Edward Terry

Although the image above is not bacon, it is a bacon encrusted brisket. Little brother Phillip threw down in the Bacon Takedown during SXSW this year at Emo’s and did up some “BBQ Brisket Birthday Beans” that he concocted. While he didn’t win the contest, we met many of cool people including the hilarious dudes over at Taco Town who wound up being victorious with their Crack Tacos.

Taco Town and the Beans!

Phil told me a story about one customer who did make multiple trips back to his area requesting cup after cup of the beans. The customer asked which restarunt he represented and when he learned Phil was a home bbq-er , the cusotmer said he should open up shop.

Later the customer was heard hollering “You were robbed bald man! You were robbed!” during the awards ceremony while eating beans he had pilfered straight out of the main serving tray while no one was looking.

You’ll get em next year little bro. Maybe I’ll have to get my competition on… LDT!

Everything tastes better with bacon.

COUSIN DAVE’S CHOCOLATE CHILI RIBS

This was an easy but super tasty recipe for baby back pork ribs. The “rub” was actually a type of paste that had ingredients such as chipotle peppers, ancho chile powder, cilantro, and an once of semisweet chocolate. That’s right ladies, I said it. Chocolate on your baby back pork ribs. All this was thrown into my little chopper along with onion garlic, lime zest, course salt and brown sugar to make a rub/marinade that I wanted to eat with tortilla chips as soon as I made it. It was like some freaky salsa someone might have entered in the Austin Salsa Festival.

Ribs marinated overnight and then went on to a 350 degree grill. They sat on the indirect side for just over an hour, bone side down. Then, I rotated them around for about 15 minutes. The last 5 minutes I flipped them meat side down to sear the sugar, and make a nice candy coating on the outside of the meat.

This recipe was fun and kind of a novelty with the chocolate in there. I don’t think I would change much about how I did them. The meat had the right consistency and the flavors in the paste really came on when grilled . I did go for high quality rib cuts and I believe it made the difference. I can’t wait to do this one again.

The ROT Rally came around quick this year but we were prepared for it..almost. The whole truck/RV thing was iffy there for a while. The truck had been having transmission problems, breaking down south of San Antonio a few weeks before. The RV was residing at my step brother’s house after it had been “jettisoned” at a convenience store in Elemendorf, Texas when the trans blew.  I was able to pull it all together though, picking up the RV and making it back to Austin late at night before check-in day.

Check in and set up went fairly smoothly except for being boxed in by a huge bus, forcing me to back the RV up through swarms of bikes and people to get to a clear path to our spot.

Wednesday and Thursday were smooth as silk except for the massive storm that rolled through Central Texas Thursday night. We wound up covering up the bikes and evacuating to the Expo center itself for fear of tornadoes and hail and so on.  I’m not going to compare our situation to any Katrina events but it was a taste of what it could have been like. Plus the real bummer was that the Robert Earl Keen concert got canceled. Next time then.

Friday, I actually rode the motorcycle out to a place called “Cindy’s Gone Hog Wild” out in Bastrop, TX with Abraham. It was biker joint out there but it was surprisingly clean and the folks were friendly. We were served by Cindy herself at the bar for lunch. I was pleasantly surprised that my bike wasn’t kicked over in the parking lot (i kid i kid!) when we headed out.

That night Linda and I met my family downtown for the dinner and biker parade. We were able to get a good table at Hickory Street Bar where we could see the festivities and the parade coming down Congress. After the parade we walked down to Casino El Camino for a damn good burger. I was aware the Robbie Knievel jumped some Budweiser trucks in front of the capitol building earlier that evening but I was eating ma burger! Here it is.

Saturday consisted of trying to stay cool while out at the Expo center and hanging out with Abraham’s riding group. We saw some vendors but no bikes as they had the inside areas closed off for cage fighting. We cooked up some fajitas and drank some new Mesquite Smoke beers from Shiner. I stayed in the RV that night, and offered the RV’s couch to a VMAX rider from Houston that had no place to go. We sat out for a good while that night drinking suds and trying loop bead strings onto various parts of trailers, 4wheelers, and people.

Sunday is pack up day, and we loaded up and headed out. All in all a great time again and can’t wait til next year.

Smoked Brisket Number one

For Memorial Day I wanted to do something that would make our service men and women proud, so I decided to smoke my first brisket on my new Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker that Linda gave me for my birthday.

The rub was a simple course salt and cracked pepper rub. I wanted to try and replicate the Kreuz Market rub in Lockhart because it seemed simple enough and was always good. I did not use a mop sauce or anything like that while smoking the meat. The water pan had simple hot water in it, but I can use beer wine, cola, juice etc. to do some fancy flavors later on.

I smoked it unwrapped for 6 hours with the fat side down, making coals twice, and using water soaked hickory wood chips.

Overall I think it came out great for my first true smoked brisket. I had good beef flavor, some smoke flavor but not too much, and a nice smoke ring through out the cut. Lessons for next time include taking its temperature a little earlier for a more rare flavor, and cooking fat side up for a more juicy cut. The meat wasn’t dry but it wasn’t greasy as hell either. A mop sauce may be fun to try as well.

Edward hanging with Tom Merrit, Natali Del Conte, of - CNET

I am a regular listener of CNET.com’s “podcast of indeterminate length” – Buzz Out Loud   and was excited to get to sit in on a taping of it at sxsw-interactive this year. When I finally found the room in which the podcast was supposed to be taped I walked into the room with only the “cast” of the podcast hanging out. I was a little confused thinking I had missed it or something else weird had happened, and indeed the taping got pushed back an hour or so. So I got to hang out with some my “internet heros” for a good while and talk one-on-one with them which was very cool. I’ve linked the episode that they wound up recording, which I attended, and their personal blogs and other podcasts if you are interested in anything tech.

Buzz Out Loud 930: Live from SXSW–day two

Tom Merrit, Natali Del Conte, Jason Howell - CNET

• Tom Merrit
• Natali Del Conte
• Jason Howell

L & E Pumpkin Pie

Linda and I don’t go out on “Amateur Night” as my sister calls it. We go out the night before. I got flowers at work, she got flowers delivered to her home. We went to a swank little joint called  “Wink” on Lamar. She baked me this pie. We win.

Merry Christmas Mother F***er!

Christmas 2008 yall. I know it’s late but its totally worth it.

Me and my brother did the trip across Texas thing in which we visit the folks out in Bourne and then trek our butts down to the valley. Everything was cool at Dads house and we were able see our new little half-nice.
As the travel situation unfolded we decided that we had to take two cars down to the Valley as Phil was staying a little later then I was because he wanted to hang until the new year which was cool. I tossed my walkie talkies in the car and we rolled it like a convoy down to the valley ,passing trucker talk that i hadn’t used since high school off like i was some sort of long hauler. “Hey baby bro we got a black and white taking polarid pictures of working folks in the hammer lane, better back it down 10 and let him get a good shot of these chrome rims spinning legal, cmon….” lol

We made it down to the valley without a hitch and the fun began. My folks had set up the 5th wheel travel trailer for all us kids to stay in during the weekend which was great. We didn’t blow any fuses and we didn’t need any cans of fake snow in case you were wondering. Christmas at our house consists of three things. Food, fireworks, and guns. All of which were used enmasse with pride. I think Jesus would have done the same thing at a birthday party if he was from around here.

Phil and I did another Beef tenderloin on the grill with a custom baste. We got crazy again and put it on early and got the sugar burn, but that’s not to say that there were any leftovers or anything. Everyone always likes the food that we throw down for the holidays and this was no exception. My mom aunts and sister and cousins cooked up everything else and we ate till we got teary eyed. (we like to drink wine and tell stories too ) Uncle Ron had an early flight to D.C. that morning and we toasted him. Aunt Anita busted out an awesome prayer form her convent days which I thought was awesome and it was all good.

My family loves fireworks and lots of them. Cousin Mike had some”special” fireworks from another country that were so loud I thought Poncho Villa was back. We shot fireworks and drank beers until we ran out. Friends came over from across the resaca and we had a good time.

A cooking pot after feeling the wrath of fireworks.

We rounded out the holiday with a trip to Mexico for the afternoon and even got some contraband Rum confiscated at he border! Even though it was made in Mexico it had the words “Cuba” on it so it went bye-bye.

Hope your holiday was as loud, deliciuos, and as fun as mine was.

For my Dad’s birthday we decided his present would be all of us going out to his house and doing a cookout for him. I wanted to grill something extra special for him, and we have done rib-eyes and other cuts before. I decided on a full beef tenderloin that was hand cut and tied just for us. I contemplated untying it and making a filling and rolling it back up, but this cut of meat stands well on its own flavor-wise. I was advised not to try to cover up the taste too much with other flavors. I did marinate it with a bock and molasses style marinade that was just sharp enough to get you going, but didn’t over-power the beef’s taste. Usually a cut of meat like this is done in a broiling pan so doing it on the grill would require some attention.

I made two full cans of hardwood charcoal and put them on top of charcoal that was in the pit already. I let that sit for a while and turned it over so i had a nice full bed of charcoals to work with. I oiled the grates as much as i could but I still had some sticky parts so I will watch that next time. With the bed of coals ready and the marinade cooking down to a baste the meat went on with my Dad saying “Mmm boy , I love cow tongue!”  (thanks Dad lol)

I knew I had to turn this meat over as if almost on a spit. I didn’t want to burn anything and I didn’t want it over cooked. The meat took about an hour and some too cook, turning and basting the whole time. I did have a little bit of suger-burn also. I also cooked with an open hatch because these coals require allot of 02 too keep going and I didn’t want them to go out. I wasn’t after a smoky flavor with this dish either.

The meat came off the grill and was allowed to stand for about 10 minutes. The strings were snipped off with a pair of scissors and pulled away. The length of the tenderloin was cut into medallions and set out for serving.

In the end, everyone seemed to enjoy it , my Dad got seconds so I guess I succeeded there. I may consider doing this one on a gas grill with a closed cover next time, possibly on a rotisserie. Also, I need to watch my cook time as it could have been pulled off a hair sooner.  I am looking forward to do doing this one again, and it was kind of cool to boast about being able to do a cut of meat like this on a coal pit.

Beef Tenderloin on the Grill

From Wurstfest 2008

Wursfest is a sausage festival which happens in New Braunfels every fall. It started way back in 1961 when a bunch of crazy Germans got together and put on a demonstration of how they used to make sausage in the old country. The festival just grew from there. What goes along with sausage and other festival food than beer…and lots of it. So sausage, potato pancakes, whatever-you-can-think-of-on-a-stick, funnel cakes, fried everything, and sweets galore can be found in the main food hall and vendors in the park area. The main Dance Hall is a massive cotton gin filled with family crests from Germany. For a full week Landa park is filled with polka bands, lederhosen, and families taking it all in.

Whilst being at Wurstfest is one of my favorite things to do, the drive back to Austin is not. This year my sister and I went down to scope out an RV space that we could park my folks 5th wheel at close to festival and camp out at, rather than run the the IH-35 gauntlet. We found an awesome spot called Camp Huaco Springs where the spaces were large and clean, the scenery was beautiful, and the folks were friendly.

That Friday I drove down to hook up to the RV and pulled it the few miles form storage down River Road to the camp site. Set up was quick and easy, which as I have discovered with RV-ing, takes practice. Linda drove down from Austin later on that night and met me at the spot. I put on some Texas country music and cooked some burgers on an outdoor grill and we enjoyed a quiet night on the river, except for some kids that extended their slide out and broke a water pipe, which was quickly fixed by the on-site maintenance person.

The next morning friends arrived at our camp site to meet up with us before heading down to the festival. We walked along the trail that followed the river and took photos of the scenery before heading down to the park.

Amanda met up with us at the festival a little later on and we commenced to try and do as much damage as we could. We luckily got a table inside the main hall thanks to our friend Mike. Food that was acquired included the famous 5 kinds of sausage on a stick, fried olives, pork ribs on-a-stick (which were absurdly tasty), potato pancakes (which you must wait almost an hour for but totally worth it), and fried pickles; a favorite of Abraham’s. We started off drinking Spaten Pilsner , but just went straight to the Dunkel after that. Next year I’m not pansying around with beer you can see through, the darker the better for this crew.

We ate and drank and danced until we had to call off the dogs. We heard polka music and watched professional cloggers. We danced the chicken dance about 10 times and started to wonder if it was scheduled, as in “Chicken Dance on the eights, every hour”. Amanda learned how to dance a polka and waltz, and we did our best to keep up with Cotton Eyed Joe.

At the end of the night we bid farewell to our friends, and Amanda carted us back to the campsite. Hilariously enough we actually stopped at a river bar on the way back but they were charging a 10 dollar cover like they had Robert Earl in there or something so we took a pass, and opted for our Shiner summer brew we had in the cooler back at the RV.

So if you ever go out drinking with us and we get a little crazy and give out a big German style “Ticky Tacky Ticky Tacky, Oy Oy Oy!” all you have to remember is: “Prost!”

For us that day: In New Braunfels ist das leben schoen! (In New Braunfels, living is good!). See you there next year!

Enjoy the photos!

• My gallery
• Abraham’s gallery (includes photos that Amanda took!)

From Maker Faire 2008

Maker Faire is an event in which amateur and professional engineers, hobbyists, artists and so forth get together and a huge “Look what I made” type show and tell festival We attended Maker Faire 2008 out at the Expo center two weeks ago with friends Seth and Amy and saw some really cool things out there. We saw battle bots, a trebuchet competition, electronics and LED lights everywhere.
The car that had 100 singing billy bass fishes wired together was quite a site. There were all sorts of electronics including a pair of glasses that made your brain give you your own personal show. It was like a screensaver right inside your head. Arts and crafts people were everywhere including people that made clothes, welders, and other craftsmen. At one booth Yahoo had their purple bikes out which folks ride around the area. A camera and computer mounted on the bike take random photos and upload them to Flikr on the fly. I don’t know if we are in any of them but you can see some of the craziness that was going on.  If Maker Faire is going to be in your area I highly suggest checking it out one time. Learn more about Maker Fair at makerfaire.com and enjoy the pics!

Pictures I took:
http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/MakerFaire2008#

Yahoo Flikr Pool:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/makerfaire/

My brother Phillip gave us his tickets for the Texas – Arkansas game this past Saturday. He was on his way to watch LSU and Mississippi St. in Baton Rouge with his G/F so we took them up on it.
We parked at the Intramural fields and rode the bus to the stadium, and met a co-worker of Phil’s there with his ticket.  The seats are up in the north end zone facing the GodzillaTron, so one has to remember to watch the actual game sometimes instead of the huge HD screen. The game was a blowout but we had a good time. It was Linda’s first college game and first trip to DKR Memorial Stadium. Here’s the write-up and a few pics from the day. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/TexasVsArkansas92708

Since I moved to Austin I had witnessed the overrunning of the city each summer by hordes of bikers all over the city. During the week of the ROT rally the whole city just shook 24/7 for that week. I decided back then that I wanted to attend this thing on a bike and not only ride around on my bike, but camp out and get a little crazy. Well this was the year it all came together.

Thanks to Abraham’s quick clicking skills, planning, and the forgoing of a New Years Eve countdown, we were able to secure a RV spot on the rally grounds a full 6 months before the rally actually happened.

The next thing on my list was to secure an RV! Renting one was always a pricey option, but what I really wanted was to have the newly restored Airstream gleaming out there in all its polished glory. Well what happened was a mad dash to install a 5th wheel hitch and rig up the truck to tow my folks newly acquired 42’ 5th wheel travel trailer. We spent more time getting all of our camping out items together than we ever did messing with the motorcycles themselves.

The big day finally came and we lined up the truck with the RV in tow in a line that stretched the full length of Decker Lane, about 4 miles or so. There were RVs and bikes cruising around and even though we weren’t even in the gates yet, the party was already stating to ramp up.

Inching up for a while we got to our spot well in advance of anybody else around us. A few rally goers came by to compliment us/warn us of our spot which was right on the internal parade route of the convention center.

I was still getting used to the RV so didn’t have the water utilities hooked up , but we did have a generator out there for air conditioning and other electrical needs.

That first day was slightly tame as folks rolled in form near and far and set up their own camps. We got props for our spot and for developing an interactive locator map for RVers that used the ROT Rally online message boards. There were many four wheelers and golf carts buzzing around and into the night. I stayed the night that night , but it was to be my first and only time.

That Friday Linda and I did out ROT rally routine and watched the Biker parade form the Hickory Street Bar and then hit up Casino El Camino for Boodles Gin and the best burgers in Austin.

We did go for a short blast around town and breakfast at Guero’s taco bar downtown but the rally in general consisted of us just hanging out and watching the endless parade of bikes and contraptions that passed us by. We saw some really sweet bikes by the featured shops at the rally including Sucker Punch Sally’s which specializes in old school bobber-style motorcycles.
The cool thing about having your own spot out there is folks will come by and hang out for a while (including sheriff department officers seeking shade and water).

The rally grounds got crazier and crazier until Saturday night when it was just straight up debauchery. Fortunately everything held together and everything was cool.

The rally was awesome. I met a bunch of cool people, saw some awesome bikes and even saw the Charlie Daniels Band perform. I can’t wait till next year and that rumble is all around yet again.

Enjoy the pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/ROTRally200802

(watch out, some not safe for work)

Last month I had my 30th birthday. Even though some people say they don’t feel any different, it’s kind of hard not to feel SOME different. 30 is kind of a big one so I wanted to make it special.

The night before my folks came up and took me to dinner at Z-Tejas. My Uncle Ron and Aunt Anita were able to come up form San Antonio as well. They gave me one of the most awesome birthday presents I had ever received – a mariachi outfit. I really can’t say why I’ve wanted one of these, at least the pants. Maybe watching Desperado too many times did it. The people from California sitting next to us were clearly confused by this gift and the accompanying “gritos” in the middle of the outside patio. I must say I am ready to sport these while riding around on the bike.  I can’t hear you because of how loud my awesomeness is. Speak up please.

Linda planned an awesome party for me at the house. I had been wanting to do a brisket and put off “practice” during the week due to many activities during that time. So it was either “Do or do not, there is no try”, Yoda style so we went for it and bought 2 massive briskets. I wound up cutting the briskets in half and then “smoking” them with my new little wood chip smoking box i got for the grill. Hilariously i could fit only 3 of these things on my grill so as a joke I did the last fatty half on Linda’s little mini-webber. I couldn’t even fit the lid over the whole thing as it sat in its pan, it was like a huge brisket/webber sandwich. Surprisingly, the brisket actually cooked well and I only had to make coals for it twice over a period of about 8 hours. The briskets on the grill got done, and maybe a little too much, i should have pulled them off a little earlier, and supplied more wood chips into the smoker box more regularly. Not too bad for my first try, but I want to keep practicing.

Other than the brisket we had all sorts of appetizers and things that Linda made and that folks brought over. For my birthday Linda made me Italian creme cake in cupcake form. So delicious. Also Diane from the office showed up a little later with leftovers form her own party which was a crawfish boil! Phillip’s girlfriend Katy was right at home.

My mom cleaned the heck out of the house (Thanks Mom!), and we just had fun cooking and setting up for the party. When folks started showing up everything was right on time including the hail.

The hail came around 4:30 or 5 in the afternoon. It was large and scary so folks retreated to the safety of the Green Monster’s garage. Friend Lou was running around like a crazy person and got hit in the head, but he was okay. Many friend’s cars got dinged and I feel terrible about that.

The hail let up and the rain settled down as well and the party persevered. One bad thing about the property right now is that if it even sprinkles , the whole place turns into a mud hole which made for a hilariously dirty floor in an otherwise clean house.

Linda and Amanda had sourced a box of my childhood pictures from my Mom and picked out a few and made buttons out of them! There was quite a selection and you can see a few of them in the photo gallery. I had a special one that said “Birthday Boy” with a picture of me about 3 years old with cake all over my face. It was weirdly awesome that everyone was wearing them and getting a good laugh. I’ll never forget that.

My old buddy James and Alex made it up for the party which was awesome. It was sure good to see them. I got a new toolbox from Phillip and new power tools from Mike and Abraham (Z2D2! ). I think i will build me a chopper motorcycle with my new tools while wearing my mariachi pants. Speak Up! lol.

My favorite part of the day was when I got to thank everyone for coming out and enjoying being at our place. It may have been the keg of Ziegenback that brought them out, but they were still there. Just Kidding yall!

As for my 30s, I reckon I’m going to turn this thing up to 11,  break the knob off, and chuck it in the river. Good times ahead yall and I hope I get to spend them with you.

Enjoy the pics!

http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/Edwards30thBday

In preparation of the birthday party Linda is going to throw for my 30th, and by the advice of my buddy Abraham who always knows what’s cool, I built a drink rail on the deck. It uses 4 4×4 posts sunk about 2 feet into the ground and “quickcreted” in the holes. The posts are then connected to the decks main supports with 4×4-4×4 joist hangers. 2 2×6 runners attach to these posts the full length of the rail, and then the main plank itself rests on top of these. The plank is notched to fit around the two main posts.

The light supports are 3/16’’ coated cable with eye hooks in the posts and turnbuckles to tighten them up. The light strings themselves are attached to the cable with UV resistant zip ties.

We decided that this opened up the deck because folks would not stand in the back corner for fear of falling off. The light runners really cleaned up the hodgepodge of lights that were in the tree next to the deck. I can’t decide if the whole thing looks like a beach bar, or a Mexican boxing ring.

Thanks to Abraham for being the voice of reason during this build, and to Linda for the donation of the lights themselves. A couple of imported beers and a very old circular saw met their end during the construction of this drink rail.

This years four-day film, interactive, and music “conference” that is south by southwest was different for me because I actually got somewhat involved in hearing some music and actually deciding that I would probably need to begin to start attending the interactive portion of it because it’s pretty relevant to my job, and I would actually enjoy hearing some of the speakers.

We started off the week by rounding up some folks to go check out a friends band named Millhouse at Rock City Icehouse. They were very good and I was stoked that they threw down a cover of Living Color’s “Cult of Personality”. After the show he stated that the venue was set up well, and the sound was great. Interestingly enough is that the venue was an old Serrano’s Mexican restaurant in a strip center near my office. That makes it better I guess though, the closer the better.

On Wednesday of that week, I was up in North Austin at the Apple store seeing if my iPod could be repaired. What happened to it was that I had it in my pocket and I went to strip the bed sheets of my bed. The iPod was in the cargo pocket of some long shorts and when I leaned over to grab the corner of the sheet, it got in between my knee and the bed and received a UFC style knee to the screen with a sickening crack. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that the screen had been dominated. I looked over to its carbon fiber case that sat on my nightstand that wasn’t on the iPod because it had a screw that did not seat right in one of the corners. I asked the woman at the apple store if it could be repaired. She stated that it was not possible to repair that and i should get a new one along with giving me the most awesomely rude look like I had just committed something heinous against the human race. I stated that I didn’t want a new one and that I had an awesome case for this one and if i needed to buy one like this then that’s fine. I was informed that Apple doesn’t make those anymore and I should just buy a new one *gives me the look again*. Thanks, but I’m all set now.

Walking out to the parking lot of the Disneyland of shopping that is the Domain, Jonathan (the guy who’s band we had seen earlier that week and a now fan of The Sword) calls me up and says, “Hey, The Sword is doing a free show down here at Red 7 in 15 minutes, can you make it?”….

…I made it, and even found a meter to park the truck at. I rolled up to the front door got a wristband, walked in and Jonathan had a tall boy of Miller High Life waiting for me. So these dudes come out and as i was later informed this was not The Sword but the Zombie Eaters, a Faith No More tribute act. The Sword covering Faith No More complete with Miami-Vise and “Rad” the movie T-shirts? I couldn’t pound that, and subsequent beverages fast enough. After the set we loitered inside a bit and I was able to get a picture of me and singer of The Sword/Zombie Eaters J.D. Cronise, check it out!

Pay no attention to my dead tooth, its getting replaced VERY soon. Also, buy “Gods of the Earth” , The Sword’s new Album from iTunes

Afterwards Jonathan and I hung out on the outside patio and listened to a sweater-vested band from LA play their thing. We bailed out of there and went to Lovejoy’s because they usually have the beer thing down. Nerd rock from Denton was the scene there, and we downed a couple of IPAs (which i don’t normally do) and took bets on when or if the drummer would vomit. Rolling out of there we walked down 6th street to see if we could get into some more free shows. Weirdly enough we wound up at a martini bar with a lounge act. Calling the dogs off of that we headed out side. Jonathan said that there was an event called Texas Metal Fest or something similar happening at one of the bars on 6th, and if I was interested in that. I said sure and that i would meet him there at 8pm. After he took off I called Linda and asked if Amanda and herself were interested in this and they were. So instead of leaving the downtown area I decided i would just stay down there. I heard some more music, grabbed the happy hour burger at Mccormick and Schmick’s in the Frost Bank tower and generally loitered around until everyone showed back up. The music was not bad and it was good to hang out with everyone again. Jonathan was impressed that i had just said “F*** it” and stayed down there. As in typical “Austin-is-not-as-big-as-you-think-fashion”, we ran into a friend of Abraham’s that was playing in the Texas Metal fest, who in turn knew Jonathan. They both knew my sister’s boyfriend – Mike, who used to play in Millhouse and now plays in a local Latin band that originated in my hometown of Brownsville, TX.

Phillip had a birthday that week and dude turned 25. I was 25 when I moved to Austin. We have come along way since living in that box in West Campus. I am turning 30 next month and we are planning some fun activities.

Check out some photos from March and remember that the Internet revolves around comments, so click and holler back at me!

http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/SXSW08

I apologize in the lack of blog posts but it has been quite a season.

Christmas time was a awesome. Amanda rented a house on South Padre Island and we all went down to hang out. We had a blast there. We ate and drank generally were merry. My Uncle put on a wine tasting contest in which I did very poorly at. It was just putting the wines with the labels but i didn’t get a one right . Linda did better with a few matches, but my sisters new boyfriend did the best with 3 out of 5 matches. We always shower each other with as many Christmas presents as we can and i wound up with many great items including a pice of furniture from Crate and Barrel my wonderful G/F! The whole time we were there everyone worked on a Christmas puzzle that my sister had bought. Hands down the hardest puzzle I had ever done. Sadly, it never got completed. We got to see our friends that still live down there and I had a chance to grill out for everyone one night. The weather was awesome and it was one of the best Christmas times ever. Enjoy some pics from down on the island:

http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/Christmas2007

A couple of Saturdays ago I had the opportunity to put on an evening which included pizza and beers from one of our favorite spots, The Parlor on North Loop, all of our friends including buddy Alex, Phillip and his G/F Katie, Linda and her daughter Amanda, Mike Z, and Milhouse Jonathan who we had seen down on the island for Christmas, and a little local metal band known as The Sword. Everyone met up at the parlor and we got nice and full of pizza and big pitchers of local beers. Then we all trekked downtown to Emo’s to partake in the metal fest. The opening band was terrible , but the singer of the middle band – Trigger Renegade had pipes like Rob Halford from Judas Priest. They were quite good. Then The Sword came out and dominated everyone’s face off. 2008 is the new 1066. All Will Fall.

My buddy Abraham and I have reserved a space at the Republic of Texas motorcycle Rally to park an RV for the week. Hopefully the Airstream that is kindly being restored by my family will be ready in time for use. We are so excited that we went down tot he convention center to check out exactly where we will be located. Keep in mind that as i write this this rally is 104 days 12 hours and 34 minutes away. Check out a post that Abraham did about this whole deal.

http://abraham.dizandat.com/2008/01/yellow-d116-all-day-long/

We just got back from a ski trip to Lake Tahoe! It was an awesome trip that I was looking forward too. 4 couples took off for a long weekend trip to the Lake Tahoe area for some excellent riding and skiing. Phillip and I were given some free flights on our parents Southwest rewards card so we set off to Lake Tahoe on Valentine’s Day. Don’t worry because Linda and I had a great pre-Valentines meal at Shoreline grill and her flowers were delivered to the office personally before we headed to the airport that morning.

Phillip and I actually got to Reno a day earlier than everyone else due to flight times and we stayed at the Peppermill Hotel and Casino. It was very nice and for 25 bucks for the night it was a steal. We ate in the food court and avoided the gaming tables because we wanted to save our cash for skiing.
The next day everyone began showing up at the airport and we rented an SUV and a hawt red mini van and made the hour trip to Lake Tahoe. We checked in at Lake Tahoe Keys condos and saw that we had been transported back to the 1970s, complete with wood paneling and a fireplace with cushioned seating around it. Other than that it was a great place and quick trips to many of the ski mountains in the area. That night we rented our gear at a local ski shop. This would be the last time I rent a snowboard as I think i need my own now.

Our first mountain was Sierra Mountain. It was a smaller resort with a few trails. It was quite nice and a good place for everyone to warm up. Most of the folks that went with us were beginner snowboarders and skiers so everyone had lessons that morning. Phillip, Nick and I headed up the mountain to do some boarding. I quickly became separated and spent my time taking it easy and working on technique. I checked in with the ski school around lunch and learned it wasn’t going so well. I didn’t realize what kind of lessons these were but they were not the best is all I have to say.

The next few days for me were spent at Heavenly Ski resort which is the big one in town. The have many blue runs to try but many catwalks which is bad for boarders because we don’t have poles. There at Heavenly I gave Linda my own ski lessons and we practiced on a learner hill that its own simple tow line. Just perfect for beginners. Check out Linda tear it up for her first time on skis right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKsrFl7lFn8

Night times were fun. We made dinners at the condo and had beers and drinks. Other times we would hit up touristy type restaurants along the main drag through town. One night some of the other folks hit up the Harrah’s Casino just on the Nevada side of town for a night of fun.

Our last day on the mountain Nick and Myself took off on our own to ride some of the more advanced trails. We had an awesome time and i had my tunes with me which made me a little more aggressive, which makes me fall a bit but i learn from each time. We covered just about all the blue trails on this map and even a few black ones.

Linda took the day off to explore the South Lake Tahoe area. Sadly, around lunch time that day Katie got run into by an out of control snowboarder and injured a rib. Yep, the snow patrol, toboggan, snowmobile, mountain clinic, and emergency room were all visited. Here’s to a speedy recovery! In all, a great time and looking forward to more ski/snowboard trips with this group. Check out some pics right here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/LakeTahoeSkiTrip

This was a one that I did for a party a couple of months ago and wanted to show off a bit. I got a hold of some pretty good flank steak from the local market and did a rub consisting of a few ingredients including oregano seeds and cumin. Linda had bought quite a few pounds of New Mexico Hatch Green Chilies. She cleaned and roasted them and set them in her freezer to use through out the year. I used some of the hot ones for this gill dish, but you can use whatever you want here, including other thin sliced vegetables.

Once the flank steak was hit with the rub and allowed to sit out for a while I cut it into thin strips long-ways. Then I took about two of the chilies and laid them on top of the cut. I then cut about 10-15 short pieces of butcher string and laid them out in a row like train tracks. I took the steak/chilies and laid them across the butcher strings. I then rolled the steak/chilies into a roll at least twice over so it would hold the chile flavor in while cooking. While I held the wrap, I acquired the help of Linda’s daughter Amanda to tie the strings in simple knots starting from one end and down to the other.  I was able to get about 3 of these full rolls out of the piece of steak I had. Once the roll was secure I cut the roll crossways about half way in between each string so that each “medallion” would have a piece of string that would hold that piece together while it sat on the grill.

A grill set to medium heat with about 3-4 minutes max on each side does these things pretty well. You could brush on a chile-based baste if you wanted to here.

I think this is a fun recipe because it looks pretty cool to do, and you can get some “ooos and ahhs” when you show up with your medallions of steak and chilies. If I were to do this one again I would leave off the cumin and go with more traditional steak or fajita seasonings because the cumin overpowered the chilies a bit.

Enjoy!

Hello everybody! Sorry so long between posts its been pretty crazy around here. So I wanted to show off our garage apartment progress. The slabs been poured, then the frame was put up, and sided. what you see here is about 2/3rds of the way done now.

Framing:

West Side:

East Side

Phil is having a good time wiring the structure for networking and I am installing speaker wire this weekend. Here is the floor-plan again for reference:

The upstairs bathroom has a nice 19” deep bathtub so far. We thought about where TVs and other appliances should go and made a few requests that should prove to be pretty pimp looking when completed. Getting close to being done and I will keep you posted.

Linda and I needed a short vacation after a hectic beginning to the Fall semester so we decided to jet off to fabulous Houston, Texas for a long weekend. As we were were getting ready that week, folks asked us:..

Friend: “Where are yall going for vacation?”
Me: “Houston!”
Friend: “oh…….”

Well the laugh is on them because we stayed at the The Magnolia boutique hotel in downtown Houston on Texas St. It was a very trendy and everyone there was extremely nice. It featured Houston’s only rooftop pool and spa. The view was awesome, as we could see Minute Maid Park just to the east of us and the awesome Houston skyline all around. It sure was nice to hang out there before dinner and in the morning with coffee.

Friday night we went to an Astros game. I bought some pretty sweet tix online and we got to see Roy Oswalt pitch a pretty good game. His reliever blew the save though and the ‘Stros lost 4-3 to the Pirates that night, but we saw a catch that was made by a Pirate’s outfielder which turned out to be ESPN’s number 1 play of the day that night. We wanted to see Craig Biggio continue racking up his 3050+ hits but he didn’t get one that night. We ate chili-cheese dogs and drank 2 yards of Shiner Bock beer and a bag of peanuts. We both had stomach aches later on, but i will probably do that again.

Saturday we woke up and grabbed some coffee and headed out to see what we could see. We went to the Westheimer/ Montrose area to hit up the clothing and antique stores that can be found there. For lunch we went to a place Linda had been to before called “Kings Biscuit” in the Heights area. The folks there were friendly and I didn’t feel embarrassed asking questions and taking photos inside the place, although i think we got a few eye-rolls from the locals sitting at the bar watching football. It’s all good, I used to live here.

After some more shopping around, seeing the sights, and reminiscing, we headed back tot he hotel to get ready for dinner. We went to a place called “Sambuca” which was a 2 block walk from the hotel. It was very nice and they had a decent steak. Linda got scallops which she said were very good. The band played some strange songs, but they sounded good and we were dressed to impress that night so we had a good time.

Sunday morning we packed up and checked out. Our valet couldn’t drive a manual transmission and his valet friends laughed at him as he tried to back up to the curb without stalling. Those guys probably could have used a laugh because they had been dealing with a wedding party of about 53 rooms that were staying at the same time we were.

Linda mentioned breakfast and i racked my brain trying to think of a “Magnolia Cafe” of Houston. I thought they served breakfast at 59 Diner so I headed in that direction through Memorial. Well the 59 Diner had disappeared along with a whole row of houses on the inbound side of I-10, so that was perplexing. Linda called and found out that it had relocated to about I-10 and the Beltway so we were able to find it there. I was happy to see in large red letters “Breakfast Served All Day!” greet us at the door.

After breakfast we went to a Goodwill store near the 59 Diner.

On the way back to Austin I learned the Houston Texans had beat Carolina, and that the Astros had taken the following game against the Pirates earlier that day. Linda found good things in Montrose midtown and even at the Goodwill. We even got a set of Astros Dominos at the game the day before. What a strange thing to give away at a baseball game! We left Houston feeling alot better, and looking forward to visiting fabulous Houston, Texas again soon.

Here are a few shots from the that weekend:
http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/HoustonGetAwayWeekend

The Houston Magnolia Hotel
http://www.magnoliahotelhouston.com/houston.aspx

My brother Phil got off the phone with our stepdad Mike one day and said “Mike bought some property in Colorado”. I was like “Oh yeah?”. Who does that? “I’m going to buy some property on the internet today” is not something I see myself saying often. Well Mike said it himself that day, so here is a write up of his adventure to check out his new spread. Feel free to post comments for Mike here, I’ll make sure he get’s ‘em.

This blog is inspired by my creative son Edward. He crafts some very interesting tales of his adventures though life.
This story is about my scenic trip to Jasper Colorado. Four of the last six months I have been working in Granbury Texas on the UF Water project. Working at the plant is an interesting gentleman named David Potter. All he talks about other that work is his cabin in Jasper,Colorado. I have been viewing his pictures and generally checking out the area. I have been trying to figure out how to beat the heat we deal with in south Texas. I thought it would be neat to spend some time in Colorado. I have always have had a place in the mountains on my dream list to . Why not Jasper? So I put in an offer on a piece of property up there, sight unseen. Oops they accepted, and I NEED to see this place before I close on the deal.

So Labor Day weekend was approaching and our friends from Tucson canceled out on coming to Bayview, so I decided to set off on an explore to Colorado. Marylin and her sister Sharon took off to the Bahamas this week and I talked to a few friends and children about riding along, but everyone already had plans. So off I went on the explore by myself.

I packed up and loaded the ice chest and packed some gear( I wish I had Tim Trapp’s mountain man list for essential equipment for a trip like this, oh well) and left Granbury at 5:00 PM on Friday afternoon. It took me 30 minutes to get out of town because there was a car and bike fest getting ready to happen in Granbury this weekend. All roads out of Granbury go thought the town square. They were setting up stages and booths with all kind of vendors in town.

I toke the SH 4 out of town. It is a winding road through Lipan to Interstate 20. I headed west toward Abilene. I thought I would be making good time on the interstate, but the first 20 miles was reduced to one lane. Finally it opened up and I breezed through Abilene and on to Sweetwater where I caught SH 84 toward Lubbock. I stopped at Post for a potty break at the local Mickey D’s. I wanted an apple pie, but they were all out so I got a fudge Sunday. David Potter gave me the shortcuts through Lubbock and it worked great. Next on to Littlefield ( I believe Amanda lived in a dorm at UT named after the founders of this little burg). I stopped and got gas there and continued my trek north and west. Next towns were Muleshoe and Sudan where I believe Edward used to drive cattle trucks to pick up cows. It still smelled like cows as I passed through. That woke me up. Next was the town Farewell, where I said farewell to Texas and entered Clovis, New Mexico. Finally out of Texas is really is a big state. I continued along SH 84 through Fort Sumner to Santa Rosa where I meet up with Interstate 40. It was about 12:00 midnight and my eyes and my butt where tired so I pulled into the TA Truck Stop and toke a nap on my sleeping bag in the car.

Saturday

My eyes popped open at about 4:30 AM and I was ready to move on to my destination. I followed I 40 west to my cutoff on SH84 to Las Vegas, not Nevada, but New Mexico, population 23 and all still asleep at 5:30 in the morning. There I took I 25 south to Santa Fe for a stop in the local Mickey D’s for breakfast. Only people present on an early Saturday Morning were Mexicans workers. I thought I was still in the valley. I continued north on SH 84 to Espanola, where I missed the short route and took the more scenic route up the Rio Grande River gouge to Taos and saw the sun come up over the mountains, Wow! Wow!Wow!. It really is quite beautiful in the maintains. I cruised through town and west over the Rio Grande River Gorge Bridge, we have seen if before when skiing in Taos. It still is magnificent. Leaving Taos I saw some hot air balloons floating over the Rio Grange River Gorge. Another Wow! Then I saw a colony of mole people that escaped Taos and built under ground houses in a colony on the way to Tres Piedras. Is that 3 feet??? That doesn’t make sense? There I found my correct route of Highway 285. It leads me north to Colorado and the town of Antonito. I did a double take there, where I saw a steam locomotive firing up it boiler on the tracks. It was the Cumbres Toltec Scenic Railroad which takes passengers from Antonito to Chama, New Mexico through theCumbres pass and the Toltec Gorge, so named, We all need to take that trip sometime everyone says it is a fabulous trip. I continued north on Highway 285 to La Jara, Colorado, which is the nearest town to Jasper. It has a filling station and a hospital, I was impressed. I continued north to Alamosa where they have all modern conviences, where I got gasoline and stopped at the local Safeway and got bread lunch meat and drinks for assent to the mountain village. I continued northwest to the town of Monte Vista where my realtor lives and said to call if I had any problems or got lost. Haven’t needed to place that call yet. From Monte Vista I headed south on Highway 15 to the National park Road. Along the way I saw horse ranches and hay farms. They must grow all the hay for all the feed lot in Colorado here. They were irrigated and very green and lush. Next I came to Park road 250 where I began the assent into the mountains. It is 22 miles to Jasper from the main road to La Jara. It was a beautiful day in the 60’s with bright sun. The road follows the meanders of the Alamosa River up the canyon. Grassland changing to pine and aspens trees. I passed a reservoir on the damned up river. I was proclaiming more ohs and ahs on the scenery and progressed up the mountain road until I saw the Jasper sign. It was 11:30 AM and 19 hours later and I am HERE Yah!!!. I followed the road past the colored coded gates until I past Burnt Creek where I toke the immediate right turn and headed up the mountain. I made a left turn and right turn and then I pulled over and parked on the gravel road to explore my new prospective property in the mountains.
Being the good engineer that I am I pulled out my map and survey ribbon and flagging to find the boundaries of Lots 3,4,5,6,and 10 of Block 48 of the old town of Cornwall, now called Jasper. It was originally settled by English miners where the name Cornwall, after their English Lord back in England. The land was general sloping south toward the river to the south and sprinkled with spruce pines and Aspen trees. The land extends to Burnt Creek to the East and has the access road to the West. The land has vistas of the Mountains in South and North direction. With strategic tree trimming I will be able to expand the views of the mountains. Next I proceeded to marking of the boundary corners. The realtor said they were plainly marked. So the challenge was laid out for the engineer to find the points. Bingo I found the North West corner. It was marked the North West corner of Lot 6 Block 48. That’s it I am at the right spot. I continued to look at the area and take in the beautiful landscape and the cool bright sunshine, what a treat from the heat. I crossed the gravel road and tried to find the corner of my neighbor lot to get a line on my other corner. There were cars in the driveway and looks like someone is there. I knocked on the door and they answered and I introduced myself. The neighbors are Bill and Michele Gonzalez from Alamosa, Colorado. The have three kids and were very friendly. He showed me his corner pins and gave me his phone number if I need to get a hold of him in the future. He works for the Sheriffs department. Who know when you may need to know someone in the right places? With Bill’s help I located the rest of the corners of the property and marked out the boundaries. Next it was time to set up camp. I pulled out my lawn chair and cooler and food stuffs and prepared lunch on the grounds. You know how food attracts crowds. The neighbor’s terrier was there in a flash looking for handouts.

My next task was to seek out the local cabin builder David Slater. He is the man to see about cabin building. I called on the way up and he said he would be working on a cabin on the road to Blowout Pass. I don’t know why they call it that. I am sure they have a good story about it. The road was marked and I could easily see the new construction. He and his crew were working on the roof as I drove up. The worker said David was out back and I went around to meet him. His wife Linda was there watching to make sure David didn’t over work her grandson. Bryan, David’s subcontractor and the local septic system guru was working on the septic field and getting ready for his field inspector on Tuesday after the Holiday. The inspector is rumored to be a cantankerous sort and likes to give folks a hard time. I talked David and Bryan into coming over to my site and giving me there critique on the prospects of building a cabin and septic system on my new land. They came and looked over the site and gave me there views and didn’t see anything they couldn’t handle. Bryan was looking for exposed boulder, but didn’t see any and gave my ideas on access and cabin locations. David asked if I wanted to see some of his latest work. He took me to the pervious cabin he was just finishing. It had a good size porch and deck on the second story loft. Something I was thinking about. He also took me to David Potter’s cabin and it was higher up the mountain. Beautiful setting. We went back to my land and David gave me some budget numbers and we discussed possibilities for construction next summer. The construction season is April to maybe middle to end of October up here. I thanked him and told him I would keep in touch. I followed David back to where they were building to see a cabin for sale by my realtor. It was a big cabin with a shop and solar system, well, propane generator and the works. It was nice but out my price range at the current time. I went back to my land and reviewed the layout for my drive, cabin, and out buildings. I flagged up a proposed driveway on the possibility that Bryan might get a dozer in the area and be able to grade out an access lane. I cleanup some of the dead limbs and admired the view some moreWow and Wow! I loaded up my table, chair and cooler and decide to head off the mountain. I went back by David Slater’s to say goodbye and ask about the return to Monte Vista over Blow out Pass. They said it was not a good idea in my vehicle. They recommended going out the west side thought Elwood Pass. I decided to take their advice and go that way. I continued higher up the canyon along the river. Many more vistas. I passed many four wheelers along the way. Lots of campers camping in the National Forest. At the pass I saw a National Forest Cabin that is rented out by the Forest Service. It would be cool to stay there. On the way down the other side I saw two deer standing along the road. I came out on Highway 160 just north of South Fork and south of the Wolf Creek Ski resort. That merits a trip in the winter. As I came into town I spotted the Wolf Creek Inn. I decided to try it for lodging for the night. It was available and I settled in for a hot shower and a bed. After 26 hours on the road it felt very good. Turned on the TV to review sports score and saw that Ohio State and Texas easily won, but Michigan was upset by Appalachian State (who??). What a story.

Sunday

I woke up at 6:00 AM after a great sleep. Decided to head back to Texas. I had seen a lot and new there was so much to see, but on later trip with Marylin and family. I headed down SH 285 to Del Norte the county seat of Rio Grande County. Everyone still asleep on Sunday morning as the sun was coming up over the mountains. Another Wow! Wow! It is a quaint little town in the valley. I passed through it to Monte Vista and headed south again on County Road 15 south past the Jasper turn off. Waved good bye to the pleasant folks and beautiful place called Jasper. I shall return. I reconnected to SH 285 at La Jara and start heading south through Antonito where the train was getting ready for another run to Chama. I passed into New Mexico again and on to Santa Fe. I took the bypass around Santa Fe. A bit longer and probably unnecessary on a Sunday morning. Great mountain vistas all along the way. I picked up SH 84 just west along I 25. It was 40 miles to Clines Corners on I 40 with not a gas station in sight. I was glad to see Clines Corner Gas station and emporium for every kind of knick knack in the world for sale. I just got gas and picked up a sandwich and I proceeded East on I 40 to San Rosa and continued south to enter Texas at Farewell again and still on SH 84 to Lubbock. Passed through again with no problems. I continued south to Sweetwater where I need to gas up again and made a little side to a wind farm under construction. Those blades are even more impressive lying on the ground where you can walk the entire length. Those farms are popping up all over that area. I jumped on I -20 and continued East through Abilene and on to my Granbury exit at Lipan. I arrived at my apartment in Granbury just after 8:30 PM. What a trip. I had had a great adventure and may things to share with Marylin, friends and family. Check out my pictures. They are beautiful but cannot give justice to the beauty and colors of the mountains.

Well I am excited about this. Wolf Creek Ski resort is about 45 minutes away. I think it will be fun to escape to out there and hang out.

Here some pics from the trip that I over in my area:
http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/MikeColoradoTrip