Only in Texas

All us Texans have to deal with the stereotype that we ride our horses to work everyday. It's so annoying to travel somewhere and someone asks how many horses you own. The answer is zero....unless you talk to my husband, to which he says "I have 345 horses pulling my Hemi Dodge Ram, baby!"

Well some people have to go and ruin this stereotype for everyone.

Just yesterday I was taking some back roads home (and by back roads I mean Manor/Springdale instead of HWY 183) to avoid a traffic jam. As I'm driving along this road in the middle of the city I notice something odd on the sidewalk up ahead and almost peed my pants it was so funny to me.

My only thought was "Why don't I have my camera with me when stuff like this happens???"

What I saw was...a man...commuting home from work...on his horse...on the sidewalk.

Okay maybe he wasn't really commuting home from work...I don't know him so I don't really know. But it was rush hour and he was in a residential/commercial area - not some ranch. So I'm going to make the broad assumption that he was ruining the stereotype for the rest of us because it makes the story better, okay?

It was pretty funny to see though.

Good ol Austin, Texas.

You just never know what you're going to see when you wake up in the morning.

However.....I will really pee my pants if I ever see this going down the sidewalk:

photo from Internet

#34 - Do Something Austin-y

Congress St. Bridge bat watching!

Image from online since it's hard to get a good shot with my crappy camera at dusk.

If you haven't done this - you should - now - seriously get in your car and drive to the Congress St. Bridge tonight. It's so much fun and it's FREE!

Last week Chris and I met the rest of the Walterscheidt clan at the Statesman park for a picnic and bat watching. We had Hooter's wings for the picnic and something about Chris' parents going into Hooter's to buy wings just cracks me up.

As the largest urban bat colony in North America, there are up to 1.5 million Mexican free tail bats that fly out of the Congress St. Bridge each night to go find food and eat those pesky mosquitoes (sure could have used a bat nearby when the mosquitoes were biting the heal of my foot this past weekend...ouch!).

Anyway, living in NM for so long I shouldn't be that impressed with bats flying at night. After all, I've seen the Carlsbad Cavern bats before. But there's something about 1.5 million bats living under a bridge that I drive on all the time that is just so cool. Plus, it's right in the middle of town and not out in BFE like Carlsbad is.

This was the second time I'd seen the Austin bats and it always amazes me how many people show up to watch this each night. Last time we went on a random Monday night. This time we went on a Thursday night - school night both times. And yet there are tons of people just standing around waiting and taking photos.

It was a lot of fun and next time I want to stand on the bridge instead of sitting on the sidelines. They seem to fly out of the north side of the bridge, fly over the bridge and head south...so how cool would that be to have them fly over you? Well, cool until one poops bat guano on your head. Ever smelled bat guano before? Ew.

Note to self: bring a rain coat just in case.

#38 - try a new restaurant

Last week Chris and I hoped in the truck and headed over to Lowe's to pick up some stuff. After we decided to head to dinner but didn't know where to go - so we started driving. Ended up at Hill's Cafe on S. Congress. It's one of those places I've always wanted to try since I've heard so much about it but never remember to suggest. So I'm glad we finally were able to stop in.

For those that don't know...Hill's Cafe is owned by KVET morning DJ Bob Cole and is the location for the KVET free summer concert series. I've wanted to go to several of the concerts too but haven't made it yet - hopefully sometime soon...

Anyway, the place is definitely down home Texas cookin'. At the end of the night I'd have to say I was just "eh" about the food though. Everything seemed to be fried....so I felt guilty eating there. The onion rings get a thumbs up - and I'm hard to please on onion rings. The fried pickles were my favorite part - they were pickle spears so that was unique. The mac n cheese wasn't good at all - which surprised me because usually places like that have amazing home cooked mac n cheese.

But my biggest disappointed was with the chicken fried steak. I don't normally eat chicken fried steak (unlike my husband who must order it if it's on the menu). Since it said it was the official chicken fried steak of the Austion Rodeo I thought it would be good. I was mislead - guess I shouldn't have read that to mean it was the best. It tasted more like dog food to me (not that I know what dog food really tastes like). I could barely eat it. It holds no candle to the Gristmill's chicken friend steak...now that is some yumminess! I think I should have gone with the Hill's burger - which does have a "best" title in it....voted best burger in Austin (I think by Statesman former food writer Dale Rice).

Anyway, I'd go back again...especially to go to one of the concerts...but I won't be twisting any arms to get there.

# 2 and # 30 - DONE!

#2 - Install a kitchen island
#30 - New lighting in the kitchen
DONE and DONE!

I can't believe I haven't posted about this yet. I'm such a slacker! When we moved into our current house in Feb 07, I wasn't pleased with the layout of the kitchen. There was a lot of wasted space because it was supposed to be an eat-in kitchen. So I said "I'd love to have a kitchen island in here!" and so began my long long journey...

I saved and saved money for it. I researched and tried to just buy one. Didn't see what I was looking for. I tried to get someone to build it for me - timing just wasn't right. So finally Chris and I decided to tackle this sucker on our own. We started building it in Feb 08 (one year after I originally wanted this baby) and didn't have it installed in the kitchen until July 08!

We had some set backs (which I shall not list here because I wouldn't want my husband to have to admit that he actually needed help and that sometimes he should listen to your wife! And then I'd have to admit that I hit the top with my tire and caused a wee bit of damage...oops!) and we had to make some adjustments to the original plan - but in the end it turned out great and was cheaper than I would have paid for a manufactured piece.

The cabinet part is a pre-made cabinet from Lowe's. But then Chris added wood all the way around the sides since the pre-made cabinets just have a plywood sides/back. The top was the interesting part. A butcher block (my original idea) was too expensive. Then I saw an antique table that had wood planks as the top and decided that would be a good idea for my top. So we spent a lot of hard work making a top from scratch! On my end, getting all of this to match the cabinets and counter tops that already existed in the kitchen was stressful - but seems to match pretty darn close!

And all the hard work and waiting was well worth it. I love my kitchen island. Sometimes I just sit there and stare at it, knowing that even though it isn't the most perfectly crafted kitchen island - it is perfect for us and was a combined effort.

Side view with stools and on the other side is a place to hide my trash can under the top. This side will one day have a bookshelf for all my cookbooks.

You can see the window seat Chris recently build for me too. I need to stain it/paint it and put a cushion on the top and then I'll blog about it.

A big fat thanks goes to my fabulous husband for all his hard work and patience (most of the time...), to my dad who saved the day a couple times and to my cousin Alan who helped in the beginning and was an excellent beer drinker during the process!

And if the kitchen island wasn't enough...I also got a new light fixture to go over the kitchen island. I knew I would one day get the light fixture - but I had no idea it would be so soon. My parents came in town to help install the kitchen island (it's pretty heavy!) and my dad decided right then and there that he'd also install the light fixture for me. I love it!

Original light fixture meant for eat-in kitchen.


New light fixture over the island.

#60 - Step Brothers

Like I stated before, we were in Iowa visiting our friends Leslie and Mike recently. We were going to go canoing one day - but there were some bad storms so we had to make different plans. Last minute we decided to go see a movie and picked out Step Brother with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.

What makes a movie more fun? ALCOHOL! What are you to do when there is no Alamo Drafthouse in Iowa? Sneak in little flasks of alcohol you bought at the grocery store on your way to the theater, of course!

Did I mention we went to a matinee on a Tuesday? That made it even weirder to be drinking. I felt like a teenager sneaking liquor into the theater but it really did make the movie more fun.

As for the movie - I loved the beginning. There are some great lines. However, I felt like towards the end of the movie they just ran out of steam and thought "Hey, let's just find a way to end this." It just didn't quite work for me.

So basically what I mean is...if you haven't seen it already - just wait until it comes out on DVD and you can rent it from the Red Box for a buck and save yourself some money. And then you don't have to sneak the liquor in either - you can get as drunk as you want in your own living room.

The 600 lb Butter Cow

Have you ever seen a 600 lb cow made out of butter? I HAVE! And I have the photos to prove it.

Quick (grainy) photo of me in front of the butter cow before some runt kid pushed me out of the way

While we were in Iowa visiting our friends Leslie and Mike, we went to the Iowa State Fair. The "must see" for me was the butter cow. Things to know about the butter cow:

1. The butter cow could butter 19,200 slices of toast
2. I wouldn't want to use that butter on my toast though since they recycle the butter from year to year (ew! part 1)
3. It would take you 2 lifetimes to consume all that butter
4. There is a wood, metal, mesh frame so it isn't JUST butter
5. They go into a lot of detail on the cow. (ew! part 2)


Bonus for the butter cow of 2008: the life size butter Shawn Johnson, US Olympic Gymnast from Des Moines.

Before the butter (photo from Yahoo! Sports and Getty Images)

After the butter (with butter balance beam - her premier event)

With the butter flag

Sorry for the lack of updates

This summer still continues to be crazy busy for me with lots of twists and turns. I won't go into details now because I don't have time but I'm hopeful it will settle down once Christmas tree farm season starts in October. I don't know if I can handle all this PLUS working on the farm every weekend.

But for now Chris and I are headed on a 16 hour (one way) road trip up to Iowa to visit our good friends Leslie and Mike.

Chris and I with Leslie and Mike at their wedding just over a year ago.

We'll also attend our first National Christmas Tree Meeting in Des Moines, IA (the initial reason we're going up there - but don't tell Leslie!). Yup folks, my summer vacation includes going and meeting with a bunch of Christmas tree farmers! Whoda thought??? But I'm really excited about it. Bonus is that we're stopping in Jeff City, MO on our way back to visit Chris' Aunt Mary Ann - and that woman sure can cook! My tummy can't wait. :)

I have major updates (like I finished my kitchen island!!!!) but no time to organize the photos and post about that long process. Just sit pretty and hopefully I'll get to it when we come back from our trip.

p.s. - Pray that our crAaZy dog doesn't make my parents go insane. They're angels for watching the hellion. It'll be a miracle if he doesn't kill our 22 year old family cat this week with his antics.