End of May

Here are a couple of paper towel dispensers in a restroom at UT.  They represent a bit of paper history that still appears in many restrooms.  The left one says Fort Howard, referring the paper corporation formerly based in Green Bay, WI (there was once a U.S. military Fort Howard in Green Bay).  One of my grandfathers was a career employee at the big Fort Howard paper mill in Green Bay.  The one on the right says Fort James, which was sort of a made-up name that came out when the Fort Howard Corporation merged with the James River Corporation.  That company later become part of Georia-Pacific.  Threatening weather rolled over Austin today, but we only got a couple sprinkles.  Katie and I picked flowers tonight and we saw bee balm in blossom and milkweed pods open with seeds - in May!

Memorial Day

On Monday (yesterday) morning it was feeding time at the Pioneer Farm.  I was impressed by the different natural colors of chicken eggs.  In the afternoon, Karen and Kris watched The Hunger Games with some friends and Katie and I went out to the Hill Country.  We went to Pace Bend County Park, which is on a hairpin turn on Lake Travis, one of the reservoirs on the Colorado River.  Most of the shoreline was cool-looking limestone cliffs, but there was an area that had a sandy (but busy) beach.  The views were nice, especially with the flowers, but I would rather not be looking out at housing developments across the river.  After that we went over to the dam area. There is a church near there, St. Lukes Episcopal Church on the Lake http://www.stlukesonthelake.org/, that has a stunning overlook. Kris, Katie, and I walked the "Sometimes Islands" on Lake Travis back in November when the drought made them into a peninsula.  Now they appear to be islands again. Today, Texas finally had its primaries. Tomorrow is the last day of school for Kris and Katie.

Memorial Weekend

We were unable to do lots of traveling this weekend, but we have been getting some pool time here at the apartment.  Katie is really getting used to the water, which is good because swim lessons will be starting for her soon. Lots of people were in the pool tonight.  This afternoon I went fossil hunting near Walnut Creek and saw a really pretty field of Indian blankets.

Platinum Star

Here is a reaction that went awry (chemists have a lot of those :*) ) and produced a few "stars" made from platinum nanoparticles.  Not terribly useful, but pretty.  I guess that yesterday was a good day for hospital stuff, I know of two visits (a birth and a cancer surgery) that were apparently successful.  Today I finished reading/skimming the entire Bible (including the Deuterocanonicals).  I have been plowing through it since about August, mostly on the bus.  I had read big sections of it before, but I figured since I was almost 42 it was high time that I read the rest.  I'm hoping eventually some of the content will sink in for the better. :*)

Solar Eclipse

This afternoon Katie's friend had a birthday party at a local park. She is getting better at pumping on the swing.  This evening there was a solar eclipse, which we and others watched from a mall parking lot.  In the western US, and even as close as Lubbock, TX (seven hour drive away), it was an annular eclipse.  The last annular eclipse in the U.S. was May 10, 1994 - I'm pretty sure that was the one I watched in grad school at Northwestern University. This time, here in Austin, we got a pretty good view for 45 minutes before the sun set. The last close-up image shows the sun 3/8 covered. We used items like stacked sunglass lenses with a digital camera and a sliced-open Cheez-It bag (metallized polyester) to help us observe the event.

SoCo

In Austin, SoCo refers to the Congress Avenue area that is south of the Colorado River, known for quirky shops, restaurants, and food trailers.  We visited there and downtown. I was not allowed to take pix in many shops, but it was fun.

Kris's Final Concert

Kris's choir had their final concert of the year at St. Austin's Church near campus tonight.  They did their usual excellent job.

Square Dancing

The first and fourth graders at Pillow Elementary School did a square-dancing exhibition tonight.  They were impressive.  Karen did square dancing (she thinks when she was in fourth grade in Indiana) and so did I in 10th and 11th grade in western New York.  The kids also sang songs about Texas.  I cannot think of a state more proud of itself than Texas.  People make songs about California, I suppose, though I've not heard many songs about the state of Illinois. 

Kids and cats these days

A couple days ago, Katie was eating a frosted sweet roll for breakfast.  When her mom told her to use a napkin, there was a long pause, and then Katie held up a napkin to hide behind while she licked her fingers.

There were three young girls outside the apartment tonight poking around in the ground cover.  When I asked them what they were doing they showed me the snails they were collecting - including many tiny "baby" snails. They were excited to tell me that the "jackpot" was all the snails near a pile of dog poop.

In other news, we have had more good rain yesterday and today (hence the snails).  We have had two cute little black kittens wander by from a neighbor's apartment over the last few days.  The kittens were curious about our rabbit, but he was not interested in the kittens.

McKinney Falls State Park (revisited)

On Sunday the family went to McKinney Falls State Park (Karen came too this time).  The upper and lower falls had more water in them than when we visited last October 16, but not as much as there must have been at some point after last week's big rain.  Based on the height of water-impacted vegetation, it must have been spectacular.

Happy Mothers Day!

Pix of Karen getting presents, and some Texas wildflowers.

Round Rock, TX

Today Kris's choir did a concert in the dome at the Texas state capitol building.  She is in the group just to the right of the door with the clock above it in the pic, nearest the door and in the second row.  Afterward, she went to a choir party north of Austin in Round Rock.  The rest of us went to Chisolm Trail Crossing Park in Round Rock, where, as the name suggests, is where the Chisolm Trail crossed Brushy Creek (there are wagon ruts worn into limestone creek bed).  The round low table-like rock by the bridge (between the people fishing) marked the crossing point of the creek and gave the town its name.  The recent storms had knocked down tree branches and swollen the creek a bit, closing one low bridge even two days afterward, but overall the damage was not too bad.  After we were all back together we went to IKEA for shopping for odds n'ends and supper.