Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Quick Update

I have not abandoned ye olde blog. I will be taking photos again (first item of business: Thanksgiving dinner) and posting stuff soon, as Kim has replaced the missing shutter release button on my camera! Reader, that sassy crafter replaced it with a thumbtack! And it actually looks like the real thing. Amazing.

In other news, Georgia saw a red fox (Vulpes vulpes fulva -- I like saying that ten times fast) at work yesterday. I have seen a fox there before, but it was at least a year ago. When I told Tom, he said he saw two foxes there a few evenings ago! I think they live in the woods near our building -- the woods which are, like, thirty feet from the busiest road in town and only about twenty acres. (OK, I admit I am terrible at measurements and such. I'm estimating. Maybe I will try to find out exactly.) One of these days, I might have to go exploring on my lunch hour...

And I have been remiss in recognizing a very special birthday. My blog is now over a year old -- fourteen months, to be exact. If I could hold my blog in my arms, I would have someone take a photo of us and post it on Facebook. That seems to be the trend among my friends and their spawn these days. And lord knows I try to fit in.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Austin

The trip to Austin was fun.

We ate lots of delicious Tex-Mex cuisine.



We visited old friends. One of Rayne's friends collects, grows, and sells cacti and other succulents. He had multiple greenhouses filled with the most amazing plants! Of course, the only time I nearly tripped was in the cactus greenhouse.






We wandered around some shopping areas. My favorite store was called Uncommon Objects, and was the coolest antique store I've ever been in. Each area of the store presented a perfectly arranged tableau.



Austin has loads of unique, progressive shops, like this one, that sells all environmentally friendly products for the home. We saw their products (paper towels, toilet paper, and hand soap) in nearby restaurants.

We also went to Barton Springs, the famous (and gigantic) spring in the middle of the city. Actually, the spring area was created by the systematic damming of the Colorado River, so it's actually a spring run that's been cemented in. We went swimming -- in November! The water is sixty-some degrees. It felt wonderful.



On another day, in a different part of the park (and river), we went canoeing (actually, it's a reservoir called Lady Bird Lake that was created by another dam). By this point the shutter button had fallen off my camera (I'm hard on these things!), so I didn't take photos. But it was a magnificent day. We paddled in the late afternoon light up the river, toward the downtown skyline. We saw the new, "green" city hall, and slid under a bridge right as a freight train went by.

The rumors are true: Austin is a pretty cool place. (I'll get a new button for my camera soon.)