Cristin and Jenny and I met for lunch at Foster’s on Saturday. I got to give them gifties I’d been stockpiling. We had a nice lunch and proceeded to chat for another hour after that. Wonderful time!
Gosh we are just too cute, aren’t we? Cristin’s got her hand on the baby, and I saw Jenny staring at my pooch. I think she was trying to have a word in private with the little buddy.
September 23, 2007
Too Cute!
The Horse Project
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 artist 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 the 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.
September 21, 2007
Austin, Part 4
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!
Austin, Part 3
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. 
Austin, Part 2
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 regular dog. Seymour 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 bantam 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
Austin, Part 1
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.
September 19, 2007
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm
I think this site should have some kind of R or X rating, it whets the appetite so…
“Yes, that is a fig wrapped in prosciutto and grilled. Yep. Is that food porn or what??”
September 11, 2007
TECHCON 2007, Austin TX
Me hard at work.
And Bizarro hard at work.
Be back home Sunday.
September 9, 2007
Yo.
I feel like not everybody went to check out this link. You really should. 🙂
September 4, 2007
Celebrity Bullet Meme
Ok, the latest interweb meme. If you had a single bullet destined for a celebrity, who would you pick? Pretty straightforward question, but it really needs to be a celebrity, not an athlete or politician, etc.
Me? I’d pick either Andie MacDowell or any celebrity who’s a Scientologist.
What about you? Post your response on your blog and pass it on!