Whirlwind weekend

It's taken a day to recover from a ultra-fast weekend of Franz visiting the states for the first time, as well as visiting Austin.

We snagged him off the plane Friday, fed him some Tex-Mex food, and kept him up long enough to make it through the fireworks at the Round Rock Express baseball game. It doesn't get much more American than that unless we would have had some apple pie after dinner.

Saturday we spent the day preparing for our afternoon party and then enjoying it. While it was good and toasty for us getting the yard ready during the morning and midday, we had rented a porta-cool fan which water-cools blown air, making a nice outdoor airconditioner for our backyard. Chaz made a beautiful tres leches cake from scratch for dessert, as well as grilled sausages. Franz went with me to Central Market, and after the shock of the size of an American food store wore off, he got inspired to fix a shrimp salad and some ceviche to share with our crowd. And the floral department inspired him as well, as some of the photos behind the thumbnail below will reveal. Around 40 people showed up, and they polished off all the food without a problem.

Sunday was father's day, and we had the good fortune to go up to Charles' parents house for lunch. Franz enjoyed the drive out to the country, and although most of his time on the farm was behind his camera, he did get to see all the animals out there as well as the family inside. That afternoon we had a quiet pool visit at our friend Gil's house, with all of us falling asleep somewhere in the background at some point.

On Monday he set out on his journey to Lima, Peru on his vacation, due to pass through in four weeks on his way back to Munich.

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