No Rain, But a Stove

We thought we might get some rain at the house yesterday, but no dice, even though we drove through a pretty good shower in Northwest Austin at the end of our long but relaxing day. Charley and I spent the day with Becky and Rachel. We had an impromptu pot luck lunch with them, and Rachel's friend Gail.
One of the assignments from our midwife, to accomplish before the birth, included wrapping some items up in brown paper bags (sheets, blankies to dry the baby with, towels and washcloths etc) and cooking them in the oven with steam on low heat to sterilize them. One of the reasons we purchased our oven a few months back was in anticipation of this proceedure. However, our oven, while it does technically *work* by always heating up to a cozy 600 degrees when turned onto any temp from 300 - 450, is still sooting up our pans on the stove top and continues to be a general nuisance. In this case, we decided, going vintage was against us. So we headed into town with Becky's gracious offer to use her very reliable stove to cook our 6 bags for one hour each in her oven in her house in the middle of our hot summer - a generous offer.
While the bags cooked, Charley grilled up some steak and the girls made all kinds of cheesy delish items like Potatos Au Gratin and Queso while I taste tested and put my feet up. At one point, another friend of Rachel's showed up to deliver the uneaten Penis cake from their friend's Bachelorette party the night before to our inpromptu party. It was quite yummy and didn't go uneaten in our company. Since we have found a reputable vasectomy doctor in Austin who will simplify our life once the baby is born, we have recently made an appointment with him for Charley. Get this - the doc's name is Richard Chopp, no lie. He has a very good reputation (how could you not with a name like that?) So we considered it our "V is for victory" cake, and even Charley had a piece.
While we cooked and ate and watched movies, Charley and I began discussing the stove situation, and came to the conclusion that we ought to just get another one, and ditch the old one, since it is such a nuisance. He suggested I check Craigslist one more time for an already converted LP stove, a newer model. I did, and low and behold, we found one! All the way up in Lago Vista, newer LP stove, CHEAP. We called them up and found out that it works great, they had just recently decided to switch to electric. At the end of the day, we headed up to Lago Vista, a small town like ours, but located 30 miles Northwest of Austin in the rolling green Hill Country. It was a lucky collision of events, because any other day that stove would have required us to drive 85 miles from home to fetch it, but as it was, it was a short 30 mile drive from where we already were at Rachel & Becky's house in north Austin.
We returned home with the stove, via the speedy and empty new toll roads, and it is waiting for us in the middle of the porch/kitchen to make the switch. I have posted the old stove with honest caveats about its working condition on Craigslist and have even received a bite back! So we are well on our way to having a properly working stove in place, and the old one done away with. Hooray! We absolutely love Craigslist.
On the way back, Charley mentioned that John, our favorite weather and disaster reporter, had called from his afternoon break to tell Charley there was a 50% chance of rain Sunday and Monday. That's pretty exciting news to us drought stricken Texans. On our way home at the very end of a long day we did drive through your typical Hill Country rain storm, northwest of Austin. We cheered, but as we drove further east it all dried up. Our prairie remains dusty and parched as ever, darnit.

Holy Crap, is it HOT

We've had something like 20 days over 100 degrees so far this year, and it has only officially been 'Summer' for just over a week. I don't usually go outside into the heat of the day, but today after my baby shower, put on by the gals at work, I was loading stuff into my car at about 1:00. It is sweltering. The sun bakes you like cookies in an oven. It is unrelenting. Now, I live in Texas for a reason - the climate. I like a hot summer and cold river. But whew. We are in a crazy drought, I happen to have a heater like aparatus for a belly these days, and we're having record setting heat. When I was first pregnant, everyone said "due in July? Oh you're going to be sooo hot" and my (silent) reaction was "gee, you think? July in Texas? hot?" No foolin'. I likely won't have to worry about my baby catching a chill wind, but I may have to worry about it melting away, like chocolate or butter.
There is so little life around the house this year. I have seen one walking stick that looked as withered and brown and scrawny as any stick you might see around these days. The cows all huddle in the shade. But good news - I did see the buffalos out in the field the other morning, before it got too hot, and I saw all three of the babies. I had only been able to see two of them lately, and I was worried. But there they all were! Three little cinnamon fuzzy beasts, lolling on the dusty ground.
We have a piece of our lane where the roadbase has been pulverized into a fine soft powder. I have been taking particular pleasure lately in standing in the soft powdery spot, in the cooling evening when the rocks are still warm. It's right by Charley's parking spot, so as he arrives home in the evening and unloads the equipment he used that day, I can stand there, wiggling my feet around in the soft powdery dirt and chat with him. It makes me really happy, and I feel really at home. I am definately enjoying my country life. It has not been such a nice thing to do to the white rug in the house, but a little spray off with the hose never hurt anyone on a warm Texas evening. Last year, that powdery dirt was usually a mudpuddle.
I had my last baby shower today, and I must say I have wonderfully generous friends and co-workers. We have many months of diaper service gifted to us, and lots of adorable and practical baby stuff. We have everything gathered for the birth, and after a few hours of diligent oven sterilization of a few things tomorrow, we will be completely ready. I have four weeks left - two of those left at work, and then two glorious weeks of lolly gagging around, going to the pool, cooking good food, hanging out with Charley, being hot, and waiting for the wee one to make an appearance.

new pics!

I have put the pictures of the house up on my flickr site, and some pics from the baby shower last weekend. http://www.flickr.com/photos/butterflypalacedispatch/

I tried to put them into sets, but it may or may not have worked, sorry. I'll get around to re-editing them eventually. For now, just scroll through the photostream.

Yesterday I took my mom off to the airport for her trip back home to Minneapolis - sorry to see her go! She worked her butt off to help me get ready for the baby. I wished we had more time to do more fun stuff, but it was really hot, and we had a lot of work to do - which we completely accomplished! She'll be back in August to visit us with the baby on the outside.

After her visit, I went to Denise's Tie Dye party. I took a bunch of white onesies we got, and dyed them all. It was hard work! Maybe I'll even have pictures up later, after I rinse them out and wash them. After the artwork, we ate really scrumptious tomato pie, hummus, and cookies, and swam in their pool. The swimming realy made my day, as always.

Today I get to enjoy my house and catch up on a few odds and ends. Not much going on, but I wanted to let you know about the pictures. It's really hot - I'm hiding out inside today.

Drought

We've finally had a smattering of rain - 30 seconds here or there of a downpour, but its only enough to make it hat much more steamy. We've had unseasonably hot weather, and the winds are blowing from the southeast - gee, I love weather from the humid gulf. The sun has been unrelenting, but the clouds show some mercy and puff up by midday, shielding us from some of the worst of it. The buffalos by the hiway are usually out in the field in the morning, but by noon have taken shelter in a stand a mesquite by the now-dry streambed running through their field, and I feel greatful I'm not a huge wooly-headed beast like them. Speaking of hot wooly-headed beasts, Charley's AC in his truck went out, and he's been too busy fixing other things to fix it. I've heard it hasn't been this dry in Texas since the 1920's, but unless its a rainy year like last year, you always hear we're in a record setting drought. The news out of Iowa sounds pretty grim with all the water along the Mighty Mississip... they are suffering on the complete other end of the stick.
My mom is here, visiting from Minnesota, and we've had a busy week! I'm going to put some photos on flickr of the house in its new state - soon, I promise! - I'm just sorry now that I didn't take some 'before' pictures! My mom and I (right, mostly my mom) have cleaned the place from top to bottom. Germs and dust bunnies be damned! We hauled out 5 trash bags of garbage and 4 bags of goodwill donations. Just about every piece of furniture has been moved to a new place. However, the routing of the house did require us to give up some of that furniture, which was difficult - like prying chocolate from a pregnant lady's hand. It also forced Charley to box up approximately 200 t-shirts of his 'cool t-shirt collection'- also difficult, like... trying to pry 200 cool t-shirts from Charley's hand. Craigslist has since put some money in our pockets, introduced us to some cool folks, and rid us of the extra - However, I have refused to let go of the green velvet high-backed rocker, and insist it 'goes' in the dining room, and likewise, Charley refused to part with his torn and ugly big blue recliner, and insists it is his 'dad chair' for when he has baby duty. Even though, we now have more than a foot-wide aisle through the house to walk through! (I TOLD you we went a little crazy at last year's estate sales)Sometimes we spread our arms and legs and take giant steps through the house now, just because we can! Charley installed a beautiful pantry cabinet that we (okay, he) salvaged and refinished, and it is really great to have a place to put cans and boxes of food other than my clothes closet. My diapering station is even ready, stuffed with cloth diapers from the diaper service we'll be using. I'm feeling very settled in, and comfy in my nest. I just have a few more things to gather, and my last day of work is July 28th. I'll have a week or three to rest and be leisurely, and go swimming and take naps before the baby decides to be born.
I have noticed the vine of Texas Plums is fruiting... they look like a string of Christmas lights strung along our lane. The mandivilla vine came back to life, and will hopefully spread itself out on the lattice shading our kitchen. We have a few small figs, but the leaves of the fig tree are turning yellow and brown, even with the water we give it. Other than that, our brown scrubby grass and the enlarging hoppers are about the only life around the house showing their face.