I'll Just Have a Small Plate....

I'll just have the small plate please, and on clearance?  Heck yeah.  I never do well when I run errands.  Anyone that knows me knows that is why I make a list, back it up with a master list, and for some reason still tote my blackberry around too.  All to be completely sidetracked by another project I just have to do stemming from a random thought or idea.   What is this post about again?

Anyhow I found these plates this weekend on mega-lo-mart clearance prices.  Turned them into a nice bed of flowers in the shade garden.  Look good eh?

Takes only 3 ingredients - cheap flower plates, galvanized wire (my favorite item ever), and copper tubes. 

The plates works best if they have edges (non-round) so they have a niche for the wire to grab hold like a plate hanger. 

A Smile is Worth a Thousand Pictures....

It was a blur and happened in the blink of an eye.  Last week, the worlds best niece and nephews came up for the weekend - Friday through Sunday.  It was their first time to spend a whole weekend all by themselves, would they be bored, would they get homesick, would they get hurt and I regret it for life since mom and dad were gone.....  I have to stop now that train is gone and at Get a Grip Central station.....

Each day was packed with whatever the kids wanted to do, with some strategically placed subliminal clues.  There were toy stores and trains, Zilker Park and the children's museum, pool time and slushies. There was an enabler in the house that AA would have thrown out in one meeting.  Vanishing ink, pop rocks, pez dispensers, food places that serve toys with meals....the litany in writing brings flush to my cheeks.

When it was over, it was a fantastic time.  When you sit on the couch, everyone wants to sit with you.  When you judge a cannonball splash, everyone wants to be judged by you.  Their smiles make you the popular kid, even when your middle aged and less easily slip out of the middle of an inflatable ring.  There are only a couple of pictures, but who cares.  The handmade drawings, they blue bits of slime from the children's museum that are spotted about are what is remembered.  It is the moment on the train when the biggest widest eyes look up, smile, and giggle quietly. 

That is why a smile that is worth a thousand pictures.  Take time this weekend and find a smile.

What goes on at the Frio...

I'm not sure about Van Morrison, "Hey where did we go, days when the rains came", but we are headed to the Frio!  This year will mark the 3rd anniversary of the sheer insanity of family coming together for several days of comingled, cohabitated tom-foolery!  That's right, the Maurer's are headed out for vacation.  And not just a few of us, all the uncles/aunts, all the cousins, all the kids and all the spouses in one compound.  Did I say food too? 

I'm not sure we can claim copyright now, but the Clampetts were NOT the first to show up to a large house with full trucks temporarily pin-striped with bungee cords, it was in fact the Maurer's, but in those years we were too busy making moonshine and drinking to take photos.  (you can guess which of the former is true, A, B, or C, both).  But, like most ill-fated "what were you thinking" ideas, this is not one to miss over your life.

There are cocktails, food, swimsuits, tubes, and tans.  We foresake common sense for nonsense, crying for laughter, and shoes for flip flops.  There is no internet, just yelling out the back door to the pool over the radio.  Water is required for this ride, and tubes are made into make-shift floating bunkers of alcohol.  Yellow rope mysteriously submerges Tupperware filled with what most people call "trash can punch".  Our flotilla brings tears and worry to people ahead of us.  Thank goodness these tubes can not talk. 

So today, Monday, I pledge to start making good on my list.  The one that gets me to the Frio and back.  It looks like the grocery list of Liza Minnelli, where no 2 single thoughts connect.... 1. rope, 2. gin, 3. kitchen knives, 4. aspirin.

I'm cooking the first night as I have for the first 2 years.  This year's menu:

1. pulled spicy pork tacos with queso fresco
2. chipotle cole slaw
3. home fries (for the kids)
4. beans
5. garden salad
6. 3 of Minny Jackson's choclate pies (as close as I can create) (One will be chipotle and chocolate - standby for the blog post on how it turns out).

Can't wait to get there.

http://friocountry.com/