Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Tomorrow we are heading to my first-cousins-once-removed-in-law's house in Round Rock and will hang out with not only them, but second- and third-cousin-in-laws. We once had a family reunion when my husband's grandfather came to town, and someone figured out how we all related to each other (there's about 15 of us in town) and put it in an excel spreadsheet with the relationships. I get a total geeky pleasure out of repeating it when I see them.

I have not gone grocery shopping in about 10 days and am boycotting that chore until after the holiday. We drove past Central Market yesterday at 4pm (on a Tuesday) and there was someone directing traffic in the parking lot.  No thank you - I will eat frozen waffles for dinner just to avoid that mess.  Today I went to Specs, (hey Trader Joe lovers, you'll like this store for booze and appetizers) and bought one of each of their Vinho Verdes to take with us to the cousins' house, plus some sparkling juice for the kids (we call that "bubble juice" in our house).  Carol, a cousin who is hosting, has insisted that I don't need to bring anything, but you can't just show up empty handed.

I may or may not attempt to do cranberry man again this year for the kids. I buy a couple cans of cranberry sauce, plus things to make facial features out of from the salad bar, dump the sauce out of the cans so it retains it shape and let the kids decorate. It's super fun to do, but involves a Thanksgiving morning trip the the grocery store, so we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

(Cranberry Man from 3 years ago)

After that I'm sure my husband is going to want to watch the UT / A&M game.  I have about a 20 minute tolerance of football games, so I'll probably find something else to do with the kids.

Hope you guys have a good one, and stay safe!

Who am I?

By now if you have been reading my posts of the last 11 months (wow!) you can probably tell that I am:

• a mom
• a graphic designer
• married to an architect
• a Central Austin dweller
• a person with slight hippie and yuppie tendencies 
• a democrat
• trying to become a Rollergirl (in the rec league)

I also:

• do not care for sports or shopping
  
• don't go listen to music in clubs
  
• don't know any singles hangouts, gay or straight
  
• don't know the best place to get sisterlocks is
  
• don't know my way around Cedar Park, Round Rock or Pflugerville
  

I realize some of you out there might want to know about the things that fall into that second category, because I do get emailed a lot with questions about these things. I'm trying to go through all of my friends and interview them to give perspective on these topics, but in all honesty most of the people I know in town are either moms, graphic designers or architects. (Aimee, you fit two of those!)

So - let's just say I'm working on it.

By the way, I also get asked a lot if I'm a realtor or if I get paid for this site.  Nope.  This is a hobby, and to date I've made about $13 in google ad revenue. Thanks to my clickers!

Breakfast Places

My husband and I LOVE to go out to eat for breakfast on the weekends to escape the doldrums of our typical weekday breakfast (corn tortilla with a melted piece of cheese and a scrambled egg, with pepper and Crystal hot sauce, cup of coffee, side of fruit).

Our breakfast places must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Relatively close to our house (Central Austin)
2. Cheap
3. Good
4. No wait (around 8:30am)
   
5. Kid friendly

 Our regular list includes:

• Cheko's - This total scrappy Mexican place within walking distance of our house, where we are aiming to be regulars at. It's good and super cheap - Breakfast plates are $3.75 - 4.75!  Also a favorite dinner place. They serve breakfast tacos, migas*, huevos a la mexicana, etc.
  
• Star Seeds Cafe - Picture a hipster dive bar but in a diner form, with a waitstaff that plays whatever the f*** they want for music.  You wouldn't think it would be kid friendly, but we go so early in the morning that we pretty much have the place to ourselves.  They have great diner food and their chocolate chip pancakes are to die for. 
• Juan in a Million - I am a refried bean aficionado and this place has my favorite in town.  You can smell the bacon grease when they're served.  I usually order a pint to go and make chalupas later that week at home. The Don Juan taco here is legendary and the ultimate cheap breakfast dish - but I prefer to get a couple breakfast tacos instead.
• Austin Diner - Also within walking and/or biking distance from our house. Not outstanding, but not bad either. The typical fair of omelettes, migas*, huevos rancheros, etc.
  
• The Omelettry - Ditto to everything about Austin Diner, only I like the atmosphere more here. 
• Kerbey Lane - This place is great, but just slightly more expensive that others, and gets crowded earlier too. They have a dish called Paris, Texas with french toast and migas* with queso. 

* Migas are (is?) a typical Austin breakfast dish, made with scrambled eggs, strips of corn tortilla chips, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos and sometimes cheese. 

 Now, every once in a while I get to escape the rigid rules and go somewhere that's more expensive or further away, or not as kid friendly.

• Polvo's - My friend Laura visited a year ago and we ate here for dinner and then again for breakfast.  Twice in one week totally burned me out on this place, but I do think their breakfast menu is incredible. Get something with mole on it.
  
• Threadgills - Buffets normally gross me out, but they have a killer Gospel Sunday brunch.
• Moonshine - I still have not made it for Moonshine's Sunday brunch because it opens at 10:00 am which is practically mid-afternoon for me, but someday I'll get to sleep in, and this will totally hit the spot. 

Random thoughts while my child screams

We are Ferberizing the 4 month old daughter tonight. Sleep training, cry it out - whatever you want to call it. It worked so well with my first child that I'm hoping for a repeat home run. She's been crying for an hour, but luckily I'm married to a wonderful guy who let me go to Adult Skate at Playland to practice my derby moves tonight, and I've only caught the last 20 minutes of the scream fest.

The beast is getting sleepy. For now. I am dreading the 2am wakeup, but am hopeful that in a few days, there will cease to be a 2am wakeup. I would love to get a full night's sleep.

---- 2 days later ----

Once I realized she was asleep, I myself went to sleep knowing I'd be up a few hours later.  I love this blog, but I love sleep more. ( It went really well, she barely cried and went right back to sleep).

Now I've lost where I was going with this post.  Oh, maybe just some updates.  I haven't been writing as much as I used to be able to, back when I worked at a cakewalk of a job and had 8 hours in front of a computer to fill.  I went on maternity leave in July and decided to quit in October, so I've been running around after my kids instead of thinking of blog topics.  I'm doing freelance graphic design now part time, so anytime in front of the computer is spend trying to earn a little cash.

And I just switched hosts, so if you see any blips in the website or this blog, that's why.  Feel free to let me know if something isn't working.


I'm just going to go ahead and end this post.  It's going nowhere, and I'm tired.  Sorry.