I am absolutely loving my winter break. It has been so nice to to sleep in, to spend time with the family, and have the freedom to read books that I want to read versus the books that I have been assigned to read.  I'm keeping up with my workouts by meeting a friend and using TRX straps outside at a track so we can watch our kids play and run around. It's been good for both of us, and our kids, to get out and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

A tradition that I have missed and am so glad we can take advantage during out school breaks is to pile everyone into the van for a drive to explore new areas, like the Blanco river.

We decided to visit Blanco, Texas earlier this week to visit the Real Ale Brewery (http://realalebrewing.com/). The brewery offers a free tour on Friday afternoons and samples of their seasonal beer. The nerd in me loved that the tour guide explained the science behind making the perfect batch of beer and the beer drinker in me loved that they gave out five free samples that were really, really good.

Today, I had the pleasure of going to Round Rock, Texas to visit The Salt Lick, (http://www.saltlickbbq.com/), and meet up two of my very best friends, Jay and Marcie. A group of us met on the internet 10 years ago, formed our own separate MSN group, and became good friends. Over time we met in real life, after we making sure that the person we were meeting wasn't an ax murderer or an internet "weirdo", and continued to stay friends. After my cancer surgeries Jay and Marcie would either Yahoo chat or Facebook chat with me listen to me whine and complain. They helped me through some of the darkest times of my life and for that I will always be grateful.

It was nice playing catch up and having a conversation that didn't involve a computer or a phone. Since Marcie lives in the Northwest and Jay lives on the opposite side of the state we don't always have the ability to meet up for lunch so today was a very special day. I really hope that one of these years our entire internet group will be able to meet up for lunch. (hint, hint).