The Ladies at Morelias and UPS Stop at Glenda's

Liz, Rita, Peggy, Valerie and Marilynn at Morelia's in Elgin, TX
Saturday, January 30, I'm up at 7:45 a.m. to a low of 32 degrees! It is cold and windy, remaining partly cloudy all day so that it never has a chance to warm up very much. The high only get to 39. We finish the jigsaw puzzle we started yesterday first thing this morning so we can eat breakfast at the table like human beings.

I check my email around 10:00 as I realize I never even got on-line yesterday. I find an email from Elaine saying the bread lady is at the Bastrop Farmer's Market on Saturdays beginning at 9:30. I call Elaine right away and she's already down here on this cold morning, just arriving at the Farmer's Market. It's too bad I didn't see her email, Bob and I could have picked up the bread on our way to Elgin. Elaine says the lady has her delicious bread at Elgin's Farmer's Market by the Depot on Tuesdays. She says it is a slow crowd at the Bastrop location on such a chilly Saturday morning. I'm impressed that she's out and about so early.

I stretch and do my weights, then Bob and I get cleaned up. He takes Manny, Moe and Jack Frost off the wall so I can take them to Glenda's. And he brings our digital picture frame's memory stick so he can download the new Chihuly glass pictures to Glenda's frame.

Peggy shows off her new necklace to Valerie

We left at noon for Morelia's in Elgin. Valerie calls as we're on the way up Hwy 95. Liz, Peggy and her are meeting to come together and they will be about 15 minutes behind schedule. Bob and I pull up out front about 12:20 and Marilynn is right behind us. We get a table for eight. Marilynn and I go over my jewelry choices and changes. Around 12:50 Liz, Val and Peggy arrive. We have hugs all around. Liz and Val surprise me with Dunkin' Donuts French Vanilla and Starbuck's coffee. Peggy is looking great and I'm so glad she could make it. She has a sporty hat on and tells a fun story about trying to get her hubby to notice her hair growing back out. Liz says Lisa stayed home with Scout, her daughter, who just had knee surgery.

We order after our waiter's slip of the tongue when he asks "Are we ready ladies?" Bob gets up to leave. I can't say I would blame him as all of us gals get to cackling. What a great visit with my long-time pals. Liz tells a great story about the Medieval-themed birthday party she gave for Connor. HEB couldn't find her turkey legs she ordered and when they did, they didn't cook them like they agreed to. She discovered this two hours before the party. Talk about stress!

Glenda's baby quilt top

After we eat all of us gals ooh and aah over Marilynn's jewelry. She just keeps taking what seems like a hundred necklaces out of her box. Peggy finds a nice piece made of Aventurine, a form of translucent quartz, that she can't resist using her 'lunch money' for. I snap a picture as she tries it on. Bob captures all of us and all too soon we say our goodbyes.

I call Glenda before we leave to say we're heading to her place to pick up our package. She turns down my offer to bring her enchiladas, etc. As we pull up we spy our package on the porch that Glenda has covered along with her dead fern! She has a nice warm fire going inside, her sewing machine, ironing board, and her baby quilt top laid out on the floor in the den. I snap a picture of the bright yellows and greens that we worked so hard to pick out at Joann's Fabric a few weeks ago.

We have a nice visit. Bob tried to load Chihuly picture on her digital picture frame but our memory card reader won't fit in the USB port near her wireless mouse on the back of her PC. So we'll just bring our laptop next time.

At 7:30 we head home as the temperature is down to 35 degrees and we don't want our pipes to freeze. The living room is a chilly 50 degrees but all is well. It's 8:45 p.m. and 35 degrees with 65% humidity.

The Big Chill

Friday, January 29, we both woke up at 2:00 a.m.to wind and pouring rain. The front has arrived but the wind is not too bad--the wind is the worst part in an RV. It rains for hours and the pond is much more full when we get up and look out. The low was 41 degrees. It gets up to 50 or so but a chilly north wind blows and makes it feel colder. I stare at the digital picture frame while I sip my coffee. Bob loaded new pictures from the Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, IN, last spring. It is fun to see how the car pictures mix in with Chihuly's glass picture when the frame is on random view.

I get on-line for emails. It is just rainy, dark, cold and windy--yuck! We have a light breakfast and I stretch and do my weights since I can't go out for a walk. Well, I guess I could but I choose not to. I'm waiting for the water to come back on; the RV Park turned it off unbeknownst to us. Bob starts a jigsaw puzzle while I reorganize the space underneath my closet now that we got rid of the big Windberg painting that we had hanging in The Beauty, our old RV (wow, that's the first time I said that and it sounded weird.) Anyway, that huge Windberg had no place to hang in our new home-on-wheels so we stored it. I'll miss it as it hung over the fireplace in our last two brick-and-stick homes. We also stored the folding chair that Bob used at the vanity in the bedroom in The Beauty, or should I say his fly tying desk? Plus we stored some paperwork and some boat things that were in the back of the camper shell on The Beast. We are pondering what to do with the extra space in the laundry closet in the bathroom. We need a 'big picture' plan on how to most effectively utilize our new-found space.

While I'm rearranging the closet the optical place calls and says my glasses are ready! We decide not to go anywhere as it is 41 degrees out at 12:30. We'll lose 6 to 8degrees if we turn the heaters off and leave. So I call Glenda and tell her we'll get our package on Saturday on the way back from Morelia's. She is snug with her quilting in front of the fire and opted out of her trip to Bastrop with her friend today.

Bob and I do drive down to the Shell station for a paper and scoot right back here. We have leftovers for lunch and dinner. It was good to clean out the fridge. We read the paper, work the puzzles and make progress on the jigsaw. It's 8:15 p.m. and 38 degrees with 51% humidity. There is snow and ice in the Texas Panhandle. Lubbock got hit hard. I hope Bob's Aunt Delphine is not buried under snow.

Deli Depot, DVR and Manny, Moe & Jack Frost

My friend Marilynn's creative jewelry

Thursday, January 28, I'm up at 7:00. By the time I get my coffee, open the blinds and settle into my Euro chair, the digital picture frame is open for business today. I turn it to a vertical mode and watch the whole thing in 'random'--always interesting.

I check email, we have a light breakfast, and I go for a walk. Cable guys in two trucks by the trash tell Paul, the owner, they fixed four breaks in the cable. Maybe our TV reception will be better (but no, when I return home it's still fuzzy.) I stretch and get cleaned up. Bob goes fishing on this last warm morning before the Big Chill sets in. The low was 60 degrees last night! That's coming to an abrupt halt tonight according to the weatherman. The high gets to 67 on this cloudy day with strong winds out of the south. The fish like it as Bob reports catching eight bass.

I take pictures of my Smithville friend Marilynn's jewelry. I'm so impressed by her creativity and her pieces are very reasonably priced. This morning I left her a voice message about lunch Sat. at Morelia's. My project for the day is to sew the Velcro strips on to the back of Glenda's Winter wall hanging. As I sew away, Marilynn calls to say she's coming on Saturday and I should bring her jewelry. I get two of the three Velcro strips sewn on when Bob returns. We break for lunch.

Marilynn combines Tiger Eye and African turquoise in this stunning set

At Deli Depot we both have the daily special; beef tips--mostly because it comes with their heavenly Italian Creme Cake. We get a newspaper out front and then stop at Best Buy on the way home to purchase the Panasonic DVR that is still on sale. The smallest box of RW discs they have is 25 so we spent the savings on the DVDs. Anyway, this will give Bob something to do over the next 2 or 3 days of the Big Chill.

Back home I sew on the final strip. Then we read the paper for a bit. Now we're ready to hang Manny, Moe and Jack Frost above the front door. Well, actually we don't have a back door, or a side door! The Frost Brothers look so cute--don't you think?

Glenda calls around 5:00. She returned home from Depot duty in Elgin to find our package from SteadyFast on her front porch. That was fast! If I had looked at the tracking site, or my email today I would have seen that it was delivered. We'll watch the weather and figure out if we'll go up to her place tomorrow to pick it up or wait until we go to Morelia's on Saturday. It weighs 39 pounds!

Bob loads Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg pictures on the digital picture frame to see if it can read separate folders. No, it just runs through them all. That's no problem--they are all great to view. We had Stuffed Cabbage Stoup for dinner and it just gets better every day. It's 6:30 p.m. and 66 degrees with 77% humidity. The front is out in the panhandle causing sleet and snow. Not supposed to be any of that here but some severe thunderstorms may come through during the night.

Manny, Moe & Jack Frost aboard The Titanic!

Storage Unit, Contact Lenses, Rings and Sherlock's

Wednesday, January 27, I'm up at 7:30. How sad to begin my day washing two sinks full of dishes from last night's stoup assembly. I didn't want to wait for the water to heat up after we were finished with our cooking last night. Sometimes it's hard to remember to fire up the water heater BEFORE you need it.

There's a flea market in the living room as yesterday we packed up and gathered everything we want to drop off at our storage unit. Bob loads it into Big Bertha and we're off at 10:00. We go west on 71, miss the exit ramp to nowhere at I-35, bat-turn at Congress and go south on I-35. We quickly unloaded our storage items and stuffed them inside. Bob immediately nixed our idea of trying to find three things in specific boxes we wanted. We know exactly which number box but it was daunting to think of moving them all to get to the ones we wanted. We didn't need anything that badly!

Next we go back to Ben White Blvd. to the Wal-Mart but find no space heaters. Another freeze is predicted for the next two or three nights. I did find sew-on Velcro for Glenda's Winter wall hanging. We go west on 71 and missed the exit (not marked) for MoPac. It's been too long and we didn't remember we really needed to take 360. I guess Austin is becoming as foreign to us as all the rest of the cities we visit in our travels. Finally we get on MoPac north to FM 2222 (or 'four twos and Loop 1' as our friend Donna called it many years ago when she was visiting and got turned around in Austin.)

I hopped in to the optical place to pick up my contacts while Bob walked to the corner gas station for a paper. I popped my contacts in. The right one was burning like crazy; maybe from the solution they were shipped in. I get some drops from the helpful fellow taking care of me and all is well. I'm seeing perfectly out of the right one but that left one is blurry. I set an appointment for Dr. U on 2/8 (she's only in on Monday and Thursday.)

Next we stop on Anderson and I pick up my rings ($97 for repairs and resizing.) Then we decide to try Sherlock's Baker St. Pub & Grill at 183 and Burnet Rds. We ate at one in Edmond, OK, but it was just called Baker St. Pub & Grill (no Sherlock.) You can read about that location on my journal for April 16, 2008 on my Earthlink homepage On the Road 8 x 30; 24 x 7 The Sherlock's here in Austin is new this year. Bob got a Kilian's Red for $1.75 for 23 oz. I share it. I tried the Scotch Egg appetizer (hard boiled egg, wrapped in sausage and bread then deep fried; served with hot mustard and pickle relish made with balsamic vinaigrette.) I add a bowl of chicken tortilla soup. Bob tries their pot pie.

We stop at Target at Peyton Gin but they sold out all of their space heaters. We're home by 2:30 and settle in with the paper. Bob reads up on creating 'albums' on the digital picture frame. It's 6:15 p.m. and 65 degrees with 64% humidity. The high was 68 and it was cloudy all day after a low of 53. Tonight is Obama's State of the Union Address. I spend a couple of hours catching up on journal pages since Saturday. Bob and I are vying for computer time now that he is in picture mode.

Morelia's and Stuffed Cabbage Stoup

Tuesday, January 26, I woke up at 7:15 on a board. The digital picture frame came on at 7:30 (Bob changed the timer to come on one hour earlier last night) so I knew what time it was when I woke up without having to hunt up my glasses.) I checked email and while sending some messages my friend Jean from Austin called about 9:00. She is having a domestic maintenance issue that came up right before her three week trip to South America so she cancels our lunch today. We'll reschedule her tour of The Titanic on our next trip through Central Texas. I'm glad we were able to get together with her before the holidays this year.

Dr. M's office calls to reschedule my 2/4 appointment. It is a day of changes. But now we have a free agenda for the day. I clean up breakfast and take a walk and stretch (On my walk I saw Marilynn's brother Jim, who lives here in the RV Park, on his bike but he kept on a peddling when I said hi.) Bob loads Chihuly glass art pictures on to the digital picture frame.

A cool front came through so it only gets to 68 today in spite of clear blue sunny skies. Bob and I head to Elgin where our first stop is lunch at Morelia's. I had to have the Bianca Tilapia. Bob has tilapia with shrimp and crab meat. Then we head on to our bank in Elgin for a payment. And finally we stop at Elgin Hardware (no longer Ace) for an outside plumbing fitting Bob needs. Back to Bastrop HEB (we like it better than Elgin's HEB) for ingredients for Rachael Ray's Stuffed Cabbage Stoup recipe that Glenda shared with us. What a great, savory recipe (Google lets us know we can substitute tarragon instead of coriander, saving us $5.79 and another big spice jar!) This makes a huge pot of stoup. The first glass of tea gets knocked over on our new living room carpet. The Scotch Guard must still be good because you can't see a trace of it.

We watch NCIS, NCIS LA, and White Collar. Bob records The Good Wife after a weird occurrence with the old VCR. It won't accept mm/dd/10 for 2010. So he puts in 01/26/99 to get a Tuesday and we can record. Who in the world and why in the world did they program it not to accept the year 2010. It takes all dates before Y2K and it took 2001 through 2009. Very strange. It's 9:25 p.m. and 56 degrees with 41% humidity. The low was 42.

Bob vs. DPF--New Chihuly's; Reet vs. Convection Oven

Monday, January 25, up at 8:00, light breakfast, walk, stretch. Bob goes through six years of pictures to resize and load all of our Dale Chihuly glass art shots on the memory stick for the digital picture frame (DPF). I vacuum and clean house after I get on-line to send emails. Jo sent her Mexican Corn Chowder recipe. How nice!

We break for lunch and head to home depot for a dowel for Glenda's Winter wall-hanging. We get a paper at Shell (some lady Home Health worker is look for Old Bastrop Hwy and Schafer off of that so it's a while before I get out of there.) We continue on to the driving range. I did better today with my Merrill hiking shoes on. My neuroma on my toes doesn't hurt as much.

Back home I make Ghirardelli Symphony Brownie Muffins for Jean's visit tomorrow. I love my new convection oven. The high is 63 degrees today and it is 71 inside the RV but I get no heat gain after running the convection oven at 325 degrees for a half an hour. The low was 40 this morning and a cold front is headed our way. It's 4:50 p.m. and 63 degrees with 21% humidity. The sunset is a beauty and I run outside just in time to capture it.

Another Burnt Orange Sunset over Bastrop, TX

Bob vs. Recliner; Colts and Saints Win!

Glenda has Manny, Moe and Jack Frost hanging in her den when we arrive.
Sunday, January 24, I walk, stretch and make queso dip. We pack up and head to Glenda's at 1:15. She has our Winter quilted wall hanging done. It is hanging in her den. I just love Manny, Moe & Jack Frost!

She remembered to print the Stuffed Cabbage Stoup and Double Fudge Cake with Chocolate Buttercreme Frosting recipes for me! Bob adds new batteries to Donnella, Glenda's new 'pet' that breathes--very creepy! We look at patterns and pictures for a Spring quilted wall hanging. The first game at 2:00 is Jets vs. Colts. The Colts start slowly but prevail in the end. Glenda's son Dan calls with sad news that his wife Cherly lost her grandfather so they are still in Centralia, IL, on their way back to NY. Bob plays with Glenda's digital picture frame while she's on the phone.

At half time we break out queso, tortilla chips, Fritos (I'm a Frito Bandito!), veges and honey mustard dip. Between the two games Bob goes through the digital picture frame menu with her and has Glenda choose frame and other settings. While they're at it, she chooses a burgandy mat and he changes her matting for her.

Bob guides Glenda through digital picture frame menu during half-time.

The second game starts at 5:40; Vikings vs. Saints. This turns out to be a very close game that goes back and forth with the scoring. The Saints win in overtime after Glenda downs extra Tylenol and blood pressure meds. We pack up and hit the road around 9:30. Glenda says her son John and his friend Andy will get here at 9:30 in the morning to work on her job list. It was a fun day again enjoying football and food with our friend Glenda. Bob had a couple of rounds with Glenda's recliner and it wore him out!

Back home we read the paper we picked up at Chevron on the way to Glenda's. I'm still working the crossword in bed at 12:45 when I pass out.

Donnella gets new life breathed into her.