Lori

I don’t know if you can call it an addiction since I am able to restrain myself when I have to do othter things, but Pinterest sure is fun! Here is my favorite board:

http://pinterest.com/asyouwishaustin/booyah/

and, of course, all my boards:

http://pinterest.com/asyouwishaustin/

If you like to look at pretty things, fashion, good photography, (bad photography), DIY and crafts, home tips/tricks, wedding inspiration, or just about any other interest, you need to be on Pinterest.

This is not exactly what Purrrrrl or Marble look like in the car. I mean, after all, they travel in a box/carrier.

Day 3 was a relaxing “get back home” day for us.

After cleaning up the cabin and packing, we headed back to “town” for lunch. On the way out, Emil drove us over the river so I could grab these pics.

We tried the Wimberley Cafe for lunch. Good thing we were leaving because we’d tried all the good restaurants in the town! I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of vegetarian options; my veggie sandwich sans cheese was quite good. And, this was the WiFi hotspot of the town. Lots of folks were there to work.

Even though Lizzie had told us that the old store was only open on the weekends, Emil wanted to try to go see what she had described. Of course, it was closed, but the drive there was pretty. The Devil’s Backbone is the top of the ridge line with valleys on both sides. It’s quite pretty, even at this time of year. We drove on up to Blanco. We tried to find their buggy museum (as in “horse and” not as in “grocery cart”), but it wasn’t at the address we had and we didn’t care enough to look further. I guess we are pretty lazy tourists at times.

Just north of Blanco, we spied a “lighthouse” tower of some sort, so we drove closer and found a vacation rentals place that must have a fabulous view! Maybe that will be our next adventure…

Day 2 of our mini-vacay brought us much fun!

After a late night of hot tubbing, we slept in. Actually, I slept until about 8am when I could no longer breathe. I blogged and wrote our Yelp reviews from the day before; Emil was up by ~11am. We ventured out to have some lunch. The Leaning Pear was too foo-foo for Emil and a too carnivore for me (but the Fried Green Tomatoes sure were good). It was just lunch, so we were fine. It was nice to see that they make an effort to use local farms and organic ingredients. I made a note to blog about the differences between vegetarian/vegan and organic and raw. Many assume those “land” among the others. This is not the case.

Next, we hit the “other side” of the street to patronize the businesses we missed on Day One. A couple of them were weak. They need a secret shopper in this town to tell some of the business owners that the “perfume” of the business is too strong. :/ I will say this about Wimberley, they certainly include the “girly” in any girl. From petticoats to jewelry to wine-oh-MY, they reach the BFF and Girls-gone-not-too-wild weekend crowds.

We finished shopping just in time to leave for our Zip Line Adventure Tour. Getting there early, waiting to gear up, and “Flight School” was brrrrrr cold on the windy day, but the rides were well worth the effort. Once we got properly geared, the rides were super fun! And, now that we’ve been on one of the Adventures, we are eligible for a night tour complete with glow sticks! We also learned there is a zip line tour in Austin, so now, we’ll need to check them out. The whole event was well worth the price of admission and the red wind-burned cheeks on this blustery day.

It would seem that riding a zip line would be lazy work, but there was a lot of hiking and other effort to the whole Adventure. After the tour, we headed to a local fave, Kate’s Place, for supper. I was lucky to find several vegetarian items that could easily be made vegan. Our food was delicious and the service was impeccable. The funny part of our visit here was the group of four grandparents (three women and one man, apparently all just friends) who were celebrating the end of the Thanksgiving weekend and that all their grandchildren finally went home! LOL! Emil and I just grinned to each other when we heard them. Ah, problems we’ll never have!

After a fine meal, we drove back to The Junction to visit the Devil’s Backbone Tavern. I had a couple of beers, we played shuffleboard, and we chatted a lot with the bartender (Lizzie) and some incredibly friendly locals, including one guy I’m practically certain I know from working at Texas A&M. Who’d've thunk?

Our late evening consisted of trying to get the hot tub, well, hot, while I wrote up this diddy about our day. It’s a great day to be a Luza, except for that failing hot tub thing.

Last Spring, on our way home from Canyon Lake, we saw lots of traffic on I-35 (surprise) and chose to take the back roads, instead. We drove through the little town of Wimberley and decided it would be our next destination.

We weren’t able to make it to Paris for Thanksgiving this year, so we took advantage of the long weekend (and a couple of days off for Emil) to get away from it all.

Emil found us a great cabin that was well within our budget.

We spent our first afternoon shopping at some of the quaint and fun stores and dined at the Cypress Creek Cafe. When we checked into our cabin, we learned the town has a new Trail of Lights sponsored by the local theater group. To cap off a great day, we went to Brewster’s for a sampler flight of the seven beers they currently have on tap. We had a lovely time chatting with the owner’s dad and his caregiver. Bruce, the owner, played NFL football and was on the 49ers teams when they won the ’88 and ’89 Superbowls. The place is covered in his memorabilia. Back at the cabin, we took advantage of the big-tub-of-hot water. Mixed with the cool breezes, it was quite relaxing.

Great day one!

Somewhere, a few weeks ago, I looked at some stats about our little blog and realized that if we had advertising, we could cover the cost of our site (and the domain and the email accounts and all the other stuff that comes with it). So, today, I placed an ad spot in the sidebar of our site. I also allowed some to appear in the RSS feeds, so you’ll see something either way you view our blog.

• We can’t, yet, control which ad types appear or don’t. I’ve requested that service, but I don’t know if we’ll qualify. I think it’s funny that the first ad I saw was for children’s clothing!
• Dear readers, you’ll have to let me know if they are too annoying or disruptive. I “watch” our posts, too. But, I get a lot of adds in other sites I read via RSS, so the ads are easy for me to ignore.
• Please, please, please when you are feeling generous, click an ad or two here or there. I want to see if our projected traffic is really as high as they showed me.

Thanks, family/friends!

Oskar, the blind kitten and his first toys. He has a brother, Klaus, who has sight, so if you follow the video thread, you’ll see them both.

Love, compassion, and even sight. Just a few more things to be thankful for!

I am thankful for:

• my husband, my best friend, my everything
• our mutual childfree belief
• our two cats and one turtle who bring us many giggles and lots of love
• that I still have two grandparents living; two finer people might not walk this Earth
• technology that is more often my friend than foe
• reasonable health for us both
• my small business, especially during this economy, and my clients whom I hold dear
• pants that are too big

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving, my third favorite holiday.

I’m craving real/traditional comfort foods for this, my second vegan, Thanksgiving. So, while I can easily “cheat” and have the non-vegan (but mostly vegetarian) versions of these foods, I’m making my own. I think this will be easier than last year’s meal of the traveling Tofurkey with sides.

Vegan Stuffing

I’m using a “Yankee” recipe that calls for sliced bread instead of the typical Southern cornbread dressing. I’m making it one notch healthier with whole grain bread. Maybe next year, I’ll make a vegan cornbread stuffing.

Vegan Green Bean Shoe Peg Corn Casserole

This is my mom’s standard side dish for the holidays. I’ve made it for various potluck dinners over the years and I’ve always tweaked it to my own tastes. This year, I had to make the “Cream of” soup since I can’t buy a vegan version of it. The soup alone is yummy. It’s also quite thick with a nice texture. I think it will do quite well in the recipe.

Mashed Garlic Faux-tatoes

Mashed potatoes are the dog-diggity-bomb and I do allow myself an occasional cheat when we are out to dinner, but I can’t eat these for Thanksgiving (two meals) and leftovers for a few days without risking feeling ill from all that dairy I’m not used to. And, I want the “faux”-tatoes so they are less carby since I tend to eat more of these for holiday weekends. I’m going to modify the recipe to add mashed cauliflower just to give it more good veggies. I’m not going to tell anyone that these aren’t potatoes and see if they notice.

The Recipes

Vegan Stuffing

3/4 cup vegan margarine
1 cup onion, chopped
2 cup celery, chopped
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 tsp sage
3 tsp thyme
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 c fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
16 cup bread cubes
2 cup vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 350
Melt margarine, saute onion and celery until golden.
Add spices, herbs, and vinegar. Mix well and remove from heat.
Combine bread cubes with onion mixture. Mix well.
Toss with half the stock. Check consistency. Stuffing should be moist but not soggy. Add more stock as needed. Taste. Adjust seasonings.
Grease the casserole pan, add stuffing, cover, and bake for 45 minutes.

Vegan Cream of ___ Soup

1 large onion, chopped
4 cup water
3 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 Tbs soy sauce
2 cup ___ veggie (spinach, mushrooms, celery)
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 c hot soy milk (this weakened the taste and didn’t add much to the texture. I’ll leave it out next time.)

Boil and then simmer onion, potatoes, water, and soy sauce about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender
Add ___ veggie, garlic, pepper, and nutmeg. Cook for 2 more minutes
Purée the soup, (stir in the soy milk), adjust seasonings (I had to add a lot of salt to make this stand on it’s own, but in recipes, that won’t matter).

Green Bean Shoe Peg Corn Casserole

1 can shoe peg corn
1 can French style green beans
2/3 can cream of ___ veggie soup (make ahead of time)
(1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese – omit)
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
1/2 cup chopped onions (I’ll use 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup chopped celery
Salt and pepper to taste

Topping:
1 “stick” vegan margarine, melted
1 stack (36) Ritz crackers, crumbled

Directions:
Mix together all ingredients and pour into greased casserole dish.
Mix together topping ingredients and place on top of casserole.
Bake at 350º for 45 minutes.

Mashed Garlic Fauxtatoes

2 pounds turnips, peeled and cut into chunks
(add 1 pound of cauliflower)
8 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
2 Tbs vegan margarine
2 Tbs horseradish
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
3 Tbs fresh chives, chopped

Bring to a boil and then simmer the turnips and garlic (about 15 minutes) until the turnips are quite soft.
Drain well.
Mash the turnips.
Add the vegan margarine, horseradish, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Adjust margarine and seasonings as necessary.
Top with chives.

Dear Alamo @Drafthouse,

Thank you.

Thank you for creating a place where adults can routinely enjoy a movie among the company of other well-behaved adults. Thank you for the No Talking/Texting” rules and the No Little Kids policy. Coupled with the ever-changing menu, glorious drink list, and fabulous service, it’s an adult oasis in an otherwise family (ahem) “friendly” world.

My favorite no-talking spot is, of course, the uncensored version of  “Magnited States of America“. I applaud you for sticking by your standards. Your rules are, in fact, the biggest reason I even darken the door of a movie theater. Yours is the only one I’ll visit. Between your policies/service and the RunPee app (which I keep discreetly running in night mode, in my lap, and away from neighbors), I can enjoy a movie experience.

Thank you for keeping the movie-going experience one worthy of adult admission prices.

Your fan,

Lori

Dear parUNts of the little Crotch Dropping next to me at the Alamo Drafthouse,

I knew we were in for a miserable experience when you seated him to the inside instead of between you two. No decent parent would put a kid between them and a stranger when there was another option, even with a seat of space.

The little bastard (and I’m pretty sure this is literal given how little attention he got/sought from “Daddy”) of ~7 years was far too immature for the two-plus-hours movie experience at the Alamo Drafthouse. He was bored 30 minutes before the movie started, and again 20 minutes before the movie started, and again 10 minutes before the movie started. While he might be “technically” old enough to quality for admission, his maturity is far too young for this excursion. He caught my attention the most when he asked if you two called him a “douche” (you said, “dude”). I know you’d save those precious first words for his baby book, but you were too busy chatting to notice he uttered such a statement. Where, pray tell, did he hear did he hear that word used in a derogatory manner?

During the movie and even with a bevvy of food (popcorn, an entire personal pizza, and an adult-sized drink), he was bothering you for more food and attention. When that didn’t work, he climbed up and down over and over again sitting up tall and then down low. He was annoying, even two seats away. When his Mommy-never-says-”no” version of ADD kicked in, he began bouncing his theater seat between the up/down positions repeatedly. You still said/did nothing.

I knew I was not being too sensitive when the young girl (~9 years old) in the row ahead of us and a few seats over kept turning and looking back at him. Her parents had the impeccable manners to tell her to stop.

He pushed too far when, about half way through the movie, he stood up in his seat. I told him, “Sit Down.” I did not yell. I did not use the expletives I wanted to, though I’m sure he knows them all. I simply did what any normal adult would do. It takes a village to raise your child, after all! He was far more well behaved after being scolded by a stranger. He was not perfect, but he heeded the advice of discipline. You should try it, sometime.

Yet, when the movie was over, and after I walked right past you three, you accosted my husband and told him you didn’t appreciate what I said to your child??? While I’m sure your feelings were genuine, you should have aired your grievances with me. My husband neither speaks for nor represents me. You got lucky; he’s a lot more polite than I am. Heh, I bet you were surprised by his reaction of “I don’t care what you think.”

Had you discussed this with me, I would have loudly explained to you that “parent” is a verb and that you weren’t doing it. I would have cited your “fuck trophy’s” egregious behavior to all within earshot so that others, namely those behind and in front of him, could chime in. I’d have explained the policy of the Alamo Drafthouse and that everyone is expected to keep quiet during shows. (And, no, his tall/low sitting, bouncing the seat, asking for food, etc. is not quiet.)

In addition, I’d have told you that your child is a shining example of what’s wrong with our country. And, before you could question that logic, I’d tell you that I’m the daughter of two teachers, that I grew up learning to behave in public, that I have a Masters’ degree (and then some) in Education, that I expect you to teach your child to behave, and, finally, that parents like you are the numero uno reason why I don’t want kids. I don’t want my kids to have to associate with the little fucker you’ve bred. Why should I have to be the “bad guy” to my kids when people like you won’t discipline yours? This year, it’s movie etiquette; in five years, it’s bullying and sexting; in ten years, it’s drugs or worse. Please for the love of humanity, say “no”, now!

If I really wanted to make your night miserable, all I had to do was raise a card; you’d have been booted by a manager. How much fun would that have been for the little Crotch Fruit? Instead, I gave you a pass and made sure your kid knew his rampant behavior wasn’t acceptable. Count your lucky fucking stars that you got to finish the movie instead of blowing $30 on tickets and that-much-or-more on food/drinks before being thrown out. …and then having to try to see the movie again to appease the power of his wishes over those of you!

Next time a stranger confronts your child about his behavior, you need to look at what he’s doing that would warrant intervention!

Sincerely,
I was a good kid. / Why is yours a little shit?