Play Ball!!!

This Thursday night, Alissa came with our family to a Big Train baseball game. The Big Train is a local, college all-star team that plays in the Cal Ripken league. The stadium is tiny, the fans are all nice and it is a TOTAL blast! It was a gorgeous night, with temps in the 70's for most of the game and with fireflies putting on a show out in the trees when the sun went down.

Alissa hit the park full force! The very first thing she did was hunt down all of the mascots and take pics with each one...she's so crazy! There were some extra mascots at this game.

Louie from the Bowie Baysox,

the Baltimore Oriole,

and Shakey the Lemonade Guy from Camden Yards (you'll see him later)

joined our Homer the Dog, who is the Big Train mascot.

I had totally forgotten that my friend, Robbin, was singing the National Anthem that night with her choral group. Alissa got her picture taken with Robbin since she was “semi-famous” that night. :-)

After all that running around, we settled in to watch the game.

Both teams were on fire so it was an exciting game and there were pop-flies dropping like rain!

One landed near us but Alissa didn't make it in time to catch it....

...and she'd have needed to step on some other folks and didn't want to hurt anyone.

Our kids only watched the game a little. Mostly they go there for the french fries and pretzels, but this time there was Shakey! He kept my kids entertained the whole game with his lemonade convulsions. We finally gave in and let them go buy some.

Alissa and I didn't get too near Shakey. He was slightly disturbing. We both watched his antics from the stands while the kids got their lemonade.

A great time was had by all and, even though we were saddened by the loss of Michael Jackson, The Big Train pulled off a 9-7 win and we had a really fabulous time with Alissa!

Everyone in the stands sends their love!

Alissa Does Detroit...

Alissa was ready to get out of the hot Texas sun. So, she tagged along with me for a wedding in the wonderful city of Detroit where the weather was a mere 75 degrees. What's 30 degrees???

Day 1:
Alissa woke up really early so that she could get to the knitting store. My recommendation was that we go to City Knits. They have 2 different locations, but we went to the store located within the Fisher Building in Downtown Detroit.

Alissa was SSSOOOOO ready to get her knit on after seeing this premiere knitted item in the store window. She had to have the pattern no matter what the cost. Alissa also influenced me to buy some souvenir yarn items, but I passed on the bathing suit pattern. It just wasn't in my budget this time.


After all of that shopping at the yarn store, Alissa had decided it was time for lunch. She had noticed that there sure were a lot of "Coney Islands" in Michigan. Everyone seemed to have a Coney Island restaurant. But, Alissa figured it was similar to having mutliple taquerias in Texas. Alissa wanted to go to the best one, so we took her to National Coney Island, better known to the locals as NCI. She had never had a Hani (pronounced haaaa-knee) so we happily ordered one for her. Breaded chicken strips , cheese, ranch dressing, lettuce and tomatoes all wrapped up in a pita. YUMMY!!!

After just looking at it, she decided that the Hani was all hers. She wasn't sharing with anyone. Alissa agreed with me that EVERY trip to Michigan must include a Hani.


Day 2:
The big wedding day on Friday, June 19th. She put on her purple party dress, bow and high heels because she knew it would be a wild night of dancing and drinking at the reception. Alissa is such a pal - she volunteered to be the DD for the night.

She wanted to wish the bride and groom good luck before they decided to tie the knot. Plus, she wanted to see if either one had cold feet. Alissa gave them advice for what it takes to have a long lasting marriage. Reverend Eric was already ahead of her.

While waiting for the wedding to start, Alissa decided that nothing makes the time fly by than with knitting. She pulled out her toe-up socks using the exclusive Brooks Farm Yarn - Possibilities. While knitting and looking around at all of the guests, Alissa noticed the live guitar player. It turned out that the guitar dude was a good friend of the groom. She wondered if he was actually playing because the groom asked him to or if he was just trying to promote his new album release.

The reception wasn't going to start for another hour and food wasn't going to be served for another 2 hours. So, she convinced me that we needed to make a run to Rally's. Alissa can't get Rally's burgers (also known as Checkers) in Texas and her stomach was really rumbling. The drive-thru worker thought it was a little funny that she wanted a picture with him. But he didn't know that he was going to be saving her from typical wedding food. Rally's was so much better!!!

Alissa's wedding adventure ended with the Dollar Dance with the groom. Since his line was pretty short, Alissa got to dance with him a little longer than those who were dancing with the bride.It was a quick, action packed weekend in Detroit for Alissa. The first comment she made when stepping off of the airplane in Texas was, "Why is it so darn hot here? I loved Michigan weather!" But, Alissa is off to Pennsylvania with Melanie, another knitting friend. Hopefully she will escape the heat for a few more days.

Alissa Does Austin

DAY 1

We decided if anyone deserved a trip - Alissa DESERVED a trip. So we headed out to Austin for a weekend of Fun, Food and Fiber!



Once we were all buckled in, we headed down the road towards Austin. Anyone who knows us Rockstars, knows that we are incapable of going on a road trip without stopping at Truck Stops.

They are the Mecca of Everything that is ROAD TRIP.

Luckily for us, Willie Nelson has just opened up his own Truck Stop right on the way to Austin from Dallas - in Carl's Corner, Texas. So we HAD to Stop.




And Alissa was just jonesin' to see Willie and his Guitars:



(We made her pose with that one.)

After that, we headed on down through Waco where we stopped for our favorite greasy tacos at Trujillo's in the circle.


After we left Trujillo's, we drove through a beautiful lightning storm on the way to Austin - stopping at one or two more truck stops along the way. Our 3 1/2 hour drive to Austin only took us about 5 1/2 hours.

We got to our hotel and after a long day at work and a long drive, we were ready to hit the hay.

Alissa grabbed a quick shower



And then climbed into bed - stealing Sherilyn's monkey - and called it a day.



DAY 2

Saturday, we woke up early and took Alissa and her sassy new 'do to Torchy's Tacos at the South Austin Trailer Park & Eatery.


While we were waiting for our food, we couldn't keep her from climbing the trees.


After breakfast, we went and strolled all through the Austin Farmer's Market, looking at the yummy veggies and fruit and buying some yummy teas.


Then it was time to go to The Knitting Nest for WWKIP Day activities!

We took an amazing Lace Knitting class from the one and only Franklin Habit.



And then she shopped - for, what else? purple yarn!



While we ate lunch, Alissa needed a nap. So she got the sleeping bag out of the trunk and took a quick nap.


Then, we hung out for the rest of the day with Franklin


Dolores & Harry


And, of course, Hank - the shop dog



Alissa then insisted that she try on THE Lace Sampler that Franklin knit for this issue of Knitty.



After dinner and a margarita at Freddie's Place with Franklin and the gang from the Knitting Nest,



we went back to the hotel for some knitting and that's when Alissa REALLY let her hair down before crashing for the night.




DAY 3

We all slept in a lot later on Sunday morning and we finally got to Magnolia Cafe for brunch around 11:15. Of course, there was a line - so we waited at Prima Dora next door and shopped a bit. Well, we shopped - and Alissa tried on Cowboy hats



And washed her hands before brunch.



When our names were called, we went to the cafe and enjoyed the incredible Queso Omelets



Alissa was so happy with that stinkin' omelet, she insisted on paying!



After brunch, we still had a little bit of time before Hill Country Weavers opened, so we went down the street to Ten Thousand Villages. There, Alissa really admired the Guatemalan handicrafts



Tried on some jewelry and a shawl



And really wanted to take home this herd of vicunas. But Tasha insisted that we would have to buy a trailer and a hitch to put on her husband's car - and he just wouldn't go for that. So the vicuna stayed there.



After that, it was back to Hill Country Weavers for some more yarn therapy



She must have been still having fun, 'cause she even was smiling when we made her touch the fun fur stuff



After the yarny goodness (and, well, fun fur), we grabbed a Boba Tea Smoothie and hit the road again.



About halfway back, she hollered - STOP! And we had to stop at the Horny Toad Harley-Davidson dealership in Temple. She was ready to ride -



and before we knew it - she had hopped on with this guy



We finally convinced her that we really had to come on home - that her hubby and kids were probably wondering where she was - and we got her back in the car with a bag of pork cracklin's and a Dublin Dr. Pepper and got on home - safe and sound.




It was a GRAND adventure...can't wait to see where she goes next!