the path more traveled....

I wouldn't say the project turned into a nightmare but it was more work than I expected. I borrowed a truck from a local trucking company yesterday (thanks, Kevin) and hauled some bags of sand to my house. I laid the pavers last night and filled in the edges and the cracks this morning. Now I've got to find a home for all of the rocks that I excavated and do some landscaping along the path.

I was talking big last week when I said Phase 2 was going to continue the path from the gate to the patio. Next week is the start of May which means that summer isn't far away. We'll have to see about the path extension.

Done

Halfway there

A bed of sand is spread

and then the rains came....

We had some pretty heavy rains during the last part of last week and into the weekend. Things weren't completely dry but I resumed digging today. I have made it to the gate and my pile of rocks has grown considerably. I'll do some smoothing and grading and prepping for the pavers. Phase 2 will be from the gate to the patio in the backyard. I may need some more pavers.

On the baking front, I've been experimenting with various recipes in an attempt to make the perfect macaron. This bakery in Columbus Ohio has a nice selection. They look simple but they are very difficult to make. It's a rough experiment because almond flour is expensive and each batch consumes about a dozen egg whites. There are two possible methods - one with French meringue and one with Italian meringue. Both are difficult in small batches. What I wouldn't give for an industrial oven in my kitchen!

baby steps....

Here's the progress after Day 3 of Operation Pavers. I hope to reach the gate by Friday and lay pavers during the weekend. It continues to be slow going.

I've been tossing the rocks that I dig up along the side of the house. I had put out the nice, round, multi colored river stone last year. The light brown, irregular rocks are what I have excavated. It's amazing how much rock there is just below the surface. I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere.

The happy thought is that I haven't encountered any unmovable boulders yet.

project du jour.....

In my spare time, I'm going to work on this little project. I'm digging a path through my side yard and laying down pavers. I can only handle about 2 hours a day of digging through the rocks and tree roots. I only have to dig a path about 4 inches deep and 2 feet wide but it is slow going. The ultimate goal is to take the path all the way through the backyard to the deck. My initial goal is to just get to the gate in the chain link fence. I'll worry about the backyard later. I wish I had started this project when I was in my mid 20's. My back was probably better suited for this activity back then.

The happy thought is that the high temperatures are only in the 70's. Each day, I strap on my work boots, plug in my iPod headphones, turn on the music and start digging. This should build character. If I could figure out how to do it, I would do a time lapse photo essay. I'll just settle for single picture updates every other day.

one more for the record books....

The Cap10 was this morning. This is the 10K that was my first race in 1990 and I've run it every year since. The weather was a little cool (65 degrees) and it was misty. This may have kept the crowds down a little bit but there were probably over 15,000 runners. It's the biggest 10K race in Texas. I ran with a long time running buddy and we had a grand time.

This picture is at the 1 mile mark. The start is on the south end of Congress Ave and heads up toward the capitol. The capitol is right behind the guy showing his Texas pride. Credit to the Austin American Statesman for this fine photo

here comes peter cottontail...

We had quite the extravaganza this Easter. Carrie and Caleb made it an adventure by taking the train down to Austin on Saturday and they took it back home today. Carrie also coordinated a potluck dinner on Easter Sunday. I think we had a total of 12 people here. We had ham, salad, mac & cheese, bazillion deviled eggs, veggies and cupcakes. Caleb had to get a second basket for the egg hunt. We've got a dozen hard boiled eggs that were colored. The smell of vinegar and sulphur still lingers. I see a lot of egg salad sandwiches as well as ham leftovers in my future.

Apparently the easter bunny didn't see his shadow while he was putting out the eggs on Sunday. I can't remember if that means the cows will produce more milk or if the caterpillars will be longer than normal. I guess we'll see.

here comes peter cottontail...

not a total waste....

Today was my last day at The Driskill. It was a wonderful experience. I learned a lot and mastered some skills. The atmosphere was fun and the people that worked there were great to work with. I must admit that after 12 weeks of getting up at 4:00am, I'm looking forward to sleeping in for a few days. I had a good conversation with the Executive Pastry Chef today. We agreed to keep in touch. The good news for him (the bad news for me) is that he didn't have any turnover. I expressed an interest to coming back either full time or part time and he was receptive to that.

In the meantime, I continue to look for work. I'm looking for bakery jobs in Austin as well as engineering and management jobs throughout the US. The north side of my house needs painting, a section of my yard needs to be resodded, the backyard needs to be landscaped, my motorcycle needs an oil change and the cats need petting. Money is not an issue so all is good.

The bakery was a high volume operation. There was a daily delivery of bread flour, all purpose flour, cake flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, brown sugar and powdered sugar. Everything was in 50 pound bags which had to be lugged to the appropriate bin and poured in. Boxes of butter, crates of eggs, gallons and gallons of milk. In addition to that, I was always carrying sheet pans full of pastries to the cooler. You should see my muscles. Giggle