Family Dinners


Dinner Night: Hamburgers, originally uploaded by alachia.

While I might be quite liberal when I think of our culture, I realize that I am actually very traditional when it comes to family. I believe in strong family roots and the unconditional love that comes with it.

The most important people in my life aren't the people who entertain me the most or keep me intellectually stimulated. They aren't the people who even "get me" the best. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense as to what keeps families together but it's a bond I respect without reason.

Ever since my brother's girlfriend moved to a house about 6 minutes away, we've all been eating together on a regular basis. Usually we cook dinners together on raid nights + Thursday to watch tv shows together. It's really nice since we all enjoy each other's company... hahaha or at least I do.

We've all compiled a list of things we can cook. One of them is supposed to write a program to randomize the list and produce a grocery list from our selections. (they're all programmers). The thing I cook best is spaghetti so far and that took me years to master. lol. I also make a decent pretzel crusted chicken.

Gonna do my best to keep a photo journal of our dinners.

Austin City Limits 2009

I got a twitter message from @obiwanadobe last Thursday saying he had an extra ticket to ACL festival and invited me to go. I was free Saturday so I said yes, we had been meaning to hook up for lunch for quite a while anyhow. We met at Whole Foods for lunch and then walked down to Zilker Park for the Austin City Limits Festival.

It was about a mile walk and it was great. I love walks to destinations. I hate exercise for the sake of exercise but I'm not afraid to walk miles and miles to reach a somewhere I want to go. I'm weird like that I guess. Louis was really cool about letting me stop and take pics along the way. I kept assuring him we'd eventually get to ACL.

When we rounded the corner of Lamar and Barton Springs, I almost died when I saw all the "glass vendors". There was so much smoke and even when we got to the festival you'd see puffs of smoke coming up from various spots in the crowd. I thought to myself, so this is what it must be like to live in the Netherlands.

This was my first ACL and it was a wet one indeed! It rained all day with spotches of sprinkles and down pours. I'd turn to Louis and say, "Oh look the raining is finally clearing!" and then two seconds later it would start pouring again. doh! The music was great. I wish I had brought a chair though because my feet hurt a lot.

I was wearing galoshes because I hate having wet feet and I knew it'd be raining quite a bit. Turns out it was a super smart decision because wet + rain + lawn = mud bath by the end of the night. I ended up equipping my Winnie the Pooh Raincoat AND a poncho. Louis said he liked the rain and got totally soaked! His mom would not be proud.. my mom would have been totally proud of me. heh. I looked like a rubber trashbag.

The music does not disappoint at ACL. Even if you don't like the type of music a lot, the performances are just great and totally authentic..none of that over produced crap. You can tell the artists LOVE their music.

Saturday night finished off with DMB (Dave Matthews Band) and by that time the whole lawn was brown slush. A group of people ended up just saying fuck it and became one with nature. I called them the mud people. They were doing slip and slides all in the lawn and dancing and trying to hug people.

I definitely plan on going again next year! Louis kept apologizing for the rain but I thought the experience of it being totally wet and raining added to the fun. How often does one get to play in the rain?


More pics- Full Slideshow:

Cupcake Tree


Cupcake Tree, originally uploaded by alachia.

My brother's girlfriend bought me a cupcake tree this week. I think she saw me ogling one at Macy's awhile back. I've always wanted one seeing how it's a great way to present cupcakes.

It was a great gift and it gave me a great excuse to make cupcakes. These are yellow cake with vanilla frosting. The next batch I plan on making are going to be red velvet with a butter cream frosting.

I'm a big fan of sprinkles as you can see. They make every cupcake look about 110x better. I wish I knew more people around me who liked cupcakes because I'd make a ton more if I knew it wasn't just going to be me eating them. :D

For the record, I am guilty of eating about 3 in one sitting at minimum hence I refrain from baking them too often!