A Well-Deserved Day Out

Today, we celebrated the end of a difficult week. We waded through lots of family/friend drama this week, and it was so nice to come out on the other side relatively unscathed. We decided the day called for something special. We all woke up early prepared to hit one yard sale after another, but being so close to Easter, it seems no one had any inclination to haul their stuff onto their lawns this morning. So, instead, we visited our favorite Austin thrift store, Thrift Town. I found the most deliciously vintage dark green pea coat for $5.99 and three brand name cloth diapers for $.69 each.

Then, we headed out to several Half Price Books stores where K sat and read manga for hours, T picked up a few brewing books and I found a $1.00 compilation of Leon Hale's Houston Chronicle articles from the late 1970's and early 1980's called Easy Going. I'd never read Hale's work before, and now I'm entranced. What a magical writer! I also found a Sue Bender book I hadn't read before called Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish.

What a haul, huh? I'm elated! I was searching for a good book on organic vegetable gardening, but no luck. I just started gardening, and as much as I enjoy it (is there anything more fulfilling?), I feel a bit lost. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

Then, we stopped by Austin Homebrew (the "Make Your Own Damn Beer" guys) for some fixin's. Tonight, we bottle the mead and start a batch of raspberry beer. Yum!

After that, it was on to the Mediterranean buffet for all the hummus, tabouli, dolmas, falafel, baba ganoush, lentil soup and baked cauliflower we could eat! Not surprisingly, I'm stuffed. Amazingly, T is in the kitchen right now cooking up berry pies for tomorrow. He's spending the day with his boss and a friend, while K and I visit my grandmother a few hours north of here.

As I type this, my eyelids feel heavy and my body seems to be melting into the couch. It's been a long day, but a good one. Still have to bottle and brew....

Update - 11:00 PM: Damn, the malt and hops boiling on the stove smells good!

Update 2 - 12:30 AM: All done. 24 beautiful, corked, amber bottles of spiced ginger cyser and a 5 gallon carboy full of fermenting raspberry beer. Yay!