My Holiday

Whoa, it's been a long hiatus from blogging! Sorry, but when I was down in Houston, I didn't bring my laptop with and so I kept myself disconnected the entire time I was down there (quite a feat for me).

Lis and I drove down to H-town on Tuesday night. Once she got off from work, she picked me up at the office and we grabbed some grub and went back to her apartment to pack. We got all packed up and on the road by about 9pm or so. It was a nice drive down from Austin (only took about 3 hours) except for the fact that we were both really thirsty the entire way there!

When we got in, Lis' sister Elizabeth was up and let us in. So we sat and BSed for a while, and then slept like logs.

I got up on Wed at the early hour of like 11am to a very excited Elissa. She found a small, red snake in her backyard and woke me up to show me. So I went outside with her and she let me hold him. He was a cute little snake, but so small that I felt like I'd break him just by holding him. We sat outside and talked with Elissa's dad for a while and had a nice morning. Then we decided to go to Nimfa's (I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong) for lunch. Elissa, her dad, her brother (Lawrence) and I all went -- boy was that some good Mexican food! We all ate until we were stuffed, and then came back home.

I spent most of the day mending fences so that the goats couldn't get out of the yard when grazing. The one (Baby) always managed to scoot under the fence by lifting it from the ground, so I staked them down and tied them with wire. He's not getting out from the parts I mended, so hopefully that keeps him in the yard from now on. Once I was done with that, I trimmed a lot of the dead branches from the trees in the goat pen. Baby and Francie really loved me for that since I took down one branch that was still alive (but about to wreck the neighbor's shed) -- they had a feast of mullberry leaves.

Once I was done doing chores in the yard, I went in to make some of my famous pumpkin bread for the Thanksgiving feast.

Thursday was the big day, and it was just as fun as Wed was. I got up "early" again (sometime nearing noon) and started working in the back again. This time I mended the goat's shed itself. It was rather tippy and needed some good structural changes -- the goats would rub on the inside of the shed to scratch themselves, which would then knock parts of the shed off and make it tippy. So I added bracers that they can rub against without hitting the outside sheeting. Then I built a new wall for the front of the shed and cut an entrance in it for Francie so that Baby can't keep her out of the shed in bad weather (he's kind of a hog like that). It was fun -- I used power tools and the goats now have a very sturdy shed to sleep in. Lis was an awesome helper through the project. I kept her running plenty.

After coming in and taking a shower, it was time to help get the cooking done. Lis made homemade rolls. Elizabeth made three awesome pies (and did all the organizing of the feast) and some cranberry relish. Lawrence made a greenbean hotdish and sweet potatoes. I made some mashed potatoes. Elissa's dad made some rosemary cheese potatoes and turkey. Oh man did we have plenty of food to eat! It was a delicious feast.

Lis had to work on Friday, so we took off from Houston around 9am and made it back to Austin around 1pm. I spent most of the day sleeping (I've been really tired lately) and playing GTA. Once Lis got home, we had a crappy pizza experience (we're not ordering from Pizza Hut again any time soon) and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I must say, the original was a lot better. Johnny Depp makes a very pretty woman in this one though.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I want to hear some stories from people -- where'd you go and what did you eat? :-P