Out and about

I was awakened this morning by forty kisses for my fortieth birthday, from Nola, my MinPin.

It was about 8 AM and E told me she was going to walk and we were leaving the house by 10 AM. I did not know where we were going, but she said shorts and a sleeveless shirt or anything comfy was fine. We started out on Beltway 8 heading North and I knew then we were either going to Austin or to the races. As we ramped over to 290, I knew it was Austin.

Austin is just a two hour drive and it is something we have vowed to do more often. Our first stop is usually Dairy Queen on the way, but the love bugs were so bad on the windsheild, we had to stop at a service station to clean the glass with a squeegee. Dairy Wueen came about 15 minutes later.

Once in Austin, we headed straight to Book Woman. It is a feminist/women's book store and it has been there for about 25 years. It is always our first stop once we blow into Austin, and may it always exist. They have a used book section as well as a hefty lesbian selection.

I found two used books, All Good Women by Valerie Miner, and The Dog Collar Murders by Barbara Wilson. The Wilson book might give me a complete selection of her works and she is an author I really like. Her books always make me want to travel to the locale she is writing about.

Actually, I found three other books I would have liked, too, but I also wanted to get a Book Woman t-shirt, so I opted for just getting two books. I could have gotten more, but we are trying to be good to have more spending money on our Thanksgiving vacation.

I did not really do more than browse the new lesbian fiction because I did not want to be pouty and I know we will go back soon, maybe next month.

So I got two books, a t-shirt, and a new small silver hoop earring with rainbow rings (a nice combination of obvious and discreet), and I also got several new rainbow stickers for the car, which I officially decided today will become an art car. Buddha mobile. E also got a rainbow yin yang for her car and we got a rainbow collar for Nola which is about an inch wide. Flashy.

After we went to Book Woman, we went to Tesoros Trading Company (www.tesoros.com). It is an import store with a lot of artsy stuff, so much so that we were on visual overload. I got a lot of little things there, mostly mini Buddhas and stuff to use on my retablo and figures for my alter.

From Tesoros we headed to El Sol y La Luna, a lesbian owned Mexican restaurant. They offer free wifi and have art displayed on the walls gallery style. Nice.

I think we might make a trip every month or so to get better acquainted with the city.

Tomorrow, I have been informed, we leave at 545 AM to hit Galveston!!