Lee's First 24 hrs


My lil' bro came into town a couple of weekends ago with his friend Aaron. We had a great time during the visit and had times where we did a lot and other times where our butts were planted in front of the TV (which happens a lot during football season). And they had the added bonus of playing the old school Nintendo game, RBI baseball. I still have the theme song embedded into my brain. Ding-Ding-Da-Ding-Ding...Da-Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding-Da...... Be happy that you can't hear it, cause it will be singing it all day.

The boys playing RBI baseball

On their 2nd night in Austin, we were looking for something with an Austin flair and didn't require us to get dressed up. The boys suggested BBQ, and we thought of Rudy's. Rudys hasn't let us down yet and Lee and Aaron seemed to really liked their food. As Newbies, they were able to try a couple cuts of meat as well as a couple of the hot sides.


During their first full day we headed down to South Congress to check out some shops, get a little lunch and perhaps do a little day drinking. I took this shot as we were crossing the street

After shopping, where each of the boys bought something, we stopped in at Docs Motorworks to enjoy an adult beverage and play some shuffleboard.

Modeling Jim's new glasses... and channeling my inner Jersey bitch

Aaron, Jim, me and Lee

Jim and I were a team and beat Lee and Aaron 2 out of 3 games! Ya that's right, the old folks kicked the young folks ASS! :)

We headed down to Juan in a Million for breakfast/lunch. They are a good little local joint on the East side. For the most part the food was really good, but we have been there when it was better. Maybe it was an off day for them. Lee and Aaron seemed to like their food.

Lee, Aaron and Jim

Mom- that is your son's beer!! :) I was the good daughter and only had water

Jim and Lee- at Blind Eye Pig

Jim, me and Lee doing our best fierce look... well.... Jim and I have it down, and Lee needs to work on it a bit

Roar!

Lee and Aaron... at a fairly crappy bar on 6th street. We walked in, looked around and realized we weren't in the type of bar that we normally enjoy, had a drink, then walked back out

Lee, me and Jim

6th Street

Enjoying an adult beverage

The picture doesn't show it, but guess what? I WON! :o) (aka, I finished first)

Aaron and his HUGE sandwich. This "burrito" had a couple of hot dogs, chili, queso, salsa and BACON. Why on earth did this thing need bacon? Aaron said it was pretty good.

Me and my bro

The boys waiting for their food at the Jackalope

The Beavers

Jim's softball name is the Beavers. Real adult, right? For those of you that don't know.... a beaver is another name for a.... ummmm... a girl part... otherwise known as a Va-Jay-Jay. :o) So when we sit in the stands and yell "Go Beavers" it can tend to make some of the guys around us giggle. Now that they have been playing softball for about 4 to 5 years (holy shit, time flies!!!), I figured it would be a good time to get shirts made for the girls! We sit in the stands and cheer every week, and we wanted to have something that we can wear to show our support for the guys. I used the same company that I used to make the Dirty Bones shirts, customink.com. They are really helpful and have a very easy process to order shirts. Luckily they had a few different beaver pictures to choose from, AND they even had a beaver swinging a bat... PERFECT!!

We debuted our shirts at a softball game a couple of weeks ago. The boys had no idea what we were up to, but we all showed up in our shirts to cheer on the guys! They were really surprised and happy that we made up shirts!!

The shirt design

Vanessa holding Jackson... he was still sleepy from the ride over to the ball fields

Kyndal posing in her Beavers shirt


Champ, John and Tammy's dog, didn't get a shirt, but he had his own little shirt that said "Champ"

Jenn, Vanessa, Ashley and Jackson... heading to the fields to show off our new shirts

Lindsay and Kyndal goofing around in the stands

Vanessa, Jackson and Jenn

Jackson is such a happy baby.... he is perfectly fine to sit by himself to to be held by a bunch of girls

Since this is a post about the guys softball game, I had to post at least one picture of the game... here is Jim getting ready to bat

The ladies and our shirts

Lindsay, Tammy, Me, Vanessa, Jennifer, Cheryl, Carmen, Ashley and Kyndal in front

The backs of our shirts! We put our last names on the back

After the games are over, we all tend to hang out at the park

Ashley, Jackson and Nick

Jackson was a total mess... Ashley gave him some type of cookie treat for him to gnaw on. But he ended up getting it all over his face and clothing. Everybody gave him space so we didn't get the mushed up cookie on us

John and Champ

By far, the most disturbing photo of the year.... Let me explain before you think you are looking at something real. While Jason and Ashley lived in Australia, he bought a bottle opener that had a pair of kangaroo balls as the base. Gross, right? They are even furry. Yuck. Anywho... Jason saw me coming with the camera and slyly put the bottle opener up his pants, to appear like his junk was hanging out. GROSS, but very funny.

Welcome to the Green Salsa


I have always eyed the weird little veggie in a husk at the grocery stores. It is a curious veggie,,, what is with the husk? I knew that most green salsas use tomatillos, but I have not attempted to make the salsa at home. I made a pork roast the other night to use for shredded pork tacos, and I wanted a new flair for the sauce, so in comes the Tomatillo Salsa Verde. There are a ton of different recipes on the Internet to try, with slight variations to the recipe. I decided to try the recipe below from a blog that I read, Food n'More.

The recipe came out so good! There was some real heat to the salsa, so I had to use it sparingly on the tacos, but the flavor was out of this world good. I can't wait to make this again. Even Jim who isn't a huge fan of green salsa really enjoyed it.


Tomatillo Salsa Verde
http://foodnmore.wordpress.com

Ingredients:
8 medium sized tomatillos –remove the husk
1 medium yellow or Spanish onion
1 jalapeno pepper
1 poblano pepper
4 cloves of garlic - crap, I think I forgot to add this
A handful of cilantro
Salt to taste
2 TBS lime juice
2 tsp agave nectar of white table sugar - I used sugar
Directions:

Roast the tomatillos and onion over your stove until slightly charred ( I used the grill for everything and it came out just fine!). Char the hell out of the jalapeño and poblano.

Remove the skins and seeds from the peppers and to a blender, along with the all the other ingredients. Blend until smooth.

Add the sauce to a pan over low heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes. NOTE: the color will darken significantly.
Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly.

Inside of a tomatillo

Pre-grilled veggies

I cut the tomatillios in half to get a really good char on them. They didn't need very long on the grill. The juices stated to bubble, and that is when I took them off the grill.

Labor Day on the Boat



I'm a little behind on the blog, forgive me. On Labor day weekend we headed to Lake Austin with friends. It was a low key day, where we all got a turn surfing behind the boat. We spent a little time in a cove hanging out, but it was pretty busy considering it was a holiday weekend. We are SO VERY LUCKY to have friends that have boats. I can't imagine a summer without a few trips to the lake. The lakes in Austin are very different than the lakes in Arizona. First off, we live about 15 minutes from Lake Austin, and if I remember correctly the closest lake to where I used to live in AZ was about 45-60 minutes. The lakes in AZ would get closed to boaters due to the lake hitting capacity. People in Austin don't really believe that a state would close a lake due to being to full (or that it would have to many people on the lake).



Anywho.... the day on the boat was so much fun. Both Jim and I were able to get up on the surf board and get the feel for it.

Me, Lindsay and Vanessa

Jim got up on the surfboard!

Jenn, me and Jim Jim and I hanging out in the cove

The ladies on the boat.... (left to right) Vanessa, Jennifer, Tish, Megan, me and Lindsay.

Jen filled that big as mug full of tequila and lemonaid. We all took a swig out of it, and it tasted pretty good, but tequila and the lake (and sun) don't mix for me!

Woooo Hoooooo.... check me out! I fell about 2 minutes after I got up. So much fun

I was a little to far out on the wake, but the goal is to get a little closer to the boat and ride the wake and let go of the rope. One day I'll get to that point!

This picture made me laugh, because it appears that I have a smile on my face as

I dip into the water.


Charlie shows us how to correctly surf behind a boat.

And then Charlie shows us how to hang onto the rope after you fall

and body surf through the wake. :)

Matt doing his thang behind the boat

Vanessa (Matt's fiance) and I while Matt is surfing behind the boat

Mike surfing behind the boat. Mike and Charlie are pretty damn good at wakeboarding and surfing. I had some horrible lighting for this photo... the sun was coming down and was behind Mike, which is yucky light for photos

Jim took another turn at surfing... he did a lot better this time than the first time.

He is a quick study.

Me, Tish, Jenn and Vanessa

Vanessa, Matt and I

Tish also got up on surfing! She didn't have a lot of luck the first time around,

but she got up on her 2nd time.