We spent the second part of our Austin trip with Grant, Michelle, Larry and Hiroe. It was super awesome. Here are my favorite pictures (more after the fold).
Come on in, the water’s great!
Yummy beer tastes even better in my own glass
Grant made breakfast
Enjoying the hot tub waterfall
Some pictures from our trip to see our friends in Austin. We had a great time visiting with Scott and Monica, their son Evan, and their collection of animals.
The boys didn’t really want to play together, but give them a few years!
Here’s Scott and his son.
And Dave with his son.
Scott and Monica and a few of their pets.
Henry playing with Evan’s Sit-N-Spin. He doesn’t really have as much balance as it looks in this picture.
The guest bathroom was like a spa – lovely products and a shower with teeny tiny tiles and a window that opens to the outside. My favorite! There was also this funky art in the bathroom.
One night we hit Mandola’s for dinner. The wine was so so yummy, I should have bought a bottle to bring home!
The cannelloni beans, however, were a disappointment. They were mealy and in a sauce that was so tomato-y it was hard to taste any other flavors.
We had a fabulous time. Thanks for being such great hosts, Monica and Scott!
Most people won’t realize how funny this is, but damn, it’s funny.
Last September Bizarro went on a crazy romp through Austin.
Here are some photos and an interview conducted by Kevin Flood.
Getting set up for the interview.
The interview itself.
Here’s the guy who took Bizarro on his adventure
Some crazy mad scientist who made a pickle explode during his speech. He was awesome and he clearly loves Bizarro.
Bizarro hamming it up.
Taking a break.
Taking another break.
He didn’t work very hard.
I’ve compiled some of my favorite pictures from my trip to England.
The Tower Bridge (look familiar?)
Bill, my and Alba’s host in Cambridge, who indulged me an an hour-long conversation about my favorite British TV shows
A much deserved beer at the end of a long day of biking around Cambridge
How much I adore a decent half-pint!
My tower of coasters
Self-portrait at Picadilly Circus
Getting attacked by a street performer
Lovely shadowplay on the Houses of Parliament (courtesy of Alba)
Self-portrait in front of the Tower Bridge
An alley cat I made nice with in a pub in Harrow
See the guy in the back, on the right? Later that day, he gave me his match ticket from the match that had played that day in Wembley Stadium – what a lovely souvenier!
The only rain I saw during my whole trip was as I was about to board the plane home š
A few weeks before we went to Portland to visit my family, there was an article in the N&O about being “Carless in Portland.” In one part of the article, the article mentions the public art project in the Pearl district.
You’re probably familiar with the public art projects that have been cropping up in major cities the last 10 years or so. The city will pick an icon, such as a wolf, a catfish, or a mermaid, then ask local artists to paint these oversized beasts and place them throughout the city. At the end of a specified period of time, they have an auction for all the beasties. Well, Portland, a city where it’s not uncommon to see bumper stickers that say “Keep Portland Weird,” decided to do it a little differently.
According to the website for the horse project, the artistĀ Scott Wayne Indiana “knew about the horse rings in many Portland sidewalks and thought it was a shame that we don’t tie our horses to them anymore. Scott decided to change that and tied his first pony to a horse ring in the fall of 2005 in the revitalized Pearl District in Northwest Portland.”
I had told my brother about it, and sort of wanted to hit the Pearl to find a pony. But my brother and his wife, who’ve lived there for years, had never heard of theĀ horse project before. Our last night there, we were finally in the Pearl district, wandering our way toward dinner when look what I found!
Everyone else had already walked by it when I spotted it. I was so happy!! The best part is that they want you to help. So if you live in Portland, go adopt a ring, donate a steel cable tie, and put out your own horse!
See more photos at the all the tiny horses pdx photo pool on Flickr.
The star of the show, of course, is little Evan. We spent the weekend entertaining him and he is just cute as a button. He is a water baby and loved time with the pool and the hose. While we were there, he ate his first piece of meat (deli turkey), had his first piece of toast, and said his first word (cow). He is definitely a handful but clearly a delight to his proud mama and papa. Speaking of which, here are our happy hosts at our lunch at the Salt Lick, an Austin-area institution.
A lovely dinner Monica prepared for us!
Giving Fin the love he deserves
Grayson getting the same love
We had a great, very relaxing time and loved seeing Scott, Monica, Evan and the whole farm!
They also have a herd of Texas longhorn cattle, about 21 head. They are huge and I will never get used to walking in amongst all those enormous horns.
Their donkeys, Fern and Felix, have two babies. They’re cute, but pretty shy unless they think you have food.Ā Ā 
I like to jokingly refer to their place as “the Ark” becuase they have so many pets and other animals. Now that they have little Evan Almighty, it’s perfect!! They have a few indoor pets: three dogs and two cats. Nina and Fin are chihuahuas, while Grayson is this teeny little miniature of a regularĀ dog. SeymourĀ is a total snugglepuss and ferocious player. Alabaster didn’t make it into the pictures somehow.
Nina
Grayson and Fin
Seymour
The newest addition to their flock is, well, a flock. Five bantamĀ chickens named Eleanor, Abigail, Chester, Teddy and Lucy. Chester and Teddy are roosters, and it’s still out for decision exactly what Abigail is. A prize for whomever can guess the naming convention for the chickens.
There are also seven baby chickens that Monica allowed to hatch. They’ll join the rest of the flock in a few weeks. The best part about these chickens (besides the incessant crowing) is their cute feathered feet – how adorable. We enjoyed a bunch of fresh Banty eggs while we were there – yum! I wonder if our covenants forbid raising chickens??
Abigail and Chester
Lucy laying an egg
Abigail
Baby Chicken with feathery feet
A lovely, lazy weekend at Scott and Monica’s ranch in Wimberley. Thursday night started off with a bang when Monica discovered a snake in the chicken coop, bulging with the two eggs it had just stolen from the hens’ nests. Scott quickly dispatched the snake, a few feet long, with his rifle. It kept moving after it was killed, heightening my sense of how creepy snakes are.
Hanging out at the ranch is always a time for nature exploration. Aside from all the animals they own and actively tend to, there are a host of wild critters easily available to view. Dave spotted this jackrabbit by the way the sunlight made his ears pink.
This orb spider has woven a huge web outside Monica’s office window.
Care for a close-up? Click here OrbSpiderFull.
There are also teeny wild deer and a family of wild turkeys. We spotted one toad (larger than my fist) on Thursday night and another one Friday morning before the dew burned off. There was a spiny lizard sunning himself on the back porch, too. Monica keeps lots of hummingbird feeders out and it’s not unusual to see a half dozen or more hummers circling about. She also has some fabulous birds – we saw cardinals, titmice, and chickadees, along with a number of buzzards.
Me hard at work.
And Bizarro hard at work.
Be back home Sunday.
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