OMG My blog list disappeared

Now what am I going to do? My blog list disappeared! I was fooling around with the HTML but I am pretty sure I didin't delete anything. Maybe someone took it!?!?! If you see it please let me know. I don't know how on earth I will remeber all the blogs I had there but I will give it a try. Doo Doo! >ôô<

Oldest dock on Lake Travis, Volente, Texas

Today was the end of an era. We lost a dear friend today, the boat dock. I am really torn between being sad that she is gone and way happy that my parents don't have to go down to the water and adjust her daily. The poor dear was in bad shape even though daddy took great care of her. Daddy got a notice from the LCRA a few days ago that said he had to replace the old styrofoam with something that was encapsulated by 2014. I don't think she could have handled that, she would have broken apart (and daddy said we would all be dead by then, what the heck is he thinking?). She was used to having the styrofoam. It was, by our account, the oldest private dock on Lake Travis. It was built in 1968 by Mike Carter and that makes her 40 years old (and part of my life for as long as I can remember). My grandpa paid for it and the best that daddy can remember it cost about $850. I am sure daddy put in about ten times that amount keeping her afloat all these years. He had a real hodgepodge of junk keeping her together. Everything from cable, pipes and angle iron to a bunch of 2x4's, bolts and a license plate (not kidding). Oh, and an old tire to keep the cat walk from breaking apart on the rocks when boats made big wakes. About 5 years ago he had someone "re-float" it with new styrofoam and that cost a bunch. Well we loved that old dock. Lots of good times with family and friends. Six generations in all (from my great-grandmother to my step-grand kids). My parents had my ex-husband haul her off and cut her up for scrap (it cost more to take apart than it cost to build in 1968). He had my son Les and my cousin's husband Bill to help. They also had Steve Carter helping. Steve is the son of the man that built her so that was very appropriate (we are the same age so he was five when it was built). They had to move her over near Volente Beach Club to do the deed and I honestly thought she would sink before they got her over there. Well the old girl didn't sink on the way and she stayed afloat until they pulled the last of her out with a backhoe. There was a locker on the dock (you can see it in some of the pictures) that had been there since it was new and I asked my son to bring it to me when they were finished. It is ugly, rusty, full of holes (including a bullet hole that I am sure Tony Wright put there, bless his heart) and all kinds of dirty but I love it. It holds all sorts of memories for me and I just didn't want it hauled off for scrap. Lynn said we should paint it and put it in the "music" room (Walter's old room). I told him I don't want to paint it, I want to keep it just like it is because if we paint it then it is "just an old painted locker" and not the same. He said "well we can keep it in the garage then." We will see who wins that battle! Well here are the pictures and I hope (hope hope hope) to have a video soon to DOCKument our time with the old girl. >ôô<

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Counter

I love my counter, I can see how many times I have visited my blog! I know I am the only one here here Here HERE (is there and echo?). >ôô<

Picnik

Well I tried the Picnik photo editing website. So far I really like it. It seems pretty easy to navigate and you can do unlimited editing for free. Of course you can upgrade and do so other "special" things but right now I don't think I will spend the money to do that. Picnik has some pretty fun frames, text and photo editing tools. I am looking for ways to make my pictures more fun without having to spend hours doing it. I really am a NOOB when it comes to blogging and I don't really have a lot of time to spend doing this so anything that is quick and easy is top on my list. The only way I have ever learned to do something "cool" with anything I attempt is to search the Internet and find an answer. I don't have friends that have elaborate blogs so I can't ask anyone. If I see something I like on a blog I head to Google and see if I can find anything that will lead me to a website that will help me replicate what I have seen. Still trying to figure out how I can make my blog background more attractive. I don't really like the basic options that are available on blogspot. I took a class on C++ programing once and dropped it after I decided there were too many ways to program something and my teacher wanted us to program just like her because she had the "best way" to do it. I know everyone has their own style when it comes to programing and maybe one way is better than another but I just didn't understand why I had to do it her way when my way worked just as well and I understood it. Oh well! I am going to keep trying new things until I find the most awesome and easy way to make my blog outstanding! I have added a link to Picnik at the bottom of my page if anyone is interested. Need some sleep now... I hate that I have to work a "real job" to make money to live (haha). Well that isn't totally true, I do love my job! I just wish I had more free time to spend doing other things. Of course if I didn't have a job I couldn't afford to do the things I love to do! I guess that is the opportunity cost of life.
Gosh I really got off track!
Picnik can "grab" pictures from many of the most popular photo sharing websites and allows you to edit and then save them back to the original site. It really was easy to use and the results were good. Of course if you have other photo editing programs that you have paid for and have time to play with maybe Picnik isn't something you will want to use. Photoshop is great for someone that wants to really spice their pictures up and make them look like a pro took them but I don't have time to figure it out and most of the things I want to do are not really elaborate. I just want to have something easy to use that makes the pictures "cute." I am also stuck between making the picture perfect to begin with and wanting to alter it and make it OH SO MUCH BETTER. I love taking pictures and can remeber when I had a 35mm camera. You really had to make sure every picture counted because you didn't have an opportunity to "retouch it" or "delete it" and film was expensive. I love my digital camera. I have seen so many GREAT photos on blogs that I just don't think anything I ever do will match them so I am going for simple.
To sum it up give Picnik a try if you want something easy to use. >ôô<

Birthday party for Tess and Emma

So Sunday was Tess's birthday. A few weeks ago she said she wanted to go over to my parent's house for her birthday and have chili dogs and homemade ice cream. Because Emma's b-day was the 18th we decided to have a party for both of them. Well daddy found out a few weeks ago that he has clogged carotid arteries (one side 90% and the other 50% clogged). Since daddy if fairly worried about this mom thought it would be a good idea if I went over to their house to help make the chili and ice cream the day before. I agree that it is a good idea and so on Saturday I set off to help. Well I didn't help at all with the chili (daddy did that) but I did make the ice cream (you should "cook" the ice cream mix and chill it overnight). Daddy has an old hand crank ice cream maker and we all took turns turning the crank. After about 30 minutes we deemed the ice cream done and set off to eat the chili dogs. Oh, I also baked a cake on Sunday morning for the party. Well when it came time to eat the ice cream we discovered it was pretty soft (runny) and frozen solid at the bottom. Oh well, it was still really good. Daddy thinks we didn't pack enough ice over the top of the ice cream maker after we stopped cranking it. Over all we all had a great time, the chili was AWESOME as was the ice cream. My oldest son said (when I told him I was going to go help make the chili) "so grandpa is finally going to tell you his secret eh?" Well I still don't know that I have the "secret" because aside form a few things he does different (he adds stew meat chopped into small pieces and does not add onions or beans) I make mine the same way and it is not nearly as good. I think he sticks his finger in it and that makes all the difference. OH I almost forgot, we had tamales too cuz my oldest son loves em! >ôô<

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The Blue Hanger

If you like to go to garage sales then I think you will love the Blue Hanger. It's like a garage sale on steroids. In case you don't know the Blue Hanger is the outlet store for Goodwill in Austin. There are two locations; McNeil Road and Springdale Road. I have not had the courage to visit the Springdale location as it does not have AC and in the hot Austin summers I think that would be the death of me. There are tables and tables of cast off stuff. Some of it very nice and others that should have just been thrown away. I talked my husband into going and he actually liked it (although as we walked out he said "I really need to wash my hands" and this from a man that NEVER washes his hands).
One side of the giant warehouse space has tables and tables of clothes just dumped out onto them and the other side has tables of large items looking ready to topple off onto the ground and smaller items in blue totes. Once an hour or so the staff hauls some of the tables out and replaces them with new tables full of new stuff. That is fun to watch. You are not allowed to go down the "row" where the tables are being replaced so people line up watching the staff pull the tables out to see if there is anything they want to grab when they get the OK. Once the tables are in place there is a free for all with people rushing up to see if there is anything they want. Stuff literally goes flying. You will hear lots of stuff banging, breaking and crashing. There are kids everywhere playing with the toys. Kids on scooters, bikes and skateboards. It doesn't seem that anyone pays any attention to what their kids are doing. Often you will get hit by a small flying object, a kid on a bike or children running down the isles. Today I walked past a young woman that seemed to be somewhat mentally impaired. She tapped my arm and pointed to a couple of kids hanging on the doors that keep people from entering the actual warehouse. They were looking through the windows in the door hanging on by their fingertips. Without thinking I said "hey you need to get down off of there" and suddenly realized I was telling kids that didn't belong to me how to act. Boy I am a mom!
There are several types of people shopping at the Blue Hanger. Many of the shoppers will just grab anything they see, throw it into a basket and then go off into a corner to see if it is really worth taking home. Others pick carefully through piles of clothes to see if they can find anything nice. Some just dive into a bin and start throwing things aside in a effort to find something valuable. I am a "skimmer." I just look over the piles of stuff and if I see something interesting I will pull it out. I don't really like to pick too much of that stuff up. I have found some really nice baby clothes, coats, jeans etc. there. All clothing is $1.25 (probably will go up just like everything else though).
Today I got 2 bundles of fat quarters (brand new) and only paid $1.50 each (both were marked over $7.00 from the retail shop that sold them). I also got a cute wooden magazine rack ($1.50) and a picture frame that was marked $1.75 from Hobby Lobby (that was their sale price I paid $1.00 which might have been too much but it was cute).
So just like the trip to Sam's we made this a family thing. Mom, Ann, Leslie, Les, Emma and I went. Leslie got a really beautiful rug for $15 and it looked brand new. It is about 6ftx10ft, cream and rose. I am sure it was well over $300 new and there was nothing wrong with it. She also got 2 really HUGE balls (the kind covered in fabric like you would play with in the pool), a great porcelain like child's tea set, several skirts, 2 pairs of pants and MORE. Her damage was $37. I spent about the same (seems each time I go there that is what I spend) and got the magazine rack, about 2 yards of bright yellow fabric with flowers, 14 fat quarters, toy duck (too cute), lots of baby clothes and bibs, 2 baskets, 5 cloth diapers (brand new, whew), a pair of shorts, 2 hand embroidered pillow cases trimmed in crochet and a brand new picture frame. I have found lots of things with the tags on them. One of the baskets I got was hand made (had a tag saying so).
Of course the fun is not without pain. Aside from the kids running around like banshees there are random weird smells (like a box that smelled like vomit), all kinds of sticky stuff, tripping hazards and broken glass. You just have to be careful. Some people wear gloves, personally I don't like to dig down deep enough to wear gloves. And there are things that make you sad like a photo album full of pictures or a book inscribed "to Jennifer, happy Valentine's Day love Grandma and Grandpa." Who gives that stuff up?
So to sum it up, if you have a couple of hours to spend and don't mind digging through piles and piles of junk, it is well worth the trip to the Blue Hanger. >ôô<

Forth of July

We had a great time at my Aunt's house on Lake Travis. One more birthday passed with much (maybe too much) celebration. Pictures of all the sillyness are here! WARNING there are about 185 pictures in this slideshow. View at your own risk!




Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Work in progress

Well this is really a work in progress. I am playing with things to see what I can add and how it works. Still not sure if this is fun or WORK! I played with posting a slide show with Flickr and now I am going to try Webshots to see which I like best. I added a counter for fun and so far it looks like I am the only one looking at my blog! I added other blogs I like to my blog list and I am working on favorite links. WHEW this is work!