Howdy Y'All Part Deux

Sunday morning and it was time to check out of San Antonio, but not before breaking for some breakfast tacos and a few hours with the SuperHysterical (it must run in the genes) Little Buddy's Brother Marcos and his lovely family. Something about those darn Delgados that makes my face and stomach hurt from TML syndrome (Too Much Laughter). From there, we changed into swimwear and sunscreened up and headed to the Guadalupe River for inner-tubing. Thankfully - for both you and for me - there are no photos of the next 3 hours in existence. But I kinda wish someone had videotaped us - talk about Lucy and Ethel! The river was a tad low so we kept bottoming out and getting stuck and then I was scared at first to let go of Veronica/Lucy but when faced with getting dragged through a humongous dead white gutspilled fish, I let go and floated away, just like the good Ethel that I am - I did cling to a vine by the side of the river to wait to see if Lucy could escape the gross mess and we were reunited again downstream (FRIEND! You did find me!) I did discover the power, the strength of my butt muscles though because I developed a method of rocking back and forth while clenching them to power us up and away when we got stuck - so HURRAH for my ass!! It made an excellent move or two. The only bad moment came for me when I was using the tube rental restroom before we left, I had a nightmare come true - that I'd one day be sitting on a toilet and the door would fling open for the whole world to see. Except this time, since I was wearing a bathing suit, you need to declothe to go so I'm sitting on it completely naked. And the door flings open. And there is the parking lot. I lept up - naked - and screamed "CLOSE THE DOOR!!!!!!!"

It happened so quickly I don't think much was seen...but still...

We looked like river rats at the end of our adventure, so we headed to Gruen, a
a historic mill town - complete with grist mill (sounds Dickensian, doesn't it?) which is now a restaurant overlooking the trees and the river and we had supper here. But first we checked into a bed & breakfast, called Oma Gruen's Inn, looked around some of the little shops and had a good night's sleep and the next day, headed back on our way to Dallas.

Howdy, Y'all! Part 1

So I'm back from the Texan Trip and all was stupendously fabulous! My cheeks hurt from laughing so much and I do believe I acquired more deeply etched laugh lines, ahem CROW'S FEET around my eyes because I was in a constant state of smile. I'd rather be wrinkled and happy then sad and smooth-faced any day.

I flew into Dallas that Thursday morning, Larisa picked me up and we went treasure hunting at a huge thrift store (I just got a few books - of course) and then met Veronica Little Buddy at a yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner - chosen because I was hankering for a margarita. We made our plans for the next week, all scheduled out, and headed home to hit the hay because we were trying to leave Dallas by 6am for our drive to San Antonio. Didn't QUITE happen, but we were out of there early enough to be amazed by a round blazing orange pink circle in the sky - otherwise known as the SUN. Seems it's been awhile since I've been up early enough to see a sunrise!!!

We arrived in San Antonio around noon and our hotel was right on the Riverwalk so we took a quick walk

and then headed to the Alamo - by the way, there really is no basement in the Alamo, I checked!

Then we caught up with Milette and her cousin at their hotel and sat outside by the river, had some fish tacos, chips and salsa, one or two margaritas (those darn things again!!)

and waited for the Bride to join us. Cindy was only able to visit for an hour or so, but I'm so glad she did because we knew she'd be busy the next day at the actual wedding so this was the only "private just us" time that we'd get with her. Then we shopped a bit - I bought some cool El Día de los Muertos stuff at a shop called Casa Salazar - a fuschia tin skeleton to hang, a catrina lady skeleton, a red turquoise ring, a mermaid angel xmas ornament, beaded earrings...oh the shopkeeper LOVED me...she said (do your own Spanish accent) "Layydeee, you are getting dangerous..."

And then we rested for bit before meeting the others for dinner and then - our Ghost Tour! They gave us equipment and everything, just like on Ghost Hunters - heat sensors, EMF detectors, and dowsing rods. Spookily fun - I love the haunted history tours - you get the great stories and I think the guides know more history then the more traditional-type tours. Then we headed back to our hotel lobby with its comfy sofas and reviewed our digital cameras for supernatural evidence and to share our own ghost stories - Milette and Marielle had the best ones.

Saturday was the wedding

but we managed to slip another ghost adventure in there - we had 2 hours to kill so Veronica drove us to the Ghost Tracks where we conducted our own tests of putting your car in neutral and then having it move over the tracks all by itself. I put baby powder all over her car in the hopes we would catch fingerprints (I had seen that on some tv show) but alas, all it did was make a big mess. So we headed off to the reception until 10 or so

and then we felt a final drink before saying farewell was needed so we went to an awesome restaurant called Mi Tierra for - you guessed it - Mexican food and Margaritas!

Recipe of the Week: Roasted Asparagus!

This ROCKED! And hey, it was easy, I needed something quick for this week's Recipe since I had to rush home to do laundry and I needed to clean out my fridge before my Texan Adventure so this is it for this week, but my, was it stellar! This is the only way to eat asparagus from now on - and you can do the same with green beans, it's just as good. The roasting gives it a smoky aroma and flavor and I also included the rest of the fennel I still had from the salad two weeks ago - that was tasty too, its gets to be like a mellow sweet onion without the oniony taste and smell. I was very pleased with this:

From Mollie Katzen:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll the asparagus around an oiled tray until well coated. Roast for only 5 to 10 minutes (checking frequently) until just tender. Length of roasting time will depend on the thickness of the spears. Salt lightly while still hot, and serve at any temperature.

I roasted it a bit longer so that the asparagus got a little dark, it made it a bit crispy which I liked. So I'd let the oven get really hot and then let them blister for 10 minutes. But don't let them burn!!

Happy 90th Birthday Pete!!

Yesterday was Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday - Bruce Springsteen described this wonderful human being best at his big birthday concert at Madison Square Garden last night (I didn't buy a ticket and now I semi-regret it...)

Springsteen brought them to laughter as he introduced Seeger. “He’s gonna look a lot like your granddad that wears flannel shirts and funny hats. He’s gonna look like your granddad if your granddad can kick your ass,” the Boss said.

“At 90, he remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country’s illusions about itself.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30522406/

My sentiments EXACTLY.

Recipe of Last Week: Avocado,Grapefruit, & Pumpkin-Seed Salad

I'm not bothering to post this one - it's not worth repeating. All the ingredients separately were yummy, but the grapefruit kills the good taste of the avocado and the pumpkin seeds were just crunchy - not a good mixture, this one. Oh well, live and learn...

Mayday! Mayday! Quick, eat some poetry, it's MAY!

The May Magnificat
by Gerard Manly Hopkins

MAY is Mary’s month, and I...
Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—
Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested
Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.
All things rising, all things sizing...
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood...
Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May....

Oh it's the end of the workweek and I'm a few steps closer to the Texan Adventure so this weekend will be spent Getting Self and Things In Order. I'm also trying to rest and superboost my immune system because of all this Swine Flu hype. So I live in affected cluster - Queens - I take the subway - great way to get germs anyhow - and I'm taking a plane next Thursday which is another great germ spreader. Earlier this week I felt so sick to my stomach in the middle of the day, really vomitous and dizzy but took a Pepcid and drank a ton of water and felt better but you know for a brief interval I thought - OMG SWINE FLU!

And when I looked in the mirror, it didn't help that my nose had turned snout-like and my skin a pinkish hue...OINK OINK OINK...oh wait, swine flu doesn't really turn you into a pig? Then what was going on...oh never mind...

By the way, my earlier post this Monday of thanking the Universe in advance for things and pluses and such that had not yet occurred or come to me - totally works. Try it! I did receive some nice surprises/mini-milagros after all - such as last night, I got a phone call from my supercool, super sweet niece Allie who is so funny and so smart and totally makes me smile - she's AWESOME! So I think I'll repeat this experiment more often - report some results back to me if you feel like testing it out...