Riding a Bike

Sharing a video that I thought was really good...entertaining to watch and a great message at the end. 


Riding a Bike

Texas Sky

I've been a slacking blogger (someone...wink wink...reminded me of that today, lol)  No excuses but the laptop wouldn't connect to wireless for anything.  We've tried, granted not hard, for the past week to fix it.  Tonight I sat down and an hour later, after lots of Google searches, I somehow fixed it.  I have absolutely no idea how or what I did and was just sitting the laptop down giving up when I heard the ding saying I was connected.  I look like a computer genius at the moment and feel like one too.  Buuuut I just have no idea what I did.  But whatever works.  This long post should make up for some slacking.

So let's talk Austin. 

The day after I flew into Austin was my birthday.  I wanted to hike Mt. Bonnell because everyone said it had amazing views.  It was a drive through some amazing houses and an easy to find spot.  I wasn't sure which side to start on so I went right.  I "climbed" and got to the top and thought "that's it?"  It was not a difficult hike at all.  But the view was beautiful and the houses down below were crazy huge. 

 

Then I realized had I gone left I would've faced these stairs to hike up.  So I had to get the full experience of it and went down the stairs.  This is when I started to notice the same few people going up and down the stairs multiple times.  They were talking to each other as they passed "how many times for you now?"  "I'm on 7, usually do 10."  "I plan on 8." So it's like the thing to do...workout on these stairs.  Since I didn't feel like I had gotten a good hike in I thought I may as well join in.  Plus one of the stair climbers was not bad to look at.  Yeah.  I made it twice.  Good enough. 

 

I proceeded to drive down to Mayfield Peacock Preserve.  Peacocks everywhere and they'd come right up to you.  They were so pretty.  The preserve had hiking trails so I thought, perfect, I can get in more hiking.  

Unlike Mt. Bonnell, this was some real nature stuff.  I turned right at one point and was here, a few steps away from taking a little dip in the lake.  So...I turned around and got out of there and hoped there were no snakes around to show me just how much nature I could get.

 

That didn't take up nearly as much of my day as I thought it would.  But later that night I got a text from one of the guys I'd be working with saying he knew it was my birthday and we should all go to dinner.  I don't know how he found out but it was nice of him. So I chose the Oasis because everyone said the views were incredible. 

They were right, the view didn't disappoint.  The service was a bit on the bad side but with a view like they offered, it didn't matter to anyone. 

Even the umbrellas made for a pretty sight.

Overall in Austin...food.  Amazing Food.  I compared chicken enchiladas pretty much everywhere I went.  I counted at least 6 different enchilada dinners that I can remember.  The photo above is from Jack Allen's, a farm to table restaurant and it was one of my faves.  Amy's Ice Cream is all over Austin.  More importantly, one was .4 miles from my hotel.  Their ice cream was ah-mazing.  Crazy flavors that changed every day.  Each day had 2 flavors containing alcohol.  The best was Saturday Morning Cartoons, it was non-alcoholic and tasted like fruit loops.  I regretted only tasting that one and not ordering it.  What I did order:  Strawberry Mango shake, Mexican Vanilla shake, Banana Pudding shake, Belgian Chocolate shake, Peach shake, and another Mexican Vanilla shake. (not all at once) I know what you're thinking and yes, I did take my workout clothes and made use of the hotel gym.  Seriously, I can't even tell you how good this ice cream is.  Worth every calorie. 

 I did other things besides eat.  One Saturday my co-worker Kathy and I explored.  Her boyfriend is a Harley guy so she wanted to go to the Harley store.  I fit in at a Harley store about as well as a hooker fits in at church on Sunday morning.  We happened to go during a time they were getting ready to do a poker run.  (I think that's what it was called?)  I have no idea what that means but it appeared to mean a hell of a lot of bikers meet there to start.  And I also thought it was funny that the most cops I saw in Austin during the three weeks were at the Harley store...chowing on some breakfast tacos and buying some t-shirts while taking advantage of their law enforcement discount.  I learned a lot during this time because Kathy took her shopping seriously.  We were there an hour or more.  Plenty of time for fascinating people watching. I also looked at all the clothes and thought how I could start dressing as a character from Sons of Anarchy.  Except those clothes are freaking expensive!

 We drove by this Austin roadside must see...the couch potatoes.  If you look close, Kathy and I are in the pic too.  Speaking of roadsides...let's mention the driving rules.  70mph really means 95 in the slow lane.  When your GPS tells you to get on 183 North there is a good chance she really means 183 South.  And even though the highway is called one name it doesn't mean there aren't 3 other legit names for it.  Know them all. I pulled a few Nascar moves and learned how it worked but those first few days were nail biters.

 

Austin is big on graffiti as art, not vandalism.  This was one I didn't want to miss and was happy we found it easily. 

 

 

This was the HOG-Hope Outdoor Gallery.  A place designated for graffiti artists to come and graffiti away.  There was a van there selling photos of all the graffiti because it changes so often.  Let me try to recap the conversation with the man who worked out of the van: 

Van Man: "This is what I do all day.  Sit in this van.  Take pictures of the art." 

Me:  "Cool"

Van Man:  "You know, really it's all statistics.  You know, that's numbers.  Analytics.  Anna-lytics...people draw the art and I take the pictures.:

Me:  "Uh-huh." 

Van Man:  "all about the statistics" 

Me:  "have a good one"

Kathy and me about at the same time to each other, "you know, the anna-lytics of it all is crazy"

 



 Ok, back to food.  Everyone told us we had to go to Round Rock donuts.  So we did.  Because, um, donuts.  We pulled up and when we saw the line to the drive thru was backed out to the street we thought it had to be amazing.  They fulfilled the "everything's bigger in Texas" saying with that Texas sized donut.  It was also referred to as "the donut as big as a toilet seat."  Way to take the any appeal right out of it with that reference.  Anyways...so naturally, we ordered 6 donuts each.  (to save some for later)  Much to our dismay, all that build up was a big let down.  They were decent but I'd rather eat Krispy Kreme.  The donuts left an orange color on your hand and napkins.  Orange.  They said it's because they use the whole egg and not just the whites. But that orange really threw me off.  We both ended up throwing most of the donuts out after we took a bite of the different flavors.  The other Austin thing everyone said to get was Kolaches.  It sounded like a fun word so I must try one.  It was good.  I would describe it as a cherry pastry.  Maybe we didn't get an authentic one because I just thought why make the word "pastry" that much harder to spell by calling it "kolache." 

 Still on the food topic, one night went to a much recommended place-the Hula Hut.  We were told it had views like The Oasis but better food and service.  It was a Polynesian Tex-Mex fusion style place.  Pretty unique and right on a lake.  We sat out on the deck.  Food was great.  Our waiter came by with one check as we finished up and we asked him to split it.  So after about 15 minutes he comes back and sits down by us.  We all thought he would proceed to tell us he couldn't split the check.  Instead, he told us that the owner was there and he only comes by about 4 times a year and he was buying everyone's dinner that night.  My immediate reaction was "This is my favorite restaurant in Austin!"  Followed by "Really, or are you punking me?"  Then when he confirmed our food was on the house we threw down some tip money and got out of there before the guy changed his mind.  The place was crazy packed.  It was very generous of him. 

 Fast forward to the following weekend.  Kathy went home and I spent a nice weekend exploring solo.  My first stop was Enchanted Rock way out in Texas Hill Country.  When I got there the woman directing cars where to park was giving me some help figuring out which direction to go and asked me if I was doing the loop trail or the summit trail.  I told her I had no idea at that moment.  She pointed me in both directions and I chose summit trail.  By trail what they really mean is "here is a path to guide you up not even a quarter of this rock.  The rest you are on your own.  Good luck."  As I leaned into the steep incline I wondered if this was similar to climbing a 7 pitch roof or an 8.  Thankfully, there were some giant rocks along good ol' Enchanted Rock so you could take a break, sit down a minute and catch your breath.  No way could've I have done that without breaks.  It is a lot taller than it looks. And steeper. 

Here's that tease of a trail

 But the view from the top....worth it.  Up to this point in the time I was in Austin I was thinking there was something very different about Texas.  This was the weekend I figured out what it was.  The sky.  The sky in Texas is just different.  It's postcard perfect. 

 Someone saw me trying to take a bunch of selfies and offered to take my picture.  And then came the fun part of getting down that rock.  Just like a steep roof, getting off is worse than getting on.  I walked at an angle all the way down and wondered how parents weren't terrified that their kids would somehow trip and roll right on down that thing.

The shot above is me taking a look at the trek back down.  It was about 9am at this time.  I was covered in sweat from that climb.  But I realized just how hot it was when my cell phone gave me the temp warning and shut itself off. 

 When I got back to the car I cranked up the ac and headed to Fredericksburg.  I had planned on going to San Antonio but heard multiple people say go to Fredericksburg instead.  I'm glad I did.  It was awesome.  My first stop was Wildseed Farms where they had a butterfly garden and wildflowers growing all over. 

 The pictures just don't do the colorfulness justice.

 

 

This may have been the most butterfly populated butterfly garden I've ever been in.

 

 This was inside their open air garden shopping area.  It just screams Texas to me. Again with the sky. 

After a good hour, I left the farm and went back into the town. 

Fredericksburg is a German town. 

 

It was picture perfect Main Street USA.

 

Even their library was adorable.

 

I enjoyed exploring the shops along Main St.  Brought back memories of shopping in Fort Collins with Michelle and Danielle when we took our Colorado trip for Sarah's wedding.  Seems like ages ago!  I even found a store called Dogologie which sold dog toys similar to one I had brought back from Colorado.  It is Jazzie's favorite toy so I picked up another one for her.  I was just thinking about what to do for lunch when I stumbled into a store that had some samples out.  Of everything.  EVERYTHING.  Every single item that they sold in the store was out for sampling.  Lunch plans-check.  I tried artichoke dips, enchilada dips, raspberry jam, peach jam, apple pie filling, cherry pie filling, peach butter (regret not getting this. Serious regret.) mango salsa, chipotle salsa, orange crème fudge among about 50 other items.  I kid you not it's a grown up version of a kid in a candy store.  I left with a full stomach and a jar of jalapeno cilantro mustard which is delicious. (really should've bought the peach butter too)

 

  

 

 

 There were at least 9 sections of the store with 3 sections of countertops like this in each making a U shape.  When you consider there are probably between 5-10 samples on average on each counter...with a few very long counters that had about 20 samples... #feast.  And there were some that were so good I went back just to make sure it was really that good. 

 Next stop, Pedernales Falls State Park.  It was a good drive through some curvy roads to find this place.  But soooo incredible.  Again, look at the sky.

 

 

Thanks to the recent flooding in Texas the falls were flowing much more than normal. 

 You weren't supposed to swim in this part of the falls but people didn't seem to care.  Neither did a few dogs. 

By this time of the day it's late afternoon and HOT.  Could barely get my phone to stay on. I knew there was a designated swimming area in the park so I was determined to find it.  Granted I didn't have a swimsuit with me but I did have shorts.  So I found the parking area, went in ninja mode and changed in the car from my workout pants to my shorts and happily headed towards the designated swimming area.  It was again, a beautiful sight.  However it was a loooong walk down to it and quite the hike back up!  I held my phone in front of the cars ac vent for a few mins. to get it cooled off so I could be ready to take more photos. 

 

 

 

 That water felt so good I can't even describe it.

 The following day I headed back out to Texas Hill Country and went to Longhorn Cavern State Park.  Unfortunately I had my good running shoes on and they are now caked in mud after my cave excursion. 

The stairs down to the cave

Inside the cave in the hall of marble portion.  It was tough to get really good pics in there.  Picture dark, wet and muddy.  There were bats in the cave.  They were the size of chicken nuggets.  That's how big they get.  Bat nuggets.  They were the cutest bats I'll ever see!

In between all this I worked of course.  I walked outside to the front of the building a lot at lunch and one day, I was looking down at my phone and saw something out of the corner of my eye and looked up to see this guy.  I believe I said something along the lines of "what the eff."  Then I proceeded to watch him in fascination and took pictures until a guy walked by and commented on him.  I said "um this may be a stupid question but what IS it?"  He said a turkey vulture. He had the ugly cute thing going for him and kind of looked like he was wearing some sort of pimp fur coat. There was a nest and the next day I walked outside to say hello to my friend...

 

 

 

 to discover he already had plenty of friends. 

 

Those are the highlights!  Add in a pool day with the hotel pool all to ourselves and more good food, busy work days and you get the idea.  There is a ton to do in Austin, the people are great, the food is amazing, traffic is the worst and the sky is the best. 

Stuff I've learned

As I turned a year older this past weekend here are a few recent revelations: 

-I never want to stop learning.  Both new skills and new ways of looking at things. 

-My rising sun sign is Sagittarius-which seems to suit me much more than Gemini which I’ve never really identified with. 

-Sometimes it’s nice to spend time alone and explore somewhere new solo. 

-It’s ok to say no without an explanation. 

-What people think of you really doesn’t matter. 

http://markmanson.net/not-giving-a-fuck

-Loving your home is awesome. 

-Speculating gets you nowhere except maybe the Dr.’s office for some Xanax.

-There’s nothing wrong with Xanax. 

-Take the time to figure out what you’re passionate about. 
http://markmanson.net/life-purpose#.gxgmzm:yP4u

-Consistency makes a big difference and can lead to big success.

-I watched a great video where Matt Hussey said his dad’s advice to him on speaking to a huge crowd was “play the game, not the occasion.”  I repeat it to myself all the time.  Don’t stress over something that you’ve done before even if you’re doing it on a bigger scale.  Play the game, same as always.  I use it for runs on race day. 

-Another Matt Hussey lesson-if you’re always ready you never have to get ready.  You can apply that to a lot of things.  Whatever you want to do…just get ready, even if the opportunity isn’t right there yet.

-Being hungover on a plane is a bad idea.

Protecting my bricks. Warning...rant ahead

I will apologize up front about the less than positive note of this post (well it's sorta positive at the end) but I need to rant a little here...because I get very worked up about this. People trying to come back into your life (or in this case the kids life...not using names which I will explain) 17ish plus years later thinking they can waltz in because they decide they want to. Wrong.  Now I can't use my kids name here because this person obsessively stalks the internet for her.  Part of why I discontinued my old blog was due to him. So many of you know I changed her phone number due to him as well. Well he somehow found her new one.  He can see my house on the internet he says...congrats you know how to use Google and Google earth.

Hint: if she says she doesn't want you in her life, blocks you on social media and changes her phone number...that means she actually, really, truly does not want you in her life. Kinda like that movie He's Just Not That Into You now that I think about it!

So when you then stalk her school newspaper and my social media and put together bits and pieces and think for some reason you are entitled to know what happened and what it all means...wrong again. People amaze me. I don't get passionately worked up about much.  But when I find out he asked another family member why the kid was alone for 3 weeks while I was gone boy that was it.  I do not owe any man an explanation any more. Period. Nor will I be threatened or harassed into providing one. Nor will I allow my kid to be harassed. Nor will I have my kid afraid to write and publish articles because he will see.  Read away. But you don't get to ask questions.

I am baffled at what people think they are owed when they have given nothing. I don't get worked up about much but come at me or my kid...and you'll see just what kind of strength developed during the life I've lived.  I have been told I am intimidating and always laughed at that thought. Tonight...he should be intimidated. I have my crap together and am more than confident in the life I've built and how I have built it. (positive note right?!) There won't be anyone else deciding what bricks go where except me. (Sounds like a revelation from turning another year older) So I'm making sure my bricks stay in place. And for someone that is entitled to nothing...that means my house is much bigger and badass than his. #beastmode

(more positive post coming tomorrow...thoughts I have on what I've learned in life as I celebrate another birthday. But this blog is a lot of honest thoughts so that was my honestly for the night)