Last week was filled with time with family and friends, just the way I like it.

On Monday, I met up with three other friends at the East Side Showroom in Austin and had a great time. Tuesday night, Josh made roast chicken with vegetables and my brother and his girlfriend Kat came over for dinner (ps-Kat isn’t sad in that one pic of her, just looking longingly and hungrily at the food). They brought delicious brownies over for dessert! Later in the week Eric, Kat, Josh and I went to Game On Austin at the Mohawk. It was a neat event, but the coolest part was this sorta-keytar player (It wasn’t a real keytar, but similar) totally jamming on the stage for awhile.

Saturday morning we dropped Eric and Kat off at the Amtrak station, and headed to Austin Java on Barton Springs for breakfast, and then on to my sister and her husband’s house for some UT/OU game watching and great food (bacon-wrapped goodness, anyone?). Saturday was also so great because there was a bit of a chill in the air, so it felt like a Texas fall day, perfect for being up early and watching football. I hope this week is filled with a lot more of these great times!

Pac-Man along the Hike and Bike Trail in Austin!

On our roadtrip down from Seattle to Austin, we spent almost a week in the Los Angeles area, the same time as the Station Fire. We woke up to smoke and haze every morning, and could see the big smoke/fire cloud throughout almost everywhere we traveled in the city. It was so shocking to be at the beach and see the huge cloud of smoke, knowing that lots of firefighters were fighting this huge thing as everyone’s lives went on as normal in the city. The day we left Los Angeles, we cleared off some big pieces of ash that had fallen on my car.

Here are some photos I took of the smoke cloud that we could see:

Some lady friends and I met up at the East Side Showroom last night for some cocktails and food. Had a fabulous time with the ladies. Both the food and the drinks were delicious.

I took some photos, but as it was super-dark (although really cool atmosphere), I didn’t get fantastic photos. I had my camera at f/2 and iso 800-100, but handheld was still too blurry. I just might have to take a daytime trip back with my sweetheart and get some photos when there is better light.

Nicole had the special that night, which was called a Mr. T, supposed to taste a lot like iced tea. She said it was really good. I had a Violet Word which was so tasty, and I want another right now even though it’s 11am. Kathy had a drink all my photos were too blurry of, and Jessica had some red wine. Mmmmm..

They were showing old black and white silent movies! Super-cool.

Atmosphere….

Last week.. we made lots of yummy food. One of those things was smoked salmon and goat cheese on crostini + potato and leek soup. We tried out a coffee place in Hyde Park (Quacks Bakery). We also went to the Blanton Museum of Art, walked along South Congress and had pizza at Home Slice. Mmmm… a good week for food.

Happy Birthday to my dad (yesterday) and brother-in law (today).

We had a cake at my parent’s house for them yesterday. It was so nice getting to spend time with family and celebrate.