What I Learned (v8)

My Husband is Amazing. Okay, so I have knows this for a while, but we recently spent a few weeks barely seeing each other, and now that we get to see each other again, it is just so nice!


I am not as young as I used to be. I need my sleep. I can't pull an all nighter, and it takes me days to recover if I get less than 5 hours of sleep in a night. Last Saturday/Sunday I probably did actually get 7 hours of sleep, but those were broken into three distinct chunks of sleep, and only about 3 hours happened while it was dark outside.


Every city needs Mrs. Johnson's. If you are in dire need of a sugar fix at a late hour, Austin is the place to be. Around midnight last Saturday, I hit the Mrs. Johnson's drive through for two dozen mixed, and the fellow working the window gave me not one, but two doughnuts fresh out of the glaze. The apple fritter was too hot to hold! Yum.


It is terrifying and cathartic to create something beautiful just so it can be destroyed. Last Saturday/Sunday (are you sensing a theme?) I spent several hours with the crew of september play creating a massive paper mural out of 100,000+ 1"x1" squares of paper. It was a labor of love as part of a piece created to explore the questions, feelings and memories surrounding the attacks of September 11, 2001. The mural was completed after many many hours, by many many people, and the end results were stunning. It greeted the audience members coming to see september play on Sunday evening and was promptly destroyed by two leaf-blower wielding men at the beginning of the play.



A time lapse video was shot during the creation of the mural, which I will post here if I can get my hands on it, but in the meantime, enjoy a few of the photos I snapped of the finished piece...

Pints of Pickled Peppers

I wish you could actually pick pickled peppers, but you can't, so Tuesday I spent my evening making my own. I relieved our two pepper plants of their enormous bounty and set about preserving their spicy goodness for colder months.

The Harvest

The pepper are a mix of baby jalapenos and Big Jims.  For whatever reason, our peppers haven't grown to their normal size. Our jalapenos are only hitting about 1-2", while the Big Jims are hitting only 3-4". Big Jims, an Anaheim-style chile often used in Chile Rellenos, often grow to be 7-9". But despite their somewhat diminutive size, both peppers have nice flavor. The jalapenos have a traditionally spicy kick, and the Jims are more on the mild side, with just a hint of heat. I used a simple brine of cider vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pickling spice.

The Results

Close-up

I think the finished product is really beautiful, and they were incredibly easy to make (the hardest part was waiting for my 4-gallon canner to boil.) And I am already dreaming of ways to use them. I will, of course, use them to top quesadillas or burritos (and in my scrambled eggs), but I am also devising a plan to use them in a queso recipe. I think the acidity that the pickling process adds to the chiles will pair nicely with the rich cheesiness of queso dip.

Oh, and homer was running around the yard when I was shooting the peppers last night, and he was really curious about what I was doing (and also why wasn't I throwing his frisbee).  I just couldn't resist this shot...

Make 'em eat sh*t!

Have you heard? Tom and I decided to splurge and buy season tickets to UT football. We figured Tom is only a student for one more year (hopefully!) and the student tickets are by far the least expensive option to see football here at UT. In the words of Tim Riggins, we just could not pass up this opportunity to "make some memories."

So! When college football kicked off this past weekend in Austin, Tom and I were right there with the other graduate student season ticket holders cheering on the Longhorns. Proof:

We're sweaty.

And the team totally kicked ass. They had their fair share of young team/new season mistakes, but they looked solid, scoring 4 touchdowns (including a pretty fantastic reverse flea flicker). The defense looked pretty good too, keeping Rice to just 3 field goals. I don't know. Rice isn't the toughest team we will face by a long shot. But the team looks really good, especially considering how we looked at the end of last season.

I also want to take a moment to mention the insane amount of tradition that Longhorn football is steeped in.  There is the fight song, the shocking amount of burnt orange, the odd little crowd chants (including this post's colorful title) and of course, the hook 'em hand sign \m/. There is Smokey, the banging of Big Bertha and the changing of the color of the Tower, and of course our revered mascot Bevo. Oh, and did I mention our cheerleaders sometimes wear chaps? And the band members often wear fringed pearl snaps and cowboy hats?  It is all just really excellent. And it makes for such a great time.

I will leave you with the lyrics to The Eyes of Texas, UT's fight song and all around creepiest song you will probably ever hear. It's less "we've got your back" and more like a hostile version of Sting's I'll Be Watching You.

The Eyes of Texas are upon you, 
All the live long day. 
The Eyes of Texas are upon you, 
You can not get away. 
Do not think you can escape them 
At night or early in the morn- 
The Eyes of Texas are upon you 
'Till Gabriel blows his horn.

Making Lemonade When All I Really Want is a Spiced Pumpkin Latte

Maybe it is the fact that school has started, or the fact that so many people are commenting on the changing seasons. Maybe it is because we booked our plane tickets for Thanksgiving this week. For whatever reason, I am getting fall fever in a major way. Which is a shame because Austin really doesn't get fall. At least not in any traditional sense that this Midwestern girl will be satisfied with.

Fall is my favorite season. I love to bake and drink hot drinks. I love wearing blue jeans and sweaters. Boots and scarves are my favorite accessories.  It turns out, I live in a climate that prevents me from enjoying many of my favorite things until the holiday season is practically gone. It's sad.

I was looking through my Facebook pictures the other day and saw this:

Isn't he the cutest thing?!

That is a photo of my husband OUTSIDE in a t-shirt and sunglasses. I took this photo with my cell phone and uploaded it immediately to Facebook last year on December 11, 2010.

Given that and the fact that we haven't had a day that didn't hit triple digits in nearly three months, and I am starting to feel a little anxious. I want to crunch leaves as I walk down the sidewalk. I want to need to grab a sweater before heading out the door in the evenings to play with my dog. I want to bake a damn batch of cookies, or a pie, without forcing my AC into overdrive.

But, things are good here in Austin. Work is settling down, and I am settling in. I am volunteering with an awesome theatre group. I am nearing my one year anniversary being married to that guy above. Our dog is the sweetest creature on earth. I have a new niece who is the most beautiful thing. One of my bestest friends from college recently moved to Round Rock. I can eat at Torchy's anytime I want. I am on new medication that has changed my life. Yeah, so I am making lemonade out of this decidedly lemony climate.

And it does help to have a cute pair of shoes to take the place of my beloved boots. I will be making due just fine with my brand new, perfectly autumnal (and perfect for this climate) Gilded Herringbone Classic TOMS.

Isn't it the cutest thing?