Austin, Texas

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I am back Reader’s!

My trip to Austin, Texas was wonderful! What a wonderful city and a WONDERFUL group of strong, independent, fun ladies I got to hang out with for three days.

Rock Texas

Rock Texas

We stayed at the downtown W in Austin. It was a very nice hotel and almost everyone there was super nice. I had a room with two double beds that was pretty big and the bathroom was great too. We spent Friday afternoon out by the pool where we did a lot of shop talk, had some food, drinks and big laughs.

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Very windy out!

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Fancy but COLD!

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On Thursday night we had drinks and food at the W’s outside lounge area. Once again, great Shop Talk, getting to know each other and laughs were had. We then walked to the a bridge at dusk to se THOUSANDS of bats wake up and fly out to start their day. It was amazing!

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Me and Willy!

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My new BFF!

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Waiting for the bats.

Bats! -Not taken by me.

Bats! -Not taken by me.

Our hotel was right next door to where they host Austin City Limits and record the show. My man and I hope to see a show there one day.
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I was able to find a place to get my daily juice/smoothie. It was right by the hotel and is called the Daily Juice. They had so many fruits and veggies in that place! I had a really hard time choosing. The first day I went totally green and bought one that had kale, cucumber, parsley and celery to name few veggies.

Super Green!

Super Green!

On Friday morning I went for a smoothie that had blueberries, strawberries and peanut butter among other yummy things. It was really good. I hadn’t thought to add peanut butter to a fruit/veggie smoothie before.

Yummy Good!

Yummy Good!

We ate at some great restaurants for lunch and dinner. At dinner we had two different signature cocktails made for us. Both were very good. IMG_4025

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The food was soo good. Judi (head gal) did a wonderful job picking the restaurants (with the help of her hubby Theo) and the tasting menus. IMG_4062

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Our class field trip was to the Zilker Botanic Gardens where we had a guided tour. It was a beautiful garden and they even had fairy houses!
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Overall it was a wonderful trip that I feel lucky to have gone on. I learned a lot, saw some cool things, ate some yummy food and most importantly met some great ladies!!

Pool and Birthday updates…

Happy Saturday!

I hope you are all having a great morning. We here at Hotel Yorba are having a great day so far. We got some good news on Wednesday afternoon. Bob, our pool guy, called and told us that they were going to be able to do the pebble-tec on Thursday and Friday. They got here at 7:30am on Thursday and were done before noon on Friday. It looks great!!

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My Man and I are very happy with it. Can I tell you how excited I am that we are now filling the pool with water? Can I tell you how I am not excited to get the water bill? We started filling the pool on Friday afternoon and it is still going! I think it will take till Sunday to finish the filling the pool and then we have to fill the jacuzzi. Like I said, not looking forward to the water bill.

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So my big birthday is on Monday. I will be turning the big 40!! Woot! Woot! My Man gave me my gift early on Friday night. Isn’t it pretty?! Love it! It is all shiny and it sparkles. I am such a girl.IMG_2288

This morning we woke up early and went downtown for breakfast. We had to get to the jewelry store, Worthmore Jewelry, where My Man got the watch, so they could take some links out. While we were there, we had our rings cleaned and I gave them my older Tag to get serviced and cleaned.

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While out and about, we found a bakery and bought some challah bread so that My Man and The Boy can make me french toast tomorrow morning! We also bought a loaf of olive bread. I can’t wait to dig into that! The boy also got two cookies and ate them…it was 9:45am!

IMG_2289Tonight my boys are taking me out to The Optimist for my birthday dinner. I will make sure to take some pictures and post them. It now 11:30am and I am going to go check on the water level of the pool and then hang out with The Girls before it starts raining. Oh! While checking out the garden yesterday, look what I found!

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My first tomato of the season! Woot!

Question: What is your favorite way to eat tomatoes?

Pool 2013 Update

On Saturday Bob, from AquaVision, came and set up the drainer thingy to drain the pool. Here are some pictures!

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Empty Pool!

Empty Pool!

Of course on Sunday it poured down rain all day!

By Monday morning it had stopped raining and the tile crew came. The took down the old tile and out up the new square ones around the pool and spa. I love the tile (I should…I picked it out!) and the dark grout they used.

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Today they worked on getting the main part of the pool and spa ready for the pebble surfacing. The also patched up some holes. I am not sure what they will be doing next….But I can’t wait!

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Pretty tile!

Pretty tile!

Pool 2013

Not our Pool!

Not our Pool!

On Tuesday Bob, from AquaVision, came out and discussed our pool reno with us. Who knew there were so many types of pebble surface’s to choose from! We also discussed the fixing up the patio, tiles and coping. Needless to say, My Man and I were very excited when he left. Of course we has yet to see the quote on how much everything was going to cost, that came on Wednesday afternoon. When I got the e-mail I started to hyperventilate! I am happy to say, it was the amount I thought it would be. Now it still is a lot of cash but no huge surprises. We are not getting all new coping, just having them fix and freshen up what we have and we are not getting my favorite pebble surface cause it isn’t worth the extra 4K…yes, it is 4k more! What!? What!? Today I will be faxing in the signed paperwork and hopefully they will start next week! I plan to photograph the progress and share it with you all!

The Fur Kids Wish!

The Fur Kids Wish!

Have a great Morning!

Please note, I did not take any of those pictures.