Another cheap adventure with Mal

We're still about 2.5 months away from our big family vacation, and this past week, D was really having a hard time with noise. Meanwhile, of course, Mal is the source of all noise in the universe. 

We were already planning to attend free admission day at the Zilker Botanical Gardens today (Monday, Presidents' Day), and it turned out that I had a free night at a Wyndham Hotel. SO it seemed like a good time to get Mal out of the house for a bit, go to a hotel (which is his favorite thing in the world), and give D a good quiet 24 hours.

Sunday morning, we usually meet up with one of Mal's friends for them to play and have lunch at McDonald's, but his friend's grandmother is in town so instead, we went with James to his usual (except it was unusual, because we drove a ways and he usually stays pretty local) Sunday brunch.

We chose Garbo's Seafood ft. Maine lobster. 1) Maine lobster. 2) Small outdoor play area for kids. Everyone was happy, especially my belly.

We got one Cincinnati lobster roll, and one Main lobster roll. OMG.

Mal made a new friend, as usual, and they had us parents exchange phone numbers. Then James headed back home, and Mal and I set off for adventure.

Our first stop was the Tyler's outlet, which was having a huge sale. I was particularly looking for a pair of flip-flops to replace D's favorite shoes... they've had them for at least 8 years, and we bought them at Tyler's back when they had a storefront on The Drag and we could just walk over. Anyhoo, they didn't have the brand in stock Sunday. I figured I'd look for a cool tie-dyed "Keep Austin Weird" shirt for Mal, but he found another shirt he really wanted. It, of course, was not among the $5/$10 sale clothes, so we ended up getting a $5 t-shirt for me and a $20 t-shirt for Mal. Sigh.

Next on the agenda was to go play mini-golf at Peter Pan, which is Austin-famous. Unfortunately, on a holiday Sunday, it is PACKED, and we couldn't even turn in to its tiny parking area, much less actually park. We ended up skipping it and going down to South Congress to visit Big Top Candy Shop. That involved a lot of driving around trying to find 1) an available spot that 2) wasn't neighborhood-permitted parking.

I've been to South Congress on the weekend, but not in many years. It was packed. Once we got into the store, it was fun to look around. We both picked out a couple of things. But the sidewalk was just walls and walls of people. We were more than ready to check into our hotel at that point. We drove through a McDonald's because, of course, Mal hadn't eaten any lunch at the seafood place.

This is a weird stand-alone LaQuinta just off of Mopac, kind of in the middle of nowhere. I think I redeemed a free room there almost 3 years ago, after a few months of the pandemic "lock-down." We were going to visit my sister for the first time in months, and decided to sleep in a hotel the night before just because we were going stir crazy. 

After we got comfy and rested a bit, Mal was ready to go to Windmill Run Park, where we used to visit when we lived in the apartments in Oak Hill. Mal didn't remember it at all, but still liked it just as much as he used to.

We had a free pizza at Domino's, as well as a $3 "tip" from our last carry-out order. I used that to get a 2-liter beverage, so we had our dinner back at the hotel completely gratis!

We walked around a bit, defaced a poster that Mal got with his Happy Meal, and watched some TV before I fell asleep super early. Mal said he ended up going to bed about an hour earlier than usual, as well.

This morning, we had a free breakfast. Mal's "hotel breakfast" staple is Froot Loops. He also had a left-over slice of pizza. Then we checked out and went to the botanical gardens.

Zilker doesn't have any greenhouses, and it's just gone from being below freezing (last week) to over 80 degrees today, so there isn't much in bloom. But the grounds are pretty, and Mal really loved the Japanese garden. I did, too... especially the place where they had a bunch of native Texas trees pruned in the bonsai style. It was extremely beautiful and thought-provoking, even though most of the trees didn't have leaves.

We were going to play at Zilker Park for a few, but Mal said his legs were tired. So we drove around to the Austin Science and Nature Center. Admission there is always free (not just Presidents' Day!). Mal wasn't super enthusiastic about going -- "You lost me at 'science'." -- but he ended up having a good time. His favorites were playing with the small, smaller, and nano magnets; seeing the rescue birds and bobcat; and playing in the dino dig, which he took very seriously. He also was able to look into a microscope for the first time.

By then it was approaching noon and getting pretty warm. We were ready for the half-hour+ drive back home. The afternoon was pretty low-key. Back to our routine tomorrow, with our homeschool library/park meet-up. Then Mal is having a friend over to play after school lets out. 

Well, that was a fast month

I've opened this up to write a blog post several times over the past few weeks, but there's really not much to talk about. We're staying busy, but it's minutiae-type stuff.

Mal had his first friend sleepover last weekend (as opposed to the time his grandma stayed here several years ago, he would like to point out) and that went well. 

D has a learner's permit and has a driver's test scheduled in about six weeks.

It's maybe our last freeze of the winter, and everything is closed down for a couple of days due to ice accumulation. Today, the surface roads weren't terrible, but anything up in the air was treacherous (including our porches), and tomorrow will undoubtedly be worse.

(It's "tomorrow" now. I'm NOT closing down this window without posting this time!)

Today, we do have icicles, which will make Mal happy. He won't wake up for a couple of hours, but it's supposed to be cloudy all day, so the icicles should hold out. I might try to get out and get pictures, but see above about our porch. I might send D out to snap some shots instead. You know, youthful balance and ability to recover from minor falls. 

We're also in tax prep time, and James got his W2 last week. This happens every year, but I just cannot fathom how people afford health insurance if they don't get it through their employer and don't qualify for reduced rates in the Marketplace. We pay a few hundred dollars a month for D, Mal, and me; and James working for Indeed has been the first time that we've been able to afford it. He's had other employers before who offered lower rates than market and we still couldn't swing it. So we're lucky. But the shocking part to me is that James's work's portion of our health insurance is more than 10% of his gross income. Ten percent! Call me a socialist all you want, but access to healthcare should be a basic human right (along with safe shelter, food, and water). It's not fair at all that I can be on a maintenance plan for my asthma and someone else can't, simply because of finances. It's been three years that we've been able to handle this for me, and it's a life-changer. I wouldn't die without it, but I'd be shelling out $30 a month for a rescue inhaler and using it 4-6 times a day, as opposed to using it maybe once or twice a month. 

I need to empty the dishwasher and get dressed for the day. It's super dark because of the clouds, so I feel like this is going to be a sleepy one. I'm mostly off caffeine but am partaking at the moment because I only got 7 hours of sleep last night (my average is just under 8) as Mal and I both slept in the master bedroom with James since Mal's new rule is if it's below freezing, that's what we do. We have all camped out in there when it's been in the 20s because Mal's room has drafty windows on 2 sides, and it gets super chilly. I have a space heater in there to help out during the day, but Mal doesn't want to sleep with it on (even though once I'm under my blankets, I'm fine and being cold doesn't seem to keep Mal from sleeping at all). But sleeping with two people who both go to sleep later than I do and also getting punched in the face when my son rolls in bed doesn't lend to a super night's rest. Here's hoping for an afternoon nap, after I crash from the caffeine hit. 

Happy February, friends!