Tall Tales from Texas

I've been back from Texas for two weeks and I haven't yet told you about my fabulous trip.  The past two weeks have been full:  stomach flu upon arriving home and that was a lost week and this past week we've been in a house frenzy preparing our house for listing.  We've reached our decision to stay in northern California and move to one of our local 55+ active adult communities, so our "go live" date for the house being on the market is 9/10/12.  It's a strange market and they say "turnkey" homes are few and far between so they are selling quickly.  We shall see.  We've been contemplating this move for several years, so here we go and please wish us luck.

Moving is such a chore; I dread it.  Just the effort to get the house ready to show is way too much stress and that's only the beginning of it.  So my blog postings may be sporadic for a few months and my hooking may be even more sporadic.  My active hooking projects have found a new home in the back of my car.  Yes, frame(s), bags of wool worms, patterns I'm working on... in the back of the car for use "after hours" when no real estate agents will be calling to show the house.  No more mess in the family room allowed until we are resettled.  I can live out of my car for a few months.  Let's just hope this transition goes fast and smooth!

Texas:  where shall I begin?  Upon arrival I saw my closest friend Pat of 35 years who is like a sister to me; she and her husband retired from California to Tyler TX a few years ago to escape expensive California and for all Texas offers.

Pat took me all over to see the 55+ communities in the Dallas and Austin areas so I could give Texas a real serious look before making a final leap to move to my local 55+ community.  We laughed and laughed and talked deep, personal stuff only "old" friends understand.  We toured homes together and we decided we'll live in the same 55+ community as little old ladies.  Here is a picture of Pat on the Austin Duck Adventure tour.  She treated me to the tour and it's a fun way to get a quick look at the city.  You must "quack" while on the tour, so Pat has her quack-er in mouth for this tour.  She will kill me for posting this, I'm sure!

And a few more pic's of Austin taken from the Duck amphibious mobile.  It's a very pretty city.  But did I tell you it was HOT?!!! Very HOT!  It makes California hot look very good!

Yes, you go out on Lake Austin as part of the tour.  It was very fun, even tho' our Duck broke down and the tour lasted a lot longer than expected due to the breakdown.

After 4 1/2 days with Pat she delivered me to stay with Martha in Dallas, my new BFF hooking buddy!  Martha hosted me for a week and we went to San Antonio for the Angela Pumphrey annual hook-in hosted by the San Antonio guild.  Tricia Travis heads up the hook-in and she is a most gracious lady.  Tricia opened her beautiful shop Country Gatherings in San Antonio to all of the workshop attendees for a pizza night before the workshop began on Friday.   Her shop is wonderful and I felt more welcome by Texas hookers than I've ever known in my life!  What incredible women live in Texas!

I will post a bunch of pictures from the workshop in my next post.