TSCPA Meeting in San Antonio, Texas

Photo of some Austin Chapter people at TSCPA meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

This weekend John and I went to San Antonio, Texas for the TSCPA’s Annual Meeting of Members. We had such a nice time! This was the first time John could go along. I always enjoy my buddies in the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the hotel was lovely. It’s right on the River Walk and the mall, so John and I had Mexican food, and shopped, and saw sights, and attended meals and very interesting meetings. We got away from our normal activities enough to truly relax.

You almost had to stay indoors since it was over 100 degrees. My favorite meeting, as I thought about it afterwards, was the talk given by Congressman Mike Conaway, CPA (of the Permian Basin chapter), who discussed a little bit about economic, health care, tax, and other legislation in Congress right now.

I had five pairs of CSM socks in a silent auction basket for the Austin Chapter. The money goes for scholarships for accounting students. Also in the silent auction were some baby alpaca scarves that did pretty well. Somebody crocheted the scarves. My socks didn’t do well – you couldn’t really see them down in the gift basket, nor did the bidders notice some of the other treats that Diane Joiner had tucked in the basket, including a hotel stay in the Austin Hyatt.

Well, I’ll have to do some of my lace alpaca scarves or even a lace shawl for that auction for next year!

I couldn’t help noticing some very pretty, fashionable things that other lady CPAs were wearing (the male CPAs’ clothes are boring). My friend Penny said she hit the Salvatore Ferragamo outlet store in San Marcos on the way to San Antonio and bought all the good stuff. Well, I’d never looked in a Ferragamo store in my life, and Steve’s warm jacket was stolen, so John and stopped in San Marcos to have a look in the outlet stores. We didn’t find a replacement jacket; the salesman where we bought it a year ago thought he had one of those exact jackets left but couldn’t find it. There isn’t much available in warm clothing in summer, so we’ll have to take Steve shopping again in the fall. Out of curiosity, we went to the Ferragamo store. Good grief, what beautiful things, and how pricey! The price of one purse would buy me ten good leather purses from a nice department store. Now I've got see what my friend Penny bought.

I need to make more sweater sets – they are excellent for these meetings where you have to layer up when the air conditioning comes on or peel off when you get to the heated car.

Father's Day Car Show

For Father's Day, we went to the Father’s Day antique car show. I took lots of pictures. I wanted to show some of the more interesting cars to our son Steve, who had other plans, and I wanted to put the pictures up here.

We rode in the Model A. It was an incredibly hot day, but John said we’d just use the “air conditioning,” which means he opens the windshield along the bottom (it swings out). With the windows on the side, we got wind-blown and weren’t uncomfortable.

We walked around the car show in the steaming, over 100 degree heat, on asphalt. (Do I get wife brownie points for this?) There were wonderful cars there, and some of our friends were there. Everyone is very nice, and most owners are willing to answer questions about their cars. We bought a giant sugar-free shaved ice and shared it with spoons. I met a new person in our club who spends many days at these shows and brings along her crocheting!
On the way home the passenger’s floor vent was stuck open just a little (these old cars always have something-or-other needing a fix) and blowing searing air at me, right off the engine manifold. I realized after a few minutes that it was going to burn my bare legs, so John took off his sport shirt and I draped it over my legs. That worked great to keep the hot air off my skin. At some point, I began to wonder if we’d break down or even get pulled over with no seat belt (ours was giving us a problem) and dear husband naked from the waist up except for a rather battered Aussie hat! We got home okay, though.

Apparently, it’s legal to drive these old buggies without a seat belt because it wasn’t original equipment, but what if a police officer didn’t know that? I would prefer to wear a seat belt anyway.

Austin Business Journal Event

We had an awful lot of fun at the CFO of the Year party last night. The Austin Business Journal had this event. I was a nominee in the nonprofit category, but not a winner. The CFO of Meals on Wheels, who won, very much deserved to win.

It was at the Austin Driskill Hotel, a very elegant historic building, and the food was fantastic. I ate bunches of shrimp (all very low-cal and in keeping with my Weight Watchers program). I met some very interesting people and got a picture of myself with Christina from the Austin Business Journal. See how she towers over me? She’s a tall girl wearing beautiful, very high heels.

I’m doing Weight Watchers and John’s doing South Beach. This time, it’s for our health (not just looks).

June Knit Natters Meeting

We had knit club today! We met at Barbara’s house, and we had Mildred Beeson and Pat and Sara Tittizer.

I brought all the stuff for sponge bar rehab and told everyone to take enough for their immediate needs. The instructions to redo sponge bars (cheap, easy, simple supplies) are on http://www.knittsings.com/, complete with details and photographs. This is not your usual weather-stripping method – it’s much less expensive and I think the sponge bars are better this way.

Barbara had been knitting slippers for the troops (her son-in-law is in Iraq). She’s knitted dozens of them on her Passap. She knits in fisherman ribbing up to the toe, then switches to regular knitting at the toe, which makes the toe narrower. Barbara knits them off her machine attached in pairs by waste yarn. We were trying them on and checking them out. I will have to see if she has a pattern she can share or at least a reference for the pattern to put on the website.

Barbara’s been cranking out afghans and goodies prolifically, clearing some of her yarn stash. She actually runs her Passap during commercials while they watch television and gets an incredible amount done.

Pat Titizzer has handknitted two absolutely gorgeous, airy lace shawls, and I took photographs. There are many, many hours in these incredible projects. These will get blue ribbons at shows, natch.

Since we had all played with Mildred’s Mattel knitter last month, she brought in a doll dress and hat she made with it.

Out to Pasture?

Yesterday was my last day as President of the Austin CPA Chapter! We had a good year and I feel good. Hopefully, more free time now.

I wrote a summary of our year on the Austin Chapter website at http://austin.tscpa.org/news_and_events/Newsletter/06/Sullivan.html