Salsa among the dinosaurs, Austin & penguins…
Here is my weekend re-cap!
Friday night: Joined my salsa classmates and teacher at the museums’ Friday Night Mixer. This week they had a salsa band and consequently, they had their largest turnout ever (1100 people). Needless to say it was packed and it was hot but it was fun (click on photo to the right for larger images). Dancing underneath the huge dinosaurs was unique, even if the space did not lend itself well to a dance floor. We had a great turnout from my class and I was kept busy dancing salsa, merengue, bachata and even the cha cha cha! We even were able to squeeze in one song as a rueda because there were enough advanced students to pull it off. My first public rueda! It was the very last song of the evening but it was so much fun and people had fun watching us.
Saturday: We got up early and headed out to Austin for the day. We were meeting with Kenny’s great-ant, an amazing woman who is very enjoyable to talk to. We spent the entire day with her, just talking, and did not leave her house till 8:30 PM. We had to make the required stop at BookPeople before heading home so we did not get in till 1 AM.
Sunday: We slept in and lazed around all day. My allergies put me in a very cranky mood so I just tried to lay low and deal with the all-day headache. I stayed in my pajamas all day – mmmm, laziness!
I’d like to leave with you with a few shots from Austin. When we were out with his great-aunt we drove by a nursery with dozens of plastic penguins lined up out front. I had to stop for the photo opportunity… Below are a couple of my favorite shots (click on image for larger size). Click here for more photos from that day.
I’m eBay’ing my stuff!
When I cleaned out closets earlier this summer, I set aside a handful of items that I didn’t want to just give away to charity nor did I want to sell them for 50 cents at the garage sale. I figured I’d try to sell them on eBay.
Fianlly, I took some pictures of the items and posted a few items. I’ll be posting more over the next month (silver vinatge jewelery, some dresses, a Wedgewood box) but for now, here is what I have selling…
The simple pleasures…
I derived much enjoyment today when I drove straight over a plastic water bottle in the parking lot. It was on its side, parallel to my car with the top facing away from me so I made it a point to drive straight over the doomed bottle that was in my path.
The sound of it exploding, the burst of water and the cap flying off (and lightly bouncing off a car about 30 feet away) was extremely satisfying.
It still makes me smile as I think about it. 🙂
From Pamela’s Blog several weeks back…
| You Are an Irish Coffee |
 At your worst, you are: too extreme and reckless You drink coffee when: you want to keep drinking booze Your caffeine addiction level: low |
I was tagged… 5 Things
Kathy tagged me so here goes…
5 things in my refrigerator:
1. gallon of 1% milk
2. jar of minced garlic
3. lite grapefruit juice (love this stuff)
4. diet Pepsi (for Kenny)
5. couple of Portobella mushrooms caps (great for dinner)
5 things in my closet:
1. my purses
2. my belts
3. piles of shoes (both mine & Kenny’s)
4. lots of clothes (both mine & Kenny’s)
5. our empty luggage
5 things in my purse:
1. cell phone
2. Palm Pilot
3. lipstick
4. pill box full of Advil
5. iPod
5 things in my car:
1. half empty bottle of water
2. fuel additive (for next time I fill up)
3. small box of Kleenex
4. hand towel (extremely handy!)
5. cell phone charger
5 people that get tagged:
1. Pamela
2. Shirl
3. Pat
4. Karen
5. Anyone else who wants to join the fun…
Mopping, my sister, tired…
Straight to the weekend recap…
Friday: Met Kenny for some pool and afterward headed home for a quiet evening at home.
Saturday: I was going to meet Hanna and spend the afternoon with her but I got a call from my sister the day before telling me she was coming through Houston on her way back to Florida. She is a painter and every summer drives her truck full of paints and canvases to Washington state. Her family joins her there and they spend several months up in a cabin. Each way she stops in Houston to see my Mother and me but doesn’t really give us too much warning. LOL.
So Saturday I spent cleaning up the house for her arrival. It needed it badly! Even though I sweep the hardwoods I don’t remember the last time I mopped them and the tile that typically only gets Swiffered was actually mopped. I also did 5 loads of laundry, put away all the laundry (more tiring that laundry itself) and with Kenny’s help, all the dishes were cleaned and put away.
Saturday night: My sister had a delay so she did not arrive until 9 PM. My Mom arrived a little earlier and started cooking dinner while I finished cleaning up. We had a good home-cooked Cuban meal but before too long it was time for sister to head to bed since she was getting up at 7 AM to drive straight through to Tallahassee (12 hour drive).
Sunday: I went back to bed after seeing my sister off and eventually woke up around noon. We got a late start (I was so tired from the day before and Kenny had stayed up late building his new computer) but managed to run the errands we needed to run – quick lunch, pet store, Target and grocery store…
Sunday night: With the oppressive heat lessening by the time we got home, we took the opportunity to weed the front. After showering all the sweat and dirt and grime off, we had a yummy taco dinner. Afterward I crashed on the couch while Kenny kept working on his new computer…
I am still feeling the fatigue but at least for the first time in a few weeks I have clean clothes once more and the sink isn’t full of dirty dishes! Yay!
Minor site tweaking going on…
Please excuse any wonky things on the site while I load new themes and work the bugs out. I was too tired last night to keep playing with the code so I gave up and will work on it this weekend…
Jumping on the YouTube bandwagon!
OK, I went ahead and joined YouTube last night. My older digital camera takes short 30 second movies and I never had a place to share them with you. I haven’t taken many but below is one I took of the blinking Eiffel tower while we were there over Christmas 2004. Kenny’s camera also took videos which were longer and better quality so I posted his right below mine.
I also have bona fide video (using a digital video camera, not photo camera) of a salsa demo I was in and once I get Kenny to edit out all the extra before & after footage, it will hopefully be small enough for me to load to YouTube as well. If it works I will have it up by next week.
A Late Weekend Re-Cap
Sorry – I have been busy dealing with some personal stuff that has me stressed but a resolution is hopefully in the near future. In the meantime, here is a overdue weekend re-cap…
Friday night: Met Kenny and Spencer at the Houston Center for Photography to see the exhibit sponsored by the HCP and the Houston. It’s Worth It “Show Us Why” campaign. I submitted photos and they were supposedly going to have all photos submitted on display this evening (either printed or in the slideshow) but I couldn’t find any of mine (I submitted 3) despite my name being listed on the photographers list. I read some discussions after the show and it seems that I wasn’t the only one with that complaint. Harrumph.
Saturday: I got up early and had my eyes checked (despite 5 years since my last check, all is good although the right eye’s Rx changed slightly) and had my teeth cleaned (yay, no cavities!) Afterward I met a friend for lunch (yummy Cuban) and then grabbed Kenny so we could pick up some paving stones for our new outdoor storage bin. Stayed in the rest of the night…
Sunday: Met Susan and CJ and spent the entire day with them. We started off with brunch/lunch at The Daily Review Café then headed over to the museum to see the Royal Tombs of Ur exhibit. Afterward we grabbed some bubble tea, boought some groceries at Central Market for dinner that night and headed home. Susan and CJ stayed at our house while Kenny fired up the grill and we had a wonderful dinner of grilled steaks and asparagus. The steaks were some of the best we’d had in a long time! What a great day full of culture, good food and good friends. Heck, CJ even helped us build our outdoor storage bin (it snapped together in about 10 minutes, super easy)!
And now another weekend is almost upon us! Yay!
Back on the Diet
OK guys – I am back on my diet as of this Monday and have joined Kathy over at her diet blog. Please go check it out and drop us encouraging lines. I will need the support as I work off the 15 lbs. I gained back slowly but surely this past year and a half (I loss 25 lbs. about 2 years ago). *sigh*
find me here too
