Labor Day weekend.

I say this every year, so I will say it again: Once Labor Day has come along, the holidays are here in a heart-beat.

We woke up today to an unusually cool morning... I would bet the temperature was no higher than 85. That's fairly cool for this time of the year, being that Texas weather is still on the Summer setting. The cats were running around the yard, the chickens weren't hiding in the shade of the barn, and it felt like the clock had been turned back to early Spring. It didn't last. After noon-time, the numbers on the thermometer were way up there again, close to the 100 mark.

Yesterday, we drove into College Station, for lunch at the Hullabaloo diner, which seems to be our lunch place of choice whenever we drive up there. (If it's good enough for "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," then it's good enough for us.) I finally tried the pancakes there..... I kept seeing them being set down on other tables each time we've gone there..... two huge fluffy inch-high pancakes, as big around as the plate itself. I gave in and ordered them..... totally light and delicious. I ate less than a quarter of what was on the plate and brought home the rest. I ate a little bit more for dinner last night, my husband and I each had some for breakfast, and there's still more pancakes left in the fridge. (The trick was re-heating them carefully in the microwave so they'd heat through and still stay fluffy.)

The special yesterday at Hullabaloo was Breakfast Pizza, which my husband ordered. We were skeptical at first, but the waiter promised we wouldn't be disappointed. (And if you can't trust a waiter you've never before seen in your entire life, then who can you trust?) The pizza dough, first of all, was absolutely delicious. (Hullabaloo makes pizza all the time, but only after 5:00... we are now determined to go there one night for dinner.) On top of the dough, they spread southern-style sausage gravy (thick white sauce speckled with sausage bits and pepper). On top of the gravy was strips of bacon, two scrambled eggs, and melted cheddar cheese. The dough was rolled out into an oval, egg-shaped pizza, big enough for one huge man-sized serving, or two or three servings for the ladies. My husband brought about a third of it home and had the rest for dinner last night..... it was delicious, especially the dough itself, which can make or break the entire pizza.

I did taste the breakfast pizza that my husband ordered, but I wouldn't order it for myself with all that bacon. If it's on the menu the next time, I'd ask them to make one for me with peppers and onions in the scrambled eggs, and to go easy on the gravy..... it would taste like an Italian omelet. They've substituted menu items for me before in there, and the waitress we usually get must know that I don't eat meat, but she has refrained from belting out the usual "Y'all don't eat meat? Evah?!"

Today was a Round Top day..... we drove there to look at some of the antique and resale shops on the back roads. Although, up in Round Top (population 77), those two-lane roads are the main roads, not really the back roads. My husband is on a search for a weather vane, to put on the cupola on top of the garage. He and our handyman W have been scraping and priming and painting the entire garage and it looks wonderful..... so cute.... the garage now looks like a miniature house. To top off their hard work, they need the perfect weather vane. My husband found one with a Harley Davison motorcycle on it, but I told him it didn't quite go with the property. He's still looking.

While in Round Top today, we had lunch at Royer's Cafe. Grilled shrimp on top of a big salad for me, the Sunday special fried chicken dinner for my husband. I did take one bite of the fried chicken... it was very good, but I can't eat chicken anymore (not that I ate much of it before). How can I eat cooked chicken when I'm out there in my yard every day talking to my own chickens and picking Scarlett up and carrying Her Royal Hen-ness into the coop at night?


Thought for this beautiful day: (my husband read this on a website for a Houston bakery)--- "Help save the Earth.... it's the only planet that has chocolate."