Sean Cover Your Eyes

Hi folks. My friend Trina posted a picture of her garden spider and I have one too that is post worthy. Ben loves her and considers her his pet. She was almost stepped on by me back when I was working the garden plot. I relocated her to my banana trees where she is much safer...

Speaking of banana trees...they are growing like crazy this year! Maybe I'll actually get fruit this time around.

Our lovely Boris
click on the link and you'll get to a page that tells all about this spider. Enjoy!

Inner Space Caverns Today

My friend Jen called me up early this morning and asked me if Ben and I would like to join her and her kids for a little cave tour at Inner Space. Of course I didn't hesitate...I LOVE caves. I've been to this cave many times on their standard tour, but I never get tired of it. I still plan to do their wild cave tour in the near future, amongst a few others.

The kids had a blast of course...here are a few pics...

The boys

Unusual Formations

Flow Stone with pools of water

More Flow Stone

This is at the bottom of the last flow stone pic shown above. The water in caves is crystal clear of course due to being filtered through all the limestone rock. Calcite is the mineral responsible for these formations.

One of the rooms

More funny looking formations

Coming back out of the cave into the light above

Hill Country State Natural Area

HCSNA is one of the best places in our area to go back packing because it offers a bit of remoteness. There were absolutely no city sounds to pollute the ears, nor any people to bother us...only nature and beauty all around. It was a much needed trip and I had a great time as usual.

I will say though I was shocked to discover how out of shape I am! I was hot and tired after only about a mile and a half of walking in the sun and it was very upsetting to me. I knew I wasn't ready for an 8 mile hike after a month of virtually no serious activity thanks to illness, but thought I'd be ok for something in the 4 mile range at least. What a rude awakening after that first mile and a half! This place offers little shade on the trails and getting pneumonia really did set me back after all the progress I had made getting in shape. I was glad the walk to camp was only a couple of miles.

Anyway, it was raining the day we left(Sat) but radar indicated clear skies in the region where we would be and our rule is if it's not raining at the trail head, go for it. We did wonder a few times if we'd truly escape the thunder showers or not. Once we got there, a storm was in the making off in the distance and we knew it would be a close call on the trail since the storm was in the direction we were heading. Thunder rumbled and clouds looked bruised causing us to waste no time getting on the trail.

Mere minutes after arriving into the primitive camping area, the rain started. What perfect timing! There was a nice shelter that we moved a picnic table under and we sat around catching up with each other while enjoying the rain from underneath. It didn't last too long though and soon we were able to roam a little.

I put together some freezer bag meals for us again...this time it was chicken and stuffing with cranberries. Thomas and I both agree it's wonderful to eat a decent hot meal in the back country. We ate, then went on a lovely short evening walk. We went up a small hill to an old grain shed of some kind and I discovered Ant Lion traps in the sand. Thomas had never seen one before so it was cool that he actually got to see one catch its prey. If you click on the link, you can watch several videos showing Ant Lion behavior. These are funny little critters and were always a favorite of mine when I was a kid.

After getting back into camp Thomas read a bit while I perfected the art of doing absolutely nothing...it was wonderful. At some point I got up and decided to pitch my tent which was a quick and easy job...allowing me to get back to doing absolutely nothing. A very enjoyable and peaceful evening transitioned to an equally enjoyable and peaceful night. At some point the mosquitoes got too annoying to stay up any longer, so off to bed we went.

I partially woke up in the middle of the night to flashing lights and thought it was lightening off in the distance. I laid there wondering if I was really seeing what I thought I was, or if I was dreaming. I even spoke out telling Thomas he needed to put his rain fly on...doubt he heard it though...his tent wasn't very close to mine. Since I never fully woke up, I was back out rather quickly. I woke up some time later to very bright flashes which totally got my attention and realized Thomas was out of his tent putting on the fly.

So I got up and joined him. It almost felt like we were the only two people in the world at that moment as we watched a most spectacular light show over the ridge from our private location. We couldn't see the clouds at first, just the constant flashing that looked like flash bulbs going off all over the place. Then we saw huge thunder heads boiling up over the hills and felt for sure it was going to come our way. The breeze picked up a little too which was doing a nice job of keeping mosquitoes at bay while we sat and watched in awe for a while.

After returning to my tent, I waited in excited anticipation of the seemingly approaching storm, but it never came and I soon fell back asleep. If it had, I think we would have been worked over pretty good from the looks of that lightening.

The next morning we packed up, walked back to the car, and headed to the Cibolo Nature Center for another short hike before returning home. Oh yeah, we did stop off at Rudy's for some bbq because Thomas lost a little bet on what time it would be when we got back to the car from camp. He was closer, but he went over so I won the bet. The loser had to buy the winner lunch, but knowing Thomas the way I do even if I had lost, he'd probably still buy lunch. He's a sweety!

Ice Cream Hill. This shot was taken not long after we arrived in camp.

Another shot shortly after arriving in camp

The shelter

Looking out from under the shelter

Thomas brought this! It was just right.

After the rain cleared out

Thomas camped under this tree. I camped next to the scrubby trees shown left. The ridge in the background is where the light show occurred. Look how green this place is!

Still some wildflowers left

Mountain Pinks

On to Cibolo Nature Center...

A map of the place

Dinosaur track information

Dino tracks

Tangled roots of the Cypress. Their roots are vulnerable to foot traffic because they don't go deep into the soil. I try to avoid stepping on them when I can.

Looking downstream

Looking upstream

On our way out of the nature preserve we saw this beauty. Thomas told me what kind it is, but I've since forgotten. I'll go back and id it eventually.

Cold Day in Hell Two

I finally have some time to write more about the party...it will be brief though because I have a trip report to write up as well as a ton of other stuff to do today...

There were about 100 people at this party and the house it was in was a huge three story Victorian style home. Each room was unique and very artistic...which I found out most of the people living in the house are artists...so no wonder. Each person's room was like a little showcase of that person's creative talent and was impressive. Oh and on one door there was a sign that said you could only go in if you weren't wearing pants. They weren't kidding!

They had a dance room with expensive mixing and sound equipment, plus a projector for playing background movies on the ceiling. I felt like I was in a night club! The music they played was perfect for dancing...I believe it was techno and it could be heard throughout the house. The person who was using the mixing equipment really knew what he was doing with it all and I wondered if he was hired for the party, or if he was just one of the friends having fun.

Next to the dance room was a sitting area with a working arcade game in it, which was popular amongst the party goers. Those who didn't feel like dancing could sit in the arcade room and watch all the action on the dance floor...and believe me, there was plenty of action to watch!

The lighting through out the house was done well too and gave a very ambient night club feel. I wanted so badly to photograph the place, but I didn't have the right equipment to capture the ambiance. Besides that, I would have felt a little funny going around photographing the inside of someone's private home during a party.

I later found out that these parties are a regular occurrence and they have them about every four months and are ALWAYS themed. When it was time for me to leave I thanked the only host I could find, and he told me I was welcome to come back to the next one which I thought was cool. I probably left the place about 2am and the party was in full swing. I hated to leave, but knew I'd better get out of there before I got myself into trouble with a couple of young sexy men who were in hot pursuit making tempting offers! Besides that, I knew I had a backpacking trip the next day and needed sleep. It was the perfect excuse to bid my farewell.

A Cold Day In Hell!

That's the theme for the party I've been invited to tonight. I'm going as a sexy irresistible demon who trades sexual favors for souls. I'll tell my intended victims that it'll be a cold day in hell before they can "touch this" unless they sell their soul to me. I'm making up contracts too that will look devilish in nature and old. Pure evil genius. If you people are lucky, I'll get a good photo of me in the costume for your viewing amusement without requiring your soul first. ;)

It's rare that you get to hear a cliche in context(My husband wrote this)

Ben was in a cranky mood at dinner because he didn't want to eat the pork tenderloin Ginny made, but we made him do it anyway.

While he was being a big grouch, Ginny accidentally knocked over his cup of milk and it spilled all over the table. Ben threw a big fit. Ginny tried to calm him down, and she said: "Ben! Shhh! Settle down! It's only spilt milk... no use crying over it!"

We all looked at each other and starting laughing really hard, and didn't stop for several minutes. Ben, of course, said "Stop laughing at me!" We assured him that we were laughing at mommy, not him.

YES!!! I Finally Get to Go Backpacking!!!!!

I am going back packing this weekend! I have missed it terribly and I'm very happy I finally have an opportunity to go. I wonder how out of shape I am after missing a solid month of exercise...guess I'll find out...

The real question is where will we end up going? Our choices are limited due to flooding and the fact that I don't want to go over 5 or 6 miles until I know how my lungs are going to handle it.

Do I have Lurkers?

I'm mildly curious how many people are coming to my blog. I know there are blog counters that can be installed, but it's not that important to me. If you are a lurker here, and are inclined, feel free to de-lurk just to say hi. I don't bite and if you want to go back to lurk mode, by all means do.

What's for Dinner?

Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops...recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis

I found this on the web...it sounds yummy. I'll take pics when I cook it and post them later with a full review. :)

...and here is the review:

They were fabulous! So easy to make! The family gave a full thumbs up on this recipe. I added a little flare of my own by grating Parmesan on top and adding a little rosemary from the garden. Instead of frying in olive oil, I used grape seed oil which doesn't hydrogenate the way other oils do. The fresh lemon juice squeezed over the top made the dish perfect.

Say Trina...I think you need to post a recipe soon for some of your fabo cooking. I still need to make Sean's salmon nachos too.

First step is to pack on the Parmesan all over the raw pork chop

What it looks like right after putting on the Parmesan layer

The next step is to dip in beaten eggs and dredge through Italian style breadcrumbs.

Fry
Drain on paper towels

I had to try it before garnishing

Final touches...a squeeze of lemon and some grated Parmesan on top

Finished!

McKinney All Weather Again

Due to the fact that I couldn't breath very well, I had to decline the Enchanted Rock climb. But as the morning moved forward I got to a point where I was doing much better. I practically forced my husband and son who both hate hiking to go on a hike and picnic with me...ok, that's not entirely true. Russell claims he doesn't hate hiking, he just prefers to be indoors and he also tells me that our walk yesterday was his idea. Ben still hates hiking :). Anyway, I HAD to get outdoors and am glad I was able to for a short while.

Although Russell will most likely never be a solid hiking/backpacking partner for me, there is still hope for Ben...he's young and there is still time to mold him Mwahahahaha. I'm doing my best to get him interested in the outdoors and am hopeful that when he is a teen he will want to hit the big trails with me. But if in the end he has no interest I have to respect that. Here are some pics. Don't forget you can click on them to see larger images with better detail.

Cool fungus
This grasshopper is shedding its nymph skin. I can't tell if it has more nymph stages left or not. I'm thinking maybe it does...although this insect was a good inch long already. The wings seem underdeveloped. What an awesome find! Too bad I didn't get on the scene sooner, I could have taken several photos of the progression...would have been cool.

This is a different grasshopper from the one above. These were all over this particular tree and I think this one is young too, but man is it big! They kind of creeped me out a little.

Now here is a grisly scene of sorts. These butterflies are feeding on some sort of scat.

Here is a different view. You can see bits of grasshopper in the scat. Blech!

Not This Time Either

Well once again an opportunity to go to Enchanted Rock has been passed up. Fate has intervened it would seem. This morning I woke up with breathing issues and know better than to climb today.
I guess Andy might have a shot after all to be the first one to show me the place. That seems fitting somehow.

It's nice that I've found an old friend again...

This kind of Describes My Current Mood...

Sometimes you run across music and lyrics that really hit home for you in profound ways. This is one that does it for me. It's by Nick Drake and it's called "One of These Things First".

I could have been a sailor, could have been a cook
A real live lover, could have been a book.
I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock
As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock.
I could be
Here and now
I would be, I should be
But how?
I could have been
One of these things first
I could have been
One of these things first.

I could have been your pillar, could have been your door
I could have stayed beside you, could have stayed for more.
Could have been your statue, could have been your friend,
A whole long lifetime could have been the end.
I could be yours so true
I would be, I should be through and through
I could have been
One of these things first
I could have been
One of these things first.

I could have been a whistle, could have been a flute
A real live giver, could have been a boot.
I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock
As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock.
I could be even here
I would be, I should be so near
I could have been
One of these things first
I could have been
One of these things first.

Tonight's Dessert

Brownies with walnuts and a dusting of powdered sugar

"A Bad Idea" Played Last Night

I went to Headhunters downtown last night to be supportive of a band called "A Bad Idea". I've talked about them before. There are three of them in this band and they are all 15 years old. I know of them because my daughter was smitten with one of the boys a while back and he would come to my house often.

Anyway, last night was their first serious gig and they were so excited and nervous. I thought they played well though, even though they quickly realized they didn't have enough material! They made up a song on the spot and rocked it out pretty good. That's true rockers for ya. Here are a couple of pics of these little darlins...

Enchanted Rock...Will I Ever Get There?

When I was 17 and totally madly in love with a boy named Andy, he used to tell me about a place called Enchanted Rock that he loved going to. He always made it sound like such a magical area and I was excited about going with him to see it, but of course the relationship ended before he could ever take me there. And in all the years that I've known of this place I've never taken the initiative to go on my own. I sometimes think I may have avoided the place on purpose just so it could always stay this mystery in my mind...

But I might finally get to see what Andy was so excited about all those years ago, as my hiking partner sent me an email earlier this morning saying he has Sunday off and suggested Enchanted Rock for our ritual walk. I hope I'm not disappointed once I get there...if I get there! Thomas could change his mind and decide he wants to go somewhere else, but I'm cool either way.

Btw, I heard from Andy a few days ago! Quite the coincidence huh? In the past 20 something years I have seen him once or twice at the most. I hope to see him again in the near future. We have a ton of catching up to do!

Good Times!

Last night's party was quite the success! I worked hard all day yesterday getting the house party ready and even found time to trim the trees in my front yard and weed the front flower beds. I did it all in the rain too...which I'm sure my neighbors thought was strange. I never let rain stop me from yard work though. In fact that is the best time to work on weeding because they come right out of the ground with ease. The other benefit is the mosquitoes stay away while it's steadily coming down. In any case, it needed to be done and I'm glad to have it out of the way.

The food turned out delicious and the drinks were great. My friend Jen is a bar tender now and I was delighted when she showed up at the door with an armful of bottles containing all kinds of goodness. She made everyone shots and mixed drinks like a pro. I have to admit I was a tad bit tipsy. Ok, maybe more than a tad...but those drinks were so tasty.

Kim L. showed up with a crock pot full of ribs and two platters of deviled eggs. Both were sensational. Mykel made some sort of salad that seemed to go over quite well, but I never got around to trying it because I was so full by the time she made it. I made a blue cheese potato salad using red potatoes and bacon bits I fried up myself. I don't think any is left...which usually means something is a hit, and of course I had to make some baked beans. We also grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. I was going to make brownies but realized we had a ton of food so figured no one would miss them and they didn't.

The whole neighborhood was alive last night with pops, whistles, booms, clacks, cracks, etc...and the light show was great. We had some pretty fun fireworks and a few of our guests brought some too, including one bad ass mutha called the "Hallucinator". It was the best firework show of the night all by itself. Matt brought that one, and a few other choice ones too. The kids loved the show...even Ben. In previous years he was so scared he would never come out of the house. But this year with his best friend Calvin over, he was having a great time. He just kept his ears plugged up with his fingers most of the time. :)

Later on we all gathered around in my kitchen to watch the science experiment Paul had set up. It was quite entertaining! He put peeps in a jar and used a bicycle pump to create a vacuum. He first blew the peeps up to a big puffy size, then had them imploding in on themselves. It was funny and everyone got a big kick out of it. I don't know who was more entertained the kids or the adults. :)

Good times indeed but there were a few key people absent last night that I really missed...you know who you are.

The day started out quite rainy. My bananas are loving it!

I made some food and others brought stuff too

Not your ordinary melon balls...these were spiked with Parrot Bay Rum

Jen makes drinks while Mykel makes a salad. Gilbert supervises in background...either that or he is checking out backsides.

Jen serves Russell a "Scooby Snack" which is some kind of shot. Kids get lemonade

Lots to eat!

Friends Who Care...awwwwwww

Oooooh Aaaaaahhhhhhhh Pretty

Ben plugs his ears! Brom and Calvin wear their aprons as capes.

Setting up for the science experiment

Paul is going to capture the moment on video

The audience is intrigued

Mykel smiles...results are good

Gilbert is impressed and perplexed!

Giant Peeps!

Now they are small!