Last Monday, Josie and I flew down to Austin, Texas, to spend the week with Tyler.
Ty first went to Texas for grad school. Last year he got his master's degree and then a job with Calloway Golf. He recently moved into a new apartment, which is big enough for guests.
Josie and I arrived in time for a quick tour of St.Edward's campus before making camp at Ty's place. He whipped up a big pot of spaghetti and we ate while we watched North Carolina administer a championship smackdown to Michigan State. Zack is the only one in the family who picked NC to win his bracket. He spent a half hour that morning describing a player by player matchup and explaining why NC would win. Turns out he was right. When the game was over, Ty called his Dad (who watched the game alone, in a hotel room in Rhode Island) to commiserate over their broken brackets. Josie wanted to talk to her Dad too, but since she outscored him, all Jay would say to Josie was "You suck and your bracket sucks." Ah, the family that fills out brackets together...
Then we popped in Slumdog Millionaire and watched that. We all loved the movie.
Tyler's apartment is very nice. It's a new development that originally was to be condos but turned into rental units when the market tanked. It has hard wood floors, a dining space, a large, lovely kitchen with stainless steel appliances and a living room that has large windows and a door out to the courtyard. Off the living room is a carpeted bedroom with a large bathroom and beyond that, a huge walk in closet. Ty has no dining set so he put his old futon in the dining area and Josie turned it into an impromptu bedroom. Ty bought a large sectional couch for his living room which fits as though it were designed for the room. It's also very comfy and that's where I slept. The courtyard is big, and beautiful with a pool, a coy pond and a large, barbecue/fire pit/party area for the use of the residents. Every afternoon, we sat out by the pool playing cribbage or scrabble.
The first morning, I woke up around 9:30. I made coffee and sat by the window to the courtyard doing needlepoint until the coffee was gone. Then I woke up the kids and we went to the Magnolia Cafe for brunch. I had a corn meal pancake with bananas and walnuts and it was delicious. In the afternoon we walked down by Lake Austin, which is gorgeous. We walked until Josie was exhausted and my feet hurt from wearing worn out flip flops. Around five, we stopped at a place and grabbed some appetizers, then headed to Ty's softball game. The park was lovely and the weather was perfect. It was really fun to watch even though Ty's team was awful. I think they lost 22-8. Ty claimed to be the best player on his team and that might be true, but that's not much to brag about. After the game, we still weren't all that hungry for dinner, so we just stopped and got ice cream instead. Since Josie and I gave up chocolate for lent, we had to get creative. I got a peach cone, Ty got key lime pie and Josie got Mexican vanilla. Next time, Josie wants key lime and I want Mexican vanilla. Unless it's not lent, then we both want chocolate. dark chocolate. With malted mild balls crunched into it. When we got back home we watched The House Bunny and laughed so hard we worked off the ice cream. Josie went to sleep but Ty and I stayed up till 2:40, watching Seven Pounds, which we both liked. It was sad, but well done.
Katie tells me that Seven Pounds is perfectly stupid because legally, you're not allowed to do what Will Smith did. Right. And the Wizard of Oz is stupid because scarecrows can't talk. Pssst, Katie; IT'S A MOVIE.
The next morning I woke up around 11:00, made coffee and sat in the sunshine doing needlepoint until about noon. When the kids woke up it was too late for brunch so we had lunch at Opal Divine's which is a huge deck in the tree tops over looking the neighborhood. It was like having lunch with the Swiss Family Robinson. We all got salads and sandwiches and the food was great. Then we went back to Lake Austin and rented a canoe. We paddled all over the place. When my arms wouldn't move anymore we went back to Ty's place and sat by the pool playing scrabble and drinking margaritas.
That's when things got weird.
We were all studying our letters, talking and drinking and laughing when suddenly Josie said "What the **** is that?" in a hushed voice. Part of my brain was thinking "Did Josie just drop the f-bomb in front of me??" but most of my brain was screaming "
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT??!!"
One of Tyler's neighbors was walking what I can only assure you
was not a dog around the court yard. We watched in stunned silence until the two of them went inside.
"What in the world was that thing?" Tyler and I asked each other. Josie said it looked like an ROUS; a Rodent Of Unusual Size. Turns out,
that's exactly what it was.
"Whatever it was, it made Josie-" Ty said.
"Please don't ground me!" she pleaded, turning bright red. I started to laugh and suddenly the hook on my brand new bathing suit cracked, and my top popped off. Only my lightning quick reflexes prevented me from flashing my kids.
"Yuck." Josie said. I should've grounded her for
that.
After I came back out with a shirt on, we finished the game. Ty and I let Josie use the word 'aloofer' even though we agreed that what you would say is "more aloof" and sure enough, she wound up winning the game. That'll teach us. Then we got all dressed up and went out to a nice place for dinner. We ate a ton and the food was excellent. Later, we watched Hellboy II, which was fun.
Thursday we drove to the Comel River and went tubing. That was great. The water was cold but since the temps were up in the 90's and the sky was cloudless, the cold water felt wonderful. We were on the river for about two hours. I'm kind of surprised that I'm not burnt to a crisp. Nice to know my sunblock really works. I'm also glad that I didn't get a huge bruise from either falling on my butt trying to get into my float when we started out or bashing my hip on a rock in one of the tube shoots. After four nights of sleeping on the couch and three days of falling, smashing and crashing into stuff, I feel great!
After tubing, we stopped in our soaking wet clothes for burgers at a place called Pat's. Their sign said "world's best hamburgers" and they were pretty darned good. Then we went back to town, changed into dry clothes and went with Tyler to buy a new car. He bought a black mazda 3 four door with a moon roof and a full warranty, which is what he wanted the most. He had been driving a nifty two door convertible that looked great and broke down every seventy miles. The power windows stopped working on our way to the river, which was the last straw for Ty.
When we got back home from buying the car, we popped in Pirates of the Caribbean II, pulled out the cheese and crackers and played one last game of scrabble before bed. Our flight was early so I didn't want to stay up too late. I fell asleep on the couch while Tyler and Josie played cribbage as a tie breaker fo the scrabble.
We didn't have time to see Ty's office or meet all his co-workers. We didn't have time to see most of Austin. We didn't have time to visit Barton Creek, where Ty worked while he was in school. Three days wasn't enough time for everthing, but we had non-stop fun the whole time we were there and there's always next time.
I hid a chocolate Easter Bunny in his apartment before I left.
I bet he doesn't find it till the fourth of July.
