Kunst und Bier

Art and Beer. That pretty much sums up our weekend. It was a nice start to the summer, I can't believe it's June already. Friday night was spent with my family. Uncle Robert was in town for a golf tournament and we spent a fun evening at Mom & Dad's. Saturday morning, we got up a little early and hosted a breakfast for friends. Cheri brought the champagne! After a few cocktails, we headed over to Washburn and the Mulvane Mountain Plains Art Fair. This is one of my favorite events in Topeka. We always see fantastic pieces in all price ranges. Several pieces in our home are from past years. This year we came home with two Asian prints for our upcoming master bedroom makeover, a few pieces of jewelry and two prints from an artist I've admired for a while. Check out her etsy store, Rural Pearl.



The first weekend of June also means it's time for the German Fest! Javier and Cheri came over & we left for North Topeka about noon and got in line for lunch. Sauerbraten, bierocks, German potato salad, etc. The line was a little long but moved quickly and we were happy to buy a couple cold beers for appetizers. Afterwards we found a shady spot in the biergarten and settled in for a couple of hours. We remarked that we hadn't run into any friends and then we saw the Ybarra family. John Ybarra brought a pitcher over to our table and we helped him drink it. I discovered that mixing a little frozen margarita into my beer was delicious! It reminded me of one of my favorite summer drinks, wheat beer & lemonade.
John even found time to fit in nine holes late afternoon!

Fiesta '09

It was Fiesta time in Topeka last week. A great big fundraiser for Our Lady of Guadalupe Church with food, beer, music, dancing, rides, and lots and lots of people. And it's usually the hottest week of the year. But not this year! We went on Thursday night and it was absolutely gorgeous out. Our friend Griff met us downtown and we took the bus to North Topeka. I've never seen the line for food so long, I think it was the nice weather. But we were getting tortas, and our line was much shorter. My friend and coworker, Laura, told me about the tortas booth last year and John couldn't wait to get one again. Marinated, slow cooked, pulled pork piled on a bun with guacamole, salsa and cheese. It was just as good as we remembered and went so well with the cold beer that Griff & John kept buying.

We went for a walk past all the booths and ended up at the Washburn booth talking to Becky. Friends we haven't seen in a long while found us and we couldn't believe it...it had been a long time since we'd seen Kim & Brian, Jewel & Farhan, and we got to meet Farhan's mother.

We ended up spending the rest of the evening hanging out with Kim & Brian...missing Javier, Brenda, Genell and Cheri.


Last week we also found out that Javier has been approved for permanent residency, I guess this is just the first step, but it was very good news!

Summer

It's days like today
picking raspberries at dusk
we work quietly
murmurs and giggles and where's the basket

we are family

Too early for cicadas, you say
and we stop to listen
it's summer
it's summer
they buzz
reminding us of other days
of other summers

how quickly they passed

Today is almost gone
do you know how much I loved it?
that these hours together
have been near perfection?

we are family

Contented

A little late, but that's how we were Memorial Day weekend.

We drove to Lone Star Lake with our friend Brenda and her new puppy, Patch. We missed Javier, but we all had a wonderful time.

Truly, Lone Star Lake is one of my favorite places. We are fortunate to use John's parents' cabin as our base. A deck, a dock, paddle boats, and a hammock at our disposal.

The weekend was filled with long walks, grilling, cocktailing, playing games, naps and reading in the hammock.

Morning Walk

We've been fortunate and had a couple weeks of nice weather. Javier had us join him for a long walk one morning up by the governor's mansion.

It was so nice we did it again the next weekend with even more friends and a dog.

It was a little muddy but we soldiered through and came out in a field where we shuffled our feet through the dry grass to somewhat clean our shoes. I sat down and used a twig to clean mine. I thought about the days when muddy shoes didn't bother me. Days after a good rain when my friend Amy and I would walk up to Esplanade Street by the Missouri River and find our favorite swing set. There were big "valleys" under each swing that would fill up with water. We'd take off our shoes and swing, letting our toes dip in the muddy water. I'm pretty sure we'd do that for hours.

It's getting cold and dreary again. I'm trying to walk on the treadmill, but I'd much rather be outside.

Afternoon walk

Ah, Sunday! I do like Sundays.
I woke up this morning, I was so glad


I awoke refreshed and eager to start my day. I haven't felt like that in a while. Coffee, poached egg, english muffin and the paper. I made butternut squash and leek soup for lunches this week before John even woke up! We just had a good morning. Made another soup, chicken and couscous, portioned all the soup out and put in the fridge with little notes to tell us which was which. I had a good bowl of vegetable scraps to add to the compost, so I took that out...watered and aerated the compost while I was out there.



The sun was shining and it was cold and crisp. We decided to drive out to Shawnee Lake and take a walk with friends. A nice long walk with geese and ducks and a hot air balloon in the sky. Cheri suggested stopping at a swingset for a few minutes. A wonderful idea. I felt so invigorated! I hope this keeps up!