Last week, Mom and Dad were here in TX. They drove some things down (and across) from IN on Saturday that can’t be moved by the movers. They also wanted to use the week to make a decision about tile and carpet for a large percentage of their new house here in TX. And to top it off, there was the possibility that some of it could actually be installed that very same week!

On Monday, they chose tile and carpet, and I worked on a manuscript for some of my research. oodles of fun, that.

On Tuesday, they came down to my apartment so that Dad could see it for the first time in person and so that Mom could see the latest stage. I had hoped to get the last two boxes of decorative things unpacked before they arrived, because I had visions of them helping me hang framed art that day. However, it just took me too long to do the manuscript on Monday and other unpacking/cleaning on Tuesday morning.

Consequently, we used our Tuesday to go out to a fabulous, fabulous German lunch and go site-seeing. Lunch was just amazing. I had three kinds of sausages, sauerkraut, red cabbage, and what they called “German potatoes.” Turns out German potatoes are fried/sauteed potatoes cooked with baaaaaaaaaaaaaacon that have baaaaaaaaaaaaaaacon bits on them. OMG were they ever good. The sausages were fabulous.

Did I say the food was amazing?

Anyway, on the way to shopping in the historic part of town, I drove them past a couple of things that my town is known for. And we happened to go past the library.

Note that these were taken on one of my prior visits to the library; we did not go inside on this trip.

I love the high ceiling, natural light, and light fixtures inside.

And this library is the one that has the Starbucks machine inside; that is very funny to me, since I didn’t even know they existed.

Here is one of the landscaping features you see as you walk to the front door of the library.

And on my way to the parking lot, I spotted this sign.

That sign for the reading garden intrigued me, so I decided to venture to the back of the library

Turns out, it was just a very open space with benches and minimal landscaping. But I did see a lovely crepe myrtle that was in bloom.

And then we headed to the historic and tourist-y shopping district in town.

I hadn’t taken my camera with me, which was a shame, because there were some lovely places that were really photo-worthy, but that just means that I’ll have to go back!

We had a really fun time there. We were mostly just browsing, but we did keep an eye out for a breezy gardening hat for Mom. We saw a LOT of various decorative things for inside and outside. In fact, Mom found a great wrought iron, glass, bead and bell hanging piece; I guess it could be considered a windchime. She was hesitant to buy it, but the price was so low, that Dad and I went back to buy it for her.

I found this really interesting stone that is in the shape of a smooth egg that changes color inside (very subtly) depending on the angle from which you view it. And I scoped out clogs. I have been debating with myself about buying a pair of clogs for school. Not being able to wear open-toed shoes in labs means that I have to think a bit differently about what kinds of shoes are wearable for work.

And then, pretty soon it was time for us to end our day of site-seeing. But we made plans for another outing for Wednesday.

- to be continued in part 2 -

Last week, I was at Port Aransas, TX, near Corpus Christi on the eastern coast of TX, for vacation. I was with Texas Seestor (TS), Trainwreck (Tr), older niece (M) and younger niece (YN).

I had an exceptionally great time. Floating around, swimming, bouncing around, and playing in the pool for pretty much all day from 8:00am to 4 pm was just fantastic.

This is a bit of a tangent, but I am definitely a “water” when it comes to the whole water, air, earth, fire personality types. My dreams are usually water dreams, and I just love the feel of being in the water. I never dream about earth. If fire or air is in my dreams, it is usually a nightmare of some sort.

Anyway, mornings were usually a time when I sort of took care of M, because she and I both wake up early (6:00ish). Most mornings, I was only able to occupy here and allow TS and Tr to “sleep in” until 6:30, maybe closer to 7:00 if we were all lucky.
One morning after she woke me up at 5:00am, I really wanted to go out to the water and take photos of the sunrise. You might recall that last year, I was able to take sunrise photos every morning from our condo’s patio and I wrote a blog post this spring with a few of my best shots.

This year, due to the location of our room, I actually had to take more time to do it, because I had to take the boardwalk out to the beach to get shots.

But I love the boardwalk, because it allowed me to experience this interesting transition from condo and building to ocean. And on the way, I was walking past the dunes which were actually still green this year and not all dried out; I guess all of the rain they got a couple of weeks ago due to hurricane Andrew was actually helpful.

Here is the end of the boardwalk before I got onto the sand.

And then just as I was setting up my tripod at the bottom of the steps, this group of about 8 (or so) teenage girls dressed in white gauzy dresses start walking past me onto the beach. Right into the sunrise area.
ugh.
But the adult who was with them, with the big fancy camera, stopped and talked to me about how it was their last morning here and how the sunset the previous night didn’t work out. How she had to get them all up and ready by 6:00 am, blah, blah, blah. I was sort of sympathetic, but I also knew this might be my only morning to get out and take photos. She ended up saying that she’d try to keep them down the beach and out of my line of images. They were only partly successful. Thus, some of my photos do not have the sun actually centered. *sigh*

But, I caught the first glimmer of the sun over the clouds.

And one of my favorite parts is the sound of the seagulls calling out to each other over the background sound of the ocean waves.

Once the sun rose a little more, I decided to try to capture my joy in being out there. This required me to use the self-timer on my camera and to sort of guess where I needed to be in the photo.

For the first one, I only had the timer set at 10 seconds, because I didn’t check it ahead of time, and when I got out there, I realized that I’d left my shoes on. As I was trying to pull off my shoes, the camera snapped the shot.

oops.

setting it for 20 seconds worked out a bit better.

of course, when I ran back to the camera, there was that girl in the photo again.

it isn’t perfect, but it is all that I had energy for.

I realized it is quite difficult holding ones balance with ones arms raised in joy while not knowing when the waves were going to come in. Once a wave comes in and the water sucks back out, it is rather hard to keep ones balance.

Then attempts with the sun shining on me.

oops.

try again.

then back to the ocean and the birds and some close ups.

After some photos of the seaweed, I headed back.

It was a beautiful way to start the day. It made up for waking up at 5:00 am.

And then, after breakfast, it was back to the pool with M. We had it all to ourselves for about an hour.

It was really wonderful.

These flowers were ordered for me before I wrote my post where I mentioned that I hadn’t bought flowers for myself. When Texas Seestor saw my comment, she got a good chuckle out of it, because unbeknownst to me, she had gone in with Mom and Dad to buy me this bouquet!

It was delivered this afternoon, and as you can see, is just gorgeous!

I’ll be taking more photos soon. But for now, this is what I was able to shoot quickly with my normal lens.

I can’t decide which of these 4 photos I like the best. So, I’m posting them all.

Last Saturday, I took a vase out into our front yard and cut these out of our landscaping. I decided I might as well have them inside where I could enjoy them the most.

I think that this brown blanket background might show off the details on the yellow flowers better than the black.

As the weeks/days go on, I’ll post the close-ups. I took 75 good photos (88 total), so I’ll have a fair number to post.

even though this last one is overexposed, I kinda like it.

Happy Easter everyone!

It was a little later in the day than she really liked, but the light was good for photos. So, it was a compromise.

This heliotrope caught my eye when I was choosing annuals this year, because it was so intensely purple. It was also rather tall, which appealed to me.

Unfortunately, there was a period of time where it evidently didn’t get enough water and kinda died off. You can see that some in the photo.

But I was really pleased when I went to take close-up photos and realized it had such beautifully star-shaped blossoms.

and in large

I’ve always liked lantana. I particularly enjoy the multi-colored blossoms that cluster together on a stalk. In fact, last year I posted photos of the lantana that grew in containers on our deck.

and in large

That is all for now. I keep meaning to post more about my TX trip, but I never quite put aside the time to do it. I will soon, though.

In other news, I got my ticket for So You Think You Can Dance (touring show) today. We had a password to get tickets by presale. I’m actually farther back than I was last year when I didn’t have the presale option. So, it must be getting more popular. I’m in row 11 (last year, I was in row 3). Maybe being a little farther back will be better for seeing more of their feet when they are half-way back on the stage. However, I probably won’t be able to get the kinds of pictures that I took last year. (Note that I’ve had 193 views on that set!) I guess I’ll just have to see.

The flowers on my deck have really been healthy this year. I am slowly starting to figure out from year to year what grows best in this climate and spot around the house.

As time goes on, I will probably post this photo again and describe/give you the names of the other flowers.

I really like how the purple centers of these daisies were complimented by the other purple flowers nearby. It looks more impressive in person.

and in large

I finally realized that I should use both of my black bedsheets to create a circle of black area. This allowed me to get this shot.

and in large

Well, that is it until I get to TX. Most of those pictures will end up private on Flickr, unless I take some from behind. Maybe I should specifically do a few of those. Anyway, I fly out tomorrow. I expect to be around here and there, because doing things on the internet is enjoyable for me, so I will include it in my vacation.

See you later and have a good weekend!

This is what I saw out the kitchen window that inspired me to cut some branches off and put them in a vase so that we could enjoy them inside.

and in large

and of course, the girlie had to help out.

Yes, she is large. But her face is so pretty to us. And the fur on her chest looks so soft; it just makes you want to pet it….

…. but of course, the white areas are the venus fly-trap areas.

And one last thing, did anyone else realize tomorrow is 6/7/08 – 6, 7, 8