Fort Worth - it!

Day 2 of the DFW trip took us over to Fort Worth. In the area of architecture, this city is a contender! First stop was the Fort Worth Water Garden, another Philip Johnson treasure. The park was closed for several years and recently renovated and re-opened. Set in the center of downtown there are 3 pools, a stage and a mountain all made of concrete. The large pool pumps 19,000 gallons of water a minute and probably isn't the most environmentally friendly thing, but it sure is amazing. We watched a woman in 6" stilettos try to navigate the stairs, she ditched the heels and finally made it down.

Next we headed over to the Fort Worth Modern. Wow! This place is now on our top five favorite museums. The building is spectacular and the show by William Kentridge blew us away. If you have the chance to see either, don't hesitate.

With our minds numb from all the wonderful input we headed over to the Kimball. If we had another day it would have been best to save this place. It deserves much more than we were able to give it. The building completed in 1972 looks like a modern master piece that could have been completed in the last year and the contents are top notch. With our minds filled we headed home. The excitement continued on the drive back. We saw a funnel cloud and had to pull off the road during a heavy down pour.

T has embarked on the interior portion of his job today and the countdown has started as A heads back to school tomorrow.

Have a great week!

The adventure of J.R. & Sue Ellen

We decided to head north to Dallas & Fort Worth for the weekend to see something new. T had spent a little time in Dallas, but it was A's first time stopping for longer than a quick meal. We have heard some stories from friends that Dallas was very different than Austin in many ways, so we did our best to prepare ourselves and set out. The first stop was the Nasher Sculpture Center. A knows a few people that worked on the design of the building so it was nice to see their hard work in person. The Nasher's were generous people who started collecting sculpture with the profits from their shopping mall in north Dallas around the 50's. The collection is bold and diversified and set perfectly in the building and the gardens.

Next we headed to the grassy knoll. There is something to be said to see the place where JFK was assassinated. There are two x marks on the road where the bullets fired and you can look up to the window on the 6th floor to where Lee Harvey Oswald was. The angle does seem precarious and the conspiracy theories do seem valid. The memorial by Philip Johnson and the square are amazing a true tribute.

Blog Vacation...

Yikes! It has been over two months since we last blogged. I think we have gone into an offline heat hibernation of sorts. Plus we have been busy trying to button down the hatch since school is about to start for A and the hustle to finish the shop is on. Even in the chaos we have found time to do some fun things. We have been hanging out with friends and searching for the perfect patio to enjoy cool drinks. We even planted two trees in anticipation of shade in about 20 years.

The entire month of June was over 100 degrees and I think we both had a personal life high of 107 - my car temperature read 120. The heat can make you kind of dazed and poor T spends all day working in it. He has embarked on a pretty fantastic and challenging project. He is running a crew of guys on a cypress rain screen job. There have been some design challenges, but it is starting to look amazing. It is definitely good to be busy and on a good project.

The first day of A's summer studio begins July 13th. She has already broken bread with her fellow 13 classmates and is happy to say she enjoys them all. (This is a good thing since they will be sharing a studio space for the next 3 years!)

We are off to the cinema - still deciding on "Away We Go" or "Food Inc." Guess we'll figure it out once we get there.

Have a great week!

We had three special ladies from AZ spend the weekend with us. After a few days in the 90's things cooled down a bit and we had some great weather for the weekend. A few raindrops here and there to keep it cool. After a delicious dinner of sweet potato burritos, we started the adventure at the Congress Street Bridge which is always a favorite. The bats were very cooperative and decided to come out just as we arrived, we then headed downtown and checked on the setup for the art festival and did some urban hiking.

Saturday we found ourselves at the Indian fair and saw traditional Indian dancing, ate Indian food and saw the beautiful Hindu temple. T and I have always been fans of the culture and it was such a treat to spend the day submerged in color, music and laughter. Dinner was at a friend's birthday party. His pop came in from Indiana and made a mean friend chicken and his mom's potato salad was TDF. It is always such a treat to meet with friends and have a wonderful meal. Later we tied on our saris and had our own dance party.

Thinking of heading to Big Stacy for swimming before the day is over and our guests head home.

Have a great week!

Big Bend

We had a great time celebrating Easter in Big Bend. We hit the highway on Friday for the 492 mile drive to Terlingua where we rented a cute house in the middle of nowhere. We sure felt small under all the amazing stars. Big Bend is an amazing site and constantly reminded us that we were visitors and could easily find ourselves in bind, 98 degree heat and no shade, over four different types of rattlesnakes...you get the idea. But truly a beautiful place and worth the drive and time to get there.

As always good to be back home in our own space. Another exciting bit of news as that A is officially a graduate student at UT Austin. The ink on her student id card is still drying, but that doesn't mean she hasn't already scoped out all the student deals she can take advantage of. Free bus rides!

Have a great week!

Yodel-a-he-who or whatever

The other day as I was leaving the Whole Foods parking garage I heard a pretty amazing and interesting sound. I kept trying to see where it was coming from but could only see cars and fellow shoppers. Finally as I made it around a corner I saw a guy who was positioning himself exactly where the up ramp met the down ramp and yodeling. By being in exactly the right spot he could get a double echo and it was fantastic. It made me think that sometimes you just have to stop and listen as well as the many interesting ways people spend their lunch breaks.

The past few weeks have held many new and exciting promises and T and I are really looking forward to the upcoming year. We started our garage and have already framed three sides. T is wrapping up his first in Austin metal job, which is proving to be a great success as he has pretty much lined up three more custom jobs to follow.

We are heading to Big Bend National Park this weekend and hope to be able to share some great stories and pictures with you soon.

Have a great week!

VIP Week

We had some special guests fly in last week for an action packed week. A's parents braved the unfriendly skies and escaped the 13 degree snow filled landscape of the north to enjoy a week of sunny 70's. Highlights included Riverwalk, delicious meals and of course a trip to the BBQ capital. It was nice to take a break from the routine and share some of our Austin faves.

Some exciting things are on the horizon and we hope to have some fun posts in the near future. Until then back to grind...we are keeping our heads down and moving forward!

Have a great week!

Update: A's Dad just sent a snapshot of the snow they arrived home to. Be brave you guys, spring is only two more months away!

Spring is here!

What a great weekend we are having, except for one small incident which I'll share with you shortly. We started the weekend by having an early valentine dinner to avoid the crowds. It was nice to check out a new spot and splurge a little in the gray days of the recession. Our meal consisted of the caprese salad, a bottle of wine, a flat iron neiman ranch steak with garlic fries and shrimp wrapped in prosciutto with risotto balls. Fun!

Saturday was nice in so many ways. We finally got the fence run to almost close in the lot, one more run! The first of one special delivery arrived with a beautiful painting from the Armstrongs - thanks you guys! We already have it on the wall to enjoy. A care package from A's mom arrived shortly after with lots of treats. The heart shaped spatula can't help but make you smile when you use it and the venison jerky is the best we remember.

Today is the Austin marathon and there are people everywhere and lots of street closures, but it is 75 and there are no complaints. All in all a great day aside from the dog who is limping on three legs...A random stray snuck in the yard and bit him yesterday and he is bummed.

Have a great week!

Part 2

Just a quick update. The slab has been poured and looks amazing. We are excited to move to the next stage and frame the walls.

Friday we saw Hamlet at an underground theater house in East Austin. Everyone was very talented and the play was a success.

Saturday we dug some holes for our new fence. Mike is really looking forward to his upcoming backyard adventures. We also watched Gone With the Wind - and we now know why it is a classic. What a production and no CGI, amazing.

Off to bake some No knead bread http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=no%20knead%20bread&st=cse sounds easy.

Have a great week!

Christmas in January

Today the fellas came and dug out our new foundation for our garage/shop. This is the second time we have turned over a task to professionals and it was great. A team of four arrived at 7:45am on Saturday morning and had the hole dug within three hours. T and I peeked out occasionally and were like school children with our excitement. I know T has been waiting for this day for a long time since he had to hand over the keys to his beloved shop on Alameda. The great thing about the new space is that we get to design it from the ground up and are looking forward to working on something new rather than changing an existing building. Next week concrete!

We celebrated with friends that evening with grilled prosciutto and cheese sandwiches and several happy hours.

Happy Birthday to Judy today.

Have a great week!

Abracadabra!

From the photos you can see we are up to our old shenanigans... We had a pesky wall that separated the kitchen/dining from the living space. The effect was a little cave like area that didn't really promote any use. A mere four hours later a bright and sunny open floor plan greeted us!

Austin's weather has been fluctuating pretty drastically and this week we had highs in the low eighties and today it is 46. That means yard work one day and movies on the couch the next - I guess that is win win.

Have a great week!

Happy New Year!

December went out with a bang as we headed to San Francisco for Christmas. We were able to see some great friends and check out our old haunts...sad to say our favorite Thai Noodle didn't live up to the memories, but our curry house was better than ever remembered!

We began the trip with a visit to City Hall and an amazing dinner at Spruce! Thanks to Tony and Beth and Shon and Alissa for making it a memorable day.

We stayed at the Fairmont Hotel and had glorious views of the bay due to a secret Santa upgrade (thanks you two!) It was hard to leave the amazing accommodations, but we were off to wine country!

A winding trip up Highway 1 gave us some spectacular views of the coast and fill our landlocked brains with fond memories of the ocean. We spent a quaint night in Calistoga and took our time driving through St. Helena and Napa.

We ended the trip with a stop in Berkeley and Oakland to see some pals and see what had changed since we had last passed through, lots! If you get a chance stop by the Cathedral of Light - amazing! Go Oakland!

Wishing you a very happy 2009!