Ponytail Canasta with Joyce and Dan

Bob enjoys Newcastle Brown Ale

Wednesday, February 10, I'm up at 8:15. The morning speeds by; light breakfast, skipped my stretch-unusual for me. The low was 34 so it never froze but Bob leaves the water unhooked as we leave at 11:20 for Cedar Hills. We stop at Steve and Elaine's to drop off their Lasko heater. Nice of them to loan it to us. We chat for a bit and bid them farewell until our next return to Central Texas.

It is a quick drive to the other side of the neighborhood to Joyce and Dan's place. It's great to see them. The house smells heavenly as Joyce is cooking away. She shows me her microwave convection oven as well as her range convection oven. It adjusts recipes automatically. If you put in 350 degrees for a regular recipe and hit convection it goes to 300 degrees. Bob and Dan chat in the living room as Joyce and I chat in the kitchen while she puts the finishing touches on lunch.

Soon it's all served and it's way more than lunch it you ask me. Delightful chicken breast in a burgundy mushroom sauce, mashed potato/cauliflower casserole, green beans with chestnuts and turkey bacon, spiced apples and warm bread. It was all outstanding. She brings out a huge trifle for dessert with bananas, strawberries, pudding, cake and whipped cream.

Bob and Joyce are ready for Ponytail Canasta

Their little puppy, Titch, is so cute. He dances and plays dead for us. Dan deals out the Canasta cards. We play a practice round of Ponytail Canasta and then dive in for real; guys vs. gals. Joyce and I have St. Genevieve red wine and Bob has a pub ale. Joyce goes outside to get the beer and reports sleet. The guys win in a squeaker. What a fun game. Joyce copies the instructions for us so we can keep up our skills until we see them again. Their newly remodeled bathroom is wonderful with warm, rich tones.

Dan and Bob deal out the cards.

We enjoy coffee and my key lime pie before we bid them farewell. I'm so glad we were able to get together again before we leave town. It is misting as we head home at 5:00. We get a paper on j71 and then stop at Best Buy to get some new DVD discs to see if that's the problem with our DVD recorder. We head home to try therm but it still won't format the discs. Back to Best Buy. They tell us to bring in the recorder. So we go back home to get it and drive back down the hill where Best Buy refunds $70 (since the only one they have left is an 'open item.') We go back home, Bob hooks it up, re-scans the channels and Voila! The disc formats and records!

Titch wants to play too!

We watch Human Target, read the paper and record White Collar from 11:00 to midnight, thankfully. It's 9:35 p.m. and 39 degrees with 70% humidity. The high was 45. It was 52 inside when we got home but it is now 72 in the living room. We brought the bedroom heater downstairs until 9:00 and then moved it back to the bedroom. It seemed to work out better.

Eye Guy and Omelettry with Glenda

Monday, February 8, I wake up at 7:15 on a board to a cloudy morning. I have a quick light breakfast and coffee. I'm out the door at 8:45 to pick up Glenda in a light rain. The sky gets brighter as I near Cedar Hills, arriving at 9:08--record time to her place so I'm early. I use her restroom while she takes Benedryl for her allergies. Her lawn guy, Mr. S, is a no show with the rain so we're off.

We get to Austin 40 minutes ahead of my 10:30 eye doctor appointment so I stop at Karavel and get some of my favorite socks-Ecco. Glenda waits in the truck in a pouring rain. The salesman tells me about one of the gals who works there with eight, yes eight, neuromas on her feet AND she's a runner. She just wears the right shoe, with a wide toe box and these special inserts with a high spot in the center. Sounds painful to me. My one measly neuroma is killing me.

We forge on to my eye guy. I have to circle the lot for a parking space but manage to squeeze Big Bertha into a tight spot on the side. I leave Glenda in the lobby. Dr. U can't get a good reading on my left eye as it is very dry. What else is new? She gives me drops and wants me to use them for four days and come back. Not! We're leaving on Saturday. She finally gives me last times' prescription, back up one power.

Michael at the optical counter orders a new left lens, take my bottle and says he'll call me and find out where to mail it to me when it arrives. I pick up my new glasses that are ready and he says they are paid for. That's confusing because I thought I only paid for my contacts when I was here a few weeks ago. But he check twice.

The sun is out as Glenda and I leave; she left her sunglasses at home. Fortunately the car next to us has left so I get out of my tight parking space easily. We head south on Lamar to The Omelettry, an Austin institution and one of Glenda any my old haunts. We get a table in the back after parking in the empty strip mall next door. She digs out four quarters for me and I get a paper out front and put it in the truck while making sure I lock up.

We split our favorites; gingerbread pancakes and Popeye's omelet(bacon, spinach, sour cream.) We're in heaven with several coffee refills. It was nice of Glenda to treat me to breakfast. Next we're off to Target at Peyton Gin. She enters the 'mothers' name in the baby registry up front and prints a list. We find a baby monitor and then browse in the Valentine and baby cards. I find small paper plates and napkins.

We're outta there and head home in blackening skies. Rain is building and it is dark in the northwest behind us. I drop Glenda off and we make plans to have lunch before we get out of town. I head home in a pouring rain with a sultry humidity, strong north wind and lightening. Bob is tying down my bike and the cover on the back of the RV. It is about to blow away. He has the entertainment center in a jumble of wires. Our new Panasonic DVD recorder is working but it won't format or read our blank Memorex RW discs. He has it all hooked up and communicating with the TV. It will play a pre-recorded movie disc we have. We put it all back in the hole and feed the wires. All we have to do is Velcro it down but we'll go visit Best Buy and see why the blank discs won't work first. Another electronic mystery!

The bike cover is making noise so we go out to investigate after we have leftovers for dinner. We read the paper I brought home, watch House, Castle and Triple D. It's 6:30 p.m. and 49 degrees with 77% humidity. The high was 65 and the low was 48.