I went down by myself this past saturday and managed to get the last of the drywall up after using a few cans of expanding foam to fill in voids and cracks.

the celing still needs insulation and a few sheets of plywood to cover it.

the small area to the right of the door will be covered with birch plywood and will have a small switch board for the LED lighting and a 12 volt power point that will later be connected to a bank of batteries that will later be connected to a few PV panels.  no dates set on the PV panels, maybe in 2011?

I framed in the windows by making boxes from scraps left from the flooring.

next is the tape and mud followed by caulk and prime/paint.  I've noticed that the battery in my logitech pure-fi anywhere and also the ipod have greatly reduced their capacity.  I usually know it is getting near pack-it-up time when the music cuts off.  may have to find a creative solition to the tunes.  it was a bit odd working the last few hrs by myself in the silence.  no ambient noise to block out those other voices...

chairs are for sitting so....

I sat.

the ever expanding expense of child education... the daughter is receiving weekly guitar and piano instructions.  the piano teacher even comes to the house!  she is now preparing for middle school and signed up for orchestra.  this saturday we went to westlake high school orchestra dept so she could sample different instruments and meet the private instructors offering the private (non school) lessons.  her two top choices...

#1 violin

#2 bass

we had a rare snow event in austin, texas

while the back yard received a blanket of snow, the back wall of glass transformed the house into a special weather viewing apparatus.

eichler did not appreciate the show so much.  she sort of sulked.

he said snow was too cold to build a snow man.

her guitar skills continue to improve and both older kids are learning piano as well.

I received a new batch of the tile product I sell on ebay (seller id austinmodhouse).  the blend on the right above has stone mixed in with the glass (the cream colored rectangles are stone).  I really like these but my taste has often proven too personal for volume sales.  the most popular tile I sell is this , not my favorite but I guess it is neutral and brown enough for the mass market.   

however, we had temps in the mid 70's yesterday and it did not suck one little bit.  opened the pool and decided to just drain it and start over.  hoping for a swim in april.

the baby had attacked the red couch and chair in the upstairs living room with pen and marker.  we were happy that it came off with a little elbow grease.  this set was purchased on sale for this reason.  not exactlty heirloom quality furniture but it is serving its purpose.

pretzel party round three, they were good.  but not as good as attempt #2. 

we are still mastering the technique.  we just need to nail down the variables.

the future AMH photographer using her camera.

fifth grade cotillion of 2010 is complete.  she is growing up at an alarming rate.  I am thankful that her #1 interest remains pokemon.  she does love the dancing as well.

they got the kids from her school to do a group pose.

boys being boys.

sunday morning bloody marys at the future Deli-tini.  if you have been to shreveport, you likely had at least one meal at george's grill, deli tini is the invention of george's daughter.  it was great to see so many old friends and find sandwiches named to honor them.

like the "round man" sandwich

on to the highland parade...

roads closed and the scooter gang hit the streets.

we enjoyed a great mardi gras party at bill's house.

bill's gumbo was good!

our friend milea (deli tini) had sent us off with several bottles of champagne.  THANKS!

this float not only throws beads, but they have a grill on board and throw hot dogs as well.

we came home with several plush toys.

it was cold outside, paige had gone in and found a warm place for a quick nap.

it was a bit chilly, the chopping and burning of a pallet got things warmed up at space #83.  we started setting up around 9 AM.

natalie (jello-shot girl) came by with a few hundred of these...

they closed the street down at 3:30.  this is when the tension starts to mount.

fun with silly string

DJ Powlcat was pounding out the beats from his hybrid vintage stereo/ipod soundsystem.  the people who occupy spaces 80, 81, 84 and 85 have given up on expectations of a calm and quiet event.  they either join in or sit back.  the momentum of space 83 can't be derailed at this point.

as the sun starts to set, people start to pour in from all directions.

then it gets dark, the sound system is at maximum

the pic above was inspired by all I've managed to learn by reading another blog, the strobist and I have posted it in a larger version to my photography site

starting to get crowded and just a bit rowdy.

the smaller kids are put up on custom made devices to increase their bead catching ability

after about 30 minutes into the parade, he said "get me down, I think I have enough beads".  we went and warmed up by the fire

most everybody clears out soon as the parade is over.  but as we were among the first to arrive along the parade route, we are always the last to leave.

we usually stay until the police come by and tell us to pack it up and move it out, but they sent the fire department this year.  they arrived with a hose.

that was some column of steam.

the firemen were a bit confused.  I don't think they expected us to be so festive about them extinguishing our fire.

some times, you have to kiss a few frogs (our friend matthew)

the tradition of throwing and catching trinkets runs deep in mardi gras

good food too!

the band was awesome!

kenny wayne shepherd rocked the guitar (sorry for lack of focus)

the two older kids had friends over for their birthday party.  the daughter's birthday is during the summer when her friends are often out of town and unavailable.  she has been using her 1/2 birthday combo party format to have both their parties at once.

#1 son said his favorite part was when he was part of the chicken dog circus show.

I think we had our last combo; #1 son/daughter, party.  the daughter only has a few months left in elementary school.  this was change she had been sad about.  they recently had a field trip to experience some of the programs at the middle school and she now seems to be looking forward to it.  her friends suddenly seem much older, and many did wander off while the chickendog circus was happening.  sort of made me sad as even the adults enjoyed the show, but the girls are getting to that age...

sunday:  we stayed home and did the taxes.  must have been some changes in tax law as we paid more this year despite not making more...  kids don't seem to be worth as much to the IRS, that makes me sad too.

kat got back on that pretzel horse.  last week's attempt sucked.  I am guessing her yeast never did proof so the dough never did rise...  all the appeal of a cardboard pretzel.  but these pretzels have changed all that...

we dug out an old recipe binder from ten years ago.  HA!  there was the old recipe that we'd perfected before.  these pretzels ROCKED! 

those mall soft pretzels can suck it!  you bring the beer, we'll make the pretzels (you drive, I'll nah-vigate). 

jump back to friday evening: Blanton B-Scene

the simple things in life, like pretty girls working illuminated hula hoops, never get old.

the blanton's current exhibition: desire, was interesting.  video of nude ballet in water and also video of an octopus slowly forcing itself through a skinny glass tube... 

great music by suzanna choffel

number two son jumped in to assist on the drums all on his own.

I made the table myself using kirei board and off the shelf table legs from ikea

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what may appear to be a big thick slab, is not the case.  the board is only 5/8 inch thick and came as one 6x3 board.

the corner detail underneath shows how I made a cap by ripping a section from all four sides at a 45 degree angle then turning them around so they make a lip.  I used gorilla (polyester) glue to make it one piece, then I applied wood filler to any voids on the top seams, used a router and sander to make it all smooth. 

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the kirei board part of the table is more like a cap that rests over a plywood platform.

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I ripped a redwood 2x4 to create a reinforcing spine for the length of the plywood.  the attachment points for the legs are doubled plywood.

and the kirei cap slides right back on.  it has held up well considering the abuse the kids have issued.  I made this over six years ago, and survived two moves.

salad before pizza.  we try to have a salad with every dinner, not optional. 

after filling up on salad, pizza and desert pizza... time to slaughter some virtual endangered animals.  that monkey asked for it!

the arcade can teach quick lessons.  he found a few games he INSISTED he had to play.  he assured me that he knew how to play etc.  but a few are just quick losses of $, as was this sucking game... it sucked.  some things are just not as fun as they appear or are what they are advertised to be.

the bumper cars were a big hit, as always.

those moles were a bit too quick for his whac ability.

she got a prize for being the first person to reach 150.

he did well at this ball slide/horse race.  he ran all around, waving his prize in the air, jumping up and down...  

we gave him his birthday present, "it's just what I asked for, pokemon emerald!"

(gameboy cartridge that also works in nintendo ds lite)

then, the daughter and I had to race off across town in the rain to get her to cotillion.  I ended the day with an amazing stress headache, it was great.

and had a small celebration at paggi house, and fell in love with a happy hour cheese plate

paggi house has a FANTASTIC happy hour, even on saturday!  the cheese plate above is a bargain at the full price of $14 and at half price for happy hour I almost felt guilty.  but we got over the guilt and ordered a second cheese plate.  six cheeses including an edam, five year aged gouda, maytag blue....  and a chunk of raw honey comb and rhubarb and nuts.... 

we also enjoyed the mussels with fries (moules frites) and just a few of the cocktails; also half price!  notable favorites from the cocktail menu include the cucumber margarita, blood orange margarita and the french 76.

we had a private tent room and the kids had their own table.  I was proud that nobody threw rocks at cars, not even me.

happy is the word that comes to mind.

the kids attended a birthday party in the coaches box at UT yesterday, and I stood out in the 36 degree temps waiting for them.  sort of ironic as we had just learned that UT has decided to close the cactus cafe.  hard for music fans to understand such a move, austin, the live music capital of the world is being burdened by huge TV screens (my latest pet peave is restaurants that don't offer tv-less seating areas).  more sports and less live music is an alarming trend to me. 

the cold weather caused an old memory of mine to resurface.  ten years ago, when we lived in baltimore, we had toyed with making our own pretzels.  I recall we got pretty good at it.  cold days are great for staying in and baking.  also poached some salmon and roasted fingerling potatoes.  had a nice meal while watching the new star trek movie.  fun.

have the plywood plank flooring down in the wimberley house.

about time to insulate and drywall.  I really dislike drywall, but for lack of a more cost effective method for finshed walls.... 

has been another musical week for us here in austin:

we caught the adorable erin ivey monday happy hour at the ghost room.  she sounded great but the stage lighting is dim (no decent pics). 

we stopped in at frank: hot dogs and cold beer.  kat refused to try the jackelope as she doesn't eat cute bunny rabbits.  I found the vegie dogs and the vegie chili to be...  not as good as the real thing. this iview of my wife is common now that she has an iphone too. do you see this often in your neck of the woods?.. notice the iglow.

jonathan richman has been in town for a string of four shows. 

I went to the cactus cafe in the UT student union to sit in line at 6 pm.  the doors open at 7:30 and the folks in line were expected to exceed venue capacity as it had on monday night.  I was #8 in line.  we managed to get the #1 table, jonathan richman played right over us and tommy's drum kit was nearly up against us.

we have tickets to the sold out Yo la Tengo show at antone's this friday eve.

and I have taken it upon myself to guilt charlie hunter to return to austin for a show.  it has been nearly a decade since he last played here.  I've enjoyed being able to see him regularly on both east and west coasts, and I don't aim to be quietly ignored here in the middle of texas.  just maybe I will get my way "... you've successfully lit a fire...."- charlie hunter's reply to my plea. charlie plays a custom made eight string guitar, three of those string are from a bass guitar.

also offered was a nice selection of beer and wine.  I really enjoyed the white bordeaux.

we set out for lunch on saturday.  had a few cervezas packed for a trip to torchy's tacos (tacos w/o beer is like a bicycle with out a seat).  then, we stumbled upon a new el chile location.  one of our favorite east side eateries.  the "FREE MARGARITAS" sign caused to rethink our lunch destination...

two free margarita per person.  lunch for a family of five for under $20!

we stopped by bay6 gallery to attend the closing of, So many things.... by j. haley

and to deliver a birthday pinata to our friend, artist sharon kyle kuhn

I had my way with pattrick the pinata and liberated some cervezas.

sharon offers lessons in encaustics and did a demonstration for the kids.

then we made our way over to co lab.  I participated in a project for alyssa taylor wendt.  I repeated a story that was recorded by a previous person, who had done the same thing.... like the game of telephone.  the kids played outside. 

co lab seems to help people experience art, not observe it.  I enjoyed this facade of a typical american home  that teetered back and forth in the wind, seemingly always on the verge of catrastophe.

I returned sunday evening to meet the charming alyssa taylor wendt and experience the completion of her project.  as expected, the final version of each story was both extremely abbreviated and skewed from the original.

sunday had us returning to our wimberley off grid home project.  I had taken 4x8 sheets of plywood and ripped them into 2x8 planks.  I applied ebony stain and floor grade clear coat.  the new planks are to be our flooring. our install progress was once again limited by batteries.  I had managed to leave one of the cordless drills in austin from the home projects of last week.  not easy to have the tools split among two locations,  half of what I need is not where I need it.

I completed a few framing projects.  we purchased the leonard cohen poster when we saw him at the long center last year. 

we recently purchased this piece from our friend, artist caroline wright.

we had friends from louisiana in town for the three day weekend.  took them to austin's east side for some mexican food and to introduce the louisiana crew to micheladas.  fit like a glove.

had a few people over for a cocktail or three.

one benefit of having so many talented friends, party guests end up jamming for the fun of it.  great entertainment.

getting prepared for karaoke.

looks like a little dancing too....

the next day....  turns out they like the michelada also known as "breakfast beer"

I got the studio strobe out and waited for people to walk by.  a real slice of life sort of portrait.

we steam cleaned the floor twice to remove stickiness that resulted from glass containers meeting the unforgiving concrete floor.  kat also cleaned the new FLOR on the stairs.  then we went to hippie church, it was sunday.

on the table

under the table

kids table

mexican martini cocktail time.

just a sign of the times, everybody has a camera just about everyplace.  bend over and be prepared for somebody to start taking pics.

then we tried a new place, red's porch.  I've heard this place described as the Oasis without the drive out to the lake.  has a great view to the west for taking in sunsets and vistas of the green belt and barton creek.  but on this day there was a football game on, and loudly.  throngs of people put their backs to the view and stared at lcd TVs.  one of which was right over my head.... (sigh).  I've become annoyed with restaurants that don't offer TV free seating areas.  I can stay home and look at a TV.

the beer was good.

more fun with photography back at AMH.

pic above was taken in 1989, below is 2010 (three out of four are the same, big john is still in shreveport so my friend jason acted as his stand in, about the same height)

years ago I had an idea for a regular magazine feature that would show bathroom graffiti.  I see the "okie roy + a stick = a stick" written in bathrooms all over south austin. 

we had some leftover FLOR scraps.  after a great deal of hair pulling and bad languages spewing from my mouth (broken drill bits etc) I managed to screw through each one of those 1/8 inch steel treads.  the carpeted stairs are FAN-TASTIC.  no longer do our feet make THUNG-THUNG-THUNG sounds as we use the stairs, and the cold steel is now insulated from bare feet.  the long term objective of introducing some softer surfaces should help resolve some of the sound travel issues.

kat's biggest complaint about this house has always been the small closet space.  this is now resolved for the kid's rooms.  each child now has a large portable cabinet with shiny stainless steel doors.  we also managed to get rid of the baby crib and little man has made the transition to the bottom bunk.  I took a picture of the daughter's room while it was being transformed/cleaned up.  it was an obvious inidcator that she is growing up when she said "don't post that picture to the blog!"  it has been respectfully omitted.

HEY!  look what we found!  OK, so we bought this fabulous G-Plan solid teak credenza few years ago.  for the past two years it has been burried under baby clothes; clothes now relocated to the cabinet in the boys room.  I am excited to once again see the surface of my favorite piece of furniture in our collection. 

 kat and I often have differing ideas of organization and cleaning up.  for me, a jumbled up wad of wires would be cleaned up if they were chucked away in a drawer or cabinet, out of sight.  for kat, they would be completely acceptable on top of a cabinet or counter top as long as they were unknotted and neatlysorted and organized.  maybe I am more of a minimalist, she is much more of an organizer. I do not really care to have my underwear folded before it goes into the drawer, it seems to perform the same either way, kat cringes when she looks at my side of the closet, the shoe pile!  however, when clutter seems to be out of control, I start to freak out.  my solution is most often to get rid of the excess stuff, kat's solution usually involves the container store.  the neatly folded and stacked baby clothes on top of the G-plan cabinet have not bothered kat as much as they have me.  this week, our problem was solved with her more storage method.   

HOO-RAY for the additional closet space and a happy ending. 

friday evening was just about as much "ARCTIC BLAST!" as we could take.  we jumped up and went to happy hour at a nearby tex-mex joint, el arroyo; the ditch.  it was a last minute idea and we arrived 10 minutes before happy hour ended.  we sat in the patio space (somewhat enclosed for winter) and enjoyed margaritas, ice and all.  another happy ending.

all this arctic blast talk seems to have caused a rise in global warming skeptics.  I've noticed people of reasonable intelligence scoffing at the idea of climate change.  the comments often seem to involve partisan politics.  I'm not a very political person, don't really care for/trust politicians myself.  but I have observed that climate opinions have become muddled up with red/blue politics.  it seems that if one side says "up", the other side is obligated to scream "down", as a matter to be argumenative. 

yet I believe most people of average intelligence have the common sense to not spend a great deal of time in their garage with their car running and the door closed...  that is usually considered to be suicide!  somehow the same exhaust when released into the earth's atmosphere is supposed to just float on out to space?  we can all see the population growth, the sprawl, the expanding use of energy, more cars on the road than ever.... where does the pollution go? 

I don't claim to be a climate expert.  I also don't claim to be a marine biologist, but I suspect I could pour a few ounces of beer into my koi pond with no real harm to my fish.  and maybe I could pour a whole beer.  but, I suspect that if I got into the habbit of dumping beer into their water every  day, in increasing amounts, I would eventually find the tipping point.  the water would eventually become unhospitable to support fish life.  yet, some refuse to accept that we could have any effect in our own very thin layer of atmosphere. 

what would it take to convince some people that it is possible and that we should change our energy production/consumption and management?  the clean water act was spawned from when the cuyahoga river caught fire!  do we need such undeniable proof?  can we afford to let our atmosphere be jumbled up in partisan politics?  I mean, WHAT IF the scientists are right?  and all the people who laugh at global warming on cold days are really against Al Gore  because they see climate as a political issue and something they are obligated to dismiss.  I have to wonder if that Inconvenient Truth movie would not have been more widely accepted if Mr. Gore could have kept his face/name/politics out of it.  I watched the movie, and even I thought it lost steam once he started talking about his presidential campaign.  can't we keep facts and science out of the partisan politics that seem to have taken a firm grip on the country.

I was prompted to write about this subject after I read a headline from USA Today this morning; Report: 2009 was a warm year in USA

I feel the need to visit Glacier National Park before Grinnell Glacier is completely gone (estimated to happen in 2030).  maybe I should fill my 13 MPG truck up on biodiesel for the trip.