davejenbarnes

Today I hung the custom curtains I had sewn for the last apartment’s bedroom in our new apartment’s living room. The rooms differ by a little more than a foot in width with the livingroom being the wider of the two, so I shifted the curtains over to the right to cover the vertical blinds. The light still comes through during the day, but at night, as when the picture was taken, it makes for a very dramatic wall. I love sewing and curtains are probably the easiest thing to sew; they’re usually just rectangles!

We also got out and about this afternoon with some friends. Wells Branch Frisbee Golf was our destination and we all ended up having fun, I think. David invited Mark since it was very close to his house. Here are two of the pictures from the day. Yes, I am a snapshotaholic!

Afterwards, Dave played some rounds of Frequency and then we caught up with my parents and Jer and Mark and Becky for dinner. Dave and Mark had fun with rice crispy treats. Lemme tell you, those guys … they are funny.

David just called me at home from work and his school has just extended a contract for next school year! (His current teaching contract is a one-year contract) Praise the Lord!

Henry Middle School had the lawncare guys out mowing the lawn today when I walked up to teach today. I guess it caught nature off guard as well, because when I got inside and opened up my case, there was an inch-worm in my clarinet! There are no signs of infestation, and I’m figuring that the little guy just fell from my t-shirt or something into the case, but boy, did that scare me!

Had fun tonight at the Schomaker’s house… We played a round of Catch Phrase and a round of Mad Gab, both of which the guys won. Sydney was a riot, as always, and usually the center of attention as well. She is sure growing up! We talked a lot of our friends’ new baby and the future Baby Moulton!!! I hope fun was had by all! See you guys again on Saturday!

I am finally twenty-seven! We celebrated by waking up at 6 am and driving out to the Enchanted Rock north of Fredricksburg with our friends, Mario and Alysia. The weather was overcast, but not raining; windy, but not cold.

We started our hike by heading right up the summit trail with a few stops along the way for interesting rocks and climbing attempts. Once at the top, we hung out for a few minutes admiring the view and getting snapshots, then we headed down to the cave. We couldn’t go anywhere in the cave since none of us had thought to bring a flashlight and no other hikers happened to have a flashlight. Next time, we will take a flashlight!

After the summit hike, we headed back down a different way for lunch. We ate sandwiches on a picnic table and saw cardinals, kids playing with little axes, a poodle and a beagle. We decided that we didn’t quite want to leave so after a quick bathroom break, we headed out on a trail around the base of the Enchanted Rock. This trail took us by Turkey Peak, Freshman Hill, Enchanted Rock, and Little Rock. Even though this hike was around the ground, it was still steep and we took 3 breaks in the trip. First, we stopped by a lone rock which Mario and Alysia climbed. The next stop was on the steep side of Enchanted Rock where we watched the rock climbers climbing. Our last stop was in between Enchanted and Little Rocks where there were two very large boulders on a flat surface.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip! We thoroughly enjoyed our time outdoors today and may even return with the Millers for an overnight camping trip sometime this summer! If you ever have a chance to go to the Enchanted Rock, do! and take a flashlight, a backpack (with lunch in it) and good walking/hiking shoes!

For a peek at our day please visit the online photo gallery we have been keeping of our year so far! Enjoy the pictures!

Mambo, our first and favorite fur-ball, has become a very affectionate and loving tuxedo-man. For the first year and a half we’ve had him, he’s been very tolerant and patient with us but never seeked any physical attention. Sure, he’d pretend to rub around your legs, but he never touched you. He would trot over when somebody was using the bathroom, but he would never ask to be on a lap. Now he’s the leg-rubbing-lap-sitting-purring-est cat! I owe it all to the strap around his throat! Yep, his collar! I simply do not feel safe with a screen door and cats especially all on the first floor in Austin, Texas, where the March weather is too nice not to invite inside. So, the cats began wearing their collars faithfully about two weeks ago and now ask us faithfully every chance they get to remove those itchy, noisy, blasted collars by rubbing, purring, and generally “begging” us with those eyes that are so cute.

Samba got out today… she ran through the screen door, but didn’t hurt it; she just knocked it off its tracks. Samba is a real ‘fraidy cat, in the truest sense of the phrase. The slightest thing causes her to go nuts… today it was David blowing his nose in a Puffs Plus tissue and she happened to be sitting in front of the screen door. Once outside, she didn’t go very far and David was able to “scare” her back onto the patio (when afraid, she will go where she knows it is safe and in this case, it was back towards the apartment) where he was then able to get her to eat a treat out of his hand and grab her. There’s nothing like seeing your pet in an environment they’ve never been in before. It was scary!

Yes, there are new pictures up in our gallery. There are new pictures in HERE and HERE and a few new ones in THIS one. Go, see, enjoy! And leave a comment or two if you like any of the them!

We drove home today and stopped at the outlet mall in Hillsboro for a shopping spree. I found some slacks that fit perfectly at the J.CREW outlet and some tank-tops at the GAP outlet. Dave even let me splurge a little on him at J.CREW and I got him a nice long-sleeved dress shirt.