Rustic
We went to a celebratory lunch at the Rustic today. I had what might possibly be the best hamburger I’ve ever had in my life. They also have bands that play there at night. I can’t wait to go there on a Friday or Saturday night! I highly recommend going there!
BIG
The Tour Dallas was a fun bike rally, but I was really excited when I saw the B_G letters out there with reunion tower in the background! When I saw it I left the rally, jumped off my bike and stood there like a crazy person. I don’t think the other riders knew what it was all about or I’m sure there would have been a line to take the picture!!! I’ve been wanting to be the “I” in Big since I saw them go up! I want to go take my picture by all of them in Dallas. There are 22 around town! Next stop, North Park!!!
Butcher paper costumes!
One of my favorite things we do at my school is our annual costume parade! Every year, our office dresses up in home-made costumes and marches through the halls with the rest of the kids in the school. The younger students are on parade while the older students pass out candy to them. Everyone has a great time and the parents even join in the fun! This year’s costume was one of the easiest to make. All we used was butcher paper, glue and yarn! We did all of this without patterns or even trying to draw it first. I can also tell you this is one of the best parades we ever had. Almost all the kids dressed up and brought candy! It was big fun for all!
The play-doh’s were home made from butcher paper also!
Can I add expert camper to my resume?
My favorite thing to do in the Austin area is to float the Guadalupe river. I have enjoyed our annual trip with my Dallas friends for the last three years. Last year was the first time we camped out there and we had such a great time, we decided to do it again. My friends got there early and got to float on Friday, too.( I only got to float on Saturday.) We took the five hour excursion on Saturday and I loved every second of it. We still had to walk a little this year, but not nearly as bad as last year during the drought. Luckily, we stay at Mountain Breeze campgrounds, because that part of the river is outside the city limit, so this is a no can ban area and people can drink on the river.
This year proved to be much more eventful than my previous camping trips. This year it decided to rain. Well, rain could be an understatement. It POURED. It was so scary because there was lightning, thunder and buckets of water being poured on us for about four hours straight. The electricity at the campsite went out, which is ok, because I really didn’t need a fan anyway. I was so cold last night. That’s really odd in July!! It didn’t help that I also forgot to bring sheets, pillows, and blankets. Luckily, the tent that I put up by myself didn’t leak too bad. I can’t say the same thing about my friend’s tent. I’ve decided that if it had to rain, I’m glad it happened on the last night. I don’t think I would have made it a second night had it rained the first night.
I set the tent up all by myself and even put the overhang tarp on by myself.
My friends classed it up a bit with the UT chair and yard art. They even had Christmas lights. Next year I’m going to have to do a little better with the decorations.
Had a great day floating on the Guadalupe River.
This was the bottom of my friend’s tent after the rain storm. I think they are going to have to get a new tent.
Genghis Grill
My mom and I went to eat at the Genghis Grill on Lemmon Avenue in Dallas tonight. She had never been there, so we thought it would be a fun place to try together. I really enjoy this place because I am a really picky eater and I get to choose which ingredients I want in my food. Another bonus about this location is that you don’t have to pay for parking. There is a garage underneath the building. The first floor was packed, so we parked on the lower level. The elevator lets out right at the grill. It was odd because we were the only ones in the restaurant when we got there. I think this place is always packed, but maybe with the holidays no one was out. It was nice to have the place to ourselves.
I learned the hard way that you have to heap the vegetables over the bowl. I made sure that my bowl would have had food dropping off the plate if I even attempted to add any more food. I got steak, shrimp, and scallops.
They cook all the food on this big grill. If you wanted to you could watch them cook your food. We just went and sat down and waited.
This is what my food looked like once it was cooked. I made two tacos with mine and then took the rest of the food home. I can’t wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow!!
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting!!
Last night we went to Kung Fu to meet some friends. This is one of my favorite places because there is so much to do. My favorite is to play skee ball. I thought I was pretty good at it until someone in my group scored over 300. Every time I’ve been to Kung Fu, the skee ball has been free, so it’s a great place to go and practice your skills for all the skee ball tournaments that you may run across.
Another thing I like about Kung Fu is that they have all the old school video games. You can play Ms. Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Shooting Gallery, and so many more games. If you go there on Sunday, the games are free.
They also have a full service bar that is really reasonably priced. They have a lot of choices of beer on tap, I think I saw about 25 different kinds. This is a great place for just about anyone that likes to have fun!
I was told that Kung Fu’s has opened in Uptown Dallas and will be opening soon in Houston too. I’m pretty sure I’ll at least get to go to the one in Dallas at some point!!
Girl’s Fun Day and Rot Rally
I have such a fun group of friend. At Christmastime, one of my fabulous friends found a groupon for an hour at a photo booth. Being that this sounds interesting, she got one for her family and another one for her friends. Last night, we made a plan for six of us to head over to South Austin Gallery and have a good time taking silly pictures. I envisioned us all smashed in to a photo booth with silly hats on, but this was much more. They had a professional camera and a white backdrop and all of us got to dress up with silly props and take fun pictures. I can’t wait to see how these pictures turn out.
After the photo shoot was over, we headed over to the Rot Rally Parade. I have lived here for 6 years and I’ve never been in town on the weekend of Rot Rally. We went to watch the parade at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel on Congress street because that is where my friends always go to watch. When we got there, we found out that they had finally gotten smart and were charging to get out on the balcony. My beautiful friend started talking to the door man and he asked if we were sitting over there, so she said yes. He told us he had just gotten word that we were allowed to go out there for free. I’m not really sure where he got the word, but we took it! We grabbed our other girl friend and went out on the balcony and watched the parade from start to finish. As we were watching, our husbands got there and my beautiful friend got them in for free too! OMG! She saved us so much money last night!!! lol! The parade was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in Austin. There were thousands of motorcycles up and down the street. They end the parade by parking them all in the center of Congress. It was so much fun! I hope we get to do this again next year. Maybe I’ll get my Vespa working and go out there and ride with them.
Motorcycles everywhere you look!
Motorcycles as far as you can see. All parked down Congress with the state capitol in the background.
Out and about
Last night we went to one of our favorite places, Lavaca Street Bar and Grill. One of the reasons we like it is because they always have good specials. Tuesday night is $1.00 Tecate night. Wednesday is Hamburger basket for $5.00 night. Thursday is baconmania. I still haven’t made it there for baconmania yet though. Dare to dream!!! We all shared queso, fries and wings. The guys had pizza, too. They have pretty good bar food. The only complaint that I have about the place is that the music is really loud. I can’t ever hear the people I’m sitting next to. Does that mean I’m getting old?
On the way to crash one of our friend’s birthday party we saw this cool statue of Willie Nelson. It’s right outside of the W Hotel. Some day I’d like to stay in a W hotel. Austin is so cool.
Painting with a Twist
Yesterday was the last day of school for the kids. The last day is always my least favorite day of the year because the kids go home for the summer and I miss all of them. This year was particularly sad because our school has been open for six years now and our first group of kindergarteners are moving to the middle school next year. It’s been amazing to watch these kids grow into really great people.
To celebrate the end of the year, one of the teachers suggested we all go to Painting with a Twist. If you have never been before, I suggest you get a group of girls together and go. It’s basically paint by numbers but without the numbers. An artist walked us through the steps and we all painted the same picture. Even though the picture is the same, everyone has their own style, so they are all just a little bit different. I can’t say that I would choose this picture for my house, but I might put it up in my office. I really only went for the experience anyway!
Here is how it started out!
Add a lady with an umbrella
Shannon always has to add her own flair!
Our group with our matching pictures!
Mine
Pool time
Yesterday was Memorial Day so I was excited about going swimming. Instead of going to our neighborhood pool, we went over to my super athletic friend’s pool downtown. If you don’t have a friend with a pool downtown, I suggest you get one. The people watching is great because almost everyone is good looking at the pool. It was so much fun. We laid out for a few hours, then went across the street to Lamberts happy hour. They have all their appetizers half off. It’s amazing food. I suggest going there for sure.
Fabulous after FIFTY 