Edward Terry

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

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

My cousin Lizzy plays golf better than you. I can almost guarantee this. She happened to be in a gold tournament here in Austin and needed a place to crash for a few days while the tournament was going on. She had brought her large blowup mattress complete with its own inflation system with her so the front area of our house became her little area. Sadly she got locked out of the house several times for various reasons but was able to reach me easily to let her in after her rounds were done. I understand she did well and was pleased with a round in which the golf coach for UT was there to see her play so hopefully a scholarship for her is in her future. Her birthday just happened to be that same week and my aunt said she was feeling a bit down being away from home and she had been away at a special golf school in the carolinas for the past year and im sure she wanted to hang out with her friends. We did the best we could by ordering her a special cake from Sweetish Hill Bakery on west 6th and taking her to a birthday dinner at Z Tejas just next door. Heres a shot of her and Phil at dinner:

Interestingly enough a man had a full blown heart attack on the deck outside and we saw Austin’s EMS, fire, and police personnel showed up and took care of it though, I believe the man was ok and was transported out of there.

We sure enjoyed having her stay with us and class up the joint a bit. She can text very fast also, I am bad at it but i think its my cruddy old phone. Hopefully we’ll have more room next time because there just might be another building on our property the next time we see her .

A few weekends ago my buddy Abraham, Linda, and I took a day-long motorcycle trip around the Austin hill country. We started on the north part of Austin and headed west to Marble Falls at about 6:45 a.m. It was nice to be up and riding in the cool air as we made our way along FM 1431 which is a twisty road that follows along the Colorado River. I always like how it gets cool as you dip down into the valleys and then warms up again as you come out. We did encounter a giant swarm of gnats that got into my helmet and down into my ears which almost drove me insane because I couldn’t get them out of there, but I was eventually able too.

We made our way into Marble Falls and headed north on 281 and west to the Longhorn Cavern State Park via Park Road 4,which was also a fun and scenic road to ride along. We then hooked up to 29 near the Buchanan Dam and headed west to LLano. Once in Llano we headed south on 16. Abraham informed us that we could turn off on 965 to Enchanted Rock State Park and continue south from there or keep making our way south. Considering the pace we were going and the need for a cold beverage at that exact moment we elected to skip by Enchanted Rock and decided to make a special trip at a later time just to the park for the day so we did not have to rush our visit.

Continuing down 16 headed toward Fredericksburg we took the “Willow City Loop” which is a stretch of privately owned pavement open to the public for site seeing and as I am told a favorite of motorcyclists due to its scenic views and its slow winding course back to the main road. My buddy says that he did have a snake that was coiled up on the road become startled when he rode up on him, and strike at his foot peg, but he did not do much. At the end (or beginning, depending which way you are going) of the loop was an old general store it seemed. It was closed for the day but apparently it is a very popular place to grab a beverage and hang about before continuing on. Hopefully it will be open next time we pass through.

We continued south into Fredericksburg and pulled into town about mid morning. We parked the bikes along the main street there and looked for a place that was open and would serve us some cold beverages. Luckily we happened a nice restaurant with an outdoor patio, so we sat and relaxed and had a beer at about 10:45 in the morning.

Once we had rested up we jumped back on the bikes and headed east on 290. This brought us to the 1376 turn off and down to a place called Luckenbach, Texas. Luckenbach is a “town” consisting of 3 or 4 houses and a large General Store / Post Office/ Bar. That’s it. We grabbed some lunch from a small trailer that served up sandwiches and other things and hung out under the large oaks and watched folks pitch washers and ride in and out on their own bikes. After a while we were done sweating under the now blazing sun and decided to head back to Austin. Headed back up 1376 to 290 and east again to Austin.

We arrived back in Austin around 3:30 p.m. that day after riding pretty hard for a period of time. I did lose a bolt that held my left turn signal on, a fellow biker on a Kawasaki was kind enough to roar up along side of us and alert us to it before he speed away. I was able to repair it later on that week.

As it turns out, our cool morning in Marble Falls turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far to that day, but we had a blast and I was able to see sights and meet cool folks along the way. This has been my longest bike trip so far at about 255 miles, and I’m looking forward to many more.

You can see the route we took that day by following this link:
http://www.motowhere.com/maps/route/Enchanted-Luckenbach
Edit: This route shows the Enchanted Rock turnoff

Also, here are a few pictures from that day: Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/MotorcycleTrip81207

The next stop on the Tacogasm Tour was a place down on South First street called “Polvos”. Now I had been here once or twice before (or every damn day for a 3 month stint one time) and knew the food here was pretty good. The tacos we were reviewing were the mushroom and jack cheese tacos off the a la carte menu. Well they were exactly that. Sauteed mushrooms and melted jack cheese served up in your choice of corn or flour. I would suggest corn for these tacos. They were good and I would order these again, but I figure it would be kind of hard to mess this up. We met some cool friends of Abraham’s and even my buddy Alex made it out for this one. Check out the full review over on Abraham’s site.

We have been going to the Alamo Drafthouse pretty regularly lately. I don’t know if its just being able to drink and eat dinner while you are there but i don’t know if I can sit in a regular theatre again. Some highlights have been “300″ which had me yelling “This is Sppaaarrttaa!” out of the car window on the way home and a new lack of self-preservation. The 3 hour splatterfest that was the “Grindhouse” was very enjoyable. Some highlights for me was the recognition of Texas BBQ, a Jesse James West Coast Chopper, and of course action packed “zombie” splattering. Even the ladies liked the “girl-power” parts of one of the features, and it was cool to see places around Austin that were familiar to us and seeing the Drafthouse up on the big screen as we were sitting inside the theatre itself. Another movie we saw was “Hot Fuzz” from the guys that made Shaun of the Dead. It was such a good time, I love movies with so many awesome lines that you can just have a good time repeating them over and over. Example:

Nicholas Angel: What’s your name?
Greg Prosser: P.I. Staker.
Nicholas Angel: P.I. Staker? Piss taker, f*** off!

Damn British humor.

Linda and I took a trip out to Boerne , TX to visit my Dad and Stepmoms. They are helping me fix up my Airstream travel trailer I inherited from my great Aunt and Uncle. We went out to some antique and fabric stores, and while usually this would be like pulling teeth, the thought of the Airstream all fixed up kept me in high spirits. I understand that its been totally gutted and being redone from the ground up, so to speak with a cherry Pergo floor. I am really excited about it and I will post pictures when I get them. We took a trip to the local Airstream dealer to check out what the brand new ones looked like and were pretty amazed on how nice they were on the inside, complete with mounted flat panel TVs. We also saw a new style of Airstream called “Basecamp” it looked like a horse trailer. It appears you could drive motorcycles up into the trailer while traveling and then roll them out and flip down the beds when camping. Heres a shot of the outside of it.

Visit Airstream’s website for the full effect.

http://www.airstream.com/

While traipsing around the country side west of San Antonio we visited a small Texas winery named Sister Creek Vineyards in Sisterdale, TX. They offered a self guided tour and free samples of the wines the made. While it was definitely “Texas Wine” it wasn’t bad and it was still pretty cool too see the operation and meet the friendly folks that were running it. Take a look at some shots of the winery:

Brewed with an Attitude

Working for a college does have some advantages like having spring break off. My buddy’s Abraham, Mike and myself took some time to go check out the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas where they make Shiner Beers. We got there fairly early but allowed folks ahead of us to go on the tour. When our turn was up some folks sneaked into our tour group causing the tour guide to freak out and pass up one area of the tour because our group was too large. We did see the large copper brew kettles and a tech take a temperature reading, learned some history and of course the bottling room. This is where the Laverne and Shirley style conveyer belts moved the bottles and beer along their production track. Later on Abraham and I snuck past the next tour group to check out what we missed, which was a huge room full of pipes which we guessed where the cooling and processing of the suds happened. Here are a few shots from the out side of the brewery.

Huge props go out to Linda who completed her Motorcycle Foundation Class during a “Ladies Only” weekend with the Moto-Fun Motorcycle training group in Pflugerville. She was easily the best rider there, going first on every exercise, and even dominating “The Box” . Even I had trouble with the short braking! Nice job lady!

We did some fun things like seeing The 300 at the Alamo Drafthouse. I had drunk my share of Sunshine Wheat and was yelling “This is Spppaarrttaaaa! out of the car window on the way home. jeez louise….

Abraham invited us to a Harley Davidson rally up in Temple. This was one of the longer trips we had taken on the bike, but it was smooth sailing. Although Baby-Monster was alone in a sea of Hogs, it did get its fair share of looks.
Also this weekend was the annual Lonestar Rod and Custom Roundup here in Austin and we cruised around a few spots checking out all the cool bikes and cars.
While Abraham was dealing with a flat he got on his HD StreetBob on the way there, among other issues, we were able to go down South Congress, Ski Shores Cafe’ and Flyright Choppers Shop for drive-in they had. Check out the albums at my new area at PicasaWeb! http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65

This week Phillip invited me to go play trivia at Mother Eagan’s Irish pub downtown, so I invited some smart folks for next Tuesday. Try and go at least 50/70. Note: Muhammad Ali’s record is 56-5, and a baby eel is called an “angula”.

Congrats to my Step-bro Adam and his wife Krista on their child-birthing, which happened. Condolences to Mike whos Ohio State Buckeyes couldn’t get a three to go if they attached the ball to a rope fed it through the hoop, and pulled it through. They still wouldn’t have gone in there.

First I want to wish my mom a big Happy Birthday (yesterday (1/24), hope she had a great day yesterday. She went to see “Pan’s Labyrinth” which we are going to see to night at the Alamo Drafthouse. She said it was awesome so I am looking forward to it.

On the educational front I was accepted to St. Edward’s University! After a recent rejection by this very large University down the street from me, it took the wind out of my sails, but i am exited about getting started. I want to thank Linda and Casey for writing my letters of recommendation and helping me along the way with their words of encouragement. Thanks goes out to MOM of course for her support. She told me when I finished high school I should have gone here. How do moms always know this stuff?

Other than the ultimate ice storm of 2007 that shut down the whole city, its been pretty smooth sailing. We recently had a water main “break”. Actually the weak patch job that was done to it gave up the ghost so we had to get in there and repair it. It was cold and muddy that night but Phillip and I tackled it. Homeownership is a drag sometimes, but it was satisfying we were able to fix it ourselves. (with only one trip to Home Depot!) Take a look at Lake Livingston (drained) here in our front yard after the repair:

Here is Phillip’s car with evil ice on it:

Our little motorcycle group took a trip out to Burnet, TX to eat some BBQ that had quite a reputation. It was very tender BBQ with the chicken being pretty mind blowing. The ribs I told can be fall-off-the-bone tender. The sides of cole-slaw, potato salad and beans were all very excellent. All of the BBQ had very traditional flavoring, it was straight up Texas BBQ. Luckily we caught them while they were still open so we had the place to ourselves. Heres a shot of our bikes out side the place and one of the inside:

The trip back to Austin was fun, but very cold.

Speaking of BBQ, we whipped up this pork tenderloin recipe out of our BBQ USA book which we got for Christmas (thanks again Amanda). It didn’t require the implementation of the ultimate marinating machine. When i use this secret weapon, I will be sure to post about it. The tenderloin was butter-flied and a Jack Daniels whiskey/brown sugar/pork rub/dijon mustard paste was smeared on the inside. Then it was tied back together with butcher string (thanks again Linda) with thick slices of bacon on the outside. Phillip made a glaze made from similar ingredients and I drizzled that on while the whole thing “baked” on the grill for about an hour and a half. I was told that the finished dish was used to convert two girls who claimed to be vegans into BBQ believers. Who can argue with that? Take a look at the finished product:

Phillip’s company had recently moved to a new location and the old office furniture was up for grabs so we were able to acquire 3 Eurway desks (2 for us, one for a buddy) and a much needed appliance. This prompted some rearranging of my bedroom which led me to purchase one of those TV wall mounting units you see in hospitals and restaurants. Who really has one of these in their home? I mean its kind of weird but it is super functional, gets the TV out of the way and its positioned so i can see while in bed. This had added to my Saturday morning laziness. Imagine waking up and all you need to do is turn on the TV. If you position the remote near your hand before you go to sleep you can limit your waking muscle movements to 1 finger and your eyelids. XBOX serves as DVD player along with its gaming capacities. It took some getting used to, thinking that it would come crashing down , but its pretty solid hanging in a wall stud. Check it out:

New things were also added to Linda’s house. A little paint and these cool shelf hanger things from the Container Store spiced up a small hallway. The flash of the camera makes the paint look brighter than it really is. We are totally addicted to these things because they look so cool and are easy to hang. I now have 3 shelves like this in my room and Linda has one more above her desk.

Also, we took a weekend to make this very cool workbench for her garage. It is very stout and iim glad that it came together so well. We built it on a very cold weekend and the effects of this weather on logical thinking skills became apparent as we had to go inside the house to warm up and come up with a plan for the next part of the construction, and go out in the garage and execute the plan. “Let’s do this” to every suggestion, although positive in nature, can lead to a poorly constructed piece of furniture , or a trip to the emergency room. The power tools had to be put away at that point. I will get a shot of it in it’s entirety , but here is the finished workbench in its current place:

Updates: Some new picture albums from Christmas and New Years have been added to the gallery, so check those out. My cousins dogs are insane. Also I’ll be adding a “Projects” section to the website so you can see how certain things I hit with large hammers turn out. A “Video” section will be added so you can check out YouTube style vids of us getting drunk, eating BBQ, and generally having a good time.

“OU Weekend” turned out great as we decided to throw down with one of the more complicated recipies in out BBQ Bible. These ribs included a pineapple juice-jalenpeno marinade, a rub that had several different spices including brown sugar, honey, thyme, ginger, a little garlic, and other things. A custom BBQ sauce was made by Phillip to go along with them. When i cooked these i decided not to turn them but set them bone-side down and let the meat on top sort of “bake” inside the grill. These things were very good. We will probably do this one again despite the prep-work involved. Pina Coladas, Rum mixers and other fun tropical drinks were served up.

The ensuing party was pretty fun, after the game and the destruction of OU (YouTube link) we headed out and went to a Karaoke bar. I think it was called Little Tokyo Karaoke on North Lamar. It was fun but the people running it tried to shake us down so we haggled with them and vowed not to go back there. We then went to a bar called Barfly’s that is located in the back of a Burger-Tex restaurant in our neighborhood. As seedy as it was I will probably go back there due to location and prices.

Due to the nature of the ribs and drinks that were served, clean up of the house was interesting because everything was sort of stuck together. We found rib bones under the sofa and other strange places. Over all a great weekend and good food.

I’ll get some pics and vids up in the galleries soon. I’ll alert you subscribed people to it.

-Ed

Some friends from work and my lady friend and I have gone on a restaurant tour of Austin. We pick a new place during the week and go on Thursday nights to dinner.
So far we have gone to three restaurants and we are looking forward to a lot more.

East Side Café – Had the Beef Tenderloin. Presentation made it seem that there wasn’t too much to the plate, but it was more than enough and had really excellent flavor.

Freddies Place – Had the Pork Chops. They came with a Honey Glaze that really made the meal. Excellent margaritas.

Little Mexico – Little Restaurant down on South First Street. Plenty of Margaritas to sip while you sit on some hardcore metal folding chairs. Had a mariachi playing songs for everyone. Had the fajitas. I’ve had better and I’ve had worse. I usually judge a Mexican joint by the fajita plate and what it lacked in “Holy Damn this is an awesome fajita plate” made up for in atmosphere.

I’ll go into more detail on the next post, just wanted to get caught up here.

I’m taking a two-step class with my lady friend through the college’s counting education program. I’m going to learn how to all those fancy moves so I don’t feel inadequate out there. Have only had one class and its going well.

Met a friend from Massachusetts who I went to Texas A&M-Kingsville with for 2 years. His Dad graduated from A&M and often visits family in College Station. He got us tickets to the Aggies season opener against The Citadel and we tailgated and went to the game. After we went and did some drinking in College Stations entertainment area. Luckily no one bashed my windows for having my Longhorn emblem on my tailgate.
Check out the video of an Aggie kickoff.

Watched UT vs Ohio State the next weekend with my lady friend, my brother, StepDad Mike, and my brothers friends at Double Dave’s Pizza works just north of UT campus. Mike, who went to OSU was a stranger in a strange land that night but much to our chagrin The Buckeyes owned the Horns 24-7. I guess we needed Vince Young again that day. We’ll get ‘em next time . Hook ‘Em!

Cody Pinkston (on the right), a coworker’s last day was yesterday. This guy was pretty cool , he played guitar with me at the house some times and we always had a good time when we went conferences and stuff. He was a bad-ass golfer who used to be a Golf Pro somewhere. Introduced me to Boodle’s London Dry Gin. (man thats good stuff). He’s becoming the director of PR somewhere up in Wisconsin, and said that he might look me up for consulting work if and when he needs help with his new schools website. I’d like to meet up with him in the winter or Spring Break and do some snowboarding in Colorado next year. I think that’s the plan. Take it easy hoss, I’ll see you later.

A flyer was posted on the entryway of our local 24 Hour Fitness for open auditions for the TV series of the football movie “Friday /night Lights”. My brother submitted a photo and after a while he got a call from the people putting it on and he went out to an athletic complex up in north Austin where they were filming the football scenes. He didn’t get selected as a football player but as a security guard that patrolled the sidelines during crowd shots. He said they gave him his costume and accessories and away he went. He said it was weird watching them film, because it was very late or I should say early in the morning (around 6am) when they completed the scenes and the extras in the crowd were falling asleep and were having to be motivated over a loud speaker. They also had to perform the action of cheering without making any noise so that they could add dialog into that scene. He said they might call him back in October for more work. He told me that the guys that were acting as the players were hitting just like in a real game. Get in there and make a difference!

I was supposed to then drive my brother to where my parents live (about 6 hours away) the next day for a property auction, but it was called due to lack of real bidders. That afternoon my lady friend and I went to a friends BBQ up in north Austin. After eating we played this awesome game called “Guitar Hero”. With some guitar experience my buddy said I was a formidable opponent. I said as much as he plays that game he could play a real guitar quite easily.

So i saw this crazy commercial for this stuff called “HeadOn” headache medicine. What was so crazy about it was that the commerical seemed to jump and repeat itself in this insane way. I thought i was losing my mind. Check it out!

Went to work out last night so im pretty sore this morning. There is a roided up guy at the gym whos arms just look disgusting. i finished playing Max Payne 2 for the PC here at the office during my lunch breaks. Supposedly there is a secret ending, so im just going to turn on God Mode and see what it is. Me and my bro watched “Hells Kitchen” last night. It was actually pretty good. Like “Survivor” in a restuarunt. I grilled burgers.

Hello out there. I’ve decided to resume blogging after a long hiatus. Check out my old “blog“. (Really i made this before the word “blog” existed. Anyway, check here for all Edward, all the time!