Our road trip turned into a day trip... two of them. Thursday we got up slow and drank coffee and e-mailed and finally got on down the road when we were good and ready. We had lunch at the Catfish Cabin and then headed further east. Our goal was the Antique Rose Emporium north of Brenham. We got there and looked a minute, but we were getting sleepy so we started looking for some coffee. Interesting thing about small towns. . .they don't have the Starbucks on every corner like you get used to in the big city. The rose place had Cokes, but no coffee so she sent us up to the crossroads to the convenience store. They had a pot of coffee, but it was cold and old and he didn't look interested in brewing any fresh for us. We opted for bottled Frappucinos (good think Starbucks bottles) and moon pies and we went back to the rose store. I got a beautiful deep red Cadenza with big blooms. Mark got a Red Cascade miniature rose, deep red. I also got several herbs, including catnip, and a grape hyacinth bean vine. Mark got a star jasmine.

Before we left the house we had decided we were too lazy to pack a bag and we wouldn't mind just being in our own house for vacation, so after the rose store, we headed back home through some backroads and saw some more beautiful bluebonnet fields. They were still in abundance in the meadows.

Tired, we got back to Austin and knew we didn't have anything to eat at home so we stopped at Macaroni Grill and had a nice dinner.

When we got home, I went ahead and gave Mark his anniversary present: A tempurapedic pillow. His neck gives him so much pain and he buys a new pillow on a regular basis searching for something more comfortable, I hope this helps things. He laid down for a late night nap that ended up being a good nine hour night's sleep.

Me, I had had iced tea with dinner, not thinking about the caffeine and I was awake for a long while. Emailed a great long time with CGP about anxiety and Chinese herbs and whatnot. Then, in a burst of stupidity, I spilled the tiniest bit of wine on my laptop keyboard. Madly, I grapped unfolded laundry and was drying the keyboard. Then, as we continued to email, the computer began backspacing and deleting things I had written, it started adding in extra letters I hadn't typed, it wouldn't type G or H. Panic set in. CGP advised getting the hairdryer so I worked on the keyboard and he went on to bed. As I frantically dried the keyboard, I also broke the Enter key. Great. No things are really broken. I gave up, hoping the morning would be better.

Yesterday morning, things were much better. The keyboard all worked as it should, but the Enter key was still broken. I emailed Dell and got back a directive that I really didn't understand their terminology, but the gist of it was "snap it back on real hard." I had been afraid to be forceful with it, but when I was, it did go back on and all is now well in computerville...except here I sit with a cup of coffee close by. I'll have to be careful. Funny how I tend to slosh wine more than coffee. Wonder why that is? No, ish naw becaush I been drinkin!

When we got up yesterday we got our coffee and wandered around the garden discussed where the new roses would go and plans we had. Then the doorbell rang and there was a gorgeous display of flowers.... big stalks of ginger, roses, lilies, and wild flowers I have no names for. Gorgeous! Mark had done very good and ordered from the florist that I like so much.

Then continuing the glory of having no where to go and no place to be, we took off west on a road trip. First we went downtown and ate for the first time at Nau's Enfield Drug. I had asked on the air for recommendations of Austin things to do and that was recommended to me. It was very nice. Cute little place. A cheeseburger and a chocolate malt. That is vacation! While we were waiting for the food, Mark wandered off for a bit. When he returned he had a sweet anniversary card for me and lottery tickets. The big lotto had just begun not long before our honeymoon and we bought tickets, lotto and scratchoffs, on our drive. Didn't win anything, certainly not millions, but it was fun to play. This time I only scratched two and saved the rest. And I won $1. That's a start.

We drove through Oak Hill and toward Fredericksburg. It was raining on us most of the way. Just a fine mist. We knew we were going to stop at the Wildseed Farm, but what a glorious surprise to have it spring up with a huge field of nothing but RED. Bright red happy poppies. What a sight. There was also a purple field of vervain, but the red was absolutely breath-taking, tear-springing stunning.

We stopped and bought a few little things, including bluebonnet seed. We wandered and took pictures in the poppies.

On down the road, we went to Dooley's in Fredericksburg and marveled at all the things only a 5 and 10 cent store has. I bought an ironing board cover and mark got some stencils. Just stuff. My favorite bakery was already shut for the day, so we had to find another place for coffee and a cookie/shortbread/pastry/praline. Yes, we are on vacation and Atkins be damned.

Sometimes the trip to or from Fredericksburg seems so short that I am amazed that we don't go out there for dinner or just for a morning. Other days it seems like we should have taken the plane to get out there. This trip seemed long yesterday. We drove on back, in the rain, and finally got home. This time it was early enough to take a wonderful nap.

Today is really the day. Our anniversary. Eleven years ago right now I was probably about to be on my way to the church for the noon wedding. I just flipped through one of our wedding books and saw all the big events of our engagement time: It was the presidential election with Mark and I both voting for Perot, although we were so aggravated that he dropped out and back in to the race and got crazier as the election neared. The Branch Davidians were in their standoff until just days before our wedding.

Now I am looking for the book with our wedding photos. They aren't right where I can put my hand on them and that surprises me. I'm not organized and won't claim to be, but the photo albums, I thought, were all right here close by. I will keep looking.