Tonight we celebrate 3 years together, 1 year in the house… we haven’t done anything too out of the ordinary. We made salsa for our twice baked Mexican potatoes. In between episodes of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman we sipped wine outside in hopes of seeing Mars, Venus and Spica. And we had some dark chocolate hatch chili gelato as is tradition. Oh and Paul gave me a copy of Leaves of Grass.
Allons! the road is before us!
It is safe–I have tried it–my own feet have tried it well–be not detain’d! Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten,and the book on the shelf unopen’d!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the
court, and the judge expound the law.
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourselp. will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
I decided to take a quick trip to St. Louis to see Mary in the closing weekend of Titanic @ the Muny. After seeing Annie with Abbie, et al, for her birthday on Friday night, I flew to St. Louis on Saturday morning. We didn’t do much other than hang out, go to dinner and head for the show. I saved any seeing of the sights for when Paul and I go back in August to see her in Show Boat. I started the trek home on Sunday after breakfast.
The production was wonderful! Most of the cast had come back from the original Broadway show for this production and it was the first show since the tour ended. I really enjoyed getting reacquainted with the music as I had wrongfully given it the brush off years before. Cool tilting set, very talented cast, excellent dancing (Mary did the only real dance bit in the show) , and I got a quick backstage tour after the show. All that and getting to spend a little much needed sister time = great little trip!
Next she has Sound of Music and her last show will be Show Boat.
Ol’ Man River
Mary’s house… they managed to get the same house as last summer!
It is conveniently located just north of Forest Park.
We had another crazy weekend full of July 4th, belated Father’s Day and wedding shower activities! We drove up on Friday night so we could be at the Arlington July 4th parade at 9am on Saturday morning (yes, the 3rd). It is a long time tradition on the McLellan side… Paul has only missed one parade!
B.J. Cleveland was emceeing at the beginning of the parade and Paul walked to see him with me. He was in the middle of it so I only got to give him a quick hug. He was B.J. and the Super Ones on CBS in DFW back in the day. He was a theatre teacher of mine for several years at Casa and we were in many shows together. It was SO great to see him! AND I saw Todd Hart on the Theatre Arlington float but we didn’t get to talk.
We met up with Dad and Kelly at the Fort Worth Zoo for some belated Father’s Day celebrations. I hadn’t been in years and the places looks great! The new Museum of Living Art (new reptile house) is beautiful.
On Saturday night we had dinner at Uncle Julio’s with Mom and watched fireworks over the lake across from her house in Deer Creek.
Sunday there was a wedding shower for Andy and Christina at Gram’s house.
Then we got on the road to Austin for some symphonics and fireworks… our favorite event! We met Abbie, Thierry, Val & Sadie at Auditorium Shores. Sadie did really well despite all the noise from the cannons and fireworks!
Next year we are going to be out on the lake in kayaks!
The Symphony started with the Carousel Waltz and, of course, ended with the 1812 Overture… just like our wedding ceremony! I got Monday off, but Paul didn’t. Old movies and chores all day!
I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything since the wedding. Things have been so crazy!
We had the most fantastic honeymoon in England, Wales & Scotland. I posted my favorite photos from the trip on facebook so you can see the “quick” version here. If you REALLY wanted to take some time seeing the sights, you can see ALL of my photos here and here… all 1,100 of them. Pretty sure Paul took another 1,200 in case that isn’t enough for you.
The weekend after we got back, I was a bridesmaid in my dear friend Elisabeth’s wedding. It was beautiful and we had a lot of fun! I posted pictures here. We immediately came back and had a Memorial Day, wedding-is-over, Paul’s birthday party with swimming and grilling and honeymoon pictures.
Paul got a wine making kit for his birthday and we are about to start on a new adventure. He was given a Chilean Merlot recipe!
The following weekend we headed north for Gram’s 80th birthday pool party on Saturday and Caryn’s graduation pool party on Sunday.
The garden is doing well! I am harvesting tomatoes and basil like crazy. Our potato harvest was small, but I will know what I am doing this fall! We also have beautiful snapdragons, purple coneflowers, black-eyed susans, daisies, and indian paintbrush in full bloom.
Last weekend we purchased a new mattress and bed!! The mattress just got delivered, but we won’t get the frame until August. Mattrezzz Guys & Gage Furniture are great local shops if anyone is in the market.
Tomorrow we are having Wil(l)’s 1st birthday in the park behind the house! And next weekend, Val, Vaughn & his girlfriend, and Chad (my cousins) will be coming down for the weekend. It has been non-stop for the last 6 months, but we are having a great time together.
Today was the ol’ birthday. I originally had planned on early morning kayaking followed by Eeyore’s birthday, an staple Austin even that I have never experienced. But I had a massive allergy attack that put me out of commission until today. It still isn’t all gone, but I could at least function. We settled for milder activities.
First we went to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum to see Hubble 3D, an IMAX film. It was immediately followed by a talk with some astronomers from the McDonald Observatory to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Launch.
Lookin’ good Homestar… ridiculous 3D glasses!
After a fantastic lunch at Tom’s Tabbouleh (we picked up some birthday baklava for later), we headed to the LBJ Presidential Library & Museum.
My birthday always sneaks up on me and I never really think much of it. But after all the phone calls, texts, Facebook messages, cards in the mail, and getting super special (normally just special )treatment from Paul all day, I feel like a really lucky gal. Thank you, everyone, for all the happy birthday wishes! It couldn’t be anything but!
Oh and the flowers!! I mustn’t forget the flowers from Anne & Jim!
Last weekend we went to TRF in Plantersville, TX. It is about a two and a half hour drive from Austin, close to Houston. We went on the Scottish Highland themed weekend. My boss is big into Ren faire so she let me come and rummage through her garb. We borrowed some great outfits! We got asked for our picture and when we were performing a few times so I think we did well!
Pictures in the gardens… somehow didn’t get pictures of Val or AndyChristinaWill in their matching plaid!
Wish we could have heard more music…
This group was playing celtified Led Zepplin which we had listened to in the car on the way there!
more archery!
Good times had by all. This week is much more calm except we are hosting Friendsgiving at our house next Saturday! Must to clean!
Last weekend was crazy busy! We finished laying sod in the backyard (finally) and we got a fire pit for the back patio. We also organized the nuts, bolts, screws, nails, etc into tiny drawers (I know this sounds incredibly dorky, but it was heaven to me). Then we went to the Austin Celtic Festival!
archery!!!
mini viking invasion
free hair braiding and face painting for the kiddies
and, of course, the caber toss…
this guy was my favorite in spite of, or perhaps because of, his ridiculous shirt…
Up for this week is Regina Spektor, Sondheim, La Boheme and the Texas Renaissance Festival!
Yay! Another successful Halloween. I finally finished my Wonder Woman pumpkin which was alright but couldnt compare to Paul’s Cylon pumpkin.
Made this pumpkin for work…
On Friday night we went to Andy’s Halloween Party Part 1 @ Castle Greybeard. This year we went as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett. This is what we were going for…
and here we are!
We woke up Saturday morning and drove to Dallas to see They Might Be Giants @ The House of Blues. Paul’s parents met us there. It was a great show!
We immediately turned around and came home so we could give out candy to trick-or-treaters. We had spooky noises coming through the library window that you could hear on the front porch (think chainsaw noises while a woman is screaming or creaking doors and a slow, menacing footfall). There were tons of kids, we ran out of candy, and one kid got really scared on our front porch! WIN!
Then we went to Andy Halloween Party Part 2 @ Dustin & Catsilo’s place. Good times had by all! There were SO many great costumes this year! Here are all my Halloween pics! Hope you made it back home alive!
After we signed the paperwork on Wednesday, I had to go back to work and Paul went right to the house to get started! Soon Mom and Mary arrived to help us paint and get the curtains up. They left on Thursday. Dad arrived on Friday with the truck with some furniture donated to the cause by Mom. We went and got a load of stuff from the apartment with Paul Leonard’s help but didnt break our backs because of the huge effort planned on Saturday.
On Saturday, some amazing people arrived at the PLV to help us move. We had a great crew! We got out of there in no time. We went back to the house to unload and have some pizza before heading over to the storage unit. Next we went to Castle Greybeard to get the washer and dryer. Everyone came back and unloaded one last time and relaxed a bit. I took a bath in our new amazing bathtub…
Seriously, we would not have been able to do that without all that help! Thanks to EVERYONE that came out. I can’t wait to have you all over for dinner… just as soon as I can get the kitchen out of boxes…
Sunday was spent emptying and cleaning the PLV one last time. We (ok I) got a little teary as we were walking out the door because I know Petra would have had SO much fun exploring the new house…
After we spent some time putting things away at the house, we went to Central Market to get supplies for our two year anniversary dinner.
We watched Contact (one of our favorite movies) and had a very tasty, very spicy dinner
Hatch chile chicken sausage with onions and gnocchi in a hatch chile poblano pesto. For not making meat on a regular basis, I was quite pleased with my sausage cooking skills… But it really isn’t that hard. I just seared them in a pan and then cooked them in some home brew with the onions.
For dessert…
… a hatch chile apple pie with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. With a glass or two of carmenere, it was the perfect way to end a hectic, but very satisfying, weekend. Now… back to it…
Well we had a minor scare yesterday that the closing date was going to have to be moved. It has always been on Wednesday, August 26. But during our final walk through with the builder, we noticed a scratch on the island counter top. They would have had to special order another one, it wouldn’t have gotten here by that closing date and they can’t close on a house that has any outstanding issues.
They were going to move it to Friday… which wouldn’t have been the end of the world REALLY. But we have been ready to move in for the last month. We decided to ignore the tiny scratch to avoid moving the date. Mom and Mary are coming on Wednesday and we have things scheduled for Thursday… It was just better that way. YAY!
This week we moved large sums of money around in preparation of closing. And after two Saturdays of Abbie coming over to help us pack (THANK YOU, ABBIE!), one musical and Star Wars IV, V, and VI [and I ! -paul] later, the books and the kitchen are packed up! We need to get busy to have it all done!
Mainly books…
SOOOOO if anyone knows that you don’t already have awesome plans on Saturday, August 29, would you maybe want to help us move?? We are going to have a Penske van to move things and plan to have it all boxed up and ready to go… we want to make this as easy as possible!! You will be rewarded with beer and pizza at the very least
Oh and Paul gave me a copy of Leaves of Grass.
Old movies and chores all day!
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