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

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.

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.

They really do smell like grape gum

And as I mentioned a few posts back, spring is in full force here, so I went and took some pics of the flowers blooming around our neighborhood. Also, the garden is starting to do well - i think it's time to pick the broccoli.

Click on the photo to open the album.

Spring flowers

First Bluebonnet

Yesterday I had my first bluebonnet sighting of the year. It was on the hill connecting our local elementary and middle schools. Texas wildflowers are on their way. Anyone who wants to see them should visit in the next month.

Texas Caucus

As I'm sure far too many people are aware, the Texas primary was yesterday. And furthermore the Texas Primary system is f**ked up. We not only get to vote in a primary election, we also have a caucus that evening, and furthermore there are superdelegates.

Tom and I went to the Caucus, and honestly, we were wondering if anyone else would show up. Boy were we surprised. There were at least 200 people there from our precinct, and since our polling location handled 2 different precincts, there were a *ton* of people there. The folks handling the line said at least 600 - but it felt like closer to 1000.

Here are some pics. First the auditorium where our precinct gathered


And here is Tom signing in to register his preference for candidate