Potter mania pics!

Kirsten & family & students & me!

Hastings had free "butterbeer"!

Registering for prizes...hooray!

...which we didn't win. Boo!

So many good-looking Madison kids were there!

One student gave me Botts' jellybeans...in two of the WORST flavors.
(Pickle and dirt. And yes, I ate them.)

Sue & Trisha were there!

Oh, and former students, too! Tiffany is now a grown woman with
her own business at http://tiffanyturkphotography.com/ !

And in keeping with the British nature of the event,
I wore my "tea teeth" for the occasion! :-)


(Seriously. I need to give up coffee. Or go for whitening. Or both.)


And yes, I know these pics could have been cropped and retouched and had the Red Eye removed...but it's nearly 1:00 in the morning and I was at work at 7:35 a.m. (last day of Summer School!) and I'm EXHAUSTED and going to bed with my new book.

UPDATE: I got to page 4 before I fell asleep. :-)

May Bee and Misha (and their 6:00 a.m. cries for breakfast) and the Fed Ex man (and his 7:57 phone call) have ensured that there's no rest for the weary...but that's okay because the trip to Hastings last night not only put the Harry Potter book on my nightstand, but the new White Stripes CD in my laptop! Summer school is over, and LIFE IS GOOD!

Empty Nest Syndrome...

...in my heart...

...and even in my yard.

The baby birds have left the nest.
(Sniffle. Swallow. Smile.)

Wedding weekend!

A-town in the house!

Glowing with happiness!

CUTE shoes!

"The Continental" pronounces it "cham-pan-ya."

(We just say "yummy.")

Sisters!

The wedding chariot awaits...

******

One GREAT thing about this weekend was how much time we were able to spend with Bethany, Aunt Sue, and Uncle James. They all looked great, and we had such a nice time together, with plenty of Mom Sugar & Mom Hugs from Bessie Lou.

Oh, and the food! Karen and I enjoyed real Jersey-style pizza at Saccone's in Cedar Park, a delicious wedding buffet & Kirsten's beautiful wedding cake, a fellowship dinner at Leander Church of Christ, CHUY'S, and TWO of Uncle James' world-famous breakfasts!

CHUY'S!

What a lovely weekend...what a blessing...

Now Karen begins her cross-country trek with three kids in tow as I wrap up Summer School...and get serious about DIETING and READING the Lone Star selections for next school year and RUNNING with these dogs in the park and SAVING money and PACKING boxes and CLEANING and ORGANIZING.

(Are you jealous yet?)

Bye, bye, birdies.

Taken on the 12th...the babies are growing up fast! (Can you see the baby in the back with its beak up and open? They were disappointed when it was just wormless Camera Lady again...)
~*~*~And today is Friday, the 13th, which means Karen and I will leave for Austin after work today to attend Jason & Tiffany's wedding. Tonight, we'll take dinner to Aunt Sue and Uncle James and spend the evening in their beautiful home...AND BETHANY IS SUPPOSED TO JOIN US!! Wheee!

Then, tomorrow Karen and I will attend the wedding (I only said two in the RSVP) and then we'll head into Austin. Not sure what we'll do yet, except for one thing about which Bethany is adamant and Karen is enthusiastic--dinner at Chuy's!

Sunday, after worship services at Leander Church of Christ, we'll head back up 183 for Home Sweet Home.

~*~*~
This is the nest as I walked up to it last night, thinking the big bird in the front was the mama about to fly off...but NO, it's just the fattest, grumpiest, and GREEDIEST of the siblings. (In other words, the "Kristy" of the family!) :-)

YouTubesday...LONG version.

FIRST OFF: I'm sick in bed!!!! I was supposed to have attended a Ladies' Bible Class at 8:00...and have made banana bread this afternoon, and have run errands before that--and was certainly NOT SUPPOSED to have spent the last twenty minutes of work today curled up on the floor with a horrible stomachache! It was so embarrassing...it was Melanie's first day (the new aide from Belgium, who probably thinks I'm krazy-with-a-k). Also, a computer technician stopped by the campus with more squash and some black-eyed peas from his garden only to find me on the floor near the computers. He had to help me up...oh, man, I'm getting OLD.

In fact, it's eight hours later and I still can't stand up straight. I'm going to go take some more ibuprofen...be right back…

~*~*~

Okay...back to the draft I started this morning before school...

(One commenter wrote, “I like how apparently Margie is too incompetent to figure out ‘stir’ on her own, but ‘mixing with a circular motion to ensure uniform consistency’...THAT she gets.” Another person wished for the bots…like any good MST3K fan.)

That "Scalloped Cauliflower" recipe, btw, nearly made me urp. (White sauce? Scalding? SCUM? FAT? LUMPS? Greased baking dish? Bread crumbs?) ICK! Why not just frost the whole head and decorate it with gummy bears?

Forget steaming cauliflower and allowing its tasty wholesomeness to delight your senses. Drizzle maple syrup on it instead, Margie. Or get your grape jelly to 220 degrees and let it “sheet” from the spoon all over Tim’s poor, soggy, boiled cauliflower.

***

I originally went to YouTube looking for videos about how to cook squash because one of the guys at the Tech Center brought me two from his garden. I used the first one to make Squash Muffins, a recipe my old Girl Scout troop leader submitted to a Plymouth, New Hampshire cookbook (typed up and emailed twenty years later by the world’s best childhood friend, Melanie Cray!).

Two of the best videos came from YouTube user “foodwishes.”

~*~*~

Update: This afternoon, while I lay dying from gallbladder disease or kidney stones or whatever is wrong with me, Falisha sent me this YouTube video. It hurt to laugh...but I did, anyway.

Here's my deepest wish...I'm going with Kirsten to Germany in 2010, and I'd LOVE to find a video that will get me in shape while simultaneously teaching me handy Deutsch phrases I can sling about in bahnhofs (trainstations) and the streets of Oberammergau. Let's see...what useful phrases could I repeat while smiling and hopping and stretching?

Perhaps:

Ich brauche eines Abführmittel!
("I need a laxative!")

Ich hasse dein Pauschaltarif.
("I hate your flat-rate tariff.")

Lassen Sie uns Holländisch gehen!
("Let's go Dutch!")

Ich liebe y'all!

Bird watch.

Oh, come on. How cute is this?

(Click to enlarge.)

That Audubon guy was really...

...onto something.

Nature post...get out the granola.

Baby bird update: When I first walked up to the nest, one bird in the back was enjoying a stretch, his (lime-green) beak up in the air, but as soon as he realized that I wasn't Mom, he plopped down into the feathery safety of his brothers and sisters.

Yesterday, I got the cutest video of two of the babies with their crazy lime-colored beaks resting on the rim of the nest, their beady eyes blinking at me...wishing I would offer them something to eat, probably!

***

I try to only go to the nest once a day to disturb them as little as possible...yesterday for video, today for a photo. They'll start to fly soon...let's hope they avoid the backyard because May Bee brought me another dead bird yesterday. She wouldn't even drop it to play Frisbee!

After I ran shrieking into the house, Mike went out with a plastic shopping bag and disposed of May Bee's treasure. ICK! This is not the first dead thing she's brought us, either. Below are the pictures of the (not-so-healthy and much-chewed) squirrel she brought to our doorstep in June.

May Bee's exercise this morning: 2 miles around Red Bud, 3 times down the slide (twice on the little one & once on the big one), and Frisbee in the backyard

Misha's exercise: 1.5 miles around the park and bullying May Bee into giving her the Frisbee after Little Miss did all the hard work of catching it

Kristy's exercise: slapping mosquitoes...tons of mosquitoes...

Random pics

Birds' nest in our cactus, with BABIES inside...

Two handsome boys at Kirsten's 4th of July party...

...as well as a pretty young lady trying on her flower girl dress!


And Jaeger soaked up love...

...and attention and affection from all visitors!

Speaking of dogs, Misha & May Bee nearly gave Mike and me HEART ATTACKS last night. I heard Mike yelling for me to get some clothes on (I'd changed into a pajama top to avoid getting lime juice on my Dry Clean Only silk top). After Mike had put up the John Deere, let the dogs out, and taken a shower, he realized that he'd never closed the gate...and our dogs were LONG GONE.

We jumped into our cars and went up and down the neighborhood, calling their names and wishing they had their collars on and praying to Jesus to help us (well...at least I know what was going on in MY car). Later, after the dogs were safe and home where they belong, it turns out that both of us looked for them on Buffalo Gap Road, afraid that they'd been hit on the giant five lane behemoth just over a block away from our house...and were both relieved when we didn't find them there.

So, anyway, I found them after about ten minutes of frantic searching and praying--they'd stayed together like the good sisters they are!--and they jumped into my car with delight and abandon and got mud all over everything and I don't care one bit. Thank you, Lord, for keeping my babies safe!! Whew!

Fort Worth Fun

What a fun day! Since it was gloomy and humid (we're at the end of an unprecedented super-rainy June)...AND since Bethany announced that she needs to leave Abilene early to get back to Austin for two job interviews...we decided that the $20 entry fee for the 5K run would be better spent on gas and fun in Fort Worth.

Even though Falisha was sick, she still came and joined us for the day. We shopped at Plato's Closet and Ruby, ate at Fortuna's on Camp Bowie, toured The Modern, and (when it finally stopped raining for a minute) visited the Botanical Gardens. We peeked at a wedding held on the Rose Garden steps, snapped a lot of pics, and (thankfully) weren't too far from our car when it started to sprinkle again.

After a quick stop at Central Market, we headed for home. About halfway there, Bethany realized that she hadn't seen Karen or the kids so we took a little side-trip up through Eastland and made a brief visit to Breckenridge. (If I'd known we were heading to Karen's, I would have brought her some of that Seltzer's sweet Lebanon bologna she likes...even though it makes me shudder. I have a pound and a half of the regular Seltzer's in the fridge right now...well, nearly a pound and a half...Bethany and I have been raiding it, slice by slice!)

Karen and her family were such great hosts, considering the late hour of our barely-announced visit (Bethany called when we nearly to Eastland asking if we could come and which highways to take). Karen greeted us with freshly-squeezed non-alcoholic mojitos, complete with mint from her garden. (Out of club soda, she used diet lime soda...and Bethany liked it even better!)

Snaps from the day...

Happy, tired feet.
Ready for their own bed...and a pedicure!

UPDATE: Walked & ran 4.5 miles this morning with the dogs (3 with May Bee and then a mile and a half with Misha) so I don't feel too bad about missing the 5K. When I got home, my clothes and hat were SOAKED with sweat...Bethany used the word "gross" to describe me. (I looked so bad that Dan & Kirsten didn't even recognize me; on the last lap, I saw their Suburban drive by without even waving to Misha and me. LOL)

UPDATE #2: Ooh...forgot to tell you...we got to see the Ron Mueck sculpture exhibit!! Only people on my diet support board know about my love for Ron Mueck, ever since his Big Man graced the cover of Discover magazine in February. (All I could talk or post about for a week or so was the Discover article about the health dangers of visceral fat!)

For more Ron Mueck info:

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/ron_mueck/

and

http://blip.tv/file/94203 (warning: nudity...startling and um, thorough nudity)