um, hi there...

sorry. lots of fun this weekend and then back to the salt mines, so not much time to update.

We had a great time down in Austin, despite getting rained out for the Round Rock baseball game. Mostly because the rainout wasn't merely a little bit of rain. No, this was a great, torrential,raining too heavy to cross ten feet into the open air without being completely drenched. This was a great amazing storm, with lightning nearly hitting the park, OMG, we should get under cover instead of standing here enjoying the sheets of rain. This was stand around taking turns devouring a funnel cake while we watched the grounds crew play slip-n-slide on the tarp. The minor-league ballpark in Round Rock is a thing of beauty, designed so fans can enjoy the grand game as it was intended, with all the seats close to the field, cozy places to hang out in the concourses, and great concessions like barbecue, 18 flavors of snow-cones and cotton candy. The game was the stuff that vacation memories are made of, even though we never saw one pitch, but instead retreated to the hotel to watch the Simpsons on DVD.

Saturday, we woke late, moseyed to breakfast, and then wandered around Austin a bit before heading to the gym near the hotel for a little workout. We then had the most wonderful lunch of catfish at an old haunt of ours; nothing had changed there since we last visited 10 years ago except the addition of a National Championship banner and the highway is now a little wider and closer to the front door. Even TDP DinoBoy, who doesn't generally like seafood, was impressed with his lunch, and Elder Child was disappointed that he'd not tasted catfish nirvana until now. Let's just say we were really glad we'd put in our time at the gym!

Then it was on to campus, where we visited the new (to us -- I can't remember how long it's been open) Bob Bullock Museum of Texas History. You see, for you non-Texans, our state history is something we take very seriously. It's not every state in the union that was once it's own country, after all. We could have spent more than the two hours we did there, except that it was soon time to hit the Alumni Center on campus for pre-game festivities. Then we left the two big boys to enjoy the game (or not -- they were disgusted by the outcome despite the winning score) while TDP DinoBoy and I met up with M & A for some pizza and putt-putt. We had tons of fun, except at the end, when TDP DinoBoy was very sad that we had to call it a night and went into pout mode. I couldn't even get him to say goodbye to M & A, since he was so mad at me. I can't say I blamed him, I had a lot of fun, too.

Sunday morning, we had another lazy morning and relaxed breakfast, then headed back to the house, arriving in record time. I don't even want to know how fast Hub was driving. Really, I don't. Alls i know is that I finished the second Traveling Pants book before we arrived home. We did a lot of relaxing, a lot of reading together on the big bed, a lot of just hanging out and being for the rest of the weekend. It was nice, and a nice reprieve from the hustle and bustle we've been under siege of for the last few weeks.

The running is going. I missed my 7-miler today, trying to squeeze in 32 hours of work into 3 working days, but no worries. I will get it all in tomorrow, even if I have to split it out. Then I'm home the next day. These three-day weeks are pretty cool, I have to say. anyhoo, gotta hit the PC for work, so gotta run.