Pix of the Day and Stuff

Friday, April 27, 2012

Katie's Dance Party

Pillow Elementary School had a "dance party" this evening. It was basically sort of a school dance where the parents brought their kids. Mostly the parents sat and the kids ran around and talked (they were grade schoolers, after all). Karen and Katie did some dancing and enjoyed the event. Kris is doing a sleepover; I arrived late from work. When we got out it was still light out, so we went over to Amy's Ice Cream. A gaggle of grackles raided my hamburger while I was briefly away from the table (I got a new one), so now I'm really irritated with those birds.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Baby Bluejay

This baby bluejay apparently blew out out of a nest near our apartment. We did not see it later, hopefully it made it to safety. The warm weather is definitely coming in now. April has been pretty dry, so now things are turning brown again. I collected some bluebonnet and indian blanket seed pods - I hope I can plant them in Peoria. I told Karen that Austin really has two seasons: greening and browning. WalMart was selling watermelons last night, so I brought one home (we did another summery food activity, corn-on-the-cob, weeks ago). I wore shorts to work today, but what surprises me is how hot my black shoes get in the full sun while waiting for the bus ride home. On tonight's bus ride home we went around a recently occured SUV-motorcycle accident. I caught a glimpse of the motorcyclist laying on the ground and not moving - there was nothing on the news so I assume he survived. Ron Paul spoke on the UT campus tonight - the primary is still about a month away. The delay in the primary is due to controversy associated with jerrymandering by the Republicans. (I'm not picking on the Republicans - the Democrats do the same dumb thing in Illinois.)

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Electron Microscopy of a Cracked Dried Film (Colorized)

Thought this looked neat. I added some colors and lens flares. The original picture is in my new blog: Dr. Campbell's Favorite Demos: http://campbelldemo.blogspot.com/

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Picnics

Early this morning the noise from some nearby partiers woke me up, so I went out to look for meteors. I did not see any, but I did find (and catch) my first gecko of the year. We'll probably just hang onto it for a couple days. Note the milk jug cap for scale. Today we cooked hamburgers at Walnut Creek Metro Park, then cooled our toes down in the creek. The girls caught a bunch of tadpoles. The air has gotten pretty dry here, making for warm days and cool nights. It got to over 90 today for the first time since February. The girls went swimming this evening at the apartment pool, and we had mac and cheese there.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Austin Family Music Festival and the Biscuit Brothers

Well, Austin bills itself as the Live Music Capital of the World and has plenty of music festivals and venues. Today was the 6th annual Austin Family Music Festival. It was held at Pioneer Farms, the historical farm park that Karen and Kris volunteer at every other Monday morning (to feed the animals). This park is also the set for the PBS show "The Biscuit Brothers." This is a children's music education show with a rural Texas theme and excellent production quality (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biscuit_Brothers and http://www.biscuitbrothers.com/). The show runs on Saturday mornings on PBS and is enjoyed by our whole family. This music festival is a major fundraiser for both Pioneer Farms and the Biscuit Brothers show. Karen and Kris's volunteer efforts at the farm earned us all free admission to the event. We were not able to see all of the acts, but we did see (and enjoy):
- 3rd Generation - 17, 15, 13 and 10 (?) year old girls and boys in a German folk band - songs included Sound of Music songs and the Beer Barrel Polka
- Magnificent 7 - big band blues with nice lead vocal

- Austin Ukelele Society - picture about 15 ukelele players covering Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again"
- The Snow Days - they did funny rock songs about childhood - my favorite was "Whole Lotta Lunch" to the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love"
The Biscuit Brothers group were involved not only in the final concert but also throughout the day, with one member doing a sing-along on the hay-rack ride. Katie got autographs. We were all really impressed and enjoyed the event.