7.4.12 Floating on the Fourth

 Happy Fourth of July!!!!

Still not feeling 100% but better. Headed down south to meet up with everyone and then we were off to San Marcos. This is the second year I have traveled with the group to the San Marcos River for this red white and blue holiday. Also the second year that our Canadian friend Derek has joined us. Him and his family have been spending their vacation enjoying the warmth of Texas. Angela's son Xander joined us this year. We got there and got our toobs blown up and are picnic area set up and then started the hike to the spot where we get in at he river. Last year the hike seemed shorter. hmmmm. The first run we were kind of spread out and I even think we lost some people along the way (not permanently) Floating the river is one of my absolute favorite summer adventures. The San Marcos river is a little less developed than the Guadalupe or the Comal and a little more overgrown with vegetation as well. The ride is about an hour maybe an hour and a half. We get out after the rapids which puts us right next to our picnic spot.

It is a very social event because you kind of have a captive audience. I prefer the old school black inner tubes but now a days everyone is shifting to the fake plastic tubes. Not as sturdy in my opinion and most of them have a net bottom so it makes getting in and out of the tube annoying and sometimes embarrassing. Though some people argue that the new ones have a head rest and a cup holder which makes them better. I feel like an old person "back in my day we didn't have fancy blow up head rests and you had to hold your beer in your hand-we had it tough" heheheheeh
The day went well. Xander and I got out and swam a little. When we hit the falls I went down first and as is the theme for me this summer I flipped. Luckily I don't freak out in water. I held on to my tube and made it to the side. I was extremely worried about Xander though. He is 7 and although he is a tough little kid, I was worried something might happen to him. So I got out and waited til he went over and Manny helped me and we kind of guided him down. He wasn't to happy with us but I felt better about it. Xander of course is so light that he just coasted over all the falls.

We had some brats for lunch and watermelon and chips. Then we were back at it. This time the group stayed together better, mostly because a good portion of them tied their tubes together. I personally like to move around. We did see some variations on the floating single tubes. There was like a floating island and a floating double seater  with a place for a cooler. We also saw some cute boxers in life jackets.

 

After we were done floating I headed home to get ready for the evening at Eva's.
I have never been to Eva's house before. It is really cute with a lot of books and records. Shiloh was there and so was Eva's new boyfriends dog-Charlie. Danae and Eva were getting dinner ready. Danae had brought Lasagne. We also had bread and fruit and goat cheese and crackers. Liz, Jennette and Cynthia showed up. We also got to meet Eva's boyfriend and his daughter. Dinner was delicious. I hadn't had much to eat the last few days so I probably ate more than I should but it was very good. We tried to watch fireworks from downtown but Eva's trees have grown since last year and we weren't able to see anything. We headed over to her pool was was closer and higher. We could see some fireworks from there. All photos at Eva's were borrowed from Eva's Facebook page and were taken by her.





I had a great Fourth of July although I did miss my previous annual one at the Sullivan's house in Colorado.

7.1.12 Magic Mike **SPOILER ALERT*****

I am starting to feel a little better, finally. Angela had asked me if I wanted to go see Magic Mike prior to me being sick and I had already bought my ticket at Alamo Drafthouse ahead of time. I couldn't really back out right?  So I ventured down south to where my new home is soon to be and went to go see Magic Mike. All I can say is lots of women. There were tons of women waiting in line to see Channing Tatum and company take off their clothes (too bad it wasn't live). We were running a little late because I have time management issues and was running a little behind so we were toward the back of the line. Finally they let us in. The theater filled up with the sound of gossiping women. We ordered our food and got settled in.

***SPOILER***
 
Magic Mike was a good movie in that their were several beautiful men, some of whom we know already from other movies or tv shows(True Blood and CSI), who work in a strip club and who actually dance instead of just flitting around a stage. The costumes were sexy and funny and boys were adorable. The rest of the movie (scenes in between strip dances) were boring and the actress that plays Channing's love interest was always taking long pauses when she spoke like she was thinking real hard about what her next lines were. All in all the dancing and beautiful bodies make this a must see if you are interested in that kind of thing. Oh and Matthew finally strips at the end!

What the movie was really about was Channing Tatum's character takes in a young guy (Alex Pettyfur) and teaches him the ropes to the strippers life and what he could get out of it. Matthew's character strings Channing along with the idea of a bigger and better club where they can be partners. Channing slowly starts to fall in love with a pain in the ass sister of his new best friend. Things start to fall apart when Alex's character starts selling drugs. (Not as exciting as just saying-beautiful men stripping.)

6.28.12 Waves of Pain

I woke up this morning with the most intense waves of pain in my stomach area. At first, the pain would "roll" in getting stronger in intensity and then "roll" back out and it would take about 30 sec to a minute between each set. Unfortunately they got to be about 4 secs apart and the worst part of the whole thing was each time feeling it coming back. We tried medicine for gas pains and other stuff but nothing seemed to help. I spent part of the day in bed and then finally mom took me to the hospital. We first ended up at an Urgent Care office but they said that I was more of an emergency so I would have to go to the ER. So then we traveled to Scott and White Hospital. This whole time the pain kept getting worse.
Scott and White was a very nice place. They got me right in to a room and had me checked out fairly quickly. They put me on some pain killers which did stop the pain from happening for a little while. The doctor came in and explained that they were going to do a CAT scan and that I would need to drink some lemonade tasting stuff that would help them see what was going on. It was in a huge glass and I didn't know if I could drink all of it in a fast amount of time. The doctor explained everything as we went along and pointed out how much time everything would take (like an hour for the lemonade stuff to get where they needed it) so we were never left in the dark as to why we were just hanging out without seeing anyone.

I went in for the CAT Scan and the only really weird thing was the attendant said I would feel really warm in my stomach and would feel like I had to pee. Which was true it was a very strange sensation. Hopefully it wasn't from me being microwaved in that machine.
The doctor determined that I had an inflamed stomach and large intestines. She gave me a prescription for some meds and sent me on my way.
Whew! At least it wasn't a burst appendix or an alien trying to get out of my lower half!
 Did you know that is you pay your bill in full, hospitals might knock a couple hundred dollars off the total? Of course that was just one of many bills to follow.

6.27.12 Back to the Bahn

Manny and I decided to head to Schlitterbahn again (twice in one week)!We got a pretty early start and went and just took our time. We actually had time to stay longer than usual. Around noon I wasn't feeling so hot. I had run a little last night with the dogs and thought maybe I had pulled a muscle. I was feeling tired and worn out but we stayed a while longer. Manny's favorite ride today was the Banzai. There wasn't much of a line so we rode it a couple of times. On it you use your black tube and ride down body type slides.  I really started feeling bad and finally spoke up about it. I thought I was just having heat exhaustion at this point. We decided to leave. On our way out I wanted to stop by Grandma's house and Manny was a good sport. We talked for a while with her and then headed home. On our way we stopped at Buc-ee's.

  It is like the biggest convenience store ever. It boasts something like 83 clean bathrooms. The slurpee machines go on forever. Also the gas is cheaper than most anywhere else in the whole area. You can even by a large Texas style firepit for your yard there. They also have their own Buc-ee beaver merchandise. It is pretty funny but a definite must stop for the kids if you are traveling between San Marcos and New Braunfels.

6.24.12 Jennette's Birthday

Today for Jennette's birthday, she chose to host an Hill Country Outdoors event to Schlitterbahn. I figured that since I had a season pass (best decision I made this summer) and since Jennette is my friend and I would of course want to be there for her birthday-I went. Today's players (Jennette, Neal, Manny, me and Alan) met at Academy on the way to carpool.
Neal and Alan got a little confused and tried to find us at the new park instead of the old where we were waiting. While we were waiting I got attacked by a large stuffed dog. Actually I guess Schlitterbahn got a mascot since I worked there Schatze the wiener dog and we got our picture taken with the human in a costume replica. Once the guys found us we were off! I had to be at work and would have to leave early so I kind of took the lead to get us on the optimal amount of rides in the time provided :) We did the White water and the Cliffhanger and then we went on one I have not been on yet this year-The Congo.  Basically as you are standing in line you get a talking to by an animatronic safari guide. Then you get into the old lazy river and you go through a hut that has vines and light flashes like lightening and smells of plastic. Sometimes there is mist and sometimes it is turned off. There are various animatronics -a lion, snake, monkey and an elephant that try to scare you or squirt water on you. Then you head off into an old mine tunnel when you have returned pretty much where you started. It was pretty cheesy but had a good drop in a tunnel. We had a lot of deep discussions about the properties of water(at least Manny and I did)We rode the raging river where Manny tried to give Jennette a big piece of drift wood as a birthday present and then the boys went down the fast water slide. It was a good day and I am hoping Jennette had a great birthday. I eventually had to leave them and head back so I could get to work.

 

 For those from Colorado that always wonder why Texans want to move to Colorado here is one of the many advertisements to entice Texans to move to Colorado and brave the cold. 

6.23.12 Dog Paddle

 Mom decided that it would be an ok idea to brave both dogs at Georgetown's Blue Hole. So I wrangled up the kids and took off in the Jeep. The girls actually did pretty good. The longer Mali is with us though the more comfortable she gets and the more rambunctious she is. We played around for a while in the shallow water. I slipped a couple times on the algae. The water was too low for the falls to be happening. Mom and I switched off between camera and dogs. We then tried the deeper area above the dam. The water is a little colder there because it is spring fed and it isn't quite as algaeish. It was too hard to try and pose or swim with both girls so we kept having to trade them off. Mali wants ALL the attention so if I tried to swim with her she was on top of me. Ugh! Everyone got some swim time and a good day was had by all.

6.21.12 A New Plan

So I took the Jeep into Walmart to have the battery checked (After going to Walmart first to buy jumper cables.) They said they would have a look at it as soon as they could get to it, so mom and I went to lunch and met Kelly there. We chose the Westside Alehouse because it is a new restaurant in Round Rock. I have driven past it many times and wondered when they were going to open, what they would be like and maybe I should apply to work there.
Mom and I went in to a bar style restaurant. Very metallic and sportsy. The menu was very sports barish. Wings, sliders, nachos, burgers etc. Mom and I order some wings while we waited for Kelly to show up. One of the waiters actually hit on me and gave me his number. Unfortunately his opening line was I don't have a car and I work as a server...... I guess no one ever told him that you are supposed to start with the positives even if you want to work in the truth about your negatives (Not that serving is a negative). I personally wasn't interested anyway but it made me feel good that there were still people out there that might be interested in getting to know me(unless of course his coworkers dared him to do it.)

Kelly was stressed out about some things and we were trying to help her solve her problems. I decided it was the perfect time to let them know that I was thinking about moving to South Austin. I know I had just reached my year mark in Texas but I wasn't where I wanted to be and I wanted to move in that direction. My friend Angela lives down south and had an opportunity for me because her roommate was moving out. We ordered and I had one of their cheeseburgers-it was melt in your mouth delicious. It has been awhile since I have had such a great burger.
We said our good byes and Kelly stayed behind.
We headed to Walmart to pick up the Jeep. Interestingly enough a battery is only expected to last approximately 51 months (or 4.5 years). Mine lasted, according to Walmart, 137 months (11.5 years) which is kind of funny since my car is only 9 years old. I guess I got lucky.