I had to set an alarm for 630am on Saturday morning. Al was going to pick me up at 730am.
Al and I drove the 65 miles of the Rosedale Ride, checking for road conditions and new construction and that sort of thing. Here are my favorite landmarks from the Ride route. This is the Cele Store. A rest stop will sit right next to the store.
This is the New Sweden Church. It's an old wooden church with beautiful proportions. I took this photo from inside Al's car because just about then Jo texted me and asked if I was headed back home. I couldn't lollygag - Jo and Jen had a champagne manicure and pedicure scheduled for 11am and I had to get back before that.
Jo left. The kids and I watched a movie ("The Croods" on Netflix). Then we played outside and in Ava's yard (while two APD cop cars came by to check on our crazy neighbor) and ate lunch. I put Evan down for his nap and started raking the front yard. Vivian tried hard to re-scatter the leaves I was collecting. But I managed to make a pretty big pile (we have lots of leaves and lots of pissed off neighbors) and Vivian did some spectacular jumps. Then Jo returned with pretty nails.
Towards evening Nicolle and her brood and Carol showed up. They were in Austin for Quinn's bowling championship. He came in second. We celebrated with pizza. The kids screamed and played and made the best of the short time with the cousins. Devyn raked the other side of the yard and we made our leaf pile even bigger. Vivian invited her cousins and Eleanor and Theodore and Cerie from across the street to participate in the leaf olympics.
Finally everyone left. Jo and I got dressed as gypsies. Vivian and Evan did too for the fun of it. The babysitter arrived and looked like she thought we were all bat shit crazy. We left the kids with her and went downtown and showed off our costumes to Jen at the Red Room and then went on to a pre-party. From there we crossed the river to the Carnival - Austin's big annual Brazilian style party. Jo left to return home mid-night-ish.
I haven't been to the Carnival in over 15 years. But it did seem like people are wearing even less these days. I pondered difficult questions - like why do women paint their boobs while men just let their asses hang out.
Carnival finished at 2am and we went back to what was by then the post-party. By the time I decided to head home there were no cabs. I trudged back to the parking garage where we had parked before the evening festivities. And confirmed that Jo had indeed taken the car back home. How selfish. So I started walking my inebriated self home. By then the front was coming through and it was cold and windy. Which really encouraged me to walk fast. I got home a little bit shy of making it a full 24 hour day since that 630am alarm on Saturday morning. And blissfully Jo and the kids let me sleep till almost noon.
Al and I drove the 65 miles of the Rosedale Ride, checking for road conditions and new construction and that sort of thing. Here are my favorite landmarks from the Ride route. This is the Cele Store. A rest stop will sit right next to the store.
This is the New Sweden Church. It's an old wooden church with beautiful proportions. I took this photo from inside Al's car because just about then Jo texted me and asked if I was headed back home. I couldn't lollygag - Jo and Jen had a champagne manicure and pedicure scheduled for 11am and I had to get back before that.
Jo left. The kids and I watched a movie ("The Croods" on Netflix). Then we played outside and in Ava's yard (while two APD cop cars came by to check on our crazy neighbor) and ate lunch. I put Evan down for his nap and started raking the front yard. Vivian tried hard to re-scatter the leaves I was collecting. But I managed to make a pretty big pile (we have lots of leaves and lots of pissed off neighbors) and Vivian did some spectacular jumps. Then Jo returned with pretty nails.
Towards evening Nicolle and her brood and Carol showed up. They were in Austin for Quinn's bowling championship. He came in second. We celebrated with pizza. The kids screamed and played and made the best of the short time with the cousins. Devyn raked the other side of the yard and we made our leaf pile even bigger. Vivian invited her cousins and Eleanor and Theodore and Cerie from across the street to participate in the leaf olympics.
Finally everyone left. Jo and I got dressed as gypsies. Vivian and Evan did too for the fun of it. The babysitter arrived and looked like she thought we were all bat shit crazy. We left the kids with her and went downtown and showed off our costumes to Jen at the Red Room and then went on to a pre-party. From there we crossed the river to the Carnival - Austin's big annual Brazilian style party. Jo left to return home mid-night-ish.
I haven't been to the Carnival in over 15 years. But it did seem like people are wearing even less these days. I pondered difficult questions - like why do women paint their boobs while men just let their asses hang out.
Carnival finished at 2am and we went back to what was by then the post-party. By the time I decided to head home there were no cabs. I trudged back to the parking garage where we had parked before the evening festivities. And confirmed that Jo had indeed taken the car back home. How selfish. So I started walking my inebriated self home. By then the front was coming through and it was cold and windy. Which really encouraged me to walk fast. I got home a little bit shy of making it a full 24 hour day since that 630am alarm on Saturday morning. And blissfully Jo and the kids let me sleep till almost noon.
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