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Saturday Eric and I went to San Marcos to visit with friend Dan. Dan has been living the bachelor life with his dog Kirby for many years down there, after going to UT and being one of my neighbors when I got my first apartment back in '88 or so. We keep in touch, and visit every now and then. He has had some serious back problems, and his parents are loaded, so he spends a lot of his days doing stretches, yoga, and swimming. San Marcos has many swimming opportunities, too.
Dan picked up a couple of inner tubes for Eric and I to float down the San Marcos river while he swam. I did a little swimming along with him, which somehow didn't bother my shoulder like you would think- it's not exertion that makes it hurt, weirdly. The only reason I didn't swim more was because the river was low and filled with hydrilla plants, and swimming all in that tangled, scratchy stuff was not pleasant. Tubing was great though. THe only problem was that I applied sunscreen as if I were going to go swimming at the lake, which means a lot on the face and shoulders, and decreasing amounts as you go down, including none on the shins which would always be underwater. But when tubing, your shins are up there getting full sunlight. So I have a pretty nasty sunburn just on my shins. @@ Aloe is my friend.
We went to Mamacita's, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants that still hasn't moved to Austin yet, and blabbed long into the night, with occasional jaunts around the neighborhood to walk Kirby, look at stars, and point out interesting houses. Dan knows quite a bit about the history of his little town, and just hearing the speculations about the house he just bought was fascinating; it looks like the original structure predated electricity.
Yesterday was the first of the 13-week Dedicant class series. It went pretty well, though my shoulder was starting to really give me trouble and by the time we all went out to eat, I was reaching across the table with my left arm. The margarita helped a little. It was a new place, sort of half-way between Tex-Mex and interior Mexican. I wish I remembered the name of the place, but it's where the Serrano's next to Nomadic Notions on Shoal Creek and Anderson used to be. They make salsa fresh at your table!
Speaking of food, we also tried a Caribbean place in Pflugerville called Cafe Mangu and I got to try some things I've never had before. They're not very vegetarian friendly, but aside from that I have no other complaints about 'em. I had a girl drink and we (Eric, Brenda, Gordon and I) all split a couple of appetizers that included chunks of fresh cheese that had been quickly fried, and one that had sausage and mashed plantain fried things. For dinner I had one of three kinds of rice, one of three kinds of beans, and 'ropa vieja', which means old clothes. It's like pulled pork but with beef, and it was simmered in a tomato sauce with onions and peppers. It almost tasted like a marinara sauce, and was quite delicious the next day in tortillas.
Dan picked up a couple of inner tubes for Eric and I to float down the San Marcos river while he swam. I did a little swimming along with him, which somehow didn't bother my shoulder like you would think- it's not exertion that makes it hurt, weirdly. The only reason I didn't swim more was because the river was low and filled with hydrilla plants, and swimming all in that tangled, scratchy stuff was not pleasant. Tubing was great though. THe only problem was that I applied sunscreen as if I were going to go swimming at the lake, which means a lot on the face and shoulders, and decreasing amounts as you go down, including none on the shins which would always be underwater. But when tubing, your shins are up there getting full sunlight. So I have a pretty nasty sunburn just on my shins. @@ Aloe is my friend.
We went to Mamacita's, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants that still hasn't moved to Austin yet, and blabbed long into the night, with occasional jaunts around the neighborhood to walk Kirby, look at stars, and point out interesting houses. Dan knows quite a bit about the history of his little town, and just hearing the speculations about the house he just bought was fascinating; it looks like the original structure predated electricity.
Yesterday was the first of the 13-week Dedicant class series. It went pretty well, though my shoulder was starting to really give me trouble and by the time we all went out to eat, I was reaching across the table with my left arm. The margarita helped a little. It was a new place, sort of half-way between Tex-Mex and interior Mexican. I wish I remembered the name of the place, but it's where the Serrano's next to Nomadic Notions on Shoal Creek and Anderson used to be. They make salsa fresh at your table!
Speaking of food, we also tried a Caribbean place in Pflugerville called Cafe Mangu and I got to try some things I've never had before. They're not very vegetarian friendly, but aside from that I have no other complaints about 'em. I had a girl drink and we (Eric, Brenda, Gordon and I) all split a couple of appetizers that included chunks of fresh cheese that had been quickly fried, and one that had sausage and mashed plantain fried things. For dinner I had one of three kinds of rice, one of three kinds of beans, and 'ropa vieja', which means old clothes. It's like pulled pork but with beef, and it was simmered in a tomato sauce with onions and peppers. It almost tasted like a marinara sauce, and was quite delicious the next day in tortillas.
