Edward Terry

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.

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.

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

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

I know this is a little late for a Fourth of July post but I wanted to share with yall. My Stepdad Mike is working in a town called Granbury, TX (Google Map) on a water plant I believe and he is away from the valley for a few months at a time. His office rented him a pretty cool apartment on the lake there so we decided that would be the spot we all meet up for the 4th of July. We did alot of fun things there even if we could not rent a ski boat because of the flooding and debris that was in the water. Linda said we could take the truck, which was good because we had the pop up canopy and some other stuff. It behaved for the most part and we stopped along the way at a few antique stores including one in  Lampasas where we ate lunch on the stage area in front of the old city hall. We got rained on pretty good along the way and we were glad to be there when we made it to Granbury. That night Mike took us to eat at a pretty awesome steakhouse down in the old section of town.

The next day was the Fourth of July and we all went down to the old section of town for the local parade. Phillip met us down there and we were all able to get a seat at this Christian biker BBQ  restaurant. (really!) They were very friendly and served up some awesome brisket on jalapeño bread at about 10 in the morning. The parade was awesome. If you went at that parade you were in it because everyone in the whole town was along the street. It featured every public service vehicle that the city owned, and a stagecoach “hold-up” complete with the “banditos” our biker friends on their motorcycles like robbers of the old west.

After the parade we walked around town square and looked at all the stuff local vendors were selling and went into some more antique shops. We found a place to grab a bite for lunch and sat out on a patio because dogs weren’t allowed inside. We had three with us. Lula, Gracie, and terrible terrible Snarfy.

That night the folks at Mike’s apartment set up karaoke and a DJ along with some pot luck style 4th of July items so we grabbed a plate and sat out on mikes “lawn” and watched my brother and cousin set up a trout line. My other cousins had gone wake boarding with some dudes they met and one of them ate it and hit her head on the board and split her forehead open pretty good. My aunt is a vet so she took care of it nicely, we all figured the emergency room on Fourth of July would be a circus. We sat out on the complex’s pier and watched fireworks over Lake Granbury. They were quite awesome.

The next day was not quite as awesome. We had gone to a department store to grab extra items I had forgot to pack when the brake pedal went soft in the truck while backing out. Uh-oh. We were able to creep back to the hotel and call Mike who said they were taking my cousins car down to a tire shop for a new tire because they were running on a do-nut all the way from Lubbock. The guys at the tire shop informed me I had blown the seals in the rear axle and brake fluid was all over the inside of the drums and they couldn’t fix that because their mechanic was on vacation. I called around for another shop that took the truck that afternoon and said they would call me tomorrow. That night involved heavy drinking on my part and we all played Apples to Apples which is always a good time. I won

In the morning we all went to breakfast and I gloated some more over my victory. While we were at the breakfast table the shop called me and said that the truck was ready to be picked up. I guess things were looking up! We picked up the truck and made plans for Phillip to follow us back to Austin. We packed up and said our goodbyes and headed back the way Phil had come which was not as good, but I had the two-way radios in the truck so we amused ourselves all the way back. We did see interesting things on the way back like small town Dairy Queens, Masonic lodges, antique stores and a 10 mile detour back to IH-35. Yuckamuck! Oh well we made it back in one piece.

Enjoy some pictures of Fourth of July in Granbury, Tx at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/July42007GranburyTexas

This is an image of Linda and myself with Exile Chopper founder Russell Mitchell at the Republic of Texas Motorcycle Rally. He is a cool British guy who builds very monolithic looking motorcycles. This was my first time to be at the rally with a bike of my own which was very cool. I had never been in a group of bikes that large before, and even though I didn’t have a huge Harley Davidson, I still felt cool on my “Princess Baby Monster” as its now affectionately known.

A highlight of the event was riding around the expo center, drinking beer in a friend’s “car” which i think was an old cop car he got for $200, with the doors and trunk cut off, and a huge hole cut in the roof with obscenities spray painted on the side. It got a lot of laughs.

Walking through the vendors area a man was selling some sort of cruise control for motorcycles that he claimed could be attached to any motorcycle. heres a snippet:
*me to Abraham* “That won’t work on my throttle set up…”
*seller over hearing* “What kinda bike you got?”
“Ducati Monster M620″
“Is that some sort of dirt bike?”
“Yes, its a dirt bike”

Abraham got a kick out of that one. He wound up already having one of these devices so i didn’t feel bad about being a bit of a jerk.

We also attended the Austin Roadrunners vintage import cycle show , which has become one of my favorites because of its location at Ski Shores on the Lake and the cool people and motorcycles. With so many Harley’s in town a 1970 Royal Enfield tends to stand out to me.

On Friday nights my stepbro Matt announces bull riding at a place called The Cowboy Dance Hall in San Antonio. He did an awesome job and everyone there enjoyed the bull riding. It was kind of cool to have an arena like that with a full club all in one place. I’d like to go there again and spend some time hanging out. Heres a shot of my step dad Mike, Grandma Myers, my stepbro’s wife Nicole and Linda enjoying the action.

There is a video of a full ride over on the video page, listen for Matthew giving the low down over the loud speakers.

We have begun the initial steps to get the garage apartment going. The next meeting I have with the builder will be to set up the construction calendar, so I am looking forward to that, and the ensuing “slab party”. Hopefully we’ll get there before the weather goes cold.

Tuesday night trivia at mother Egan’s has been going well, while we hit the majic number of 50 out of 70 every once in a while, there’s always a fun group out to down some black and tans and eat bad bar food. This weeks theme round is “Nicknames of Texas Cities” so we hope to do well. I got 7 out of 10 single handedly on a straight up Texas Trivia theme round one night, which i intend to announce every Tuesday night until i die.

Check out the videos on the video page and the pics at
http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/

Earlier this month I was able to go Boston with Linda for a conference that she was attending. We had been planning it for a little while and we were excited to finally go.

The start of the trip wasn’t too good as I overslept and still in bed when Linda rang my doorbell (repeatedly) to pick me up. Luckily I packed the night before and hurried enough to not set us back to badly. We parked at the same spot we did on our trip to Las Vegas and made it to the airport in time to check in and do the security dance. We had a connection in DFW and then on to Boston from there.

The flight up was nice as we were able to trade seats with a woman so we could sit together. I brought my sweet portable DVD player along with me and we watched The World’s Fastest Indian which is an excellent movie and made the flight time pass by quickly. We landed in Boston to clear weather but cool temperatures, quickly found a cab and made it to the Sheraton Boston.

Upon arriving Linda asked the desk how much an upgrade to the room would be. They stated it was about 60 dollars a night extra which she declined. The guy at the desk said that’s too bad because i just released your room back into the pool and its going to be a while until one comes up! This was not good, Linda got after him and he let her have the upgraded room for the same rate.

The upgraded room required passing your key card into the slot in one of the express elevators, which rose and descended from the upper floors at such a pace that the pressure change was noticeable in your eardrums. The room had its own living room and a gigantic bed. Although i believe we had the handicap accessible room due to the shower configuration everything was very nice. Even the hallway was decorated fancier than the other stories and the upper floors had access to a private lounge and restaurant at the top of the hotel. Our view featured a scenic panorama of the Charles River and a little sliver of green from the outfield wall at the Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park also known as the “Green Monster“.

Our first afternoon there Linda registered with her conference and then hightailed it out of there. We walked around what was clearly a fancy university area that I later learned was refereed to as “Back Bay”. We walked up and down streets in the cool air, window shopping and checking out the posted menus of Irish pubs, steakhouses and other eateries along the way. Linda has been looking for a small table just like Sarah Jessica Parker’s character “Carrie” has in her apartment on the HBO series Sex and the City. We happened to see one like it in a furniture store but we found out later it was best left residing in its display area at the store , else sacrifices in the form of say, the sale of a vehicle, or the mortgaging of a piece of property may have been in oder to obtain this piece.

We found ourselves near the “Old South Church” and along to a fairly happening place called “Globe“. Dinner here was nice and it was good to sit down and have steak and ale after a day of traveling.

The next morning a college buddy of mine, Eddie drove into Boston and picked me up from his home in Mansfield, Massachusetts and we made the trip to Wachusett Mountain ski resort. I had been snowboarding here once before (my very first time) and it was at night and about -30 degrees. This time the weather was about 50 and sunny, the perfect day for boarding down the mountain. Eddie’s friend had come along as well and we had a great day on some favorable snow. The mountain itself does not have a large number of trails but the ones they had open that day were just fine.

After an awesome day of boarding, we headed back to Mansfield to have dinner with Ed’s parents, wife Marissa, and little sister Jackie at a place they like to go to called “The 99″ where everyone in there yelled “Jamesons!” when they walked in. After dinner we went back to their new house and chilled for a bit. It was supposed to snow that night and Ed and his father plow parking lots for businesses in the area in the winter as well as landscaping services in the warmer months. I watched Ed and his Dad load a sand truck full of sand with a front end loader at about 11:00pm with plans to wake up about 3am and begin plowing snow and sanding the lots. It didn’t snow that night but it was fun to get ready for it anyway.

The next morning Marissa went to work and Ed took me to a greasy spoon type diner there in Mansfield before we headed back to Boston. We stopped along the way at the Apple store in a mall near there and they helped him get his new Video iPod going, which he was having trouble getting to charge. He just needed a wall charger it turns out.

Arriving in Boston we drove around downtown for a bit looking for parking and even trying to camouflage ourselves as some type of delivery/service truck because Ed owns a large Ford truck with a police style light bar , but we were escorted out of a service area temporary parking at the convention center by a guy who could be mistaken for Chris Rock. Given his boisterous character and good nature about the situation he pointed us down the street to the Sheraton where we paid an attendant to look after the truck but only for a short time because he was leaving. This made Ed nervous but the attendant said that he would leave the keys at valet desk.

We grabbed Linda form upstairs, went to lunch at an irish pub just down the street. We drank some beers and recapped our skiing adventures and of course reminisced about college times. All of our stories were pretty interesting to Linda to say the least.

We got back to the Sheraton and of course the attendant wasn’t there and hadn’t left the keys at the valet desk. This stuff always happens to Ed poor guy. Luckily the attendant appeared and we got Ed going on to meet some friends of his for a “Guys Weekend” of skiing up in New Hampshire which I learned later had 2 feet of snow and was “epic”. Next year then…

That afternoon Linda and I headed over to the New England Aquarium. I’ve been to larger aquariums but this one had an open air penguin exhibit that you could get a close view of the birds from. The aquarium featured an extensive jellyfish exhibit as well as a towering center aquarium in which fish of all shapes and sizes swam about. My favorites where the large Tarpons and other sport fish that swam at quick pace around and around. Other exhibits included electric eels, a hands-on tide pool, and fish of all kinds in their separate habitat style aquariums.

We were one of the last people to leave the aquarium for the day and took our first ride on the “T” Boston’s subway system. We got pretty good at navigating it and used it instead of taxi cabs for the rest of the trip. We made it back to the Sheraton and phoned the front desk and asked where to get pizza and some beer. We were pointed at a place called the “Pizza Pie-er” down the street form the hotel. We walked our way down there and upon placing an order were asked if we were from the hotel. We responded that yes we were and were from Austin and so forth. The guy said it was unusual for hotel guests to walk down to get their pizza as he often had to deliver it himself. We felt proud we had done so. We walked a bit more and found what Linda called a “pack” store i believe which meant a liquor store, grabbed some brew and headed back to the room for pizza, beers, and a movie just like our own little Alamo Drafthouse on the 28th floor.

The next day was dubbed “Freedom Trail” Day. We rode the “T” downtown and ate lunch at Faneuil Hall Market Place in the heart of Boston’s historical district. We then started our walk along the freedom trail at the visitors center and in front of the old customs house. We were lucky enough to see a reenactment of the Boston Massacre which happened not far form there with the parts of British soldiers and Boston hooligans played by small children. The event was covered in the paper the next day and we felt proud to have been there for it. We opted not to follow along with a tour group and instead relied on our tour books Linda had picked up at Book People before we had made the trip. The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile red-brick walking trail that leads you to 16 nationally significant historic sites. We saw awesome things like where Sam Adams and Ben Franklin were buried, monuments to soldiers in the Revolutionary and civil wars, and of course the Old North Church. Robert Newman, the sexton of the Old North Church and Captain John Pulling momentarily held two lanterns in the Old North Church On the night of April 18, 1775 as Revere himself set out on his ride, to indicate that the British soldiers were crossing the Charles River. The Freedom trail was full of historical spots like this with the Old North Church being my favorite. Other spots along the Freedom trail included a walk through the Italian area and marketplace and across the river to the USS Constitution the oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world. We had walked the entire length of the Freedom Trail from start to finish and headed back to the Sheraton to get ready for dinner.

Reservation were made at a place called Anthony’s Pier 4 which was suggested by Eddie’s father. Here we ordered full broiled lobsters and had a good time making a mess of ourselves. It was a good thing we had the lobster bibs on because it is very difficult to stay tidy trying to eat one of these things. It was a nice end to a wonderful day in a city that had been hospitable and fun the whole time we were there.

The next day we said goodbye to the rock-and-roll lifestyle up on the 28th floor and headed back to Austin. My DVD player died halfway through “Cars” but we made it anyway. That night we met Amanda, Linda’s daughter at Chuy’s and gave her a rundown of the things we had seen.

Please check out the images over in the gallery ‘Boston March 2007′ and if you have a question about what something is please shoot me a message. I am currently looking for a new way of displaying photos so I can have descriptions etc.

Valentines Day for the lady and I was very nice. I decided that she would have the best flowers at the office so i went to the flower shop that my sister used to buy flowers for the mansion at to get the ensemble. I went with 2 dozen long stem roses with a dozen lilies in a big vase. i walked those babies into the office and set em up on the cops desk so everyone could see them and who they were for when they came in. One flower arrangement to rule them all. Ill be updating this post with a picture (when i find it) so keep an eye out. We went to dinner at a place called Mirabelle’s in a center up north. The inside was very fancy and the Valentines day menu was awesome. we had shrimp cocktail, quail, beef tenderloin, veal, walnut salad, and creme brulee. Afterwards we caught a showing of “Music and Lyrics” with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant. this movie wasn’t too good but it was a very good date/valentines day movie and end to a fine day.

I had been looking forward to seeing a local metal band come back around called “The Sword”. Easily the best metal band in Austin IMO and Linda had said that she wanted to come along as well. I was hesitant because this isn’t exactly John Prine at the Paramount, this is the goddamned Sword at Emo’s. But she was enthusiastic about it. She said that she had checked out their MySpace and heard some tracks. “What did you think?” I asked. “Well…Very bangy” she said. I guess they are kind of “bangy”. The interesting thing about this band is that they have a track on Guitar Hero 2 off of their one and only album, so the kid-with-parent factor at Emos was on par with a Green Day – Vans Warped Tour performance. This included us because Linda’s daughter came along and being a music fan was welcomed to the dark side. The opening bands were The High Cost of Living which had a simply madass drummer, and the Lions of Tsavo, named after the lions that ate 140 people in Africa during construction of a railroad and made famous by the 1996 release “The Ghost and the Darkness”. After being punished by these 2 bands and slightly toasted on 4 XX’s , The Sword let loose to a full outside area at Emo’s. We were up on a riser so we got an awesome view and i rocked out as hard as I could and as hard as i remember for a long time. During the show someone behind us yelled “I paid for those guitar lessons!” we all turned around and a lady in a neat little denim outfit with perfect hair and earrings and makeup was standing behind us. Straight from Roundrock it seemed. Someone asked her what she meant and she explained (over the din of The Sword) that her son was the guitar player. “Nice job!” was the response form the ladies, mine in astonishment was “Mother of The Sword!” to which i continued rocking out. I wound up with a new Sword T-Shirt, a renewed interest in my guitar (to which i’ve already learned a Sword song , hell yeah), and a case of whiplash that night. My friend Bonnie that turned me on to this band said that she was speaking to a friend one night that is in a local hardcore band and she invited him to go along. If i recall correctly he said “no thanks” and that his band practiced in the same studio and that The Sword were a bunch of geeks, way into D&D and all that stuff. Geek/Nerd/Warrior Metal? I’ll jam with a 12 sided die in my pocket! Check out The Sword on Myspace and at swordofdoom.com. and the galleries here at edward.sensite.net for video and images from the show.

I was invited to Ducati Austin’s 1098 unveiling party so we rode the monster downtown Saturday night to see and be seen. The dealerships trendy downtown location and the whole scene itself was pretty upscale or alot of people wearing black leather jackets and nice shoes. The folks at Ducati Austin are always extremely friendly and it was pretty cool of them to invite me. Phillip and his date came along as well.

Afterwards we headed to the Brown Bar on 8th and Colorado for a few drinks including a “Three Legged Monkey” which wound up not agreeing with Linda. We then blasted off to the West Side Magnolia to grab a late night dinner. The ride home was cold, I’m ready for Spring now. Pictures and a video are available at the Gallery and Video Pages.
Sunday stopped off at Whole Foods and got a couple of ribeyes for grilling up at Linda’s house. Being used to my huge gas grill I needed to redeem myself on the Mini-Webber with the charcoal and I’d like to say that I did just that.

While North Austin ( or South Dallas?) doesn’t instill the same memories of Mexican food as other parts of Austin, I found myself at Tacodeli off Mopac ordering the “Cowboy Taco” as reviewed by Texas Monthly. Personally, I love tacos that have as many ingredients in them as possible in which the flavors all come together in unison to provide a flavor unique to the taco and that is just what happened with this particular taco. Your first bite can confuse you, as you get a little hint of the spice, and being almost gun shy about hot stuff from growing up in the Rio Grande Valley , the thought of “Here comes the pain” would enter my brain and then the onslaught of some crazed cooks’ affection for habañero peppers would lay siege to my poor taste buds. Not so with the Cowboy Taco! A little spice and that’s it, emphasizing the flavoring of all the ingredients which included beef tenderloin, caramelized onions, grilled corn, roasted peppers, guacamole, and queso fresco. The grilled corn was interesting as that’s not a super common taco ingredient but it wasn’t obtrusive. I must say that while the beef was extremely well prepared , I am not a “chunk” guy, which was the way the meat was presented in the taco, opting more for a long cut, preferably the exact length of the tortilla if I’m making them myself.

This was the first time I had been to a Tacodeli and I am proud to say that I will be back again to sample more of their offerings. Don’t let the restaurant’s north location in a strip mall off the highway in fool you into thinking there isn’t good Mexican food to be had here, but order in Spanish if you can…just to keep ‘em honest .

More Tacogasm Tour coverage »

Recently Texas Monthly magazine published an article entitled “The 63 Tacos You Must Eat Before You Die“. Our group of friends decided we would go to each of the places in Austin that were cited in the article and try the tacos that were written up. There were about 8 restaurants in Austin and we started the “Tacogasm Tour 2007″ last night at Matt’s El Rancho (now called “The Famous El Rancho..I guess Matt was ousted).
El Rancho was written up for its Smoked Brisket Tacos. I ordered 2 and Linda ordered the Tacos Al Pastor, which were sautéed pork and pineapple. The basis for our tour was either to agree or disagree with the article and rate the tacos on a 1-10 scale. For the Smoked Brisket Tacos I gave them a 7. The flavor was good with not a whole lot of “smokiness” but meat was a little dry. I know its possible to smoke meat and still have some moisture in it. Interestingly enough the Tacos Al Pastor were very good, better than the tacos in the article.

My buddy also has a post about this. Please leave a comment and let us know where YOUR favorite tacos are, in Austin or not! Stay tuned for more posts from the tour…

Happy New Year Everyone! Christmas time was awesome which I spent down in South Texas at my folks house. We hung out with aunts, uncles, cousins, brother and sister. Along with eating awesome cooking by all members of my family, shot black powder pistols and launched fireworks comparable to light anti-aircraft fire into the Resaca. We went to eat in Mexico and even sat at a favorite beach bar down on South Padre Island. We talked about how the rest of the country was covered in snow (especially Colorado and surrounding areas) and laughed as we sipped margaritas in 80-degree weather.

I received very nice gifts for Christmas from many of my family members including many items from the Want List. One interesting gift came in a box marked “Major Award” with “FRAGILE” (pronounced “FRA-GEE-LEIGH” – Italian) penned across the top. This turned out to be an exact replica of the infamous Leg Lamp from the movie “A Christmas Story”. The lamp now resides in my office window, and when turned on, can be seen for several miles on a clear night.

So I have to confess I am now the proud owner of a 2006 Ducati Monster 620. I bought this amazing piece of fine Italian machinery just before Thanksgiving and have been enjoying it since. I have a few friends with bikes now and am looking forward to meeting a lot of cool people in my adventures on it. Check out some shots over in the Gallery.

My sister has been living down in the bahamas for about a year now, working for a private fishing club called “Deep Water Cay Club” (pronounced “key”). My family has been planning a trip down there to visit and do some fishing. Our voyage started off with my and my brother leaving Austin on a very windy day and flying to Orlando and then connecting to Ft. Lauderdale. There we met my folks and my grandma and Aunt. We met my sister that night and ate some chinese food. My sister had purchased a very large TV set and needed to transport it back to her home.

The next morning we went down to the port and boarded a Discovery Cruise lines ship for its daily run to Freeport on the Grand Bahama island. We worked with porters, customs agents, and various other people to get the TV on the ship. This was a fun boat ride as the ship had a casino , full buffet, and other fun things to do around on the ship. Everybody won a little money at blackjack and even grandma hit a 100 dollar slot.

When we got to Freeport we passed through customs and a taxi was there to drive us across the island to the “East End”. We wound up putting the TV on the Taxi vans roof and strapping it down. The ride was kind of long as the driver was doing about 40 the whole way (and on the left side English style!). I later learned that the driver had taken an unusual route and my sister was mad at the situation.

When we arrived at the water taxi area we saw a bunch of people standing around a running ambulance. Apparently they had locked the keys in the thing while someone was in there. There was much rejoicing when they finally jimmied the door open.

We loaded all of our luggage (including the TV) onto the water ferry that was to go over the small key, and my sister had arranged for her boyfriend who manages the bait and tackle shop for the club to take me and my brother trolling on the reef. The seas were 6-8 and i got pretty soaked but we pulled in some nice groupers.

When we pulled into the docks i was ready to clean fish but this proved unnecessary as this place takes care of everything for you including any fish that you caught. My sister met us in a golf cart and drove us around the living area of the island and to a beach-house where we would be staying.

That evening we went to lodge which served as the dinning room, bar, rec area, and had a few drinks at the bar and looked at all the fishing pictures. There is a Bahamian beer called “Kalick” which is very good. Deep Water Cay is known for its Bonefish, and pictures of past guests and catches were displayed all around. We were asked to fill out a ticket which asked what kind of sandwiches and snacks we wanted for the next days fishing trip. We had choices of deli meats, cheeses, and others including the “Bonefish Special” which was egg salad and bacon on homemade bread. Also available were chips, candy bars, jugs of tea or lemonade, and of course beers. We ate a fantastic dinner and called it a day.

The next morning we woke up and made our way back to the lodge. There a breakfast buffet had been set out with a nice good morning note. We ate egg sufflet i think and then made our way back down to the docks. There, a cooler with all the items we had selected the night before, was waiting for us.

We met our guide “Wendy” who was this dude with a heavy Bahamian accent and had been guiding for 25+ years and set out on our bonefishing trip. The weather was weird that day due to an approaching front and through no fault of Wendy’s I only caught one bonefish even though we could see plenty of them. Sadly, as my brother tried to take a picture of me with the fish it jumped out of my hands and out of the boat. Ridiculousness. My brother got a few bites but could never hook up except to Lemon shark who was hanging around. Although the weather may have played a part in our fishing , we were provided with spinner reels with only a hook and shrimp on the end. Casting these in high wind proved difficult and this type of fishing may have been beyond my skill level, but i aim to improve and fare better next time.

We met up at the lodge again that night and drank with some new arrivals from Alabama including a regular named “Mac” who was fun to listen tell stories. Appetizers were provided during “cocktail hour” which were so good if you didn’t watch it, you wouldn’t have enough room for dinner. Dinners we ate there included steak and lobster, shrimp and fish kabobs, and other awesome foods. Everything that could be made there was, and anything bought or flown in was the best.

After dinner we made our way back down to the docks and through our lines the crystal clear water lit up by the pier lights. we caught jackfish, perch, and snappers right off the dock which was fun. Headed back to the beachouse and called it a day.

For the next 3 days everyday had this awesome routine. Wake up, eat awesome breakfast, do some type of awesome fishing, including offshore one time in which we reeled in barracuda, grouper, spanish mackerel, and (almost) wahoo, lunch on sandwiches, more fishing, cocktail hour, awesome dinner, play a game called “ring toss” which is just trying to loop a brass ring on a hook on a wall, and then fishing on the pier at night (including fishing for sharks!).

Some highlights include one day my brother and i took out a small kayak into the channel that separated the key form the mainland and reeled a couple of perch. I heard the staff and our family were watching us out there wondering if we would tip it over reeling in fish or not. I saw my stepdad on a beach cruiser bicycle with a beer in his hand just cruising around the island. We relaxed at the clubs “infinity” pool and watched my sister, her boyfriend, and my brother whack golf balls into the bay as an unbelievable sunset happened. We also watched football games on the new TV set at my sisters home including the Ohio State – Michigan game which was cool because my step dad went to OSU and they had their red and grey on for the game.
Some lowlights included my grandma taking a tumble down some rocks and scraping her leg up, but she was alright.

The whole time we were there the staff was courteous and friendly. My sister is a good manager and it was kind of cool to see her do her thing when she wasn’t hanging out with us. We got to pick out fishing shirts and other stuff form the tackle shop and all in all what an awesome place to be. I hadn’t ridden in a car for about a week and hadn’t heard a commercial of any kind in as long.

Our trip back was just a reverse of how we got there except sans large TV set. The taxi stopped off at the Port Lucaya Marina & Marketplace where vendors sold there stuff in an open air market. After buying souvenirs for friends and family we boarded the cruise ship back to Ft. Lauderdale. We didn’t fair so good at the casino this time but had dinner at the buffet and enjoyed a music and comedy routine at the ships lounge. We docked in Ft. Lauderdale and made our way back to the same hotel we had stayed at before.

The next day we said goodbye to my grandma and aunt and my stepdad took them to the airport. He retuned with a rental car and we spent the day touring around Ft. Lauderdale’s more exclusive area, ogling the large homes, fancy cars, and ridiculously large boats. We ate lunch on a seaside drive at a nice restaurant and then relied on my brother to take us to the “points of interest” on the rental cars map. (we found a lighthouse and some beach communities but missed “butterfly encounter”). Heading back to the airport we discovered that we had the same flight back to Houston so we got to hang out the the folks a little more.

So we had a blast the whole time we were away including the traveling parts. Deep Water Cay is an awesome place with friendly people and i am looking forward to visiting again. Mabey next time we’ll take a charter flight right form Ft. Lauderdale and land right on the island’s runway celebrity style.

Enjoy the pictures in the gallery, I am waiting on some more that my aunt took that I’ll add in there and Ill keep you guys posted.

I was able to go “An Event Apart” – Austin which was a one day conference for web people dealing with design , CSS, usability and accessibility. It was awesome to hangout with some of the folks who I follow along with closely in my profession.
Speakers included Jeffery Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Molly Holzschlag, and Jason Santamaria. The Event was help at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown so I was drinking beer the whole time speakers were talking. After the conference there was an after party at this new place called “The Belmont” which had a very “Rat Pack” feel to it. It was very nice and was cool to be able to hangout with the speakers and bounce ideas off of them. Be sure to check out Jeffery Zeldman’s Flicker pool for a few shots of the action (and of me ).