Cat's Garden in Austin, TX

I know, its been a while since my last post. Its now the end of March. In late Jan. through mid Feb. we were gone. Had a cruise, a trip to WA, then another cruise. We were gone almost a month. It was interesting living out of a suitcase that long. It was fun packing too. Cruises to warm places then a week and a half in WA with snow still melting. At least we had clothes in WA that took care of most of the cold. So it wasn't too bad. The only bad part was I got sick the day after we landed in WA. That flu was the pits. It took a couple of weeks to get all the way over it. It just wanted to linger. Then we got back to TX and had a business meeting. I was expecting a low key, casual meeting. Two days before the meeting they mention that all the men will be in suits - not exactly casual. I had to scramble a bit for clothes but the meeting was interesting and I'm glad I went. No I'm not a man, but the women were dressed for business too so I really couldn't w...

And a Happy Holiday to all out there in blogland. It is Christmas Eve. The weather here in San Antonio is actually kind of nice, for a change. Its been warm - high 70's, just not Christmas weather to me. Today is supposed to stay in the mid to low 60's. Much better weather. We finished all our shopping. The only thing I need is a couple of potatoes for dinner tonight. I'm planning on making rock cornish game hens for the two of us. That, some risotto, and veggies. The potatoes I have probably shouldn't be used, and I'm thinking of just doing without them. Risotto should be enough. Tomorrow is Christmas day. We will be going to see family. We're going out to eat which should be easier. Then we'll go to one of the relatives to "open presents". Not really my favorite part. I really kind of prefer to buy myself my own. I know that sounds horrible to most people. But part of the problem is I don't really want much of anything and n...

Well, I am proud to say I made it through Thanksgiving. It was a success. My small turkey (looked like an oversized chicken) was just enough. No mashed potatoes but roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes did fine. Made a bit too much dressing, but that was all. And now on to Xmas. I started my list of what to do for people. I haven't finished it, but at least I have a starting point. This Xmas I think family will get together and go out to a buffet. That would be easier. And I don't think anybody would mind. We had to have thinning done on our trees once again. We had it done last year here in San Antonio. That was fortuitous since we had an ice storm last year. Many neighbors had tree limbs break, but we didn't. But we knew more work needed to be done. Well, we had it done. They look better, and the yard is getting more sunlight. But today is just typical San Antonio - 68 and a bit of sprinkles (more rain possible). I wish it was cooler, but no such luck. We...

Well its almost Thanksgiving. We made it to San Antonio and unfortunately had a relative pass away shortly after we got here. That was sad. But we also went on a cruise to the Panama Canal and that was good. I have pictures located here under MacMania 7 (http://web.mac.com/catsdance/iWeb/Home.html). The cruise was on Holland America Cruise Lines. We left out of Ft. Lauderdale for the 10 day cruise. We stopped in Aruba, Curacao, the canal, Costa Rica then home we came. Aruba was different from what I expected. I always hear about it being a place for spring break so I expected it to be a bit larger, lots of beaches, etc. It was a bit smaller than I thought, and it had lots of beaches but it had a lot more too. We did and excursion to a butterfly farm which was great. We also went to an aloe farm, not quite as fun as the butterfly farm, then we went to the natural arches section of the island. I didn't know about the natural arches area before going. We drove through a v...

Its hard to believe its almost Oct. Were does the time go. We've been busy. Its been a cool summer here in Seattle, at least a bit cooler then usual. But I think that's better than sweating all summer. We did go spend a week in San Antonio and I'll take a cooler climate happily. What I do love is the first weekend in Oct. is Issaquah Salmon Days. Its a fun street fair kind of thing. Its all about the salmon that come up the creek into Issaquah. The town also has its own salmon hatchery so its a fun event to go to. It really only lasts the weekend, but its fun. So I'm looking forward to going to it. Also this Oct. we are going to Las Vegas for a few days. We are meeting some of my family there. We're got reservations for dinner and a show so that should be fun. I don't do Vegas often so I'm looking forward to it. And we're going to the Seattle Opera for a Sunday matinee. That should be fun too. I'm looking forward to Oct.

We just spent two weeks out of the country. We did a cruise out of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a 10 day cruise on Holland America. I enjoyed myself...A LOT! We flew into Copenhagen about 2 days before the cruise, then stayed 3 days after the cruise. We were lucky enough to find a direct flight from our area straight to Copenhagen. That made the trip a bit easier - no worry about connecting flights. But it was also harder - 9 hour flight. At least we could sleep through part of it. And I must say SAS business class (expensive) was worth it. We actually did the cruise with a group of people all interested in Opera. It was a group of about 75 people, that was just our small group within the cruise ship. We met lots of people. It was a lot of fun. We had a couple of group meetings and learned about "divas". We also had a couple of group excursions - in St. Petersburg, Russia to the Hermitage and to the Marinsky Opera house to see Tosca and an excursion in Helsinki, ...

We made it to WA. The weather had been cool which is so much nicer than San Antonio. Today was warmer, and we are expected to have a couple more warm days. But warm here is different. Its warm, 80's but you have a cool feeling breeze along with it so it is so nice to be outside. Though of course you do need your sunscreen so you don't get a sunburn. Today was so nice I grilled chicken for dinner on the deck. When we got back to WA we had one of our decks replaced. It was noisy but worth it. We also replaced our cars, something we knew we needed to do. We also have spoken to a guy who will be replacing our retaining wall. They had hoped to start this week, but they needed to have lines marked. When you dig this kind of way, you have to know where things like underground power lines or water lines are. So we are waiting for them to come and do the marking. So they expect to start the retaining wall early next week. We're also getting ready for our cruise next mo...