My (temporary) home and commute.

Here's a shot of my welcoming temporary home - as I left it one morning.


The trip the next morning wasn't so calm. This is what I saw when I turned the opposite direction of the picture above.

And....almost there (3 minutes walk later)....a neat early morning view of the library steps.

Man, I love a 3 minute walking commute... I feel very eco-friendly!

Lime and other fruits

One of Gizmo's favorite spots in our temporary home is the rug in front of the bathtub. He likes it so much that he returned there to relax even after he chased me in a quick trip to grab my camera. The interruption to my hair-drying was worth it.


I've never been able to get him to stay in this pose when I've had my camera. Isn't he CUTE? And lime is such a great color for him - it matches his eyes...

On to different sorts of fruit, I tried Sangria for the first time - it's a hit, and I love the bottle, too!

Family basketball times...

Two purty girls, more interested in hanging out with each other than in watching the game...

Most of the gang.

Tyler tries to hold onto the ball. Eric stands waiting to help if needed.

After a blow-out win, Tyler shows his sensitive side and carries Kelsey around. The rest of the guys crowd around to give her attention as well. Note Jason standing on the left side - just before this picture, Kayla ran out to him saying "My boyfriend!" Boy, was he embarrassed at having a 6 year old girl claiming him!

Darrin and Brett. Not everyone can have Brett living in their basement. Hope he stays on top tomorrow, it'd be nice to see the Packers go all the way this year (now that the Colts are out)!

More family celebrations!

Aunt "Nee" (Renee) is so cool....she always gets fun toys, like window stickers, everytime she gets to babysit for Jordan, Kayla and Kelsey.

Kelsey poses with her birthday balloon as Kevin looks on. Almost 3 years old!

Anyone want some spit with that cake? (The cake was good enough that it just didn't matter!)

Tyler saves the day with his ingenuity after Kelsey's balloon floated up into the skylight.

Austin Day 2

We began day two with a driving tour around the west side of Austin - hill country. Doesn't Kay look calm here, as a corporate office tells her that the apartment we had just looked at would be $94-97 per day to rent furnished.....? Whew!

This is a cloudy morning view of downtown from the hill country though - beautiful!

Our lunch in the soco area was the best meal we've had, even though the sign out front suggested a more.....diner-like atmosphere!  It was very classy inside, and they make great italian margaritas!
Kay liked the area so much that we stopped to check on a house for sale.  Only 1.08 million.

Once we got back from lunch, we went for another long walk along the river. Here, we tried to get the ducks to come closer as we also watched for droppings from the pigeons perched above.
One of my favorite parts of Texas: crackles.  We are trying to decide if the brown ones are the females or if they're the babies....

After my dip in the pool. It was cloudy and a bit windy by the time we got back from our walk, so Kay didn't go in with me. (My feet are the ones covered by the towel!)

And for my last night in Austin (for now): dancing at the Broken Spoke. A true country dance club.  Lot's of Texas two-step (as opposed to competition two-step)....we met a few men with actual Texas drawls, who'd a thought??

Now it's off to bed so I can catch my early morning flight... hasta manana.

Texas bound

Wanting to start the trip out "right," Kay said Tuesday night that she didn't want to rush out on Wednesday morning and we'd probably start around noon.  WHAT? NOON?  I have to admit, it sounded OK after a tense 6.5 hour drive to her house (normally 4 hours) on snow and ice.

Anyway. We left at 10:45!  Her car doesn't even look that packed for someone planning on being gone for about 4 months, does it...

We thought we were going to stop in Memphis that first night, but (pretty normal for our family) decided to drive farther, so we ended up in a Super 8 motel in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.  The names are amazing down here.... Also amazing, the fact that they proudly (?) use "virgin" tissue rather than recycled products. Huh? Maybe that's because they live in a place called Arkadelphia.

Some of the names we liked better: Friendship, Hope....we even stopped in Hope to see President Clinton's first home.
Another great name.
And finally....Austin around 3:00 p.m. Thursday!  This is the HEATED pool on top of our hotel.  I will be in there today, regardless of the 60 degree high temp.
Our hotel (Holiday Inn Town Lake - I highly recommend it!) is next to the river, which boasts a beautiful walking/jogging trail. 
We walked around downtown for almost two hours, and looked through the state capitol for quite a while when we stumbled upon it.
This is the inside of the dome.  You probably can't read it, but there are little letters around the star that spell out T E X A S. 
A fountain in the front grounds of the Capitol.

In the evening, we decided to have dinner in our restaurant, then drove up by UT to go to a swing dance.  We were INCREDIBLY disappointed when we found that they were mostly dancing lindy and blues, and quite honestly, wanted to leave but didn't want to look rude/lame! We ended up staying for just over an hour though, and had a lot of fun as well as meeting some really nice guys.  Kay will hopefully know people when she starts going out dancing around here now, which was the main point of going last night given the fact that we were both exhausted and didn't really feel like dancing!

Day 3 here we come.

Ringing out 2007...

Third time in a row....New Year's eve at the Holiday Iiiiiin...

The dinner Jason and I had was probably better (and certainly cheaper) than theirs though - salmon with mango salsa...yum!!

Jason and Bizarro J make weird faces for our self-portrait... (well, actually, those are normal faces for them during their time together).  I think Bizarro J liked my shampoo. I doubt that it would've tasted good, however.

Sore feet. But it was worth it!

A great group of people: Chad & Christy, Jason and Jill (Brad didn't make it over in time for the picture).
Wishing you all a happy and growth-filled 2008!