We're Back!

 Hello My Friends,

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season and survived the brutal temps that happened pretty much all over the country!  Even in TX!!

Our flight last Wed (12/21) was thankfully uneventful and actually really pleasant.  Fletch and I were separated and my seat mate was the nicest woman.  I read a tiny bit and knit even less, but had a wonderful conversation with her.  Colin picked us up at the airport and took us directly to our AirBnB.  A very funky place.  I did not take any inside pictures, but here are a couple of things on the patio (didn't spend time on the patio as it really was not patio weather!).

Unfortunately, the space was pretty dark.  We even moved a lamp downstairs from the sleeping loft, but there was not sufficient lighting for me to see to knit!  After unpacking a few things, we drove over to C&M's apartment to wait for Mailing to get home from work.  It was wonderful to see the grand-kitties again:

(Talbot has always enjoyed being on top of the frig...as well as inside it!!)

We had dinner outside at Suerte that evening (with heaters) - an amazing Mexican restaurant.  I forgot to take pictures of food, but here's the drink I had - lol

That is a delicious eggplant dip behind my drink.  

Thursday Colin came over early and he and I took a walk in the neighborhood.  At this point, the weather was still nice.  The neighborhood of East Austin is interesting.  Lots of varied houses and landscaping.  We saw this guy on our walk:

Mailing drove over around 10 and we went to Book People (what an amazing bookstore), Whole Foods (to get some things for the AirBnB) and Waterloo Records (very cool record shop).  By the time we came out of the shops to walk to the car the temperature had dropped noticeably - like at least 25 degrees - and had gotten very, very windy.

When we woke up Friday morning, the temperature was 14 degrees with a real feel of minus 6!  Not at all what we expected in Austin.  Our AirBnB host texted asking us to leave water dripping in the sinks.

Mailing's parents were flying in that day, but would not get in till the afternoon.  We took off to go to the Blanton Museum of Art on the UT campus.  There was a wonderful exhibit going on:  "Painted Cloth: Fashion and Ritual in Colonial Latin America."  Here are some pics from that exhibit:

This one is for my spinning friends - look closely and you will see that she is spinning!  (And that frame!!)

Amazing fabrics and stitching.  We also walked around the balance of the museum which is filled with so many wonderful works of art.  Then we went to lunch at an Argentinian place Buenos Aires Cafe  and the food was so freakin' good.  I had some soup and a lentil stew that was to die for.

Bonnie and Zhongren arrived safely (just a little late) and after checking in to their hotel, they walked over to the apartment.  That night we ate at a local brewery Central Machine Works for some good beer and pizza.

Tomorrow I'll share some more, but for now, I think this post is long enough and has sufficient pictures in it!!  Thanks for reading.