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