Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Outdoors’ Category

I found this neat red feather outside today and thought I’d share.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday!

Bloody Mary from Beer Run

Doesn’t this look like a work of art?  One of my favorite drinks to enjoy on a Sunday or with any breakfast, brunch, or lunch meal is the delicious Bloody Mary!  I personally like mine with worcestershire sauce, olive juice, horseradish, lime juice, and LOTS of hot sauce!  Sunday, Ben and I had no breakfast food in the house so I thought it was a great excuse to go to Beer Run, one of my favorite local places for food and beer for brunch.

We both had the El Guapo Breakfast Burrito:

El Guapo Breakfast Burrito
Scrambled local eggs, organic black beans, pepper jack cheese, sauteed red bell peppers wrapped in a flour tortilla. Served with spicy house-made Pico de Gallo and Texas Frites. 9.95

They were served with a slice of watermelon and honey dew.  Brunch was delicious, the company was great, and we snagged the last outdoor table so we could enjoy the first beautiful fall-like day of the season with our meal!  It was the perfect start to our Sunday!

On Saturday morning, I ran the Charlottesville Women’s Four Miler for the 5th year in a row.  The race takes place every year on Labor Day weekend, and the money raised goes to support the University of Virginia Cancer Center Breast Care Program which helps  to fund breast cancer research and support local women fighting the disease.

I was really excited about my performance this year.  Despite it raining during the entire race, I beat my record for the course and crossed the finish line in just under 45 minutes.  In addition, I ran the first mile at 9 minutes and 19 seconds which is a HUGE record for me (I usually run between an 11 and 12 minute mile)!  Below are my results from the past 5 years and they definitely show what an improvement I’ve made!

2012 Results

2011 Results

2010 Results

2009 Results

2008 Results

To get ready for the race, the past couple of years, my friends Sarah and Wendy and I have made shirts to wear on race day.  This year, mine said:

T-shirt…$4

Race Registration…$45

E Racing Cancer…Priceless

Sarah and Wendy’s shirts quoted lyrics from the Young MC song “Bust A Move” (get it…bust as in boobies…haha!).

Me, Sarah, and Wendy before the race sporting our creative T’s!

Ben even came out to support us and I want to say a special thank you to him for holding all of our bags and waiting for us in the rain.

Ben and I before the race

Sarah and I waiting for Wendy to arrive with our race bibs.

Ben and I…check out all the pink in the background!

One of the best things about this race is all of the support it gets from the local community.  People come out rain or shine to volunteer and cheer on the runners and everyone gets all decked out in pink.  We even saw a man with three kids who all had their hair dyed pink (including the father’s beard) and were wearing pink shirts in support of their wife/mom running the race!  It’s the number 1 most popular race in Charlottesville and race registration has closed out in under 12 hours the past couple of years.  I was really lucky to get a spot this year since race registration was on my wedding day.  Lucky for me, my pal Wendy signed me up!  I love this race and I plan on running it every year as long as I’m able.  And one day, if I have daughters, I hope to have them run it with me!

Back around Easter, Ben’s mom decided to buy some chicks.  As a 4th grade teacher, she had hatched many eggs in her classroom over the years and then brought the chicks home to raise as pets.  These are the first set of chickens that she has raised in a long time and we have all been eager for them to start laying eggs.

There are 3 roosters, Big Red (the alpha male), Roger, and Adam (he was originally Ms. Pretty until we discovered he was a male).  The 3 hens are named Briana, Evi II (aka Evi 2 or Evi Too named after our cat Eva who we call Evi), and Henna.

Sunday, when we were visiting Ben’s mom, we discovered that one or more of the hens had laid their first eggs.  We found four eggs spread out in various spots between their hen house where they sleep and the fenced-in area where they eat and roost underneath an old Concord grape vine.  Unfortunately, before we were able to get to the fourth egg, the chickens all pecked it and devoured it.  That seemed like strange behavior to me, but I’m sure it’s not the first time it has happened in the history of the world.

Two of the first eggs laid by the Davidson chickens. We assume they came from different hens since they are different colors.

The chickens gathered together possibly hoping for us to give them food.

It’s been really cool watching them grow and mature over the past few months.  I remember how exciting it was the first couple of times we heard Big Red crow!  And I learned that roosters will crow at any time of the day, not just in the mornings.  I’m looking forward to lots of eggs from these beautiful birds!

A couple of roosters posing for the camera.

Looking for food

Underneath the grape vine

Beautiful Rhode Island Reds!

Big Red and his beautiful iridescent green tail feathers!

Roaming the garden

The title of this post is one of my favorite quotes about love and relationships.  I think I really like it because it describes the teamwork, partnership, and cooperation that I believe is necessary for a healthy and lasting relationship.

Speaking of love and games, I wanted to show the cornhole set that I had custom made for my wedding.  The theme of the wedding was Texas and Virginia (mine and Ben’s home states respectively in case it wasn’t already obvious).  We had lots of little aspects of the wedding that went along with this theme like the Texas shaped bride’s cake (yes, you read that right, we had a bride’s cake instead of a groom’s cake) and the Virginia wine and beer served at the reception.  I think this game brought the whole theme together quite nicely, not to mention it was great fun to have at the wedding and Ben and I can enjoy them for years to come.

Board 1: Texas

Board 2: Virginia

The boards were hand made by the extremely talented Derik of Cornchucker LLC .  He did a beautiful job and let me customize the wording, colors, and logos on the boards.  I know Ben and I are going to have these set up in our backyard when we finally buy a house and they will always remind us of our wonderful wedding weekend!

Greetings on this beautiful spring Mother’s Day!

First and foremost I’d like to wish a happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there, especially my mom! Since both mothers and spring give birth to new and beautiful life, I thought I’d post some lovely pictures of all the blooming flowers, fruits, and vegetables growing in my future in-laws’ garden!

Lovely Blooming Peonies

My posts have been few and far between this year, but that’s mostly because I’ve been out experiencing life!  Since one of my goals of writing this blog has been to document all of the new and wonderful experiences I have as I make my way through each day, I figured I should share some of those.

Well in no particular order, here they are:

• Got engaged!
• Test drove new cars
• Bought a new car!
• Bought a wedding dress
• Planned and threw 2 baby showers
• Introduced my dad to my future in-laws
• Became a landlord (i.e., invested in a rental property)
• Successfully competed in Warrior Dash
• Found the only Alamo Drafthouse outside of Texas and watched a double feature
• Drove to New Jersey and back in less than 48 hours
• Saw a production of Disney’s Newsies at the Papermill Playhouse and met the cast at a local diner afterward
• Created a wedding website and registered for wedding gifts
• Got a promotion to Software Engineer II
• Learned how to play the awesome game of Dominion
• Planned a wedding (partially)
• Threw a Silpada party
• Got second place in a Biggest Loser contest at work
• Made a fall wreath
• Became addicted to Pinterest
• Went to Smith Mountain Lake
• Watched an elementary school production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Attended the Top of the Hops Beer Festival, met up with an old college roommate, and met a famous blogger
• Had engagement photos taken by an awesome photographer
• Made my own t-shirts for Shamrockfest 2011, the 2011 Charlottesville Women’s Four Miler, and Breaking Dawn Part 1
• Went to a bridal show
• Participated in Office Olympics
• Got my concealed weapons permit
• Attended Scrum training by one of the inventors of Scrum
• Spent a wonderful long weekend in Disney World with my dad, step-mom, little brothers, and my fiance
• Had an AMAZING girls weekend in the Outer Banks
• Helped plan an engagement brunch for a friend
• Attended the 7th Annual Pink Ribbon Polo Classic at King Family Vineyards and met the owner who attended my alma mater
• Watched the Royal Wedding
• Crowd Surfed during the Dropkick Murphys performance at Shamrockfest
• Saw a real live bear
• Experienced my first earthquake…SCARY

I’m sure there are a ton of things that I’m leaving out and so many pictures and stories to go with all of these experiences, and one day I’ll hopefully get them all up here on the blog.

It’s been an AMAZING year so far and I’m hoping 2012 will be even better!

Hope your 2011 has been as great as mine!

These trees look like they’d be perfect to nap or picnic under.  Don’t You think?

I try to go for a walk during my lunch break a couple of times a week since my office building is located in a semi-rural area.  There are some wonderful views and plenty of plant life nearby.

These are some shots of dogwood trees located near the property.   Dogwoods are Virginia’s state tree and flower and I think they are quite lovely when they are blooming in the spring.

Happy Easter from Virginia!