vineyard, off US 183 north of Cedar Park and south of Lampasas, to find out what kinds of grapes grow well in this area. I'd never seen tiny clusters of grapes before. Not only do we humans like grapes, but so do birds, grasshoppers, wasps, deer, and bunnies (if the grapes are close enough to the ground.) Grapevines take about 4 years to produce. This vineyard, in which only have of the vines are producing, yielded a half-ton of grapes at harvest time. Gives us plenty of time to build the stomping vat.

Papa in the Pilot Knob vineyard. The Pilot Knob wine has won awards in international competitions. The vintner lives in Cedar Park; most of the grapes for their wines are purchased from West Texas vineyards. The wines are manufactured (is that the right word?) in West Texas. Papa and I don't want to become wine producers, except for consumption by family and friends.

The tasting room. Pilot Knob really is on a knob; you can see for miles around from the top.

A windy April afternoon

Texas history along the road

Papa Tom is off to practice!

Almost every Friday after work, Papa and guitarist Phil Hurd get together at Phil's house to practice. Phil is in the process of putting out another CD and wants Papa to do some keyboard work on the songs. Check Phil out online.

The keyboard barely fits in the Zoomer. The truck bed works except when it rains.

Ta-da! Or "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do"

We now live at 13 Alguno Road

Remember the water break we had last summer? And how the City dug up our driveway and left an asphalt patch on one side? A City crew came back on April 13th and repaired the patch. Yea! No kitty cat footprints in the wet cement, but bird tracks are forever there.

When I saw that the "03" in our address had been covered up, I tried to scrape off the cement with a barbecue spatula. My mistake! The "03" is forever gone. And so is the smooth, beautiful cement work. To quote our Governor: "Oops!"

A walk in the neighborhood

So Papa Tom and I took a walk around the neighborhood to check out the two houses that were originally built like ours. I didn't take photos, because people were at home and I didn't want them to wonder why someone would photograph their home. But we did see Orange Cat at the house with all the cats. (Yes, there's a house with more cats than we have. I think we spotted around nine of them: nine cats with one life?)