Painting the town pale pink or perhaps a nice shade of mauve

I thought that maybe I wouldn't be able to get this post to you until afternoon.  After all, I have been gone from work for five days now.  Surely some things would have stacked up.  Ha!

Having five days in a row off was pretty outstanding.  Having Katie to hang out with was also pretty stellar.  And we even got to do some fun Austin stuff that I hadn't quite made it around to yet.  All in all, quite the long weekend.

We focused our efforts in a few key areas: talking, shopping, eating, drinking, and Trivial Pursuit.  (It is not important here to note that I won two out of three games.  The important thing is that we had a good time and learned new and different useless information.  Also that I did not lose as much as she did.)  All of the talking made me realize how little I generally talk in the course of a day.  Not that I am not generally hyperverbal in the form of lots and lots of emails, but talking out loud, not so much.  My throat was actually sore by Thursday night.  Good thing I planned ahead and had something soothing on hand, for medicinal purposes.

We began the first full day of Katie's visit with a pilgrimage up I-35 to that venerable Austin landmark, Ikea.  Ok, really I just needed to go to Ikea and I imagined that going in the middle of the day on a weekday would mean that I-35 wouldn't be overly infuriating.  I was, of course, wrong about that, but Ikea was lovely as was its neighbor, the Round Rock outlets.  We dined at that noted Austin eatery, Ikea.

But day two!  Oh Internet, day two was an Austin extravaganza!  The UT campus!  LBJ Presidential Library!  The capitol!  The bats!  Lunch with Willie Nelson!  Ok that last one is not true!  But I did finally get to see the animatronic LBJ.

And then we ate at Cuba Libre, where the mirror in the ladies' room told Katie what she already knew.

Saturday was more shopping, but this time in hip and trendy SoCo.  Also Target and Walmart, but shut up, Internet, I had errands to get done and a Walmart giftcard from work which I would like to use on storage ottomans which I was hoping they would have in the store but which you can apparently only get online.  Katie bought some really cute shoes in a cute shop on South Congress which, when contrasted with the less cute but more walk-home-from-work appropriate shoes I got at the outlet, really just highlight the difference between us.

That photo also really highlights the way that my feet are three sizes larger.  Outstanding.  And yet, Katie's choice of airplane reading material, when placed next to what was on top of my mail pile proves that we're not so different after all.

Then came Saturday night.  We had plans for Saturday night.  Plans to dress up and curl our hair and hit the town for drinks!  In bars!  With people!  I think it was around the time that we were both falling asleep in our Thai food that we decided that pajamas and Trivial Pursuit were ever more appealing.  I would apologize for disappointing you and yet I do not sense that you are surprised.  I should emphasize here that there were chocolate peanutbutter bars at home.  You try talking yourself into going out under such circumstances.

I would just like to point out here that I was called a geek for turning on the History Channel after What Not to Wear was over on Saturday night.  I was called a geek by a person who was, at the time, reading a Newsweek.  I pointed out that if she watched more educational television, perhaps she wouldn't lose at Trivial Pursuit so much.

It was a good thing we stayed in since we needed our rest for Sunday!  So that Katie could get some Culver's frozen custard in.  (In true Katie fashion, she actually thought to check online ahead of time so that we could schedule our meal there to coincide with the best flavor of the day.  She's a planner.)  And so that we could go to the mall with Amy and also spend time reading in the sunshine in the back yard.  And, um, play more Trivial Pursuit.  And, uh, wow is that really all we did on Sunday?  I think there might have been a lot of HGTV.

So, ok, we needed our rest for yesterday when we covered ourselves in 45 spf sunblock and headed out to Barton Springs.  It is a natural spring and therefore VERY COLD.  Good thing it is already hot as hell here in Austin.  Katie and I took our time, inching forward and keeping each other posted about how we felt about the coldness of the water.  Roughly one hour later, we were in up to our shoulders (if I am exaggerating the time, it is not by much).  I would show you how tan I've gotten except you wouldn't believe that this current skin tone represents "tan" unless I showed you my tan lines and this is a family blog.  Sort of.

We later rewarded ourselves for our hard work with Mexican food and large margaritas.  One of us had a trendy frozen pomegranate margarita and while I promised not to name names, I will tell you that it was not me.  By the time we got home, Amy had freshly baked chocolate chip cookies cooling, and thank goodness, because we had finished the chocolate peanutbutter bars and had been suffering a critical shortage of homemade sweets for upwards of twelve hours.  (Amy: are you sure you do not want to move to Madison with me?)

I took Katie to the airport very early this morning while making every effort not to speed so that I would not be pulled over in my pajamas.  She had work with her and has no doubt already accomplished more work while on the plane than I will have to do all day. 

Seeing as how I have lately become unaccustomed to being awake at such a barbaric hour as it is now (10:30 am) and I therefore cannot think of a conclusion for this post and my public is anxiously awaiting an update (by "my public" I of course mean "Sharon") I will just say that it was a completely marvelous weekend and now I must go and caffeinate myself.  For tonight it is the finale of Gilmore Girls and Amy and I have tasked ourselves with finishing the bottle of vodka.  Perhaps some of Katie's goal-orientedness has rubbed off on me after all.