Austin BatFest 2008

It seems that Austin's unofficial mascot is the bat. Rumor has it that Austin houses the world's largest urban bat colony, and so it's only proper to celebrate the little creatures with a festival! I went to BatFest 2008 with Renae and Tara this afternoon, and OH BOY, it is hot as EVER in Austin right now!!! But, I strapped on my ShootSac, complete with my new lens, and headed out for a new Austin adventure.

There were all sorts of vendors showcasing their goodies along the South Congress Bridge....of course there were plenty of bat themed trinkets!


One of the main reasons for going was to enjoy and support Renae's hubby's band - Deejer. They were starting off the afternoon entertainment at the KLBJ stage. They rocked out, and I had a great time getting some images of the guys - JR, Dave, Jeff, Chris and Gary.








I loved all the trinkets that the vendors had out in the booths. I managed to only buy one thing - whew!




The Gentlemen's Social Club played next on the stage. I couldn't leave without grabbing a few more shots.




Be sure to check out the slideshow to view all the images from today. It will pop up the gallery view at the end.

Sure, we'll brunch at the White House....why not?

I think that this was the earliest that we'd had to get up the whole trip....but it was for a great reason. Kenny had arranged us to have a tour of the East Wing of the White House this morning. His friend, Tina, pulled some strings (thank you!!!) to make this happen at almost a moment's notice for our group.

We met up with everyone else who had arrived that morning from Boston, and went through the house. We weren't allowed to bring our cameras with us, so the poor quality of what we did capture is due to us not being able to NOT take any pictures....so we resorted to the iPhones - hey, better than nothing, right? :)

None of us dared to try to snap anything while we were IN the White House for fear of our lives....but after we left the building, since it was raining pretty hard, we hung around under the awning for a bit to see if it would subside. Well, Kenny was super sneaky.....told Brett to dip the umbrella back a bit, and he got one of DJ, Allie, me and Brett right outside. It's kind of amusing, because you can't really tell where we are since the umbrella is in the way....BUT, if you look close, you can see a little bit of the house.....yes, the white one....in the background. :)

The rain wasn't stopping, so Allie, Brett and I crowded under the one shared umbrella, while the rest of the crew got a little drenched on our walk to brunch. We dined at Old Ebbitt Grill, a spot that Tina told us a lot of government officials eat at quite frequently. I almost finished all my yummy french toast, had more than a few cups of coffee, and dried off a bit while enjoying the company of amazing people.


I sadly said my goodbyes to everyone.....until the next time we meet, that is.....and headed to the airport to come back home. It's been an amazing week and a half, and it's going to be SOOOO tough to get back into the swing of things tomorrow. Luckily it's one day of work, and then 3 more off for the long holiday - I'm definitely going to need them!

See you next time NYC......off to DC!!!

What a glorious morning! This was the view from Virginia's window at 630am this morning. Yeah, I could get used to this....too bad it's our last day in NYC.

With one last afternoon in NY, we decided to take a trip out to the Brooklyn Bridge. I just can't get over how nice the weather is here. If we had walked half what we did here in TX, we would have certainly keeled over by now. It was a perfect day to take a stroll to the top of the bridge, and back down.

I hadn't taken any JUMP pics in NY. I was too shy to ask any of the many other people on the bridge to try to get one of both of us, so Brett got this one of me. It's a little silly to be doing the jump by yourself, but it was worth it. Add NY JUMP to my collection! :)


We finally stopped at the pizza place at the subway stop at our last exit, and quickly scarfed down some slices before getting our bags and hopping a taxi to the Amtrak station.

Special THANK YOU to Virginia for allowing us to invade her life and crowd her living room for more than a few days!! You are a gracious hostess, and hopefully you'll come visit TX or CA soon to let us repay your hospitality!!

So, I have to say that the train is definitely the way to travel. We only had to get there about 30 minutes early, which ended up being way earlier than really need be, and had so much room on the trip. We took it from Penn Plaza all the way to Union Station in DC. Each row was nice and roomy, AND had plugs. So, we finished up the movie we started on the plane to NY, and watched another one too. What a way to go - I loved it and will for sure want to do this again soon!


We made it safe and sound to DC and checked into the fabulous, 5 star, St Regis Hotel for the evening (thank goodness for Starwood points!). The place was as nice as you would expect a 5 star hotel to be. I even was compelled to call Corey to tell her about it - she LOVES fancy hotels! I didn't get any pics, but that was probably because we were both starving, and quickly after dropping off our stuff, we took the bellhop's recommendation and dined at Georgia Brown's. It was true Fine Southern Cuisine - my meal even came with collard greens - it was all delish - and we were stuffed afterwards!


Early night.....exciting last day of my trip tomorrow! :)

Let's go Yankees!!!

We were successful in getting my passport this morning at my company's NYC building....so I took that right up to the security counter for my entrance into the office for the day. I had decided since I was there in NY, that I'd save one day of vacation and work today. I had a few calls, did a training session, and then called it a day to meet up with Brett in the early afternoon. Knowing that he was enjoying Battery Park, and lunch with some friends that were on their honeymoon in NY didn't really keep me in the mood to be all couped up in the office for too much longer!

We walked around the city a little bit more, before heading back to Virginia's place to get ready for the fun part of our day. We had tickets to the Yankees vs Red Sox game at Yankee stadium that night. Even more fun was that we were going to be meeting up, and sitting with, Laura and Andrew, who were in NY vacationing at the same time.

We headed out there on a very crowded subway......seems that was where everyone was headed tonight - don't blame them though. There are only 15 more games in this stadium before it's being retired for the new one - and hey, it's a classic rivalry game - bound to be an interesting night!! We walked around outside the stadium for a while....and had ourselves an infamous 'dirty water dog'. I'd heard this term, but wasn't sure what it meant....so I asked the folks standing in line behind us. Turns out that it is reference to the fact that the vendors don't change out the water that they cook the hotdogs in all season......ewww....dirty, indeed!

LA and Andrew were waiting for us when we got to our seats - which turned out to be pretty great. I can't exactly tell you where we were....I guess a little off from where 1st base would be, but we could see almost the entire field.....and it was a gorgeous night.

I'm no sportscaster, so you can read the play by play on ESPN, but the Yankees ended up losing, 7 to 3. The fans were amusing to say the least.....especially this one character that sat right in front of us. At one point Laura was crying she was laughing so hard.


After the game, we waited to get onto an even more crowded subway, and went with LA and Andrew back towards Times Square to get a view of it at night, all lit up. It is definitely a big tourist spot, but the lights are pretty amazing! We had to grab a few more shots for the evening, and then said goodnight!!

US Open and Free to Succeed Tour in NYC

We had a yummy crepe lunch early afternoon at Grand Central Station, and then took the 42nd bus out to the US Open. When Brett first mentioned that he wanted to go to this, I was all for it....but I really had no clue what it was. I knew it was tennis, but that's about all. Luckily it's a pretty easy game to pick up on as a spectator, and it was actually quite entertaining - I had a great time all day!

We started out watching a match between two girls, where Brett shared his method for deciding which person to root for - whoever is cuter, of course! :) I was glad to know that this method worked for the men as well when we moved over to catch Wawrinka beat (the much cuter, and who I was rooting for) Bolelli. The highlight of our day was being able to see #1 seat, Nadal, play Phau. Phau kept up pretty good to make it an interesting and intense game, but ended up losing in the end.

It was a lot of fun, and of course, now I really want to play some tennis. I bet that I'd be terrible at it, but I still want to try. Anyone have an extra racket I can borrow? Want to volley? :)



The evening took us out to Chinatown.....where we met us with the Free to Succeed Tour. Right when we got to the Sheraton, we saw Shyla and I couldn't have been happier to see her!! We went for a Pinkberry run.....one of her latest obsessions.....and then headed back to the bus to for some good old fashioned girl talk while the rest of the folks finished up the show.

After the show was over, we all enjoyed some real Chinatown Chinese food on the bus. I'm so glad that I got to see everyone again, and meet a few new friends too, while the tour stopped in NY.

Another wonderfully non planned day in NYC!

Wow, what a lazy start to a Sunday! Well, I guess it wasn't that lazy....we spent a good part of the morning figuring out how to get me my passport from Austin so I would be able to identify myself when it'd be needed. Thank goodness for Toni - she's an absolute lifesaver!! Turns out that the FedEx that would be able to "hold for pickup" is in the same building as my NY office....so bingo! :) Problem solved!

In sticking with our non-plan, we didn't have that much planned for the day, however, Virginia had told us about the Circle Line Tours that left from Chelsea Pier.....she even had saved us up some coupons from the local paper, so we headed towards the water to catch the tour. Well, it was our one goof on the public transport, and we ended up losing about 10 minutes when we hopped off a 15 bus to only get back on the next one, after realizing we were on the correct one from the start. Long story short...we got there too late for the tour we had originally intended, and the next one sold out two people in front of us in line while we were waiting to buy those tickets. Oh well, we went with the flow, and decided to walk back towards the city on 45th street and see what we came upon.


There were some neat walls on the walk back towards town, so we snapped a few photos. As much as I LOVE to be behind the camera....I get so awkward when I'm in FRONT of them!! Eeek!! But, I'd heard Brett mention more than a time or two how much he loves red brick walls, so I thought that it was nice of me to sit there and try not to look like a total dork for a photo opp.


We took off walking some more, and stumbled across Bryant Park. We grabbed a sandwich and a salad, and had ourselves a little picnic while watching some folks from La Boule play a few games of pétanque, which is a neat game with balls. It was a beautiful day, so we stayed for a while and just chilled out on the lawn.


Next stop was Top of the Rock, which is the about 70 stories up at the Rockefeller Center.....with the most breathtaking views of the entire city. We decided to head up there at night so we could watch the sunset from the top. It was beautiful. There were so many people there......all trying to get the money shot - I think we got a few good ones ourselves.


I'd be making it up if I tried to remember all of the different subway lines we took to get back to Virginia's each night.....but I'm pretty sure that the last one we take is the L. It spits us out right at 14th and 1st, and then we head up to 20th to Avenue C......but tonight, we decided to test out Brett's sense of direction, and go through Stuy Town Oval to her building. I was delighted to find that we came across a little section that had swings, and it was still open. I love to swing, and I can't remember the last time that I got to....so I did! Wheee!!!


When we got back to her place, Virginia hadn't eaten yet either, so we took the chance to try out the place at the end of the street that we'd passed by quite a few times already - Hane Sushi. It was all super yummy, and the best way to end yet another fantastic day!!

The Squirrel Whisperer in NYC

Hang tight...this is going to be a long one. :)

So, this trip was a little different for me. Most of the times on my trips, I get up early, go and do as many things as I possibly can in the hours that you're supposed to be awake....go to bed late, and then do it all over again the next day. You can sleep when you get home. But, this time, I happily decided to do things Brett's way. We had talked before about a few things that we thought we'd like to do while in the city, but hadn't firmed up any solid plans.

After taking our time getting ready on Saturday, we headed out a little after 11am to grab a bite to eat. Virginia, besides being a great hostess, filled us in on the "local" things to do so we wouldn't stick out like tourists in the most toured city in the world (I have no idea if that's true, I made it up, but gotta believe that it's probably somewhat valid).

First stop - Ess-a-Bagel. We knew we were in for a treat when we walked to the back of at least a 10 person line. Luck for us that there was a little bit of a wait though, since we needed that long to figure out what we wanted to eat. I decided on a buttered Everything Bagel, while Brett ordered his with egg salad. We walked across the street to a spot in the other section of Stuy Town to enjoy our delights!

This is where I discovered an unknown talent of mine! Turns out that I am a Squirrel Whisperer. My bagel was huge, so I decided to share it with some furry friends. I started to make some clicking noises, and to my surprise, Terrance (yes, I named him) came right up to me. He took the food right out of my hand. Another buddy of his, I believe that this one was named Bert, came over to get some goodies too...and then Stout, the black squirrel, came to join us as well - it was a total squirrel party! I wasn't sure that my abilities were that special, until Brett tried to give them some, and they wanted nothing to do with him. So, I guess if I ever get to a point where I have nothing else to do in life, I can always use my skills to get a job hand feeding small rodents. The whole time I was there, I was saying how much Toni would be freaking out by all of this - she is terrified of these animals!!!


We then headed off towards The Met. I need to point out that I did nothing to help get us where we were going, at any time, besides swiping my Metro Card when it was time....and even Brett held on to that for me. He has the most amazing sense of direction, which I was very thankful for. Because I didn't have to, I still don't fully understand how to read those maps. So, anyways....we ventured over to wherever it was that we went to The Met for a few hours of fantastic art. My favorite parts were the American Wing with all the old, grand, furniture....the colors were so bold, mostly golden yellow and the deep red, with the richly detailed dark wood around the edges - loved it..........and this one crazy exhibit that was made entirely out of mylar tape. We spent a good 3 and a half hours walking almost every room in there. I only got pooped a little bit, but it was definitely worth the trip.


The Met is right near Central Park, so we walked over there, with a pretzel and icee popsicle thing for some additional energy, and watched some locals shoot hoops for a while. Meg, Brett's cousin, came to say hello to us on her day out and around the city doing some shopping, and we made plans to meet up a little bit later for dinner. Brett and I walked around some more, saw the view from the Reservoir, stumbled across Bridle Path, and then took some time to sit down near one of the jungle gyms for some R&R before meeting Meg for dinner.


Dinner was right in Meg's neighborhood at one of her favorite spots - Pio Pio - a Peruvian chicken restaurant. We ate a LOT of food....and all of it was so yummy. I especially liked the spicy green sauce while Meg couldn't get enough of the plantains. TCBY was right next to Meg's stoop entrance, so we got some of that too.....amazingly enough there was still a little bit of room in our stomachs! :)


You tired of reading about our day yet?? It's only mostly over....it's about 7pm when we bid adieu to Meg, and we took some new buses and subways back to Virginia's place. After a quick change, we decided to grab a cab to our nighttime activity. The cab picked us up at 20th between Avenue C and 1st street.....and dropped us off at 26th and 8th Avenue. How do I remember these things so well, you ask? Well, that's because I had to repeat them almost immediately after getting out of the cab to 3-1-1, otherwise known as the NY Taxi and Limousine Commission. So, as I was getting out of the cab, I heard something fall out of my purse, thought that I got it all, but as soon as cab 2T82 pulled away.....I realized that I hadn't gotten everything. My ID case...complete with my ID, American Express AND Debit Card was still sitting on the backseat of that taxi.

!!!!!

Yeah, well, what can you do. We called, told them all the details....and then decided that since there wasn't anything else we could do, went on to enjoy our plans. We had gotten tickets to the 9pm improv show at Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater. We made it in just in time to find the last 3 seats together...and settled in for some hearty laughs. These guys were hysterical, and it honestly baffles me how they really do the whole improv thing....at one point they were all just sitting around, not saying anything, but they all knew what was going on, and when the first person spoke, it all went on smooth from there. Definitely took my mind off the mishap that just took place.


The show didn't last nearly long enough....when it was over, we walked across to wait for the right bus to take back to Virginia's place. Brett could hardly pay attention to anything that was being said because he was watching every taxi that went by......looking for 2T82. It was quite comical, but I was a little nervous that he'd see it and take off running after it. Since we were right outside a movie theater, I decided that we should go see a flick before the night was over to get his mind off the incident. :)


We laughed some more, my 2nd viewing of Pineapple Express, and then headed home after a really long day in and around the city. Even with nothing 'planned', we definitely experienced part of NY that I hadn't before, and enjoyed every bit of it!

New York City....here we come....

Woohoo!! :) Brett and I, finally, made it to NYC! It was an interesting day.....of course I'll share.

230pm
We are getting ready to head to the airport for our 429pm, United, First Class, flight to DC when we get a phone call. "This is United. Your flight is now leaving at 5pm".

3pm
"This is United. Your flight is now leaving at 620pm". Uh oh....with this delay, we would miss our connection to LGA that night, so Brett got on the phone with the airline. We got the option to hop on a 440pm flight to LGA via Dallas on American. Um, ok, sold. Let's go!

345pm
At the airport. !!! Kiosk check in at American not working.....get into the line that is moving at the pace of a snail. Yikes....watching the clock....bags must be checked by 30 minutes before departure. Oh good...plane now leaving at 450pm. We get to the desk at 415pm.

Patty: "I'm sorry, it's too late to check your bag for this flight."
AP: "Don't we have 30 minutes before to check bags?"
Patty: "Yes. Your flight leaves at 440pm, it's 415pm now."
AP: "But our flight is delayed until 450pm...can we still get it on? Please!!!"
Patty: "Oh! You're right! Yup....got the bags tagged. Do you have your original tickets from United?"

Oops!! We had no idea that we still had to check in at United before we could get our boarding passes for this flight......so, Brett ran over to that counter, and was able to sneak in and get us all straightened out. Phew.

We made it through security in just a few minutes....had enough time to get a snack, and our flight finally made it out of Austin a little bit after 5. It seemed like the longest flight ever to Dallas. When we arrived there, we went straight to the gate, and the gate attendant was the only person there....waiting for us....."Mr Bollman, Miss Price....we've been waiting for you.....". !!! We went straight to our seats, they closed the door, and we were off to NYC! Woohoo!!!


1105pm
Landed in NY. Baggage claim. No bag for Brett. !!! Um....not good. Luckily, there was another flight arriving from Dallas in about 30 minutes, and someone at American miraculously thought to get his bag on that one. Unfortunately for our arranged driver, he had to wait around with us for about an hour, but we got into our nice black Escalade, and made our way to Virginia's apartment in Manhattan.

1245am
We get to Virginia's and we are ALL starved....so we head out, get our Metro Cards for the week, and grab some grub at one of her favorite all night Ukrainian diners in the East Village. Good food and great conversations at Veselka before getting some much needed rest for the weekend.

Thunder storms, chicken fiesta and a little Scrabble!!!

Both Brett and I were doing a great job getting some work done today....well, that is, until it started to rain. Turns out that we both love a good thunderstorm, and so we ended up opening the door to my porch...and sat on the floor, to watch, listen and feel the nice breeze from the rain.

While we were sitting there, Brett thought that it'd be a good idea for us to start a Scrabble game. Most of my friends know that this is something that I love to do....but not a lot of them enjoy the game as much as I.....so I jumped on the opportunity for a little fun.

We didn't get to finish....but I think that Brett was up by 3 points when we put it aside. Can you believe that I just posted that, Mom? I am confident that if we had been able to continue the game, I would have ended up totally spanking him.....but my competitive side was put to rest since I had to get to packing! :) Next time.....next time.


I made my infamous Chicken Fiesta for dinner. It's so easy to make....set it, and forget it.....once again, it did not disappoint. :)

I am all packed for my trip to NY tomorrow.....I think that's the most prepared I've been in a long time for a trip - woohoo!

ToniLoo turns........

....yeah, right. She'd kick my butt..... :)

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to TONI,
Happy birthday to you!!!

Since you wouldn't let us sing to you at Chuy's for lunch, there is my tune for you. Happy birthday to one of my dearest friends. Hope you have a great dinner with your dad and Scott! :)

Love you!

Busy, busy, Wednesday......

......here are a few things that I did today!

1. I interviewed someone! Don't laugh too hard! So weird, I KNOW!! Well, I guess it was kind of an interview. I think that I've made some headway at work (woohoo) on getting the higher ups to see what we need to do in order to do what they want to do (all of which really isn't that exciting)...and so I had to call someone today, and ask them a bunch of questions to see if they would be a good fit for the hole that we have in the company. Luckily, he was the perfect fit, and I really hope that it all works out. It will make my job a little bit easier, and hopefully more bearable.

2. I bought a real lens. I've had my eyes on getting something for a while.....but since it's a pretty serious investment, I was a little hesitant. But, I finally sold the laptop that I won at my work sales conference earlier this year, and so I made the decision to use that money to buy a lens. So, I'm now the proud owner of a new, shiny, Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS. Again....I KNOW!! This is some serious glass. I'm honestly a little intimidated by it, but I'm also SOOO excited to actually use it real soon! I'm going to have to start doing some exercises too, because that little stinker is REAL heavy.....but I couldn't keep from smiling about my new toy!!!


3. I didn't order something different at South Congress Cafe. This is my favorite restaurant in Austin, and it's in my favorite part of Austin, so of course this was where I took Brett for dinner. Of course, I got the same thing that I always get....despite Brett's attempts at getting me to try something new. I just love the Angel Hair Pasta there....and I just can't try something new and risk getting something that isn't as delicious!! Brett's crab enchiladas were SO spicy.....but oh so tasty too - good stuff.


4. Walked. A LOT. After strolling a little bit around South Congress post dinner, I remembered about the neat Austin sign that was a few blocks away, and knew that Brett would get a kick out of it....since it's his middle name and all. After getting a few shots, and at least one that we were both happy with, we took back off down 1st street. I had no idea how long that street was, or where we were going to be able to take a right to get back to South Congress. Well, it ended up being quite a bit, and we made it to the South Congress Bridge around the time that the infamous bats were to make their appearance. They were a little later than expected, but was worth the wait. Brett even got a special treat from one of the bats.....good thing he had his eyes closed when the bat decided to make his drop. :) [Because I'm a big dork....I just calculated the distance that we walked on Google Maps, and it was a little over 2 miles that we trekked!]



That's all folks.....what a long, and great day! I should get to packing soon for our trip....guess that is maybe what I'll do tomorrow night. :)

Austin has another Austin in it now!

Tonight is the first of a string of more than a few days that I'll be spending with Brett (Brett Austin, that is) - that's a LOT of quality time with AP - I hope he's up for it! :)

I'm super excited that he is back in Texas, and that we'll be going to NYC at the end of the week for some fun. After a small break from the tour, and spending some time at home in Santa Barbara, he had plans to visit NYC before meeting back up with the Freedom Tour gang in DC. His original plans included his best friend, Dave.....but since Dave is a teacher, and school was starting up soon, he wasn’t able to go. I was thrilled that Brett asked if I wanted to be his replacement travel buddy. He didn't get to spend any real time in Austin when he made a whirlwind trip through Texas at the end of last month…he made a great decision, and decided to come back and spend a few days here before we take off for NY! :)

So, I just have to mention that I am pretty sure that Brett is partly crazy, because one of the first things he commented on after walking out of the Austin airport was how nice the weather was here. Tonight it was muggy and humid. I am not sure what's wrong with him, because he just left, sunny, beautiful, perfect weather, Santa Barbara....and this weather is nothing but nice.

Since the weather wasn't that great, and the sun was already down for the night when we left, I made an executive decision, and headed back to my place, where I cooked up some blandly flavored Chicken Pesto Pasta for dinner, and afterwards we sat around and enjoyed the Olympics. Have I mentioned before how much I like to cook dinner? I don't ever do it when it's just me, so I subject my friends to my cooking when I get the chance. :) Anyways, I've caught quite a bit of the games over the last week or so, however, it's all been with just Molly. She definitely has her favorites, but I must say that it's so much more fun to watch with someone that can talk - when you can talk to someone, rather than the TV....it's really just that much more healthy. :)

Finally!!!

I finally saw The Dark Knight today. I didn't have squat planned for today, other than cleaning, and I wasn't going to let seeing this movie pass another day.

I loved it! It lived up to everything that anyone had said about the movie - it was spectacular.

So, if you're like me, and were behind on the Batman wagon, get on it and go see this film! You won't be sorry!

Living the Dream.....

Tonight I was lucky to be asked to second shoot another wedding with Dave. This is my second time to shoot a wedding, my first time was with Dave, Sean AND Ben back in April. I'm so thankful that I met these guys....and the timing was perfect. I'd have to say that if Dave hadn't come to talk to me at Renae's wedding when he did....I'd still be playing around with my point and shoot camera. I truly believe in everything happens for a reason, and I'm glad that it did.

The wedding tonight was at The Oasis.....what a beautiful venue. It was a Jewish ceremony, so there were some special bits to it that I wasn't that used to. I'd only been to one Jewish wedding before and I just remember that one being one of the most fun weddings ever, but I definitely didn't get to see "behind the scenes", which is really neat.

The ceremony started before the actual one in front of all the guests, in the back room where Maureen and her attendants got ready. Maureen and Kirby had to sign the ketuvah first, and this was done in front of two witnesses, and a small gathering of close family. It was a very meaningful act, and I felt honored to be part of it....well, there to capture some photos anyways! We were cramped into a small room, both Dave and I doing our best to capture some great moments for their story. Here are a few that I was able to get.



And here is how I got them. Dave snapped a few pics of me "in action". I got a few comments from the guests too, on my ability to climb up on the kitchen counter in my heels. If only they knew how many times I've actually done this! Heels won't stop me from climbing anywhere! :)



After the signing, everyone headed towards where the rest of the guests were anxiously awaiting the bride and groom's appearance. The ceremony under the chuppah, with the sun setting over Lake Travis in the background, was beautiful, fun, and full of spirit.


The wedding, guests, and party afterward were all a great time. Thank you to Dave for inviting me to join you tonight. I can't wait to see the rest of the images from the evening.

Oh...here are a few more that Dave caught, and sent to me, from the last wedding and last night. I think I might actually look like a real photographer! :) Hee hee!!

EDITED TO ADD: Dave put up his post about the wedding, with more of the images. Check it out!

Girly Day of Shopping and Swimming!

I might have mentioned before that I've been shopping with Ava (and her mom, of course) since she was 8 weeks old. It was so much fun that we've been doing it ever since. :)

Laura and Ava came to pick me up at 830am this morning for some tax free weekend shopping. I have been on a bit of a kick in the last week or so with shopping for myself, so this trip was just for support!

We started out at Highland Mall, made a quick stop at Shoe Boxes, grabbed a bite to eat for lunch at Texadelphia, and then ended up at The Domain.

I even stuck to my guns and only ended up buying two things. The first was the auxiliary cable for my iphone to play in the car, and then I got a new hat. :) I showed so much self constraint today!! :)

Ava is such the girly girl. She LOVES jewelry. In every story we went into, if she was on her own two feet, and could reach it, she headed straight to the jewels!!



While we were in The Domain, we took a quick break and made a dash into Starbucks. It was Ava's first experience, and I think she's hooked. She LOVED the Vanilla Bean Frappacino, and kept saying "Mine!" when Laura tried to have herself a drink. Teaching them younger and younger these days!! :)



After a long morning and afternoon of running around town, we took a quick dip in the pool. It was a little cloudy, so we didn't stay long, but Ava showed off what she's been learning in her swimming lessons. She's quite impressive....not to mention so dang cute in her little melon bathing suit!


Another fun afternoon with Ava and Laura! :) Now I'm off to finish up the day shooting a wedding with Dave!

Friday Night Date Night....and LOST OCEAN!!!

It's been another crazy week at work.....and a pretty relaxing few nights at home. It's kind of nice to have nothing to do sometimes. I think that I, and Molly, am getting a little too used to it. :)

So, after thinking that my Friday night was going to be another one at home, Kara and I decided at the last minute to catch a movie. We opted for Tropic Thunder. I'd seen the preview a few months back and was looking forward to it. Well, Kara LOVED it. There were bits that I laughed out loud at, but overall, I thought it was just OK. The last scene was probably my favorite....but I won't spoil that for anyone. Let's just say that a certain someone, someone that you wouldn't expect it from, can really shake it. You go TC! :)


And now I'm home....and enjoying a new band, LOST OCEAN. Brett sent me the link to their MySpace page, and I immediately liked what I had to hear. Not only that...but when I clicked on their pictures.....I was floored!!! The very first one is from an old abandoned train car outside of Salt Lake City! The same one that Lora and I made a trek out to find earlier this year when we were in Utah. Of course, I recognized it right away. So weird!! And then....I went through their live pics album....and they have pictures from when they played at Kilby Court - my favorite little, mostly unknown, music venue in SLC . Again, so cool. Now I just have to get Brett to convince them to come to Austin. :) Work your magic my friend!!


So, anyways, I've been enjoying their music for the last hour or so since I've been home. Go check them out and hope you enjoy their tunes too.

http://www.purevolume.com/lostocean
http://www.myspace.com/lostocean


[I totally ganked the pictures from their MySpace page....is that good enough for giving credit where it's due? I sure hope so because they were too good, and adorable, not to share some pics!] :)

[Edited to add: In chatting with Brett after this post.....I mentioned Jonathan Jones and We Shot the Moon. Lost Ocean knows JJ and played with him in San Diego. What a freaking small world!! JJ is actually the person in my Kilby pic above! Crazy! ]