It's not my fault that they're a bit blurry...it was hard to capture Casey especially when she wasn't moving.
Here's some of the ice on the shrubs out front:
And proof that it really is cold!
16 January 2007
Arctic Blast 2007
Austin is in the grips of a winter storm. While the storm doesn't really compete with the old Missouri storms, the ice is pretty treacherous, and we've started getting a light dusting of snow on top. The dogs seem to enjoy the weather well enough:
It's not my fault that they're a bit blurry...it was hard to capture Casey especially when she wasn't moving.
Here's some of the ice on the shrubs out front:
And proof that it really is cold!
It's not my fault that they're a bit blurry...it was hard to capture Casey especially when she wasn't moving.
Here's some of the ice on the shrubs out front:
And proof that it really is cold!
07 January 2007
Visitors Beware...
Here's a little warning for anyone thinking about coming to visit us...
We've been here in Austin for about 2 and a half years now. We've had several visitors. But in less than three years, we've had three different sets of visitors who appeared and decided to stay in central Texas.
First, there were our friends James and Laura. They came to visit at Christmastime the first year we were here. They'd been living in San Diego, and when they returned, they realized they simply couldn't live anywhere other than Austin. They promptly returned that spring and have been here in town ever since.
Next came Tim's mother and brother. Arthur is stationed at Fort Hood (about an hour from Austin). Audrey is working on post there and lives in Kempner. (To be fair, I think Audrey actually decided to move BEFORE she ever visited...)
And finally, my parents have been down several times. On their second or third visit, they killed some time while Tim and I were working looking at neighborhoods. They happened upon Sun City in Georgetown, Texas (about a half an hour away). Sun City is a neighborhood dedicated to people "55 and better." With their retirement looming, this November, my parents came down and bought this house:
We expect them and my sister permanently sometime in late summer or early fall.
So, as always, we're more than happy to entertain any visitors. Just beware that you're risking major life changes if you make the trek down here to Austin...
We've been here in Austin for about 2 and a half years now. We've had several visitors. But in less than three years, we've had three different sets of visitors who appeared and decided to stay in central Texas.
First, there were our friends James and Laura. They came to visit at Christmastime the first year we were here. They'd been living in San Diego, and when they returned, they realized they simply couldn't live anywhere other than Austin. They promptly returned that spring and have been here in town ever since.
Next came Tim's mother and brother. Arthur is stationed at Fort Hood (about an hour from Austin). Audrey is working on post there and lives in Kempner. (To be fair, I think Audrey actually decided to move BEFORE she ever visited...)
And finally, my parents have been down several times. On their second or third visit, they killed some time while Tim and I were working looking at neighborhoods. They happened upon Sun City in Georgetown, Texas (about a half an hour away). Sun City is a neighborhood dedicated to people "55 and better." With their retirement looming, this November, my parents came down and bought this house:
We expect them and my sister permanently sometime in late summer or early fall.
So, as always, we're more than happy to entertain any visitors. Just beware that you're risking major life changes if you make the trek down here to Austin...
07 December 2006
Linens 'n Things
One of our dogs (Casey, if you don't know them well enough to tell the difference...) has an extreme love of linens. Especially wet towels. If a pile of the laundry is in the floor, she will seek out the wet towels and partake of a backflop on them, only after rubbing her nose in them for a bit. What follows is a sequence of pictures of just such an event. If you scroll fast enough, you may get a real-time effect (think digital flip-book...).
16 November 2006
14 November 2006
Camping
We've been looking for a weekend to take a little camping trip with the dogs. Between August and Thanksgiving, we found a single weekend where one of us wasn't working and we were both in town. It was the weekend before Halloween. (Sure, the post is late, but better late than never...) I got home from a work trip at midnight on Friday night, and we headed out Saturday mid morning. We went to a state park about an hour and a half north of Austin called Colorado Bend State Park. It was really a lovely park, and the weather was so beautiful that weekend that it was packed. We hadn't reserved a campsite, which was almost a problem. But not a terrible loss because we wanted one of the sites that requires a pretty significant hike-in (about a mile) to try to get the dogs away from the crowds.
Saturday afternoon, we first hiked into our campsite. (Note to selves: we need a new tent; the one we have is a six-person two room tent, which is simply not made for carrying any distance at all. Plus we discovered a pretty substantial hole...luckily it didn't rain, and Tim's an expert tent surgeon.) Once we were at the site, we got everything set up. The dogs behaved surprisingly well, especially with a river just across the way and us not allowing them to jump in it. Our campsite:
Sure, we had a slight amount of concern about the very large tree we put our tent under, but we figured it hadn't fallen all the way over yet, so what were the chances it would do so that night?
After all that was set up, we took a pretty short hike with the dogs (about 3 miles, maybe). It was in the 80s and Hannah got pretty hot. We bought the dogs a little backpack (think saddlebags for dogs) so they could carry their own water and such. I think Hannah got a bit tired (she was tasked with carrying it most of the time):
After we got back from the walk (and the park had some really nice trails), we made some dinner (dehydrated something to which we just had to add boiling water). As an aside here, Tim purchased himself a little backpacking stove before we went out, and this little thing can boil something like a liter of water in three minutes. And it weighs practically nothing. Anyway, dinner was adequate (I really didn't feel very good, so nothing would have tasted good), the dogs gobbled up their dinner, and we got ourselves ready to turn in. Everyone was quite tired, including the pups, but apparently they weren't up for sleeping with nothing between them and the ground but a tarp and the tent floor. Their pillow beds here at home have spoiled them. And in a goldilocks style event, Tims's sleeping bag wasn't quite good enough for them either. So this is what I had to deal with all night:
I finally got them to move enough so I could get inside my sleeping bag, but all night anytime I tried to move, I had to shove one of them with my foot to get some slack in the sleeping bag. Two asides about the night: 1) the dogs had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and we were forced to get out with them, only to be greeted by the most beautiful night sky we've ever seen, and 2) I've determined that peeing outside is not for me (a mile+ is a little too far to walk to facilities at 2 in the morning, it turns out...). The dogs were pretty good, even with all the sounds of wildlife outside the tent and a few other dogs within earshot. They quieted down pretty quickly and pretty well.
We got up in the morning and cleaned up our campsite. We'd put some thought into going to look at the gorgeous waterfall they apparently have in the park, but you can only get there on a guided tour, and they don't allow dogs on the tour. Neither one of us was willing to single handedly chaperone the dogs for two hours, so we opted for some different hikes instead. We trolled around the park for another 4 hours or so and got to see some little waterfalls at least. By the time we were finished with this, we were pooped (or at least I was pooped) so we headed home. Here are a few more views of the park:
Saturday afternoon, we first hiked into our campsite. (Note to selves: we need a new tent; the one we have is a six-person two room tent, which is simply not made for carrying any distance at all. Plus we discovered a pretty substantial hole...luckily it didn't rain, and Tim's an expert tent surgeon.) Once we were at the site, we got everything set up. The dogs behaved surprisingly well, especially with a river just across the way and us not allowing them to jump in it. Our campsite:
Sure, we had a slight amount of concern about the very large tree we put our tent under, but we figured it hadn't fallen all the way over yet, so what were the chances it would do so that night?
After all that was set up, we took a pretty short hike with the dogs (about 3 miles, maybe). It was in the 80s and Hannah got pretty hot. We bought the dogs a little backpack (think saddlebags for dogs) so they could carry their own water and such. I think Hannah got a bit tired (she was tasked with carrying it most of the time):
After we got back from the walk (and the park had some really nice trails), we made some dinner (dehydrated something to which we just had to add boiling water). As an aside here, Tim purchased himself a little backpacking stove before we went out, and this little thing can boil something like a liter of water in three minutes. And it weighs practically nothing. Anyway, dinner was adequate (I really didn't feel very good, so nothing would have tasted good), the dogs gobbled up their dinner, and we got ourselves ready to turn in. Everyone was quite tired, including the pups, but apparently they weren't up for sleeping with nothing between them and the ground but a tarp and the tent floor. Their pillow beds here at home have spoiled them. And in a goldilocks style event, Tims's sleeping bag wasn't quite good enough for them either. So this is what I had to deal with all night:
I finally got them to move enough so I could get inside my sleeping bag, but all night anytime I tried to move, I had to shove one of them with my foot to get some slack in the sleeping bag. Two asides about the night: 1) the dogs had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and we were forced to get out with them, only to be greeted by the most beautiful night sky we've ever seen, and 2) I've determined that peeing outside is not for me (a mile+ is a little too far to walk to facilities at 2 in the morning, it turns out...). The dogs were pretty good, even with all the sounds of wildlife outside the tent and a few other dogs within earshot. They quieted down pretty quickly and pretty well.
We got up in the morning and cleaned up our campsite. We'd put some thought into going to look at the gorgeous waterfall they apparently have in the park, but you can only get there on a guided tour, and they don't allow dogs on the tour. Neither one of us was willing to single handedly chaperone the dogs for two hours, so we opted for some different hikes instead. We trolled around the park for another 4 hours or so and got to see some little waterfalls at least. By the time we were finished with this, we were pooped (or at least I was pooped) so we headed home. Here are a few more views of the park:
31 October 2006
Julien 2.0
We are pleased to announce the upcoming release of Julien 2.0. This new version promises to improve on previous versions (Julien 1.0, code named "Tim" and Julien 1.1, code named "Christine"). You should expect the new release to (most importantly) be much cuter than previous releases. We hope that existing Julien plug-in packages ("Hannah" and "Casey") will work seamlessly with Julien 2.0. We do warn our frequent users that the first few months after the release are expected to be, well, messy, as Julien 2.0 is not expected to have the complete, mature capabilities of previous versions upon initial release.
The new release can be expected near the middle of the second quarter of 2007. To pique your interest, we're glad to be able to deliver an early screen shot:
As Julien 2.0 matures towards the release date over the next several months, we expect that certain features will be able to be shown more clearly and will update our announcements accordingly.
The new release can be expected near the middle of the second quarter of 2007. To pique your interest, we're glad to be able to deliver an early screen shot:
As Julien 2.0 matures towards the release date over the next several months, we expect that certain features will be able to be shown more clearly and will update our announcements accordingly.
22 October 2006
Dogs and Babies
Last night we had some friends over for dinner. One couple has a seven month old baby, and we've always kept the pups outside when they've been over. But last night they had their first test... which they passed. I'd like to say with flying colors, but alas, there was a barking incident (at someone walking down the other side of the street), and that scared the baby a bit. But other than that, the baby liked the dogs, the dogs were interested, but not beyond letting her pet them (as much as a 7 month old can pet dogs), and licking her toes and fingers. We caught some of the action at the dinner table:
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