soldier on

these are two classic ripley pictures. lately she's been spending a lot of time outside on the front porch just taking it all in now that it's cooler out.

isn't it silly when you put something somewhere and at the time, you're thinking 'this is an odd place for this, i'll never think of this when i'm trying to find it.' i did that with both of my pairs of sleep shorts and i've torn my room apart and can't find them. there aren't thattt many places they could be in this teeny house, but they're missing. and i knew i wouldn't be able to find them whenever i put them away. just silly.
love this picture of the pillow queen. humans aren't allowed to sit on her couch because it's so furred up.

but then i know it's growin' strong

listening to sweet caroline. handss.... touching hands.. reaching outtt!! .. touching me, touching youuuuu!!!!!!! :)

so last night my car was broken into, and i was bummed enough about all of the glass everywhere (that's now stuck in my fingers). but this morning i was looking for my library books and discovered that my bag was missing. then i realized i never brought it in from the car.. turns out they stole my favorite little blue and white flowered IKEA tote bag with my library books in it.. probably thinking it was a purse or something. so noww i'm paying a bunch to have my window replaced tomorrow andd i owe $42 for 2 library books. annoying.

other than that though, this week has been great. the cooler weather really makes everything a lot better. funny how 85 feels so much different than 95. it's the difference between it still being stifling hot vs it being cool when you're standing in the shade. ripley has just been camping out in the front lawn surveying the scene.

tonight it was just maj and i so we went to this german place in pflugerville that we've been wanting to go to. i ordered currywurst and red cabbage. the german woman taking my order said she did not recommend the combo. i told her it would be fine and ordered it anyway. it was deeelicious. maj had mushroom schnitzel and potato salad. yum.

why're you always lookin' so sweet

this is a bad picture but look at those teeny bell peppers. they're probably the size of golf balls right now. something is wrong with that plant though. the edges of the leaves are curling up and it isn't because of lack of water.

we had two mushy bananas the other day and i couldn't find a recipe that wasn't full of oil until i came across this recipe on epicurious for 'low fat banana bread.' we didn't have buttermilk, so i used milk with a squeeze of lemon in it.. worked fine. the bread was really good. didn't seem low fat at all.
but the best recipe of the season has been smitten kitchen's watermelon salad. i mentioned it last time i made it but forgot to take/post a picture. it's so pretty and so tasty and fresh. really fun to make too, especially if you love chopping. HEB was out of mint so i used some lemon basil from the garden ( ! ).
and last but not least on this random day is jeff's pictures of the new kitty on the block: our kitty's twin. our kitty is the one by the trash can, the new one is under the truck. we haven't seen either of kitty's girlfriends in quite a while. it's a mystery.
the weather in austin was unbelievable today. i think the high was in the mid 80s. it was crisp and the breeze felt cool. all of the kids at school were wearing pants, and a fair number of them had hoodies. it just felt like fall.

this time around

it is SIXTY SIX DEGREES in austin right now. hoodie weather! pretty exciting. we're not supposed to be above 90 all week. getting fall-y around here.

i had a really pleasant weekend. ready to get this last week of school overwith and on to china.

i'll post pictures of the garden tomorrow. the bell peppers have quadrupled in size.

fall

no post tonight, just a reminder to myself to take a picture of the tiny bell peppers and post it tomorrow morning.

your love as well as your folly

so we already found the cutest boy in the world, and now i've found the cutest girl. she used to just come up to me and stand in front of or beside me and lean against me and we didn't really talk a whole lot. but nowww we're besties. we hold hands and make up nicknames for everyone together. she is sooo cute. the other kids keep asking if she's my daughter. i hope my daughter is just like her.

running late! fun night, but i need to get moving. how impressed are you with matt's bread from yesterday? kind of amazing. i'm jealous. mine never turned out that well.

you give it all up

this house has become a fondue factory in the last couple of weeks, i don't know if i've mentioned it or not. but faj found these packages of fondue at world market. they're little boxes, and inside is a foil pouch that has wine and a mix of cheeses and spices in it. all you do is cut open the pouch, empty it into a dutch oven and stir it for 5 minutes until it gets bubbly and delicious.

the first and second weeks, we used baguettes from HEB. airy. not so tasty. except the cheese is so good that really you could eat it on white sandwich bread and it would be delicious.
but this week we talked matt into baking some bread (matt's been baking bread around the clock lately. i'll post some of the pictures at the end of this) and it was like the holy grail of fondue. fresh rye and french peasant bread.
after 3 weekends of fondue, i'm not sure how much more we can handle. i would be happy if i didn't have it again until i get back from the trip. but it is tasty.

matt's latest bread:

vermont cheddar
vermont cheddar again

sourdough deli rye

oatmeal bread

and for it being the last day of summer, it sure did feel a lot like fall in austin today. at one point while we were out on the playground, i was wishing i had a jacket. how about that! (it was probably in the low 80s...but in my defense! a storm was brewing and it was really windy and dark out.)

fall garden

it's garden time again! maj and i bought sweet peppers, jalapenos, swiss chard, bell peppers, chinese cabbage, broccoli, lemon basil... i can't remember what else.

it looks teeeeeny tiny.


i have 2 weeks to get it going, and then it's all up to the fam not to kill it while i'm in china for october.

clap your hands

was chatting with andy last night about my taiwanese tinkerbelle dress and where i'll ever be able to wear it again. i think the window on tinkerbelle dresses is closing. but i do loooove it.

just haven't been in a blogging mood lately. we're in the weird end of summer, not quite yet fall mode. ready for it to stop being 90 degrees. ready to go to china. ready to start school. right now i just feel like i'm waiting for so many things and not actually doing anything.

hao peng you

went to my favorite sushi place and killed a bottle of wine with andy, one of my faaavorite friends. he could not be more wonderful at tactfully telling me exactly what i need to hear.

and now it's past my bedtime!

progress

today one of my kids who is usually not my favorite/doesn't exactly love me got his finger smashed in a door and was crying. he's the last one i would expect to actually cry. a mom walked in, saw it happen, and tried to look at his finger, but he wouldn't let her. he was just balled up in a corner. but i went over, patted (is it pat or patted? dictionary.com says patted) his back and he let me look at it. small victories.

product review

ordered keen's from zbsports.com because they were $10 or so cheaper than i could find elsewhere. it seemed like a home-grown business. i thought i was doing someone a favor. but then my shoes got here, 2 weeks after i ordered them, and i had one on, and jeff had one on.. and we noticed jeff's was far too small. and it was a 6 1/2. i'm an 8 1/2. so that was disappointing. THENN we noticed we both had them on our left feet. double fail.

so i emailed them and will return them later this week, once they mail me a shipping label. meanwhile, i ordered them from zappos, which i should have done in the first place. lesson learned.

but keep the old

had lunch with three old friends from middle/high school today. stacy has a 9 month old baby boy, drew. he is adorable. he sat with me for a while before falling asleep on my shoulder for half an hour or so. i think i inherited the baby gene from gram. she can make any baby fall asleep/stay happy.

it was fun to reconnect with them. fun to hold a baby for an hour and remind myself how glad i am to have the freedom to travel internationally and do whatever i want to do before that phase of my life.

back to school tomorrow.

p.s. majjy's website, designmyyard, got a makeover. check it out.

tambourines

uploaded the pictures on my camera tonight and came out with a random assortment of things. these two are the torrential rain from hurricane hermine. it reminded me of a typhoon day (and really, it was) the way there was just solid rain all day long without letting up. i drank a ton of tea, made soup, broke out the flannel jammies. we don't have too many cozy rainy days in texas.

jeff is modeling my birthday earrings from gram. he wore them all day long that day. he said at one point, he was at HEB and an entire family was staring at him and he couldn't figure it out until he saw himself in his rear view mirror when he got back in his car. ..i think they could have been staring at any element of his bedraggled self though. the long hair, the scruffy face, the earrings, the horrific, acid washed, ripped up jeans.

dutch baby with a lemon the size of a softball that faj brought back from california. it wasn't neon in person.

and one of the many reasons i love little kids:
The End.

xiang pian

these are the pictures from my birthday, and a few more from abha's engagement ceremony. this is the ooonly picture i have of guillermo and i by ourselves.

fun time at lustre pearl.
this was abha's engagement table/altar? i don't know what it's called. but if you look carefully, you can see the laptop in the bottom left behind those flowers.
so colorful! kelly and i were feeling left out in black and white.
once we all had the stuff on our heads.
could they look any happier?!

yesterday we had rain all day from the hurricane moving up from the gulf coast. kind of put a damper on work since the kids had to stay inside an extra hour and a half. craziness definitely ensued, but we made it. this morning is still pretty wet, but it isn't raining yet.

practice makes perfect

i know, i've been MIA. i've realllyyy been waiting for kelly and abha to send me the pictures of the last couple of days, but it looks like that might take a little while. :)

[photo from maggie's austin.]

my birthday was a lot of fun. guillermo and i went to dinner at a fancy indian place downtown and had gelato by ourselves before meeting up with a bunch of my friends from high school at this cool bar called lustre pearl. it's in a house and the back is all white christmas lights. it's really pretty, we had a lot of fun. pictures to follow eventually.

last night was abha's traditional engagement ceremony at her house. her family is from nepal. the clothes were amaaazing. such beautiful saris in every color you can imagine, but lots of deep orange and bright aqua and red and magenta. the deck smelled like roses and there were christmas lights. delicious indian food.

the most awesome part was the webcam that was set up so pedro's family, who live in brazil, could watch. there was a laptop hidden behind some flowers where you could see them all huddled around the computer in their living room.

all of the aunties put this red rice + wet powder stuff on abha and pedro's foreheads, and then at the end abha's dad, raj, put some on all of us.

making dill bread today with the last of the dill. going to humor jeff and not cut into it until it's had time to cool off.. even though i knowww it won't be as tasty.

hey you

conversations with a kindergartener

girl: do you have a husband?

me: no

..5 minutes later..

girl: you really don't have a husband?

me: nope

..2 minutes later..

girl: do you have a kid?

me: no, i don't have a husband so i don't have a kid

girl: do you have grandkids?

me: don't you need kids to have grandkids?

girl: oh yeah. my grandma has lots of grandkids

..4 minutes later..

girl: do you have a husband?

me: no, but i have a boyfriend

girl: is he tall?

me: a little taller than me

girl: is he old?

me: a little younger than me

girl: what's his name?

me: guillermo

girl: that's a weird name!

kids are cute. magically put 5 of them to sleep today just by cuddling with them in my lap for a little bit while i patted their back. nothing like a heartbeat to put kids to sleep.

it's my birthday in half an hour!