My Fam Rox It

The boys and I just returned from another whiplash there and back to Austin where, as usual, my family takes over and we just get to fly auto pilot for the entire visit. As soon as I pulled in to town, Amelie was waiting at Austinbikes ready to whisk away the fellas to the Dinosaur Museum for some entertainment of the educational variety, a little slip-n-slide fun back at chez Benedikt and a scrumptious pizza dinner. She did this so I could head out for a ride w/ Sol, Nicole, Eric and the rest of the Austinbikes clubhouse gang of cycling incorrigibles.

This was cool. As we rode through downtown Austin making our way out to the Tuesday night course, at various points on the route, different groups of riders joined the main bunch at stop lights and midpoint meeting places. Weaving in and out of evening traffic was a bit harrowing, but everyone survived. The heat and wind were a pain, however, that's pretty much SOP for July/Aug in Austin. My abbreviated ride, not race, was a hoot. Thanks Nicole : ) . Made it back to the shop in time to collect the boys by 8:30. For a non full time mama, 4+ hours of full-on kid care/entertaining is no small feat. Amelie always does 1001 things w/ them, and by the time it's time to go, typically they don't want to leave. But we did.

Made it out to Cedar Park where Sam was ready for us at his place, aka Frost Manor B&B, where you don't have to make a rez, you just call from the road when you're 15 minutes out ; ) He'd made our comfy sleeping nests and put the softest cases on the pillows. Cousins were in Houston at camp, so we missed seeing them and J, but had the run of the house, and more importantly, all the toys. Sam explained to my guys that when you're lucky enough to have a job, you can't stay home on a work day to play w/ nephews, so we'd be on our own in the morning. They weren't too fired up about that because between Sam and Sol, they usually get tossed into the air a dozen times each. Another visit.

I'd turned over my bike to Sol because he was going to oversee her metamorphosis into the Bride of Frankenstein, borrowing parts, tweaking this, removing that. End result: new deluxe mtb cranks and pared down chainrings for the assault on Mt. W. This baby looks wicked tough, very odd, and freakin' cuztum out the yin yang. If that machine can't get up the thing, I'm pretty sure nothing can. The only form of payment he would accept for his time, parts, sweat and greasy hands was some apple pie and frozen treats. It wasn't even home made pie - a clown w/ a red afro sold it to me. 2/$1.00 at that.

Spring was out of town, but we sneaked in the back yard of her new old house to snoop around, peek in windows and see the fence Sam had built them. whoa! I've seen art installations less worthy. What a fine fence - I think I'll order me one. Had Spring been in town, she would have arm wrestled Amelie for JaM time. It's interesting, they have 4 aunties on my side, but I can't say there is a fave.

Spring humors them by smelling their feet when they beg her to - they think this is just hysterical, and it is a true act of love that she does it in the first place, our bathing schedule being what it is. Kass tolerates and indulges their every playtime request, sends them cargo planes of goodies from FL and never raises her voice w/ them. Bennie bakes the most delicious treats, sends notes and cooks large animals on the grill right in front of our eyes. I hope we'll head up to Seattle in the winter and get to hang out at their new place.

Elijah's exotic appeal lies in the fact that we see him so infrequently. He's the "Army guy in Japan." And though Mason and Jeremiah have visited with him only a few times, either he'll move back or we'll get over there sooner than later, hopefully.

Grandma Khaki is always around even though she still resides in FL. As Scarlett O'Hara said as she clutched a dessicated radish or something in Gone With The Wind, "as God is my witness, (we'll) never be hungry again!" Our freezer is stocked w/ soups, sauces, cakes, breakfast burritos and other things at the back I can't reach or see. She came in June for a few days, bought out Fiesta, cooked for 48 hours straight pretty much, packed the freezer and went back to FL. I suppose that means we have a personal chef, how fancy!

Not sure what I do for all you , but for me, you guys are following "the final imperative" splendidly. Molti baci, molto amore. That means give me a lot of chocolate hazelnut candies : )