Getting our house ready to go

This is such a rotten job to do. To speak of it is easy - we're basically packing our clothes and our electronics, and everything else is more or less staying put in the house.

Ah, but it is so much more. Because Dave will be using our room, we're completely vacating the master suite. While we're excellent at purging our clothes, and not that much ends up in that area, it still takes forever.

Then there is the kitchen. Again, I figure I want to make this as pleasant as possible for Dave, so we're completely purging the fridge and the pantry. I'm leaving things like spices and all purpose flour, but for the most part, it's a total clear out.

And also, just to put things in order, I'm doing a top to bottom spring clean of everything. It's making the house look great, but is never any fun to do.

Total drudgery. And my feet hurt.

The Galapagos Islands are as cool as you think they would be

Backyard - end of day 2

The backyard is about 80% done. When I got home today, they had put in a lot of the sod, and the edging was all done. It's hard to tell from the photos, but it does make the back yard look really big.

You can see clearly the area that was our grassy area before - it's the section where the grass is darker green.

Landscaping progress

Some photos of the progress on the back yard. I didn't know that they were going to be starting Friday, so I came home that afternoon to everything being ripped out. Today, it seems they might get it all done - new edging, more grass.






And some photos of the front walk. This isn't quite done yet. We need to install the edging pieces (which we weren't sure that we were going to do), and some path lighting.

Rick Steves in Austin

One of my very favorite authors/TV show hosts came to Austin this week. He was doing a talk and book signing at Book People. The topic was "Travel as a political act." He spoke passionately for about an hour and a half on the mind-broadening power of travel, and how seeing other countries and cultures, we can both appreciate ours better, as well as discover other ways to improve.

It was a great talk - if anyone gets a chance to see him, I highly recommend doing so.

He also recently traveled to Iran to both visit the country and make a TV special. It is going to be airing on PBS starting in January. I can't wait to see it. He talked about some of the things he learned while there. Fascinating stuff.



It was a completely packed house

Meet Mr. Turkey

This is our very favorite Thanksgiving decoration. I think it's the hat that makes him wonderful.

Walk construction - Day 1

Noon on day one.

Finally re-doing our front path

Today we got some materials delivered to finally re-do our front walkway. We ripped out our nasty 70s vintage courtyard a few years back, and that is also when we did the primary part of our front landscaping. At the time, we elected not to do the front walk, because honestly, it's just expensive.

But finally, we've gotten tired of the remaining 'fast food restaurant' tile at the entry way to the house, and the crop-circles in the middle of the path. Besides, the current stuff just looks nasty.

Here are some before photos, as well as our very classy front yard, covered by all sorts of crap.

For me, this was the most memorable moment on Election Night

As I get most of my news from the Daily Show as Tom watches it religiously...it seems apt that I was watching Jon Stewart as polls closed on the west coast.



For the last election, I was at the International Quilt Festival in Houston when I heard the news of the outcome. This time, I was at Andy and Monica's house.

Halloween, 2008

Well, we had over 600 trick or treaters this year. We ran out of candy around 9 pm, and they continued to come. We put a sign up when we were out, and they still kept coming. It was really fun.

We offered beer to the adults, and got looks of incredulity when they realized we were serious.

Fly through the air with the greatest of ease....

Look at me go!



Update: Let me give you a bit more detail....

Despite my terribly stern look, it was a fabulously good time. As you might imagine, it does take quite a bit of concentration, and that is why I don't look like I'm having a good time.

This was a Learn to Fly session at the Crossings here in Austin. I did this with my friend Rebecca. I totally want to do it again.

The purpose of this class was to learn the following maneuver

1. Grab the bar
   
2. Jump off the platform
3. Hook your legs over the bar
4. Let go of the bar with your hands
5. Swing upside-down once
6. Grab the bar again
7. Do a 'reverse somersault' down to the net

If we did well, then later in the class, after step 4, instead of swinging upside down, after we hooked the bar with our legs and then let go, we would then look for the catcher, and if timing was right, we would grab onto him, and let go of the original bar with our legs.

I did very well, and so here is a Picassa album of me going through one entire time from start to finish.

Trapeze

Wedding quilt

Here are some pictures of the quilt I made for Dave and Lisa's quilt. This is a 106" x 106" quilt (roughly King Sized) that I made from start to finish in 10 days, and used nothing but fabric I already owned. Dave works on environmental policy, so the theme was designed for that.


This is a detail shot of one of the tree trunks

And a detail of just some of the quilting. Leaves in the trees

Washington DC

This past weekend we headed up to the DC area for Dave Grossman's wedding. It was a lovely event, and the rain managed to hold off just long enough for them to have their ceremony outside as planned. We got some time with Jim and Dawn as well. We took some pictures at the wedding, but naturally, I left that memory card at home this morning. I'll try to remember to post some pics.

More Lake Tahoe

Ok - Lake Tahoe is fantastically blue, which I didn't fully realize until I went there in the summer for the first time. Last year, I went on a boat cruise with a friend, and I went again this year. When you are out on the lake, you can get a really good sense of the 3 different colors that the lake takes on - deep royal blue, turquoise blue (like the Caribbean), and an emerald green.

Here's a shot where you can see one of the transitional areas. In the foreground, where there is the deep blue, it means that the water is very deep, and the color is a reflection of the sky. In the distance, you can see a turquoise, and that is an indication that the water is 30-100 feet.


And now a few shots of just the lake. It really is an incredible color

Lake Tahoe Pictures

I took this shot up at Lake Tahoe early this month. I snapped this photo, and I wanted to share. Even though it looks like I added them in, those sparkles are un-edited.

Hurricane followup

Not that anyone here was surprised, but we didn't really get any rain from Ike. There were a few very scattered areas of rain, and there was a bit of wind....

Don't people understand that we're 300 miles from the ocean?

The management company that owns the office building that I work in sent out an email to us in true CYA fashion regarding the approaching hurricane Ike. Here is the text of the email:

As of right now, Austin is expected to experience high winds and heavy rains as a result of Hurricane Ike. Hurricanes, though, can change direction and speed over time. I suggest that individuals take whatever precautions they deem appropriate to keep themselves safe.

It is also recommended that companies turn off and unplug computers, telecommunications equipment, office equipment and appliances to protect from power surges and/or loss of power.

If anyone is at work and a storm hits the area, they should proceed (using stairwells, not elevators) to the lowest level of the building. They should go the center of the building, away from windows, crouch down low and protect their head and neck with their hands.

http://www.stormpulse.com/fullscreen/current

Honestly?

Truckee

We're on our annual 'get out of Texas in August' vacation. As I've previously reported, this summer has been rough in terms of temperature. As I've left it's finally started to rain on and off, and the temperature is predicted to be only in the upper 90s. But with the rain, it's humid, etc....

So I'm up at altitude, which is lovely.

However, let me send out a general comment that watching 'live' events on the west coast sort of sucks. I speak in general, because that "previously recorded" note on top of the "LIVE" that ends up in the corner of your television feels just mean.

And more specifically, because you've had to take the already depressingly tape delayed Olympics, and delay it further. Here, where to actually watch quite a few of the events live would be entirely reasonable to do. No no, you get to see things a full 24 hours later as well as 3 hours after the east coast. My biggest current irritation was the 3 hour delay of the men's marathon that took place Sunday morning in Beijing - you know, because watching something live that started at 3:30 pm on a Saturday afternoon is such a difficult thing to do....

But I digress.

Highlights of the trip thus far:
* Got a genuinely cheap rental car - yay for off-airport car rental locations!
* $25 hotwire rate for a room on the club level at the Atlantis. It was a really swanky room.
* Already 1 trip to Sierra Trading Post - and their Labor Day Sale time of year
* Walking, hiking, skating, running, and maybe some boating are all in the plans.

Trip to San Francisco, part 1

Ok, so it's not all that novel - a trip to San Francisco. I mean, Tom is there all the time. But this is the first trip I've made up there in quite a while. As always, Tom was working, but I wandered about a bit and found some nice fun things.

Here's the Ferry Building the day I visited. I had to wear a coat on occasion. It was fabulous. While it was a beautiful blue sky in this direction, if you looked across the bay, it was foggy and crappy, so I elected not to bore you with a picture of that.


I visited the Timbuk2 store. Timbuk2 bags are available in many places, including my favorite Sierra Trading Post. However, they are based in San Francisco, and there are some fabrics and styles of bags that are only available there. I got this nifty new custom bag.


I did run across a janitors strike near Union Square. I walked along with them for a bit.


More to come.

We've finally learned

Never again will we do any serious work on our sprinkler system. The guys who came last week to fix the problems we'd created can fix the problem completely in less time that it would take Tom and I to describe the problem. Money well spent.

Ridiculous veg

Doesn't this carrot scream 'Rockettes'?

Material Girls Bee Quilt

My quilting bee made a group quilt for the silent auction for our bi-annual guild quilt show, and I thought I'd show y'all what it looks like. We're feeling terribly proud of ourselves these days due to all of our organization to do single block in a fairly timely manner, and then get all of those blocks to one place to get them assembled. I know that some quilting bees do all sorts of group projects - in some cases, a bee might exist to solely work on group projects. That's just not us. No quilted garments, and organization is optional is really more of what we are about.

Family Reunion

Tom and I met with some of the Behrens' side of the family at the Cumberland Mountain State Park at the beginning of June. We gathered here 22 years ago, and now there are 2 more cousins, and everyone's grown up.

We visited the family cemetery - mostly to visit Grandma Lottie, but also it was nice to show Tom the names of so many of my family members. We learned of a few more folks that have passed more recently. And Dad reminded me of who a lot of folks were, and how the family tree looks - it's a big family, and understandably hard to keep straight.

Burgess Family Cemetery

We also spent time at the state park. A lot of the family time was spent playing a game that is (unfortunately) called cornhole. It is good fun. I'm quite awful. Uncle Jeff is the best trash-talker I've ever been around. It's like he's a trash-talking prodigy.

Cumberland Mountain State Park

See Rock City

We traveled to Tennessee after our trip to Ohio. While we were there, we started our week with a trip to Chattanooga to See Rock City. I was last there in 1986. It's a fun natural amusement park. This time, Tom and I also went to Ruby Falls - a beautiful underground waterfall inside a cave under Lookout Mountain, GA.

It was a hazy day, so I don't think we could actually see all seven states. But we'll just pretend.

Our photos from this trip remind me a lot of the photos from 22 years ago.

See Rock City

Sarah and Caleb's wedding

In early June we traveled up to Ohio for Sarah and Caleb's wedding. It was a lovely weekend all around. Here are some various photos from the events we attended (click on the photo to open each album):

Rehearsal and Rehearsal dinner

Sarah and Caleb Rehersal

Getting ready with Sarah, her mom and the bridesmaids

Sarah Wedding Prep

Wedding events

Sarah and Caleb Wedding Day

Reception

Sarah and Caleb Reception

Galapagos Baby

This Thanksgiving, we're off to visit the Galapagos Islands. Yay for us since we wanted to make travel arrangements, and then actually went ahead and did so

Here's the company we're going with for the tour around the islands.

Box of Veg

Today we are getting:

• Beets
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Dill
• Yellow Onions
• Sunburst Squash
• Yellow Squash
• White Icycle Radishes
• Tomatoes

If you've got recipe suggestions - stick them in the comments

Oh the heat

Hello family and friends,

I love Austin. It's a great town with so many fabulous attributes. I almost can't believe that I've lived here for almost 10 years now. I remember going to back to Ohio pretty early on when I lived here, and I visited my high school. I was talking to Mr. Scott, my senior year English teacher, and he was asking where I lived - when I told him Texas, his response was "....why?" I didn't have a particularly good response, but at this point I also can't really imagine living anywhere else....except for now.

I know that we were spoiled a bit last summer. Then, sadly for our family in Florida and California, and from what I understand, there were high pressure weather systems sitting over both the southeastern and southwestern United States which was pulling rain from the gulf and raining over Texas just about every day. While at the time, I thought we were going to just about wash away since it was really soggy, I knew that our relatively low temperatures were a gift from mother nature.

Now, we are paying for all that lovely reservoir filling rain and cool temperatures. This year, that same weather pattern seems to have reversed itself.

I know very well that August in Texas is very much like February was in Ohio. By that time you're fed up with the weather that has been going on forever and feels like its going to continue forever. I fear that this year will not be even that generous.

For about 2 weeks now, we've had the consistent weather forecast of "high of 97, low of 75". In reality I think this has been playing out with a high of something closer to 102, and a low....well that never seems to get all that low. And the little pictures that go along with the predictions for the next week are all bright suns, untarnished by clouds, and of course with no significant variation in temperatures.

I'm fed up.

I want to go to the mountains or possibly the southern hemisphere. I assume that why I've started buying guidebooks again. The weather makes me not want to do anything - a common affliction I believe during the summer in the south. But I want to want to exercise, be about town, and have even the tiniest bit of motivation.

I feel a bit bad for being jealous that Tom gets to travel to places where the temperatures don't head anywhere near the triple digits.

Group quilt

My quilting friend Allison had a little boy recently. In our second act of organization within my small quilting group, we managed to get our act together and get a quilt made before Alexander arrived. Here is the finished quilt with the little guy (5 days old) enjoying it - well, ok, he was really just asleep and couldn't be bothered to wake up when we put him on the quilt....but can you blame him?