This Week in Texas...

The weather is still cooperating here. My Jeep said it was 81 degrees last Tuesday when I was running my errands. It's cooled off since then, and it was overcast and mid 60's today, but as long as there are no more 40 and rainy days this winter I'm good.  

During the provisioning, I found a new Texas beer to try and a new Texas wine. The wine was good, the beer was fine but we like the Shinerbock better. (It was on sale at the H.E.B today- yay!) 

Sweet Red from Wimberly Valley Winery

ZiegenBock- fun to say, not as good as the Shiner

While I was out, I also stopped by the pet boutique and got the pups a Texas squeaky toy. Then I got a couple of house plants at Lowes. They're stocking up for spring- racks and racks full of snap dragons, petunias and poppies- stuff that wouldn't show up in NC for a couple more months. I'm looking forward to seeing what neat things I can grow here. Chuck wants a pineapple plant- I'll have to research to see if thats possible.

Doggy Texas

I've also been trying to come up with some good ways to add the turquoise color to the great room.  I ordered Metal Effects paint in copper and blue patina. Then started looking for things to experiment on. I found this little bird at target but he was black, and I saved a Mt. Olive pickle jar. I tried to do the patina by spritzing it on, but I'm not happy with the results. I'll try again soon.  The little pot came from Lowes as is.

Painted Bird, Peace Lily, Painted Pickle Jar

Ivy

 We also added a fan to our bedroom because Chuck likes to feel like we're sleeping at the North Pole. It's by Rowenta and its super quiet and has a good sturdy base, so it doesn't keep me awake and the Danes don't knock it over- both very important features.

Rowenta Fan

On Saturday, we got W's badminton net up in the back yard. It was so much fun to watch and video as the girls and Chuck tried to play while the dogs were out.

After a bit Madison brought out her volleyball. It lasted all of 2 minutes before Butter got her jaws of death on it. The only thing to do with a flat volley ball is to use it to swing your bulldog. Of course, watch out, because if she lets go you can punch yourself in the eye and slice your eyelid with your fingernail.  Yeah, that happened. 

Butter with her prize

Saturday night we made it to The Princess Bride quote along at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. SO MUCH FUN! They gave us blowup swords, wedding bells and bubbles to use as props and the whole theatre played along- it was awesome. The food was OK, Chuck and W had pizza,  M and I had burgers. We also all shared fried pickles. 

On Sunday we went to Tomball to try a steakhouse. It was very good. Again, fried pickles, Chuck had the Diablo burger, the girls had burgers and I had a filet. There were also milkshakes and a grilled banana (sooooooo good).  It was very reasonably priced, too, and they had real sweet tea! We'll be going back. 

 The girls had a birthday party to attend at the bowling alley in Tomball. Bowling here is the same as bowling anywhere. I took the family on the back roads to get home to show them the ranch-y areas. We saw all kinds of breeds of cows, donkeys and horses. Yay!  And speaking of livestock- we got our tickets to the Houston Rodeo all lined up. We'll take the kids to the carnival, look at all the animals, watch the rodeo and then the concert. Should be fun.

No plans for this coming week yet- we'll see what happens.

M and Butter doing homework