Halloween, 2011

At 5 am I listened to an owl through my open bedroom window, it seems somehow appropriate for today. Fortunately, it stopped so I fell back asleep. Katie dressed up as Minnie Mouse for school. One of the local radio station decided to "dress up" by playing Christmas music today - that was kinda fun. We got some styrofoam pumpkins from the dollar store weeks ago and have carved them as fall decorations and added a multicolored LED strand. Tonight we went to a CeCe's pizza for supper (the one in Peoria closed years ago) - the food was a bit scary. Nobody stopped by to trick or treat tonight, but we do not really know when it was supposed to happen tonight. The check engine light came on in the car and we are working to track that down - that's enough scary for me.

Austin Animals

Our apartment complex is having a dress-your-pet contest. Here is our submission - I held Bugs and Kris took the pictures. Still LOTS of grackles in the area - I see them roosting on wires and billboards during the morning bus ride. Austin should publicize them like it does the bats! The males are a pretty dark purple, but they can be obnoxious and I hear that they have driven other songbirds out of the city. They have varied calls that sound like a cross between R2D2 and a couple pieces of styrofoam rubbed together. Today I took the girls to a nearby creek to catch minnows, they caught a lot. One last picture: Katie covered herself with Kris's laundry basket to make herself tickle-proof - she forgot about her feet!

Building Naming and Pretty Girls

Yesterday evening the building that I work in on the UT campus was formally named for a former UT president. There was much pomp and circumstance and I did demos at a stop on the building tours. As I left I got a nice view of the UT tower all lit up orange. Tonight Kris attended a maquerade ball; she went as a princess and had fun. After we dropped her off I went with my other two princesses to Mount Bonnell (highest point in Austin) to watch the post-sunset and then we went for Amy's Ice Cream.

Busy Austin

Nice weather today. Downtown Austin had eight big events going on this weekend, and we encountered some of them. We went to the Austin Gem and Mineral Show. It was enjoyable, about twice the size of the one in Peoria. The fluorescent mineral display and the rocks that look like food display were pretty cool. I found out that one of my fossils is a tiny piece of turtle shell. There was also the Austin Film Festival, with visitors such as Johnny Depp and John Lasseter (we walked by the viewing of "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" with red carpet and a line that stretched around the block). We saw tents for and walked by a reception for the Texas Book Festival. We attended a Dia de los Muertos festival and parade. It was a fun cultural experience, kind of bizzare, and I got to try cactus for the first time (kind of like a cross between green beans and mushrooms).

Pilot Knob and McKinney Falls State Park

Today is the 20th anniversary of my first date with my wife Karen. We went to a dance in college. I was a supersenior, she was a junior. The 19th anniversary of our engagement was earlier this month, on the wedding anniversary of the Kaeders, and our 18th wedding anniversary was back in August. Today Karen had some paperwork to do, so I took Kris and Katie a little south of Austin to see the Pilot Knob area. This whole region was ocean in the Late Cretaceous and Pilot Knob is a remnant of an 80 million year old volcano. It's not much to see, really just a few hills (background, first pic), but for a rockhound it was interesting to see an igneous outcrop in the middle of so much sedimentary rock (foreground, first pic). After that we stopped by McKinney Falls State Park. It was nice. Onion Creek makes a couple waterfalls over some formations related to the aforementioned volcano. The falls, like most other creeks around here, are pretty dry, but the rock formations were pretty cool, as were the cypress trees near the water. It think it would be fun to take pix there when the sun is low in the sky and the sky's colors are reflected in the many pools and off the white rocks. When we got home we went swimming for about 15 minutes because was nearly 90 F out, the pool was still open, and a cold front is expected to be here about Tuesday. Though the air was warm, the pool was a little chilly.

Capitol and Ducks

Today stopped at the UT campus on the way downtown and saw a bunch of fans on the way to the home game (UT lost again). We then visited the Texas state capitol building. Impressive dome; we were surprised that the legislature only meets on odd-numbered years (and it is done for this year). We then took "duck" (amphibious vehicle) tour of Austin. We learned some interesting stories about Austin and saw some interesting sights, but the vehicle driver's sing-song voice annoyed us a lot. We also saw the continuing Occupy Austin protests outside the city hall.